Once more only do we hear of Isaac; and that is when we read of his death, after the return of Jacob from his twenty-one years' sojourn in Mesopotamia. The mention of it occurs just after the enumeration of Jacob's twelve sons; and we then read that “Jacob came unto Isaac his father to Mamre, to Kiriath-arba (the same is Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac sojourned.” Here Isaac died, being 180 years old, and his two sons Esau and Jacob buried him (Gen_35:27-29).
1. Isaac is unheroic; he is far nearer than Abraham to the level of ordinary humanity. He is devoid of any stern sense of the duty of veracity. He likes “creature comforts,” and unduly favours the son who provides them for him.
2. Religious feeling is far less prominent in Isaac than in Abraham. Isaac certainly remained all his life a faithful worshipper of the God of Abraham, believed in the promises which Abraham had received from God, obeyed God's will when it was clearly signified to him (Gen_26:2-6), and looked to God as the source whence proceeded every blessing (Gen_25:21; Gen_27:27-28; Gen_28:3). He had no leaning to idolatry, even in its mildest forms, no inclination to desert the worship of Jehovah for that of “the gods of the nations.” But he is not presented to us as an eminently religious man. He has no special title, like that given to Abraham-“the friend of God.”
3. No formal eulogy is bestowed upon Isaac, either in Genesis or in the rest of Scripture. He is, like his son Jacob, “a plain man” (Gen_25:7). He has many virtues and graces-faith (Heb_11:20), obedience (Gen_22:6-9), affectionateness (Gen_24:67; Gen_25:28; Gen_27:27; Gen_27:33), conjugal fidelity, gentleness; but he is not among the foremost of the Bible saints. His goodness is passive rather than active, draws forth our sympathy rather than our admiration. Still, there is something peculiarly touching and attractive about his character. Self-effacement is perhaps the most succinct form in which to express it. That was an extraordinary characteristic for the times in which he lived, when men fought on the merest pretext, and Isaac was strong enough to fight. He taught the men of that time a deep and abiding lesson, which perhaps only a man of his temperament could teach, viz., that the servant of Jehovah, the God of Abraham, was not a fighting man, taking things from other people without their consent, brow-beating and coercing, living in their land whether they would or not-armed with Jehovah's power to conquer and oust men. The servant of Jehovah was meek and gentle, blameless and harmless.
I have spoken to some of you of one grace that seems to me pre-eminent amid all the band of Christian graces; it stands out alone, for it alone belongs to, and is possible only to, the Christian soul. Angels cannot wear it, it is yours and mine alone. What is that grace? It is the sacred mark imprinted by Him upon my forehead and yours, with a holy kiss, that He may know throughout eternity His own whom He loved unto death. It is the grace of meekness. What means that word meekness? It is, I know, reverent and adoring humility; but that alone is not meekness. It is humility shot through and through with the sense of the evil and the mystery of sin, and of the gratitude we owe to that measureless love that saves from sin. It is humility bedewed with penitence, but radiant too with the calm light of peace and joy. Think not that meekness is a weak thing. Some of you have thought it so; think not so any more. It bows humbly before Him whose love has been love unto death, and who has lifted us up out of death to share His unconquerable life. But before the world its meaning is changed. Before the world with its seductions and deadly power, the meekness of the man of God is a courage that knows no fear, a strength that will never bend; it is the meek who shall inherit, and conquer, the earth. Brethren, I long, as I look to the few years or days that remain, I long to have more of this grace above all others.1 [Note: J. B. Paton, in Life by J. Marchant, 10.]
