How much time is left on Your Clock

Genesis 27:1-4

Chapter twenty-seven begins with Isaac calling in his firstborn Esau to ask a favor of him and to offer a blessing to the firstborn.  It is not clear why Isaac would not bless Esau before he went hunting but he tied the blessing to when the act was completed.  Isaac has twin sons but Esau is his favorite and that is not conjecture on my part, Genesis 25:28 states the following, “Now Isaac loved Esau, because he had a taste for game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.” 

We also know that Isaac was very close to being blind at this point of his life and was depending on his ability to feel and touch in order to recognize the twins.  Esau was very hairy and Jacob was very smooth skinned, so often Isaac would touch the boys to tell them apart.  It is also clear that Rebekah, the twin’s mother, was very partial to Jacob and that she may not have trust her husband at this stage in his life, so she eavesdrops on his conversation with Esau.

Verse two speaks so loud to my age group though Isaac is much older and is not sure how much time is left on his earth clock; does he have hours, minutes or just seconds?  Isaac is speaking to Esau, “He said, “Behold, I am old; I do not know the day of my death.”  Isaac in this area is a prototype of each and every one of us, when did he begin to think about death or leaving this earth, only when he was old and yet we all seen younger people die.  

Before we get down on old Isaac, it may be wise to look into the mirror, how much time is left on your clock?  Only God knows the answer to that question, and we all have a bucket list of things to do while there is still time.  Isaac awoke to the fact that on his bucket list were a couple of items he needed to do before he left this earth.  One was for his pleasure, the eating of wild game that his son had killed; the other was of the utmost importance, the passing on of a blessing.

Isaac was a poor guesser, he was making assumptions not based on fact, because God had not spoken to him about his death, but God had made it clear to Abraham and to Isaac the importance of passing on a blessing, and God had made it clear, even before the twins were born, which son was to get the blessing.  Isaac, like many of us, was without sufficient information on when his earth clock would stop, but Genesis 35:28 gives this account of his death, “Now the days of Isaac were 180 years.”  What was Isaac’s age at the time of his statement in verse two, he was over 100 years of age, but not close to the end of his life.

What should you and I take from the message in verse two?  First and foremost, the importance of being in right standing with Jesus Christ, now; for no one knows when his or her earth clock is scheduled to stop, and the alarm may be blinking or ringing but you are too busy or there is too much noise around you to hear.  Do not wait to pass on a blessing to those in your concentric circle.  A great question to ask at any age is, “How is my soul?” and have I shared my love to those who love me?

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice