Be A Well Digger

[0:00] Well, I appreciate that. I think giving thanks helps keep our perspective.! We have a lot to be thankful for, especially during this time of the year.

[0:11] ! We have a lot of blessings the Lord has given us. Frankly, we don't deserve, but He loves us anyway. Go ahead and turn your Bibles with me to Genesis chapter 26.

[0:25] Going along that theme of blessings in our life. We have blessings, battles, burdens. And even though it may not seem fair, I think through Scripture we've seen, and maybe in your own life you've seen, that blessings bring about those burdens and battles.

[0:47] I think about Job, all the blessings he had, and he had to be tested. And I think it's important to understand that God doesn't tempt us.

[0:57] You know, God tests us. He tests our faith in Him to see what it's made out of. And a lot of times, if you have this perspective of, oh, woe is me, why is He doing this?

[1:09] You've got it backwards. You know, I even, I test my daughter, Sophia. I test her obedience. You know, I test that she'll trust me because I want her to trust me in the little things now.

[1:22] That way, when she's older, she can trust me on the big things. You know, she knows that I will be there for her before she falls off the couch. She knows that I'll be there when she makes a big mistake in the future.

[1:33] She'll know that she can come and trust me and talk to me. That's how God wants us to be with Him. Just trust Him in the little things so that when we can, that way when we come to the big things, we can trust Him. God is the one that tests us, but Satan likes to tempt us.

[1:46] And that's not for our good. That's to distract us, to turn us away from what the Lord has for us. If you found your place in Genesis 26, we're going to be talking about growing pains and digging wells.

[1:59] So please stand with me, if you will. Genesis chapter 26. We'll start reading in verse 17. It says, And he went up from thence to Beersheba.

[3:01] And the Lord appeared unto him the same night and said, I am the God of Abraham, thy father. Fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake.

[3:12] And he built in an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord and pitched his tent there. And there Isaac's servants digged a well. Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for this day you've given us.

[3:25] Lord, I ask that our hearts would just be open to your word today. Lord, I pray that you would be with my voice and just calm my nerves. Lord, I ask that despite me that we would glean from your word.

[3:40] I just thank you for your goodness to us. And I ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. You can go ahead and be seated. I think it's important to look at people in the Bible and see how they navigate the feats and failures of life.

[3:57] Because we're going to have those same things. And I think it's important. Sometimes the way we're brought up, maybe sometimes in Sunday school or your church, it's not the intention.

[4:10] But sometimes we get this flannel graph board of what the Bible is. And Isaac is just like you and I. He's just the guy.

[4:20] He has the same feelings, the same temptations to sin. He's not anything superhuman. None of these characters are except Christ. And I think it's interesting to see that we can see ourself in them.

[4:35] And I want to focus a little bit on Isaac. When you look at Isaac in Scripture, he's one of the patriarchs. You have Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph.

[4:45] Isaac kind of gets looked over a lot of the times. It doesn't seem to be as much exciting stuff in his life. But I want to focus on some things today about being a well digger.

[4:58] In Scripture, a lot of times water can be a symbol of a lot of things. Obviously, living water, new life, and through Jesus Christ. The water can also be blessings.

[5:10] And in this Scripture, the blessings had been stopped up by the Philistines. And I kind of look at that as things in life, like the world, our flesh. They stopped that access of water to us.

[5:23] Isaac would understand here, because Abraham and Isaac, they were kind of nomadic people. They didn't have a fixed place where they lived. They lived in tents. They traveled around with their herds.

[5:34] Water was key to survival. They needed the water. And here the enemy has stopped it up. They're not getting that access that they need.

[5:46] So Isaac, he received his father's inheritance. You look with me in our text here, verses 12 through 14. It says, Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year, an hundredfold, and the Lord blessed him.

[6:01] And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great. For he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants, and the Philistines envied him.

[6:14] So he has this amount of wealth that he's obtained. In verses 3 through 5, we see not only did he have great wealth, but he also had the covenant promise. The covenant that was promised even unto Abraham.

[6:28] Let's look at verses 3 through 5. It says, So what's going on here?

