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| Abraham and Isaac (Rembrandt) |
Hopefully, too, the outcome of Isaac will reflect some of the joy that biblical Isaac brought to his parents, Abraham and Sarah.
Wikipedia reports that "the anglicized name Isaac" derives from the Hebrew terms for "He laughs/will laugh." Genesis attributes this jolly-sounding name to Abraham's laughter when told by Elohim
that he and his aged wife Sarah were going to have a baby.
(However, this laughter was a double-edged sword in that it also
could have indicated a lack of faith in God's pronouncement.)
Although Isaac was Sarah's first child (she had been unable to conceive beforehand), also-elderly Abraham had had a previous son Ishmael with Sarah's "Egyptian handmaid" Hagar. Although Sarah
had been the one to originally "offer" Hagar to Abraham, the
ensuing "love triangle" (and ramifications about who would then be Abraham's heir) resulted in the banishment of Hagar and Ishmael.
When Isaac was just a youth, Abraham was asked by God to sacrifice him upon Mount Moriah. Abraham went
so far as to bind Isaac to an altar and draw a knife to him when an angel interceded.
Although both
father and son are said to have faithfully followed God's commands, one can't help but wonder what lasting effects this may have had upon Isaac's peace of mind.
When Isaac was 40, Rebekah was chosen by Abraham's steward Eliezer as a wife for him. She did not
conceive until Isaac was 60 years old, and then their sons Esau and Jacob were born. Although they
were twins, Esau was slightly older. This
resulted in yet another sibling rivalry, which eventually led to the deliberate deception of Isaac by Rebekah and Jacob. Jacob was
therefore unknowingly blessed by Isaac rather than Esau, and thus became Isaac's primary heir.
Esau and Jacob managed to reconcile years later when it came time to bury their father, Isaac.
Resources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac
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