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In the previous study, we ended the study with Esau despising his birthright and giving it away for a bowl if pottage from his twin brother Jacob.

At the core of this study, we will look into how the awesome hands of the Lord mold us all into the “image of our father”, both our father the devil and then in the image of our heavenly Father.

As first fruits, we must follow after the pattern that has been laid in the First- fruit.

However, we all must contend with the war that battles in our heavens, and Lord willing, we will see how we are admonished to “do all we can” do work out our salvation while pursuing our inheritance, Christ.

Rom 11:16 –  For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.

Jas 1:18 –  Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Knowing that we are begotten by the Father with His word of Truth, let us now turn towards Mal 1 and Rom 9 to connect God’s working of His will in the choosing of His people, His elect.

Mal 1:1 –  The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.
Mal 1:2 –  I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob,
Mal 1:3 –  And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.
Mal 1:4 –  Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the LORD hath indignation for ever.
Mal 1:5 –  And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The LORD will be magnified from the border of Israel.

Rom 9:9 –  For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son.
Rom 9:10 –  And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac;
Rom 9:11 –  (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)
Rom 9:12 –  It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.
Rom 9:13 –  As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
Rom 9:14 –  What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.

In today’s study, we are going to lead off with Esau despising his birthright and right after this huge event, we see a significant event follow.  This event and those that follow it build up to our next mention of hands in scripture.

Gen 25:33 –  And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob.
Gen 25:34 –  Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.

“There was a famine in the land…”

Gen 26:1 –  And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar.
Gen 26:2 –  And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of:
Gen 26:3 –  Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father;

Gen 26:6 –  And Isaac dwelt in Gerar:

After learning the Esau was “at the point to die” and sold his birthright, we are immediately given the next clue about what happens when there is a change in our life that is a significant spiritual shift in our walk with the Lord.

There is a famine in the land. What we also are told is that this is not the first famine but another. At the point of this ‘famine of the Lord,” it is then that we head south.

In Gen 25:11, we know that Isaac dwelt by the well Lahairoi, and the well of Lahairoi is between Kadesh and Bered.

Gerar is south of this well and Isaac had to travel quite a ways south, towards Egypt, in order to meet up with the king of Gerar, Abimelech.

At this point, I want to point out some parallels that you may have already seen with this story and a very similar story that happened to Abraham.

Gen 12:1 –  Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

Gen 12:4 –  So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.

Gen 12:7 –  And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.
Gen 12:8 –  And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD.
Gen 12:9 –  And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south.

At the start of Abraham’s journey, he was told of the Lord to “get thee out of thy country”, “from thy kindred” and “from thy father’s house” and go to a land that I will show you.

As a part of this journey, Abraham continually headed south. In Abraham’s version of this story, he first goes into Egypt.

However, there is a very significant event that happens time and time again throughout all of scripture, and this time it is in the form of a famine that is very grievous.

Before entering into Egypt though, Abraham first tells his wife to lie and say that she is his sister. This sounds like a case of, “like father, like son”.

This scenario plays out in Isaac’s life, but with some notable changes. Let us see if we can glean anything from scripture on these differences.

Gen 12:10 –  And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land.

Before this verse of scripture, we have the Lord instructing us from the start to make a change. “Pick up your bags and hit the road”.

We see the Lord make many promises with Abraham that Abraham’s seed would “make a great nation, be blessed and BE a blessing to others”

We see that “Abram departed, as the Lord has spoken unto him” but we also see that “Lot went with him”.

We know that Lot is Abraham’s nephew who is later referred to as Abraham’s “brethren/ brother”.

Can we see any of these similar things happening with Isaac, the “seed of promise”, the “new man” in type and shadow?

Gen 12:10 –  And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land.

Gen 26:2 –  And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of:

When we first come to the Lord, it is all due to the Lord causing a grievous famine in our land. It is at this time that we have a legitimate need to call upon the Lord in our distress.

The Lord delivers us from the famine by sending us into the “land of our enemy”, though we are not aware of it at the start, but we know there is something to fear just as Abram did.

However, when we are starting off in our new walk with the Lord, as is typified with Isaac as the new man, we are directed differently by the Lord.

The Lord tells us to “go not down to Egypt. This may seem like a small thing, but what is significant what us entering into Egypt?

What happens when we initially get there? What does the Lord work in His hands that will bring us to a closer understanding of His workings in our lives?

When the Lord sends a famine to “our spiritual land”, we naturally go away from His judgment which is typified in the north.

We all start off as folks who are “doing our own thing” until one day God sends a famine, a tornado, a hurricane, a death, an addiction, a divorce, a flood, an earthquake or, or, or.

It is in time of distress that the Lord comes to us in our afflictions. It is at this time that we need a physician.

