REDIGGING THE WELLS
Gen. 26:17-24
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: Trying to Deceive, He Got Deceived
1. Jerry Carney is an antique dealer who’s always on the lookout for valuable antiques. He buys them cheap and sells them in his Antique Shop for a big profit.
2. One day Jerry drove to a small town in Kentucky and went into a small country store with all kinds of junk sitting outside. As he walked through the store he saw a strange-looking bowl, which on closer inspection, turned out to be a rare antique Chinese carved coconut bowl dating back to the 18th or 19th century.
3. It was worth more than everything else in the store put together. The owner, clearly not aware of its value, had filled the bowl with milk for a calico cat to drink out of. Jerry saw this as the opportunity of a lifetime. Jerry thought up a plan to buy the bowl.
4. Jerry picked up the cat and said to the store owner, “I’ll give you $100 for this cat.” The store owner said, “He’s a nice cat but I guess I could part with him for that price.” Then Jerry said, “I need something to feed this cat from...hey, I’ll throw in another $10 for the bowl she’s drinking out of.”
5. The old store owner replied, “Oh, I couldn’t do that. It’s my prized possession, it’s from China. Funny thing, though! Since I’ve had that bowl, I’ve sold 17 cats!”
6. Do we think we’re smart? Sometimes we think we’re smarter than God, but that’s a bad mistake!
B. TEXT
1. 17 So Isaac moved away from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar, where he settled. 18 Isaac 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. 19 Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and discovered a well of fresh water there. 20 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. 21 Then they dug another well, but they quarreled over that one also; so he named it Sitnah. 22 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.” 23 From there he went up to Beersheba. 24 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.” Gen. 26:17-24
C. ABRAHAM’S LEGACY TO ISAAC
1. God’s call to Abraham changed the course of history. Abraham’s journey to an unknown land prepared the way for events of tremendous significance.
2. As he journeyed from Ur to Canaan, he built altars across the land and received revelations from God. When he died, the mission of the covenant nation was only just begun, but Abraham had,
a. laid the foundations, and,
b. Committed the ongoing task to Isaac and succeeding generations. Isaac was careful to both keep alive his father’s revelations and to extend them to new levels.
3. The title of this message is “Redigging the Wells.”
I. REDIGGING ABRAHAM’S WELLS
A. ISAAC COPIED THE LIFE OF HIS FATHER
Below are 7 similarities between Abraham & Isaac:
1. Both had barren wives;
2. Both went to Gerar;
3. Both claimed his wife was his sister;
4. Made a Covenant with Abimelech;
5. Both had well(s) seized by “ herdsmen;
6. Named the place called Beersheba;
7. Called on God there.
B. ORIGIN OF THE WELLS
1. Isaac pilgrimaged after the faith/God of his father Abraham.
a. He wanted to know his father’s God.
b. He lived where his father had lived.
c. He built altars where his father had built altars;
d. He even told the same lies as his father.
2. He was trying to get in touch with the God of his father. This was a good thing to do. Others before us have found God when they really sought Him. We can too, if we sacrifice and follow their example.
3. EACH WELL OF ABRAHAM REPRESENTED:
a. Hardships endured; Conflicts fought; Victories won in the life of Abraham.
b. IT’S HARD WORK TO DIG A WELL. In Israel, it’s hot, confining; no wind, hard ground with rock in it, blisters, aching muscles, cramping, thirst. (That’s what it’s like to redig spiritual wells. It’s a time of travail & difficulty in prayer, fasting, and dying to the flesh.)
4. In pursuit after the God of his father, Isaac first reopened the wells of his father. Later he opened his own wells.
5. His determination to keep the old names suggests they commemorated some experience or revelation in Abraham’s walk or life with God. Those wells slaked the thirst of former men. Each well had a history of its own.
C. MODERN WELLS WE MUST REOPEN/DIG
FORMER GENERATIONS OPENED WELLS, WE MUST REDIG THEM.
