Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #13 of Genesis, chapter 26, and we are reading Genesis 26:15-18:

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. And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there. And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham: and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them.

I will stop reading there.  We are moving along in this chapter, and now we are told about the wells that Isaac’s father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham.  These wells were stopped up by the Philistines who filled them with earth.  If we turn back to Genesis 21, we will read the account when Abraham and his servants were digging these wells.  It says in Genesis 21:25-31:

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 read here as God tells us, lest we think that the Philistines reneged and went back on their deal, that these events with Isaac are about a hundred years later, so this has to a different king Abimelech, and not the same king.  Abraham had died.  Remember that we read about that in the previous chapter 25.  Abraham died at the age of 175, and we know that Isaac was born when Abraham was 100 and, therefore, Isaac was 75 years old when Abraham died.  Then God went back in time for a little bit in the rest of the Genesis 25 to tell us about Isaac taking Rebekah to wife when Isaac was 40.  At that point Abraham was alive, and when Isaac was 60, Jacob and Esau were born, and Abraham was still alive.  Then came the incident with Esau selling his birthright, and we spent some time discussing how they had to be at least in their 30s or close to 40 years old, and that is why we estimated that Isaac was 90 years old, or more, when he made this move to the land of the Philistines.  And that is why I am saying that it was about 100 years earlier when the incident with Abraham took place because it was before Isaac was born, and Isaac was born when Abraham was 100, so it was roughly 90 or 100 years since that incident, and it had probably been 15 to 25 years at this point since Abraham’s death, as he died at age 175; Isaac was then 75 and now Isaac is approximately 90 to 100 years old.  So I think we cannot fault the Philistines for filling the wells of water or, perhaps, we can because there was still a covenant, and Abraham had purchased them when he gave the ewe lambs.  It was a nice way of purchasing them.

And, yet, we read here: “And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham: and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them.”  It would seem that the Philistines felt the contract was ended because Abraham had died, so that is reasonable, at least.  But we are told in Genesis 26:15:

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.

The word “wells” in the Bible can refer to salvation, and God makes that kind of statement in Isaiah 12:3:

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

It is a clear link.  God uses a word (wells) and He identifies it with another word (salvation) that has to do with His doctrine.  Wells link to salvation, but this is a different Hebrew word than we have in Genesis 26.  The word in Isaiah 12 is #4599, and the word in Genesis 26 is #875.  However, the word #875 is used in a similar way that has to do with salvation in Song of Solomon 4:15:

A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon.

The “well of living waters” is a phrase we are familiar with in the New Testament, in the Gospel of John when Jesus met the woman at the well.  We read in John 4:7-15:

There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. 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.

Again, in this passage we can see the tie-in between the well of water that Jesus relates to the water that springs up, as He said in verse 14: “…the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”  So it is a consistent picture in both the Old Testament and New Testament that a well does identify with salvation, and we also know that we have to put work and effort into digging deep into the ground, as you have to go pretty deep, as the woman said, “…the well is deep.”  We cannot find water on the surface, but we have to go deep down within, and that is a beautiful picture of what God has done with His Word, the Bible.  The Bible, of course, is a great book.  It has 66 books that make up the whole Bible, and people read it and study it to varying degrees.  Some people read what is on the surface in a rather superficial way, and they say that one has to take everything literally.  You glean the plain, literal meaning of the Scripture, and you seek no other.  And, of course, that has some benefit, as it is the Bible, and you can learn some nice moral teachings, and you can find some nice stories to tell your children about David and the giant, the parting of the Red Sea, and other interesting tales.  However they do not go into it in depth.  They do not do what God commands must be done, which is to search the Scriptures (for in them is eternal life).  Actually, that verse reads this way in John 5:39:

Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.

It is true, however, that through the searching and studying and reading of the Word of God, faith would come,  as it says in Romans 10:17: “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”  That is, the second reference to “hearing” has to do with having spiritual ears, whereby hearing the Word of God may deliver eternal life or salvation to the hearer, as faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.  But, of course, it may not (result in faith) because it was all by God’s perfect will if God had decided to save someone.  This is all in the past now because He has completed that work of saving His people and He has granted eternal life to all He had intended to grant it to.

But that is the idea – we come to the Bible and we read it and dig into it, and God does tell us to “dig” and search for wisdom as for buried treasure or hidden treasure.  So we compare Scripture with Scripture, here a little, there a little, and we look into what the Bible says regarding this verse or that verse, and we meditate upon these things, by God’s grace.  We think about it in our minds as we try to understand, and we pray for wisdom: “O, Lord, open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.”  And, at times, God grants understanding.  He opens up our minds that we might understand the Scriptures, and then we see the deeper spiritual meaning.  Why do we use that kind of language?  It is because the deeper meaning is not obvious on the surface, but it is there.  It is the mystery or hidden truth.  It is why Christ spoke in parables, as that wonderful verse says in Proverbs 25:1-2:

These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out. It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.

