One thing the Puritans did that seems to have disappeared in our evangelical churches today is emphasizing the importance of and preparing people in dying well. In today’s world, if you Google the term “die well,” most of the articles are about palliative care during suffering or about “dying with dignity” that preserves the dying person’s wishes. These represents the world’s resignation that there is nothing you can do about dying except to make yourself or your loved one as comfortable as possible and to fulfill your or their “bucket list.”
But, in the Puritan’s day, to “die well” most simply meant that you were prepared to meet God, that you had lived your life well, and that you were ready to move into eternity. The English Puritan Edmund Barker said, “Every Christian hath two great works to do in the world, to live well, and to die well.”
Philip Ryken, the former senior pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia after James Montgomery Boice, wrote a 2006 article entitled “Dying Well” on Tenth Presbyterian’s website.
Ryken said, “… not everyone dies well, but only those who are strong in faith, bold in courage, and well prepared to meet their God… We can prepare to die well by thinking often about death and the life to come.”
Paul was ready to live or die for the glory of God. In Philippians 1 he stated that he desired that “Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.” Matthew Henry wrote:
“Though the grace of faith is of universal use throughout our whole lives, yet it is especially so when we come to die. Faith has its greatest work to do at last, to help believers to finish well, to die to the Lord, so as to honor him, by patience, hope, and joy-so as to leave a witness behind them of the truth of God’s word and the excellency of his ways.” (Matthew Henry’s Commentary [Revell], 6:946).
When he was on his own deathbed at age 52, Henry said to a friend “You have been used to take notice of the sayings of dying men—this is mine: that a life spent in the service of God and communion with Him, is the most pleasant life that anyone can live in this world.”
Facing death still trusting in Christ’s sufficiency and looking forward to the fulfillment of all His promises is the acid test of our faith. Will our faith sustain us at that time? We will be confident in the face of death, or filled with fears and anxieties?
As the author of Hebrews gives to us multiple examples of those who lived and died in faith, he briefly mentions Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. He calls attention to each man’s life just before each of them died. In Isaac’s case, he does not state specifically that he was near death, but this incident did happen when he was very old, feeble, and blind. In the case of Jacob and Joseph, our author states specifically that they were in the process of dying. In each case, as they faced death, none of the promises of God were near fulfilling. All circumstances seemed contrary to their fulfillment. But like Abraham (11:13-16), these men had lived all their lives hearing about and believing in God’s promises, even when all hoped seemed lost, even when fulfillment seemed impossible, and how God had fulfilled some of those promises (the birth of Isaac). Even so, these men all died with their faith and focus on things yet to come, believing that God would keep His word. They teach us that faith faces death trusting God to fulfill His future promises, even when circumstances seem to contradict those promises.
That is found in Hebrews 11:20-22.
20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future. 21 By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff. 22 By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones.
Notice that their faith is oriented towards the future. Each of them peered a little further in the future than the preceding man. Isaac saw the future for his children Jacob and Esau. Jacob gave blessings to his grandchildren, Joseph’s sons. Joseph spoke of the generation that would leave Egypt. People of faith influence the future by living a legacy of faith that they pass on to future generations.
While there are some different lessons to be learned from the life of each of these patriarchs, the author uses them together to drive home the same basic point. Each one died with faith in God’s promises, even though their circumstances seemed to contradict those promises. They all were convinced that death would not frustrate God’s purposes—that his word would be fulfilled.
Of the three, Isaac and Jacob had some glaring failures in their life of faith, and yet, by God’s grace, they crossed the line with a strong flourish of faith. They illustrate what Paul wrote in Philippians 1:6, “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
What God has started in your life He will bring to completion. Even “if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself” (2 Timothy 2:13). If, by God’s grace, you and I have begun the life of faith, by that same grace we will die resilient in faith, demonstrating to others that God’s promises are true, no matter the odds.
At your funeral, what kind of testimony do you want to have? Will people be able to see that you walked by faith, believing God’s promises even when everything shouted against them? Will your life impact future generations because they see true men and women of faith among us?
The principle here is that each of these men expected something greater to happen because of the promises of God. This gave the generations the expectation that something greater and better would happen, despite the current circumstances. We need that kind of faith today!
Will the next generation want our God? Statistics show that the kind of God we believe in is not one that wins the loyalty of this current generation. The reason is that we believe in a God who is weak and does not keep His promises, at least that is how we live.
Don’t get your definition of life from the daily news, but rather in the historic faith of the Christian church that points forward to an adventure with God!
