Who Was Isaac in the Bible?

Who Was Isaac in the Bible? When Sarah and Abraham had reached the very old ages in their 90s and near 100s, respectively they expected they would have no next of kin. Sarah went as far as to convince Abraham to sleep with her servant Hagar to produce an offspring that way. Nevertheless, God promises Abraham generations as numerous as the grains of sand, and he follows through on that promise through the birth of Isaac (Genesis 18). Isaac’s name means laughter, likely because when Sarah heard from the heavenly messengers (possibly a theophany, theologians have debated this), she laughed at the news that in a year’s time she would give birth. A miracle in the flesh, Isaac lived a long life and continued Abraham’s line. In this article, we’ll analyse his life timeline and important lessons we can learn from the second patriarch of Israel.

The Timeline of Isaac’s Life

We don’t know much about Isaac’s character as a child, apart from the fact he was obedient to death when God puts Abraham’s loyalties to the test (Genesis 22). We also know that Isaac and Ishmael, his stepbrother, didn’t get along too much. And by that we mean, when Isaac was only eight days old, Ishmael mocked Isaac during his circumcision day (Genesis 21). At that point, Isaac couldn’t really have much of a personality yet because it hadn’t developed by his first week here on earth. Apart from that, we don’t know a whole lot about Isaac’s character throughout his childhood, but we get more of a glimpse when he, as an adult, finds the love of his life: Rebekah (Genesis 24). When he meets her, he still seems to be following the Lord and, of course, he falls head over heels in love. Isaac lives a faithful life until he reaches his elderly years (Genesis 25). Then he and Rebekah run into another issue: Playing favourites. Abraham, before him, really didn’t have the luxury of this. Sure, he had two sons: Isaac and Ishmael. But poor Ishmael was probably not considered to be a son in Abraham’s eyes, or even if he was, to a much lesser degree because Abraham had not married Hagar and likely didn’t consider any legitimacy in Ishmael’s birth and birthright. But Isaac and Rebekah had twins, and they each decided to pick a favourite. This pitted their sons, Jacob and Esau, against each other from the beginning. The feud between the two sons leads to Jacob stealing Esau’s birthright and blessing, after playing tricks to attain both. Esau, furious, vows to kill Jacob, and Jacob flees from their family for a great many years, until the two brothers reconcile decades later. This favouritism ends up polluting Jacob’s family when he picks a favourite wife, and consequently, a favourite son. Isaac later dies in Genesis 35 at the age of 180. His sons, finally reconciling, go to bury him.

What Does the Bible Say about Isaac?

Matthew 1:2: "Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers." There's not a whole lot notable about Isaac's life, other than the fact that he comes from an important line. He appears to make many of his father's same mistakes. Genesis 17:15-19: "And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him." Abraham meets God's promise with doubt. He'd been waiting for so long for the miracle child. He even tried to force God's hand and make his own offspring his own way. Galatians 4:28: "Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise."

What Can We Learn from Isaac?

We can learn a great deal from this second patriarch. First, we can understand from Isaac’s miraculous birth that God often moves when everything seems impossible. Sarah was well beyond her childbearing years, and most likely had encountered ridicule from her contemporaries. After all, infertility was seen as a sort of condemnation or curse, and so they probably (similar to the Job situation) told her that she had sinned in some way. Nevertheless, God moved, and they had a son. Secondly, Isaac proves to us the dangers of choosing favourites within a family. The first red flag happens within his own family. Because he favoured Esau and Rebekah liked Jacob, they had pitted the sons against each other. This almost led to the murder of Jacob, and even decades later, when he received a limp in his leg and no longer could run away from his problems, he thought Esau would surely kill him. He tries to placate his older brother with lots of gifts, so hopefully, he would forget about the whole stealing of the birthright and blessing ordeal. This compounds later when Jacob adopts his father’s mistakes. Jacob chooses a favourite wife, Rachel, and then chooses to favour the children whom Rachel births. Because of this, Joseph (Rachel’s child) receives enmity from his other brothers … to the point where they sell him to slave traders to be rid of him. Nevertheless, although Isaac made mistakes, we can learn from him that God works miracles and that God can still move within our brokenness to form something beautiful.