[7:00] That God is telling him this. Well, there's a famine in the land. See that in verse 1. A famine comes up. It means there's a shortage of food. How are you supposed to take care of your family, take care of the things that God has blessed you with, if you can't provide for them?

[7:19] Not only did Isaac inherit his father's wealth, the covenant blessing, but we see here, first off, he also inherited his father's temptations.

[7:30] This is where Isaac is just a man, just like everybody else. In verse 1 it says, 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.

[7:44] And the Lord appeared unto him and said, Go not down into Egypt, well in the land which I shall tell thee of. I don't know that we'll have time today, but Genesis chapter 12, specifically in verse 10, there's a famine in Abraham's time.

[8:01] And what does he do? He runs to Egypt. Isaac, he's tempted to run. Just go to Egypt. Follow, you know, man's wisdom. And go to Egypt where there's going to be food.

[8:12] God's saying, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Trust me. I'll take care of you. I'll bless you. I've already given you that promise. Trust me. Sometimes that can be hard, because we look around and we try to do everything in our strength, and things aren't coming up the way we would think.

[8:28] If I'm going to be completely transparent with you today, many of you know Amanda and I were trying to sell our house, get another house, and we were praying about this house that we saw.

[8:39] We really liked it. It was the first one that we were both like, this isn't just a house that we have to move to. This could be a home. We were excited. We prayed about it, and we said, Lord, if this is your will, we're going to put this offer in and make them accept it immediately.

[8:54] What happened? We prayed, put the offer in. They accepted it immediately. Praise the Lord. The Lord is in this. The only issue was our house is contingent.

[9:05] We have to sell our current house before we get this house. And know what happened? Another offer came in on that house, and they accepted that one. So boom, we have that 48 hours, and I'm praying, okay, God, I trusted you.

[9:18] You already proved that you would answer that prayer. You know, we're doing this. And we have 48 hours to become noncontingent. So we're already looking.

[9:30] Hey, we can do this thing called a bridge loan where we can get the money we're already approved for. We can buy the house, and then we could sell it later. Downside.

[9:41] We might not sell our current house. Now we're paying two mortgages. That's not very wise. The other side is, hey, maybe we just continue to sell our house.

[9:52] Try to. And this other house, we're moved it on. We can't get it now. So now we're tempted. Do we continue to keep our house on the market?

[10:04] But say someone buys this one, and we don't have a place. Then we're homeless. So it's like, what's going on? Well, these are the times you have to trust God. And in your own might, you feel like, I've got to take this upon myself.

[10:16] I've got to do what I know to do. That's what Isaac is thinking. He's like, I've got a family to take care of. I know that there's food in Egypt. I'm going to go that way because my dad did it.

[10:26] Back in chapter 12, you know, this is what happened. God says, trust me. I'm going to take care of you. He's tempted to run. You know, we see through scripture, the safest place that we can be in is the will of God.

[10:43] Trust me, ask Jonah when you get to heaven. Ask how that worked out for him. God said, go to Nineveh. And he said, I don't think so. And God had to make it all work out to say, you are going to obey me.

[10:56] And it worked out. Unbelief asks, how can I get out of this? Faith asks, what can I get out of this? Isaac, he was the promised son, Abraham, and he needed to stay in the promised land, which was Canaan.

[11:11] We don't have a whole lot of time to go through this, but in Genesis chapter 24, Abraham knew the importance of this because he would not let Isaac go and find a wife. He sent his servant. He said, Isaac needs to stay here.

[11:23] He's the promised son. How is my, you know, how is God's covenant promise with me to be able to have multiple, you know, members, his descendants, if there's not a promised son?

[11:38] So he makes Isaac stay, sends out the servant. So he's tempted to run. Secondly, in our chapter here, he's tempted to lie.

[11:48] Drop down to verse 11. It says, chapter 12, or I'm sorry, look at verse, let's see here, verse 7. And the men of the place asked him of his wife, this is Isaac.

[12:01] And he said, she's my sister, for he feared to say she is my wife, lest said he, the men of the place, should kill him for Rebekah, because she was fair to look upon.

