Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #34 of Genesis, chapter 21.  We will be reading Genesis 21:25-32:

And Abraham reproved Abimelech because of a well of water, which Abimelech's servants had violently taken away. And Abimelech said, I wot not who hath done this thing: neither didst thou tell me, neither yet heard I of it, but to day. And Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them unto Abimelech; and both of them made a covenant. And Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves. And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What mean these seven ewe lambs which thou hast set by themselves? And he said, For these seven ewe lambs shalt thou take of my hand, that they may be a witness unto me, that I have digged this well. Wherefore he called that place Beersheba; because there they sware both of them. Thus they made a covenant at Beersheba: then Abimelech rose up, and Phichol the chief captain of his host, and they returned into the land of the Philistines.

We have been making our way through this chapter, and we have discussed how Abraham’s meeting, once again, with Abimelech is pointing to God or His people encountering Satan, as Abraham can be a picture of God the Father or a picture of the elect.

After Abimelech and Phichol had asked Abraham to swear to them that he would not deal falsely with them (which thing Abraham sware), Abraham took that opportunity to reprove Abimelech because of a well of water that Abimelech’s servants had violently taken away.  We know that earlier in this chapter, Hagar had her eyes opened to see a well of water, so we spent some time looking in the Bible to see what a “well” identifies with, and we did not have to look very long to see that the book of Isaiah speaks of a “well of salvation.”  We also looked at the woman at the well in John 4.  We will read that, again, because it really gets to the spiritual aspect of a well.  The Lord said to the woman in John 4:10-15:

Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.

Jesus spoke of “a well of water springing up into everlasting life,” which refers to what happens when God saves a sinner and gives him His indwelling Spirit – it is like a well of everlasting water.  It is water that quenches the thirst for righteousness, because when we become saved Christ becomes our righteousness.  Our need for righteousness is satisfied and, thereafter, we have perfect righteousness.  We are clean in God’s sight and we walk uprightly from that point. 

Keep in mind that Abimelech is a type of Satan and Phichol would identify with Satan’s servants, as we read in 2Corinthians 11:13-15:

For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

Remember that a “minister” is someone that “ministers to” or “serves” someone.  In other words, the servants of Satan are those that only profess to be Christians – especially those that are elders, deacons, pastors, popes, bishops or other spiritual leaders within the churches – that come like “an angel of light.”  They come with the Bible, the Word of God.  And Christ is the Word, so they are coming as if Christ were with them, but it is a deceitful work because Christ is not with them.  They are not coming with the truth, and Christ is the Truth.  They are coming with a lie, and Satan is the father of lies, so they are his servants. 

When God sent forth His Gospel in various times and seasons throughout the history of the world, it was as though He was digging wells of water; He was opening up a well spring from which the water of life would flow forth in the dry and thirsty land of this world. 

What is the reaction of Satan and his ministers or servants?  It is to come against it and violently take the well away.  Lord willing, we will look at the words translated “violently taken away,” but right now we want to look at the first part of the verse where Abraham reproved Abimelech for the well of water that had been violently taken away.  Again, there was an historical incident where servants of this Philistine king did violently take away a well of water that was dug by Abraham’s servants.  It was rightly his well and he had been given allowance to dwell in that land, so they should not have taken it away, but they did.  All of that is true, and it is interesting on the historical level, but how long can we stay on just the physical level?  All the action and the great importance of it lies on the spiritual level.

Again, we know that Abraham is a type and figure of God the Father or the Lord Jesus Christ, because Christ said, “I and the Father are one.”  But it also identifies with the people of God that would have great interest in this well of water that was violently taken away, and that is why Abraham reproved Abimelech – it has great significance, as it points to salvation.  Again, we read in Isaiah 12:3:

Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.  

This typology is very clear regarding what the well represents, so to take it away would have to do with taking away salvation.  Is that something in which Satan has been involved?  Yes – it has been his chief interest throughout the history of the world.  He tried to prevent sinners that were dead in their sins and held captive in his dark dungeon from being saved.  He did not want to set any free.  He did not want them to be loosed.  In Isaiah 14 which is a chapter that details the fall of Satan, it says in Isaiah 14:13:

For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

This language matches with 2Thessalonians 2 where it speaks of “the man of sin.”  Then it goes on to say in Isaiah 14:14-17:

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. et thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?

He would not open the prison, just as Pharaoh (another type of Satan) would not let God’s people go when God sent His servant Moses into Egypt.  It was a very simple command that God proclaimed through His servant Moses: “Let my people go.”  What was Pharaoh’s reaction?  He refused.  And that typifies Satan.  He would not let even the least servant of sin and Satan go – not willing.  He had to be forced.  He had to be bound, as Christ bound him at the time of the cross and then the Lord plundered his house.  With Egypt, God first had to bring that mighty nation to its knees, a mighty nation with the greatest army of its time.  God had to practically destroy the entire nation before Pharaoh would relinquish the captives and Israel could go free.  That teaches us about Satan’s personality.  One of his main goals was to hold onto all the captives.  If God wanted them freed, then Satan wanted to keep them in bondage.

The well of water was a well of salvation or a well of deliverance from captivity to sin and, therefore, there was hostility when Abimelech’s servants actively took it away.  Later, we will find in Genesis 26 that Isaac has grown up and he was sojourning in the same land.  And guess who he ran into?  It was Abimelech, once again, and there was another issue concerning “wells” in Genesis 26:14-16:

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.

Notice in verse 14 that the Philistines envied him.  So, they stopped up all the wells, filling them with earth.  Why?  They wanted to hide the water.  They did not want people to go to those wells and find water.

