And the days of Isaac were a hundred and fourscore years.
And Isaac gave up the ghost
The character of Isaac
The lives of Abraham and Jacob are as attractive as the life of Isaac is apparently unattractive. Isaac’s character had few salient features. It had no great faults, no striking virtues; it is the quietest, smoothest, most silent character in the Old Testament. It is owing to this that there are so few remarkable events in the life of Isaac, for the remarkableness of events is created by the character that meets them. It seems to be a law that all national, social, and personal life should advance by alternate contractions and expansions. There are few instances where a great father has had a son who equalled him in greatness. The old power more often reappears in Jacob than in Isaac. The spirit of Abraham’s energy passed over his son to his son’s son. The circumstances that moulded the character of Isaac were these.
1. He was an only son.
2. His parents were both very old. At atmosphere of antique quiet hung about his life.
3. These two old hearts lived for him alone.
I. Take the EXCELLENCES of his character first. His submissive self-surrender on Mount Gerizim, which shadowed forth the perfect sacrifice of Christ.
2. His tender constancy, seen in his mourning for his mother, and in the fact that he alone of the patriarchs represented to the Jewish nation the ideal of true marriage.
3. His piety. It was as natural to him as to a woman to trust and love: not strongly, hut constantly, sincerely. His trust became the habit of his soul. His days were knit each to each by natural piety.
II. Look next at the FAULTS of Isaac’s character.
1. He was slow, indifferent, inactive. We find this exemplified in the story of the wells (verse 26:18-22).
2. The same weakness, ending in selfishness, appears in the history of Isaac’s lie to Abimelech.
3. He showed his weakness in the division between Jacob and Esau. He took no pains to harmonize them. The curse of favouritism prevailed in his tent.
4. He dropped into a querulous old age, and became a lover of savoury meat. But our last glimpse of him is happy. He saw the sons of Jacob at Hebron, and felt that God’s promise was fulfilled. (S. A. Brooke, M. A.)
The death and burial of Isaac
I. IT WAS THE OCCASION OF FAMILY REUNION.
II. IT WAS A TIME FOR REVIVAL OF MEMORIES OF THE PAST,
III. IT WAS THE BEGINNING OF ANOTHER AND A HIGHER LIFE. (T. H. Leale.)
The death of Isaac
I. THAT HIS DEATH WAS PEACEFUL.
1. Because his spirit was given up to the rightful owner.
2. Because the soul’s earthly activities had come to an end.
3. Because his soul’s temporal purposes had been gained.
II. THAT HIS LIFE WAS WELL SPENT.
1. His soul’s interests had not been neglected.
2. Society had been benefited.
3. God had been served.
III. HE WAS BELOVED AND HONOURED BY HIS FAMILY. This is intimated to us--
1. By his being buried with his people.
2. By his sons attending his funeral. (Homilist.)
Lessons
1. God brings at last His Jacob and Church to their desired place in their pilgrimage.
2. God makes good His word in making Jacob successor to Abraham and Isaac in their sojourning (Gen_35:27).
3. The blessing of long life God grants to His servants, when and where it may be beneficial to His Church (Gen_35:28).
4. Expiration and dissolution are the appointed conditions of saints in order unto glory.
5. Saints in dissolution go out of the world unto their own people.
6. Old age or fulness of days is given here sometimes to God’s saints, i.e., days full of work, as well as many.
7. Nature and grace agree to evince and perform the duty of burial.
8. It is piety to parents deceased so to order their burial and interment that it may be comely and honourable.
9. The death as well as the life of saints God recordeth for His Church’s instruction, and to point out distinct periods (Gen_35:29). (G. Hughes, B. D.)
Esau and Jacob at Isaac’s deathbed
The tenderness of these two brothers towards one another and towards their father was probably quickened by remorse when they met at his deathbed. They could not, perhaps, think that they had hastened his end by causing him anxieties which age has not strength to throw off; but they could not miss the reflection that the life now closed and finally sealed up might have been a much brighter life had they acted the part of dutiful, loving sons. Scarcely can one of our number pass from among us without leaving in our minds some self-reproach that we were not more kindly towards him, and that now he was beyond our kindness; that our opportunity for being brotherly towards him is for ever gone. And when we have very manifestly erred in this respect: perhaps there are among all the stings of a guilty conscience few more bitterly piercing than this. Many a son who has stood unmoved by the tears of a living mother--his mother by whom he lives, who has cherished him as her own soul, who has forgiven and forgiven and forgiven him, who has toiled and prayed, and watched for him--though he has hardened himself against her looks of imploring love and turned carelessly from her entreaties and burst through all the fond cords and snares by which she has sought to keep him, has yet broken down before the calm, unsolicitous, resting face of the dead. Hitherto he has not listened to her pleadings, and now she pleads no more. Hitherto she has heard no word of pure love from him, and now she hears no more. Hitherto he has done nothing for her of all that a son may do, and now there is nothing he can do. All the goodness of her life gathers up and stands out at once, and the time for gratitude is past. He sees suddenly, as by the withdrawal of a veil, all that that worn body has passed through for him, and all the goodness these features have expressed, and now they can never light up with joyful acceptance of his love and duty. Such grief as this finds its one alleviation in the knowledge that we may follow those who have gone before us; that we may yet make reparation. (M. Dods, D. D.)
