Be A Well Digger

Well, I appreciate that.

I think giving thanks helps keep our perspective.

! We have a lot to be thankful for, especially during this time of the year.

! We have a lot of blessings the Lord has given us.

Frankly, we don't deserve, but He loves us anyway.

Go ahead and turn your Bibles with me to Genesis chapter 26.

Genesis 26 · chapter mention

Going along that theme of blessings in our life.

We have blessings, battles, burdens.

And even though it may not seem fair, I think through Scripture we've seen,

and maybe in your own life you've seen, that blessings bring about those burdens and battles.

I think about Job, all the blessings he had, and he had to be tested.

And I think it's important to understand that God doesn't tempt us.

You know, God tests us.

He tests our faith in Him to see what it's made out of.

And a lot of times, if you have this perspective of, oh, woe is me, why is He doing this?

You've got it backwards.

You know, I even, I test my daughter, Sophia.

I test her obedience.

You know, I test that she'll trust me because I want her to trust me in the little things now.

That way, when she's older, she can trust me on the big things.

You know, she knows that I will be there for her before she falls off the couch.

She knows that I'll be there when she makes a big mistake in the future.

She'll know that she can come and trust me and talk to me.

That's how God wants us to be with Him.

Just trust Him in the little things so that when we can, that way when we come to the big things, we can trust Him.

God is the one that tests us, but Satan likes to tempt us.

And that's not for our good.

That's to distract us, to turn us away from what the Lord has for us.

If you found your place in Genesis 26, we're going to be talking about growing pains and digging wells.

So please stand with me, if you will.

Genesis chapter 26.

Genesis 26 · chapter mention

We'll start reading in verse 17.

It says,

And he went up from thence 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 built in an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord and pitched his tent there.

And there Isaac's servants digged a well.

Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for this day you've given us.

Lord, I ask that our hearts would just be open to your word today.

Lord, I pray that you would be with my voice and just calm my nerves.

Lord, I ask that despite me that we would glean from your word.

I just thank you for your goodness to us.

And I ask all these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

You can go ahead and be seated.

I think it's important to look at people in the Bible and see how they navigate the feats and failures of life.

Because we're going to have those same things.

And I think it's important.

Sometimes the way we're brought up, maybe sometimes in Sunday school or your church, it's not the intention.

But sometimes we get this flannel graph board of what the Bible is.

And Isaac is just like you and I.

He's just the guy.

He has the same feelings, the same temptations to sin.

He's not anything superhuman.

None of these characters are except Christ.

And I think it's interesting to see that we can see ourself in them.

And I want to focus a little bit on Isaac.

When you look at Isaac in Scripture, he's one of the patriarchs.

You have Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph.

Isaac kind of gets looked over a lot of the times.

It doesn't seem to be as much exciting stuff in his life.

But I want to focus on some things today about being a well digger.

In Scripture, a lot of times water can be a symbol of a lot of things.

Obviously, living water, new life, and through Jesus Christ.

The water can also be blessings.

And in this Scripture, the blessings had been stopped up by the Philistines.

And I kind of look at that as things in life, like the world, our flesh.

They stopped that access of water to us.

Isaac would understand here, because Abraham and Isaac, they were kind of nomadic people.

They didn't have a fixed place where they lived.

They lived in tents.

They traveled around with their herds.

Water was key to survival.

They needed the water.

And here the enemy has stopped it up.

They're not getting that access that they need.

So Isaac, he received his father's inheritance.

You look with me in our text here, verses 12 through 14.

It says,

Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year, an hundredfold, and the Lord blessed him.

And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great.

For he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants, and the Philistines envied him.

So he has this amount of wealth that he's obtained.

In verses 3 through 5, we see not only did he have great wealth, but he also had the covenant promise.

The covenant that was promised even unto Abraham.

Let's look at verses 3 through 5.

It says,

So what's going on here?

That God is telling him this.

Well, there's a famine in the land.

See that in verse 1.

