God gave them twin boys who were opposite each other in every way. He also gave them a revelation that the younger one, Jacob, would carry on the messianic line. For that reason, you would think that Isaac would have favored Jacob but the physical won over the spiritual. Esau pictures the man of the world who despises the eternal and lives for the temporal.

It was only a matter of time before the divided home would start to self-destruct, and it all began with Isaac. He knew that God had chosen Jacob, the younger son, to receive the blessing (Genesis 25:23–26); but he announced that he would give it to Esau. It seems that Isaac was more interested in his physical appetite than in spiritual things. He was not the spiritual person he once had been. Rebekah knew what God’s promise was to Jacob, and she should have let God work it out in His own way. “Faith is living without scheming,” and who can hinder the Lord from accomplishing His purposes (Daniel 4:35)? Instead, she made her son a liar and deceived her husband. If Isaac had trusted the Lord instead of his physical senses (Genesis 27:21, 22, 25, 27), he would not have been fooled.Rebekah’s “a few days” (Genesis 27:44) became over twenty years! Despite all her scheming, she never saw her son on earth again.

Isaac was a young man when this final test came to Abraham’s faith. A burnt offering was always to be a male animal, was the best the offerer had, and was to be wholly consumed by fire. It was an expression of dedication to God. Abraham knew that Isaac must live since God was going to establish the covenant with him (Genesis 17:19).

On Mount Moriah, Abraham built an altar. When Isaac inquired how they could offer a sacrifice without a sacrificial animal, Abraham responded: “My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.” (Genesis 22:8). Abraham’s faith had grown over the years until he knew that God never makes a mistake and he believed “Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead” (Hebrews 11:19).

If we fail to develop our faith, we will be afraid to trust God during great testings and tribulation. Isaac’s willingness to be offered reveals a picture of Christ: “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.” (John 10:17-18)