[12:15] So he comes into the land, he's got this beautiful wife, and here's the deal. This is my sister. So don't kill me if you like her, she's just my sister. Why was he tempted to lie the way he did?

[12:27] Because he saw his dad do it earlier in chapter 11. Or chapter 12 of Genesis. He also, Abraham lied to Abimelech. Now, Abimelech is a title, just like Pharaoh means king, king is king.

[12:44] Abimelech is king. I think it could be very possible it could be the same guy. Just the study I did on it, the timeline. Regardless, Abimelech, the king, he sees Rebekah, sees that she's beautiful.

[13:00] The men of the city, see that she's beautiful. Isaac lies, says, nope, she's my sister. And it came to pass in verse 8, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked out a window, and saw, and behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah, his wife.

[13:15] And Abimelech called Isaac and said, behold, of a surety, she is thy wife. And how said she is my sister? And Isaac said unto him, because I said, lest I die for her. So he sees them acting like husband and wife and says, whoa, whoa, whoa, you guys aren't brother and sister.

[13:30] What's going on here? Why'd you lie? And he's like, I didn't want to be killed. And so, verse 10, and Abimelech said, what is this that thou hast done unto us? One of the people might lightly have aligned with thy wife, and thou shouldst have brought guiltiness upon us.

[13:45] And Abimelech charged all his people, saying, he that touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death. And Abimelech said, whoa, whoa, whoa, we don't want to be guilty of anything, because we know the God that you serve.

[13:57] Get out of here. We don't want any problem with you. You know, again, God is taking care of it. We try to do things in our own might, try to conjure up these blessings.

[14:09] God can take care of it. Isaac was afraid that a pagan king would kill his wife, or kill him to obtain his wife. And this was the lie, his lie was evidence of his unbelief.

[14:23] Earlier, if we look back in chapter 25, Genesis chapter 25, verse 21, it says, And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren.

[14:35] And the Lord was entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. So Isaac has a barren wife, and he can't have children. I know you have problems.

[14:46] Give us a child. God says, Isaac had enough faith back then to say, make my barren wife pregnant. But he was too afraid now to say, watch over my family.

[14:59] Protect my life. I don't want to be killed because they're envious of my wife. Faith means to live without scheming and telling lies. And that seems to be one of humanity's favorite ways to escape responsibility.

[15:13] We see it all the way back in the Garden of Eden. Right? The blame shifting. Why did you eat the fruit? Oh, my wife, Eve, she made me do it.

[15:24] So then God asked Eve, what's going on? Oh, I didn't do it. The serpent made me do it. The serpent's just standing there like, eh? You know, you don't blame anybody else. Blame shifting.

[15:36] All the way back in the Garden of Eden, it's happened. He's tempted to lie. You know, Isaac has a reputation that they're living for the one true God.

[15:48] Here he is lying to the king, lying to the men. Verse 12, we see that we already read that he received a hundredfold. He kind of put roots down in this area, and they're living here.

[15:59] And the Philistines, they become envious of him. So we see the temptations. We also see the task. Isaac inherited flocks and herds from his father, who had lived that nomadic life.

[16:14] But now this wealthy heir has settled down, and he's becoming a farmer. He's going to remain in Gerar for a long time. I think it's interesting to see Isaac and his neighbors, they had the same access.

[16:29] The soil, the sun, the rain. But only Isaac is being blessed. Why? Because God is taking care of him. He's living for the Lord.

[16:40] It's the same in our life. God kept his promise and blessed all that Isaac did. We see that in verses 3 through 5. God also blessed Isaac because of Abraham's life and his faith.

[16:52] And this is just how God blesses us for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because we've been born again, we're washed under his blood. He sees that and he blesses us. First off here in the task, we see the destruction of the wells.

[17:09] Sometimes blessings bring trials. It happens. Isaac has all this stuff. We've read that he was blessed a hundredfold. You can't imagine all the animals, the livestock that he's responsible for, the servants that it would take to upkeep everything.

[17:25] He's got a lot going on. And the Philistines in verse 14, it says, For he had possession of flocks and possession of herd and a great store of servants in the Philistines. They envied him.