A famine comes up.

It means there's a shortage of food.

How are you supposed to take care of your family, take care of the things that God has blessed you with,

if you can't provide for them?

Not only did Isaac inherit his father's wealth, the covenant blessing,

but we see here, first off, he also inherited his father's temptations.

This is where Isaac is just a man, just like everybody else.

In 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 unto Abimelech, king of the Philistines, unto Gerar.

And the Lord appeared unto him and said,

Go not down into Egypt, well in the land which I shall tell thee of.

I don't know that we'll have time today, but Genesis chapter 12, specifically in verse 10,

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

there's a famine in Abraham's time.

And what does he do?

He runs to Egypt.

Isaac, he's tempted to run.

Just go to Egypt.

Follow, you know, man's wisdom.

And go to Egypt where there's going to be food.

God's saying, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Trust me.

I'll take care of you.

I'll bless you.

I've already given you that promise.

Trust me.

Sometimes that can be hard, because we look around and we try to do everything in our strength,

and things aren't coming up the way we would think.

If I'm going to be completely transparent with you today,

many of you know Amanda and I were trying to sell our house, get another house,

and we were praying about this house that we saw.

We really liked it.

It was the first one that we were both like, this isn't just a house that we have to move to.

This could be a home.

We were excited.

We prayed about it, and we said, Lord, if this is your will,

we're going to put this offer in and make them accept it immediately.

What happened?

We prayed, put the offer in.

They accepted it immediately.

Praise the Lord.

The Lord is in this.

The only issue was our house is contingent.

We have to sell our current house before we get this house.

And know what happened?

Another offer came in on that house, and they accepted that one.

So boom, we have that 48 hours, and I'm praying, okay, God, I trusted you.

You already proved that you would answer that prayer.

You know, we're doing this.

And we have 48 hours to become noncontingent.

So we're already looking.

Hey, we can do this thing called a bridge loan where we can get the money we're already approved for.

We can buy the house, and then we could sell it later.

Downside.

We might not sell our current house.

Now we're paying two mortgages.

That's not very wise.

The other side is, hey, maybe we just continue to sell our house.

Try to.

And this other house, we're moved it on.

We can't get it now.

So now we're tempted.

Do we continue to keep our house on the market?

But say someone buys this one, and we don't have a place.

Then we're homeless.

So it's like, what's going on?

Well, these are the times you have to trust God.

And in your own might, you feel like, I've got to take this upon myself.

I've got to do what I know to do.

That's what Isaac is thinking.

He's like, I've got a family to take care of.

I know that there's food in Egypt.

I'm going to go that way because my dad did it.

Back in chapter 12, you know, this is what happened.

God says, trust me.

I'm going to take care of you.

He's tempted to run.

You know, we see through scripture, the safest place that we can be in is the will of God.

Trust me, ask Jonah when you get to heaven.

Ask how that worked out for him.

God said, go to Nineveh.

And he said, I don't think so.

And God had to make it all work out to say, you are going to obey me.

And it worked out.

Unbelief asks, how can I get out of this?

Faith asks, what can I get out of this?

Isaac, he was the promised son, Abraham, and he needed to stay in the promised land, which was Canaan.

We don't have a whole lot of time to go through this, but in Genesis chapter 24, Abraham knew the importance of this because he would not let Isaac go and find a wife.

Genesis 24 · chapter mention

He sent his servant.

He said, Isaac needs to stay here.

He's the promised son.

How is my, you know, how is God's covenant promise with me to be able to have multiple, you know, members, his descendants, if there's not a promised son?

So he makes Isaac stay, sends out the servant.

So he's tempted to run.

Secondly, in our chapter here, he's tempted to lie.

Drop down to verse 11.

It says, chapter 12, or I'm sorry, look at verse, let's see here, verse 7.

And the men of the place asked him of his wife, this is Isaac.

And he said, she's my sister, for he feared to say she is my wife, lest said he, the men of the place, should kill him for Rebekah, because she was fair to look upon.

