Genesis chapter 26. We're going
to read this together after we pray. And then we will go through this
chapter. I hope to get through the entire chapter today. Let's
pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for your word that
sustains us. Thank you for your grace that
gives this faith to us to look to the Lord Jesus and upholds
us in this faith. Thank you for working patience
in our life through all the troubles that we experience here and comforting
us by proving that this faith is genuine, that you have given
it to us, holding us fast to the Lord Jesus through trial
and all kind of trouble. We pray, Lord, that as you have
justified us in the Lord Jesus by his righteousness, by his
grace, you would also bring us to glory. But while we're in
this world, you would give us grace to live to your glory in
patience, looking for that hope and that appearing of our Lord
Jesus Christ, trusting in his righteousness, coming to you,
worshiping you, bringing to you our supplications, praying by
your grace in the Spirit of God that we might fulfill the purpose
you have for us in this world. Lord, we pray that our lives
would be for your glory, that we would do all to the glory
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And we pray, Lord, that
even now you would visit us from your Word, by your Spirit, and
give us this faith. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Genesis chapter 26 about Isaac. Isaac was Abraham's son. Remember
his name means laughter. But at this point in his time,
in his life, it seems as if Jacob and Esau, his sons, were grown,
but they're still living with him at home. So I want to just
pick this up. I guess that there's several
things that we can take away from this text of scripture,
but the first thing I just want to say as an overview is that
Isaac is an example here in this chapter of a believer living
by faith on the Lord Jesus Christ in hope of God's promises through
all the troubles and the ups and downs of this life, and is
described here as he lives by these wells of water. And so,
we're going to see this. Look at verse 1. It says, And
there was a famine in the land beside the first famine that
was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech,
king of the Philistines, unto Gerar. Abimelech is the title
for the king of the Philistines. It wasn't the name of a particular
man. It was the same name given to the king of the Philistines
when Abraham went down, or he encountered these men and dealt
with them back in Genesis chapter 21. But in the days of Abraham,
there was a famine. If you remember, he went down
to Egypt and sojourned there for a while. But this time, there's
a famine in the same land. Abraham is now dead, as far as
I can tell. He may not be, but I think he
is dead, because it's said that they stopped up the wells after
he died. So Abraham is now dead, which would make Isaac pretty
old. And this famine is enough that
Isaac has to go from where he was to the land where the Philistines
are. That whole land of Canaan had
a number of people living there, and evidently the Philistines
had an area where there was food that he could live. So he went
there. And the Lord brought this famine. The Lord brought this
family. The Lord brings all kinds of
trouble in our lives. Trouble is part of what God has
ordained for us in this life. We're not going to escape trouble
while we're here. In fact, God has a purpose for us in all of
our troubles. And that includes everything.
Whether it be financial troubles, family troubles, troubles with
our jobs, troubles with our health, Troubles with our neighbors.
Troubles with the political environment. Whatever the troubles are, there's
plenty of them. Plenty of causes for troubles on the outside.
And then there's all the troubles on the inside. Those are the
worst kind of troubles. Troubles on the inside. Troubles
from our sin. Crying out to God to deliver
us from our sin and uphold us in the faith of the Lord Jesus.
All those things are signified by God bringing this famine in
the land of promise. This land that God had promised
to Isaac and his children. and Abraham and Jacob. That was
the land where he was. He was doing what God told him
to do. While he was doing what God told him to do, God brought
a famine and brought trouble in his life. And the famine served
to heighten his own vulnerability, his dependence upon God, and
it humbled him and it drove him to depend even more, realizing
his own need for grace. And so we see that in verse 1.
That's what trouble does. Girar is a name that means a
lodging place. He had to go live where the Philistines
lived. and he and his family and all
that he had. He had to go down there. And that's the way our
life is, isn't it? We live in this world. This world
is a land of Philistines, a land of strangers to our God, idol
worshippers, those who don't love the Lord Jesus, who don't
look to Him for all of their salvation, but trust in their
works, trust in the things that they have in the world itself.
And so, that's what verse 1 is referring to, how the Lord brings
trouble in our lives. If you look at Romans chapter
5 and verse 1, there it summarizes the fact that even though we've
been justified by faith as God's purpose, that we have trouble
in this world. He says in Romans chapter 5 verse
1, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the first thing, peace
with God, by whom, by Christ, we also have access by faith
into this grace wherein we stand. We stand on what God has said
Christ has done and accomplished for us and are standing in Him.
And we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. We look forward
with confident expectation that God is going to fulfill His work
of salvation for us, in us. And not only do we look forward
in hope, but we glory in tribulations also. Tribulation means any kind
of trouble. Knowing that tribulation works
patience, as we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, faith causes
us to be patient under trouble. That's evidence that we believe
Him. And patience, experience, that means approving of our faith.