[17:37] So what did they do? They stopped up the wells. They said, If you think you're going to come to our land and lie trying to get us into trouble, stop up your wells.

[17:48] Maybe we can starve him out of here and he'll leave. Sometimes I think about the wells in our lives, the wells that bring access to blessings. End up losing. I was thinking about, why would you let these wells?

[18:04] I don't know about you. I've never had to dig an actual well, but I used to work for someone who had horses. And he had this trough about six inches.

[18:15] It was six feet all the way around. He had to dig about four feet down. And I'm telling you, I'm digging. Nebraska, it's hard to dig. About a foot down of the soil, now you're at clay.

[18:28] So I'm breaking my back. And at the time, we had a guy that was older than I was, church. He's complaining the whole time.

[18:40] And I'm just like, yeah, you know, this isn't easy being the only one, especially when you're sitting there complaining. It's like, not like my back hurts any less than yours. Not like my bald head is catching fire right now.

[18:52] That in the sun. But it's backbreaking work. And what happened was, Doug and the person who measured it, was off.

[19:04] Had to dig again. I was not happy about that. That was a lot of work that was wasted. I can only imagine how Isaac is feeling. This happens.

[19:16] But I got to thinking, why would, how could you allow that to happen? And I think the first thing is forfeit. Maybe he forfeited the wealth. Forfeit means to kind of render loss.

[19:28] Sometimes when we let sin into our life, we forfeit those blessings that could be. I think about Isaiah chapter 59. Isaiah chapter 59 verse 2.

[19:43] Some of you are familiar with this. It says, but your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear.

[19:53] When we allow sin into our life, basically cutting off that fellowship that we have with God. You notice it said that it's us that's the problem.

[20:04] God is fixed. He stays where he is. It's us who stray away. Forfeit. Forfeiting the wealth. Maybe he forgot the importance. Sometimes in life, don't we get busy?

[20:15] I know I do. Sometimes, I don't even think that there's anything necessarily in and of itself wrong with that. You just get busy. There's things that need your attention. And you have to kind of learn to prioritize and what gets your attention.

[20:29] But maybe they were too busy with everything else. They forgot to defend you. Defend that access of blessing into your life. Romans chapter 12 says, We're not supposed to be so busy.

[20:55] I've seen that so many times growing up in church. Especially, I've seen it a lot, mainly with the young people trying to cater.

[21:06] Kids got this event going at the school. Gotta be there for that. And all these hobbies. And you start seeing them less and less in church. What happened? They're just getting too busy. What are you doing?

[21:17] Setting off that access. Blessing. We all want the best for our children. What's that cost? What's that going to look like? What's more important?

[21:29] Having a relationship with Christ? Not because they were brought to church by you, but because they have that of themselves. They've learned, Hey, I don't believe in God just because my parents do.

[21:39] I don't believe in God just because I went to church. But I have a personal, individual relationship with Christ by myself. That should be the goal. Those soccer trophies get put in a box.

[21:52] Don't look at them again. What good does it do? In the grand scheme of everything, when we get to heaven, God isn't going to be impressed with how long we had a home run, with our math leak, you know, stuff.

[22:08] It doesn't matter. Doing things for eternity is what matters to the Lord. Being faithful is what matters to the Lord. Maybe they just failed to protect them. Ephesians chapter 6.

[22:19] Maybe they're just a little lazy, a little apathetic. They failed to protect them. Ephesians chapter 6, starting in verse 11. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

[22:34] For we will wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

[22:44] Put on that armor of God. You have to have your heart right. When we read about the armor of God, I think it's interesting that there's nothing, there's no protection for your back.

[22:56] Because we're supposed to be moving forward. In the army of God, there's no retreat. We're not supposed to be running backwards. But sometimes you can get lazy and apathetic. That's how sin enters our life, is we're not guarding ourselves.

[23:11] I think about all these, I read a story one time about this guy, crazy, barrel riding, I think is what they call it, goes into a barrel and it goes over Niagara Falls.

[23:25] Crazy stuff. And he survives. So this guy is kind of a daredevil. And you know how he ended up dying? He slipped on an orange peel. Fell, died.

