ISAAC CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD
LESSON FOR THE JUNIOR CLASSES
STUDY SCRIPTURE:
GENESIS 26 : 24- 33
Key Verse
“And he built an altar there, and called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac’s servant dug a well”.
Genesis 26: 25
INTRODUCTION
The Bible teaches us that children are to obey their parents in the Lord. This means parents are to teach their children the ways and God so that they will learn how to behave as they grow up and live among many kinds of people.
But the Bible warns parents, especially fathers, that they have to be very careful in how they behave for the children will follow their example. If they do not trust in God and call on Him to solve many of their problems and many of the things that stress them, their children will not know how to hear the voice of God guiding them and steering them in a direction that will take them away from trouble.
In our Study Lesson we read about a son of Abraham that God had promised he would have in his and his wife’s old age. This was a special son that would inherit all the promises God had made to Abraham. All the people in the world would be blessed because God would fulfill these promises to Abraham. But the covenant God made with Abraham and his son involved them obeying His commandments, statutes, and Laws. This covered all the behaviour they should have. But Abraham disobeyed God when there was a famine in the land of Canaan, the land that Abraham and his descendants would own. He moved to Egypt because there no famine there but there he had to tell lies and fool the people in that land about who he and his wife really were. Abraham was found out and had to leave in a hurry when the king of Egypt rebuked him for his lying.
His son Isaac ran into the same problem of famine in Canaan and he like his father decided to go to Egypt to escape the famine. Isaac knew God did not want him to go to Egypt, and when he set on his journey God appeared to him and told him to stop where he was. He wisely obeyed God and stopped in a place ruled by the Philistines called Gerar. The ruler’s title was Abimelech. God blessed Isaac and his flocks and herds grew a lot. The Philistines were envious. After Abraham had died they had plugged up with earth wells dug by Abraham. They were being spiteful, envious, and wicked. When Isaac dug up the earth in the wells owned by Abraham so that his flocks could get water, the shepherds of Gerar made a lot of noise and angrily denied they wells belonged to Abraham. They were of course telling a big lie. But they did not want Isaac to grow wealthier.
Instead of arguing and fighting for his legal rights Isaac moved on and dug another well. The Philistines started a fight again, and Isaac moved far away to get rid of their nonsense. He moved to another place and dug a well where the Philistine would not bother him. Then he moved closer to where he and Abraham his father had lived. That was where God wanted him to be. God appeared to him and blessed him and he prospered. He called the name of the place Beersheba. He built an altar to God and worshipped God and offered sacrifices to Him, acknowledging that his father’s God was the true God and his God was all-powerful, wise, gracious, kind, compassionate, and loving. Then Isaac built his tent right there to show he would not move away from where God wanted him to be.
Then, Lo and behold, the Philistines and their leaders came to make friends with Isaac, pretending that they had not done him any harm and had not chased him away from the land Abraham had bought from them. Isaac accused them of hating him but he made a peace treaty with them, had a big feast with them, and promised not to harm them and take revenge on them. They left Isaac and went on their way. Isaac was happy at that.
This was a man who avoided violence, fussing, and fighting, even if he could beat everyone around him. He did not believe in taking revenge for bad things done to him. This behaviour had a great effect on the wicked Philistines. They admitted that Isaac’s God had blessed and protected him from all harm anyone could do. So they wanted peace.
Remember therefore if you do what God has told you to do, and follow His instruction you will be blest. He will protect you. The people in the world that do not know God and do not love Him are watching how you behave and will see how good God is and might turn their lives over to Him to obey him and be saved. So live as God wants and trust in Him. Set a great example for the world. Do not follow any ways of parents that do not follow the instructions of God. If you do you will like Isaac run into all kinds of trouble. Then God will have to come and rescue you. Neither you, parents, or anyone else in the world will benefit from doing things God does not like. So we all must work together to honour God for we know He will have mercy on us when we as humans make human mistakes. We therefore encourage you to learn to call upon the name of the Lord; this means worshiping him, and testifying to the world about His holiness, righteousness, mercies to all men, and His kindness and love. He wants to save men, women, and children. He will do all it takes to help all those that call on Him for help and salvation.