MJAA SER Conference 2021 Sunday Night

Sermon

I want to talk with you this evening about the life of Isaac, particularly the idea of spiritual renewal as we see in Genesis 26 with Isaac re-digging the wells of his father.

Early in the chapter, Isaac made a stupid mistake when he was attempting to flee to Egypt by trying to follow his dad’s footsteps a little too far and telling Rebekah to say she was his sister so the Philistines wouldn’t kill him for her. Not only did the Philistines already have beef with Abraham, but they have doubled down on that beef with Isaac. So Avimelech runs Isaac out of town and Isaac is probably somewhat distraught and disappointed… Heck, he is only human and very well likely reacting like we might: complaining to God asking Him why He could have let this happen, let him get kicked out of a comfortable situation…

He’s possibly a little lost… Maybe feeling a little broken… Even though he knows that God is with him, even though he’s already encountered the voice of God, he likely felt suddenly distant from God.

Funny how sin can do that to us, right? How sin can suddenly make us feel like God isn’t with us, even though it was really us not residing in Him.

Yet, in the midst of Isaac’s struggle, the Lord dramatically blessed Isaac. But, this divine blessing on Isaac’s life only made the beef with the Philistines worse because the Philistines became envious of him and they drove him away.

So, what does Isaac do? He began to dig up the wells his father dug—which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham’s death. In a lot of ways Isaac is retracing his father’s footsteps, he is spiritually learning from what his father experienced. And like Abraham, Isaac is a man seeking after the heart of God.

Once Abraham, this great man of faith, died the first thing the Philistines attempted to do was wipe his memory off the face of the earth. They immediately stopped up the wells of living water he had dug. I want you to think hard on this for a moment too, Imagine how desperate the Philistines must have been to try to get him out of their memory, so much so they stopped up perfectly good wells which could have provided water for them and been a blessing to them.

Isaac returns to the wells of his father. We know biblically and spiritually that water is a symbol of spiritual renewal. Isaac is, I believe, looking for a bit of spiritual renewal… He encountered God personally, then almost immediately sinned. And this wasn’t just a simple sin, no it was a sin cause by a generational curse in that it was the same thing his father did, but also a sin that caused a generational curse that effected Israel all the way through the Davidic dynasty. And, if we really want to wrestle with the generational implications, the mistakes Isaac makes along the way leave a wake of generational curses that still effects Israel today, at least in name, with the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

So Isaac’s men dig at one of these well sites, and immediately God provides Mayim Chayim—living water. The Philistines come around and claim the water as theirs, so Isaac names the well Esek (contention or quarrel) because he found waters of life but no Shalom.

Then he digs another well of his father and what do they find? Mayim Chayim again!!! And then what happens? The Philistines again fight with him over this well . So he names this well Sitnah (hostility or accusation) because again he finds waters of life but no Shalom.

Remember, before Isaac came around the Philistines wanted nothing to do with these wells of Abraham. In fact, they wanted so little to do with them they stopped them up and filled them with dirt so no one could be blessed by them. But now all of the sudden they want it all to themselves.

But Isaac isn’t done looking for his spiritual renewal… He lets them have both of those wells and moves on to another. The finding of the Mayim Chayim was completely because Adonai was blessing Isaac and Avimelech knew it.

So, Isaac is two for two on finding Mayim Chayim in the wells of his father and then losing them because of the Philistines, but he isn’t finished yet, he isn’t ready to throw in the towel. And see, this is an important reality to spiritual renewal. Sometimes we take that first step, then the second step pressing into the Ruach and the world comes at us like the Philistines—wanting to contend with us, wanting to throw accusations at us, wanting to tear us down. But it’s important to remember the closer we get to God the more the world will want to tear us down, the more the enemy will come after us. So we can’t give in just because the going gets a little tough.

So Isaac doesn’t throw in the towel either, he presses in…

Genesis 26:22 TLV

Then he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he named it Wide Spaces and said, “Because now Adonai has created wide spaces for us and we will be fruitful in the land.”

This time he finds exactly what he’s been looking for, Mayim Chayim and no one is coming at him, no one is trying to tear him down, no one is trying to rob him of God’s glory.

And here he again encounters God, this time at Be’er Sheva, and the Lord blesses and reaffirms covenant with him. Now Isaac has finally found spiritual renewal. And more so, he has again encounter God and now knows more than ever that Adonai isn’t just the God of Abraham, but He is also the God of Isaac. And this is something that no one can take away from him—not the Philistines, not the world, no one.

In Jeremiah 2:13 this very reality is one of the many issues Adonai calls out Israel for, among idolatry and so much more:

Adonai, speaking through Jeremiah, tells Israel that they have forsaken their living water in Him, they have dug up wells that are cracked and have no water. Israel had traded Adonai for idolatry, traded their spiritual renewal for spiritual death and despair.

In John 4, Yeshua tells us if we drink of the Mayim Chayim, His water of life, then we’d never be thirsty again. The Mayim Chayim would spring up from within us to eternal life. Keep in mind, again, Mayim Chayim throughout Scripture is a symbol of spiritual renewal, and Yeshua is pointing forward to the Ruach HaKodesh which will spring forth from our inmost being.

This is the same spiritual renewal, the same well re-digging that Isaac was chasing. This is the same spiritual renewal Jeremiah says Israel had forsaken. If we want to see spiritual renewal, if we want to experience revival we must return to the Waters of Life that will never run dry, to the Waters of Life that the world can never stop up and block. If we want spiritual renewal we must return to the spiritual well that our forefathers of faith in Yeshua, the Talmidim, experienced in Acts 2.

And there’s nothing the Body of Messiah needs more today than a fresh spiritual renewal, a powerful revival. So let’s return back to the wells of our fathers. Let’s go back to the Scriptures and dig into the lives of these men and women of God. I promise you, all of our greatest biblical heroes have been in our shoes. And in the lives of our patriarchs and matriarchs throughout Scripture we are able to see how to overcome the ways of this world to be able to fully embrace the Mayim Chayim, the Waters of Life that will never run dry. We will experience the power of spiritual renewal, the power of revival in the Ruach HaKodesh.

And there’s nothing the world around us needs more than to see the Body of Messiah experience the raging wild fire of the Ruach HaKodesh (despite all their contention and accusation against us, like the Philistines against Isaac).

And listen to me closely here folks, the Messianic Jewish movement, Jew and Gentile one in Messiah, is the key to Revival in the Body. And it is key to the Salvation on Israel. We are very literally digging up the wells of our fathers.

So let’s return to the wells of our fathers today, right here, right now...