[23:37] Like, whoa. It's crazy. But what was the difference? For Niagara Falls, he was prepared. He was prepared. He was ready for that. This orange peel, he wasn't ready for.

[23:47] Took him out. Think about the sins of great men in the Bible. So they weren't prepared. Think about Noah. What faith Noah had.

[23:59] He said, hey, I know it's never rained before, but at that time the water came out. The water's going to fall from the sky, and I need you to build this thing called a boat. It's a big boat. You're going to put a bunch of animals in this thing.

[24:10] And I just want you to trust me. Here's the specs. Get it done. 120 years he's building this thing. And he still has faith. God told me to do it.

[24:22] I'm going to do it. And then it happens. God closes up the door. They survive. But at the end of Noah's life, you know what we see him as? Naked. What happened?

[24:35] He wasn't prepared. I think about, you know, Thomas. He kind of gets a bad rap. What do we know him as? Doubting Thomas. But Thomas was one of the disciples of Christ.

[24:49] Read through scripture. There's one time where he's like, hey, are we going to go and preach to these people? He was about it. What happened? There was one day he didn't decide to put on his armor, and that day caught up with him.

[25:01] He wasn't where he was needed to be because all the other disciples were present when Jesus appeared to them. He wasn't there. And he said, oh, I can't believe this. It was one day that he wasn't ready.

[25:14] He failed to protect himself. He cut that access of blessing to his life. Number four, maybe Isaac figured that the wells would always be there. Don't we get like that?

[25:26] We just take it for granted. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 12. It's always frustrating turning to the back of my Bible because my Bible is old. Ages come out. So if we ever have a sword drill, you guys are like, hey, give me Ethan a chance and do it in the Old Testament because the New Testament, my Bible will fall apart.

[25:48] Hebrews chapter 12, verse 5, and ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, faint when thou art rebuked of him.

[26:00] For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourges every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is whom the Father chasteneth not?

[26:12] But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence, shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live?

[26:30] For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous.

[26:44] Nevertheless, afterward, it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. True faith is always tested either by temptation within us or trials around us because a faith that can't be tested can't be trusted.

[27:01] That's the destruction of the wells. But then we see the digging of the wells, the real chore here. Starting in verse, let's see here.

[27:13] We'll see verse 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.

[27:26] And Isaac's servants digged in the valley and found there a well of springing water. And the herdmen of Gerard did strive with Isaac's herdsmen saying, the water is ours. And he called the name of the well Essek because they strove with him.

[27:38] That word Essek means strife. He shows up, they re-dug the well, now the Philistines are like, uh, that's our well. You can find your own. Uh, alright, not gonna, so, they move on, verse 21, and they digged another well and strove for that also.

[27:59] And he called the name of it Sitna. That means contention. Again, they show up and they're like, hey, this is our well. Go find your own. Alright. And he moved from thence and digged another well and for that they strove not.

[28:13] And he called the name of it Rehoboth. That means roominess. It says, for now the Lord hath made room for us and we shall be fruitful in the land, digging of the wells.

[28:24] It's important to understand when I was in Bible college, one thing I really appreciated was he would say thank you, he would say this, pray like it depends on God and work like it depends on you.

[28:40] And I think that was really good because sometimes it's easy to just sit there pray. When I was praying for a wife, how ridiculous would it have been if I just stayed home all the time and just prayed, alright God, bring a wife to me.

[28:58] Like she's supposed to just knock on the door. No, it's not going to happen like that. You know, there had to be some work there. I remember it wasn't ideal, you know, you want to do things on your own and you just meet somebody.

[29:17] That's not how the Lord in my had it. Brought some friends and they were like, hey, it's a little bull to get to know. So, this is kind of the stage I'm at right now and if it takes getting set up, I'll do that.

[29:31] Then I spent three hours trying to make up a text that was about this big. You know, running it by my friends, does this sound good? So, I text her, hey, I'd like to get to know you.

[29:43] She's like, so, we start talking and, you know, there was work involved there to get the blessing. You know, how ridiculous, like I said, would it have been if I hadn't put in the work?

[29:59] In our lives, through scripture, there's things that we know we ought to do. We don't have to pray about it. So many times we think, you know, I just got to, you know, we know it's right to pray.

