From a Father to a Son

“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; And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.” – (Genesis 26:3-5)

Notice in the above verses that God told Isaac that He would be with him, and bless him; not because of anything that Isaac had done to deserve the blessing, but because that God had made a promise to Isaac’s father, Abraham. The son was being blessed because of the faithfulness of the father.

I have two thoughts regarding this passage:

1  As Christians, we are receiving an awful lot of benefit and blessing because of the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. We didn’t do anything to deserve salvation, and we didn’t do anything to deserve the joint inheritance that we have received, and will receive, all because of our relationship to Jesus. What a gift we have been given!

2  My second thought is a bit more practical than spiritual. The faithfulness and obedience of a father, will yield benefits that will pass down through many generations of children and grandchildren. It is a sobering thought, that my life today will have a great impact on future generations. I want my children and grandchildren to be blessed; I want the families in my church to be blessed. To some degree, the blessing that they will receive in the future is dependent upon my faithfulness today. For example: if I am a good steward of the money God gives me, I will leave behind a financial reward for my heirs. If I work hard to today to build character and faithfulness into my children, they will also benefit from that effort in the future. Again, it is my desire to leave behind an heritage of blessing for future generations; but in order for that to happen, I must work hard today.

Isaac had to learn to walk with God on his own, but Isaac had a great start that was handed to him by his father, Abraham. I want to be able to hand down some things to my children as well.