Dig Another Well (Chester UMC)

This is one of my favorite Bible passages and Bible stories.

I have never had the opportunity to preach on it before.

You're getting it today. So you're getting about, you

know, 25 years worth of energy behind this sermon today.

I'm going to try to keep it under 45 now.

I'll keep it in in good time. But but I, I love this story and

and there doesn't seem to be on the surface a lot happening here

and until we really dig into the context.

So just a little bit of a reminder of where we are in in

Isaac and and Rebecca's life. Abraham and Sarah, I have Sarah,

have both died and they have been buried in the only real

estate that their entire family, their entire clan owns.

Is, is is a burial plot. And that's where Abraham and

Sarah are. Now, Isaac is the patriarch of

the family. He's responsible for the whole

household. He's responsible for providing

every man, woman and child in his entourage in his household

with adequate food, shelter, clothing, safety, all of it.

And they do that primarily by herding animals and growing

crops. The problem is, is that there's

a famine. A famine has come to the whole

region, and God comes to Isaac and says don't leave now.

Famines. Everyone in this community knows

how devastating famines are, particularly for those whose

livelihood is in agriculture. But in those days, it was far

more devastating than anything we would experience today in

this country. I mean, there's no way to

irrigate. There's no way to move vast

amounts of water over large distances.

And even if there were in that region, Isaac didn't own the

land anyway, and he didn't own the rights to the water anyway.

Famine would wipe him out. He's a stranger.

He's a foreigner in the land. He's an alien there and he's got

no place to say this is mine. I claim this, everybody else

stay out and we're going to make our go of it here.

Instead, he has to depend on the willingness of other powers,

other authorities, other kings in the area to say you can stay

here in an environment where there's less and less and less

and less because of the famine. But God says stay.

And so Isaac stays, and he plants crops, and they flourish.

And during the famine, while everyone else is struggling to

feed their animals, feed their families, grow their crops, do

all of those things, Isaac is flourishing and he's getting

wealthier and wealthier and wealthier.

And the people around him resent it and are envious.

They say, get out, we don't want you here anymore.

So he gets out and he digs up. He, he moves to another area

where the wells that his father had dug have been filled up with

earth. He opens those wells and now

suddenly people are fighting over them.

People are filling up his wells with dirt and he he moves on.

He digs more wells and then they fight over that and they take

the well from him and he moves on and they digs another well

and they come in and they take that and claim that well and he

moves on and he digs and it just keeps going and going and going.

Just an incredible story right here.

Easily overlooked where Isaacs, a well in the Judean, in the in

the Philistine area, in that space between the Jordan River

and the Mediterranean Sea, A well is life.

It's life for everyone, particularly for a farmer and a

sheep and a goat herder. A well is you have to have a

well, particularly in a famine. The only way to have water in

that region during a famine is to have a well.

And Isaac's wells keep getting filled with dirt or taken from

him. And the question is, what will

Isaac do in response? But before we talk about that, I

have a question. Well, I tell you, I've got a lot

of excitement and energy around this.

Part of it stems from one of my favorite songs ever is based on

this Bible passage. I don't know if you remember

Paul Overstreet. I don't think he's done a lot

recently in terms of songwriting.

He's had a few big hits that he's written and some that he's

written for others. If you're a country western fan

and know forever and ever, Amen. Paul Overstreet's the guy that

wrote that. And, and he, he is a person of

faith. I got the chance to meet him at

a Billy Graham evangelistic crusade in Mansfield.

OH, pushing, you know, 2530 years ago now.

And he's short. He's like that tall.

He's a really short guy, great musician, very friendly, very

outgoing person of deep faith. He has written a song.

I'm going to I'm I'm going to play the song for you.

I put a little cheesy video behind it so we'd have something

to watch. The lyrics are up there if you

want to follow along. But but the simple fact is, is

if if you listen to this song, you're going to get the whole

sermon anyway. So the rest is just me, you

know, making it longer. All right, here we go.

Well I had a blessing from the Lord up above.

