GOD COMMANDS ABRAHAM TO OFFER UP ISAAC. ABRAHAM MAKES READY TO OBEY, BUT IS FORBIDDEN BY THE ANGEL TO HARM THE LAD. SARAH DIES AND IS BURIED IN THE CAVE WHICH ABRAHAM BUYS OF EPHRON. ABRAHAM'S SERVANT IS SENT TO FIND A WIFE FOR ISAAC. ABRAHAM DIES. JACOB AND ESAU ARE BORN. ESAU SELLS HIS BIRTHRIGHT.
WE have read that Abel offered up a lamb to God, and that God was pleased with him for offering it. Noah also offered burnt offerings after he came out of the ark, and Abraham himself had built three altars in the land of Canaan and offered sacrifices upon them all.
But one day God spoke to Abraham, and said, Abraham. He answered, Here am I. Then God said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee unto the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. Yes, Abraham was commanded to offer up Isaac upon an altar; to kill him and lay him on the wood, and let him be burned up, as if he had been a lamb! How could Abraham do this? How could he kill his own dear son? Yet God told him to do it; Abraham heard him speak. He knew that he should do whatever God said, and he knew also that even if Isaac were killed and burned on the altar, so that nothing was left but his ashes, God could take those ashes and make him alive again, as he had been before.
So Abraham rose up early in the morning and saddled his ass and took two young men, who were his servants, with him, and the wood, ready cut to lay on the altar, and Isaac his son; and he started to go to the mountain which God had told him of. And he journeyed that day and the next, and did not come to the place; but on the day after, he looked up and saw it a good way off. Then he told the young men they need go no farther. He and Isaac, Abraham said, would go to the mountain and worship and come back to them again; for he did not wish them to see him offer up his son. And he left the ass with the young men, but took Isaac with him, and Isaac carried the wood. Abraham took some fire also to light the wood, and he carried a knife in his hand; and he and Isaac went on together.
Now Isaac did not know what God had commanded his father to do, or what his father was taking him to the mountain for. He knew they were going to offer up a burnt offering, for they had the wood to burn it with, and the knife to kill it; but he did not know that he was to be that burnt offering himself. So, as they walked together, he said to his father, My father, see the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? Abraham answered, My son, God will find himself a lamb for a burnt offering.
And they came to the place which God had told him of; there Abraham built an altar and laid the wood on it. And he bound Isaac and laid him on the wood; and Abraham put out his hand and took hold of the knife to kill his son. But just then the angel of the Lord called to him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham. He answered, Here am I. And the angel told him not to hurt Isaac, for now he knew that Abraham feared God, because he was willing to offer up his only son when God commanded him. And Abraham looked and saw behind him a ram caught fast in the bushes by its horns. God had sent it there for a burnt offering instead of Isaac; and Abraham took it and killed it, and offered it up on the altar.
And God was pleased with Abraham; and the angel of the Lord spoke to him again out of heaven, and told him that because he had obeyed God, and been willing to offer up his son, God would bless him. And the angel promised him that his descendants should be like the grains of sand on the sea-shore, which no one can count, there are so many of them. The angel said to him, also, In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. This meant that the Saviour whom God had promised, should be descended from Abraham. So Abraham brought Isaac and came to the young men who were waiting for him, and they went back together to Beer-sheba where Abraham lived.
After these things Abraham left Beer-sheba and came to Hebron. And Sarah, Abraham's wife, was a hundred and twenty-seven years old, and she died there in the land of Canaan. Then Abraham mourned and wept for her. And he spoke to the people of that country, and asked them for a place where he might bury Sarah. They answered that he might bury her in any of their sepulchres that he chose.
Sepulchres are places in which dead persons are buried. In that country they were made by hollowing out a cave in the side of a rock. After this was finished, a great stone was rolled against the door to shut it up. When any one died the stone was taken away and the dead person was laid in the cave. Then the stone was put back again and the cave shut up, until some one else was to be buried there. It was very kind in the men of that country to tell Abraham he might bury his wife in any of their sepulchres. But this was not what he wanted; he wanted a sepulchre of his own.
