Your Last Request Before You DieSample

Isaac started out on the right track

1. Isaac was a man of prayer. 

When the caravan bearing Rebekah neared his home, the Bible tells us that Isaac was in the fields meditating or “praying,” as the margin expresses it (Gen 24:63)

Isaac’s marriage, though happy and promising at the start, brought new trials and difficulties into his life. Rebekah went through the same experience as her mother-in-law, Sarah—childlessness. This second barrenness in the prospective mother of the promised seed was of great concern to Isaac and caused him to intercede with God on Rebekah’s behalf. The prayer that he uttered was filled with deep intensity and concern: “Isaac pleaded (Hebrew: agonised) with the Lord for his wife because she was barren.”

God heard Isaac’s prayer, and in due course, the barren Rebekah became the mother of twin sons who, even in the womb, foreshadowed the long fierce struggle of the races that would spring from them.

Prayer was an important foundation in the early life of Isaac.

2. Isaac was a man of faith. 

When we read Genesis 22:1-19, it is so easy to focus our mind on Abraham. Nevertheless, think of what could have been running through the mind of Isaac when he realized that he would serve as the burnt sacrifice?

He was not a small boy as has been normally understood. According to Josephus, the historian, Isaac was twenty-five years of age. But Isaac was very obedient and trusted what his father was doing. When Abraham said God will provide the sacrifice, Isaac did not ask any more questions, he just followed. Isaac was faithful to trust his father, even when things did not make sense. 

Isaac could have taken advantage of his youthful strength to overpower and free himself from his aged and feeble father; he may even have attempted to take vengeance to be sure Abraham would never be in existence to attempt again to kill him. But he did not do so, but rather had supreme confidence in his father and also his willing consent to become the victim (Gen 22:12, 26:5; Heb11:17)

We can learn from this episode that Isaac is indeed a faithful man even during his youth. There is no doubt that the thought of being sacrificed sent a flood of fear in Isaac’s mind. As he laid down and watched his father raise a big knife to drive through his body, he did not resist but laid still.

We can see that his faith was greater than his fear. He was a courageous man who believed his father when Abraham said; “God will provide for Himself a lamb”. Isaac was willing to be faithful even to the point of death.

How is your prayer life? Are you depending on the Lord each day for your future? How is your faith? Do you continue to trust God even when things don’t make sense?

Quote: "Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble. But since the power of prayer is in the one who hears it and not in the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference." – Max Lucado

Prayer: Lord, help me to trust in You even when things do not make sense. Amen