[30:11] We know it's right to read our Bible. We don't have to pray about those. So many times I think we try in our own way, just like Isaac, to manipulate and try to get what we want.

[30:22] Just let God take care of it. Show up, do what you need to do, know is right, and God will take care of the rest. We got to put in that effort. And God blesses effort, by the way.

[30:33] that was one thing I remember, and it's always stuck with me. I couldn't even tell you the guy's name. I had gone to a, while I was still in high school, I had gone to a college.

[30:48] They were having like a college day and kind of get people there. And I was there and to get into the dorm that I was staying at, they gave me a key. And I had put it in my wallet, put it in a little special pocket in my wallet because I didn't want to lose the key.

[31:02] Lost it. So I had it there in my wallet and the speaker, I can't tell you his name, I don't even remember. He came up and he grabbed the door and he tried to open it and it was locked.

[31:15] He said, do you have a key? And I said, yes. And so I'm fumbling around, trying to grab my wallet, open the, you know, I'm shaking because I forget who he was, but he was the speaker for the college ordeal.

[31:26] So I just felt like this guy is important. And I'm fumbling around in my wallet and someone on the inside opened the door and he told me, God's going to bless you for your efforts. I don't know why that has always stuck in my head.

[31:39] And it's true, we may not get the result that we wanted, but God blesses efforts. You know what God is, he's interested in our faithfulness. I think about Jeremiah, he was like, nothing's going my way, you know, I'm the only one serving you.

[31:54] Keep showing up. God blesses faithfulness, he doesn't bless outcome. So dig the wells. If you've forfeited, forgotten the importance, failed to protect, or figured it would always be there, back to the well and start digging.

[32:07] God will bless that. Not only do we see the digging of the wells, but the drinking of the wells. Let's see here, he ended on verse 22. Verse 23, And he went up from thence to Beersheba. The Lord appeared unto him in the same night and said, I am the God of Abraham, thy father.

[32:24] Fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake. And he built an altar there, and called upon the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there.

[32:36] There Isaac's servants digged a well. Then Abimelech comes. You've got to remember, they were in the land, and then the Bible says that he was grown a hundred fold. God's blessing him.

[32:48] Abimelech notices this, no doubt has heard the mumblings of the other herdsmen in Gerar. So he comes. Just a side note real quick. It says, he comes from Gerar, and who is that?

[33:04] Sneeze when you get to that part. One of his friends, and then it says like Fichel, the chief captain of the army. These could be titles, but the Fichel, the chief captain of the army, is the same Fichel that is mentioned with the same title Abimelech in Abraham's time in chapter 12.

[33:21] And when you think and consider how long Abraham and Isaac lived, there's a good possibility that Abimelech lived that same time. I don't know. I just think it was interesting.

[33:32] I'm not saying it is or isn't the same guy. I think he would feel pretty ridiculous falling for that twice, going after somebody's wife and being like, you know, this is my sister. Oh, nope, she's the wife.

[33:43] Several years later doing it again, that'd be embarrassing. But Isaac said unto them, wherefore, come ye to me, seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away from you.

[33:53] So Isaac is asking a good question. What are you doing here? And verse 28, they said, we saw certainly that the Lord was with thee, and we said, let there be now an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us in thee, and let us make a covenant with thee, that thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee, and have done unto thee nothing but good, and have sent thee away in peace.

[34:18] Thou art now the blessed of the Lord. I think what's interesting is when we're doing what we ought to do, even our enemies see that.

[34:30] Even people that we may not like, they notice that in our life. I'm not saying our co-workers are our enemies, I'm not saying friends and families, neighbors, but people notice. You're doing what you ought to do.

[34:42] The Lord is blessing. They notice these things. And Abimelech, servants, they notice this. And verse 31, and they rose up bee times in the morning and swear one to another.

[34:54] And Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace. And it came to pass the same day that Isaac's servants came and told him concerning the well which they had digged and said unto him, we have found water.

[35:07] And he called it Sheba, means promise. Therefore the name of the city is Beersheba unto this day. Drinking of the wells. Beersheba means the well of the oath.

