Genesis 25
SIBVer. 1—4, 6. The natural vigour wherewith God had endowed Abraham, for the procreation of Isaac, continued with him for the further enlargement of his family.—These children of Keturah, and their posterity, peopled a considerable part of Arabia, to the south and east of the promised land, under the name of Midianites, Shuhites, Sabeans, and Ashurites
Genesis 25:5
Isaac was his only heir by his complete wife, and his only child by promise; ch. xxiv. 30. and xxi. 12. and is herein a type of Jesus Christ and his seed, who are heirs of all things by promise; Heb. i. 2. John iii
Genesis 25:34
Ver. 18. They dwelt all along the south of the Moabites, eastern Midianites, Edomites, and Israelites, almost from the river Euphrates on the east to the border of Egypt on the west. Ver. 21—23. For almost twenty years Isaac continued praying for children.—Their struggling in their mother’s womb presaged, that they and their posterity would live at variance one with another, and exceedingly differ in their religion, laws, manners, &c.—The Edomites, descended from Esau, were at first the strongest people; ch. xxxvi. but the Israelites, sprung from Jacob, under David, 2 Sam. viii. 14. under Amaziah, 2 Chron. xxv. 11, 12. and under His canus, subdued them. Nay, Jacob’s obtaining the birthright and bl. ver. 29—34. and 27, 29, 37, 40. rendered him and his posterity superior Esau and his Edomite seed. Ver. 25. That redness and hair marked the present strength of Esau’s body, and the savage and cruel disposition of him and his posterity; ch. xxvii. 11, 41. Obad. 10. Ezek. xxv. 12. xxxv. 5. Ver. 26. Jacob took hold of his heel, as if he would have drawn him back, that himself might be born first, or as if he would overthrow and suppress him, as he afterwards did; ver. 33. ch. xxvii.; and rightly was he named Jacob, a heel-holder, or supplanter, on that account, ch. xxviii. 36. Ver. 27. Esau was a wild savage kind of man, spending most of his time in hunting, learning the art of war, and the like; ch. x. 9. and xvi. 12. Jacob was a sincere, mild, plain-dealing man, keeping much at home, attending to his household affairs, and to his father’s flocks and herds; ch. vi. 9. and xlvi. 74. Ver. 30. The name Edom, signifying red, at once marked his origin and color, and his excessive lust after the red pottage, and his selling his birthright to obtain them. Ver. 31—34. This birthright entailed upon the possessor a double portion of the paternal inheritance; Deut. xxi. 16, 17.; a claim to his father’s principal blessing, and to the promise of Canaan, and a peculiar relation to God therein
REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. XXV.—Before I part with Abraham, the celebrated patriarch, let me, in him, contemplate Jesus, the everlasting Father! How astonishing his meekness! his kindness to men! his intimacy with, fear of obedience to, and trust in, his God! He is the chosen favourite of JEHOVAH; the father and covenant-head of innumerable millions of saved men. To him the promises relative to the evangelical and eternal state of his church were originally made. All obedient, at his Father’s call, he left his native abodes of Jesus, and became a stranger and sojourner on earth, not having where to lay his head. At his Father’s call, he offered himself an acceptable sacrifice to God; by his all-prevalent intercession, and supernatural influence, he delivers to (ah!) too ungrateful friends from the hand of their enemies; and after long patience, he obtains a numerous seed in the Jewish and gospel church. In his little family are many professors, children of the bond-woman, the covenant of works; who, in the issue, are like Ishmael or the modern Jews, rejected and cast out into a state of misery and woe: others are children of the free-woman, the covenant of grace; and are, like Isaac, begotten to God by the powerful influence of the promise.—Now let me observe, how invigorating is a strong faith in God’s promise: for God delights to add abundant blessings to such as, by courageous believing, give him the glory of his power and faithfulness. Often the best of men have little remarkable fellowship with God in old age; but must live even to the end by faith, and not by sight; while wicked families are loaded with temporal mercies, for the sake of their pious progenitors. Promised events are often ushered in by the most discouraging appearances: and mercies must be long prayed and waited for ere they be granted. It is good when husbands and wives unite their supplications; for to spread our griefs before a throne of grace is the greatest and the surest relief. How often much trouble and vexation attend what is too eagerly desired! But how sovereign is God, in fixing the temporal, and even eternal, states of persons before they are born; and how early are children known by their doings; yet in their education great care is to be taken in consulting their tempers and dispositions. Parents frequently expose themselves to future troubles by their partial regard to children. But why should we set our hearts on them, or any other worldly comfort, when we must so quickly leave them by death! At that time it should be the concern of parents so to dispose of their effects, that there may be no disputes after they are gone; and such deserve to have most assigned them as are likely to make the best use of it. How often the wisest worldlings act the most foolish part, while the Lord preserveth the simple! How marvellously God overruleth even the sins of men, to the accomplishment of his purpose or promise, and the advancement of his glory! How dreadful, when men, even those who have had a religious education, gratify their sensual appetites at the expense of the temporal and eternal ruin of themselves and their seed; and when God permits them to be afterwards hardened in their sin, and standing monuments of that affecting truth, that numbers of the descendants of God’s favourites are sometimes left out of his church, and unacquainted with their parents’ blessings!