In the past two messages concerning Isaac, we have seen that he was the heir of grace and that he rested and enjoyed throughout his entire life. Now we must see that with this grace-enjoying person there were still the natural weakness and the natural life. It is difficult for us to understand this point. According to our natural, religious concept, we always think that if we are natural, we cannot have the enjoyment of grace. According to our religious concept, the enjoyment of grace depends upon how spiritual we are. In our teachings and exhortations, especially to our relatives and children, we say that in order to enjoy the grace of God we must be good, and that if we are not good, we are through with God's grace. Probably none of us has ever thought that participating in the grace of God does not depend upon our being spiritual. On the contrary, we all have thought that we must be spiritual in order to enjoy the grace of God.
Isaac was a model, a pattern, of the enjoyment of God's grace. In the whole Bible there is hardly another person who enjoyed grace as much as Isaac did. Throughout his entire life Isaac did nothing except enjoy the grace of God. His life was a grace-enjoying life. Nevertheless, in Isaac we see exactly the same natural weakness as we saw in Abraham. Furthermore, in Isaac we also see the natural life of Jacob. Like Jacob, Isaac lived in a natural way. Jacob loved his son Joseph according to his natural taste (Gen. 37:3-4), and this caused trouble in the family. Joseph's brothers hated him because of his father's partial love for him. Isaac also loved Esau partially, loving him because he was a skillful hunter and could obtain the venison which Isaac loved (Gen. 25:27-28). Thus, Esau was a father's boy. By this we see that Isaac and Jacob were the same as far as the natural life is concerned.
If you say that Isaac did not cheat anyone, I would point out that his wife Rebekah was his cheating helper. In a sense, Isaac differed from Jacob in the matter of supplanting, but this gap was filled by Rebekah. Every wife is a part of her husband; she is her husband's completion and perfection. Without Rebekah, Isaac probably would not have been an expert at cheating. But with Rebekah, he certainly became the same as Jacob. Jacob learned how to supplant from his supplanting mother, and his supplanting mother was the supplanting completion to his father Isaac. Therefore, in Isaac we see the natural life of Jacob.
Isaac was a grace-enjoying person. According to our natural concept, a person who has a natural weakness and who lives in the natural life can never enjoy the grace of God. This is our concept; it is not God's word. In the Bible, we cannot see that Isaac was very spiritual. He was a man who still had a natural weakness and who still lived in the natural life. Why then did he have such an enjoyment of God's grace? Simply because God had ordained it that way. With us Christians, there is the aspect of God's ordination. As we have already pointed out, it is our destiny to enjoy the grace of God. This destiny was preordained before the foundation of the world. Do not think that if you are spiritual, you are privileged to enjoy God's grace and that if you are not spiritual, you cannot enjoy His grace. This is a religious concept, and the Bible does not teach this. After hearing that enjoying grace does not depend upon our being spiritual, some may say, "If we don't need to be spiritual to enjoy God's grace, then let us be unspiritual." Do not say this. Neither being spiritual nor being unspiritual will help us to enjoy God's grace. It is entirely a matter of God's ordination, and it does not depend on what we are nor on what we can do. With us, there is the aspect of Isaac. We have been ordained by God to the enjoyment of grace. If we are spiritual, we shall not enjoy grace more, and if we are unspiritual we shall not miss the grace of God. But we should not say, "Let us do evil that good may come." Do not waste your time trying to be spiritual or trying to be unspiritual. Simply say, "O Lord, I worship You for Your ordination. You have ordained me to the enjoyment of grace." At the least, we all are a part of Isaac. In our being there is the aspect of having been ordained by God to the enjoyment of His grace.
When do you enjoy grace more — when you feel that you are spiritual and good in the eyes of God, or when you are down and feel that you are absolutely unworthy? I have enjoyed grace the most when I have been down. But we should not say, "Let us be down that we may enjoy grace the most." If you try to do this, it will not work. Again I say that it does not depend upon us but upon God's ordination. I hope that my word will encourage you neither to be spiritual nor to be unspiritual. Rather, I hope that it will encourage you to be nothing. But do not try to be nothing, for your trying is still something. If you could say, "I'll go home and forget everything," that would be wonderful.
In the record of Isaac's life we see a person who enjoyed God's grace in every way. Do you believe that a man who had such an enjoyment of God's grace could still have the natural weakness of lying in a substantial way? He lied in the way of sacrificing his wife. Perhaps we would say, "If I were such a person, I would never lie in that way." Do not say this. We may enjoy even more grace and then lie more substantially than Isaac did.
