Lesson 24 – Isaac and Jacob
Read Hebrews 11 - www.bible.com/bible/59/heb.11.esv

We study the faith of two more in this lesson – Isaac and Jacob. We find the stories of Isaac in mostly Genesis chapters 26 through 28.

From a few verses we find in Genesis 31, we discover that Isaac’s relationship with God, for perhaps much of his life, was one of fearing God – not in the way that we are told in other parts of the Bible when He asks us to respect Him. This seems to have been the kind of fear that made Isaac afraid. We are not given a single instance where Isaac built an altar to the Lord and worshiped Him of His own choice.


When Isaac’s twin sons, Esau and Jacob were born, God clearly told him that Jacob would be the one who should receive the blessing of the oldest son. Yet, Isaac loved Esau more than Jacob, and planned to give that blessing to his favorite son. His plans were changed for him, and we read in Genesis 28 how that was done through deception on Jacob’s part.

Isaac must have then remembered God’s words at their birth – and because he had experienced the lengths to which God would and could go to see that His will should be carried out, he allowed the blessing to stand as given. He took further steps to protect Jacob from his twin brother by sending him to a distant land to find a bride for himself. Isaac’s faith in God was a faith that trusted God to carry out His plan, even though he knew he’d never see that promise fulfilled.

Jacob fled as his father had urged, carrying with him the stories he’d heard from his father and grandfather. He promised God that if He would bring him safely back to this place, he would serve Him for the rest of his life.

Jacob realized, when he did return about 15 years later, that God had kept all His promises, and now he must keep his promises to God as well. He returned to the land God had promised to Abraham and Isaac before him and found God there waiting for him. Even though God took from him his favorite wife, and then also his favorite son, Jacob recognized God’s hand in his life.

When that lost son was restored to him, Jacob must have seen God’s hand at work through his entire life. In our chapter for this lesson, Jacob’s faith in God was restored so he was able to bless his own children with the blessings and promises God intended for each of them. His blessings contained promises of a future that they couldn’t understand, and that Jacob himself probably didn’t fully understand either.

 Do you have faith in God to do what He knows is best even when you cannot see or understand how His plan could ever work out for the best?