Genesis 26:1 KJV 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.
Genesis 26:17-19 KJV And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there. [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. [19] And Isaac's servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.
I. INTRODUCTION—WELLS AND WATER
A. The Human Body
-Perhaps the greatest need the human body has is the necessity of water. No human being can live without it. The human body is absolutely magnificent from its standpoint of anatomy and physiology. Approximately 60% of the human adult is water. In a newborn, the figure rises to around 77% of its body weight being water and other fluids.
-Two hydrogen molecules binding to one oxygen molecule is what creates water in its very basic state. Very simple chemistry but it is incredibly valuable.
-It is amazing what happens to the human body when it begins to reach a point of dehydration. Among other things, the blood pressure can drop as much as 10 mm Hg, weight loss occurs, the temperature is affected, the heart rate will speed up but the pulse will be very weak, and there are times that behavioral changes may take place. Marked agitation, restlessness, and even muscular weakness accompanies some people who get dehydrated.
-The human body is simply not constructed by God to go long periods without water.
B. The Old West and Water
-If you have ever read any western written by Louis L’Amour, Zane Grey, or Elmer Kelton, I am certain that at least one of those books was written about what was commonly called a “range war.”
-In the Old West, there were range wars that would erupt between cattlemen over the conflict of water. If a one rancher or a shepherd did not get along, you did not have to look very far to find the common source of the trouble—water. They would fight over the access to it.
-A well, a creek, a pond, or a river were the modes of water and they often were fought over. This is how much of the history of man has developed. Whatever measure that he needed to get the water, he would usually do it.
II. OUR TEXT—ISAAC’S DILEMMA
-Our text picks up at a point where Isaac has began to have the weight of responsibility placed on his shoulders.
• Abraham is in the grave.
• Sarah is in the grave.
• Ishmael has settled eastward somewhere in the wilderness.
• Now it is just Isaac and God.
-A famine confronts him and he chooses to go some fifty miles to the northeast to the land of Gerar. It is a place that is occupied by Philistines and ruled by Abimilech. Most likely this is a son or grandson of the man that Abraham once had to deal with.
-After falling into the same vice of lying that Abraham had, Isaac takes his herds and goes out into the Valley of Gerar and begins to re-dig the wells that had once watered the flocks of Abraham.
A. The Wells
-It just so happens that the Philistines had filled in the wells. In Bible times it was common for enemies to fill up the wells with dirt. There avenues of warfare practiced in this way. It was an act of terrorism, expulsion, and aggravation. Simply, it was a mean thing to do!
-Without this water, it would have been impossible for Isaac to feed his animals.
-Those three men commonly called the patriarchs were known for something.
• Abraham—A man of altars. Everywhere he went he would build an altar.
• Isaac—A man of wells. Everywhere he went he would dig a well. He was not an altar-builder but he did contribute something to the mix.
• Jacob—He was a man of the tents. Almost everything the he did before the midnight wrestling match with the angel was done in a conniving way. He stole a birth-right. He ripped of Laban with his cattle and sheep. That is what happens to a man who lives for tents.
-Of Isaac it was noted:
Genesis 26:25 KJV And he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac's servants digged a well.
-He had the right pattern of spiritual life: Built, pitched, and dug. Find men to follow after who are builders, diggers, and pitchers and you will have a solid example to pattern your life after. A man who is going to have any kind of spiritual success down here has to follow that same pattern.
Hebrews 11:13-16 KJV 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. [14] For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. [15] And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. [16] But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.
-Where and what are you building? Be careful not to put your foundation on the shifting sand of shallowness but instead plant your house of the bedrock of truth!
-Nothing will sustain you through life like altars and wells. They cost something but the investment is far worth the sacrifice of work, sweat, and faith.
B. Isaac’s Task
-Isaac found a task that would not be very easy. First, he had to run his flocks with a skeleton crew so that the majority of the men could help him re-dig the wells that Abraham had left to them. Sometimes our wells gets cluttered up with various things and we have to spend some time in maintenance just getting them clear to have them become productive again.
