This will be the last chapter in which the lives of Abraham
and Isaac intersect. In fact, this is Abraham’s death chapter. From now on the
focus will be on Isaac, the chosen son and the new head of the covenant
family. Though there are no great achievements
to speak of concerning Isaac’s life, yet he provides a significant link in the
history of redemption. The Jews always
referred to their God as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
(e.g. Gen. 50:24; Ex.3:15; Acts 7:32)
Our text focuses on the continuity of the covenant promises
of God to Abraham through Isaac which is then passed on to Jacob, and we shall
see this already happening in 25:23.
The great doctrine which is addressed in this chapter is the doctrine of divine
election. I want to present this doctrine to you in fuller detail my next sermon. Right now I want us to see how
the covenant promise is passed on in the midst of challenging family
relationships in which we are told that Abraham
gave all he have to Isaac. (25:4)
Abraham took another
wife (25:1-4).
Following the death of Sarah in Ch. 23, Abraham marries Keturah[1],
whose name means ”wrapped in clouds of
incense smoke"[2].
She bears him a further 6 sons. The prophecy concerning him becoming the father
of many nations is beginning to take shape.
I want to draw your attention to
one of the sons. One of his sons, whose name is mentioned in verses 2-4 is Midian. His offspring, the Midianites were destined to have a great
influence upon Israel. Jacob’s sons because of jealousy will put
their brother Joseph into a pit, from where he is rescued by Midianite traders,
who in turn sell him to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, in Egypt (37:36). Later we read that Moses sought
refuge in Midian following his flight from Egypt (Ex.2:11ff).There he meets
and marries Zipporah the daughter of Jethro, a priest of Midian (Ex.2:16-22), and Moses will be greatly helped by his
Midianite father-in-law, Jethro. Yet the Midianites will also exert bad
influence over the Israelites with the Moabites (Numbers 22:1-41, 25:1-18, 31:1-54) and through them Israel will start to worship
false gods, bringing God’s wrath down
upon them. Gideon in Judges 6-8 will
defeat the Midianite army with an army
of only 300 men in a remarkable victory.
Isaac's unique place in
God's plan (25:5,6)
With so many brothers, and not forgetting Ishmael (7 in all),
we may well ask how things would be when Abraham dies and when the inheritance has to be divided.
The Bible leaves us in no uncertainty:
“Abraham gave all that he had to
Isaac. But to the sons of his concubines, Abraham gave gifts while he was still
living. And he sent them away from his son, Isaac, eastward to the land of the
east.”
The Lord God who knows all things and who steers all
history for the sake of His own
glory had determined
by His own good pleasure and forethought that Isaac, the son born to Abraham and Sarah, his covenant wife, was going to be the next son of the covenant,
inheriting the promises that God had
made to Abraham. Remember the opening words of the New Testament? “A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ
the son of David the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the
father of Jacob . . .” (Matt. 1:1- 2).
Isaac occupies a unique place there . There were 7 other male descendants of
Abraham, but they are not mentioned there. The covenant promise concerning the
seed of the woman who will bruise the serpent’s head and accomplish our
redemption shall come through Isaac alone.
In order to deal with potential sibling rivalry, the other sons are sent away to the east
country (v.6). That is an
interesting comment. Adam and Eve after
the fall are sent east of Eden (Gen.3:24).
Cain settled east of Eden following the
murder of his brother (Gen. 4:16). The people who planned and built the tower of
Babel came from the east (Gen. 11:2).
Abraham, by the grace of God had been
brought from Ur in the east to the promised land. In Gen.24 Abraham warned his servant that under no circumstances was he to take
Isaac back to the east – to the
place from where God had taken Abraham. Isaac belongs here in
Canaan, the Promised Land. Eastward was generally understood to mean, “away from God”.
We thank God that today in this gospel age, God’s covenant
blessings are being poured once again into the people of the east and the
nations, although the gospel is also fiercely resisted by the people of the
east, as is true for the all the nations
of the world. It began back in
the times of the birth of Jesus. Wise men from the East heard that a remarkable
child was to be born and so they came to seek Him and to worship Him (Matt.2:1).
So then, Abraham’s other sons are not sent away empty handed.
They are given gifts (we may assume that these were generous gifts) while
Abraham was still alive, but while the others are provided for, Isaac alone is the one who is to inherit the
land and the covenant promises. Matthew
Henry writes:
“These sons of the
concubines were sent into the country that lay east from Canaan, and their posterity
were called the children of the east, famous for their numbers, Judges 6:5,33. (i.e. the Midianites and the Amalekites) Their great increase was the fruit of the
promise made to Abraham, that God would multiply his seed. God, in dispensing
his blessings, does as Abraham did common blessings he gives to the
children of this world, as to the sons of the bond-woman, but covenant-blessings
he reserves for the heirs of promise. All that he has is theirs, for they are
his Isaacs, from whom the rest shall be for ever separated”[3]
Common blessings are given by God to every member of the human race, but covenant
blessings are given by God to those who are the heirs of the promise. A
distinction is made by God between Isaac and his brothers from another mother.
