확대 l 축소

<2022.06> The Christian Way of Life Reflected in Isaac’s Life of Digging Wells

North American Bible Study Meeting, 2006
The Christian Way of Life 
Reflected in Isaac’s Life of Digging Wells
December 27th, 2006, Evening Lecture
And in that day you will say: “O Lord, I will praise You; though You were angry with me, Your anger is turned away, and You comfort me. Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; ‘For Yah, the Lord, is my strength and song; He also has become my salvation.’” 
Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.  Isaiah 12:1-3
God’s Promise to Isaac
Previously, we examined the command that God gave to Isaac as it appears in Genesis chapter 26. The Bible says, “Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise” (Galatians 4:28). Through these words and taking into consideration what the Bible tells us about what Abraham and his son Isaac went through, and then what Isaac went through as an adult, we, as members of the church, are able to see what is in God’s heart in regard to the church, and what it is that God considers.
In Genesis chapter 12, we read about how Abraham went down to Egypt to escape from a famine, and then returned to the land of Canaan with great riches. But then, when another famine fell upon the land, God commanded Isaac not to go down to Egypt. We also examined what it says in Romans chapter 6 and Isaiah chapter 30, and we saw that the work that Jesus accomplished when He came down to this world in the flesh for the sake of mankind, languishing in the pit of sin, was more than sufficient. The verse in the letter to the Romans that says, “How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” (6:2) throws even more light on all of this. 
Also, God said to Isaac, “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land of which I shall tell you. Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; . . . and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father” (Genesis 26:2-3). Through passages such as this, we can see the tremendous blessings that God planned for the church. That is that, having discovered the fact that Jesus Christ took our sins upon Himself as He was crucified, the saints that are part of the church as they live in this world no longer live for the things of this world, but live instead by faith in God and in His Son.
The Bible talks about, “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Of these three, only scant mention is made of Isaac. Strangely, there appears to be something a little mysterious about Isaac. We can sense this as we read through the book of Genesis. The apostle Paul referred to Isaac when he wrote to the church, saying, “we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise”.
In Genesis chapter 26, we find that, since God had commanded him not to go down to Egypt, Isaac remained in the land and he became very rich as a result. In accounts such as this, we can see the heart of the Christian who wants to live according to God’s word, and the heart of God who also wants this.
As Isaac dwelt in the land, he dug some wells. Abraham and Jacob did, of course, also dig wells, but within the account of Isaac digging wells, there are some points that we need to consider as we are living in the age of the church.
Let’s turn to Genesis chapter 26, and read from verse 12.
Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the Lord blessed him. The man began to prosper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous; for he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servants. So the Philistines envied him. Now the Philistines had stopped up all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, and they had filled them with earth.  verses 12-15
Isaac obeyed God’s command to remain in the land, and as he lived there, visible blessings appeared before him. This also applies to Christians living in this world. The Bible says, “How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? … we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:2, 4). Also, the Creator God has said to those who have been born again through the words who appears in the New Testament, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another” (John 13:34). As indicated in these verses, we live our lives having fellowship together and depending on one another. Then, when we live with obedient hearts, we are given the gift of peace, and in the midst of this we may have a sense of duty to spread the gospel together.
Yet, the Philistines—the people who lived in that region—envied Isaac and stopped up his wells. What do we get from a well? We get water. What is water? Our bodies are more than 70% water, and we need to drink the necessary amount of water in order to maintain our lives. The ancestors of the Jews lived in an arid region so they put great importance on the digging of wells throughout their generations. So what does this mean for us?
Even though we are living in the midst of this world, our lives need to be separated from the world so God’s word has been given to us clearly through the Bible. Through the Bible, we come to seek something different in life from the things sought by the people of this world. Through fellowship, we come to know what God’s will is as expressed in the Bible and what God has done for us through Jesus Christ. This is presented to those on the outside through the fellowship we have together, and is described as “evangelizing,” or “spreading the gospel.”
