28 THE PEACEMAKER

“Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham” (18). Isaac was prosperous, successful as a farmer and a herder, but he was also a man of industry so he kept on improving his situation. In this case, it involved wells. He continued to dig them. Being industrious will be expressed in different ways according to each of our situations. In Isaac’s case, having livestock, he needed wells. In your place of ministry what does it take for you to continue on to more success? Isaac kept up his husbandry, and continued industriously to find wells of water for irrigation and his flocks and herds. Though he had already grown very rich, yet he was as careful as ever about the state of his flocks, and still looked well to his herds. When men grow great, they must be careful not to think themselves too big and too high for their business. Though he was driven from the conveniences he had had, and could not till the soil as easily as before yet he set himself to make the best of the new place he had come to and this is a good example for all of us.

Isaac opened the wells that his father had dug. And out of respect for his father he called them by the same names that Abraham had given them. Part of the responsibility of Christian leaders and teachers is to teach the Bible. We may need to dig a well in order to teach the Bible better. To do this let us search after truth in it, that fountain of living water and make good use of the discoveries of former ages. If you can find helpful reading material read it. Enquire for the old way, the wells which our fathers dug.  It may be that adversaries of truth have stopped up those wells. If you do not have access to books, get access to older Christian leaders. Visit them and ask questions. Learn from them. And at the same time we can follow Isaac’s example on another front: His servants also dug new wells. Verse 19 says, “Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and discovered a well of fresh water there.” Though we must use the light of former ages, that does no mean that we must rest or be content in just that and make no advances ourselves. We must still be building upon their foundation. In this Internet age, find a Bible study website. Learn to use it. I often use the study tools on biblegateway.com. Go to biblegateway.com and click on “STUDY TOOLS” in the left column. There are many resources there. Go dig some wells and preach better sermons and teach better lessons.

In digging his wells Isaac met with a lot of opposition. “But the herders of Gerar quarreled with those of Isaac and said, ‘The water is ours!’ So he named the well Esek, because they disputed with him. Then they dug another well, but they quarreled over that one also; so he named it Sitnah” (20& 21) Those that open the fountains of truth may experience opposition. The first two wells which they dug were called “Esek” and “Sitnah”, “contention” and “hatred.” Bible study is a discipline and if you are going to be a good leader you must learn to study. If you don’t dig a well you will have no water. If you don’t study the Bible you will not have a good sermon or Bible lesson. Contend for it. Fight for it. Dig!

Isaac was not a contentious man. He had a quiet spirit. And yet he had contention around him.  Even the most quiet and peaceable men in this world that avoid striving with others yet cannot avoid being striven with. Psalms 120:7 says, “I am for peace; but when I speak, they are for war.” Jeremiah evidently had contention around him as he stood up for the truth God had given him for his generation. Jeremiah 15:10 says, “Alas, my mother, that you gave me birth, a man with whom the whole land strives and contends! I have neither lent nor borrowed, yet everyone curses me.” Jesus is the Prince of peace, but He contended with opponents of His who made themselves opponents. But before we leave this well, let us rejoice that Jesus has promised that out of our bodies will flow rivers of living water. He puts a well in us. Remember John 7:38, “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”

Isaac eventually moved away to a quiet settlement, cleaving to his peaceable principle, rather to fly than fight, and unwilling to dwell with those that hated peace, maybe he thought like the Psalmist who wrote, “Too long have I lived among those who hate peace” (Psalm 120:6). He preferred quietness to victory. And God allowed that he got what he wanted, “He moved on from there and dug another well, and no one quarreled over it. He named it Rehoboth, saying, ‘Now the Lord has given us room and we will flourish in the land’” (22). Those that follow peace, sooner or later, shall find peace; those that study to be quiet seldom fail to find quietness. How unlike his brother Ishmael was Isaac, just as peaceful Christians are different than unhappy, unpleasant and discontent nonbelievers. “He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers” (Genesis 16:24). And which of these would we rather follow?

Many are the advantages of being a Christian and leaders should know them. The ability to find and enjoy peace is just one of them. This well they called Rehoboth, enlargements, room enough: in the two earlier wells we see what the earth is, straitness and strife. Men cannot thrive if they have too many neighbors.  However, this well shows us what heaven is; it is enlargement and peace. There will be  room enough there, because there are many mansions.

After the success of the Rehoboth well project Isaac moved back to Beersheba. “From there he went up to Beersheba” (23). Isaac continued firm in his walk with the Lord, and kept up his communion with God. Then God graciously appeared to him again. “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 will increase the number of your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham” (24). When the Philistines expelled him, forceing him to move from place to place, and gave him continual problems, it was then that God visited him, and gave him fresh assurances of His favor. When neighbors and others around us are found false and unkind, we may comfort ourselves that God is faithful and gracious. Not always, but often in His time, He will show Himself when we are most disappointed in our expectations from men. Based on Isaac’s experience we can hope God will do that for us too.

When Isaac had come to Beersheba it is possible that it troubled him to think that he could not be allowed to stay longer in one place; and, in the multitude of these thoughts within him, that same night that he came weary and uneasy in Beersheba God brought him His comforts to delight his soul. Possibly he was apprehensive that the Philistines would not let him rest there. And what does God say? “Do not be afraid, for I am with you.” We may move confidently from place to place when we know that God is with us.  There he did not neglect his duty to God. “Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord. There he pitched his tent, and there his servants dug a well” (26).

