Turn with me please to Genesis
chapter 26 and verse 18. And we're thinking about the
history once again of Isaac, son of Abraham. And particularly,
and I wonder if you'll notice this, maybe I shouldn't tell
you until after we've finished our reading, but I'll give you
a little bit of a clue. We're going to be thinking about Isaac's
wells. So see if you can spot some wells
being mentioned in our reading today. 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 of which his father had called them. And Isaac's
servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing
water. And the herdsmen of Gerar did
strive with Isaac's herdmen, saying, The water is ours. And he called the name of the
well Issach, because they strove with him. And they digged another
well, and strove for that also. And he called the name of it
Sidna. And he removed from thence, and
digged another well, and for that they strove not. And he
called the name of it Rehoboth. And he said, For now the Lord
hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land. And he went up from Thense to
Beersheba. 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.' 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. Then
Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzath, one of his friends,
and Philchol, the captain of his army. And Isaac said unto
them, Wherefore come ye to me, seeing ye hate me, and have sent
me away from you? 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, that thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have
not touched thee, and as we have done unto thee nothing but good,
and have sent thee away in peace. Thou art now the blessed of the
Lord. And he made them a feast, and
they did eat and drink. And they rose up betimes in the
morning, and swear one to another. And Isaac sent them away, and
they departed from him in peace. 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. And he called it Sheba, Therefore
the name of the city is Beersheba unto this day. Amen. May the Lord bless to us this
reading from his word. Water is very important. Indeed it is essential to life. Without water there can be no
life. And in the days of Abraham and
Isaac, and in the land of Abraham and Isaac, water was just as
important. Whether it was for personal use
or whether it was for animal care, having access or not to
a good water supply could mean life or death, literally. And in these verses that we read
today, we met with four different wells. In fact, it may be that
we met with many more wells if we take this opening verse to
be a reference to Isaac opening up wells that Abraham had digged
in Gerar, before he even began digging the wells that he personally
dug for himself in the valley of Gerar. Be that as it may,
there are many wells spoken of here. And if we add another one,
one that is spoken of, the well at Leheroi in chapter 25, verse
11, where Isaac dwelt for some time, then it appears that we
at least have these five major wells that are named in the history
of Isaac. Why did the Holy Spirit, I wonder,
feel it necessary to specify and teach us about these five
wells? Well, as we have mentioned, these
wells were important to the health and wealth and trade and society
of the people at the time. But because they were so important,
they were also a source of trouble and conflict. Indeed, water still
is a source of conflict in many countries and will increasingly
become so. Water is a source of conflict
in the region where Abraham and Isaac lived to this day. And in our own countries, we
hear talk about lowering water levels and a need to preserve
water. Isaac, of course, was a peaceable
man, and yet it seems as if people took advantage of that, and often
he was defrauded by those who tried to benefit from his work
and steal from him what God had given to him. These wells that
we associate with Isaac were given specific names. They are Lahiroi, and that means
God seest me. Another is called esech, which
means strife, that's in verse 20. Sitna, which is hatred, in
verse 21. Rehoboth, lots of room, in verse
22. And shepa, which means an oath
or a promise, in verse 33. And it seems that Isaac lived
at Beersheba, where Abraham had planted a grove many, many years
before, perhaps over a hundred years before. And then, and for
a time following Abraham's death, he had lived in this place called
Leherai, which is where we remember hearing about Hagar and Ishmael
and that well which provided for their life and well-being. Doing so, Isaac lived under the
eye of the Lord. And this reminds us that God's
people, God's chosen people, his elect, live constantly under
the all-seeing eye of Almighty God. God watches over us. He knows what we're doing. He
sees what we're doing. And he sees the things that pertain
to our life. So he watches over his own dear
people, providing for us, protecting us and preserving us by his grace. And when the famine came into
the land, Isaac was forced to move and there he dwelt amongst
the Philistines, a people who both hated him and feared him
because they knew that the blessing of God was with him. But that
reminds us that the Lord's people are not immune from trouble in
this world. And as we have seen in both the
life of Abraham and Isaac, there are troubles before those who
love the Lord and those whom the Lord loves. So just because
we love the Lord doesn't mean to say that we won't know trouble
in our lives. but our God never loses sight
of his own people. Isaac's time amongst the Philistines
was characterized by strife and hatred, and the Philistine herdmen
fought against Isaac's herdmen and expelled them from the Gerar
Valley. And that's a picture of the church's
discomfort in a foreign land. We're looking for a place where
we can rest. We're looking to go to heaven.
We're looking for that rest that we find in the Lord Jesus Christ. And Isaac, he repeatedly sought
peace, and he dug more and more wells, and his enemies kept on
striving with him. There's a lovely little note
in verse 19 that tells us about Isaac's herdman discovering a
well of springing water. And that means that it was a
bubbling well. It was a well that bubbled up
out of the ground like a fresh spring. And this well flowed
all year round. It never dried up, which made
it very precious, very valuable. And very interestingly, we find
that that springing well is the same word and the same description
that is used in John chapter four in the New Testament when
the Lord Jesus Christ meets the woman at the well in Samaria
and he speaks to her of living water and spiritual life that
springs up from within a person, a well of water springing up
into everlasting life. Isaac found living water in the
midst of his enemies. And those of us who find the
Lord Jesus Christ as our saviour, find that same living water in
the midst of our enemies in this world. For a time, the Lord gave
Isaac peace in Rehoboth, a large area with few people. But that
really was not his home. From there Isaac returned to
Beersheba and that was likely the place of his childhood and
it was a place where he once again had renewed to him the
promises of God. God met him and blessed him. There Isaac built an altar, there
he worshipped God and there God's promises of grace and glory were
renewed. God never forgets his promises
of grace and mercy to his people. He watches over us. He always
cares for us, even if our enemies rise against us. And when Isaac
built that altar at Beersheba, that speaks of the Lord Jesus
Christ and his sacrifice for our sins. Because Jesus was the
Lamb of God, who was laid upon the altar in order to accomplish
our salvation and forgiveness. It speaks of Isaac's faith in
God's promises. It speaks of God's oath and God's
sacrifice. Today we don't build altars and
dig wells but the Lord Jesus Christ is still our acceptable
sacrifice and He still assures that we will have peace with
God, even in the midst of this troubled time. He is the living
water that springs up in our hearts, refreshing and restoring
our spirit, and in a time of trial, reminding us of our heavenly
home and the promised glory that is to come. May the Lord bless
these thoughts to us from his word. Amen.