Now, as we look at ourselves as Isaac in type and shadow, we will notice that we are sent down a very similar path as our father. We all look towards the flesh first, and how we can tend to it or make it benefitted somehow.

Truly, God does all things to all men so that we all will eventually be setup to go through the motions of being dragged to Him, judged, and told to keep His commandments.

Even then, we start to see the things of Heaven and the principalities and powers that be, and still must continue anew to learn things of the spirit and sow them as such, all according to the mighty workings of the Lord.

Gen 26:6 –  And Isaac dwelt in Gerar:
Gen 26:7 –  And the men of the place asked him of his wife; and he said, She is my sister: for he feared to say, She is my wife; lest, said he, the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah; because she was fair to look upon.
Gen 26:8 –  And it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife.

“A Great Earthquake”

Did anyone notice that Abraham was sent just a little further south than Isaac? Abraham was sent just a little bit further from judgment than Isaac.

As such, the Lord calls us first when we are in great need of Him. This is done through sending us a “GREAT EARTHQUAKE” such as was never seen before and never will be seen again.

This happens to anyone the Lord is working with,  in their generation, so that the flesh has NOTHING to do with the process but is revealed to also be under the LAW the Lord has instituted in it from before any of us were born.

Is Abraham or Isaac or you or I somehow excluded from this scriptural truth?

Let us see where “Abraham” the first in type of the old man, that which is natural.

Gen 11:1 –  And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

Gen 11:26 –  And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Gen 11:29 –  And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah.
Gen 11:30 –  But Sarai was barren; she had no child.
Gen 11:31 –  And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.
Gen 11:32 –  And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.

Abraham’s “great earthquake” comes with the death of his father Terah. Immediately following this we read:

Gen 12:1 –  Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

Just as Abraham does with the commandments of the Lord, we all too take those commandments and so with them what we think is proper according to our newly given “faith”.

After all, the Lord Himself caused an event where Abraham had the Lord “say unto him….”

We have a traumatic event in our lives, and the Lord is called upon. Though when He answers, we don’t like what we hear in that we do as Abraham and bend the commandments a little to our way of thinking.

Lot is Abraham’s nephew, of his father’s house and of his kindred. It must have been terribly hard for Abraham to do away with this part of his “walk in the flesh”.  The Lord says to Abraham, in type and shadow, “go in and possess the land that I will show you”, but Abraham wants to do it his way.

Terah brought Abraham, Sarah and Lot out of Ur into Canaan. Abraham would have had to completely do away with his father’s house by leaving Lot to fend for himself.

We know that scripturally, Lot is benefitted a great deal by Abraham as we have discussed in previous studies in this series.

Bringing this back into focus with Isaac, we see that we TOO will follow after “what comes naturally”, in type and shadow, what our father has done in his past.

Notice, however how the Lord tells Isaac NOT to go into Egypt. We are NOT to go back to the place from which we have been delivered from.

Though we WILL desire to go back to that thing which we know as comfort in the church, we are told NOT to go back to it.

What we see working in the Lord’s plan for His “new man” in His chosen elect is that when the Lord brings us to Him initially, we are healed of our deadly wound and go back to doing what we desire all the while thinking we are going God’s commandments.

“Dwelling in Gerar”

There is a pattern that we can see immerge and as we note the pattern we will see that even in the seed of Isaac’s son Jacob, the Lord shows us how he works all things after the counsel of His own will.

Gen 26:6 –  And Isaac dwelt in Gerar:

Gerar is way south of where Isaac starts off from. He heads south and stops in Gerar because this time around the Lord says don’t go into Egypt.

From this point forth, Isaac does exactly what the “old man” does when presented with not following the commandments of the Lord. The Lord sends trials our way, but the Lord will also bring good from it. Here is Isaac’s trial:

Gen 26:5 –  Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
Gen 26:6 –  And Isaac dwelt in Gerar:
Gen 26:7 –  And the men of the place asked him of his wife; and he said, She is my sister: for he feared to say, She is my wife; lest, said he, the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah; because she was fair to look upon.

Both of these men, the father and his seed both fear death. They fear so much, that even after being told to dwell where the Lord leads them, they concoct their own plan to “make sure” they don’t die.

Spiritually speaking, we are being sent to a land that will battle us for what we have. The principalities and powers that be are there to they want to separate us from our wife.

We battle not with flesh and blood, yet and still we try to do works in our flesh to help along the Lord…even after He tells us to be faithful.

With Abraham first, we see that Abimelech is sent a terrifying dream to warn him not to take Sarah into his bed.

