And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide: and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, the camels were coming.” (Genesis 24:63)
A couple of things here. First, Isaac was waiting for Abraham’s servant. He knew Abraham had sent him on a search for a wife. Second, we see that it must have been his custom to go to the field to meditate.
Isaac had no idea possibly when the servant would return. The servant traveled by camel and camels don’t travel fast. He was going 300 miles to Abraham’s land of origin to find a wife. It was Abraham and Sarah’s desire that Isaac marry someone from his tribe and people. Sarah had died and Abraham was assured that his servant would find someone from his tribe to marry Isaac.
There are no words needed for Isaac and Rebekah. They both knew they belonged to each other. Ancient customs are accepted and expected. (Genesis 26:64-66) Rebekah made a long trip with a stranger to meet her future husband who she didn’t know. And Isaac trusted his father’s servant to be led of God to bring him God’s choice of a wife who he didn’t know.
In those days the people were not prohibited from marrying close relatives. Abraham was his wife’s, Sarah’s, half-brother through his father. And Rebekah was Isaac’s second cousin. When Jacob escaped Esau, he went to the land of his family tribe. Laban was his uncle, Rebekah, his mother’s brother. And he married his cousins, Rachel and Leah. But although they were family and they were all believers, some in the family practiced idolatry. They did believe in the One True God, but Laban had an idol which Rachel hid and stole from her father. It’s not written if she also practiced idolatry. And it’s also not written the reason for stealing the idol.
It must have been Isaac’s custom to meditate. Jewish commentators have translated meditate to pray which makes more sense. It was customary to seek out solitude to pray. Jesus went out early in the morning alone to pray. This custom must have been Abraham’s custom and was handed down to Isaac and eventually the Jewish community. Isaac’s custom of solitary prayer has implications for us. It wasn’t a ritual with other members of his family. It was an intimate time with the Lord. Intimacy and alone time with the Lord are necessary to knowing the Lord.
Isaac became a godly man. God is known as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to distinguish from the other gods people worshipped. Isaac willingly agrees to be sacrificed when God ordered Abraham to sacrifice him. Isaac wasn’t an innocent little boy, but a young youth who was aware of what was happening. He was faithful to God and in a world where men took many wives, Isaac only had one wife. He was a man of prayer. He prayed for Rebekah to conceive, and she did. “And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.” (Genesis 25:21) God heard his prayers. “The LORD is far from the wicked: but he heareth the prayer of the righteous.” (Proverbs 15:29) And God hears our prayers. We have the promise in the New Covenant. “And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us: And if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.” (1John 5:14-15)
Isaac was the child of promise. Sarah was barren, but God had promised posterity through a child. It was twenty-five years from the time God promised Abraham descendants to the time Isaac was born. God’s promise was to come through Isaac and Sarah, not the handmaid’s son Ismael. Abraham was 100 years old, and Sarah was 90 years old.
Evidently Paul was aware of the tendency of the Galatians to follow the law. These times were confusing, and people were not sure what was allowed and what wasn’t. Paul writes to them and makes it clear that they are not children under the law, but children of promise. “Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.” (Galatians 4:21-31) What this means is that through Jesus and His New Covenant, we are born of the Spirit, born of God, miraculous and not of the flesh, not of this world, not earthly nor temporal, but are in fact eternal. We are like Isaac. Children of promise and spiritual as Isaac was also born miraculously, of promise and of the Spirit, for who has ever heard of then and since of a 100-year-old man and a 90-year-old woman having a child?
And who had heard and even now hear that God has children born of Him, eternal and not of this world? The unbeliever hasn’t heard and wouldn’t even imagine how miraculous that is. It’s through Jesus that this is possible. We are the children of promise, children of Abraham through faith (Galatians 3:6,7; Romans 4:16) and children of God through Jesus. “But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:12-13)
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