Consider your experience. Although you have never lied in sacrificing your wife, you have lied substantially to your wife. In my early years, I was much affected by religious concepts, believing that Christians, especially the so-called spiritual Christians, would never lie. Eventually, I discovered that Christians, including the so-called spiritual ones, also lie. Not only the worldly people lie; the Christians and the spiritual people also lie. This is the condition of the fallen race. What then shall we do? We should not do anything. God has selected us out of this fallen race, and His ordination has come to us. This does not mean that when we behave ourselves or become spiritual in the eyes of God, we shall then receive more grace. Although Isaac never tried to behave himself or to be spiritual, he continually enjoyed grace. I do not encourage you to be religious or to be unreligious. I do not encourage you to be anything, for the enjoyment of God's grace does not depend upon our being spiritual.
Isaac wanted to bless his son Esau. However, he mixed the blessing with his natural taste. In 27:3 and 4, Isaac said to Esau, "Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison; and make me savoury meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die." Isaac seemed to be saying, "Esau, before I die, I would like to eat venison one more time. If you get some venison for me, then I shall bless you." Here we see that Isaac mixed up God's blessing with his natural taste. Although we may wonder how such a person could bless others, Isaac did bless.
Isaac, who was not religious like we are, was not conscious of being unspiritual. Suppose you are a father who wants to give a blessing to one of his sons. I believe that you would be very cautious and alert, praying, fasting, and daring not to speak in the flesh nor according to your natural taste. If you were a Chinese brother, you certainly would not say to the son whom you are about to bless, "Son, go to Chinatown and get some Chinese food for me and then I'll bless you." No Chinese brother would dare to do this, because we are all so religiously conscious of being spiritual. We all would say, "Now that I am about to bless my son I must be with the Lord and not have my natural taste." Isaac, however, was bold, telling Esau, "Before I die I would like to eat venison once more. Get me the venison that I love and I'll bless you." Isaac was honest, saying, "My soul may bless thee" (27:4). What a mixture! Isaac, who continually enjoyed the grace of God, blessed blindly. But he blessed in faith, and his blessing was honored by God (Heb. 11:20).
When I read this portion of the Word as a young man, I was unable to understand how there could be so much mixture here. I said, "Isaac, what are you doing? If you want to eat venison, then don't talk about blessing. You shouldn't mix your natural taste with God's blessing. How can God honor a blessing that is mixed with your natural taste?" When Isaac plainly told Esau that if he would prepare venison for him he would bless him, he was not conscious of being religious. He was altogether outside of religion. There was no religion in his concept. If we had been there, we would have said, "Isaac, don't talk this way. If you want to have your natural taste, don't talk about God's blessing. God will never honor your blessing. Isaac, you are absolutely wrong." But Isaac would have said, "What are you talking about? I have never heard such religious talk. I don't have this concept. I have no religious consciousness whatsoever. I only know two things — that I want to satisfy my taste and that I want to bless my son. After I eat some meat, I shall bless my son. I don't know what it means to be spiritual or religious. I only know that I am the father, that he is my son, and that the greater always blesses the lesser." When I was young, I was much troubled about this, being unable to understand how Isaac, who enjoyed so much of God's grace, could still have the same natural weakness as Abraham and the same natural life as Jacob.
We need to see two points very clearly. Firstly, grace is not based upon what we are. Whether we are good or bad, spiritual or unspiritual, means nothing. Because God has ordained us to be the object of His grace, grace comes to us, and we cannot reject it. Secondly, as we have mentioned several times, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are not three separate persons in the experience of life but represent three aspects of the experience of one complete person. This is why in Isaac we can see both Abraham and Jacob. Isaac had the natural weakness of Abraham and the natural life of Jacob.
As we have seen, Isaac had the same natural weakness as Abraham (cf. Gen. 20:1-2, 11-13). Do you not have a natural weakness? Even the most spiritually conscious person has some natural weakness. What kind of weakness do you have? Although we all have some natural weakness, none of us can designate it. We know that we have such a weakness, but we do not know what it is. If you are certain that a particular matter is your natural weakness, that is not your weakness. Before Isaac was exposed in chapter twenty-six, he probably never realized that his natural weakness was the same as Abraham's. He might have thought that his weakness was one of many other things. But one day he went southward and his natural weakness was exposed.
By ourselves we can never know our natural weakness; it must be exposed. None of us is able to understand his own weakness. You yourself may not know your own natural weakness, but it is clear to everyone else because it has been exposed to them. Whoever would stay with you for a time would see your natural weakness. According to your religious concept, if you have some natural weakness, you should be through with grace. But God's grace is still with you. In the early days I also had this thought. But I have learned that grace does not depend upon what we are. Every object of divine grace has a weak point. Do not think that the Apostle Paul had no weakness. Peter, John, and Paul all had their weaknesses, but their weak points did not frustrate them from enjoying God's grace. Every one of us has his natural weakness. There has been only one person in history who had no natural weakness — Jesus Christ.