God shows our faith to be genuine because He upholds our faith
in all of our weaknesses. God always drives us to Christ.
If we don't have faith, trouble leaves us without hope. We don't
go to the Lord in prayer. We don't call upon Him. But experience
means that God proves our faith in the trouble. And then he says,
and experience hope, because it gives us a greater confidence
in this trial that our hope in heaven is sure that Christ has
purchased it and will give it to us. And hope makes not ashamed
Because we aren't disappointed, we're not ashamed that we hoped
in Christ alone for our salvation because the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us. The
love of God teaches us what Christ has done for us. And that's all
that follows that verse there. And so I mention that because
this is what Isaac was experiencing here. All of us experience trouble. All of us who believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ experience trouble. And we experience this
need to call on the Lord in all of our trouble. Psalm 34, 17
says, The righteous cry. The righteous cry. And the Lord
delivers them, saves them from their trouble. That's God's way.
He delights to save His people. He delights in showing mercy
to them. Even though they are weak, even though they are sinful,
He saves them for Christ's sake. And so we look to Christ. We
wait for His promises. We hope in Him. And trouble is
God-given. It's applied through the trouble. God applies that trouble to uphold
our faith and produces patience. So that's a wonderful thing.
And then in verse 2 of Genesis 26. It says, And the LORD appeared
to Isaac, and said, Go not down to Egypt, dwell in the land which
I shall tell thee of. You see, God commanded Isaac
not to go to Egypt, because Egypt is that land of idolatry and
sin and bondage to sin and bondage to the law. God later delivered
Israel from that, and He's telling him, No, stay in the land of
promise. Stay here. God's going to give
you that land. In other words, abide in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Stay with Christ. Don't leave
Him. Don't go beyond Him. As you receive Christ Jesus the
Lord, so walk in Him. In Christ you're complete. Stay
there. Abide in Him. Now these things,
as we're beginning to look at this, begin to show us that the
believer is walking by faith looking to God's promises that
he gave us in Christ. And this is the life of the believer.
All of us have this life. Isaac is like a reflection of
one of us in the church. He stands up and he tells us
what's going on in his life, how the Lord has spoken to him,
and how he looks for what God has promised, and he's living
day by day on that. That's what we do in our lives.
And so this chapter here of Isaac is just holding up to us one
of God's people, Isaac, a believer who walked by faith in Christ,
just like we do. And it's a comfort, because we
see this trouble as a natural part, God-ordained part of our
lives, and He means for it to teach us to continue to look
to the Lord Jesus. And so, in verse 3, God tells
him, Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and I will
bless thee. For unto thee and to thy seed
I will give all these countries. So here, what God is doing is
He's reiterating His promises. And that's what our life is.
God is constantly, by His grace, reiterating to us His promises
in the Lord Jesus. We have trouble? What does God
do? Stay here, stay in Christ, and He reiterates His promises
to us. Are you having trouble? Do you find yourself without... It seems as if you're not on
a course that is leading to anywhere. You feel like you're unprofitable
to God and you're unprofitable to men. You don't know if your
life is really accomplishing anything in the Kingdom of God.
Stay on the course. Look to Christ. hope in His mercy. That's what God is saying. He
reiterates these promises to him. And what does He say to
him? First He says, Sojourn in the land. You're living in the
world now. That's the land. It's yours,
but it's not yours presently. It's yours by promise. God's
will is for you to stay here now. Look to Christ, hold fast
to Him, and come to God by Him. Seek to know Him and worship
Him. In all that you do, live your
life in the truth of what God has said in His Word. Even though
in all of our lives we see this apparent confusion, and we're
not sure where things are going. We don't know why are these things
happening to me. I go day by day. I go to work.
I come home. I have dinner. I meet with my
family. I go to bed. I get up. I go to work. I repeat
it. It goes on for years. Is there any purpose in this?
