Morning Light: Genesis 25 – Isaac Receives His Inheritance

[Today: Genesis 25] Isaac Receives His Inheritance. In this chapter Abraham marries a third time to a woman named Keturah. This union produces eight sons during his advanced years in addition to Isaac and Ishmael. Abraham dies and is buried at Machpelah and Isaac begins to walk out his inheritance as the patriarch of the Hebrew people.
[Gen 25: 1-34 KJV] 1 Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah. 2 And she bare him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah. 3 And Jokshan begat Sheba, and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim, and Letushim, and Leummim. 4 And the sons of Midian; Ephah, and Epher, and Hanoch, and Abida, and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah. 5 And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac. 6 But unto the sons of the concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, eastward, unto the east country. 7 And these are the days of the years of Abraham’s life which he lived, an hundred threescore and fifteen years. 8 Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people. 9 And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is before Mamre; 10 The field which Abraham purchased of the sons of Heth: there was Abraham buried, and Sarah his wife.
11 And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac; and Isaac dwelt by the well Lahairoi.
12 Now these are the generations of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s handmaid, bare unto Abraham: 13 And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, according to their generations: the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebajoth; and Kedar, and Adbeel, and Mibsam, 14 And Mishma, and Dumah, and Massa, 15 Hadar, and Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah: 16 These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their towns, and by their castles; twelve princes according to their nations. 17 And these are the years of the life of Ishmael, an hundred and thirty and seven years: and he gave up the ghost and died; and was gathered unto his people.18 And they dwelt from Havilah unto Shur, that is before Egypt, as thou goest toward Assyria: and he died in the presence of all his brethren.
19 And these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham begat Isaac:20 And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.21 And Isaac intreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren: and the Lord was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. 22 And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the Lord. 23 And the Lord said unto her,
Two nations are in thy womb,
And two manner of people shall be
separated from thy bowels;
and the one people shall be stronger
than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.
24 And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.25 And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.26 And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau’s heel; and his name was called Jacob: and Isaac was threescore years old when she bare them. 27 And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents. 28 And Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison: but Rebekah loved Jacob.
29 And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint: 30 And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom. 31 And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. 32 And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me? 33 And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. 34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.
This chapter reveals a little known fact that Abraham took a third wife (v. 1-4). This is interesting because the promise to Abraham was that his seed would be as both the stars of the heavens, the sand of the seas and the dust of the earth. So three wives produced three legacies. These are natural bloodlines and also spiritual bloodlines as it were that Jesus alludes to regarding the good ground of the parable of the sower:
[Mat 13:8 KJV] 8 But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.
Let’s look at the natural heritage, specifically the star seed and the sand seed:
[Gen 15:5 KJV] 5 And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.
The star seed came forth out of Isaac. The sand seed came forth out of Ishmael which interesting in view of the fact that the Arabian peninsula is primarily desert and the peoples living there claim Ishmael as their patriarch.
The star seed brings forth 100 fold but the sand seed brings forth 60 fold. Why? Note that the descendants of Ishmael are bound by a spirit of legalistic religion. Spiritually speaking the sand seed represents those who choose the sand seed foundation to build their life on.
[Mat 7:26 KJV] 26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
A grain of sand is like a grain of truth. Religion takes a body of truth – corpus of theological principles and builds a religious infrastructure around it (i.e. denomination) and says “this is the way of truth and the way you must please God and the way to heaven.” This is building exclusively on the dead letter. What is the dead letter? The dead letter is the logos void of revelatory rhema truth. Sand seed religion sees truth as a PRECEPT but the revelatory (rhema) perspective finds truth in the PERSON of JESUS.
[Jhn 14:6 KJV] 6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
What about the sons of Keturah (v. 5-6)? This is the 30 fold realm. When Abraham divides the inheritance he gives everything to Isaac but to the sons of Keturah he gives gifts and sends them away. The sons of Keturah represent those who are satisfied with religious truth and spiritual gifts. They have prophecy, healing, etc. but they don’t have sonship. They are content with the gift realm like a dog is content with a bone. God offered this to the Israelites at one point and they wisely refused:
[Exd 33:1-5 KJV] 1 And the LORD said unto Moses, Depart, [and] go up hence, thou and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I sware unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed will I give it: 2 And I will send an angel before thee; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite: 3 Unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou [art] a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way. 4 And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned: and no man did put on him his ornaments. 5 For the LORD had said unto Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye [are] a stiffnecked people: I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee.
There is a place in your walk with God where you can see every promise come to pass but the Lord will yet withdraw himself from you. This is the dust seed mentality. They see the gifts and blessings of God as an ornament to their lives. They add God and salvation to their lives like a garnish but there is no deviation in their path morally or any other way. We always have to remember that our salvation is not only seeing Jesus as our redeemer but also our Lord. The dust seed mentality is also present when Jesus walked their earth:
In John 6:14-16 Jesus divides the loaves and fishes to the multitude and here is the people’s response:
[Jhn 6:13-15 KJV] 13 Therefore they gathered [them] together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten. 14 Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world. 15 When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.
Many people when they see the blessings of living for God decide that is the way to go and we even say “they make him Lord of their life.” What is wrong with this picture? You don’t make Jesus Lord he is ALREADY LORD! The entire ideology of salvation and the new birth is infected with this thinking and shockingly it is reminiscent of the language Satan used when he tempted Jesus:
[Mat 4:8-9 KJV] 8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; 9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
Satan offered to make Jesus king on the condition that everything Jesus did from that point was focused on him. This is the attitude we can fall into – I will do what you want God IF you will do thus and so for me. You have to know it isn’t about us it is about HIM.
What about the star seed? The star seed is the seed of promise. The sons of promise include US:
[Rom 9:8 KJV] 8 That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these [are] not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.