I am not encouraging you to be either spiritual or unspiritual, but I am encouraging you to be bold in the enjoyment of grace. Do not be deprived of the enjoyment of grace by your religious concept. Drop your concept and praise the Lord that you are the object of divine grace. Although we are unable to designate our natural weakness, we do know that we have some. Others, such as our wife, husband, or roommates, know what our weakness is. While others know, it is difficult for us to know. Some of us may not know our natural weakness until we see the Lord face to face. Praise the Lord that we are blind to our natural weakness. If we were not blind to our weakness, we would be frustrated from enjoying grace. While I am not encouraging you to keep your natural weakness, I am saying that it is good that we are unaware of it. When we are conscious of a certain weakness, our religious concepts frustrate us from the enjoyment of grace. But when we do not know our weakness, we only know to enjoy the grace of the Lord. In Genesis 26, Isaac's natural weakness was suddenly exposed. That exposure, however, did not frustrate him from the enjoyment of God's grace. In other words, the exposure of Isaac's natural weakness did not hinder him from trusting in God.
Isaac, leaving Beer-sheba, journeyed downward, southward, not to Egypt but to a place close to Egypt (Gen. 26:1-2). God's intention was that His chosen people stay in the good land. Whenever the natural weakness of His people arose, they always went downward. We cannot find one instance in which God's people went upward, northward, when they were weak. The worst thing to do was to go downward to Egypt. This is what Abraham did (Gen. 12:10). The second time Abraham went southward he only went as far as Philistia, the land of the Philistines (Gen. 20:1). As Isaac, who was repeating Abraham's downward story, was going southward, God intervened and warned him, saying, "Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of" (26:2). Isaac's intention might have been to go down into Egypt, but God commanded him to dwell in the land of which He would tell him. Although Isaac did not stay in exactly the right place, he still had peace in enjoying God's grace. He was absolutely unconscious of being religious. How good it is to have no sense of being religious! However, once the enemy has injected something into our knowledge, it is very difficult to extract it. My burden in this message is to tell you that the enjoyment of God's grace does not depend upon our being religious. In Isaac we see a person who was not at all religious; yet he enjoyed the grace of God all the time.
Isaac not only did not stay in the right place; he also lied at the sacrifice of his wife (Gen. 26:6-7) just as Abraham did. However, he and his wife were preserved by God's sovereign care (Gen. 26:8-11). It was God's grace that kept him from the sacrifice of his wife.
In Isaac there was not only the natural weakness but also the natural life. He still lived in the natural life. He did not live a so-called spiritual life all the time. After Isaac prayed, God gave him two sons, Esau and Jacob. Isaac loved Esau because he was a skillful hunter and Isaac "did eat of his venison" (Gen. 25:27-28). Isaac's love for his firstborn son was altogether in the natural life according to his natural taste, as was Jacob's love for Joseph (Gen. 37:3-4). Since the husband took the lead to have a partial love, the wife followed. Esau, a "skillful hunter" (Heb.), was a father's boy, and Jacob, a "quiet man" who dwelt in tents (Heb.), was a mother's boy. Every mother loves a child who quietly stays around her. No mother would love a wild child who enjoys sports all day long. In Isaac's family, the father had a partial love for Esau, and the mother had a partial love for Jacob. What kind of life was this? Was it a spiritual life, a resurrection life? No, although it was not a sinful life, it was a natural life. We should not think that we are different, for every parent has some partial love. If you have several children, you will love one of them more than the others according to your taste, and all your children will know who is the object of your partial love. This partial love is not according to our spirit; it is according to our natural taste. We love a particular boy or girl because he or she suits our natural taste. This is the natural life.
The natural life always causes trouble. Out of this partial love in Isaac's family came the need of supplanting. Rebekah wanted her beloved son to receive the blessing. In chapter twenty-seven we see that she was very capable of supplanting (vv. 5-7). She taught Jacob how to supplant. In chapter thirty Jacob tricked his uncle Laban in the matter of the cattle (vv. 31-43). The principle is the same in chapter twenty-seven. Rebekah prepared savory meat and put goat skins on Jacob's hands and neck. When Isaac felt him, this caused him to say, "The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau" (Gen. 27:22). Here we see that Jacob was taught the supplanting skill by his mother, who was a part of his father. In a sense, the mother cheated the father, meaning that the second part of a person cheated the first part of the same person. All such family cheating is self-cheating. Eventually, everyone in the family was cheated. When I was reading this chapter, I said, "Rebekah, you thought you were smart. Actually you were stupid. Didn't you know that God had ordained Jacob to be the first? There was no need for you to help." Rebekah, who tried to help her son, lost him. Genesis does not tell us how long Rebekah lived. She might have died before Jacob returned from Laban's home. This means that Rebekah lost her son by cheating. Rebekah probably did not live to see her son Jacob again. She thought that she was helping him; actually, because of her supplanting, she lost him.