And there was a man in that land whose name was Ephron. He owned a field; this field had trees in it, and at one end of it was a cave. Abraham thought he would like to have that cave for his sepulchre. So he asked the people to tell Ephron that he wanted it, and would give him money for it. When Ephron heard this, he said that Abraham might have the cave for nothing, and not the cave only, he would give him the field also.
But Abraham bowed himself down before Ephron and the men who were with him, and answered, that he would rather buy the field and pay for it; he did not want to take it for nothing. Then Ephron said he was willing to sell it; and Abraham gave him four hundred shekels of silver for the field, and the trees that were in it, and the cave. Shekels were money; so Abraham paid for the field, and the trees, and the cave, and they were his own after that. And he made the cave his sepulchre, and there he buried Sarah.
And Abraham was old, and the Lord had blessed him in all things. And when Isaac was grown up to be a man, Abraham, his father, did not wish him to take a wife from the women who lived in the land of Canaan, for they worshipped idols. He wanted Isaac to have his wife from that country where Abraham used to live, and where he had relations living who feared the Lord.
Now that country was a long way from Canaan; so Abraham called his oldest servant, who took care of his silver and gold, his flocks and his herds, and all that he had, and asked him to promise that he would go to that country and bring back from there a wife for Isaac. Then the servant said that, perhaps, the woman would not be willing to come. But Abraham told him that God would send an angel before him, to help him, and that he would be able to find there a wife for Isaac. Yet if the woman should not be willing to come, Abraham said, he would excuse the servant from his promise. And the servant promised to do as Abraham commanded.
So he took ten of Abraham's camels and some beautiful presents, and went on his journey to the land where Abraham had sent him. And he came near to a city in that land, and made his camels kneel down by a well of water that was just outside of the city. Camels are used in that country to ride upon, as horses are here; they carry heavy loads also, on their backs, and go a long way without resting. Before they start upon a journey they kneel down to have their loads put on them, and when they come to the end of it, they kneel down to have them taken off.
It was evening, the time when the women of the city came out to draw water from the well. Then Abraham's servant prayed that God would help him, and make him know which of those young women that came to draw water, should be Isaac's wife. But how would the servant know? In this way. He was going to ask one of them to give him some water out of her pitcher. If she answered him kindly and said, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also, then, she was to be the one whom God had chosen for Isaac's wife. But if she answered unkindly and would give him no water, she was not to be the one.
So while he was praying, a beautiful young woman, named Rebekah, came out of the city, carrying her pitcher upon her shoulder, and she went down to the well and filled it with water and came up again. And the servant ran to meet her and said, Let me drink a little water out of thy pitcher; she answered, Drink, and I will draw water for thy camels also. And she let down her pitcher from her shoulder and gave the man drink; afterward she ran to the well and drew water for the camels, and they drank too. Then the servant stood still, wondering whether she was the one whom God had chosen to be Isaac's wife or not.
After the camels had done drinking, the man took an earring of gold and two bracelets of gold, and gave them to Rebekah. And he asked whose daughter she was, and whether there was room at her father's house for him and the men who were with him, to sleep there. Then Rebekah told him that she was the daughter of Bethuel; she said also, that they had room at their house, and food and straw for the camels. When the servant heard that she was Bethuel's daughter, he knew she was one of Abraham's relations, for Abraham was Bethuel's uncle. And he was glad, and bowed down his head and worshipped the Lord, and thanked him for helping him to find his master's relations who lived so far away.