There is. Look to Christ. Trust his word. Walk with him. And the Lord says
next, I will be with thee. I will never leave thee nor forsake
thee. And therefore we may boldly say,
the Lord is my helper. I will not fear what man shall
do to me. And the Lord says next, I will
bless thee, because all blessings are ours in Christ. They're ours
because of the obedience of Christ, because of His blood, because
of God's promises. I'll be with you. I will bless
you. Stay here in the land. That's a promise. Isn't that
a reassuring promise? I find it to be reassuring because
a lot of the time you're just doing what you do, day in and
day out. And it seems like it's a repetitive, almost an endless
cycle, and you look forward in the eyes of the world, our lives
are without purpose. It's all vanity. I'm just going
to live, I'm going to die, and everything's going to go back
to the way it was before I was here. He says everything in God's
purpose has a time. There's a time for every purpose
under heaven. Everything that God does is beautiful
in His time. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter
3. That's where that scripture is
found. Ecclesiastes is after the book
of Proverbs. Ecclesiastes chapter 3. I just
want to read this to you because it shows us that even though
we don't see the reason for what's going on in our lives, there
is a reason. He says in Ecclesiastes chapter
3, to everything there is a season and a time for every purpose
under heaven. God's purpose. Every time, there's
a reason and a time for everything God has purposed. He says, a
time to be born, a time to die, a time to plant, a time to pluck
up that which was planted, a time to kill, a time to heal, a time
to break down, and a time to build up. All these things. A
time to weep, a time to laugh, a time to mourn, and a time to
dance. A time to cast away stones and
a time to gather stones together. A time to embrace. A time to
refrain from embracing. A time to get and a time to lose. A time to keep and a time to
cast away. All these things. But look at
verse 11. He hath made everything beautiful in his time. So that's
what God has done. Everything for his people is
made perfect in God's time. And so we wait in patience and
we look to Christ. We walk in this world. God, the
Lord says, I'll bless you. I'll be with you. Stay here.
And then he says also, in this same verse, he says, unto thee
and unto thy seed, in Genesis chapter 26 verse 4, he says,
unto thee and unto thy seed I will give all these countries. all
these lands. So here he is, Isaac, he's in
a strange land. All these people around him are
his enemies. They are living at peace with
him, but they don't really care for him. They don't like him.
He's a stranger there. He feels uncomfortable. Except
the Lord has told him to stay there. And then God says, I'm
going to give you everything here, everything you see. And
that's what God has told the believer. Everything in this
world is ours. Everything in life is ours. Everything
in death is ours. Everything that belongs to Christ
will be given to us. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
purchased it for us. Because we're His body. He's
the head, we're the body. He's the husband, we're the wife.
We've been made one with Him. One with Him in eternal election.
One with Him in His redeeming death. One with Him by His Spirit.
We're one with Christ. And everything that's His is
given to us. because God is determined to give it to us. So he says
to him, unto you and to your seed I will give all these countries.
He's speaking about the promise of eternal inheritance. Even
though he's speaking here physically of the land of Canaan, he has
to do with our eternal salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
so many verses in the New Testament speak of this, our rest in Christ
and the world that's going to be given to us and so many things.
But the Lord then says, I will perform the oath which I swear
unto Abraham thy father. You see, the oath is God's covenant
to Abraham, but not to Abraham and himself, but to Abraham in
Christ. What God has said to Isaac at
this time, while he's in the famine, he's walking in this
world, he's living by faith, he reminds him, he reiterates
his promises, and he points him back to the covenant. To the
covenant he made with his son, an eternal covenant, with eternal
promises. And he points him to that. He
keeps telling us over and over again, look to the Lord Jesus,
think on his word, walk by faith in him. And then, in the next
verse here, in verse 5, Genesis 26, he says, Wow, that's a lot.
Abraham did all these things. He obeyed my voice, kept my charge,
my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. And is that the
reason that God is going to bless all of us in Christ? Well, the fact of the matter
is, if you remember in Genesis 15 verse 6, God counted the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ to Abraham. So when he speaks here of all
that Abraham did, first and foremost he's speaking about what Christ
did that's counted to be his. And secondly, because God counted
to Abraham Christ's righteousness and he believed it, then he walked
by faith in him and he did obey the Lord. He obeyed his voice,
but did he obey it perfectly? Did he keep God's word all the
time? Did he always believe perfectly? Never. Not at all. Remember what
Paul said in Romans 6? He says, "...the good that I
would, I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do.
When I would do good, evil is present with me. O wretched man
that I am!" That's the description of the believer. And yet, so,
when God speaks of these things, he's really looking at the obedience
of Christ and Abraham's obedience of faith because of that. And
Abraham's was far from perfect. But he refers to it because his
obedience sprang out of his faith. Faith works by love. We love
God because we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. That He loved
us when we were sinners and saved us for His mercy's sake. And
so then we go on here in Genesis chapter 26. We see how, in the
first part here, trials and troubles have afflicted Isaac, and he's
walking as a believer in this world, looking to Christ. And
God reiterates His covenant promises in Christ to him. He reminds
him of Abraham's obedience, which flowed out of Abraham's faith.
And then we see in verse 6, And Isaac dwelt in Gerar. Remember,
that's the lodging place where the Philistines were in the land
that he went because of the famine. That's where we are in this world.
