Isaac’s Wells and the Life of the Spirit (Genesis 26)

The Bible doesn’t tell us much about Isaac’s life.

In contrast, it tells us a lot about his father, Abraham, and one of Isaac’s sons, Jacob.

In fact, in the chapters of Genesis covering these three patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob), the author finishes Abraham’s story and moves straight into Jacob’s. Only after beginning Jacob’s narrative does the author return to provide a little more details about Isaac’s life. Which brings us to Genesis chapter 26.

Compared to other Bible characters, and especially compared to his father Abraham, or Isaac’s son Jacob, Isaac’s life appears rather unremarkable. The one thing that does stand out was his failure when, out of fear the men would kill him due to his wife’s attractive appearance, he lied and said she was his sister.

The other aspect of his life was the miraculous way in which God prospered him.

First, God opened Rebekah’s womb, Isaac’s wife, and they were able to have twin boys.

Second, God commanded him not to flee from a famine that came to the land where he lived and promised to bless him.

God blesses Isaac

Under this divine promise, Isaac sowed in that land, and in the same year he reaped a harvest of a hundredfold. We know that sowing doesn’t guarantee a harvest—many factors can destroy it entirely. In those days, yielding a harvest of five to tenfold was considered a successful harvest; that is, getting five to ten grains for every one sown.

Yet Isaac reaped a hundredfold from each seed he sowed. This miraculous harvest happened during a significant famine. God had promised to bless him in that land, and He fulfilled His word. God prospered Isaac in an extraordinary way.

The wells

Another way God blessed Isaac was through wells of water. This provision was vital, especially during a famine.

What’s interesting is that these weren’t new wells—Isaac reopened the ones his father Abraham had dug years earlier. In that era, owning wells was comparable to owning oil fields today; they represented immense wealth.

Reopening the wells wasn’t easy. Besides the hard labor involved, Isaac faced opposition from the people of the land, the Philistines. Their envy was so intense that, instead of benefiting from the wells, they preferred to stop them up and fill them with earth. Every time Isaac reopened them, the Philistines quarreled over the water rights.

Isaac did not contend for the wells; he simply left them to the Philistines and kept digging until they no longer opposed him. It is interesting to note that although God was blessing him with the wells, He did not keep him from having to face opposition.

Some Bible teachers praise Isaac’s humble and peaceable character for not fighting the Philistines over the wells. Despite the opposition, he didn’t give up and continued reopening his father’s wells.

The spiritual blessing

As I read Genesis 26, I noticed something profound in the text: Isaac’s wells represent the life of the Spirit.

“If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.”
Galatians 5:25, ESV

“But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
John 4:14, ESV

Isaac represents the Christian believer who seeks to live by the Spirit. The wells represent the life of the Spirit.

“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”
Romans 8:14, ESV

This spiritual blessing far surpasses any material prosperity.

“For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”
Romans 8:2, ESV

“For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.”
Romans 8:6, ESV

Isaac was diligent in reopening his father’s wells, even amid opposition. In the same way, today’s Christian must seek these “spiritual wells,” these spiritual riches. And this blessing is available to us.

One practical way to receive this blessing is through reading the Bible.

“That he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.”
Ephesians 5:26, ESV

May the Lord help us to dig and keep open these spiritual wells in our lives, so that living water may spring up within us, leading to eternal life.

Proverbs – The fear of the Lord

We are told the purpose of the book of Proverbs in its introduction, which is found in the first seven verses of the first chapter (1:1-7). We learn that the source of true wisdom is the fear of the Lord. We have been looking at the different characteristics of wisdom, things such as prudence, instruction, discretion. These characteristics, taken together, form what the Bible teaches wisdom is. And at the heart of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Proverbs 1:7 (ESV)

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
Proverbs 9:10 (ESV)

What is the fear of the Lord?

Typically, the fear of the Lord is defined as having a reverence of God. To hold God is high esteem. And this is true. However, the fear of the Lord means more than this. I like to make this point because someone can hold something or someone in high esteem but it wouldn’t necessarily mean someone would build their life on holding something or someone in high esteem.

My definition of the fear of the Lord is this: To know God as creator of all things, and as such, that He knows what is best for us, and therefore we should seek to live according to His will, under his authority and rules; to obey Him and strive to live faithfully to Him.

In the fear of the Lord one has strong confidence, and his children will have a refuge.
Proverbs 14:26 (ESV)

Having the fear of the Lord as the basis for living a life characterized by wisdom brings a long life.

The fear of the Lord prolongs life, but the years of the wicked will be short.
Proverbs 10:27 (ESV)

The fear of the Lord is also to be preferred whether in riches or in having little.

The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life.
Provers 22:4 (ESV)

Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it.
Proverbs 15:16 (ESV)

Let’s seek and persevere in the fear of the Lord.

Speaking of genealogies

The biblical authors had a purpose in mind when using a genealogy. The first genealogy in the Bible is found in Genesis 5. The purpose of this is to show us how we got from Adam, to Seth, all the way down to Noah.

Then there are two different genealogies listed, beginning in chapter 9:18. The first genealogy tells us about Noah’s immediate descendants.

The second genealogy continue to list Noah’s descendants and in chapter 11:10, it lists the descendants of one of Noah’s sons, Shem. Why does the genealogy begin to focus in on Shem? Because from Shem comes a guy named Terah and he was Abram’s father, whom God later changed his name to Abraham. Yes, that Abraham.

The biblical narrative weave the different genealogies to tell us of the Son of Man who was to come many years later. The gospel authors, Matthew and Luke, include a genealogy to show us how Jesus was the son of Abraham and the son of Adam.

Galatians 4:4–5

[4] But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, [5] to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. (ESV)

Let us make man

As God was making the world and everything in it, he made man on the sixth and final day of creation. I want to focus on what the text tells us about God in the making of man.

Let’s look at the text:

Genesis 1:26

[26] Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” (ESV)

We notice an inner dialogue taking place. In all of the other days of creation, and in all other created things that God made, he simply spoke them into existence. But things change when God makes man. God talks to himself.

We now know this is the Triune God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), discussing the making of man. Let’s pause there for a moment.

No one person of the Trinity is going off on their own to make man. There is, instead, a calling to come united in the creation of man. «Let us». There is a perfect community here. Perfect unity in the Trinity (God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit). No one person of the Trinity opposed the proposition. The Triune God was in agreement as to the plan to make man, and it is out of this perfect communion, agreeance, and unity that man was created.

The Bible teaches us that God is love (1 John 4:8), and it’s this God of love, the Triune God, who came together to make man. Man was made out of love. Not out of lack, but out of abundance. Man was made thoughtfully, purposefully. Because of this, man can be secure in his place in the world. Because of this, man can also walk securely knowing that he was wanted.

Because of this, man can also come together to accomplish great things. Man can also call on his fellow men and say, «let us», and agree to walk in unity.