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By Bertha Cassidy
“By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come” (Hebrews 11:20).
Isaac hardly seems to be worthy of being called a hero of faith through most of his uneventful life. He inherited the promises given to his father Abraham, the friend of God and did not forsake the land in which he was an alien, the one that had been promised to the descendants of Abraham. But he was biased by his love for his favorite son Esau, and planned to frustrate God’s plan for the two sons, by giving the blessing to the firstborn. Yet in the end he rose to full stature as a hero of faith, even after being tricked by Jacob into giving him the longed-for blessing, when he declared to Esau, “Yea, and he shall be blessed.”
In these words, he surrendered to the known will of God, trusting that his tricky son could be changed to a man worthy of inheriting the promises, one of which pointed to the Coming One, in whom all nations should be blessed.
Isaac’s name is always included when the patriarchs are mentioned — a recognition that he, too, was a hero of faith. He was one that quietly “kept on keeping on,” and at the end, though bowed with age and blindness, testified to his true faith by blessing Jacob and Esau “concerning things to come.” Perhaps he was one of whom Milton wrote, “They also serve who only stand and wait.”
Originally published October 19, 1966
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