There Is Room for Us

Genesis 26 begins with a famine. God tells Isaac not to go down to Egypt but to stay in the land, and promises, “I will be with you and bless you” (26:3). Isaac settles in Gerar, where, sadly, he repeats his father's lie that his wife is his sister (26:7). A hundredfold. Then: “Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the Lord blessed him” (26:12). In a year of famine, that harvest was a miracle of God's blessing. Isaac becomes “very prosperous,” with flocks, herds and many servants (26:13-14). Envy. “So the Philistines envied him” (26:14). Envy is wanting what someone else has, and resenting them for having it. The Philistines stopped up the wells Abraham's servants had dug and filled them with earth (26:15). In a dry land, that was a serious act. Sent away. King Abimelech tells Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we” (26:16). Isaac could have fought. Instead he leaves. The Bible says, “where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there” (James 3:16).

26:12-16 shows God blessing Isaac and the people around him growing envious. What came before. The chapter opens with a famine. God appears to Isaac, tells him not to go down to Egypt, and repeats to him the oath He swore to Abraham (26:2-5). Then Isaac repeats Abraham's lie about his wife (26:7-11; compare 12:10-20; 20:1-18). God's Word is honest about Isaac's sin, and that helps us see that the blessing which follows is grace, not a reward. “A hundredfold.” Me'ah she'arim (say: meh-AH sheh-ah-REEM), “a hundred measures” (26:12), is a huge harvest, even more so in a famine. Verse 12 says plainly where it came from: “and the Lord blessed him.” The verb gadal (say: gah-DAHL), “grow great,” comes three times in 26:13 (“began to prosper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous”). Envy. Vayqanne'u (say: vai-kah-neh-OO), “they envied” (26:14), comes from the same root as “jealousy.” Stopping up the wells (26:15) hurt Isaac's flocks and wiped out the mark Abraham had made on the land. Abraham had already argued over a well with an earlier Abimelech (21:25). Sent away. “You are much mightier than we” (26:16) sounds like the fear Pharaoh will later have about Israel (Exodus 1:9). God's blessing on His people can stir up hostility. Isaac left without striking back, and that choice shapes everything that happens next.

There was not much food in the land. So Isaac lived in a place called Gerar. He planted seeds, and God blessed him. That year he gathered a hundred times more than he planted! Isaac became very rich. He had flocks of sheep, herds of cattle, and many servants. But the Philistines who lived there were jealous. They filled Abraham's old wells with dirt. In a dry land, a well is very precious. Then the king said, “Go away from us.” “You have become too strong for us.” Isaac did not argue. He packed up and moved. He trusted God to take care of him.

God gave Isaac a big harvest. Isaac had lots of animals. Some people were jealous. They filled his wells with dirt.

Isaac pitches his tent in the Valley of Gerar (26:17). His father's wells. “And Isaac dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father… He called them by the names which his father had called them” (26:18). Isaac honors his father by restoring what Abraham had made. Running water. His servants dig in the valley and find “a well of running water” (26:19), literally “living water,” a spring that flows. That was a great treasure. Esek. “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” (26:20). Esek means “quarrel.” The ICB calls it “Argue.” Sitnah. They dig another, “and they quarreled over that one also. So he called its name Sitnah” (26:21), which means “hostility.” The ICB calls it “Fight.” Isaac's choice. Twice Isaac had a good reason to fight. Twice he let it go. The names he gave the wells were honest: he did not pretend the quarrels did not happen. But he did not let them turn into a war.

In 26:17-21 Isaac restores old wells and digs new ones, and each well's name tells what happened there. Restoring the past. Isaac reopens Abraham's wells and gives them back their old names (26:18). A name in Genesis says who something belongs to. Isaac claims his father's inheritance, not by force but by hard work. “Living water.” 26:19 speaks of be'er mayim chayyim (say: beh-AYR mah-YEEM khai-YEEM), “a well of living water,” fed by a spring. Later the Bible uses this phrase for God Himself: Jeremiah calls Him “the fountain of living waters” (Jeremiah 2:13), and Jesus offers “living water” (John 4:10). Esek and Sitnah. The names remember the quarrels: Esek (say: EH-sek), “contention,” and Sitnah (say: sit-NAH), “accusation” or “hostility,” from the same root as satan, “adversary.” Isaac does not deny the conflict, and he does not make it worse. Willing to yield. James 3:17 describes heavenly wisdom as “peaceable, gentle, willing to yield.” Walking away twice might look like weakness, but Isaac was trusting God to provide, and in 26:22 God did.

Isaac moved his camp to a valley. First he dug out his father Abraham's old wells. He gave them the same names his father had given them. Then his servants dug a new well. They found fresh running water! But the herdsmen of Gerar came and argued. “This water is ours!” they said. Isaac named that well Argue. His servants dug another well. The herdsmen fought about that one too. Isaac named it Fight. Isaac could have fought back. But he chose to move on instead. Fighting would only make things worse.

