When Obedience Hurts - Treasures of Faith - Week 5 Day 3

TODAY'S TREASURE

Isaac trembled violently and said, “Who was it, then, that hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it just before you came, and I blessed him—and indeed he will be blessed!” 

Genesis 27:33

Transcript

When Obedience Hurts

Chuck and Sharon Betters

 Today’s Treasure

Isaac trembled violently and said, “Who was it, then, that hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it just before you came, and I blessed him—and indeed he will be blessed!” 

Genesis 27:33

There are moments in the life of every believer when God’s will feels confusing, painful, and utterly unfair. When the path of obedience feels like heartbreak, not healing, we may be tempted to turn back or take matters into our own hands. But Scripture reminds us obedience is not about comfort—it’s about trust. And trust often grows best in the soil of surrender, a lesson Isaac struggled to learn.

Isaac’s father was a wealthy man, and so all of his personal and material needs were met. Isaac was a loving and obedient son, not even protesting when his own father laid him out upon an altar of stone and prepared to offer him up as a sacrifice to the Lord God. Isaac, too, heard God’s angel speak to his father, and he saw with his own young eyes how God provided a sacrifice, a ram, that would be killed in his place (Genesis 22:11–13).

Isaac knew sorrow. He grieved for his mother as he helped Abraham bury Sarah at Machpelah. As Abraham neared death, he decided it was time to secure a wife for his son, as was the custom for parents in those days. Abraham charged his trusted servant, probably Eliezer (Genesis 15:2), with the difficult task of traveling to Nahor, Abraham’s native land, to find a wife for Isaac from among Abraham’s extended family there. When Eliezer expressed doubts regarding the mission’s potential success, Abraham explained that God would guide the servant (Genesis 24:7). Eliezer, through prayer and faithful obedience, eventually found Rebekah, Abraham’s great-niece (v. 48). All of the main characters in this remarkable story reflect an astonishing awe of God and trust in His ways. When Rebekah’s brother, Laban, and her father heard the details of Eliezer’s quest for a wife for Isaac, they responded, “This is from the LORD” (v. 50). And, when asked if she was willing to leave her family, to go to a distant land, and to marry a man she had never even met, Rebekah herself showed an astounding degree of faith and trust by saying, simply and quietly, “I will go” (v. 58).

Isaac had witnessed firsthand God’s faithfulness to his father, so he surely believed that God would lead Eliezer to the right woman, the woman of God’s own choosing. Though we are not given much detail about the first meeting of Isaac and Rebekah, we do know that Rebekah’s presence was a healing balm for a man who mourned the passing of first his mother (v. 67) and, soon thereafter, his father, Abraham. Rebekah brought into Isaac’s life a love that comforted him and encouraged his grieving heart.

From the time Isaac was little, he witnessed God’s faithfulness. If he kept a gratitude journal, the pages would be filled with blessings too many to number. But one thing was missing. Rebekah was barren. 

God had promised that through Isaac a mighty nation would arise, a nation that would one day possess the land of Canaan, and that through his family all nations would be blessed. For twenty years, Isaac and Rebekah waited for the promised child, but Rebekah was barren. Isaac, however, had apparently learned much from Abraham—both from his father’s mistakes and from his great faith. Isaac was only a little boy when, at the instigation of his mother, Abraham finally ordered Hagar and her son (Isaac’s half-brother), Ishmael, from their camp. But Isaac most surely remembered the pain caused by his father’s adultery and all of the ensuing turmoil. Isaac, therefore, did not try to come up with some “creative solution” to his dilemma. Instead, he turned to God in prayer (Genesis 25:21), asking for God’s help. Thus, Rebekah’s inability to have children, painful though it was for both Isaac and Rebekah, served a greater purpose in their lives. Like the circumstances surrounding their first meeting, the birth of their children, when it finally came, would also be the result of intense prayers. Isaac’s turning to God for help in this circumstance reveals that Isaac had truly embraced his father’s God as his own. 

LIFE-GIVING ENCOURAGEMENT

Are you, like Isaac and Rebekah were, in a waiting room? Waiting for the Lord to keep promises of Scripture? What are you doing as you wait? After Mark’s death, our waiting room seemed to grow more silent each day as we longed for our son, knowing we would never see him again on this earth. We lamented and clung to the promises of Scripture that the Lord is near to the broken-hearted. Our waiting room grew even more silent, and like the writers of Psalms, we lamented as we waited. Slowly, our lamenting quieted, and we wearily opened our hands to God’s purposes and plans. Part of our surrender in the waiting room was to remember God’s past faithfulness, and remembering gave us hope and confidence that He would keep every promise because He cannot lie. We suspect Isaac and Rebekah eventually encouraged one another with God’s past faithfulness as they waited for the promised child.

If you are in a waiting room today, struggling to surrender to God’s purposes and plans only He can bring about, consider keeping a gratitude journal. Record blessings every day and turn the waiting room into a place of worship. 

PRAYER

Oh Father, Your plans are often mysterious. May we learn to respond to those hard places with a lament that opens our hands and hearts to remembering Your faithfulness, especially the gift of Jesus. Amen

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Adapted from Treasures of Faith by Chuck and Sharon Betters with permission from P&R Publishing

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