Then Rebekah left the servant and ran to her home and told her mother about all these things. And she had a brother whose name was Laban. When Laban heard what she said, and saw the earring and the bracelets, he ran out of the city to the man, and found him standing by his camels at the well. And Laban asked him to come to their house, and said he had made it ready for him, and that there was room for the camels. And the man went with Laban, and Laban helped him to unload the camels, and gave him straw and food for them, and he gave the men water to wash their feet. Afterward there was food set before Abraham's servant that he might eat. But he said he would not eat until he had told them what he came to their country for.
Then he said that he was Abraham's servant, and that the Lord had blessed Abraham and made him great. He had given him silver and gold, and flocks, and herds, and camels, and asses; and he had given him a son also. And all his riches, the servant said, Abraham had given to his son Isaac. And he told them that Abraham had sent him into their country to find a wife for Isaac. And he had come to the well that day, and prayed that God would make him know which was the young woman who should be Isaac's wife; he had prayed that she might answer him kindly when he should ask her for a little water to drink, and so he would know that she was the one. And while he was praying, he said, Rebekah came out, and when he asked her for drink, she answered him kindly, saying, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also.
Then the servant asked them whether they would let Rebekah go home with him to be Isaac's wife or not. They answered that it was the Lord who had done all these things, Rebekah might go. When the servant heard this he was glad, and bowed himself down to the ground and worshipped the Lord. Afterward he brought out more beautiful presents, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment, and gave them to Rebekah. And he gave her mother and her brother presents also. Then he did eat and drink, he and the men that were with him, and they stayed at Laban's house all night.
When they rose up in the morning, Abraham's servant wanted to take Rebekah and go on his way back to the land of Canaan. But her mother and her brother did not wish to part with her so soon; they said, Let her stay with us a few days, at least ten, after that she shall go. But the man begged them not to keep him, because, he said, the Lord had helped him to do what his master sent him for; therefore he wanted to make haste home to his master again. They said, We will call Rebekah, and ask her; and they called her and asked, Wilt thou go with this man? She answered, I will go. So they sent away Rebekah, and her nurse went with her, and they rode on the camels after Abraham's servant.
And they came into the land of Canaan. It was toward evening, about the time the sun goes down, when they came to the place where Isaac was. And Isaac had gone out into the field to walk there, and think by himself alone. Perhaps he wondered whether the servant would soon be back, and whether the Lord had helped him to find the woman who should be his wife. And he looked up and saw the camels were coming. As they came nearer, Rebekah saw Isaac, and she asked the servant what man it was walking in the field to meet them. The servant told her it was Isaac. Then she took a veil and covered her face with it, and came down from the camel; and Isaac brought her into the tent that used to be his mother's, for his mother was dead. And he took Rebekah and she was his wife, and he loved her.
And Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac. And when he was a hundred and seventy-five years old he died, and was buried in the cave which he had bought from Ephron, where he had buried Sarah.
After Abraham was dead, God was very kind to Isaac and blessed him. And he gave Isaac and Rebekah two sons, whose names were Jacob and Esau; Esau was the elder, and Jacob was the younger. Now in those days, the eldest son in every family had what was called the birthright. This made him the chief one among all the children; he was greater than any of the others. And when his father died he got more of the silver and gold and cattle that had been his father's, than the others did; he got twice as much as any of them, because he had the birthright. And Esau was Isaac's eldest son, and therefore had the birthright.
When Esau and Jacob grew up to be men, Esau was a hunter; he went out into the fields and killed deer, and brought the meat home to his father, because his father loved to eat of it. But Jacob lived at home in a tent, and helped to take care of his father's flocks. And one day Jacob made food called pottage. And Esau came in from his hunting very weary and faint, and he asked Jacob to give him his pottage. Jacob told him he would do so if Esau would sell him his birthright. Then Esau, because he felt weak and sick, said that he was going to die, and that the birthright would do him no good, so he sold it to Jacob, and Jacob gave him the pottage for it. It was wrong in Esau to sell his birthright; God had given it to him, and he should not have sold it; and it was wrong for Jacob, in this way, to take it from him.