Isaac dug a new well. Some men said, “It is ours!” Isaac did not fight. He moved on and dug again.

“And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth” (26:22). Room. Rehoboth means “broad places” or “room.” Isaac explains, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land” (26:22). Isaac did not win the room by fighting. He believed the Lord had given it. Beersheba. Isaac goes up to Beersheba, where his father had lived (26:23). “And the Lord appeared to him the same night and said, ‘I am the God of your father Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for My servant Abraham's sake’” (26:24). Why “do not fear”? Isaac had been pushed from place to place. He may have wondered whether he would ever be safe. God's answer is not a list of plans but a promise of presence: “I am with you.” Worship. “So he built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord, and he pitched his tent there; and there Isaac's servants dug a well” (26:25). Altar, tent, well: worship, home and daily needs, all in God's presence.

In 26:22-25 the quarrels end, and God speaks to Isaac. Rehoboth. Rechovot (say: reh-kho-VOTE), “broad places,” is explained by Isaac himself: “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land” (26:22). The verb rachav (say: rah-KHAHV), “make wide,” is the same one the Psalms use for rescue: “He also brought me out into a broad place” (Psalm 18:19). Room to live is God's gift. Fruitfulness. “We shall be fruitful” (paru) uses the language of God's blessing at creation (1:28) and His promise to Abraham (17:6). Isaac took the peaceful well as a sign that God's promise still stood. God appears at Beersheba. 26:24 is the second time God appears to Isaac in this chapter (compare 26:2-5). It is the only place in Genesis where God says “do not fear” to Isaac. God gives the reason for His blessing: “for My servant Abraham's sake.” Isaac received a grace he had not earned, just as we do in Christ. Altar, tent, well. In 26:25 Isaac does what Abraham did, building an altar and calling on the name of the Lord (12:8; 13:4; 21:33). Worship comes first; home and provision follow.

Isaac moved again and dug one more well. This time nobody argued about it. Isaac named it Room Enough. “Now the Lord has made room for us,” he said. “We will be successful in this land.” Then Isaac went up to Beersheba. That very night the Lord appeared to him. “I am the God of your father Abraham.” “Do not be afraid, for I am with you.” “I will bless you and give you many children.” Isaac built an altar there. He prayed and worshiped the Lord. And his servants started digging another well.

Isaac dug one more well. Nobody argued. Isaac said, “God has made room for us!” God said, “I am with you.”

“Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath, one of his friends, and Phichol the commander of his army” (26:26). An honest question. Isaac does not pretend nothing happened: “Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?” (26:27). Peacemakers can be honest. A surprising confession. “We have certainly seen that the Lord is with you” (26:28). The same people who envied Isaac now admit that God is with him, and they ask for a covenant. They even say, “You are now the blessed of the Lord” (26:29). A feast for former enemies. “So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank” (26:30). The next morning they swear an oath, and “they departed from him in peace” (26:31). The Bible later says, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him” (Romans 12:20). Isaac did. Water again. “It came to pass the same day that Isaac's servants came and told him… ‘We have found water’” (26:32). Isaac names it Shebah, and the city is called Beersheba (26:33). “When a man's ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him” (Proverbs 16:7).

26:26-33 ends the chapter with a peace treaty and one more well. The visitors. Abimelech arrives with Ahuzzath, his adviser, and Phichol, his commander (26:26). A Phichol also appears with Abraham's Abimelech in 21:22; it may be the same official or a title passed down. Bringing the army commander made the visit both official and tense. Honesty. Isaac names the hostility: “since you hate me” (26:27). Making peace God's way does not mean pretending. It brings wrongs into the open so they can be put to rest. The Philistines' confession. “We have certainly seen that the Lord is with you” (26:28) and “You are now the blessed of the Lord” (26:29). In a small way this fulfills God's promise that through Abraham's seed “all the nations of the earth shall be blessed” (26:4; 12:3): people from another nation saw God's blessing and wanted peace with it. They also claim to have “done nothing to you but good” (26:29), which is kinder to themselves than the truth, but Isaac does not argue. Feast and oath. The meal (26:30) and the morning oath (26:31) seal the treaty. Isaac “sent them away… in peace,” the very opposite of 26:16. Shebah. The well found “the same day” (26:32) is named Shiv'ah (say: shiv-AH), related to “oath,” which explains the name Beersheba, “well of the oath” (26:33; compare 21:31). God provided water right after peace was made.

Then King Abimelech came to Isaac. He brought his friend and the captain of his army. Isaac was surprised. “Why have you come? You sent me away!” he said. Isaac told the truth about what they had done. “We can see that the Lord is with you,” they said. “Let's make a promise of peace.” So Isaac made them a big feast. Early the next morning they made their promise. They went home in peace. That same day Isaac's servants found water! God had blessed Isaac again. Isaac was a peacemaker, and God took care of him. God can turn enemies into friends.

The king came to see Isaac. “God is with you,” he said. “Let's make peace.” Isaac made a big feast.