Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #36 of Genesis, chapter 21.  We are continuing to read 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 spent some time discussing the word “reprove.”  We also talked about the well of water, pointing to the well of salvation.  Abimelech is a figure of Satan and his servants were emissaries of Satan that come as “ministers of righteousness,” so they would represent false apostles and deceitful workers.  They were not true ministers of righteousness, as Christ is righteousness.  They violently took away the well of water.  This word translated as “violently taken away” is also found in Genesis 31:31:

And Jacob answered and said to Laban, Because I was afraid: for I said, Peradventure thou wouldest take by force thy daughters from me.

Jacob had married Laban’s daughters and then Jacob wanted to return home, so he was afraid if he informed Laban of his plan, Laban would take back his daughters.  Laban was a deceitful man.  Jacob feared this, and we see that it is translated here as “take by force.”  It is to take something that belongs to another, and that is what Abimelech’s servants did when they violently took away the well.  They went to the well and they probably had weapons.  There may have been many of them, and they took it away violently. 

This same word translated as “violently taken away” is also found in Job 24:2:

Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof.

We can see in the case of Jacob’s wives and in case of the flocks how it identifies with the people of God.   Jacob had married Rachel whose name is identified with a “ewe lamb,” and to have her taken by force is what he feared.  In taking away the well of water (taking away the true Gospel of God’s grace that brings salvation) is like taking away the flock of God, in the spiritual realm.  In Job, it said, “Some remove the landmarks,” and in the Bible this has to do with the ancient boundaries provided by the Word of God, as it sets the Law or the limits – you can come so far, and no further.  It sets the boundaries for living life in this world.  Mankind can go forth and extend himself up to a “point,” and then there is the boundary marker of the Law of God which he is not to transgress. 

It is just like your neighbor has a boundary line and if you cross it, you are trespassing on his property.  God has set boundary markers for man, and they are a great help for living the best life possible by staying within the markers or landmarks.  Do not go beyond and transgress the Law.  Anyone able to follow the landmarks to some degree will find the best possible happiness in living in this world.  Yes – I know that there is the issue of attempting to keep the Law to get right with God, but that of itself is a transgression of the Law.  It is a sinful thing to do.  But after salvation, God’s elect love Christ and He commands us, “Keep my commandments.”  We are to stay within the boundaries of the ancient landmarks.  This is what is in view in Job 24, but it says, “Some remove the landmarks.”  They take that what is good and call it evil and they take what is evil and call it good.  They try to set up different boundaries or landmarks of their own making, just like the world is doing today.  There is a whole new morality that is manmade in every way, saying it is a good thing to be a lesbian or homosexual; or, that it is good that there is same-sex marriage; or, that tell us it is right to abort a child, and so forth.  It is a good thing to go to a ball game on Sunday.  It is acceptable to get a divorce if you find yourself in a bad relationship.   They are changing and altering God’s ancient landmarks, taking what is firmly established by the Law of God and removing it altogether, or at least adjusting it: “Let me just make my minor adjustment and proclaim that there is not to be divorce, except for fornication.”  This is what the churches do.  Once they move the Law “an inch,” then it may as well be removed because we can see how it has been trampled underfoot ever since. 

You see, the “landmarks” provide protection for the flock.  If you are a property owner, you would put up your landmarks like they put up fences today.  And within the boundaries of their land, they keep their flocks of sheep or herds of cattle, and they can graze in safety under the watchful eye of the shepherd.  But if you take away the landmark, it endangers the flock.  People can trespass if they move the landmarks and violently take them away, and they feed thereof.  What this refers to is the same thing we read in Jeremiah 23 when God pronounced “woes” against the pastors.  It says in Jeremiah 23:1-3:

Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith JEHOVAH. Therefore thus saith JEHOVAH God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith JEHOVAH. And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.

A similar statement was made in Ezekiel 34:2-5:

Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them. And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered.

That is what is in view when they violently take away the flocks and feed thereof.  The flocks are easy prey for beasts of the field and wolves, and so forth.

It goes on to say of the people that remove the landmarks and violently remove the flocks, in Job 24:3-4:

They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow's ox for a pledge. They turn the needy out of the way…

The needy would point to God’s elect and the “way” is Christ – He is the way, the truth, and the life.  His way is the faithful teaching of the Word of God, the Bible.  Again, it says in Job 24:4:

They turn the needy out of the way: the poor of the earth hide themselves together.

We can see by the way the term “violently taken away” is used that it is a very evil thing.  It has to do with perverting the Gospel, which does harm to the flock, just like taking away a well of water would harmful.

Again, Abimelech replied to Abraham in Genesis 21:26:

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.

He did not seem to be very informed about the things that were going on in his kingdom.  In other words, he was ignorant about a great number of things, including the fact that Sarah was Abraham’s wife.  He did it in the innocency of his hands, and we discussed why God allowed this to happen.  It was true that he did do it in ignorance, which was used to paint a spiritual picture of the bride of Christ and how Satan takes all mankind captive, but he does not know which of the captives are counted among the number of elect that was chosen before the foundation of the world to become the bride of Christ.  This was the reason God caused Abraham to say she was his sister (rather than his wife), which allowed the situation to develop and for the bride of Christ to be taken by Satan.  Satan was ignorant about which of the captives in the dungeon of sin belonged to Christ as His bride.

