MESSIAH TO BE DESCENDANT OF ISAAC SPECIFICALLY

But God replied, “Your wife Sarah will indeed bear you a son, and you are to name him Isaac. I will establish My covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.

Genesis 17:19 (BSB) see also Genesis 21:12

This is the record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham: Abraham was the father of Isaac. .

Matthew 1:1-2a (BSB)

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac on the altar. He who had received the promises was ready to offer his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and in a sense, he did receive Isaac back from death.

Hebrews 11:17-19 (BSB)

God has always been about the details. God was very specific with Abraham. He made it clear that his family line—descendants like the number of the stars or the grains of sand, and the Descendant through whom the entire world would be blessed—would come through Isaac, not Ishmael. Abraham rolled on the floor laughing when God told him Sarah would have a child (Genesis 17:17). Later, Sarah laughed, too. Therefore, God (who has a sense of humor) told them to name the child Isaac meaning “he laughs”. However, when the Lord told Abraham to offer his son, Isaac, as a burnt offering, Abraham (who had never heard of God raising someone from the dead) reasoned in his mind that if Isaac was God’s choice to bring about descendants for him, that God must plan on raising him from the dead. Abraham got as far as tying Isaac to the altar and raising the knife above his chest when the Angel of the Lord stopped him! Isaac must have had faith as well because he was a teenager or young man and could have resisted his 100+ year old father, but he submitted to his father and allowed himself to be tied to an altar. Abraham was willing to obey God and sacrifice his son; but God provided a ram stuck in a thicket to replace Isaac, which is a picture for us of the fact that God sacrificed His only begotten Son on the cross to replace sinners (including us) who should have died there. The Messiah would be a descendant not just of Abraham, but specifically through Isaac.

If God has called you to a specific purpose, God will enable you to fulfill that purpose. Susan is fulfilling her calling to be God’s megaphone by speaking and writing to share the Good News. If she can answer God’s call and fulfill her purpose from her bed and her power chair, the rest of us are without excuse. Have faith like Abraham that God is able to perform through you that which He has called you to accomplish.

Father, when our faith wavers, remind us that there is no record of someone being raised from the dead before Abraham’s time, but he believed You could and would do just that if he killed Isaac as a sacrifice. Help us to follow in the footsteps of the Father of Faith, Abraham, and have unwavering trust in You. Help us to believe like Sarah who carried a baby to term at 90+ years old that You will sustain us! Lord, strengthen our faith!