It's All Small Stuff Series

IT’S ALL SMALL STUFF (GENESIS 26:12-33)

Snoopy, Charlie Brown’s dog, was having one of those lazy, carefree days doing nothing as he plopped his stomach on the floor in his kennel and then walked around aimlessly and restlessly, sighing in his thoughts: “I’m growing old, and I’ve never done anything. I’ve never chased a rabbit...I’ve never barked at a burglar. Cats scar me to death. I hate retrieving ducks. All I ever do is sleep.”

After pondering his options, Snoopy went back to sleep, this time with his head contentedly rested on a rock, his back on the floor, facing the blue sky, admitting to himself: “Well, I guess each of us has his own special calling.”

Initially Isaac lived an easy life and had it made. He was a boring guy who lived a ho-hum life and made no ripples in life. Unlike his father and his son, he did not loom large in the Bible; he was more like a small-print footnote stuck between two important dissertation and larger-than–life figures. His father, Abraham, was the father of many nations (Gen 17:4), and Jacob, his son, was the father of the nation Israel (Gen 35:10-11). Abraham’s account is seen through 13 chapters (Gen 12-25) and Jacob’s through 24 chapters (Gen 25-49), but Isaac’s story is summarized in a mere four chapters. Unlike Abraham and Jacob who traveled abroad, Isaac lived a sheltered life and had never left home. His parents even ordered a bride for him (Gen 24:3), but after the death of both parents, he had a rude awakening. Curiously, he imitated his parents’ tag team lie disastrously and gambled with Rebekah’s life when he told the Philistines that she was his sister (Gen 26:1-11).

God did not let Isaac down even though He let him fail. Isaac later made up for his past inexperience, mistakes, and immaturity. Slowly, he stepped out of his father’s shadow, experienced God for himself, and got along impressively with his neighbors.

How should we respond to people who intimidate us? Who should we turn to when we are alone and afraid? Why is it more blessed to turn the other cheek than to fight tooth and nail when our enemies offend us?

Shut Up and Pull Out Like a Gentleman

12Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the LORD blessed him. 13The man became rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy. 14He had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him. 15So all the wells that his father's servants had dug in the time of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up, filling them with earth. 16Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Move away from us; you have become too powerful for us.” 17So Isaac moved away from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar and settled there. 18Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died, and he gave them the same names his father had given them. 19Isaac's servants dug in the valley and discovered a well of fresh water there. 20But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's herdsmen and said, “The water is ours!” So he named the well Esek, because they disputed with him. 21Then they dug another well, but they quarreled over that one also; so he named it Sitnah. 22He 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.” 23From there he went up to Beersheba. (Gen 26:12-23)

“My boy,” said a father to his son, “treat everybody with politeness, even those who are rude to you; remember, you show courtesy to others, not because they are gentlemen, but because you are one.”

An anonymous person wrote, “A gentleman is a person who is clean inside and outside, who neither looks up to the rich nor down on the poor. A gentleman is a person who can lose without squealing, and who can win without bragging. A gentleman is a person who is considerate to women, children and old people, who is too brave to lie, too generous to cheat and too sensible to loaf. A gentleman is a person who takes his share of the world’s goods and let other people take theirs.”

Isaac was a gentleman. His actions were never out of character or out of range with the person he was; he did not get mad, turn bad, or get even when he was pushed to the edge by his enemies.

Isaac, at first glance, was a coward, a victim, and a loser but his silence must be examined in the context of the danger he faced. He was a hardworking farmer (v 12) by now, but his wells were plugged up by the Philistines and he was forced with an imperative to “move away” (v 16) by none other than Abimelech, the Philistines ruler (Gen 26:15). The reason (ki) “too + powerful” portends the Israelites’ strength in Egypt (Ex 1:7, 20). The Philistines (vv 1, 8, 14, 15, 18) loomed larger in this chapter than any chapter in Genesis. Not only had Isaac suffered hostility shown by the Philistines, who stopped up the wells that his father, Abraham, had dug up, his relocation to the Valley of Gerar was twice met with resistance from the herdsmen of Gerar, who seized the wells and water that his servants had discovered (Gen 26:20, 21). Both “stop” (vv 15, 18) and “fill” (v 15) are in the intensive and insistent “piel” stem. The third time, however, was a charm for the nomadic Isaac, who later discovered water in the abundance (Gen. 26:23).