Making a Differencewith Pastor Phil Erickson

Jan 9th, 2024 Keep Digging Wells

Today’s Passage – Genesis 25 – 26 (Click on the references to listen to the audio – Click here to view the passage from Blue Letter Bible)

(Second Milers also read – Matthew 17 – 18; Proverbs 9; Psalms 41 – 45)

Listen to this morning’s Scripture Song – Psalm 47:1

Read the “0109 Evening and Morning” devotion for today, by the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

Read a previous post from this passage – “The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far from the Tree;“ and “From A Father To A Son”

“12 Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the LORD blessed him. 13 And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great: 14 For he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants: and the Philistines envied him. … 23 And he went up from thence to Beersheba. 24 And the LORD appeared unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham’s sake. 25 And he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac’s servants digged a well. … 28 And they said, We saw certainly that the LORD was with thee: and we said, Let there be now an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee; … 32 And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac’s servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had digged, and said unto him, We have found water. 33 And he called it Shebah: therefore the name of the city is Beersheba unto this day.” (Genesis 26:12-14, 23-25, 28, 32-33)

In our reading today, in chapter twenty-five, we discover that Abraham took another wife, Keturah, after the death of Sarah and they will have six more children who will ultimately receive gifts from Abraham upon his death, but the majority of Abraham’s estate will be given to Isaac. Abraham also sends them away from Isaac unto the “east country” presumably to prevent any conflict that might arise between them and Isaac.

In chapter twenty-six, we learn of the death of Abraham at the ripe old age of 175, and also the births of Isaac’s two sons, Esau and Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when his wife, Rebekah, had these twins.

In this chapter, the focus is now on Isaac and his family. We see that Isaac, like his father and all of us, had his struggles with sin. Like Abraham, he lied about his wife and told the Abimelech, the king of the Philistines, that she was his sister. God, in His grace, blessed Isaac in spite of his flaws and reaffirms the covenant to him that he originally made with Abraham (Genesis 26:2 – 5).

In verses 12 – 14, we read about the abundant blessing of the Lord upon Isaac and his family. While he sojourned in the land of the Philistines God had increased his wealth “an hundredfold,” but Isaac’s prosperity also caused the Philistines to envy him. They did everything in their power to hurt Isaac. They filled in some of his wells with earth, and for others they strove with him, stealing the water from him. You will notice, however, that there is nothing recorded here about Isaac fighting back. It seems that he just kept moving away from the strife and continued digging new wells until he finally gets to a place where they no longer fight with him. Abimelech recognizes the hand of God upon Isaac and at first drives him away but finally concedes and makes a covenant of peace with him. They each promise that they will not hurt one another in the future. 

The chapter closes up at a place called Beersheba, which means “the well of a seven-fold oath.” This is the place where Abraham also made a covenant with Abimelech back in Genesis 21 after he also had some conflict with him over a well. Abraham also planted a grove there and called upon God:

“33 And Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the LORD, the everlasting God.” (Genesis 21:33)

Isaac learned a lot from his father Abraham. He learned to lie, which was not good; but he also learned to get along with his neighbors and, most importantly, he learned how to walk with God. God appears to Isaac in Beersheba and reaffirms the Abrahamic Covenant with him. Isaac builds there an altar to the Lord similar to the grove that Abraham had planted. You will notice that Isaac also dug a well in Beersheba as Abraham had done, but at first there is no water, but after the covenant is made with Abimelech and the altar is made to God, Isaac’s servants report that they had found water.

God’s hand was certainly upon Isaac at this point in his life. Apart from lying to Abimelech about his wife early in the chapter, Isaac is doing the right things. He is trusting in the Lord and he is trying to get along with the people of the land. Even though they are fighting him, he is resisting the temptation to fight back. He kept searching until he found a place where he could prosper. He found the place of God’s will, and that’s the place where he found water. 

If you have not yet found the place of God’s will, keep digging wells until you find it. If you know you are where God wants you to be (Isaac was – see Genesis 26:3), and you are doing what God wants you to do, keep digging until you hit water.