Instead, Isaac submissively let his father proceed to offer him as a sacrifice in harmony with God’s will. For this demonstration of Abraham’s faith, Jehovah then repeated and enlarged upon his covenant with Abraham, which covenant was transferred by God to Isaac after the death of Isaac’s father.​—Ge 22:15-18; 26:1-5; Ro 9:7; Jas 2:21.

Because of a famine, Isaac moved his family to Gerar in Philistine territory, being told by God not to go down to Egypt. It was on this occasion that Jehovah confirmed his purpose to carry out the Abrahamic promise through Isaac, repeating its terms: “I will multiply your seed like the stars of the heavens and I will give to your seed all these lands; and by means of your seed all nations of the earth will certainly bless themselves.”​—Ge 26:1-6; Ps 105:8, 9.

In this not too friendly Philistine country, Isaac, like his father Abraham, used strategy by claiming his wife was his sister. After a time, Jehovah’s blessing on Isaac became a source of envy to the Philistines, making it necessary for him to move, first to the torrent valley of Gerar, and then to Beer-sheba, on the edge of the arid Negeb region. While here, the formerly hostile Philistines came seeking “an oath of obligation,” or a treaty of peace, with Isaac, for as they acknowledged, “You now are the blessed of Jehovah.” At this place his men struck water and Isaac called it Shibah. “That is why the name of the city is Beer-sheba [meaning “Well of the Oath; or, Well of Seven”], down to this day.”​—Ge 26:7-33; see BEER-SHEBA.

Isaac had always been fond of Esau, because he was the outdoor type, a hunter and a man of the field, and this meant game in Isaac’s mouth. (Ge 25:28) So, with failing eyesight and a feeling he did not have long to live, Isaac prepared to give Esau the firstborn’s blessing. (Ge 27:1-4) Whether he was unaware that Esau had sold his birthright to his brother Jacob and whether he failed to remember the divine decree, given before the two boys’ birth, that “the older will serve the younger,” is not known. (Ge 25:23, 29-34) Whatever the case, Jehovah remembered, and so did Rebekah, who quickly arranged things so that Jacob received the blessing. When Isaac learned of the ruse that had been used to accomplish this, he refused to change what was unmistakably Jehovah’s will in the matter. Isaac also prophesied that Esau and his descendants would reside far away from the fertile fields, would live by the sword, and would finally break the yoke of servitude to Jacob from off their necks.​—Ge 27:5-40; Ro 9:10-13; see ESAU.