1. THEIR SENSE OF URGENCY & MISSION
a. They were consumed with the Gospel.
b. Getting the message out – even to the neglect of their personal prosperity.
c. Why? Because Jesus is coming. Do we really believe that?
2. A DAILY WALK WITH A GOD OF MIRACLES
They lived with a God who could put gas into their empty tanks, put food on the table, and heal sick bodies, in answer to believing prayer.
3. REVELATION OF THE BAPTISM IN THE HOLY SPIRIT with evidence of speaking in other tongues.
a. The Holy Spirit is a Person; He made the church what it is. The Holy Spirit’s power is essential.
b. New wells were dug in the N.T. church. The outpouring of the Spirit; the Gifts of the Spirit; the Spirit-led life, etc., we need to see the same power of the Spirit in our day!
4. DETERMINED TO RESIST THE SPIRIT OF THEIR AGE.
a. Holiness was their goal; “Without holiness no man will see the Lord.”
b. They didn’t allow extremes to push them toward permissiveness and weak standards.
D. THE WELLS BECAME CHOKED
1. How do wells become choked? A. Disuse; b. No maintenance; c. An enemy – the enemy wants you barren and unfruitful.
2. Are there some of our forefather’s wells you need to reopen? Isaac did it. It was hard work!
II. ISAAC OPENED NEW WELLS
A. WATER IN THE DESERT
1. In the desert south of Jerusalem, water on the surface is virtually non-existent. There is no life without water; it’s more precious than gold!
2. THOSE DEEP WELLS became the source of life and blessing to Abraham, Isaac, and their families and flocks.
3. Those are arid, dry regions. We also live in a dry & thirsty land. David described it as:
“You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. 2 I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. 3 Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. 4 I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. 5 I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you. 6 On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. 7 Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. 8 I cling to you; your right hand upholds me.” Ps. 63:1-8.
4. Jesus promised us “Living Water,” but we must come to Him, the “fountain of living waters” Jer. 2:13; 17:13.
B. ISAAC WASN’T CONTENT WITH ABE’S WELLS; HE DUG HIS OWN
1. I like his gumption, his grit. We don’t need to be content with other people’s revelations & achievements; we should press for our own.
2. Isaac got a lot of opposition, but he kept digging until he found God!
3. Vs. 24 – God came to Isaac, “appeared” to him. Isaac established his own legacy.
4. He named his uncontested well “enlarged” or “room.” God had enlarged him. Later, his son Jacob opened a well near Samaria – called “Jacob’s well” – which provided water all the way to the time of Christ. Jesus Himself drank from his well!
5. What a legacy! What if you did something that brought the King of Kings to look at what you’d done! How honored you would feel.
6. Digging wells provides a solution to a problem – water for drinking, for generations to come. Some people, like Jeroboam, make things worse for coming generations; but we can do good to succeeding generations by bringing spiritual revival.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. A farmer once dug a well. His horses and cattle drank from it for a long time, but one summer a drought came and the well went dry. The farmer had to drive his stock to surrounding springs and ponds to get the necessary water.
2. One day a visitor stopped by and, hearing about his well, said "Why not dig the well deeper?" "But," declared the farmer, "the next digging must be done through a layer of rock and flint."
3. The visitor said, "Even so, if you blast that rock, just a few more feet may give you a steady stream of water that will never stop flowing."
4. This was done and to the farmer’s amazement, a gushing stream of water not only filled the well but overflowed it -- a veritable gold mine to his homestead.
5. Isn't this true with many of us who may be experiencing some spiritual drought? We have dug only as far as the obstacle, but we have never pressed through the rock. Too many Christians pray only superficially.
B. THE CALL
1. Would you join me in prayer for revival? You may have achieved some water already, but if you dig a few feet deeper in God, you may strike an artesian well that will revolutionize your life from now on! Let’s redig the wells of our fathers and also dig our own wells of experience.
2. Come to the altar and let’s pray!
