Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #16 of Genesis, chapter 26, and we are going to read Genesis 26:17-22:

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. And Isaac's servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water. And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac's herdmen, saying, The water is ours: and he called the name of the well Esek; because they strove with him. And they digged another well, and strove for that also: and he called the name of it Sitnah. And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, For now JEHOVAH hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.

Last time we were talking about the Philistines stopping the wells and filling them with “earth,” which is the word “dust,” and dust identifies with man.  Basically, it is letting us know the reason why churches could have the true Gospel for a period of time, a well of water springing up to eternal life, but then after a while men would enter into the congregation as Satan sowed tares among the wheat, and the Gospel would “turn.”  The unsaved individuals in the congregations would rise to positions of authority, and they would make changes in that particular church until it became “another gospel.”  Even during the church age, God would cut them off and He would not work to save in a congregation that added or subtracted to the Word of God.  If there were any elect in that church, He would have led them out during the church age to another church that did have the Spirit (of God) and was faithful to the degree they were required to be faithful during the church age, a time when much truth was still sealed.  Therefore, there was no expectation on the believers of that time to know the things that had been sealed, and to have correct doctrine in certain areas where it was not possible to come to the knowledge of the truth because those things were kept in reserve until the time of the end was reached.

So men were like “dust” that filled the well, and once it was filled with dust, men would get all entangled and mixed up with the things of God as they intermeddled in areas they should not have gotten into to, and they got their minds in the way of the mind of God; that is, they did the teaching, rather than allowing God the Holy Spirit to do the teaching.  Then the water would leave, and during the church age that may have applied to one lone church or to an entire denomination, such as the Roman Catholic denomination.  We know that during the church age, other churches would spring up.  The Reformers came out of the Roman Catholic Church and started various churches that were called Protestant, because they were protesting the doctrines of that former church, and they tried to correct errors in doctrines.  And in a good number of ways, they were successful, and they did correct them.

But, anyway, that is the picture, and why God used a word that is often translated as “dust.”  Again, this word was only translated as “earth” seven times, and it is not the usual word for “earth.”

Then Abimelech told Isaac, “Go from us; for thou art much mightier than we.”  It is not surprising.  God’s people are always separated from the world.  We are hated in this world.  The world is not our own, and Abimelech is a figure of Satan, and when Satan and his emissaries would rise up within congregations that formerly had “wells of water,” they were turned to “dust,” and there would be a forcing out of those people that were problematic and causing trouble in the congregations, as they kept questioning the doctrines that had been changed.  And they kept bringing up Bible verses, very inconveniently, and it was annoying, just like King Ahab said of the prophet Micaiah: “I hate him; for he never prophesied good unto me, but always evil.”  And King Ahab was speaking on behalf of untold numbers of pastors and shepherds and elders and deacons within congregations.  They do not like to hear from people like Micaiah that can do nothing but speak the truth: “Therefore, go from us!  Go from us!”  Of course, the people of God are much mightier than the professed Christians or the people of the world: “…greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.”  So the power and strength of God is evident: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”  He is with the people of God, and that frightens them.  We do not frighten them, of course.  We are nothing.  We are “nobody,” and we are the least in their eyes, but the One who is with the people of God frightens them, so we are led out because we associate and identify with Him through His Word and the truth of His Word.  And it is really the Truth of the Word of God that they hate and cannot abide, and they will not have Him in churches they have taken over.

Then it goes on to say in Genesis 26:17:

And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there.

Initially, he went unto Abimelech, king of the Philistines, unto Gerar.  We read that back in verse 1.  Gerar would have been a city, and now Isaac is going from the city to the valley of Gerar and dwelt there.  He set up his tent or tabernacle.  He is still in the same area, but he is outside of the city.  And this was also true when churches and congregations were established in this world when God was operating in the midst of the churches.  So Isaac set up his tent.  And then it say sin Genesis 26:18:

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.

We do not correct truth.  We do not make changes to that which is true and faithful and right.  When saints of old have spoken the truth and when they have gone to the Bible and uncovered a Biblical fact, they wrote about it.  They had commentaries about it, and they had done teachings on it.  Just because they were saints of old, and just because we are living at a time when God is opening the Scriptures, does not mean that after examining the teaching that was produced back then…if we still find that it is faithful and true, and if the truth coming forth from the Word of God affirms it and does not correct it any way, then we dig again the same well.  This would apply to certain aspects of the doctrine of election.  Saints of old understood election, but there has been a “fine tuning” in our day as the Word has been unsealed.  Not only does God choose or predestinated those He intended to save before the foundation of the world, but their sins were paid for at the foundation of the world.  That is a “fine tuning” correction.  Not only was it all by grace, as saints of old would say, but we are saved by the faith of Christ, and not by our own faith.  That is a necessary correction that was necessary to purify the Gospel and to help the people of God understand an area (of doctrine) that had always been kind of murky, and in which those that said they were “reformed” would attempt to add a little work to the grace of God.  And now that is no longer possible, as God has let it be known that no man is justified by the works of the Law, and we have also recently learned that “faith” is a work, and that was not understood until relatively recently.  Now we understand, and since no man is justified by the works of the Law and faith is a work, then it is not possible for a man to be justified by his own faith.  Therein lies the correction to the cry of the Reformers during the Reformation.  Their cry was, “We are justified by faith alone.”  And, yet, that was muddied with the idea that it was man’s faith.  So now the cry is, “We are justified by faith alone, meaning the faith of Christ alone, and not our own.”  And that is a glorious and wonderful correction.  It is a correction that gives God the glory, taking those “little sticks” that man would dare to pick up on God’s spiritual Sabbath in which we were commanded to do no work lest we die, as that man did. 