He gave him a beautiful woman to love, a place to live and some

land farm. 2 good legs and two good arms.

Well the devil came sneaking around one night.

Decided he would do a little eagle to like.

Figured he would hit a like where it hurts so it filled up

all of ox whales with dirt. When I went out for his morning

drink he got a dipper full of dirt and his heart did sink but

he knew it was a devil. So he said with a grin, God

bless me once and he can do it again.

He bless me once and he can do it again.

So when the rays don't fall, and the crops all fail, and the cow

ain't putting any milk in the pail, don't sit around waiting

for a check in the mail. Just pick up the shovel and dig

another well. Pick up the shovel and dig

another well. Now me and old I got a lot in

common. The Lord bless me with a

beautiful woman. He gave me a job, He gave me a

home, He gave me a well to call my own.

Now when I go out for my morning drink and get a dipper full of

dirt and my heart does same but I think of old I can, I have to

grin because God bless me once and he can do it again.

He bless me once and he can do it again.

So when the rains don't fall and the crops all fail and the cows

ain't putting any milk in the pail, don't sit around waiting

for a check in the mail. Just pick up the show.

Dig another well, Dig up the shovel, dig another well.

Well, the good book says I finally won.

Dig up the shovel, dig another well.

The devil got tired and he left him alone.

Pick up the shovel and I know someday I'm going to win too.

Pick up the shovel. The good book tells me what to

do. Pick up the shovel and take

another well. Pick up the shovel and take

another well. Pick up the shovel and take

another well. Pick up the shovel and take

another well. Poets are amazing.

They can take, you know, these big concepts and and distill

them down in a few very, very engaging words.

If you want short sermons, hire a poet.

I'm just going to say that Here's a question to start with,

though. What's your well?

What's your well? You know, for Isaac Farmer, his

well was a literal well, but but that well by any measure was a

source of life, the source of life in a famine.

What is it in your life that you absolutely need in order to

survive for the next day, the next week, the next month?

And I'm not, I'm not talking about, I mean, we're not talking

about wants versus needs here. We're talking about needs.

If you're going to live, you need water.

If Isaac was going to live and support his family in a drought

in that region, he needed a well.

This was not God making water come from a rock.

He needed a well. What is it you need that your

life depends on? Is it a job?

Is it a relationship, a talent OR ability?

Is it a a dream or a plan? Is it something else, something

that you feel like if I can't get that, I'm not going to make

it. If I don't get that, I'm not

going to survive. If I lose that, then then it's

all over. We're done.

What's your well, because this passage is more than just

historical story about Isaac. It's about what we do and how we

respond as followers of God, as heirs of the blessing that God

made to Isaac. I'm going to bless all nations

of the earth through you. That's us.

We're some of that and, and how do we respond when we get up in

the morning and our well is gone?

Whether it's the job, the relationship, the talent, the

ability, the dream, something else.

I one of the people I think of when I think of this is Dave

Durvecki. Do you remember Dave Durvecki?

He was a baseball player for the Padres and Giants back in the

80s. I was a pitcher, very successful

by any measure. Not, you know, not the greatest

pitcher of all time, but very successful.

Made the All Star game one year, pitched very well.

He pitched over 1000 innings I think, or maybe 1000 games, I

don't know. It was a lot.

And then he got cancer in his pitching arm, and to remove the

cancer they had to do surgery and the doctors told him he'd

probably never pitch again, much less pitch at a Major League

level. What do you do when the very

thing you depend on for your life is about to go away or

does, in fact, go away? What's your will?

In order for us to really sort out how this story connects with

our lives, we have to we have to identify what are those things

that I think I that I need, I want to, I keep, I want to make

this something in my brain wants to make this about wants versus

needs. But these are just plain needs.

What is it that you need in order to live?

And then what can you do when your well gets filled with dirt,

when that thing that you need suddenly isn't there?

It's taken away from you. Not, you know, whether the

reason is good or bad, just or unjust.