Wherever we go, we must take our friendship with God along with us. Possibly Isaac’s altars and his monotheistic worship offended the Philistines, and provoked them to be troublesome to him. But that did not stop Isaac from his duty whatever the ill-will to which it exposed him. It is easy to serve God among others who also do. It takes a stronger faith and more determined resolution to worship God when others do not. We will maintain our conversation with heaven and be the stronger for it.

Eventually the contests and confrontations between Isaac and the servants of Abimelek—the Philistines— come to an end with peace and reconciliation, but Isaac had to be a forgiving gracious man to make this possible.

Abimelech pays a friendly visit to Isaac as recorded in verse 26. “Meanwhile, Abimelek had come to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his personal adviser and Phicol the commander of his forces.” Proverbs 16:7 says, “When the Lord takes pleasure in anyone’s way, he causes their enemies to make peace with them.” Kings’ hearts are in His hands, and when He pleases He can turn them to favor His people.

However, even if Abimelek was a genuine person of his word, Isaac nevertheless prudently and cautiously questions his sincerity in this visit. Because of his experience with the wells earlier he wanted to check him out. In settling friendships and neighborly relationships, we may still need the wisdom of the serpent, as well as the innocence of the dove. It is not a transgression of the law of meekness and love to speak plainly in an attempt to rectify past injuries received, and to stand on our guard in dealing with those that have acted unfairly. We are to be kind, but not necessarily to be a door mat for people to walk on. Verse 27 says, “Isaac asked them, ‘Why have you come to me, since you were hostile to me and sent me away?’” Can we ask a delicate question like this with a gracious spirit? If we say those same words with a gruff voice, the entire atmosphere would change negatively. It is not always so much what we say or ask, but the spirit with which we say or ask it. The kind tone of our voices is important.

Abimelech professes his sincerity in this address to Isaac and seems earnest in his desire for reconciliation and agreement. “They answered, ‘We saw clearly that the Lord was with you; so we said, “There ought to be a sworn agreement between us”—between us and you. Let us make a treaty with you that you will do us no harm, just as we did not harm you but always treated you well and sent you away peacefully. And now you are blessed by the Lord’” (28&29). One might think that Abimelech pressed for this agreement with Isaac because he feared lest Isaac, growing rich, should eventually avenge himself for the injuries he had earlier received. However, Abimelek professes to do it from a principle of respect. Isaac said, “Why have you come to me, since you were hostile to me and sent me away?’ Isaac complained they had hated him, and sent him away. No, said Abimelech, “we sent  you away in peace.” The land belonged to Abimelek and they merely asked him to leave it. They allowed him to take away his stock, and all his effects, with him. Isaac too had to learn to be reasonable and so should we. Abimelek claims to have treated Isaac better than he actually had. Isaac overlooked it.

Let’s not make more of our injuries than are really there. Aggravating them exasperates and widens breaches. Probably we all could say the unkindness done to us might have been worse. Furthermore, Abilmelek acknowledges God’s favor to him, and makes this the basis of his desire to be formally at peace with Isaac. “And now you are blessed by the Lord.” This was as if to request,“overlook and pass by the injuries offered you; for God has abundantly made up to you the damage you received.” Those whom God blesses and favors have reason enough to forgive those who hate them, since the worst enemy they have cannot do them any real hurt. It is possible that Abimelek meant “For this reason we want your friendship, because God is with you.” We all want to be with those whom God is blessing. It is good to be in agreement and communion with those who are in agreement and communion with God. Whatever some of his lesser subjects might intend in their evil designs—filling the wells— he and his prime-minister of state, whom he had now brought with him, designed no other than a cordial friendship. Maybe this Abimelek had received a similar warning to the one God gave to his predecessor not to hurt Abraham. Remember that one? “Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all who belong to you will die.”” Or maybe this Abimelek just remembered hearing about that dream his father or grandfather received from God. Either way, this made him stand in awe of Isaac, who appeared to be as much the favorite of Heaven as Abraham was.

Isaac entertains Abimelek and his company, and enters into a league of friendship with him, “Isaac then made a feast for them, and they ate and drank. Early the next morning the men swore an oath to each other. Then Isaac sent them on their way, and they went away peacefully” (30&31). We see here how generous the good man was. He made a feast for them and welcomed them rather than elaborating on the unkindness they had previously done to him. In forgiving he freely entered into a covenant of friendship with them, and bound himself not to do them any injury though he could have if he choose to carry the grudge. Our beliefs teach us to be neighborly, and, as much as in us lies, to live peaceably with all men.

God evidently smiled on what Isaac did; for the same day he (Isaac) made this covenant with Abimelech, Isaac’s own servants brought him news of a well of water they had found. Verses 32&33 say, “That day Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well they had dug. They said, ‘We’ve found water!’ He called it Shibah, and to this day the name of the town has been Beersheba.” The historian puts these two concepts together in one paragraph on purpose: Isaac was kind in not defending himself to Abimelek and a new, fresh well was found. Isaac did not insist on the restitution of the wells which the Philistines had unjustly taken from him, lest this would cancel the treaty, but sat down silently under the injury. To reward him for this immediately he is enriched with a new well, which, because it suited so well to the event of the day, he called by an old name, Beer-sheba, The well of the oath.

Isaac was a quiet yet great man in ways very different from the greatness of Abraham, his father, and Jacob, his son. Each spiritual leader has his or her own unique gift-mix that enables them to lead by example amidst the particular external circumstances in which they live. Our gifts differ and our situations differ, but God can and will use each one of us according to His plan if we are willing to pursue and obey Him.