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Isaac married Rebekah when he was 40 (Gen 25:20). His father Abraham was 140 (he was 100 when Isaac was born, Gen 21:5). For the next 20 years of their marriage, Rebekah could not have children (Gen 25:26).
“Pleaded” (intreated [KJV], prayed [NAS, ESV, NIV], asked [CEV]) is a good translation of the Hebrew verb for it suggests the earnestness and sense of urgency in this intercessory prayer; Isaac pleaded with the LORD for his wife (emphasis mine). She like Abraham ventured out on an enterprise of faith, leaving her country, her family, her father’s house (cf. Gen 12:1) for God’s will. She must have felt like many women who cannot bear children that something was wrong with her, that she was less of a woman for being childless, or perhaps she was thinking that God was punishing her for something she did in the past? None of these possible thoughts were true of her. She was a godly woman in the lineage of Christ. No, this matter of barrenness was of God as it was for Sarah her deceased mother-in-law. But clearly not being able to have children for Isaac to carry on the family name was becoming a heavy burden for her –“because she was barren.” God granted Isaac’s plea – “Rebekah conceived!”
She gave birth to twins, Esau and Jacob, when Isaac was 60 (Gen 25:26); the boys’ grandfather was 160 years of age at the time. 15 years later (Gen 25:7), Esau and Jacob witnessed their grandfather Abraham being put to rest in the cave of Machpelah where Sarah their grandmother was buried (Gen 23:19).
Sarah was 9-10 years younger than Abraham and died at the age of 127 (Gen 17:17; 23:1). She would have been 130 had she been alive at the time of the wedding of her only biological son, and 150 when her two grandchildren came struggling into the world.
The miracle birth of Isaac was 25 years in coming after Abraham left Haran for the land of Canaan (Gen 12:4); Isaac only had to wait twenty years and got twice as many! The pressure of having kids was a burden not only for Rebekah but Isaac as well. Isaac knew of the promises the LORD made to his dad. He heard many times the story of how God worked in the lives of his parents as they launched out by faith in simple belief in the promises of God; how God made the impossible possible!
Perhaps in his intercessory prayers for Rebekah, Isaac also desired for his father to see his son being born before Abraham died. Isaac loved and missed his mother very deeply (Gen 24:67) and could only dream how his mother would have loved Rebekah and the wedding ceremony, and how proud she would have been if she could have seen her two rambunctious grandchildren and had a chance to spoil them rotten like other grandparents do! It wasn't meant to be....
Here is the thing; God’s promises will be fulfilled; it’s a done deal; faith launches the promises of God (Gen 12:4; Heb 11:8-10). The problem of not realizing God’s promises are either timing or disobedience. God is simply on a different schedule than we are. We want things now. If we don’t get things almost instantaneously we question God on the matter. He didn’t hear our one prayer so we ditched that effort and faith in God with it.
Do you believe that was Isaac’s one and only prayer in the matter over a 20 year span? I don’t. What Isaac learned in those first 20 years of marriage is that he can be inspired by his daddy’s faith to trust and believe in the promises of God, but being inspired alone is not sufficient. What God expects from us is tailored made, same faith different suit! Inspiration by the faith of others can go only so far. We must blaze our own path of faith according to the will of God.
Do you believe that was Isaac’s one and only prayer in the matter over a 20 year span? I don’t. What Isaac learned in those first 20 years of marriage is that he can be inspired by his daddy’s faith to trust and believe in the promises of God, but being inspired alone is not sufficient. What God expects from us is tailored made, same faith different suit! Inspiration by the faith of others can go only so far. We must blaze our own path of faith according to the will of God.
It takes perspiration from our own personal faith in obedience to God to see His promises a reality in our lives. And by the way, Isaac did the right thing; he prayed, and he continued to pray. Some never see the fruition of God’s blessings in their own lives due to either a lack of faith, or as in the case of Sarah, time simply ran out, but she knew before she died that Isaac was the answer to the promise of God in her life for God truly is the God of the impossible to possible (I2P); Isaac was living proof when she gave birth to him at 90 (Gen 17:17; Heb 11:11)!
Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Rebekah were not perfect, stain-glass saints, but they perfected their faith in their walk by their own perspiration, and God blessed them for it as He will for us. After all, we, who are of the faith, are sons of Abraham you recall (Gal 3:7)! Inspiration and perspiration go together which is fertile ground for I2P to happen in our lives, in the lives of our loved ones, and in the lives of others! We need to perspire not retire our faith in the promises of God.
We don't sweat over whether the promises of God are good or not, but sweat from laboring in the faith based on those promises while waiting for the physical realities of the promises given to us (Deut 29:29). We need to keep on keeping on, friends of the faith, come what may! We must launch out in faith, inspire, perspire, and be faithful in the waiting. God will bless us for it one way or another, here or there. Don't quit on God! <><
We don't sweat over whether the promises of God are good or not, but sweat from laboring in the faith based on those promises while waiting for the physical realities of the promises given to us (Deut 29:29). We need to keep on keeping on, friends of the faith, come what may! We must launch out in faith, inspire, perspire, and be faithful in the waiting. God will bless us for it one way or another, here or there. Don't quit on God! <><
