The Patriarch Isaac - Orthodox-mitropolitan-of-antinoes-panteleimon ...

inding his son to the altar and drawing his knife to kill him, in the verylast moment an angel of Yahweh prevented Abraham from proceeding.Rather, he was directed to sacrifice a nearby ram instead. This eventserved as a test of Abraham's faith to Yahweh, not as an actual humansacrifice.Family life: When Isaac was 40, Abraham sent Eliezer, his steward, intoMesopotamia to find a wife for Isaac, from his nephew Bethuel's family.Eliezer chose Rebekah for Isaac. After many years of marriage to Isaac,Rebekah had still not given birth to a child and was believed to be barren.Isaac prayed for her and she conceived. Rebekah gave birth to twin boys,Esau and Jacob. Isaac was 60 years old when his two sons were born.Isaac favored Esau, and Rebekah favored Jacob.Occupation: Around the age of 75, Isaac moved to Beer-lahai-roi afterhis father died. When the land experienced famine, he removed to thePhilistine land of Gerar where his father once lived. This land was stillunder the control of King Abimelech as it was in the days of Abraham.Like his father, Isaac also deceived Abimelech about his wife and alsogot into the well business. He had gone back to all of the wells that hisfather dug and saw that they were all stopped up with earth. ThePhilistines did this after Abraham died. So, Isaac unearthed them andbegan to dig for more wells all the way to Beersheba, where he made apact with Abimelech, just like in the day of his father.Birthright: Isaac grew old and became blind. He called his son Esau anddirected him to procure some venison for him, in order to receive Isaac'sblessing. While Esau was hunting, Jacob deceptively, after listening to hismother's advice misrepresented himself as Esau to his blind father andobtained his father's blessing, making Jacob Isaac's primary heir, andleaving Esau in an inferior position. Isaac sent Jacob into Mesopotamia totake a wife of his own family so, he can start a family of his own. After20 years working for Laban, Jacob returned home, and reconciled withhis twin brother Esau, then he and Esau buried Isaac when Isaac died atthe age of 180.Other references - Isaac in the New Testament: In the New Testament,there are references to Isaac having been "offered up" by his father, andto his blessing his sons. Paul contrasted Isaac, symbolizing Christianliberty, with the rejected older son Ishmael, symbolizing slavery; Hagar isassociated with the Sinai covenant, while Sarah is associated with thecovenant of grace, into which her son Isaac enters. The Epistle of James