Dig Wells

Reading

Genesis 26:1–25 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. (Now the Philistines had stopped and filled with earth all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father.) And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.” So Isaac departed from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar and settled there. And Isaac dug again the wells of water that had been dug in the days of Abraham his father, which the Philistines had stopped after the death of Abraham. And he gave them the names that his father had given them. But when Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of spring water, the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well Esek, because they contended with him. Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that also, so he called its name Sitnah. And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth, saying, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.” From there he went up to Beersheba. And the Lord appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of Abraham your father. Fear not, for I am with you and will bless you and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham’s sake.” So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord and pitched his tent there. And there Isaac’s servants dug a well.

Isaac Famine

Goes down to land of Philistines26:1-5

follows sins of father

followed then by blessing

reaping hundred fold

Becoming wealthy

Envy of Philistines

They had filled the wells of Abraham

He needed wells

He was looking for the essential

There is an urgency in the church

simply living on the capital of the past

carrying on only by custom and habit

then we miss something fundamental

the need of life itself

We are in need of water

the spirit and life itself

What did Isaac do with this need?

what he didn’t do

doesn’t send for the experts

to find new

the water diviners

the philistines

who are they in our days

philosophy

psychology

youth ministers

support groups

darwinism

he goes to the old

He dug again the wells that had been dug

He goes back to what he knows works

Abraham had always found water

and had an abundant supply

do not experiment in crisis

Remember

God is still the same

Man is still the same

Same problems

we think we are over these problems

eat, drinking, war, sex, theft, robbery ...

all in the bible

Finding water

Solution is the same

Jesus Christ

there were times when we held to this

Jesus Christ is the same

Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

What do we need

Go back

Acts and the apostles

What did they find when they went back

the Philistines had stopped them up

filled them with earth

The water is still there

they couldn’t see it

and it wasn’t available

What is happening in churches

the work of the Philistines

we need to understand an enemy

we find the little things that we say pull away

but they have always been