Dr. Lawrence Butler

The Bridge Church, Pembroke

At this time I would like to turn your attention to one of the prominent Bible characters of the Old Testament. He does not occupy as much space as Abraham, his father, but is critically important because he fills the place of receiving the promise passed down from Abraham. The Israelites viewed him as a patriarch just as they did Abraham. This man’s name was Isaac.

Abraham was given a promise from God that his seed would be like the sand of the sea or as the stars of the heavens. Isaac carried this vow forward as the heir to God’s sovereign commitment to bless their descendants. It seems to me to be of major importance to consider the life of this somewhat lesser-known Old Testament character.

Abraham was quite markedly known as a man of the altar. Jacob, son of Isaac, was said to be a man of the tent. The thing most commonly associated with Isaac was the well. He was the promised child to Abraham and Sarah in their old age, the fulfillment of a word from the Lord. He represented Christ as the sacrifice for us when Abraham was told to offer him upon the altar. Bible readers are aware that the Lord intervened and preserved Isaac’s life, but Abraham proved obedient in all things, even to the point of sacrificing his own son. He proved his belief in God’s promise that, if necessary, Isaac would be raised from the dead. Please understand that Isaac was old enough, and thus probably strong enough, to have prevented his father from slaying him, but he submitted to the will of his father just as Abraham did to the will of the Almighty Father. Then to be delivered by the voice of God and the presentation of a ram for the needed sacrifice was nothing short of miraculous. This experience had a powerful impact on the heart and life of Isaac.

Isaac was a much different personality than his father. He was more retiring and perhaps not as confrontational as Abraham.

Yet he was powerful in his own way. The Lord made humans to be different and we should rejoice in that because we all have a role in the kingdom of God. In the New Testament Peter was very outspoken, his brother Andrew was not, but was also a disciple of Christ, one of the twelve. The importance of Isaac will unfold as we continue to examine his life.