So he comes into the land, he's got this beautiful wife, and here's the deal.

This is my sister.

So don't kill me if you like her, she's just my sister.

Why was he tempted to lie the way he did?

Because he saw his dad do it earlier in chapter 11.

Or chapter 12 of Genesis.

He also, Abraham lied to Abimelech.

Now, Abimelech is a title, just like Pharaoh means king, king is king.

Abimelech is king.

I think it could be very possible it could be the same guy.

Just the study I did on it, the timeline.

Regardless, Abimelech, the king, he sees Rebekah, sees that she's beautiful.

The men of the city, see that she's beautiful.

Isaac lies, says, nope, she's my sister.

And it came to pass in verse 8, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech, king

of the Philistines, looked out a window, and saw, and behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah,

his wife.

And Abimelech called Isaac and said, behold, of a surety, she is thy wife.

And how said she is my sister?

And Isaac said unto him, because I said, lest I die for her.

So he sees them acting like husband and wife and says, whoa, whoa, whoa, you guys aren't

brother and sister.

What's going on here?

Why'd you lie?

And he's like, I didn't want to be killed.

And so, verse 10, and Abimelech said, what is this that thou hast done unto us?

One of the people might lightly have aligned with thy wife, and thou shouldst have brought

guiltiness upon us.

And Abimelech charged all his people, saying, he that touches this man or his wife shall

surely be put to death.

And Abimelech said, whoa, whoa, whoa, we don't want to be guilty of anything, because

we know the God that you serve.

Get out of here.

We don't want any problem with you.

You know, again, God is taking care of it.

We try to do things in our own might, try to conjure up these blessings.

God can take care of it.

Isaac was afraid that a pagan king would kill his wife, or kill him to obtain his wife.

And this was the lie, his lie was evidence of his unbelief.

Earlier, if we look back in chapter 25, Genesis chapter 25, verse 21, it says,

Genesis 25:21

And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren.

And the Lord was entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.

So Isaac has a barren wife, and he can't have children.

I know you have problems.

Give us a child.

God says, Isaac had enough faith back then to say, make my barren wife pregnant.

But he was too afraid now to say, watch over my family.

Protect my life.

I don't want to be killed because they're envious of my wife.

Faith means to live without scheming and telling lies.

And that seems to be one of humanity's favorite ways to escape responsibility.

We see it all the way back in the Garden of Eden.

Right?

The blame shifting.

Why did you eat the fruit?

Oh, my wife, Eve, she made me do it.

So then God asked Eve, what's going on?

Oh, I didn't do it.

The serpent made me do it.

The serpent's just standing there like, eh?

You know, you don't blame anybody else.

Blame shifting.

All the way back in the Garden of Eden, it's happened.

He's tempted to lie.

You know, Isaac has a reputation that they're living for the one true God.

Here he is lying to the king, lying to the men.

Verse 12, we see that we already read that he received a hundredfold.

He kind of put roots down in this area, and they're living here.

And the Philistines, they become envious of him.

So we see the temptations.

We also see the task.

Isaac inherited flocks and herds from his father, who had lived that nomadic life.

But now this wealthy heir has settled down, and he's becoming a farmer.

He's going to remain in Gerar for a long time.

I think it's interesting to see Isaac and his neighbors, they had the same access.

The soil, the sun, the rain.

But only Isaac is being blessed.

Why?

Because God is taking care of him.

He's living for the Lord.

It's the same in our life.

God kept his promise and blessed all that Isaac did.

We see that in verses 3 through 5.

God also blessed Isaac because of Abraham's life and his faith.

And this is just how God blesses us for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Because we've been born again, we're washed under his blood.

He sees that and he blesses us.

First off here in the task, we see the destruction of the wells.

Sometimes blessings bring trials.

It happens.

Isaac has all this stuff.

We've read that he was blessed a hundredfold.

