THE NEXT GENERATION – Genesis 26:1-5

Abraham has died. The calling to sojourn in faith of obtaining covenant promises has now been passed to Isaac – the appointed son. We are about to witness another momentous occasion profoundly confirming the purposes of God to the next of Abraham's kin. This account is marked by striking parallels throughout. The experiences of father and son are remarkably similar both in blessing and in frailty. This context serves to communicate enduring truths of the Gospel in spite of the sins that easily beset every generation since Adam. In this way, history itself displays the hand of God as recurring themes are are set against the backdrop of similar events, attitudes, peoples, geography, hardships, nations and more... Isaac's experiences move us to ask important questions of or own calling even today. “Do we sojourn in the land of our future inheritance with the faith that our nation and our world are entirely the rightful claim of our covenant head, Jesus Christ?”. Concepts drawn from out text today are restated in I Peter. We are sojourners only in so far as we are dwelling in lands temporarily occupied by various nations and authorities who will ultimately be subdued by the true heir of all nations of the world: our ascended Lord Jesus Christ! How much greater His rightful claim! If the lands of Canaan were secured for the lineage of Abraham by the covenant obedience of the federal (representative) head: Abraham – how greater the assurance and certainty of our own inheritance in Jesus Christ whose perfect obedience to the will of the Father secured in substance what Abraham prefigured in type...?