Looking to the Hills: A Lasting Legacy
Updated: Jul 31
"Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was childless." (Genesis 25:21)
The very issue, the very obstruction that threatened to stop God's covenant promise from being fulfilled in Abraham's life, was the same thing that threatened to keep the promise unfulfilled in his son's.
Though not relayed in Scripture, I do not doubt that Abraham shared his impossible-odds story with his son throughout Isaac's early years, solidifying a consequential impression in Isaac's mind. After all, he was Abraham’s beloved son—the child of the promise—the long-awaited fulfillment the man of faith had yearned for, prayed for, and "believed God" about for many long years.
Also, Abraham was no mere casual follower of Yahweh. He intimately walked and talked with his Creator. He allowed Him to uproot and redirect his life, to dictate his movement and determine his mission. His beliefs and actions were harmoniously synchronized. Truly, he was a man of authentic faith, and thus, "it was credited to him as righteousness" (Galatians 3:6), long before righteousness through Christ was made available.
So by the time Abraham left this earth, certainly, his impossible-odds story had been poured into Isaac, his beloved son.
Certainly, it must have been shared so many times that Isaac could repeat it word for word because so brandingly seared into his mind and heart it had become. Certainly, Isaac had come to understand that the One his father (and mother) radically followed was trustworthy and worthy of worship, no matter the hopeless outlook or odds he might one day face himself. Certainly, he had come to understand that this God—their God and his—"could even raise the dead" (Hebrews 11:19), a fulfillment Isaac had personally experienced when Abraham, in unwavering faith and obedience, laid his son of the covenant upon the altar.
Then, after Abraham died, the Lord personally communicated the covenantal words to this son of the promise—words that would continue their fulfillment in Isaac, then Jacob, and the continuing lineage of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, ultimately being fulfilled in the Jewish son, Jesus Christ, through whom "all nations on earth [are] blessed" (Genesis 26:4).
So, certainly, by the time Isaac faced his own impossible situation, he knew that he could believe "him to be faithful who had made the promise" (11:11).
Just as his father had done.
And this is why Isaac "prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife. . ."
I pray, sincerely pray, that throughout my designated time on this earth, my three children always witness an on-going habit—a persevering construction of legacy—of my turning to the One who can do the impossible, of my crying out to the One who "gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not" (Romans 4:17). I pray that because they've witnessed Mom looking to God and trusting in His promises when confronting distressing, even seemingly hopeless, circumstances of life, it impacts their lives in such a way that propels them always "to lift up [their] eyes to the hill" (Psalm 121:1). That it always encourages them to call on "the Maker of heaven and earth" in their own personal distresses, in their own impossible-odds dilemmas. That it constructs and solidifies an unbreakable faith that their "help comes from the Lord" (2), just as their mother’s help has, and always will.
Because hard times in hard seasons of waiting are part and parcel of life’s journey. None of us are immune. And they will either bring us closer to the One who is sovereign over all, or drive us farther away. They will either strengthen our trust in our Father who is all-wise and all-sufficient, or leave us disillusioned, discouraged, disgruntled, or despondent.
And the greatest influencer of whether we will grow closer or colder during such times is whether we continuously keep our gaze upward, no matter what. Whether we keep lifting “up [our] eyes into the hills, from whence cometh [our] help” (Psalm 121:1). Whether we keep our eyes locked on the One who speaks and then acts in His perfect timing and flawless wisdom.
Though Abraham left Isaac his abundant worldly wealth, it was the power of prayer, energized by faith—looking to the Speaker of the Promise to make good His declared Word—that was unquestionably the greatest inheritance Abraham bequeathed to his son.
May this be said of you and may this be said of me in our spiritual impact—our lasting legacy—on future generations.
Comments