You can't imagine all the animals, the livestock that he's responsible for,

the servants that it would take to upkeep everything.

He's got a lot going on.

And the Philistines in verse 14, it says,

For he had possession of flocks and possession of herd

and a great store of servants in the Philistines.

They envied him.

So what did they do?

They stopped up the wells.

They said,

If you think you're going to come to our land

and lie trying to get us into trouble,

stop up your wells.

Maybe we can starve him out of here and he'll leave.

Sometimes I think about the wells in our lives,

the wells that bring access to blessings.

End up losing.

I was thinking about,

why would you let these wells?

I don't know about you.

I've never had to dig an actual well,

but I used to work for someone who had horses.

And he had this trough about six inches.

It was six feet all the way around.

He had to dig about four feet down.

And I'm telling you,

I'm digging.

Nebraska, it's hard to dig.

About a foot down of the soil,

now you're at clay.

So I'm breaking my back.

And at the time,

we had a guy that was older than I was,

church.

He's complaining the whole time.

And I'm just like,

yeah, you know,

this isn't easy being the only one,

especially when you're sitting there complaining.

It's like,

not like my back hurts any less than yours.

Not like my bald head is catching fire right now.

That in the sun.

But it's backbreaking work.

And what happened was,

Doug and the person who measured it,

was off.

Had to dig again.

I was not happy about that.

That was a lot of work that was wasted.

I can only imagine how Isaac is feeling.

This happens.

But I got to thinking,

why would,

how could you allow that to happen?

And I think the first thing is forfeit.

Maybe he forfeited the wealth.

Forfeit means to kind of render loss.

Sometimes when we let sin into our life,

we forfeit those blessings that could be.

I think about Isaiah chapter 59.

Isaiah 59 · chapter mention

Isaiah chapter 59 verse 2.

Isaiah 59:2

Some of you are familiar with this.

It says,

but your iniquities have separated

between you and your God

and your sins have hid his face from you

that he will not hear.

When we allow sin into our life,

basically cutting off that fellowship

that we have with God.

You notice it said that it's us

that's the problem.

God is fixed.

He stays where he is.

It's us who stray away.

Forfeit.

Forfeiting the wealth.

Maybe he forgot the importance.

Sometimes in life,

don't we get busy?

I know I do.

Sometimes,

I don't even think that there's anything

necessarily in and of itself wrong with that.

You just get busy.

There's things that need your attention.

And you have to kind of learn to prioritize

and what gets your attention.

But maybe they were too busy with everything else.

They forgot to defend you.

Defend that access of blessing into your life.

Romans chapter 12 says,

Romans 12 · chapter mention

We're not supposed to be so busy.

I've seen that so many times

growing up in church.

Especially,

I've seen it a lot,

mainly with the young people

trying to cater.

Kids got this event going at the school.

Gotta be there for that.

And all these hobbies.

And you start seeing them

less and less in church.

What happened?

They're just getting too busy.

What are you doing?

Setting off that access.

Blessing.

We all want the best for our children.

What's that cost?

What's that going to look like?

What's more important?

Having a relationship with Christ?

Not because they were brought to church by you,

but because they have that of themselves.

They've learned,

Hey, I don't believe in God

just because my parents do.

I don't believe in God

just because I went to church.

But I have a personal,

individual relationship with Christ by myself.

That should be the goal.

Those soccer trophies

get put in a box.

Don't look at them again.

What good does it do?

In the grand scheme of everything,

when we get to heaven,

God isn't going to be impressed

with how long we had a home run,

with our math leak,

you know, stuff.

It doesn't matter.

Doing things for eternity

is what matters to the Lord.

Being faithful is what matters to the Lord.

Maybe they just failed to protect them.

Ephesians chapter 6.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

Maybe they're just a little lazy,

a little apathetic.

They failed to protect them.

Ephesians chapter 6,

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

starting in verse 11.

Put on the whole armor of God,

that ye may be able to stand

against the wiles of the devil.

