The Boredom of a Bridge
Isaac: An Appreciation
By Kent d Curry
January 14, 2002
“They
also serve who only stand and wait.”
¾John
Milton
Although the honorific is still recited as “The
God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,” a careful reading of Genesis would instead
recast it as, “The God of Abraham, Jacob and Joseph” because Isaac is a
shallow puddle in the deep waters of the Bible’s first book. Indeed, while
Abraham looms over 13 chapters, Joseph fascinates for 12 and Jacob dominates in
11, while being interwoven into several others, Isaac remains almost a footnote
with perhaps 2+ chapters of attention. Except for those scant verses, his
identity is forever cast as Abraham’s son or Jacob’s father, more metaphoric
literary symbol than breathing human being.
And no wonder he’s a footnote. While any child of Sunday
school can excitedly tick off the plot-turns in Jacob or Joseph’s wild rides
through life, or relate Abraham’s personal intercession with
Yahweh-in-the-flesh, Isaac is relegated to the (Yawn!)
story of the wells (cleaning out dad’s wells and then arguing over them with
the local herdsmen).
Although his life was more significant than Sunday school
would indicate, it still reads like a compendium of boredom¾he
gets married, buries his father, has twins, lies to king Abimelech about his
wife being his sister (repeating his father’s experience), cleans the wells,
and cuts a non-aggression covenant with Abimelech, then is suddenly old and
blind enough to be deceived by Jacob over the blessing.
Even worse, you could make a case that he was a Momma’s
boy.
The truth is, Jacob’s life was
more exciting, Joseph’s more edifying, and Abraham’s more enlightening, but
none was more essential than Isaac.
Without Bridges, Roads are Useless
Abraham was the giant of faith, a man who died grasping but
a dream and a promise. Jacob became the fulfillment of Yahweh’s promise, with
a mighty people multiplying through his lineage and under his leadership. Yet,
Isaac was the essential bridge between the two, the man who made sure there was
a fulfilled promise because, like a bridge, he never moved from his position.
The verses explaining Isaac’s mission occur when a famine
smites the land after Abraham’s death. Yahweh appears and charges, “Go
not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of: Sojourn in
this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto
thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I
sware unto Abraham thy father;
(Then comes Isaac’s promise.) “And
I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy
seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be
blessed” (Genesis 26:2-4).
The command to remain is hardly a surprise, as even when
he’s to be married, Abraham dispatches a servant to travel to find Isaac a
wife (Genesis 24) while Isaac stays home. Contrast this with Jacob’s
adventures starting, post-deceit, when Isaac sends him away to find a wife in
the same land as his own wife. (Likewise, the bigger-than-life accounts of
Abraham, Joseph¾and
even Ishmael¾begin
with travel away.)
Yet Isaac stayed.
No wonder his “adventures” are cleaning wells; his
calling was to claim the deserted desert by remaining immovable in an era when
nearly everyone wandered throughout their entire lives.
It’s easy for Westerners today to forget that wells were
“possessions of the greatest importance,”1
essential for the present and future of any family. Indeed, Scripture accuses
the Philistines, who were jealous of Isaac’s multiplying possessions, of
filling up those wells to drive him from the land.
That is why he shifted from one location to another,
discovering springs and redigging wells, in hopes of surviving or landing
another reliable way station for his flourishing empire. When the local herdsman
disputed with Isaac over these same wells, he chose peace and withdrawal. At
first glance, this might seem cowardly, but it was the height of wisdom. After
all, if you’ve been commissioned to remain in a land full of envious locals,
fighting over a well might create a war zone. Tight-lipped peace is the easiest
method of holding a land, even if it means accommodating unreasonable neighbors.
When Isaac finally digs an uncontested well, he names it
Rehoboth, or “Room” “…For now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful
in the land” (Genesis 26:22).
From there he visited Abraham’s former “residence” in
Beersheba. The Lord appeared unto him the night he arrived, promising continued
blessings. In response, Isaac built an altar to Yahweh, and his servants began
redigging one of Abraham’s wells.
At that point, King Abimelech and company visited to make a
covenant so Isaac won’t attack them. He happily consents by swearing peace¾his
strategy for remaining has succeeded. As soon as they leave, his servants report
water running in the well at Beersheba. (Meaning: “The well of the oath.”) Beersheba
remains a vibrant little city today.
Going To Isaac’s Land
When Jacob eventually returns about
20 years later, overladen with wives, children and livestock, Isaac is waiting
for him. He hasn’t left. In fact, he was always waiting.
After all, for there to be a land of milk and honey where once stood a
desert, the wells must be tended, for only water could beat back the desert with
its verdant life-force. Without wells there is no land to remain upon and no
place worthy of a return, but someone has to keep the supply lines open and keep
everyone alive while the blessings propagate.
Isaac is the reason there’s a promised land. In fact, the Bible misleads.
It’s not the Promised Land the Hebrews desire, but Isaac’s Land. He’s the
bridge into the future that Jacob travels over, the bridge Joshua and the
children of Israel return across to fulfill Yahweh’s promise in Egypt.
Isaac is the testament of the abundant planted.
He’s the hope and example of every Christian who doesn’t travel to minister
elsewhere, the ministering travelers who we¾but
not God¾overfocus
upon.
A church is not the big name preachers and
missionaries that originate from it, but rather the unseen toilers¾godly
parents, Sunday School teachers, Bible Quiz coaches, the youth committee, the
church board¾who
daily transform it into a land of hope, pulsating and Christ-like.
Pastors and youth pastors may come and go, but the
backbone of every lively local assembly is those who become bridges so that the
next generation can travel further, on terrain smoothed by prayer and
experience, over deep gullies of discouragement and swift rivers of temptations
to God’s greater promise. They are the bridges that make sure the kingdom
roads stay connected and well traveled.
The reason we still recite “The God of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob,” is because there is no Abraham the Giant or Jacob the
Deceiver without Isaac the Overlooked. Without Isaac fulfilling his unique
mission, Abraham’s legacy withers and Jacob is adrift. For Isaac is the
embodiment of the promise, the one who didn’t leave so that others could.
ninetyandnine.com
ã
2002, Kent d Curry
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Kent d Curry is
an Executive Editor of ninetyandnine.com.
1. Smith’s Bible Dictionary, Wells.
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