At the end of Genesis 35, Isaac dies at the age of 180. Verse 29 says, “He breathed his last, and was gathered to his people, old and full of days.” Hey, I turned 75 last month (January 2022) and I’m nowhere near “full of days.” Anyway, I hope I’m not! Yet at times I feel old for sure but at other times I feel like I’m just getting started. Think about this: Isaac was nearly my age when Jacob was born! What? Michelangelo painted the ceiling of Sistine Chapel on his back on a scaffold when he was 90 years old. Cato, a renowned Greek Orator began studying Greek at 73. Goethe wrote his most famous work “Faust” at 82. Galileo invented the telescope and tracked the rotation of the planets after he was 80. Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt when he was 80. Caleb led his tribe in battle against the Giants in Canaan at 85. Verdi produced his masterpiece “Othello,” at 80, “Falstaff”, at 85. The great Zoologist Lamarch wrote his famous “The Natural History of the Invertebrates,” at 78. Tennyson wrote “Crossing the Bar” at 83. Browning wrote: “Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be the last of life for which the first was made.” I’m finding that Browning was right!

Genesis 35:29 closes the chapter. It says, “Now the days of Isaac were 180 years.  And Isaac breathed his last, and he died and was gathered to his people, old and full of days. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.” I like the phrase “gathered to his people.” It was 20 years ago that the blind Isaac called his boys to him to give them his blessing on his “so called” death bed. Jacob cheated Esau out of Isaac’s intended blessing and that scene became the event that separated Esau and Jacob for the following 20 plus years. After their reconciliation, Isaac’s real death brings the two brothers back together again. Guzik observes, “We should remember our times are in God’s hands. We may expect a long or short life for others or ourselves and be quite wrong. Only God knows.”1 Some have suggested that “gathered to his people” simply means he was buried like his ancestors were. They argue that because Isaac was interred at the same place Abraham and Sarah were buried is clear proof of that. Genesis 49:31 is going to affirm the fact that both Isaac and Rebekah were buried at Machpelah with Sarah and Abraham. But, It’s got to mean something more. Exell agrees. He writes, “We are told of Abraham that ‘he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God;’ and further, that ‘Isaac and Jacob’ were ‘heirs with Him of the same promise.’ (Heb. 11:9, 10.) Surely Isaac died with the thought of meeting the beloved ones who had gone before, in a better country.”2

Funerals have a way of bringing families back together. The last time I can remember when the family was altogether was when my sister, Rita, passed away in 1993. She was only 48. It was a shock to us all especially her children. We all comforted each other in just our presence. Death can do that. The Pulpit Commentary says this, “Death is a terrible divider, but a uniter too. Under the shadow of the great mystery, on the borders of an eternal world, in the presence of those tears which human eyes weep for the dead, even when they can weep no other tears, the evil things of envy, hatred, revenge, alienation do often hide themselves, and the better things of love, peace, brotherhood, amity come forth.”3 The things that really matter in life become central where deaths are concerned. The text speaks of being “full of days.” According to most Hebrew scholars this involves a sense of satisfaction with the results of one’s life. You can see why in both Abraham’s death as well as Isaacs. The things that mattered most were involved. Williams observes, “Good had resulted at the funeral of Abraham in that the estranged Ishmael and Isaac were reconciled and attended the event together (see 25:9). Likewise, Esau and Jacob underscore their reconciliation by together laying Isaac to rest (see 35:29).”4

1 David Guzik, Genesis, David Guzik’s Commentaries on the Bible (Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik, 2013), Ge 35:27.

2 Joseph S. Exell and Thomas H. Leale, Genesis, The Preacher’s Complete Homiletic Commentary (New York; London; Toronto: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1892), 622.

3 H. D. M. Spence-Jones, ed., Genesis, The Pulpit Commentary (London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1909), 419.

4 Wilbur Glenn Williams, Genesis: A Commentary for Bible Students (Indianapolis, IN: Wesleyan Publishing House, 1999), 249.