Whether, whether you were able, whether, whether, whatever the

source, whatever the reason, whatever the rationale, it's

gone. What do you do when your well

gets filled with dirt? There are a lot of options.

Isaac had a lot of options. We've got a lot of options.

One of the things we can do is quit.

I'm done. I quit.

I give up. I can't do it without that,

without that person, without that thing, without that job,

without my dreams. I can't.

I can't. We can quit.

That's one option. Isaac could have quit.

I'm in a famine. God says I have to stay, but I

can't stay without water and the wells keep getting taken or or

or filled in by my enemies. I don't know what guy we got to

go. I'm just going to quit.

God said don't go to Egypt, but I don't see any other options.

I'm leaving. We could quit.

We could quit. You can run away.

Go to Egypt, move leaving all of this faith business behind.

I'm leaving whatever. We can run away.

We can complain and blame. That's my favorite man.

I'm I'm a I'm a natural born complainer.

It's easy, easy to complain, easy to blame for me anyway.

That's one of mine. That's one of mine.

We can complain and we can blame.

We can fight. Isaac could have fought.

I mean, when Abimelech told Isaac to get out, he said you're

too powerful for us. Remember what Abraham did when

when his nephew Lot and his family were taking his political

prisoners and hostages, he raised his own private army of

his own employees and and went and fought against 5 kings to

get his people back and he won. Isaac had inherited all of that

from Abraham. He could have fought.

You could have fought these, I think.

I think these are the general options.

Quit, run away, complain and blame.

Fight one or all of those things we can do.

Or we can dig another well, which is what Isaac did.

Fill up this well, I'll dig another well.

Fill up that well, I'll dig another well.

You take this one from me, I'll go dig another well.

You know, take that one from me. I'll move on and go.

I'll go dig another well. We can dig another.

Well, the risk here as we think of this story as some sort of

bootstrap theology, you know, you got a problem, just, you

know, fix it yourself or, or some sort of, you know, suck it

up and walk it off kind of theology.

You're down, you're out. I'll just get up and, and, and,

and muscle on, you know, just just work through it, work

through the pain where that's not what this is about.

This business of Isaac digging another well and moving on is

not in the Bible to teach us just to suck it up and bear it

and, and get on with living and, and don't complain.

It's here for for quite another reason.

But to see what that reason is, let's talk about the devil in

this story. Paul Overstreet and his musical

interpretation, lyrical interpretation of the story, he

says the devil, the devil decided the devil was sneaking

around one night and decided to do a little evil to Ike.

And so he filled Ike's wells with dirt.

I'm going to make a confession. I did.

I heard the song before I read the story, and I thought, that's

cool. That sounds like that might

actually be from the Bible. I bet Ike is Isaac.

And I looked it up and I was like, there ain't no devil in

here. Where's the devil in the book?

In the Bible, it's the Philistines.

Those are the that's the land. They were in the land of the

Philistines. Those were the native people in

that land. There was, there was this

Philistines, not the devil. And they were, they were taking

water. They needed water too.

They were water there. It was their land.

They were taking the water. They were filling up Isaac's

wells to move him off of their land.

Where's the devil in this story? Let's take a look at this.

He, that is Isaac, had so many flocks and herds and servants

that the Philistines envied him. So all the wells that his

father's servants had dug in the time of his father Abraham, the

Philistines stopped. Philistines stopped up filling

them with earth. The devil's in the envy.

The devil's in the envy. God had blessed Isaac in an in

amazing ways. They're in the middle of the

famine when everyone else is struggling.

Isaac's flourishing on their land with their water.

And they envied that. They were jealous of that.

And in their envy and in their jealousy, they took from Isaac.

They took from Isaac what he had trying to steal his blessing,

steal the good things that he had.

And Isaac, Isaac has it. Envy is one of the most

pernicious tools the devil has and and one of the most

dangerous. It just seeps in so easy when we

look at what other folks have and say, man, why can't I have

that? I should have that.

