Isaac married Rebecca, the grand-daughter of Nahor, his father's brother, when he was forty years old, that is, in the 140th year of his father's life, three years after his mother's death.Now when a servant was sent to Mesopotamia by his father to fetch her, and when Abraham said to that servant, "Put thy hand under my thigh, and I will make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven, and the Lord of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son Isaac of the daughters of the Canaanites,"(3) what else was pointed out by this, but that the Lord, the God of heaven, and the Lord of the earth, was to come in the flesh which was to be derived from that thigh? Are these small tokens of the foretold truth which we see fulfilled in Christ?
CHAP.34.--WHAT IS MEANT BY ABRAHAM'S
MARRYING KETURAH AFTER SARAH'S DEATH.
What did Abraham mean by marrying Keturah after Sarah's death? Far be it from us to suspect him of incontinence, especially when he had reached such an age and such sanctity of faith.Or was he still seeking to beget children, though he held fast, with most approved faith, the promise of God that his children should be multiplied out of Isaac as the stars of heaven and the dust of the earth? And yet, if Hagar and Ishmael, as the apostle teaches us, signified the carnal people of the old covenant, why may not Keturah and her sons also signify the carnal people who think they belong to the new covenant? For both are called both the wives and the concubines of Abraham; but Sarah is never called a concubine (but only a wife).For when Hagar is given to Abraham, it is written."And Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her handmaid, after Abraham had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife."(4) And of Keturah, whom he took after Sarah's departure, we read, "Then again Abraham took a wife, whose name was Keturah."(5) Lo! both are called wives, yet both are found to have been concubines; for the Scripture afterward says, "And Abraham gave his whole estate unto Isaac his son.But unto the sons of his concubines Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from his son Isaac, (while he yet lived,) eastward, unto the east country."(6) Therefore the sons of the concubines, that is, the heretics and the carnal Jews, have some gifts, but do not attain the promised kingdom; "For they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed, of whom it was said, In Isaac shall thy seed be called."(7) For I do not see why Keturah, who was married after the wife's death, should be called a concubine, except on account of this mystery.But if any one is unwilling to put such meanings on these things, he need not calumniate Abraham.For what if even this was provided against the heretics who were to be the opponents of second marriages, so that it might be shown that it was no sin in the case of the father of many nations himself, when, after his wife's death, he married again? And Abraham died when he was 175years old, so that he left his son Isaac seventy-five years old, having begotten him when 100 years old.
CHAP.35.--WHAT WAS INDICATED BY THE DIVINE ANSWER ABOUT THE TWINS STILLSHUT UP IN
THE WOMB OF REBECCA THEIR MOTHER.
Let us now see how the times of the city of God run on from this point among Abraham's descendants.In the time from the first year of Isaac's life to the seventieth, when his sons were born, the only memorable thing is, that when he prayed God that his wife, who was barren, might bear, and the Lord granted what he sought, and she conceived, the twins leapt while still enclosed in her womb.And when she was troubled by this struggle, and inquired of the Lord, she received this answer: "Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels;and the one people shall overcome the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger." (1) The Apostle Paul would have us understand this as a great instance of grace;(2) for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, the younger is chosen without any good desert and the elder is rejected, when beyond doubt, as regards original sin, both were alike, and as regards actual sin, neither had any.
But the plan of the work on hand does not permit me to speak more fully of this matter now, and I have said much about it in other works.Only that saying, "The elder shall serve the younger,"is understood by our writers, almost without exception, to mean that the elder people, the Jews, shall serve the younger people, the Christians.And truly, although this might seem to be fulfilled in the Idumean nation, which was born of the elder (who had two names, being called both Esau and Edom.whence the name Idumeans), because it was afterwards to be overcome by the people which sprang from the younger, that is, by the Israelites, and was to become subject to them; yet it is more suitable to believe that, when it was said, "The one people shall overcome the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger,"that prophecy meant some greater thing; and what is that except what is evidently fulfilled in the Jews and Christians?
CHAP.36.-- OF THE ORACLE AND BLESSING WHICH ISAAC RECEIVED, JUST ASHIS FATHER DID, BEING BELOVED FOR HIS SAKE.
Isaac also received such an oracle as his father had often received.
Of this oracle it is thus written: "And there was a famine aver the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham.
And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar, And the Lord appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; but dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of.
And abide in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee: