Genesis 25:19 Commentary and Bible Study

We come to a new chapter in the book of Genesis. Election is one thread that runs unmistakably through these chapters, and that, of course, the apostle Paul in Romans 9 makes that very clear. One of his prime examples of election in action is chosen from these chapters under the inspiration of the Spirit of God. Then we have the example of Isaac, an immensely godly man, a man of whom one serious aberration is recorded, but by and large, a godly man, a quiet man, and yet someone who got it into his head that half the blessing which was to be bestowed upon Jacob could go to Esau. And possibly he was very taken by his son Esau, because he focused on his excelling in certain natural skills. If you focus on worldly things overmuch then your judgment is overthrown in vital respects. We see here also the thread of the church and the world. You see it all the way through Genesis. The seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent (Genesis 3:15), those who are the Lord's, and those who are the lost: they cannot function together in the same church. There must be a separation of the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. Time after time there was confusion, and the two quite different seed come together, and then God intervenes and separates them out again. It is one of the great themes of the book of Genesis. This passage reminds us of this, once again. We often lose track of Isaac. He lived 180 years. He was 40 years old at his marriage, and they waited another 20 years before the twins were born. ‘The Lord was intreated of him’, but the prayer was maintained for 20 years, and here is a lesson in trust and faith. Today forty would be quite late to marry and it is evident that even though so much hung on the outcome of this marriage, neither Abraham nor Isaac hurried the matter in an untrusting way. Moses again notes that Rebekah his wife was not taken from the Canaanite nations but from Abraham’s own nation and from his family. Laban, the Aramean or Syrian and his family are to appear in connection with Isaac’s own son, Jacob. He was a peaceful man. He made a very big recorded mistake, repeating the twice-committed mistake of Abraham, and he was forgiven. He was given a long, long period of great blessing and earthly prosperity and enrichment and peace. But he did have a fault, a spiritual fault, which is disclosed to us – the Bible is so open, even about the heroes of faith, and tells us their faults. But if Isaac makes a grave mistake from which the church of Christ has to learn over centuries and take heed of, then it is disclosed, even though broadly he was the most godly patriarch.