With Isaac, we see a progression in the type and shadow to:

Gen 26:8 –  And it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife.
Gen 26:9 –  And Abimelech called Isaac, and said, Behold, of a surety she is thy wife: and how saidst thou, She is my sister? And Isaac said unto him, Because I said, Lest I die for her.
Gen 26:10 –  And Abimelech said, What is this thou hast done unto us? one of the people might lightly have lien with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us.
Gen 26:11 –  And Abimelech charged all his people, saying, He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.
Gen 26:12 –  Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the LORD blessed him.
Gen 26:13 –  And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great:

Because we are being judged NOW and because we have NOT gone back to Egypt at the Lord’s command, we are now being shown that we MUST obey the commandments of the Lord.

In both cases, the king is used to judge us but both cases show us how this happens within each scenario.

When the Lord first drags us to Him, He does it behind the scenes so to speak. He does it by “sealing out instruction” so that He can “withdraw us from OUR purpose.” The Lord does this in us and in those around us so that He can bring about His plan in the lives of us all.

Job 33:15 –  In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed;
Job 33:16 –  Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction,
Job 33:17 –  That he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man.
Job 33:18 –  He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword.
Job 33:19 –  He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with strong pain:

When the Lord works with us again, after having dragged us to Him, giving us a deadly wound, and then having the wound healed, He shows us that there is NO OTHER WAY to His Him and His wife.

You must come up through the door and NO OTHER WAY. With Isaac, Abimelech looked out a window and “saw” and “beheld” that there was a true marriage between Isaac and Rebekah.

There truly is no other way, and again we are shown that a certain pattern immerges when we see the Lord working all things. Both Abraham and Isaac are sent to Gerar, so just where is Gerar?

Gerar is in the land of what will become the POSSESSION of the tribes of Israel/ Jacob. The land in which Gerar takes residence is awarded to Simeon later.

Simeon is the second born to Jacob and is named “hearing”. Jacob’s first son is named Reuben or “see ye a son”.

Truly, we can see the awesome hands of the Lord working in the creation and foundation of His people, His spiritual Israel.

When we do, we will see that the process of bringing us from Abraham, to Isaac and then to Jacob with show us how we works even our very hands to bring about His will.

Gen 29:32 –  And Leah conceived, and bare a son, and she called his name Reuben: for she said, Surely the LORD hath looked upon my affliction; now therefore my husband will love me.
Gen 29:33 –  And she conceived again, and bare a son; and said, Because the LORD hath heard that I was hated, he hath therefore given me this son also: and she called his name Simeon.
Gen 29:34 –  And she conceived again, and bare a son; and said, Now this time will my husband be joined unto me, because I have born him three sons: therefore was his name called Levi.
Gen 29:35 –  And she conceived again, and bare a son: and she said, Now will I praise the LORD: therefore she called his name Judah; and left bearing.

The Lord calls us to Him by bringing us affliction. We call out to the Lord and then He delivers us.

We are so relieved in this salvation that we take it upon ourselves to bring forth thee work forth the work of our own hands and call it “Reuben”, the works of our flesh to “please our husband” to get His love.

Then, we are heard gain in our true spiritual repentance because the Lord brings about fruit in our that causes us to be “hated” among our brethren.

However, we have not “arrived” yet because we have not yet been truly joined to our Husband.

The Lord has brought us to affliction, given us deliverance, blessed us to be hated so that He can hear us in this affliction so that He can then we joined or attached to us…which is the meaning of the name Levi.

The whole of this will result in us bearing fruit to the spirit. We will be given a spirit of praising the Lord for His wonderful works towards the children of men.

We are sent to “Gerar” spiritually, to the land of what will belong to the tribe of Simeon, to “sow unto the earth” and in this sowing, we will be hated.

We know that “the earth” represents the church. So, what happens when the Lord starts the process of building up the “new man” in us for the kingdoms sake?

Gen 26:12 –  Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the LORD blessed him.
Gen 26:13 –  And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great:
Gen 26:14 –  For he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants: and the Philistines envied him.
Gen 26:15 –  For all the wells which his father’s servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth.
Gen 26:16 –  And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us; for thou art much mightier than we.

During this time of our walk with the Lord, we are again blessed and become mighty.

Just as happened with Abraham, we are blessed and those around us know this to be true…hence the envy.

Gen 26:17 –  And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there.
Gen 26:18 –  And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham: and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them.
Gen 26:19 –  And Isaac’s servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.
Gen 26:20 –  And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac’s herdmen, saying, The water is ours: and he called the name of the well Esek; because they strove with him.
Gen 26:21 –  And they digged another well, and strove for that also: and he called the name of it Sitnah.
Gen 26:22 –  And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, For now the LORD hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.

At this point in our walk, we have become fruitful and we are bearing this fruit in our lives because even those that hate us want to make a covenant with us.