Isaac’s Faith—Trusting God with Your Children’s Future
First, notice the importance of blessing your sons. Isaac does that for Jacob and Esau, then Jacob does that for Joseph’s sons (and all of his sons, too). That’s it. That’s what put these patriarchs onto the same list that includes Abraham (who obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going), Joseph (who endured years of persecution), and Moses (who received the Ten Commandments & performed incredible signs and wonders).
It doesn’t seem like much, but it was an important act of faith. This is a lost rite of passage today and yet it is something that our children need as well.
In that culture, a blessing implies a guaranteed future. If you don’t receive a blessing about tomorrow, then you aren’t assured a destiny. We live so much in the “here and now” and give little thought to the future or to eternity. Blessings like this orient us to the future.
Second, blessing is given only when you have something to offer. While our blessings today might come in the form of material possessions or money, what Isaac and Jacob offered to their sons was related to the promise of God, specifically the promises that God had made to Abraham.
And that reminds us that the most important thing that we can leave to our children and grandchildren is not an inheritance of material possessions, but rather a strong foundation of faith in God and a strong expectation of God’s future grace.
Finally, blessing implies that I see this life as about more than me. Blessing is oriented towards others and their lives. For example, even though David was not allowed to build the temple, he spent a lot of time and effort getting contacts and workers and materials ready for Solomon.
How are you investing in the next generation? What example of faith are you leaving them? What blessings can you pronounce over them?
My dad left me an example of integrity, kindness, patience and wisdom.
Isaac’s story comes from Genesis 27. At this point Isaac was old and practically blind. Knowing that his death was on the horizon, he called his favorite son, Esau, and requested that he go hunting for some fresh game and cook it up his favorite way. That would be the occasion on which he would give Esau his blessing.
Now, in the Ancient Near Eastern culture, a father’s blessing involved conferring a double portion of the family inheritance on the firstborn son, coupled with prophetic words guaranteeing a good future. But this had been complicated by the birth and subsequent divine prophecy given about Jacob at their birth.
21 Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The LORD answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. 22 The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the LORD. 23 The LORD said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.”
So Esau and Jacob were twins and although Esau was born first, God had chosen for Jacob to receive the blessing, saying that “the older will serve the younger.” Isaac, however, had a liking for Esau, so on this occasion Jacob was either ignorantly or obstinately attempting to give the blessing to Esau.
When Rebekah overheard that Isaac was about to do this, she sprung into action with a plan to secure the blessing for her favorite son, Jacob. Whether she thought that she was rescuing God’s prophetic word from oblivion or whether she was just running interference for her favorite son, isn’t obvious, but the evidence seems to lean toward the latter.
Isaac may not have been going against God’s Word, but just didn’t remember it or understand its significance. He was just following custom. We don’t see much effort in inquiring of God about the meaning of the prophecy or how to apply it. He seems to be ruled more by his stomach than his spirit.
You know what happened. Jacob dressed in his brother’s garments, probably smeared some animal secretions on himself, and took Rebekah’s stew to his aged father to con him and his brother out of the blessing. In being deceived, Isaac inadvertently fulfilled God’s earlier prophecy to Rebekah by conferring the blessing on Jacob. He said…
28 May God give you heaven’s dew and earth’s richness— an abundance of grain and new wine. 29 May nations serve you and peoples bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may the sons of your mother bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed and those who bless you be blessed.”
One might wonder, “How did Isaac act “by faith” (Heb. 11:20) when he was deceived (Gen. 27:35)?
I think it is likely that his faith was exercised not in who was being blessed, but in passing on the Abrahamic blessing to his son. He did believe in the promise so surely that he passed it on to his son, whether Jacob or Esau.
To his credit, when Isaac did discover that he had been deceived, he did not revoke the blessing in anger or prejudice. Rather, he seemed to recognize in these events that God’s word to Rebekah at the birth of the twins had truly been fulfilled. So he told Esau that he had blessed his brother and then affirmed, “and indeed he will be blessed!” (Gen. 27:33).
Then, just before Jacob fled to Haran, afraid of his brother’s anger, Isaac charged him not to take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. Then he prophesied over Jacob, “May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples. May he give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you now reside as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham” (Gen. 28:3-4).