-No well will ever be dug without some kind of hindrance. There were some factors that kept Isaac in the hunt for his wells.
1. Patience
-It was with patience that he dug out those wells. It would take an investment of time to dig out these wells but he was up to it. All while he was digging the wells, his herds and flocks were multiplying. But he had to stay patient with the well-digging effort. Wells of significance will never be dug overnight. A consecration is not a pipe dream that will just happen because you wish for it to do so. You have to work constantly at it.
Psalms 126:5-6 KJV They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. [6] He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.
James 5:7 KJV Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.
Before James Garfield became the President of the United States, he was principal of Hiram College in Ohio. A father asked him if a particular course of study couldn’t be simplified so that his son could go through on a shorter route.
“Certainly,” replied Garfield. “But it all depends upon what you want to make of your boy. When God wants to make an oak tree, he takes a hundred years. When he wants to make a squash, he only requires one summer.”
-An oak or a squash. . . What do you want to be?
2. Perseverance
-If he worked with patience, he also worked with perseverance. He labored through the distractions. Sometimes it is not the big problems of life that are apt to sink us but the little withering drippings that constantly drip on us. Like the dripping faucet. . . drip. . . drip. . . drip. . . and the accumulation of the drips lead to a flood that overwhelms us.
• Sunday School teacher, work on through the troubles the class gives you, you are shaping their lives more than you would know.
• Weary Saint, keep digging and laboring, there is a rest that will soon be coming.
• Preacher, keep preaching.
• Singer, keep singing.
• Prayer, keep praying.
Galatians 6:8-9 KJV For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. [9] And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
2 Timothy 3:14 KJV But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them;
3. Hope
-If Isaac dug with patience and perseverance, he also was driven by hope. These are the things that kept him digging. More often than not, it is hope that keeps us pressing on in the darkest of hours and most difficult of circumstances. There is a belief that beyond the storm is a calm, beyond the trouble there is relief, and beyond the work there is a reward.
• Hope that we will see His face.
• Hope that sin will be finally destroyed.
• Hope that God will finally redeem His church.
-These things of hope are absolutes, they will happen!
Hebrews 6:18-19 KJV That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: [19] Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;
Psalms 27:1 KJV A Psalm of David. The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
Psalms 27:5 KJV For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.
C. Wells The Devil Is Defiling
-Just as in Isaac’s times, he had to deal with Philistines who were filling up the wells; there is a devil that is actively working to defile our own wells. He is filled with a desire to fill up wells that were dug a long time ago.
• Sin has gotten awfully gray in our day. No longer quite as black and white. . . This is a well he is trying to fill up!
• Doctrine is being diluted. Some of our Facebook theologians say that we are all going to the same happy hunting ground.
• Compromise the old values. A little compromise is about like being a little pregnant; it begins to grow on you soon giving birth to all sorts of things you have to feed.
Jeremiah 6:16 KJV Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.
-If there are wells in your own life that have began to get corrupted, it is time to dig them out! It is time for dirt to start flying! Spring Up, O Well!
III. TIME TO SACRIFICE THE QUEEN
During an international chess competition many years ago, a man named Frank Marshall made what is often called the most beautiful move ever on a chess board. In a crucial game in which he was evenly matched with a Russian master player, Marshall found his queen under serious attack. There were several avenues of escape and since the queen is the most important offensive player, spectators assumed that Marshall would observe convention and move his queen to safety.
Deep in thought, Marshall used all the time available to him to consider the board conditions. He then picked up his queen—paused—and then placed it down on the most illogical square of all. He placed it in the square that the queen could be captured. He placed it in front of three of the most hostile pieces of his opponent. There was no way the queen would be able to withstand the attack.
Marshall had sacrificed his queen! It was an unthinkable move to be made only in the most desperate of circumstances. The spectators and his opponent were shocked with his uncanny move. But ten seconds after the move was made, the Russian chess master and the spectators realized that Marshall had made a brilliant move. It was clear that no matter when or how the queen was taken, his opponent would soon be in a losing position. Seeing the inevitable defeat, the Russian master conceded the game in defeat.