We're staying here now because it's God's purpose in His time
that a believer live in this world and his faith is refined
and perfected over time and he's conformed to Christ's image.
even though we're in this world. And so he says in verse 7, And
the men of the place asked him of his wife. They asked Isaac,
What about this woman? Who is this woman? And Isaac
said, She is my sister. For he feared to say, She is
my wife, lest, said he, the men of the place should kill me for
Rebekah, because she was fair to look upon. So the people of
the Philistines looked upon Rebekah and they wanted her. And so they
asked Isaac, who is this woman? And instead of saying, she's
my wife, he said, she's my sister. She was related to him. Remember
Laban was her brother, and Laban was a descendant of Abraham's
brother, and so on. In a certain way, it was true
that she was his sister, more of a cousin than a sister. But
that wasn't the point. The point is, he actually lied,
didn't he? He didn't tell them that she
was his wife. He was afraid for his life, and
he lied to them. And so that took place, and the
next verse says, it came to pass, when he had been there for a
long time, that Abimelech, the king of the Philistines, looked
out a window and saw. And behold, Isaac was sporting
with Rebekah, his wife. Now, to sport with his wife means
that whatever Isaac was doing, he was doing in a way that showed
a greater familiarity with Rebecca than a brother would have for
his sister. What he was doing with her that
Abimelech saw led Abimelech to believe that this woman was actually
his wife. He was sporting with her. The
word means laugh. In fact, it's the same word of
Isaac's name. It means laughter. So he was
toying with his wife. He was playing with her in merriment,
showing this familiarity with her that a man would show for
his wife. It's a word for laughter. He was at complete liberty with
his wife. With joy over his wife. In delight
and thanksgiving to God for his wife. He was completely at ease
with his wife. And it just so happened that
Abimelech saw this. And he drew the conclusion, properly,
this woman must be his wife, not his sister. Now, it says
in Proverbs 5, verse 18, to rejoice with the wife of thy youth. This
is one of the great privileges God has given a man and his wife
in this world, to rejoice with the wife of your youth. That
relationship we have to our wives is a God-given one, and we should
be thankful for it. that liberty that we have and
the joy we have in our relationship to each other. All the pleasures
that come between a man and a woman are God-given and meant to teach
us of Christ's joy over His people. So we rejoice in the wife of
our youth like Isaac did. And we delight in her with laughter. It's a great joy when you think
about how God has given us a wife. Isn't it? Husbands? It's a great
joy. It says in Proverbs 18.22, He
that findeth a wife findeth a good thing and obtains favor from
the Lord. But we should never allow ourselves
as husbands to find the joys we have with our wives with another
woman. God has given us one wife and
this delight that Isaac had in Rebekah was meant to be solely
and exclusively between him and his wife. And that's why Abimelech
knew that this must be his wife. And so it says also in Proverbs
5 verse 15, drink waters out of your own cistern. Your own
cistern would be your own well. You drink out of your own well,
buddy. Your wife is like that well to you. You're not to seek
delight or pleasure or satisfaction or attention from another woman
that you only are supposed to have from your wife. So the merriment
between a man and his wife is a small token. just a very small
token of the joy Christ has of his own. And when you think about
that, the whole thing begins to explode before our eyes. The
Lord Jesus Christ taking great delight in his wife. Jesus came,
remember, to the woman at the well to drink. And he asked her
to give me, he said, give me to drink. And she, of course,
put up that argument of why she was surprised he was talking
to her and how she was going to give it. But the point of
that whole text was that he came to the woman seeking a drink
of water, but he gave her the drink. He gave her eternal life,
and it was in giving himself for her that he found his greatest
joy and delight. The rejoicing and the joy that
Isaac had for his wife is just a reflection of Christ's delight
and total satisfaction in giving himself in order to give salvation
to his people. So the Lord Jesus, in that text
of scripture, remember what he said to her. He says, if you
knew the gift of God, you would have asked me and I would have
given you living water. Because our husband, our heavenly
husband, delights in his wife and he delights in her so much
that he gives her that water of life. And in giving that to
her, he finds delight in himself. It says in Zephaniah 3.17, That's
what we see here. Isaac sporting with his wife, Christ delighting
in his church, God delighting with his people. This is a God-given delight that a man has for his
wife. It's restricted to a man and his wife and we should never
give into the thought of such liberty or merriment in the delights
with any woman but the woman we're married to. This is God's
covenant. It's a covenant of commitment
and that commitment is required in order to have the delights
of marriage. And so it's all there. It says in Psalm 37.4, he says,
So our delight should be in Christ as his delight is with his church. So then in verse 9 it says, And
Isaac said to him, And Abimelech said, What is this
that thou hast done to us? One of the people might likely
have lying with thy wife, and thou shouldst have brought guiltiness
upon us. Abimelech charged all his people,
saying, He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely
be put to death. You see how God protected Isaac?