You know, sometimes it is difficult when we look at the language regarding Abimelech, but, in this case, it is very straight forward regarding his being a type of Satan, and Abraham reproving him.  We will look at the word “reproved,” but keep in mind that the Lord Jesus Christ rebuked Satan.  The word “reprove” in the New Testament can also be translated as “rebuke,” but the word “rebuke” used in Jude is a different word, but it carries the same idea.  It says in Jude 1:9:

Yet Michael the archangel…

And remember that the name “Michael” means “who is assuredly God,” and it is another name for Christ.  Christ is also the Chief Messenger, which is what the word “archangel” means.

Again, it says in Jude 1:9:

Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.

And that is the idea when Abraham reproved Abimelech because of the well of water.  This word “reproved” is Strong’s #3198 in the Hebrew Concordance.  It is also found in Job 13:6-10:

Hear now my reasoning, and hearken to the pleadings of my lips. Will ye speak wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully for him? Will ye accept his person? will ye contend for God? Is it good that he should search you out? or as one man mocketh another, do ye so mock him? He will surely reprove you, if ye do secretly accept persons.

God will reprove you if you accept persons.  It tells us in Proverbs 15 concerning scorners that are reproved, in Proverbs 15:12:

A scorner loveth not one that reproveth him: neither will he go unto the wise.

This is the nature of fallen mankind.  Unless a person is one of God’s elect and God has a plan to save him by applying the Word of God and making him born again, the individual will not love the One that reproves him.  They would be resentful, and so forth.

It says in Proverbs 24:23-25:

These things also belong to the wise. It is not good to have respect of persons in judgment. He that saith unto the wicked, Thou art righteous; him shall the people curse, nations shall abhor him: But to them that rebuke him shall be delight, and a good blessing shall come upon them.

Our word translated as “reproved” is translated here as “rebuke.”  We can see that this has to do with not being a respecter of persons in judgment, like telling the wicked they are righteous.  This is being done when churches say, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.”  This statement is just being said in general, so how does one know this is a true statement for a specific individual if they put it on a website or a tract that goes out to everyone?  Even during the church age, nobody knew if God saved this individual or that individual because that was God’s business.  God loved Jacob, and He did not love Esau.  But the problem with the doctrine that God loves everybody is that it is all tied in with the erroneous “free will” gospel that says that Christ died for everyone.  It is all false.  It is all wrong teaching. 

And the problem was that even when it was still the church age, they were telling both “Jacob” and “Esau” that God loves them, but God specifically said, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau I have hated.”  He loved the one and He hated the other and, yet, the pastors would lie to “Esau” by telling him, “God loves you.”  This is what God is saying when He says, “He that saith unto the wicked, Thou art righteous; him shall the people curse, nations shall abhor him: But to them that rebuke him shall be delight, and a good blessing shall come upon them.”  God’s people rightly divide the Word of truth, making sure the distinction.  We do not carelessly tell people that God loves them.  We simply present what the Bible says.  We tell them that God had a plan to save all His elect, and He certainly loves them, but He does not love everyone, and Christ did not die for all men.  He died for a specific number, a remnant out of the whole of mankind.  The majority of people in the world will perish unsaved.  This is the reason the Bible says, “Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure.”   We speak the truth, and we tell people the true situation – we do not lie to them.  And that would serve to “reprove” them. 

Amos also used this word in Amos 5:10:

They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.

Why does it refer to him (singular)?  It is because it first refers to Christ.  It is like how the Bible says, “How beautiful are the feet of them,” but the Bible also has another verse that says, “How beautiful are the feet of him.”   There is a whole company that published the message of peace, and the Bible says, “The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it.”  It was all the “feet” of His elect that are one body in Christ, and it was God’s purpose that we got the message out to all the nations to save all that were predestinated to receive salvation.  That is the “gate,” the gate of heaven.  It was the “door” that God opened up to this world, and the unsaved hate Him that rebukes or reproves in the gate, and they abhor Him that speaks uprightly.  There is a hatred in the world against the true Word of God that reproves men, but that is not the message of the false gospels that say, “God loves everyone.”   So, here is a sinner in rebellion against God in thought, word and deed, and despising God with every breath, but the message comes to him, “God loves you.”  His response is, “OK, fine.”  He pays it no mind and continues with his wicked life.  We read in Ezekiel that it “strengthens the hand of the wicked.”  In other words, the will of the sinner is strengthened in his wicked pursuits and there is no turning from it. 

This “watered-down gospel” is found in all the churches today.  This is what it does for the wicked, because it is a respecter of persons, in a sense, so the world does not pay it any mind.  It does not matter if it is the Catholic Church, the Episcopal Church, or any other church of the world.  It is part of the “noise” of the world.  It is like every other religion and every philosophy of man – it goes in one ear and out the other.  It is of no significance to the people of the world.

When the true Gospel was proclaimed in the gate during the day of salvation, God opened up “a great door and effectual,” and we were blessed to be witnesses of the greatest proclamation of the Gospel the world had ever seen in the period of the Latter Rain and leading up to the date of May 21, 2011.  That was a message to be hated, despised and abhorred, because it was a light shining in the darkness.  And those in the darkness are very uncomfortable with the light, and they want to flee from it, as it says in John 3:19-20:

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

There is the word “reproved.”  This is the reason the book of Amos speaks of “reproving in the gate,” because it is where the light is shining.  And, again, the scorners love not him that reproves.

We have run out of time in this study.  Lord willing, we will continue with this study the next time we get together.