For we will wrestle not

against flesh and blood,

but against principalities,

against powers,

against the rulers of darkness

of this world,

against spiritual wickedness

in high places.

Put on that armor of God.

You have to have your heart right.

When we read about the armor of God,

I think it's interesting

that there's nothing,

there's no protection for your back.

Because we're supposed to be

moving forward.

In the army of God,

there's no retreat.

We're not supposed to be

running backwards.

But sometimes you can get lazy

and apathetic.

That's how sin enters our life,

is we're not guarding ourselves.

I think about all these,

I read a story one time

about this guy,

crazy,

barrel riding,

I think is what they call it,

goes into a barrel

and it goes over Niagara Falls.

Crazy stuff.

And he survives.

So this guy is kind of a daredevil.

And you know how he ended up dying?

He slipped on an orange peel.

Fell, died.

Like, whoa.

It's crazy.

But what was the difference?

For Niagara Falls,

he was prepared.

He was prepared.

He was ready for that.

This orange peel,

he wasn't ready for.

Took him out.

Think about the sins

of great men in the Bible.

So they weren't prepared.

Think about Noah.

What faith Noah had.

He said, hey,

I know it's never rained before,

but at that time the water came out.

The water's going to fall from the sky,

and I need you to build this thing

called a boat.

It's a big boat.

You're going to put a bunch of animals

in this thing.

And I just want you to trust me.

Here's the specs.

Get it done.

120 years he's building this thing.

And he still has faith.

God told me to do it.

I'm going to do it.

And then it happens.

God closes up the door.

They survive.

But at the end of Noah's life,

you know what we see him as?

Naked.

What happened?

He wasn't prepared.

I think about, you know,

Thomas.

He kind of gets a bad rap.

What do we know him as?

Doubting Thomas.

But Thomas was one of the

disciples of Christ.

Read through scripture.

There's one time where he's like,

hey, are we going to go

and preach to these people?

He was about it.

What happened?

There was one day

he didn't decide

to put on his armor,

and that day caught up with him.

He wasn't where

he was needed to be

because all the other disciples

were present

when Jesus appeared to them.

He wasn't there.

And he said, oh,

I can't believe this.

It was one day

that he wasn't ready.

He failed to protect himself.

He cut that access

of blessing to his life.

Number four,

maybe Isaac figured

that the wells

would always be there.

Don't we get like that?

We just take it for granted.

Turn with me

to Hebrews chapter 12.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

It's always frustrating

turning to the back

of my Bible

because my Bible

is old.

Ages come out.

So if we ever have

a sword drill,

you guys are like,

hey, give me Ethan a chance

and do it in the Old Testament

because the New Testament,

my Bible will fall apart.

Hebrews chapter 12,

Hebrews 12:5

verse 5,

and ye have forgotten

the exhortation

which speaketh unto you

as unto children.

My son,

despise not the chastening

of the Lord,

faint when thou art

rebuked of him.

For whom the Lord loveth,

he chasteneth

and scourges every son

whom he receiveth.

If ye endure chastening,

God dealeth with you

as with sons.

For what son is whom

the Father chasteneth not?

But if ye be without

chastisement,

whereof all are partakers,

then are ye bastards

and not sons.

Furthermore,

we have had fathers

of our flesh

which corrected us

and we gave them reverence,

shall we not much rather

be in subjection

unto the Father

of spirits and live?

For they verily

for a few days

chastened us

after their own pleasure,

but he for our profit

that we might be partakers

of his holiness.

Now no chastening

for the present

seemeth to be joyous,

but grievous.

Nevertheless,

afterward,

it yieldeth

the peaceable fruit

of righteousness

unto them

which are exercised thereby.

True faith

is always tested

either by temptation

within us

or trials around us

because a faith

that can't be tested

can't be trusted.

That's the destruction

of the wells.

But then we see

the digging of the wells,

the real chore here.

Starting in verse,

let's see here.