At this point Jacob had no descendants; he didn’t even have a wife. He owned nothing in Canaan except a burial plot. Yet “by faith” Isaac pronounced this blessing over Jacob. He acknowledged that he believed that God’s promises extended to his son and would not fail, even though there was no indication at this time that they would ever be fulfilled. One day, Isaac believed, “you make take possession of the land where you now reside as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham” (Gen. 28:4b)
Even though Isaac “trembled violently” (Gen. 27:33) when he realized he had been tricked, the author of Hebrews choses to focus on his faith in making and then reaffirming that God’s promises to Abraham would be fulfilled through Jacob and his descendants. David Guzik says,
When Isaac trembled exceedingly, he was troubled because he knew that he had tried to box God in, to defeat God’s plan, and that God beat him. He realized that he would always be defeated when he tried to resist God’s will, even when he didn’t like it. And he came to learn that despite his arrogant attempts against the will of God, God’s will was glorious.
Isaac recognized that God had chosen to bless Jacob, and that he could not reverse or alter God’s plan. Isaac had already given the primary blessing to Jacob, and so he could only give Esau a secondary blessing. (Genesis 27:30-40). But even though Esau received the lesser blessing, Isaac still fully believed that God would fulfill this blessing in Esau’s life also. And indeed, God fulfilled both blessings in both sons’ lives. In faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, and in faith Isaac accepted God’s will for his sons as expressed through the blessings.
Well, nobody comes off looking good in this story. Isaac seemed more interested in a tasty meal than God’s prophetic word. Esau was overall a profane man, caring nothing for his spiritual heritage, again only interested in filling his empty stomach. Rebekah was a deceiver and encouraged her son to lie. Jacob went along with those lies, taking advantage of his blind father just as he had earlier taken advantage of his famished brother.
But God used the whole soap opera, even though each character acted selfishly without regard to God or one another, to fulfill His sovereign purpose. You see, God had chosen Jacob and rejected Esau. His purpose according to His choice would stand (Romans 9:11-13).
This all shows us that it does not depend upon us fully understanding God’s purpose. Isaac doesn’t seem to have understood it until afterward. Also, it doesn’t depend upon us obeying Him (although we should). God did use Rebekah and Jacob’s deception to fulfill His purpose. Paul expresses this reality when he says in Romans 9:16 that God’s purpose does not depend on the man who wills (our decisions) or the man who runs (our actions), but on God who has mercy.
The story of Isaac blessing Jacob and Esau (and he did go on to bless Esau, Gen. 27:39-40) is there in the Bible to encourage us to trust God, even when circumstances seem to contradict His promises. This means that we can believe Him even when things seem impossible or all hope seems lost. These predictive future blessings (esp. Gen. 27:28-29; 39-49) demonstrate Isaac’s hope for the future.
Now, this doesn’t mean we should be apathetic and inactive. It ought to encourage us to be faithful in spite of the discouraging realities of sinful people and overwhelming world events. It should encourage us to be steadfast and immovable in the Lord’s work, knowing that our work is never in vain in the Lord (1 Cor. 15:58).
If part of faith is trusting God with the future, then one of the lessons you can learn from Isaac is to trust God with your children’s future. That’s an important lesson to learn, because as a parent you can waste a lot of time and energy worrying about your children’s future. But part of Christian faith is learning to trust God with your children’s future instead. Hebrews 11:20 says: “By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.”
Jacob’s Faith—Trusting God Rather Than Taking Things into Your Own Hands
Our next example of trusting God with the future comes from Jacob, Abraham’s grandson. Abraham was one hundred sixty years old when Jacob was born, and then Abraham lived another fifteen years, so he got to know his grandson growing up. Maybe Abraham shared stories from his own life with Jacob as he was growing into his teenage years. Maybe he told Jacob about the time he and Sarah tried to “help God out” by sleeping with Sarah’s handmaid Hagar, so that Abraham could have a son and “fulfill” the covenant.
Part of trusting God with the future is learning to trust God rather than trying to control people or events. This is a difficult lesson for anyone to learn, and it was especially difficult for Jacob. In many ways it took him his whole life to learn.
Jacob was born into this world grasping his brother’s heel, and that really became a metaphor for his whole life. Jacob would spend most of the rest of his life grasping for control.
Hebrews 11:21 says, “By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.”
There are two incidents here—Jacob blessing his grandsons and worshipping on his staff. Since the first action (blessing his grandsons) happened “when he was dying,” this action happened last, but it is mentioned first here because it has to do with the same issue we saw with Isaac and Jacob. Isaac blessed Jacob, assuring his future in the covenant plan of Yahweh. When Jacob blessed the sons of Joseph, he was assuring them of their part (along with Joseph, their father) in the covenant promises to Abraham.
Isaac passed the promises and the blessings along to Jacob (Gen. 27) and Jacob shared them with his twelve sons (Gen. 48-49).
Grace Still Amazes 