Gen 26:26 –  Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath one of his friends, and Phichol the chief captain of his army.
Gen 26:27 –  And Isaac said unto them, Wherefore come ye to me, seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away from you?
Gen 26:28 –  And they said, We saw certainly that the LORD was with thee: and we said, Let there be now an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee;
Gen 26:29 –  That thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee, and as we have done unto thee nothing but good, and have sent thee away in peace: thou art now the blessed of the LORD.
Gen 26:30 –  And he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink.
Gen 26:31 –  And they rose up betimes in the morning, and sware one to another: and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.
Gen 26:32 –  And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac’s servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had digged, and said unto him, We have found water.

Along with water that we find, and during the blessings of the Lord, we do come to love the taste of meat. Only, this is “meat of the field” and meat we prefer that comes from “our first son Esau.”

In other words, we do what comes natural and prefer Ishmael, “O that Ishmael might live before thee” or “make me savory meat, such as I love”

Gen 17:18 –  And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!

Gen 25:27 –  And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents.
Gen 25:28 –  And Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison: but Rebekah loved Jacob.

Contrast our desire to have the flesh come first with the “way of the Lord”, His thoughts.

Job 21:27 –  Behold, I know your thoughts, and the devices which ye wrongfully imagine against me.

Psa 10:4 –  The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.
Psa 10:5 –  His ways are always grievous; thy judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them.
Psa 10:6 –  He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity.

Isa 55:7 –  Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
Isa 55:8 –  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
Isa 55:9 –  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Conclusion

In today’s study, we have covered a lot of scripture that sits between Jacob grabbing Esau’s heel and Rebekah “putting skins of the kids of the goats upon Jacob’s hands.”

Though we have not arrived at studying Gen 27:16, we have built up to the upcoming study to give us a more complete picture of how the Lord works His hands through others and through us to bring about His plan and the good that only He can produce out of all things.

If we closely examine God’s will in Abraham’s life, his start was an “un- favored” [ for lack of a better word] one amongst all the people of the earth.

Isaac was un- favored next to his brother Ishmael’s who was of Abraham’s fleshly work with Sarah.

Jacob is un- favored compared to Esau who provides the very meat that Isaac loves.

Jacob comes to be a man who listens to his mother, and deceives his blind father. He does works with his hands which clone his twin brother’s flesh, though it is covered with red hair.

Isaac knew the “voice” wasn’t correct, but that shows us that the Lord works even Isaac’s letting that go for another confirmation.

Praise the Lord, because Jacob is loved and is used…as the third in a type and shadow, that shows us that we are the Lord’s workmanship alone.

Gen 27:41 –  And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob.

As we have come to see in this study today, we have examples… types and shadows, in Abraham and Isaac. We also have a whole pattern laid to follow because Jacob is about to find out what the fear of the Lord is all about.

Gen 28:11 –  And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep.
Gen 28:12 –  And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.
Gen 28:13 –  And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed;

As we climb each rung of Jacob’s proverbial ladder from the earth to heaven, we put on the mind of Christ because Christ sits at the right hand of the Father. Christ ascended to the Father to show us the Way to know the thoughts of the Father.

Jacob saw messengers of God traversing the ladder to heaven and they did so with the head- ship of the Lord “standing above them.”

In type and shadow, we are in the third part of the process with Jacob now living out the new man and His full dominion over the flesh. The foundation of Israel is key to us seeing that God works all things.

Gen 29:32 –  And Leah conceived, and bare a son, and she called his name Reuben: for she said, Surely the LORD hath looked upon my affliction; now therefore my husband will love me.
Gen 29:33 –  And she conceived again, and bare a son; and said, Because the LORD hath heard that I was hated, he hath therefore given me this son also: and she called his name Simeon.
Gen 29:34 –  And she conceived again, and bare a son; and said, Now this time will my husband be joined unto me, because I have born him three sons: therefore was his name called Levi.
Gen 29:35 –  And she conceived again, and bare a son: and she said, Now will I praise the LORD: therefore she called his name Judah; and left bearing.

Lord willing, next week we will see the next step in the process in the Lords plan for His elect, how God turns the work of our hands into works which are to His glory.

In Jacob, we see that we are given a dream of heaven and now have access to the heavenly mind of Christ. It is here that we climb the ladder and we are judged now because we come closer to our head, Christ.

There is a reason we go south to Gerar, and we see that it is to be a body who is UNDER a head. We are sent to the “land of Simeon” which is south to the “land of Judah”.

We are sent south of Judah and we know a King who is of that tribe. Next week, we will see how we will come to praise the Lord in all things with lips of thanksgiving.

Gen 29:35 –  And she conceived again, and bare a son: and she said, Now will I praise the LORD: therefore she called his name Judah; and left bearing.