We'll see verse 18.

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.

And Isaac's servants

digged in the valley

and found there

a well of springing water.

And the herdmen

of Gerard

did strive

with Isaac's herdsmen

saying,

the water is ours.

And he called the name

of the well Essek

because they strove

with him.

That word Essek

means strife.

He shows up,

they re-dug the well,

now the Philistines

are like,

uh,

that's our well.

You can find your own.

Uh,

alright,

not gonna,

so,

they move on,

verse 21,

and they digged

another well

and strove for that

also.

And he called

the name of it

Sitna.

That means contention.

Again,

they show up

and they're like,

hey,

this is our well.

Go find your own.

Alright.

And he moved

from thence

and digged

another well

and for that

they strove not.

And he called

the name of it

Rehoboth.

That means roominess.

It says,

for now the Lord

hath made room

for us

and we shall be

fruitful in the land,

digging of the wells.

It's important

to understand

when I was in Bible college,

one thing I really

appreciated

was he would say

thank you,

he would say this,

pray like it depends

on God

and work like it

depends on you.

And I think that was

really good

because sometimes

it's easy to just

sit there

pray.

When I was praying

for a wife,

how ridiculous

would it have been

if I just stayed home

all the time

and just prayed,

alright God,

bring a wife to me.

Like she's supposed to

just knock on the door.

No,

it's not going to happen

like that.

You know,

there had to be

some work there.

I remember

it wasn't ideal,

you know,

you want to

do things on your own

and you just

meet somebody.

That's not how

the Lord in my

had it.

Brought some friends

and they were like,

hey,

it's a little bull

to get to know.

So,

this is kind of the stage

I'm at right now

and if it takes

getting set up,

I'll do that.

Then I spent

three hours

trying to make up

a text that was

about this big.

You know,

running it by my friends,

does this sound good?

So,

I text her,

hey,

I'd like to get to know you.

She's like,

so,

we start talking

and,

you know,

there was work

involved there

to get the blessing.

You know,

how ridiculous,

like I said,

would it have been

if I hadn't put in the work?

In our lives,

through scripture,

there's things

that we know

we ought to do.

We don't have to pray

about it.

So many times

we think,

you know,

I just got to,

you know,

we know it's right

to pray.

We know it's right

to read our Bible.

We don't have to pray

about those.

So many times

I think we try

in our own way,

just like Isaac,

to manipulate

and try to get

what we want.

Just let God

take care of it.

Show up,

do what you need to do,

know is right,

and God will take

care of the rest.

We got to put

in that effort.

And God blesses

effort,

by the way.

that was one thing

I remember,

and it's always

stuck with me.

I couldn't even

tell you the guy's name.

I had gone to a,

while I was still

in high school,

I had gone to a college.

They were having

like a college day

and kind of get

people there.

And I was there

and to get into

the dorm that I was

staying at,

they gave me a key.

And I had put it

in my wallet,

put it in a little

special pocket in my

wallet because I

didn't want to lose

the key.

Lost it.

So I had it there

in my wallet

and the speaker,

I can't tell you

his name,

I don't even remember.

He came up and

he grabbed the door

and he tried to open

it and it was locked.

He said,

do you have a key?

And I said,

yes.

And so I'm fumbling

around,

trying to grab my

wallet,

open the,

you know,

I'm shaking

because I forget

who he was,

but he was the

speaker for the

college ordeal.

So I just felt

like this guy

is important.

And I'm fumbling

around in my wallet

and someone on the

inside opened the

door and he told me,

God's going to

bless you for your

efforts.

I don't know why

that has always

stuck in my head.

And it's true,

we may not get the

result that we wanted,

but God blesses

efforts.

You know what God

is,

he's interested in

our faithfulness.

I think about

Jeremiah,

he was like,

nothing's going

my way,

you know,

I'm the only one

serving you.

Keep showing up.

God blesses

faithfulness,

he doesn't bless

outcome.

So dig the

wells.

