Isaac Declines

11/24/2006

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                 Focus:  Isaac Decline

Bible Reading & Meditation                        Reference:  Genesis 27:1-4

            Message of the verse:  “1 ¶  Now it came about, when Isaac was old and his eyes were too dim to see, that he called his older son Esau and said to him, ‘My son.’ And he said to him, ‘Here I am.’  2  Isaac said, ‘Behold now, I am old and I do not know the day of my death.  3  ‘Now then, please take your gear, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me; 4  and prepare a savory dish for me such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, so that my soul may bless you before I die.’”

            In the book that I am studying to help me to understand some of the truths of these passages, “Dr. Wiersbe breaks up chapter 27 & 28 into kind of an outline form with the message heading about the schemes that were used by Isaac and his family instead of relying on faith.  They were scheming to get their own way instead of relying on the Lord to work out His way for them in their lives.  I will begin with the scheming of Isaac, as he schemed to give the blessings to Esau instead of giving it to Jacob to whom God had told him to do so.  It seems that the blessings that were given to these patriarchs, and maybe even others in the OT were from the Lord, for when Jacob was old he gave blessings to each of his sons, and even to Joseph’s son that would come true, so it is obvious that the Lord was with him when he did this.

            Isaac was scheming because he was not following the Lord in his old age, and so it was true for the rest of his family.  Isaac started out his life by walking with the Lord as his father Abraham had taught him, yet at the close of his life he was not walking with the Lord like his father Abraham had done at the end of his life.  The difference is of course that Abraham finished well where Isaac did not finish well.  One of the problems in this family was that Isaac favored Esau and Rebekah favored Jacob and this was to such a degree that it drove the family apart as will be seen in this chapter.  As stated before this story of Isaac and Rebekah started out kind of like a fairy tale, but ended on a real down note.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  It is good to finish the race, as the Apostle Paul wrote, in a strong way.  The Bible speaks about believers being perfect in their walk with the Lord, and this word means complete, so I like to think of being perfect as perfectly going towards perfection in my walk with the Lord.  There are things that I did earlier in my walk with the Lord that were complete that would not be perfect or complete at this time in my walk with the Lord, so the bar is set higher as I continue my walk with the Lord, and my goal is to finish strong right to the time when the Lord comes to take me home with Him either in the Rapture or through death.

The Word of God has brought a great challenge to me as I read and studied His Word this morning.

My Steps of Faith Today:  I do not want to use the tactic of scheming, but to live my life by faith in the Lord to work things out so that it will be good for me and that my life will bring honor and glory to the Lord Jesus Christ.