You see how even though he lied in fear for his own life and
put his wife at risk, God kept Abimelech and all of his people
back from hurting her and hurting Isaac? God did this. Even though
Isaac was weak, God protected him. And this man also said that
if we would have committed any kind of physical act with this
woman, we would have been guilty. And yet, you see, in today's
world there's no sense of guilt. When a man does this to another
woman, there's no sense of guilt. And here's a man, a totally ungodly
man, and he recognizes that that is guilty before God. And so
he speaks that way to Isaac and reproves him for that. It says
in verse 12, Isaac sowed in the land, he planted. He sowed in
the land and received in the same year a hundredfold, and
the Lord blessed him. He had to stay there among the
Philistines, and he planted his seed in that land, and God blessed
Isaac enormously. So much so that the Philistines
saw it. It says in verse 13, And the man Isaac waxed great,
and he went forward and grew until he became very great. For he had possessions of flocks
and possessions of herds, and great store of servants, and
the Philistines envied him. He was being blessed while they're
just getting mediocre. And here God's blessings are
just lavished upon Isaac. And so it says in verse 13, for
all the wells which his father's servants had digged in the days
of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them and filled them
with earth." Now this is an amazing thing. In the days of Abraham,
if you look back in Genesis 21, Abraham also was blessed by God. And the Philistine king and his
chief captain came to Abraham and said, Now we see that God
has blessed you, and you know we've only done you good. So
we ask you to swear and make an oath that you will not do
us any harm, you will treat us like we've treated you, and you'll
also be truthful with my son. And you will continue these things
over time. And so Abraham said, you know,
look, you want me to treat you like you've treated me? Sure,
I can do that. No problem. These men were arrogant,
they thought they were righteous, and they asked Abraham to deal
with them on the basis of their own goodness and works. And Abraham
said, that's fine. And so Abraham, he gave them
some sheep and oxen, and he took seven you lambs, and he set them
by themselves. And the king of the Philistines
looked at those seven you lambs and he said, what are these seven
you lambs over here by themselves? And Abraham said, because these
seven you lambs are a token of the covenant that I'm making
with you. And so then, at that time, Abraham called that place
Beer Sheba, which means the well of the seven new lambs. But here
it says, and so Abraham digged these wells. the well of the seven new lambs
and the oath that they made there. But here the Philistines, who
had made Abraham swear that he would not hurt them, they had
stopped up Abraham's wells after he died. They broke their covenant
with Abraham. And yet God did not break His
covenant with Isaac. He says here, in verse 16, Abimelech
said to Isaac, Go from us, for thou art much mightier than we.
They saw this man's growing exceedingly great, and he's going to take
over the land. And so they asked him, Leave
us. And so in verse 17, Isaac departed thence, and he pitched
his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there, in the valley.
Apparently they were up on the high top in the place of Gerar,
wherever they were staying, and so Isaac went down into the valley
there. And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they
had digged in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines
had stopped them after the death of Abraham. And he called their
names after the names by which his father had called them. So
he digged the wells again and called them by the same name.
Verse 19, And Isaac's servants digged in the valley, and they
found there a well of springing water. And the herdmen of Gerar
did strive with Isaac's herdmen, saying, The water is ours. And
he called the name of that well Esek, because they strove with
him. Esek, so that's the first well
we see here. It's actually the second well.
If you look back in Genesis 25, It says in Genesis 25, verse
11 of Genesis 25, it came to pass after the death of Abraham
that God blessed his son Isaac. So after Abraham died, God blessed
Isaac. And Isaac dwelt, at that time,
by the well Lehiroi. Lehiroi, that's the first well
that Isaac stays at. Isaac is a man of the well. is
a man of the well. He's always seen dwelling by
a well of water. And the first well we see him
dwelling at is this one called Lehiroi. Where did the name of
this well come from? What does it mean? Well, back
in Genesis 16, remember Hagar left Sarai when she had the son
Ishmael. Sarai said to Abraham, she needs
to go out. So they sent Hagar out. As Hagar
is leaving and out in the wilderness, she doesn't have any water. God
shows her this well. And at that time, in Genesis
chapter 16, it says that Hagar saw the well, and the name of
that place was called the Lehiroi, Beer Lehiroi. Look at Genesis
16. To remind you, it's very important
because these wells all have a significance by their names.