There are words of God that have been given to us in this way. There are many places in the Bible where this is expressed as “water.” When we come across passages like, “the Philistines had stopped up all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, and they had filled them with earth,” we can sense what these words mean. We have a secret that the people of this world cannot understand. Also, we gather and live together for the sake of the work of spreading the gospel but, just as the Philistines filled the wells with earth, there is a power that keeps leading us astray.
Then Isaac departed from there and pitched his tent in the Valley of Gerar, and dwelt there. And Isaac dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham. He called them by the names which his father had called them.  Genesis 26:17-18
Isaac dug the wells again. This was just one ancestors of the Israel digging again the wells that his father had dug in order to obtain water, but through this, we can see that the patience of God who controls the course of history is alive and active in New Testament times within the apostles. The apostle Paul, for example, wrote, “From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one.
Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep” (2 Corinthians 11:24-25), and yet even as he suffered such afflictions, he had the heart to live his life for the gospel. Many fears have swept over us to block our way, but through the New Testament, we are continually presented with images of people who kept moving forward to complete the mission they had received from God.
Nevertheless, in the Bible we can find quite a few differences between Isaac’s actions and the image of the apostles who had fellowship together and overcame persecution as they proclaimed the gospel in order to establish the Church. Isaac comes across as a person busy living in his own world, unaware of anything beyond that. No matter what kind of lives the figures in the Old Testament lived, however, God prepared them and led them to live in that way as He governed the course of history. If we think about this, we can see that the heart of God was the same as He planted the zeal for the gospel in the hearts of the apostles in New Testament times; as He guided the course of the history of Israel; and even before that when He planned all these things and created the heavens and the earth. Also, through the Bible we come to believe that we all share the same faith that we find as the words of the Bible are given to us in our hearts. 
The reason I am saying this is to explain the kind of attitude we should have as we approach the Old Testament. The Old Testament may simply look like a storybook or a history book, but within it, God unfolded a tremendous course of history in order that His kindness and love toward man might appear (see Titus 3:4) when the time was right. So when we accept these accounts in the Old Testament deep down in our hearts and consider carefully what it is that God is saying to us through these words, we can see how God wants us to live our lives in this world and what kind of attitude He wants us to have. 
A Life of Endlessly Digging Wells
Also Isaac’s servants dug in the valley, and found a well of running water there. But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well Esek, because they quarreled with him. Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that one also. So he called its name Sitnah. And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth, because he said, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”  Genesis 26:19-22
Here we see the life of one person who kept digging wells to obtain water. If we read this passage without giving it much thought, we may wonder why this man dug so many wells. We are not likely to think deeply about this passage, since today we can get water very easily by just turning on the faucet. 
Yet, we should remember that within the patience people needed in those days as they continually dug wells to get water, we are presented with an image of God’s patience towards man. When we read even just one verse of the Bible, it is our responsibility to approach it with the desire to find out not what we want or want to know, but what God wants us to know. 
Proverbs chapter 5 also talks about a well. Reference to a well is hidden in this passage, but this is directly related to the church. If we do not read it careful, however, we may easily take a self-centered approach to what it says. Let’s think about what this passage is actually saying.
My son, pay attention to my wisdom; lend your ear to my understanding, that you may preserve discretion, and your lips may keep knowledge. For the lips of an immoral woman drip honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil; but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death, her steps lay hold of hell. Lest you ponder her path of life—her ways are unstable; you do not know them.  Proverbs 5:1-6
An immoral woman appears in this passage. But we need to think about this matter a little more deeply and consider who this immoral woman is and what God is trying to say to us.
Therefore hear me now, my children, and do not depart from the words of my mouth. Remove your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house, lest you give your honor to others, and your years to the cruel one; lest aliens be filled with your wealth, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner; and you mourn at last, when your flesh and your body are consumed, and say: “How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised correction! I have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined my ear to those who instructed me! I was on the verge of total ruin, in the midst of the assembly and congregation.”  Proverbs 5:7-14|di
정회원으로 가입하시면 전체기사와 사진(동영상)을 보실수 있습니다.

확대 l 축소