If it were up to Abraham he might have chosen
Ishmael (Gen. 17:15-27) in the same
way as Isaac would choose Esau over Jacob. God chooses differently to us. He chooses
Isaac over Ishmael. He chooses Jacob the younger over Esau the older. He
chooses David, the last born of the sons of Jesse. And God chooses, Isaac and Jacob and David,
not because they are better men than others. They are not. Read the history of
the Bible and you will see this for yourself. No, for His own reasons and for the sake of His own glory and because He
loved them He chooses them.
The way to translate that into NT language
is this: Have you received Grace
from God to become a Christian through believing and trusting in the Lord
Jesus with all your heart, soul, mind and strength? Have you entered the new
covenant having confessed Him with your
mouth and in baptism? Do you appreciate the wonder of the fact that God has
given to every Christian believer an unimaginable inheritance, making us joint
heirs with Christ? If so then we are the richest people in the world!
And the wonder is that none of us has deserved this.No one merits it. No one
earns it. It is his unmerited free gift to an undeserving people. “But
when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved
us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to
his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit”
(Titus 3:4,5)
The death and burial of
Abraham. (25:7-11)
Abraham lived 175 years. He was 75 years old when he came to
Canaan and he lived here for 100 years. He had now lived in Canaan longer than
anywhere else.
The words of verse 8 are striking: “Abraham
breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man full of years, and was
gathered to his people.” The words
speak of a man at peace. It is friendship with God that allows a man to
die full of years and satisfied. Matthew
Henry again says, “He was full of years,
or full of life, including all the
conveniences and comforts of life. He did not live till the world was weary of
him, but till he was weary of the world he had had enough of it, and desired no
more. A good man, though he should not die old, dies full of days, satisfied
with living here, and longing to live in a better place”. [4]
Abraham had the pleasure of seeing Isaac married and
settled. And now he could depart in
peace. His life, in a sense was complete. God gives a believer that contentment that enables them to enjoy life, but also to be ready to leave
it when God calls. The things that made Abraham's life rich was not his
possessions, and it wasn't the great age which God had granted him, but rather
it was his hope to enter into that heavenly Canaan, the heavenly Jerusalem, the
city whose founder and builder was God, whose friendship he had enjoyed in this
life. Abraham was gathered to his people.
The doctrine of the immortal soul, and of the afterlife comes through here very
strongly. Abraham did not cease to be. He was not annihilated. Abraham
was gathered to his people. He was gathered to Adam and Eve and Seth and Enoch,
and to Noah and to Sarah… He was gathered to his people. Which people will you
be gathered to? Will you be gathered to the children of promise, or will you be
gathered to the children of this world? It depends upon with whom we find our
ultimate fellowship in this life doesn't it?
The Methodist, Adam Clarke wrote a good eulogy of Abraham: “Above all as a man of God, he stands
unrivaled; so that under the most exalted and perfect of all dispensations, the
Gospel of Jesus Christ, he is proposed and recommended as the model and pattern
according to which the faith, obedience, and perseverance of the followers of
the Messiah are to be formed. Reader, while you admire the man, do not forget
the God that made him so great, so good, and so useful. Even Abraham had
nothing but what he had received; from the free unmerited mercy of God
proceeded all his excellences; but he was a worker together with God, and
therefore did not receive the grace of God in vain. Go thou, believe, love,
obey, and persevere in like manner.”[5]
In verse 9 we read
that Isaac and Ishmael share in the
responsibility of burying their father. They buried him in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre, where Sarah was buried (v.9)... but
the final fact remains that God blessed Abraham’s son Isaac.
V.11
After the funeral is over God
confirms the covenant blessings upon Isaac. Isaac goes and lives at Beer-lahai-roi where God had first
taken care of Hagar and Ishmael, and the place where Isaac first saw and met Rebekah, his wife.
At the close of our
text Ishmael and his offspring
receive a brief mentioning. He became rich and famous. He had twelve sons
who were princes and nations (v.16).
Today they are the various Arabic people
of the Middle East. They lived on the
fringes of the Promised Land. They have been touched by the word of God. They believe in the scriptures, but it is
one thing to be near the covenant of grace; it is another thing to be in
the covenant of grace To this day
they remain strangers to the
covenant and its promises. Many that are strangers to the covenants of promise
are blessed with outward prosperity for the sake of their godly ancestors.
Wealth and riches shall be in their house.”[6]
But the main question is this. Are you,
like Isaac, a son of the covenant, having entered the narrow gate through Christ? For it is in Christ that we, like Isaac inherit all the covenant promises ... the resurrection of our bodies, eternal life in heaven, our heavenly Canaan, for God has promised us all these thing in Christ, the Mediator of a better covenant.
[1]
There is disagreement among commentators
as to whether Abraham
had taken Keturah as a concubine
whilst he was married to
Sarah ( In 1 Chronicles 1:32 she is mentioned as his concubine)
[4]
Matthew Henry : https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/mhm/genesis-25.html
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