It says in Genesis chapter 16 and verse 7. The angel of the LORD found her
by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in
the way to Shur. 8. And he said, Hagar, Sarai's
maid, whence camest thou, and whither goest thou? 9. And she
said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai. 10. And the
angel of the LORD said to her, Return to thy mistress, and submit
thyself into her hands. And the angel of the LORD said
to her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not
be numbered for multitude. And the angel of the LORD said
to her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son,
and shalt call his name Ishmael, because the LORD hath heard thy
affliction. And he will be a wild man, and
his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against
him, and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.
And then in verse 13, listen to this. And she called the name
of the LORD that spoke to her, Thou God, seest me. And she said,
Have I also here looked after him that seeth me? Wherefore
the well was called Beer-le-Hi-Roy. Behold, it is between Kadesh
and Bered. Be'er lehiroi means the well
where God sees me. And Hagar was like a sinner in
the wilderness without water and God in his mercy showed her
this water and she realized that God saw her and she looked after
him who saw her. This is the first well that Isaac
stays at, Be'er lehiroi. What does it mean? It means that
God looks upon us And because He looks upon us, we look upon
Him. How does the Lord look upon us?
He looks upon us in His Son. And because He looks upon us
in His Son, we look to Christ. We look upon His Son. And so
looking to Him, we look to God who looks upon us. Isn't that
amazing? I look to Him who sees me. That's
what she was saying. And so, here... Isaac is by this well, Lehiroi,
but now he's going into this place where the Philistines
are, and he's having to look, and he's having to re-dig these
wells, and the first one he re-digs, in chapter 26, in verse 19 and
following, is this one called Esek. And the name Esek means
strife. They were struggling over this
well, and the herdmen of the Philistines argued, and whatever
they did in their strife with Isaac's herdmen, this is our
water. It was a well of springing water in the valley, probably
an artesian well. You know how the water is higher,
and in the valley they dig down, and the level of the water pushes
it, and it naturally just comes up, bubbling out? And they saw
that. The Philistines saw that. They
thought, that's ours. That water's ours. And so they
argued with them and they did whatever they did to strive with
them. And so Isaac said, I'm going
to name that well, Esek, which means strife. Now in this world,
as we've been seeing in this chapter, we're going to have
famine. We're going to have trouble because the people in the world
that we live amongst are not God's people. They're going to
strive with us, because we're after the Lord Jesus Christ.
We're after the water of life. We're seeking the well of the
water of life, the Lord Jesus Christ and His salvation. So
there's always this struggle, this strife. Jesus told the disciples
in John 16, 33, in the world you shall have tribulation, but
be of good cheer, I've overcome the world. And then in 2 Timothy,
Paul told Timothy, "...the servant of the Lord must not strive,
but be gentle to all men, apt to teach, patient in meekness,
instructing those that oppose themselves, if God, peradventure,
will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth."
You see, these things teach us that Isaac did the right thing.
They strove with Isaac, and Isaac just said, okay. Isaac trusted
in God. He trusted that the Lord would
give him the land in his time. He didn't push. He just said,
I'm going to wait on God. I'm going to look to what He
said and I'm going to depend on Him. And that's the way we
go to work. We live with our families. We teach them. We lead
them. We instruct them. We discipline
them. We provide for them. We depend upon our God. We meet
together. We're constantly expressing our
dependence on Christ and our hope for Him. This is the way
we live. And in so doing, we just wait patiently. Yes, the
government's completely out of whack. It seems like to us. But
God's doing everything in His time. Our bodies are failing. We just wait on the Lord for
the hope He's promised us. It doesn't seem like I have victory
in my life. I can't pray like I want to.
I can't read and meditate and understand things like I want
to. Just wait on the Lord. Look to Christ. In everything,
we stay by the well, Lehiroi. God saw us there in Christ and
we look to Him in Christ. Now, back in Genesis 18, actually
in verse 22, it says that when God told Abraham to take his
son Isaac and offer him up for a sacrifice, remember what God
did there? He found a ram and told Abraham
to offer the ram instead of his son. And remember what Abraham
said? He called the name of the Lord
there, Jehovah-Jireh. Remember that? And Isaac, before
Abraham had offered him up, or put him on the altar, he asked
his father, he said, Father, I see the fire and I see the
wood for the burnt offering, but where's the lamb? And Abraham
said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb. Remember that? In Genesis, chapter 22. And so,
in that place there, when the Lord told Abraham, when Abraham,
the prophet of God, spoke and called God Jehovah-Jireh, what
we're seeing there is the same thing as the well Lahairoi here.
