Dividing Abraham’s family
Thank you for continuing to take this journey with us today. After reading through chapter 27 today, I feel a need to ask you all to pray for each other.
We read how Abraham became the father of many nations, not only through his with Sarah who bore him Isaac, and Hagar who bore him Ishmael, but also Keturah who gave birth to Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah.
Ishmael, from the beginning, was a warrior and moved down near Egypt, but these sons of Keturah moved to the east. This would have been the many tribes and nations which to this day, struggle with the Israelites.
Dividing Isaacs family
Later, Isaac had the two sons, Esau and Jacob. Esau carelessly treated his birthright and allowed himself to be tricked out of his blessing. This is not to excuse Jacob or Rebekah for conceiving to deceive Isaac. I will leave that for another time. Instead, I think we should heed this as a warning.
We can all become blinded by our own desires. Issac’s eyesight had grown dim, but even though he questioned twice if Jacob was his son Esau, his desire for the food and to give his blessing drove him to overlook his gut instincts.
Dividing our focus
This we also do. We try to be discerning, but not so much that it interferes with our plans. We know what we want to happen and we try to justify that this is God’s will for us. As a general rule, if it is not in the Bible, God did not say it.
We still will find the words in the Bible which will support our desire and twist the meaning of them toward our cause. This is how Isaac falls victim to Jacob’s deception. Satan was around to see that. He knows how it worked, and he will use that same gullibility to his advantage when we let him.
Therefore, we must approach all things in life, seeking God’s will first, then seeing if our plans fit within the scope of His. Not can we bend God’s will to fit around our plans? It is a subtle difference, but an important one.
27:29 warns us to always bless Jacob (Israel), promising blessings to those who do so and curses to those who curse him.
Moving on from there, I had a couple of other powerful impressions in these verses.
Reunion bring hope
First, their deaths reunited Abraham and Ishmael with their people. This instills me with hope that I will see my mother and family, including my church family, in heaven.
Death gathers us to our people.
The sense of community we build here holds eternal value beyond this life. I find encouragement in this. Like most people, I believe there was much I failed to do while my mother was alive. Knowing that she won’t just be a person in heaven, but will be my people, means I will have an opportunity to atone for those shortcomings.
Final thoughts
And my final thought on today’s verses is this: What is with these Jewish men lying about their wives?
I am not advocating for anyone to be jealous and controlling, but time after time, instead of standing up for and protecting their women, these guys lie and put their women up for play.
Their frequent exposure reveals that this is not God’s will for how a man should treat his wife. For one thing, lying is always a sin. But, a man should love his wife and be willing to lay down his life for her as Christ did for the church (See Eph 5:25).