Remember what God told Abraham? He told him to “tell” the stars. If you look that word up it doesn’t just mean to count. A tell is actually a “stele” which was an ancient writing instrument. He was telling Abraham to connect the dots and see the destiny of his descendants.
Geneses tells us that the stars are for signs and for seasons. The Jewish “zodiac” or MAZZOROTH begins with a virgin and ends with a lion. In fact every ancient astrological system begins with a virgin water sign and ends with a lion kingdom sign. Peter understood this calling Jesus the DAY STAR:
[2Pe 1:19 KJV] 19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:
So when Jesus said we are the light of the world he was speaking of constellations and stars. This speaks to us of the eclectic arrangement of relationships among God’s people. Paul and Barnabas were the original ODD COUPLE. You can look at your friends and see this truth – you would probably never fellowship or have relationship with many of them if it wasn’t for your common faith.
Likewise some people come into your life and take up an orbit around you. They are big balls of dust – they are planetary influences in your life. They take but the do not give – they are there for you to bless them but you will unlikely ever be blessed by them. They have their place but you must know who they are lest you look at them and get disappointed or hurt.
So there are star seed, sand seed and dust seed. Which one do you choose to be? Rom. 12:1-3 speaks of the good the perfect and the acceptable – choose the PERFECT WILL OF GOD and become the light of your world.
Abraham dies and is buried in the cave of Machpelah with his first wife Sarah (v. 7-10). This cave became known as the cave of the Patriarchs and is with us to this day. Notice that Isaac and Ishmael came back together to bury Abraham. This gives hope that Jewish and Arabic peoples can come together in their common heritage in their father Abraham.
After the death of Abraham there was a special blessing that came upon Isaac that wasn’t there before (v. 11). We need to come to an understanding of generational blessing and generational iniquity because there are people that have gone before us whose lives and testimonies effect us still. Paul wrote of this to young Timothy:
[1Ti 5:24-25 KJV] 24 Some men’s sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some [men] they follow after. 25 Likewise also the good works [of some] are manifest beforehand; and they that are otherwise cannot be hid.
Because of his connection to Abraham the genealogy of Ishmael was included in the scriptures (v. 12-17). Ishmael was a product of unbelief on Sarah and Abraham’s part. His mother Hagar was in the picture because they tried to work out the promise of God according to their own understanding. It isn’t possible to understate the impact of this faltering of faith on the entire human race.
Verses 18-21 give us an account of the early genealogy of Isaac and the intercessory ministrations of Isaac over his wife Rebecca. Remember that Jesus is our Isaac. Just as Isaac prayed and Rebecca bore child as a result so Jesus is interceding for us as the Bride-groom for the Bride.
[Hbr 7:25 KJV] 25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
You have to see the place that man and woman take in the plan of God. They are a picture of something that God is bringing forth in the earth as Paul wrote in Eph. 5:
[Eph 5:23-32 KJV] 23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. 24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so [let] the wives [be] to their own husbands in every thing. 25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; 26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, 27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. 28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. 29 For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: 30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. 31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. 32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
There is something about the relationship between a man and wife that echoes God’s end time purpose to raise up the bride of Christ at the end of days. To that end Jesus laid down his life yes but on an ongoing basis he is presenting us to himself and loving us and nourishing us and cherishing us. This is the character of the heart of Christ toward us.
Rebecca becomes pregnant after her husband prays for her (v. 21-24). It is a difficult pregnancy in that the children are very active seemingly struggling with each other in the womb. This suggests to us from a biblical standpoint that a man or woman begins to walk in their destiny before they are born. Isaiah spoke of this regarding his own calling:
[Isa 49:1 KJV] 1 Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name.
In our culture because of the legalization of abortion the personhood of a fetus is called into question. We know the ten commandments that “thou shalt not kill” but it goes much further than this. God considers every human life to be his personal and sacred property dedicated to his use (Luke 2:23).
The Lord went even further speaking of the prophet Jeremiah that he was called, qualified and sanctified before he was conceived:
[Jer 1:5 KJV] 5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, [and] I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
What further insight to the scriptures give us regarding Jacob and Esau? On further investigation we find that Esau was passed over for blessing before he even had a chance to prove himself:
[Rom 9:10-13 KJV] 10 And not only [this]; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, [even] by our father Isaac; 11 (For [the children] being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) 12 It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. 13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
This is repugnant to the modern mind with its egalitarian ideas of fairness and equality – but remember this we are in a KINGDOM and part of a THEOCRATIC RULE of GOD not a democracy with equal rights for all. When Paul wrote this passage he was speaking to convince Jews that the Gentile church was ordained by God which they were not willing to admit – so Paul compared the ELDER Jewish nation to the YOUNGER spiritual nation of the church saying “the elder shall serve the younger …” We can only pause here and take note of the terrible sovereignty of God moving among the nations of men.
In v. 25-34 we see where Jacob’s name came from. He grabbed his brother’s heel as Esau exited the womb so he is called a SUPPLANTER and a HEEL GRABBER. In this lifetime this was not lost on Jacob and he came to hate his own name and of course later it was changed to Israel. So both Abram and Jacob’s name were changed but Isaac’s name meaning “Laugher” was never changed.
As the boy’s grew Esau was an outdoorsman and Jacob becomes the ancient equivalent of a geek. Returning from the hunt one day Esau demands Jacob to feed him and Jacob certainly in half-jest says “sell me your birthright…” To our shock Esau relents, despising his birthright and sealing his fate. We need to look at this with grave sobriety. The words of our mouth steer our destiny either into blessing and favor or heartbreak and disappointment. Solomon said:
[Pro 6:2 KJV] 2 Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth.
Esau could blame God or Jacob or his parents but he did it to himself – by his foolish words he robbed himself of the birthright and doomed the generations that came after him.