Drawing From the Wells of Salvation

Drawing From the Wells of Salvation

(Genesis 26:1-14 ESV)

Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar to Abimelech king of the Philistines. And the LORD appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”

            So Isaac settled in Gerar. When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he feared to say, “My wife,” thinking, “lest the men of the place should kill me because of Rebekah,” because she was attractive in appearance. When he had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw Isaac laughing with Rebekah his wife. So Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, she is your wife. How then could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac said to him, “Because I thought, ‘Lest I die because of her.’” Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.” So Abimelech warned all the people, saying, “Whoever touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”

            And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. The LORD blessed him, and the man became rich, and gained more and more until he became very wealthy. He had possessions of flocks and herds and many servants, so that the Philistines envied him.

            Our text begins with a famine similar to Abraham's in Genesis 12:10-20. The difference between Abraham’s and his son Isaac’s is Abraham fled to Egypt whereas Isaac remained in Canaan and made the best of it. History of the text reveals that Abraham had passed away and this event took place while Esau and Jacob were very young.

            All this is very important to note. First of all, it reveals to us in that our connections with God are the same regardless of what humanity may serve us. Life on earth is real and authentic and the necessities of life do not change from one generation to the next. We all face the need to eat and drink, to survive, and having to contend with other humans to do so is inevitable in the process. Whether we face this in Egypt outside the promise or Canaan inside the promise these necessities remain the same.

            Actually, famine is a great example of all this. It is usually a famine of sort that drives us to acknowledge God. This is why our country is on a verge of a spiritual awakening. It is when we exhaust our means with our necessities that we have no alternative than to resort to God for our answers or solutions. Necessities have a way of demanding the true source of which they are met.

            Beyond our human necessities our need to connect with God is as important and called for on all levels of life. Whether it is food or drink, relational, emotional, rejection, or acceptance, love is the common denominator that gives quality of life in all these necessities.

            The source of love is God for God is love.  All these necessities can be met without love, however, without love they are empty and leave’s any human craving for more until love comes and makes it all worth while. Greed, jealousy, control and other factors of such becomes enemies to the quality of life that every human deserves and every human long’s for.

            Until love serves our necessities our necessities will continue to serve us every evil intent, for there are only two suppliers to necessities; love and evil, these two are the only two driving forces in humanity.

            This is why our text becomes a story of how from one generation to the next, love and evil is present and the choices we make will determine which will take charge and become the master of our necessities.

            In Egypt or Cannon, in the church or out of the church, in the world or out of this world God is God.  These places do not determine or define God; Love is the only defining element in any place we find ourselves with God.  This is why Jesus prayed this over His disciples. “Father, do not take them out of the world but keep them from the evil of this world.”

            Love or evil can be present in any place, any generation; there is no place on earth that can determine whether love or evil will dominate. Dahlonega, Georgia or Atlanta, Georgia, it is all in the choices that we as humans make for ourselves and the decisions we make towards others in our actions and reaction to each other. Once again, Life on earth is real and authentic and the necessities of life do not change from one generation to the next. We all face the need to eat and drink to survive, and having to contend with other humans to do so is inevitable in the process.

            Isaac was in pursuit of one of the greatest necessities to humankind, water. Water holds everything together in the human anatomy; everything will fall apart and cease to exist without water. To deny a human of water is to deny their need to existence.

             When those needs to exist are threatened we as humans have a tendency to resort to anxiety and fears, and when we do, we also have the tendency to deny we have. Envy and strife are usually at the root of these fears as evidenced in (James 3:13-18 ESV) “Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”

            Unfortunately Isaac’s pursuit of water (his greatest necessity) for survival began with a lie. His perception of taking hold of his necessity hinged on anxiety and fear. In so doing, he armed the Philistines with the ability to expose their perception with contempt. Perception is the seed bed for fear and for envy and strife.

            It was not until Isaac got to his third well that he was able to take hold of his necessity without having to be confronted by the herdsmen in Gerar. It took two diggings for him to come to the place that he was willing to accept his ownership in why he was facing opposition or struggle.

            He was caught up in the same fear possessing his promise as his father. Abraham’s was a lie mixed with truth, his progressed to a lie straight out. Notice, the lie was not to God, it was to the humans he had to face in possessing his promise. This goes to show us that we can eventually possess our promises even when we go side ways on it. We must keep digging till we can come to grips concerning our ownership in the issues we have with others in the pursuit.

            Since Jacob was born before or during this pursuit, it would be advantageous for us to acknowledge that he named one of his son’s Jacob (Jacob means: “sub-planter” one who gets what they want through schemes and plans). Wow, he labels his own son with the family curse. 

            However, as the story unfolds we see God had a plan to change his name to Israel (Israel means: “God prevails” יִשְׂרָאֵל). Evidently, God is prophetically, with this story, showing us how through the “Spirit of Prophecy” He eventually gets us to where His heart desires for us to be. The name He gives to denote this desire is “God prevails.”

            A prophetic word concerning this comes to us from Micah 7:18-20 “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.”

            “…he will subdue our iniquities…” This is a promise. In the Hebrew this means He will wrestle it out of us as He did with Jacob. Revealing the truth to Jacob, He was showing mercy to his belated grandfather.

            In this case it is not us prevailing, it is God prevailing in us that gets us to the promises He has spoken to us. Generational tendencies submitting to anxieties and fears slowing us down from our pursuit calls out to mercy from God on the behalf of our for-fathers and mothers, and becomes the expense in providing the truth to us when it is revealed. 

            Faulty perceptions about humans in our lives are always the clog in the wheel slowing us down. Isaac’s perception was met with a truth calling his hand on why his occupation in the land demanded validation with a lie. The scripture does not reveal how his perception changed nor when the Philistines perception changed. We know from the story the struggled ended with Rehoboth.