It is difficult to believe that a person like Isaac could still have such a natural weakness and still live in such a natural life. Isaac suffered because of his natural life (Gen. 26:34-35; 27:41-46; 28:6-9). Although Isaac was always enjoying grace, there was an aspect of suffering in his life. Both Isaac and Rebekah suffered because they lived in a natural way, for Esau's wives were "a bitterness of spirit" to them (Gen. 26:34-35, Heb.).
Because of the partial love in this family, Esau hated Jacob and wanted to kill him. When Rebekah heard of this, she told Jacob to flee to her brother Laban and to stay with him until Esau's anger had turned away. But Rebekah told Isaac another story (Gen. 27:46). She seemed to be saying, "The wives of Esau have caused us so much bitterness of spirit that I could not bear to live if Jacob took such a wife. We should send him away to get a wife." Rebekah told the same thing in two different ways. Every wise wife does this, telling one story in two ways. Like many wives today, Rebekah lied to Isaac by telling the truth. Her intention was to send Jacob away, protecting him from Esau, but she did not tell Isaac of this. Rather, she said that she was tired of her Gentile daughters-in-law and that she did not want Jacob to have such a wife, suggesting to Isaac that they send Jacob away to take a wife from their own race. According to her intention, this was a lie; according to her speaking, however, it was the truth. This caused suffering.
While Isaac was enjoying grace, he was also suffering because of his living in the natural life. The natural life will not frustrate grace, but it will cause us to suffer. It will not decrease the amount of our grace, but it will increase our measure of suffering. As long as you have one aspect of your natural life, it will cause you to suffer. If you do not want to suffer, you should not live in the natural life. Do not practice your cleverness, exercise your wisdom to help God, or do anything in your natural life. This will only add to your suffering. It is better for us not to live in our natural life.
Although Isaac lived in his natural life, God was sovereign over all. In a sense, the natural life helped God's sovereignty. God had predestinated Jacob to have the birthright and to participate in the blessing of the firstborn. While Rebekah's supplanting caused her to suffer, it was sovereignly used by God to fulfill His purpose. Everything was under God's sovereignty for the accomplishment of His purpose. Therefore, we all can say, "Praise the Lord, whether I am good or bad, spiritual or unspiritual, God's purpose is being fulfilled. No matter what happens, I am under grace and in the enjoyment of grace." Nothing should frustrate us from the enjoyment of grace. Nevertheless, if we would avoid suffering, we should not live in the natural life.
Isaac had some maturity in life, but not very much. Although he blessed, he blessed blindly (Gen. 27:21-29). His blessing was according to his natural taste (Gen. 27:1-4). He blessed blindly, not only physically but also spiritually, because he had been blinded by his natural taste. However, he did bless by faith (Heb. 11:20). He had said that his soul would bless, but eventually it was not his soul that blessed; it was his spirit that bestowed the blessing, and his blessing became a prophecy. No one can prophesy in the soul. If we would prophesy, we must be in our spirit. Thus, Isaac did bless in the spirit by faith.
Faith does not depend upon what we are; it depends upon what we see. Whenever you want to exercise faith, you should not look at yourself, at what you are, nor at your environment. You must look at what God is and to what He says. Then you will be able to exercise your faith in God and in His word. Isaac blessed by faith in this way. According to his situation, he was not qualified to have faith. But he did not consider what he was; he looked away to God and to God's promise, blessing his son by faith and in the spirit. If we would have faith, we must look away from ourselves, for if we look at ourselves, faith will disappear. Look unto God and see what He has spoken in His word. Then simply utter what God has already spoken. This is faith. Isaac blessed his son in this way.
Although there is no hint in the Bible that Isaac was very spiritual, he did not die in a miserable condition. He died in faith at the fullness of days (Gen. 35:28-29). This is proved by the fact that his sons buried him, along with his wife Rebekah, in the cave of Machpelah (Gen. 49:30-32). Before he died, he must have charged his sons to bury him in the cave of Machpelah, where Abraham and Sarah were buried. This proves that Isaac had the faith of Abraham.