But, here, I do not know what to make of this, spiritually, when Abimelech said, “I wot not who hath done this thing.”  The word “wot” is a Hebrew word that is often translated as “know,” so he was saying, he did not know who had done this thing.  Then He said, “Neither didst thou tell me, neither yet hear I of it, but to day.”  It almost seems like he is pointing at Abraham and saying, “You should have told me, and I would have done something about it.”  Again, how that fits in with Satan, I do not know.  This is another difficult statement in the Bible.  It seems like things having to do with this Abimelech are very difficult.  We struggled through the information about him back in Genesis 20, but it turned out to be a blessing as we learned some things.  I know I learned some things, and I am very glad God opened up our understanding to some things.  But, again, we have come upon another very difficult spiritual picture.

Historically, it is understandable, as Abimelech apparently did not know (about the incident), but that is not the difficulty.  What is difficult is what comes next, as we read in Genesis 21:27-31:

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.

The word “Beersheba” is a compound word that means “well of swearing” or “well of an oath.”  Remember that earlier they had sworn in Genesis 21:23-24:

Now therefore swear unto me here by God that thou wilt not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son's son: but according to the kindness that I have done unto thee, thou shalt do unto me, and to the land wherein thou hast sojourned. And Abraham said, I will swear.

It is the “well of swearing,” and, very interestingly, the Hebrew word translated as “swear” is Strong’s #7650.  This Hebrew word is usually translated as the number “seven” is #7651.  These two words are right next to one another in the concordance.  They have identical consonants and only the vowel pointing is different.  Since vowel points were added later, we can know they are basically the same word.  So, to swear Abraham set “seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves.”  Again, it is very difficult, and I really do not understand what is going on with that, but they are certainly tied to this idea of swearing an oath.  Also, the seven ewe lambs are related to the well, so it is almost as though it is an ancient formula for a business transaction that is taking place, and it is similar to what happened after Sarah died and Abraham was buying a grave for her.  There was very curious language where the owner said he would give (the land) to him, but then Abraham asked what the land was worth.  The owner replied that it was worth a certain amount, but repeated that he would give it to him, but then Abraham counted out the money that he had named, and this was done among the people present, and so forth.  It is like an ancient transaction that was taking place.  And, so, too, in this account Abraham is setting apart the seven ewe lambs.  It is like you would go down to the Deeds Office today and they would require you to pay for purchasing the land, or if you wanted to build something on the land, you must put up the money, get the permits and take care of all the details.  So, Abimelech is like the “government” and Abraham is giving him the money as a witness that he has digged the well.  Abimelech received the seven ewe lambs, which is basically securing the well to Abraham so that Abimelech’s servants could no longer come against it and take it away.  It would be like Abraham could say, “Look, I gave seven ewe lambs to witness that I digged this well.”   It was security protecting his investment in the well.

Again, we can understand it historically, but we are concerned about the deeper spiritual picture.  We have already seen that Abimelech is a type of Satan and Abraham can be a picture of God Himself, the people of God or the kingdom of God.  But both made a covenant, and God emphasized this in Genesis 21:31-32:

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.

They both made the covenant.  Spiritually, if we carry over the spiritual designations that Abimelech is Satan and Abraham is God, it would be as though God is making a covenant with Satan.  And therein is the problem.  It is troublesome to even think about.  God making a covenant with Satan?  How could that be?  Because we went through the earlier chapters of Genesis, we have seen that God made a covenant with Noah.  God made a covenant with Abraham.  He will later make a covenant with Isaac, and so forth. 

However, here, the spiritual dimension would seem to point to God making a covenant with the devil, and Satan is the enemy of God.  This is a serious difficulty.  How can we understand this?  How can we harmonize that with the rest of the Bible?  Since Abimelech represents Satan and Abraham represents God, we cannot just come up with a conclusion that is “out of sync” and does not fit with everything the Bible teaches.  Remember, we are to compare spiritual with spiritual, looking for that deeper spiritual meaning, but the other principal of Bible study is that all our conclusions must harmonize with the Bible as a whole.  This is where some people get into trouble with their doctrines, like the doctrine that says if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you shall be saved.  Yes – we can find a few verses that seem to fit with that, but then when you apply that very important principal of Bible study, the conclusion that we can simply “accept Christ” and become saved must fit with everything else the Bible says.  But you cannot get away with that conclusion because the Bible will not allow it from the left or from the right and in so many places, so you are shot down and you realize it is a wrong conclusion.  By God’s grace, we can understand the truth of the matter which is that God does everything involved in salvation.

Well, that is what we are faced with in these verses in Genesis 21.  To be consistent, when we see that Abimelech is a type and figure of Satan, then we must ask the question: “What is a covenant?”   We must know this.  We have discussed this, but we will go over it again.  Once we define the covenant, then we must ask, “How is it possible that God would make a covenant with Satan and Satan would make a covenant with God?”  Lord willing, when we get together in our next Bible study, we will start working on this and try to understand it as best we can.