If you've

forfeited,

forgotten the

importance,

failed to

protect,

or figured it

would always be

there,

back to the

well and start

digging.

God will bless

that.

Not only do we

see the digging

of the wells,

but the drinking

of the wells.

Let's see here,

he ended on

verse 22.

Verse 23,

And he went

up from thence

to Beersheba.

The Lord

appeared unto him

in 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

built an altar

there,

and called upon

the name of

the Lord,

and pitched

his tent

there.

There Isaac's

servants

digged a well.

Then Abimelech

comes.

You've got to

remember,

they were in

the land,

and then the

Bible says

that he was

grown a hundred

fold.

God's blessing

him.

Abimelech

notices this,

no doubt has

heard the

mumblings of

the other

herdsmen in

Gerar.

So he comes.

Just a side

note real quick.

It says,

he comes from

Gerar,

and who is

that?

Sneeze when

you get to

that part.

One of his

friends,

and then it

says like

Fichel,

the chief

captain of

the army.

These could

be titles,

but the

Fichel,

the chief

captain of

the army,

is the

same

Fichel

that is

mentioned

with the

same title

Abimelech

in Abraham's

time in

chapter 12.

And when you

think and

consider how

long Abraham

and Isaac

lived,

there's a

good possibility

that Abimelech

lived that same

time.

I don't know.

I just think it

was interesting.

I'm not saying

it is or isn't

the same guy.

I think he

would feel

pretty ridiculous

falling for

that twice,

going after

somebody's wife

and being like,

you know,

this is my

sister.

Oh,

nope,

she's the

wife.

Several years

later doing it

again,

that'd be

embarrassing.

But Isaac

said unto

them,

wherefore,

come ye to

me,

seeing ye

hate me,

and have

sent me away

from you.

So Isaac

is asking a

good question.

What are you

doing here?

And verse

28,

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

in thee,

and let us

make a

covenant

with thee,

that thou

wilt do us

no hurt,

as we have

not touched

thee,

and have

done unto

thee

nothing but

good,

and have

sent thee

away in

peace.

Thou art

now the

blessed of

the Lord.

I think

what's

interesting

is when

we're doing

what we

ought to

do,

even our

enemies see

that.

Even people

that we

may not

like,

they notice

that in

our life.

I'm not

saying our

co-workers

are our

enemies,

I'm not

saying friends

and families,

neighbors,

but people

notice.

You're doing

what you

ought to

do.

The Lord

is blessing.

They notice

these things.

And Abimelech,

servants,

they notice

this.

And verse

31,

and they

rose up

bee

times 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,

means promise.

Therefore

the name

of the city

is Beersheba

unto this

day.

Drinking

of the

wells.

Beersheba

means the

well of

the oath.

That's

where Abraham

had made

that oath

with Abimelech

many years

ago.

Isaac, he's

identified by

his tent

and his

altar.

The king of

Gerar shows

up, sees

this tent,

obviously we

see Isaac

built this

temple or

altar to

pray to the

Lord to

give blessing.

So he was

wealthy enough

to be able to

build himself a

fine house,

but his tent

identified him

as a pilgrim

and a stranger

in the land.

Let's turn to

Hebrews 11.

Like I said,

he was wealthy

enough, he could

have built

those nice

things, but

his tent was

what showed

him that he

was just a

pilgrim.

And we sing

that song,

this world is

not my home,

I'm just a

passing through.

Hebrews chapter

Hebrews 11:8

11 verse 8

says,

Talk about

faith.

Imagine if

God said,

Ethan,

sell your

house and

I'm going to

take you

someplace and

I'll let you

know where

it is.

That'd be

faith.

Convince my

wife,

pregnant,

and take our

one-year-old

daughter and

just move.

But Abraham

did it.

Verse 9,

By faith he

sojourned in

the land of

promise as

in a strange

country,

dwelling in

tabernacles with

Isaac and

Jacob, the

heirs with

him of the

same promise.