I think I'm going to take that. And whether we act on that and

actually commit theft or destroy what someone else has out of

envy, the envy is still there and it's like it's spiritual

cancer. Envy sucks the joy out of life.

Envy sucks the hope out of life. Envy sucks the love out of life.

It's very hard to be in a loving relationship with someone you're

envious of. Envy is a spiritual cancer, and

that's where the devil entered into this story.

He didn't show up with a band of demons and Philip Isaac's wells.

He showed up whispering in the ears of the people around Isaac,

saying, Can you believe that guy?

Look at all he's got. You know what?

The only reason he has so much is because whatever, whatever

the it's not fair. He took it.

It really should be yours anyway.

And out of envy, the Philistines stole Isaac's wells or filled

them with dirt. Isaac, one of the dangers in the

spiritual life and life of faith.

We will always get attacked by the devil in some way or

another. We're followers of Jesus.

Everywhere Jesus went, some people loved him, some people

wanted to kill him. Everywhere Paul and his other

disciples went, people love them or people wanted to kill them.

And, and as we're faithfully following Jesus, we will

encounter opposition. And, and one of the things

that's helpful to remember is when other human beings are

coming at us to remember, you know, what's really behind this

is the devil. And I'm not talking about seeing

a demon behind every Bush. I'm talking about understanding

and remembering and calling to mind that we're part of a

millennial long spiritual war and we've picked sides and we've

been picked for a side. And so we're going to face

opposition. So the flesh and blood people

that we face are not really our enemies.

It's it's the demons that are whispering in their ears.

And leading them astray and leading them down a path.

And that helps us to respond to them in a different way.

Because if we see the people as our enemies, then we run the

risk of falling into the same trap of envy that they're

already in. And Isaac could have done that.

How dare they take those that belonged to me, that belonged to

my family. I need that.

I want that. I dug that well.

My father dug that well. That's mine.

I'm. I'm taking it back.

We'll go to war. We'll go to war.

We'll fight over it. We'll see who wins.

And suddenly, instead of hope in the promised land, there's

violence and there's conflict and there's war and there's no

blessing for anyone in that. But if we remember, it's the

devil and and that that person that's coming after us is, is

they're being hurt by the envy as much as we are being hurt by

their envy. And what can we do?

One of the most extraordinary things here is that Isaac said

in essence, you know what? There's plenty of water.

God, God, he gave me one well. God will give me another well.

He blessed me once with all the water that I needed.

He'll bless me again. I don't need to fight that

person. Let him have it.

Let him. Let him have it.

Let him have it. It's OK, God made me fabulous.

I'm a farmer that God made fabulously wealthy in the midst

of a famine. What am I worried about?

What am I worried about? In the end, the devil's attacks

always have to bow to God's sovereignty.

And if we can remember that it's the devil that's coming after us

and not that other person, not really, even though they they

might be doing the devil's work knowingly or unknowingly, and

that it's the devil behind it. What we can also remember is

that God has already defeated the devil.

God's sovereignty always wins over the devil's attacks.

Always. The devil's attacks have to bow

to God's sovereignty. You know, this is not lambs and

bunnies and fluff and Nutter here.

The devil's attacks sometimes lead God's faithful, faithful

people to death. Leave them dead.

But then there's the resurrection.

So God's sovereignty still wins. The devil's attacks always bow

to God's sovereignty. Before.

Before. Let me read that promise again.

Oh, I should have pulled that out.

I mean, I've got it here. Just give me a second.

All I have to do is open what I should have opened before

service started. Oh, that's the wrong scripture.

That's the one Abby read. There we go there, Aubrey.

OK. The Lord appeared to Isaac.

This is before any of this began.

The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, do not go down to Egypt.

Live in the land where I tell you, stay in this land for a

while and I will be with you and will bless you for you and your

servants, for to you and your descendants.

I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to

your father, Abraham. I will make your descendants as

numerous as the stars in the sky.

We'll give them all of these lands.

Through your offspring, all the nations on earth will be

blessed. Because Abraham obeyed me and

did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my

decrees and my instructions. Isaac already had the promise.