[35:18] That's where Abraham had made that oath with Abimelech many years ago. Isaac, he's identified by his tent and his altar. The king of Gerar shows up, sees this tent, obviously we see Isaac built this temple or altar to pray to the Lord to give blessing.

[35:40] So he was wealthy enough to be able to build himself a fine house, but his tent identified him as a pilgrim and a stranger in the land. Let's turn to Hebrews 11. Like I said, he was wealthy enough, he could have built those nice things, but his tent was what showed him that he was just a pilgrim.

[36:02] And we sing that song, this world is not my home, I'm just a passing through. Hebrews chapter 11 verse 8 says, Talk about faith.

[36:23] Imagine if God said, Ethan, sell your house and I'm going to take you someplace and I'll let you know where it is. That'd be faith. Convince my wife, pregnant, and take our one-year-old daughter and just move.

[36:38] But Abraham did it. Verse 9, By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.

[36:49] For he looked for a city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God. Up down to verse 13. 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, for they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country, and truly, the Bible says, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned, but now they desire a better country, that is in heavenly, wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city.

[37:31] Isaac all the way back then knew, I'm just passing through. Isn't it interesting, you can have somebody who has good and bad days just like we do, there's some days we're on the mountaintop, other days we're in the valley, he was, I think this is interesting, a fugitive is someone fleeing from home, a vagabond has no home, but a pilgrim is heading home, and that's what we're doing.

[37:55] The tent identified Isaac as a pilgrim, and the altar announced that he worshipped Jehovah, and was heading up to the heavenly kingdom. Like Isaac, all who have trusted Jesus Christ are strangers in the world, and pilgrims heading for a better world.

[38:09] So all of us would like to find our Rehoboth, the enlargement, the roominess. I think about the Sheba here in our text.

[38:20] This is the place, you know, I started off telling you that blessings bring battles and burdens. For Sheba has a special place. Because, you know, Abraham, when he had that encounter with Abimelech, they made that promise.

[38:35] But later on, Hagar runs there, burdened by the fact that Sarah hates her, and Ishmael isn't working out, and the Lord appears to her there.

[38:49] I mean, Isaac, he gets to Beersheba. The Lord blesses him in his time of fighting with the enemy for water. During those times of blessing and battle, God shows up.

[39:01] Later, Elijah is at Beersheba, hiding under a juniper tree. The Lord appears to him. Now, the Lord comes to us in our times of battle and burden. He wants to bless us.

[39:12] But there's also an expectation on us to trust him and allow him to do what he said he would do. All of us are looking for that enlargement where we have plenty of room and no contention.

[39:25] But Isaac's Rehoboth was found only after he endured conflict. It's through difficulties that God enlarges us for larger places. He prepares for us. In Psalm 4.1, it says, Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress.

[39:41] So when the troubles of our hearts are enlarged and we trust God, then the Lord can enlarge us. Psalm 25.17, I'll turn there real quick.

[39:52] The troubles of my heart are enlarged. O bring thou me out of my distresses. Psalm 18.19, it says, He brought me forth also into a large place. He delivered me because he delighted in me.

[40:05] If we want room, we have to suffer because that's the only way we can grow and feel at home in a larger place that God gives us when we're ready for it. I think that's why Paul says, glory in your infirmities.

[40:18] It sounds silly, right? Oh, wow, this is happening to me. So good. You know, I love being able to spend, you know what? Here, before we put that offering on the house, it was like two weeks.

[40:30] Every night, we're going and looking at houses. That's exhausting. Work all day, now you're looking at houses. Your poor kid is confused. Why are we going to these strange houses all the time? You know, she thinks we're going to buy every single one of them.

[40:42] And you're trying to do all this, you finally land on something, and then it's not the one. I have a choice. I can go back to that well and start digging again, let God bless, or I can't.

[40:54] Those are our choices. I think about the things that happen in life that don't go our way. We may not even understand why did God allow this to happen? Digging. Go to the wells.

[41:05] Dig old wells. You know what? Dig new wells. Let God meet you there. Let him be that for sheep. Let's pray. Let's pray.

[41:22]