For he

looked for a

city which

hath foundations

whose builder

and maker is

God.

Up down to

verse 13.

These all

died in

faith, not

having received

the promises,

but having

seen them afar

off, and

were persuaded

of them, and

embraced them,

and confessed

that they were

strangers and

pilgrims on

the earth,

for they that

say such

things declare

plainly that

they seek a

country, and

truly, the

Bible says, if

they had been

mindful of that

country from

whence they

came out, they

might have had

opportunity to

have returned,

but now they

desire a better

country, that is

in heavenly,

wherefore God is

not ashamed to be

called their God,

for he hath

prepared for them

a city.

Isaac all the

way back then

knew, I'm just

passing through.

Isn't it

interesting, you

can have

somebody who

has good and

bad days just

like we do,

there's some

days we're on

the mountaintop,

other days we're

in the valley,

he was, I

think this is

interesting, a

fugitive is

someone fleeing

from home, a

vagabond has no

home, but a

pilgrim is heading

home, and that's

what we're doing.

The tent identified

Isaac as a

pilgrim, and the

altar announced

that he worshipped

Jehovah, and was

heading up to the

heavenly kingdom.

Like Isaac, all who

have trusted Jesus

Christ are strangers

in the world, and

pilgrims heading for

a better world.

So all of us would

like to find our

Rehoboth, the

enlargement, the

roominess.

I think about the

Sheba here in our

text.

This is the place,

you know, I

started off telling

you that blessings

bring battles and

burdens.

For Sheba has a

special place.

Because, you know,

Abraham, when he

had that encounter

with Abimelech, they

made that promise.

But later on, Hagar

runs there, burdened

by the fact that

Sarah hates her, and

Ishmael isn't

working out, and the

Lord appears to her

there.

I mean, Isaac, he

gets to Beersheba.

The Lord blesses him

in his time of

fighting with the

enemy for water.

During those times of

blessing and battle,

God shows up.

Later, Elijah is at

Beersheba, hiding

under a juniper

tree.

The Lord appears to

him.

Now, the Lord comes

to us in our times of

battle and burden.

He wants to bless us.

But there's also an

expectation on us to

trust him and allow

him to do what he

said he would do.

All of us are looking

for that enlargement

where we have plenty of

room and no

contention.

But Isaac's Rehoboth

was found only after he

endured conflict.

It's through

difficulties that God

enlarges us for larger

places.

He prepares for us.

In Psalm 4.1, it

says, Thou hast

enlarged me when I was

in distress.

So when the troubles

of our hearts are

enlarged and we trust

God, then the Lord

can enlarge us.

Psalm 25.17, I'll

turn there real quick.

The troubles of my

heart are enlarged.

O bring thou me out of

my distresses.

Psalm 18.19, it

says, He brought me

forth also into a

large place.

He delivered me because

he delighted in me.

If we want room, we

have to suffer because

that's the only way we

can grow and feel at

home in a larger place

that God gives us when

we're ready for it.

I think that's why

Paul says, glory in

your infirmities.

It sounds silly,

right?

Oh, wow, this is

happening to me.

So good.

You know, I love being

able to spend, you

know what?

Here, before we put

that offering on the

house, it was like

two weeks.

Every night, we're

going and looking at

houses.

That's exhausting.

Work all day, now

you're looking at

houses.

Your poor kid is

confused.

Why are we going to

these strange houses

all the time?

You know, she thinks

we're going to buy

every single one of

them.

And you're trying to

do all this, you

finally land on

something, and then

it's not the one.

I have a choice.

I can go back to

that well and start

digging again, let

God bless, or I

can't.

Those are our

choices.

I think about the

things that happen

in life that don't

go our way.

We may not even

understand why did

God allow this to

happen?

Digging.

Go to the wells.

Dig old wells.

You know what?

Dig new wells.

Let God meet you

there.

Let him be that

for sheep.

Let's pray.

Let's pray.