Because Jehovah-Jireh means the Lord will see. the Lord will
see." And what does that mean? Well, it means that God's going
to see, and when the Lord sees for His people, it means He also
provides for them. If He sees our need, He's also
going to provide for our need. And so, the Lord will see means
the Lord will see to it. God will see to the needs of
His people. He will provide for their needs.
And how did He do that? Well, he saw our need in Adam. Our need in Adam was we fell
in sin. And then he saw our need in our own sin. He saw that we
were going to come under the guilt and condemnation of sin.
And he saw our need, and what did he do? He provided for our
need in Christ. The Lord will see, the Lord will
provide, and so He provides everything. And then in our lives, after
the cross, He sees us in our life, and He sees that we're
dead in sins. He sees our need, and so He sends His word, and
He gives us life. He gives us faith to look to
Christ. He sees us, and He provides for us. And then, also, not only
does it mean the Lord We'll see and provide, but it means the
Lord shall be seen in what he sees and provides. Because when
the Lord provided Christ for us, we see the Lord in that provision,
don't we? When the Lord gives us Christ
and points us to Him, then we understand who God is. And we
trust Him. And so Isaac is trusting in the
Lord who sees. The Lord who provides. The Lord
who is seen in what He provides. And that's what Jehovah-Jireh
means. Isaac was saved from death because of the Lamb that God
provided for him. And so that's why, in all these
things, when he sits by this well, Lehiroi, he's referring
to that. And now, this well here that
the Philistines strive over, he calls it, uh, uh, strife. A well, isek, it's strife. And
so it says in verse 21, And they digged another well. He didn't
stay there and insist on this well. He just moved on. He trusted
in the Lord. He said, and they digged another
well and strove from that also. And he called the name of it
Sitna. Sitna. The word Sitna means hatred.
Isaac's servants were in the land of the Philistines. The
king of the Philistines and the people, he had to tell them,
leave Isaac's wife alone. And then Isaac was blessed. And
God blessed Isaac. And the Philistines said, you
need to leave us. You're more and mightier than we are. He
goes out and digs a well. They see there's water. They
steal it from him. He goes and digs another well.
They come and they argue over that one too, to take it also.
And he says, I'm hated. I'm hated by these people, so
he calls it Sitna. That was the name of the well.
The first one, strife. The second one, hatred. And didn't
the Lord Jesus say, the servant is not greater than his master?
If they've hated the master, they're going to hate the servant.
If you proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ and you live for His glory,
they're going to hate you if they hated Him. Whatever they've
done to me, they're going to do to you. That's what Jesus
said. And so Isaac understood that and he called the name of
that place, Sitna, hatred. And so we're hated in this world
for Christ's sake. And when we are, it brings glory
to God. It's God's purpose that we suffer
for doing right. We suffer for doing right. We
shouldn't suffer for doing wrong. We do though. But we should always
realize that God's purpose is also that we suffer for doing
right. But then look on in verse 23. I'm sorry, verse 22. Genesis 26, 22. And so Isaac
removed from thence, and he digged another well. And for that they
strove not, and he called the name of that well Rehoboth. Rehoboth. And he said, For now the Lord
hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.
And they went up from thence to Beersheba. So here, Isaac
is by another well. First it was Lehiroi, then it
was Esach, which is strife. And then it was Sitna, which
is hatred. And now he comes and he digs another well. These guys
took the first two. They plugged up the wells Abraham
had dug. And now he digs another well. He removes himself farther
from them and digs again. They find water and it's called
Rehoboth. God has made room for us. That's
patience, isn't it? Patience. How much work would
it have been for a man to dig a well in those days? There was
a famine in that land. It must have been hard. I can't
imagine to dig a well with a shovel by hand. All the servants it
took to do that. It was a huge expense. He had
to provide food for them and their families while they're
digging this well. A lot of work. I imagine that Isaac's servants
were probably wondering, man, why don't we just fight these
guys? I'm sure some of them wanted to do that. But Isaac said, no,
we're going to let God deal with them. We're going to just look
to Christ, we're going to walk by faith, and we're going to
let God deal with it. We're going to go about our business
looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. A patient man, a man who trusted
God, a man who hoped in God's promises. He lived by faith on
Christ, looking for the promises, while in this world, under all
the famine, the failures, and the struggles and strifes, he
just kept waiting on the Lord Jesus Christ. And so it says
here, that in verse 23. And he went up from thence to
Beersheba. Beersheba. Now that was the name
of the well that Abraham, I referred to earlier when Abimelech, the
king of the Philistines, came to Abraham and made him swear.
