Weaknesses, Wife, and Wells

We’ve gone too far.

We expect the hammer to fall.

What we reap, we sow. Of course, that is how life is.

BUT GOD.

We may feel we’ve landed in plan B. That our personal failures and our sin, our dysfunctional family, through outside circumstances, through persecution, things have veered too far. We’ve sown too much outside God’s will. Surely we have compromised his blessing. Surely he doesn’t shine his face on us. Shame, consequences, second best, plan B, leftovers, a C or D, that is all we merit, all we have.

BUT GOD.

A strange story about weakness, a wife, and wells in Genesis 26 (click here to read the whole chapter)—God pours out his heart as blesser! It is a strange interruption from Genesis 25 talking about Esau and Jacob, and all of a sudden Genesis 26 when the author jumps back to apparently when Rebekah and Isaac were as of yet childless. And then in Genesis 27 immediately we begin with Jacob again. Just a random, oh yea, I forgot by the author? Or an editor who copied and pasted incorrectly? But no, after Esau’s selling of his birthright, after all the dysfunction in this family, God shows how much he is intent on blessing. He sends his people hope of his steadfast nature and his guaranteed promises through such a strange story of weakness and a wife and wells.  

But circumstances….

“Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar to Abimilech king of the Philistines….” (Gen. 26:1).

Food! Crucial to life. And Isaac’s family was beginning to feel hunger pains. No Costco in sight. The herds were dwindling. The sheep lean and weak. Still a sojourner in the land, Isaac, his wife, his herdsmen, and servants, all he cared for were in danger. So they move to Gerar, territory of another king. Perhaps there were uncertain relations. Perhaps Isaac felt threatened by Abimelech’s power too. But the desperation of hunger drove him.

For some of us, circumstances just seem to have caught up. A famine of hope. A tight financial situation. One thing after another. A famine of health. But the circumstances seem to threaten.

BUT GOD.

“And the Lord appeared to [Issac] and said, “…Sojourn in this land [of Gerar], and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 26:2-4).

Promise! Rich promise!!! This was what God had in store for Isaac—blessing! And we picture Isaac marching off, confident. The Lord, the Reward and Shield of his father Abraham, was with him! Into Isaac’s fear, God immediately speaks, promises blessing.

But human failure….

“So Isaac settled in Gerar. When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, ‘She is my sister’” (Gen. 26:6-7).

Isaac, how? Didn’t your father tell you how he had erred in such a way? The verse before you had received the promise of God, the speaking of God himself to you? And now you doubt and fear a mere king? You fear for your life, when God had already ransomed you and provided a ram in your stead?

And me? I’ve dwelt on the promises of God, and then five minutes later I doubt, cry, stumble. I look upon the sacrifice of Christ, the Lamb in my stead, and then I fear man. Our personal fear, failures, stumbles—surely we’ve eaten away at some of the blessing God has in store for us.

Isaac—you are the people of God. You are meant to be a light to the nations. You are the People of Promise. There is no other blessed family that bears God’s name. You are it. You are the hope of the world through which the Messiah will come. Is this the people of God?! Is this his witness? Is this the weak people he is working through, a dysfunctional family that fears for their lives, lies, repeats sins, of broken marriage and betrayal, capitulation to the culture?

And our church—we are the people of God. A city on a hill to our neighborhood, Adrian, Grand Rapids, Waco, etc. But look around, sin, failure, capitulation, broken marriages. This the witness to God? This the hope through which God is still working in the world? Oh, woe!

BUT GOD.

He will bless! He will maintain his people, his witness!

“And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. The Lord blessed him, and the man became rich, and gained more and more until he became very wealthy” (Gen. 26:12-13).

God who so desires to bless, who has promised and will guarantee his promises despite human failure. He will fulfill! To undeserving Isaac he showers his blessing.

But hate, persecution, the sins of others, attacks….

“He [Isaac] had possessions of flocks and herds and many servants, so that the Philistines envied him” (Gen. 26:14).

And begins ensuing well wars. Isaac and his men uncover the well of Esek, and the Gerar men argue. So they do the difficult work of digging a well, and once again a quarrel arrives. Envy. Jealousy.

And some of us have enemies. Some of us face hurled insults by people we love day after day. A sin, abuse, wrong committed against us a long time ago. We still bear the shame, the lies, the guilt. Surely this has diminished some of the blessing God has in store for us. We’re secondary. Damaged goods. No longer worth.

“And he [Isaac] moved from there and dug another [third] well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth, saying, ‘For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.’ From there he went up to Beersheba. And the Lord appeared to him the same night and said, ‘I am the God of Abraham your father. Fear not, for I am with you and will bless you and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham's sake’” (Gen. 26:22-25).

Fruitful! Spacious! Promise! Blessing! The famine (outside circumstances), the silly, stupid sin (personal failure, stumbles), and the envy of the Philistines (enemies), none could stymy God’s plan to bless and to bless all nations. None could stall God’s plan to bless us through the seed of Abraham. Yes, like David and the death of Bathsheba’s firstborn son, we may suffer some consequences. But they will never derail us. They never diminish us. They never cut us off from his love. They never make us secondary Christians. God will accomplish his promised blessing.

Whatever the circumstances, the personal failures, the enemies that Satan is using to discourage you—God will. He will bless. He will carry out his promises. Fear not.

We’ve gone too far? Christ came all the way from heaven for you. Fear not.

Expecting the hammer to fall? It already fell on Christ, completely, once and for all. Fear not.

What we reap, we sow? But mercy, taking away what we should have harvested. Grace, giving us rich fruit, Rehoboth, instead of the thorns of the curse that we deserve.

So we can rest assured of blessing in Christ, my Lord, my hope, my defense, my advocate.