When the spectators recovered from the shock of Marshall’s daring, they showered the chessboard with money. Frank Marshall had achieved a victory in a rare and daring move—he had won by sacrificing his queen. By doing the unthinkable, he had won the match.
-There are times in life when the most important thing to do is to sacrifice your queen. More often than not it is the key to gaining the greater measure of success. I am constantly drawn to the fact that men who are disciplined in life both spiritually and materially find a great measure of reward by sacrificing their queen.
IV. SOME OLD WELLS WORTH RE-DIGGING
-There are some wells that are worth re-digging in our lives. Locked up in Scripture there are ten wells that are named to geographical locations. I won’t get to all of them but some of them are worth visiting in this sermon.
A. Nephtoah—Joshua 18:15
-The name means “an opening.” It was located between Judah and Benjamin. Judah means praise. Benjamin was born in the dying agony of Rachel’s travail. This is a well of significance.
-Somewhere between pain and praise there is a well of refreshment that will carry you through. You have to learn how to keep going when you are halfway between praise and pain. I just want you to know that if you are a weapon of the Lord, you are never going to get to a place where life is only smooth sailing.
-Open up that sealed up well that will issue out both the pain of travail and the victory of heaven. When praise demands a sacrifice, I want to be willing to pay/pray the price.
A rowboat in the sand is hard to move. But when the tide comes in, it is easy. The church is like that. When genuine worship and praise is absent from the church she struggles to do her work, but when a tide of praise uplifts her heart everything goes better!
-It is a well of commitment. . . It’s time to sacrifice the queen!
B. Harod—Judges 7:1
-The name means “trembling.” It was here that Gideon’s army was reduced to the mighty 300. If you ever get to this place, you are probably going to be trembling in fear.
-This well is about separation. It is a place where things get broken down so that they can be used. It is a place of the refiner’s fire.
Malachi 3:2-3 KJV But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: [3] And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.
-The presence of the Lord is a place that refines us and purifies us. When you get in the presence of the Lord and He is preparing you for service it is a time of trembling. He equips me for battle by stripping things away from me.
-If you are going to make it in the Rapture, at some point you will have to sacrifice the queen. Regardless of what your peers say and the world, for that matter, about you giving up too much, I must go to that place.
C. Bethlehem—2 Samuel 23:15
-Bethlehem means “house of bread.” This is the well that David longed to have a drink from. His mighty men ran through all sorts of danger created by the enemy and the terrain to retrieve David a drink from the wells of Bethlehem.
-I long to get to a place in my own life that the Word dictates my every thought and action. To do it, I have to sacrifice the queen. I long for that Book to get out of my leather Bible case and from between its bonded leather covers and transform me for service.
-I want to be more than just a hearer of the Word, I want to be a doer of the Word! Regardless of all of the detractors that the Bible has in our world today, I have to open up the sixty-six wells of the Book. What you ought to know is this. . . When you open up the Book, those wells will turn into rivers of life.
D. Jacob’s Well—John 4:6
-Jacob’s well in John 4 is where the Redeemer meets losers. Jesus Christ sat in the heat of the day to reach a woman who had made some terrible choices in life. That well became a place of revelation to a woman who had morals that came from the gutter.
-Yet, it was Jacob’s well that became a place of beauty. The stonemasons had built magnificent walls of stone. Tiled flooring was around the well and mosaic stone was placed on the sides of the well. It took time to develop that well.
-This is a well of devotion to Him. I have to spend time developing my life and it will not take place overnight.
-The cry of this well-digger. . . “To be like Jesus, To be like Jesus, On earth I long to be like Him, All thru life’s journey, from earth to glory, I only ask to be like Him.”
E. Where the Bride Finds the Groom—Genesis 24:12-13
-The last well is a meeting place. It was where Elieazar found Rebekah. She was the bride that was found for Isaac.
-The meeting place is a place where she had to give up all. There were luxuries to leave, a family to walk away from, but she made the right choice.
-It is time to open up those old wells!
Philip Harrelson
September 4, 2011