He had nothing to worry about. He had nothing to fear.

He's looking around. OK.

They stole my well again. They filled up my well again.

But God has already promised that all of this land will

belong to my descendants. God has already promised to

bless me now and my descendants forever.

What do I need to worry about? My hope is in God, and however

the devil wants to attack me, however my neighbors want to

attack me, eventually God's sovereignty, God's will will win

and we'll triumph. At the end of this story, God

renews the promise. God says this.

That night after all of this had happened, and finally Isaac had

dug a well and no one was taking it from him.

That night the Lord appeared to him and said, I am the God of

your father, Abraham, do not be afraid, for I am with you.

I will bless you, and I will increase the number of your

descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham.

The sandwich, the bread on this sandwich.

Here is God's sovereignty, God's will, God's promise.

And Isaac had learned from his father and his mother to trust

in that and to believe in that and depend on that.

And so when someone fills up his well, he can dig another well.

Not as inactive well. Just going to grin and bear it.

But it's because I need water. What else am I going to do?

I'm going to dig a well. Someone stole your well.

You know, there's plenty. God's got enough.

I'll dig another well. Well, they stole your well.

That's God's got enough. I'll dig another well.

He's not acting out of desperation.

He's not acting out of self-reliance.

He's acting out of a of a deep faith in the God who can and

will keep his promises and provide all that he needs.

And then Isaac did this at the very end of it.

Isaac built an altar. Isaac worshipped after all of

this and he had the well and no one was taking it.

It's like, all right, things are got what I need.

I got my well back and he worshipped.

He bowed his knees to God, and he worshipped.

And there he pitched his tent, and there his servants dug

another well. He worshipped and he dug another

well, trusting in God doing what he needed to do, and trusting

that God would keep his promises.

Dave Durvecki, it was like that, David.

He had the cancer. He had surgery.

Doctors told him you're not going to pitch again.

Dave decided he was going to pitch again and he rehabbed and

he worked and he worked and he worked and he got back not just

to be able to pitch a baseball, but to pitch a baseball at Major

League level. And he was pitching in a Major

League Baseball again. I think it was a year after the

surgery, maybe 2 years. It took him a little while to

get the rehab done. He was back in the major

leagues. He moved from the Padres to the

Giants. Now he's playing for the Giants.

And he went out to play in his first Major League game since

his surgery. Got a standing ovation from the

crowd. It was a wonderful thing.

And something like 5 pitches in his arms snapped.

Pop caught on national television.

You can probably find it on YouTube today.

I remember seeing that. I didn't see the game itself,

but I saw the replays back when it happened.

There was no coming back. There's no coming back.

The cancer had returned. More surgery.

Dave Durvecki never pitched again, not after that.

But he dug another well and he shared his story.

He shared his faith, he shared his hope.

And and I think his words capture a lot of what I'm trying

to say here today to Becky says this.

I used to depend on myself. Now I depend more on God through

my own suffering. I've become more aware of his

and I love him more as a result. I realized my life wasn't in my

hands anymore. My life was in God's hands.

It was in his hands all along. That's what drove Isaac to dig

another well, realizing his life wasn't in his hands, never was

in his hands. He learned that when he was a

kid, lying on an altar with his stamp, Father standing above him

with a knife, and God saved him. My life does not belong to me.

My life belongs to God, and God will give me all I need.

I have work to do. I got to dig.

The wells require digging. I'll dig another well, but I'm

going to dig it in faith, knowing that God's going to give

me everything I need. When the devil fills your well

with dirt, and he will, he will at some point along the way, the

devil's going to fill your well with dirt.

And I suspect we got testimonies of that from multiple folks in

this room having had their wells filled with dirt at some point

in their life. When that happens, let's

remember Isaac, you can listen to the song on Spotify, YouTube,

anytime you want. And we we pick up the shovel, we

dig another well, we bow down and worship our God who is

faithful and will provide in Jesus name.

Amen. Amen.