'Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same
year an hundredfold, and the Lord blessed him. 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. For all the wells which his
father's servants had digged in the days of Abraham his
father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them
with earth. And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us;
for thou art much mightier than we. And Isaac departed
thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and
dwelt there. 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. And Isaac's servants
digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing
water. And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac's
herdmen, saying, The water is ours: and he called the
name of the well Esek; because they strove with him. And
they digged another well, and strove for that also: and
he called the name of it Sitnah. And he removed from
thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove
not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said,
For now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be
fruitful in the land. And he went up from thence to
Beer-sheba. 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. 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.'--GENESIS xxvi. 12-25.
The salient feature of Isaac's life is that it has no salient features.
He lived out his hundred and eighty years in quiet, with little to make
history. Few details of his story are given, and some of these are not
very creditable. He seems never to have wandered far from the
neighbourhood of Beersheba. These quiet, rolling stretches of thinly
peopled land contented him, and gave pasture for his flocks, as well as
fields for his cultivation. Like many of the tribes of that district
still, he had passed from the purely nomad and pastoral life, such as
Abraham led, and had begun to 'sow in that land.' That marks a stage in
progress. His father's life had been like a midsummer day, with bursts
of splendour and heavy thunder-clouds; his was liker a calm day in
autumn, windless and unchanging from morning till serene evening. The
world thinks little of such lives, but they are fruitful.
Our text begins with a sweet little picture of peaceful industry,
blessed by God, and therefore prospering. Travellers tell us that the
land where Isaac dwelt is still marvellously fertile, even to rude
farming. But to be merely a successful farmer and sheep-owner might
have seemed poor work to the heir of such glowing promises, and the
prospect of a high destiny often disgusts its possessor with lowly
duties. 'But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with
patience wait for it,' and the best way to fit ourselves for great
things in the future is to bend our backs and wills to humble toil in
the present. Peter expected every day to see the risen Lord, when he
said, 'I go a-fishing.'
The Philistines' envy was very natural, since Isaac was an alien, and,
in some sense, an intruder. Their stopping of the wells was a common
act of hostility, and an effectual one in that land, where everything
lives where water comes, and dies if it is cut off. Abimelech's reason
for 'extraditing' Isaac might have provoked a more pugnacious person to
stay and defy the Philistines to expel him. 'Thou art much mightier
than we,' and so he could have said, 'Try to put me out, then,' and the
result might have been that Abimelech and his Philistines would have
been the ones to go. But the same spirit was in the man as had been in
the lad, when he let his father bind him and lay him on the altar
without a struggle or a word, and he quietly went, leaving his fields
and pastures. 'Very poor-spirited,' says the world; what does Christ
say?
Isaac was not 'original.' He cleaned out the wells which his father had
digged, and with filial piety gave them again the old names 'which his
father had called them.' Some of us nowadays get credit for being
'advanced and liberal thinkers,' because we regard our fathers' wells
as much too choked with rubbish to be worth clearing out, and the last
thing we should dream of would be to revive the old names. But the old
wells were not enough for the new time, and so fresh ones were added.
Isaac and his servants did not say, 'We will have no water but what is
drawn from Abraham's wells. What was enough for him is enough for us.'
So, like all wise men, they were conservatively progressive and
progressively conservative. The Gerar shepherds were sharp lawyers.
They took strong ground in saying, 'The _water_ is ours; you have dug
wells, but we are ground-owners, and what is below the surface, as well
as what is on it, is our property.' Again Isaac fielded, moved on a
little way, and tried again. A second well was claimed, and given up,
and all that Isaac did was to name the two 'Contention' and 'Enmity,'
as a gentle rebuke and memorial. Then, as is generally the result,
gentleness wearied violence out, and the Philistines tired of annoying
before Isaac tired of yielding. So he came into a quiet harbour at
last, and traced his repose to God, naming his last well 'Broad
Places,' because the Lord had made room for him.
Such a quiet spirit, strong in non-resistance, and ready to yield
rather than quarrel, was strangely out of place in these wild days and
lands. He obeyed the Sermon on the Mount millenniums before it was
spoken. Whether from temperament or from faith, he is the first
instance of the Christian type of excellence in the Old Testament. For
there ought to be no question that the spirit of meekness, which will
not meet violence by violence, is the Christian spirit. Christian
morals alter the perspective of moral excellences, and exalt meekness
above the 'heroic virtues' admired by the world. The violets and lilies
in Christ's garden outshine voluptuous roses and flaunting sunflowers.
In this day, when there is a recrudescence of militarism, and we are
tempted to canonise the soldier, we need more than ever to insist that
the highest type is 'the Lamb of God,' who was 'as a sheep before her
shearers.' To fight for my rights is not the Christian ideal, nor is it
the best way to secure them. Isaac will generally weary out the
Philistines, and get his well at last, and will have escaped much
friction and many evil passions.
'Tis safer being meek than fierce.'
Isaac won the friendship of his opponents by his patience, as the
verses after the text tell. Their consciences and hearts were touched,
and they 'saw plainly that the Lord was with him,' and sued him for
alliance. It is better to turn enemies into friends than to beat them
and have them as enemies still. 'I'll knock you down unless you love
me' does not sound a very hopeful way of cementing peaceful relations.
But 'when a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to
be at peace with him.' But Isaac won more than the Philistines' favour
by his meek peacefulness, for 'the Lord appeared unto him,' and assured
him that, undefended and unresisting as he was, he had a strong
defence, and need not be afraid: 'Fear not, for I am with thee.' The
ornament of a meek and quiet spirit is, in the sight of God, of great
price, and that not only for 'a woman'; and it brings visions of God,
and assurances of tranquil safety to him who cherishes it. The Spirit
of God comes down in the likeness of a dove, and that bird of peace
sits 'brooding "only" on the charmed wave' of a heart stilled from
strife and wrath, like a quiet summer's sea.
Isaac's new home at Beersheba, having been thus hallowed by the
appearance of the Lord, was consecrated by the building of an altar. We
should hallow by grateful remembrance the spots where God has made
Himself known to us. The best beginning of a new undertaking is to rear
an altar. It is well when new settlers begin their work by calling on
the name of the Lord. Beersheba and Plymouth Rock are a pair. First
comes the altar, then the tent can be trustfully pitched, but 'except
the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it.' And if
the house is built in faith, a well will not be lacking; for they who
'seek first the kingdom of God' will have all needful 'things added
unto them.'