He said those seven ewe lambs by themselves. Abraham said,
these seven ewe lambs are because of the oath of this well. And
so it meant the well of the seven ewe lambs of the oath. the well
of the oath of those seven you lambs that was what the well
meant and so Isaac comes to this place after he had dug the well
in Rehoboth it says he came from thence to Beersheba and notice
in verse 24 and the Lord appeared to him the same night and said
I am the God of Abraham thy father he says fear not For I am with
thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant
Abraham's sake. God reiterates the promises again. You've come here to the well
again. You've come for water to the well. And he says this
well called the well of the oath. And he says, I am the God of
your father Abraham. Fear not. I am with thee. I will bless thee. I will multiply
thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake. And there it says, Isaac
built an altar. And he called upon the name of
the Lord, and he pitched his tent there, and there Isaac's
servants digged a well. Obviously the well needed to
be dug again because it had been stopped by the Philistines. He
built an altar there, he called on the name of the Lord, he pitched
his tent there, and Isaac's servants digged a well. What is this talking
about? This is what we do, isn't it? God has told us of our salvation
in the Lord Jesus Christ. The God of Abraham is the God
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the One who justified us by His blood
and righteousness, sent His Son into the world that He might
bless the Gentiles through Him. He says, I'm with you, I will
bless you, I'll multiply your seed. And he built an altar there,
the place of worship, where God spoke to him and pointed him
to Christ. He built an altar there and he called in the name
of the Lord. To call in the name of the Lord
means to worship God. Calling on him for his salvation.
Do you know that when you take from Christ by faith, you're
worshiping God? Do you know that when you take
from Him by faith and giving thanks to God for salvation in
Him, that's worship? Jesus told the woman at the well,
you worship you don't know what. We know what we worship, for
salvation is of the Jews. It's about God's salvation. I'll
take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. And that's where Isaac stayed.
We stay where God has shown us His grace in Christ, don't we?
When God has shown us His grace in Christ, we stay there. We
pitch our tent there, and we dig a well. I'm staying right
here, where God has revealed Himself to me. And verse 26,
Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahazath, one of Abimelech's
friends, and Phicol, the chief captain of his army. And Isaac
said to them, Wherefore come ye to me, seeing you hate me?
and have sent me away from you. They said, We saw certainly that
the Lord is with you. And we said, Let there be now
an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and thee, and let us make
a covenant with thee, that thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have
not touched thee, and as we have done unto thee nothing but good. Men want to live, the men of
this world want to live on the basis of works, and yet their
works are not what they claim to be. We've only done you good,
but we know that they haven't. They stole the wells from him.
And we've sent you away in peace. Thou art now blessed of the Lord.
And so Isaac made a feast for them, and they did eat and drink,
and they rose up at times in the morning, and swore one to
another, and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from
him in peace. Isaac was a man of peace, wasn't
he? He didn't hold their feet to the fire over this thing.
He just simply promised not to do them hurt, and it came to
pass. Remember what God says in his
word, as much as is in you is, live at peace with all men, It
came to pass the same day that Isaac's servants came and told
him concerning the well which they had digged, and said, We
found water, and he called it Sheba, which is swearing, or
oath. Therefore the name of the city
is Beersheba to this day, the well of the oath. The same one
that Abraham had dug earlier. And then it tells about how Esau
went out and married these heathen wives. The well of the oath,
that's where Isaac lived. We live in this world by the
well of living water. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
well of living water. We draw water out of the wells
of salvation because he gave himself that we might drink,
just like the woman at the well. Give me to drink. How can I?
She should have said, the well is deep. I can't give you to
drink. And the Lord says, if you would
have known who asked you, and the gift of God, you would have
asked him, he would have given you living water. That's what
we need to do. We live together. We meet together. We all call on the Lord Jesus
Christ. We all dwell by that well, don't we? The well of living
water, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, we pray. that as you
took care of Isaac and all of his life, that you would take
care of us. As you revealed yourself to him in the Lord Jesus, you
would reveal yourself to us in Christ. As you promised blessings
to him in Christ, you would promise to us these same blessings. As
you gave him faith to believe on Jesus, we would have that
faith to believe on him. We would live by him. We would
hope in him. Through all the struggles of
this life, all the disappointments, the famine, the strife and the
hatred and everything that happens to us, Lord, we would not be
shaken. We would look to your promises.
We would trust your Son. We would wait upon you. We would
declare your name and we would stay by the well. We would worship
at your altar, which is the Lord Jesus. We would meet with your
people We would speak of your glories and tell how you redeemed
us by your blood. Tell how our only hope in this
life is the glory in the Lord Jesus Christ that he has provided
for us out of his own sufferings and death. And we would live
with one another in love and in worship of him, our Lord Jesus.
And we would trust you and you would give us this faith and
keep us till the end of our days because you do all things well
in your time. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.