Genesis 26:12 Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundred times: and the LORD blessed him. I. HIS PROSPERITY WAS EVIDENTLY DUE TO THE DIVINE BLESSING. His prosperity was wonderful. "Thirty, sixty, and a hundred fold," is the range of fertility in that land. Thus the yield of Isaac's land reaches the highest degree of productiveness. 1. Such was the position of the sacred historian. He who relates this story, after describing the prosperity of this man, adds, "And the Lord blessed him" (ver. 12). 2. It was evident to Isaac himself. His prosperity, the rest he enjoyed from his enemies, and room to enlarge in, he ascribed all to God (ver. 22). 3. It was evident to his enemies. They were constrained to acknowledge that God was with him. II. HIS PROSPERITY MADE HIM A MARK FOR ENVY. We are told that "the Philistines envied him." His prosperity was not without alloy. Every blessing of this world is accompanied by some disadvantage or evil. We have to pay a price for every earthly good. III. HIS PROSPERITY SERVED TO DEVELOP THE VIRTUES OF HIS CHARACTER. Bacon has said that " Prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue." And human experience shows that such are the usual effects of "these conditions. But in the case of Isaac there were virtues that shined out in his prosperity. 1. The virtue of patience. The Philistines carried their envy into action. They stopped up the wells which he had inherited from his father (ver. 15). But he met all this envy by patience. When persecuted in one place he fled to another. He removed from well to well (vers. 18-22). (1) His patience was victorious. It won upon his enemies. The Philistines were at length wearied out. They came round, and asked for a treaty (vers. 28-30). (2) His patience won the Divine approval. The Lord appeared to him and renewed the old promises. He was assured of perpetual protection and guidance. 2. The virtue of forgiveness. He had suffered a grievous wrong, but he forgave it on the entreaty of Abimelech. This was not the easy virtue of a man who has no strong feelings and who is soon won over. It was principle, and not a weak feeling, that made him forgive. 3. The virtue of reverence. He set up an altar for the worship of God, and pitched his tent there as if he would dwell in the Lord's house (ver. 25). He bears a public testimony to the obligation of religion. Many a man forgets God with increasing prosperity, but it was not so with Isaac. With him it served to deepen the feeling of reverence and to strengthen every duty of piety. (T. H. Leale.) Parallel Verses KJV: Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the LORD blessed him. |
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