The words “thing” and “matter” are a translation of the Hebrew word “daw-bawr,” which if often translated as “word.”  It is the glory of God to conceal or hide a “word,” but it is the honour of kings to search out a “word.”  Search the Scriptures.  Search out the Word.  By the way, interestingly, the Hebrew word translated as “digged” when Abraham’s servants digged the well, is translated as “searched out” in Joshua 2:2-3:

And it was told the king of Jericho, saying, Behold, there came men in hither to night of the children of Israel to search out the country. And the king of Jericho sent unto Rahab, saying, Bring forth the men that are come to thee, which are entered into thine house: for they be come to search out all the country. 

In both verses, it would not have made sense to say, “there came men in hither to night of the children of Israel to dig the country,” so the translators translated it as “searched out.”  But in an interesting way, it fits the spiritual picture of “digging” a well, or digging into the Word of God deeply in the Bible, and there is “water” that can come as a result of hearing.  There is blessing that comes forth as spiritual understanding comes, and one now has a spiritual understanding of a verse, passage, chapter or book.  And this is the idea we get from “digging wells,” which does relate to the water of salvation.  The Holy Spirit that enters into a person becomes as a well of living water that springs up unto everlasting life.

However, the Philistines had stopped the wells and filled them with earth, and the Philistines were servants to Abimelech.  We have discussed that with the earlier Abimelech back in chapter 21, and he was a figure of Satan.  And this Abimelech is a figure of Satan.  So Abraham’s servants digging the well pictured the people of God searching for water within the Word of God, but Abimelech’s servants were contrary and opposed to that action, and they fought against it, although they could do nothing about it during certain periods of times, like when Abraham made the covenant and while Abraham was still living.  And this would fit God’s programs of “times and seasons,” as there are times when the Holy Spirit begins to work, as the first outpouring of the Holy Spirit during the church age.  Then came the end of the church age, and the Holy Spirit was no longer working within the midst of the congregations.  They may have the same “well;” that is, they have the Bible, but now it is not producing “water.”  There was plenty of water there during the 1,955 years of the church age, but when the “season” changed, the program of God to evangelize (unto salvation) within the churches and congregations ended, and the well….it is not that it dried up, because there is still water in the Bible, is there not?   So within the churches (just as within Israel of old when God ended that relationship), they had the Word of God.  And God could still bring forth “water” from the Bible outside of the churches during the Latter Rain, so it was not that the Word of God did not still have water there, but, again, it has to do with God’s times and seasons.  He determines the location and time when the Holy Spirit will be activated and the Word of God will be blessed so that people become saved, and it would as “wells of living water.”

Well, the Philistines stopped up the wells, filling them with earth, and the word “stopped” is used three times in the book of Daniel.  It says in Daniel 8:26:

And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true…

And this is the vision of the 2,300 evening mornings.

It goes on to say in Daniel 8:26:

… wherefore shut thou up the vision; for it shall be for many days.

Where it says, “shut thou up the vision,” the word “shut up” is a translation of the same Hebrew word that was translated as “stopped” in Genesis 26.

Or, we see the same word in Daniel 12:4:

But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

It is also used in Daniel 12:9:

And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.

In both places Daniel 12, it is a translation of the same word used where the Philistines “stopped” the wells.  There was water in the well, but the Philistines – out of envy or whatever the purpose –stopped the wells.  Maybe they did not want just any sojourner that traveled the land to use the well.  You know, Israel would have camped away from where the Philistines were living, so maybe they could not have had good oversight over the well, and they sent a crew of men out with shovels and they filled up these wells with earth.  (The word “earth” is an interesting word, and maybe we will look at it in our next study.)  But they filled up the wells.  The wells would have been deep and they had to put a lot of dirt into the wells so that a traveler that came along and was thirsty, if they saw the well and approached with some expectation of water.  Maybe they had a bucket and when they let it down and pulled it back up, there was no water.  So the thirsty traveler continued on his way, and his thirst was not quenched.

And this is really an excellent picture of what God did with the Bible, the Word of God, when He sealed up the Word until the time of the end.  It was not as though God had spoken again to give divine revelation to prophets that would “add” to the Word of God at the time of the end.  That is not possible because Revelation 22:18 commands that we are not to add or subtract from the Words of this book.  And, yet, the book of Daniel tells us to “shut up the words until the time of the end,” and then knowledge would increase.  And Jesus implied that He had many things to say, but could not say them at that time, but He would send the Holy Spirit that would guide us into all truth.  There are actually several references in the Bible where the Lord indicates that He will “speak” at the time of the end.  Remember the statement in Mark 13:11:

… neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.

That is referring to the “hour” of Great Tribulation, and the Great Tribulation would come at the time of the end, the time when knowledge increases, and the Holy Spirit is “speaking.”  And how does He speak today?  Again, He will not break the barrier of the supernatural, so it is through the methodology of comparing spiritual with spiritual, as we are told in 1Corinthians 2, that the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost teaches.  That is how He speaks, and that is how He has been speaking over the course of the Great Tribulation and now in the Day of Judgment.

So the illustration here about a well can be likened to the Bible that had been sealed up or “stopped.”  People came to it (the Bible) for centuries throughout the entire church age to find water, but they were not able to find it.  But it never meant that water was not there, but it was deeper and a little further down.