So we dig the well again, and we take what is good, the clean water.  And, of course, God has brought forth more water.  The doctrine of the Trinity is another example where saints of old did very good work on, as God opened their eyes.  There is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and sometimes they are altogether.  How can all three be God?  So the teaching was proclaimed: One God and, yet three Persons.  That was an extremely accurate statement of a Biblical teaching, so we cannot correct that.  There is no need to correct that.  It is true.  It is what the Bible teaches, so we “dig” again, and we say the same thing, and so forth.  So that is the idea with Isaac digging again the wells of water and calling them by the names his father called them.

Then it says in Genesis 26:19:

And Isaac's servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.

Remember that we went to John 4 a while back, where Jesus said to the woman at the well, in John 4:13-14:

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.

We discussed how wells in the Bible identify with “wells of salvation,” the water of the Gospel.  Again, we are not surprised.  The teaching of digging wells and filling wells with dirt has to do with that spiritual battle.  Christ went forth on a white horse, conquering and to conquer, and Satan followed after on the red horse to take peace from the earth.  The battle raged over the centuries across God’s programs of “times and seasons” for this world, and this is in view here.  Isaac is a type of Christ, so his servants are a type of the elect children of God, and they digged in the valley and found there a well of springing water.  You see, God’s people do the work.  We get out the shovel and the pickax, and we dig into the ground.  We work hard.  We are diligent.  We are studious.  Since they are looking for water, it is a picture of digging into the Bible, using our fingers, as David was moved in the Psalms to write that he used his fingers for war.  And we go into the Scriptures and we are turning pages – here a little, there a little – and we see a verse.  You know, it was much harder before, and we have to be impressed with the saints of old that in large part from memory, they would find a word here, and compare it to a word there, and come to the correct teachings to the degree that they did.  It is amazing, and it really shows the handiwork of God that moved within them, opening their eyes and giving them discernment to hear His voice, in order to come to the amount of truth they found. 

However, now we have all kinds of Bible helps because we are at the time of the end, and things have been sped up.  Also, God is revealing the last parts of the mysteries and revealing the things that He had sealed.  In order to do this, we need the interlinear Bibles and the concordances, and other Bible help books.  God first gave the books, but men are still turning the pages, using their fingers and hands to do Bible.  And even though it has greatly speeded up the process from centuries ago, it is still a little slow.  Because we are getting closer and closer to the time of the end, the Lord allowed the electronic medium to open up, and these books have been put into digital form and are able to be accessed in software across the internet.  And God’s people that cannot afford the volumes of books necessary for study, which could cost hundreds of dollars, but they can find them online.  We can click on it, open it up, and see the Strong’s word and everywhere it is found (in the Bible).  It is not that we are smarter, but I truly believe we are dumber than past generations, because the level of teaching in the world has regressed – it has not progressed.  And the level of learning the Biblical languages, especially, has greatly decreased.  On top of that, we have incredible amounts of distractions in the world, so to be honest, we are not giving the time that past generations gave to the study of the Word of God, in any comparable way.  We are probably doing 10% of the work, but getting back a great increase in results in the proper understanding of the Word of God.  It is the time of the end and God has opened the Scriptures, and He has provided the assistance of Biblical helps to serve the Bible student as we go about the study.  Also, He is not holding information back as much as He did in times past when they could have spent hours, days and weeks mulling over a verse or a passage, wondering, “What does it mean?”  But they may have gotten nowhere, using the basic resources they had.

But, today, we have all this updated information at our fingertips, and just a click away, and we pray.  From time to time, God holds back a piece of information to keep us humble, but for the most part, after a little while it opens up.  So none of us should be proud and get big heads: “Look at what I know!”  We know it for a very significant reason  that has to do with the time of the end.   We are given every help possible, and we have God the Holy Spirit actively working to open up our eyes of understanding.

So if we are not understanding these things…you know, there is definitely no excuse.  It may be that God has not opened up our eyes, or maybe we are not bothering to give even the littlest time to it.

Anyway, Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of springing water, and this is typical of the servants of God.  We work in the Bible: “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”  We are not busybodies, sitting around idle all the day, and gossiping.  No – that is the character of the unsaved.  They do not really do the work in the Scriptures.  They do not “dig,” from everything we can read in this chapter about digging wells.  Yes – they confiscate or strive for the wells that God’s people have digged, like Abraham and his servants and then Isaac and his servants.

Then it says in Genesis 26:20:

And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac's herdmen, saying, The water is ours: and he called the name of the well Esek; because they strove with him.

The herdmen of Gerar identify with Gerar and, therefore, with the king of Gerar, Abimelech, a type of Satan, but they are out in the valley, too.  So whether they are Satan’s emissaries in the churches or out of the churches, they are still Satan’s emissaries.  That is one point, so nobody should think, “I came out of the churches.  I obeyed God.  I did this good work, and because I did that, I am saved.”  Then we ask that person, “What about this doctrine that the Lord has opened up?”  They respond, “No way.”  Then we ask, “What about that doctrine?”  They respond, “I reject it.”  You see, they can say or believe they are saved because they managed to come out of the churches.  And that is fine because it is always good to believe God on any point, but that did not save them at all.  Salvation is of the Lord, and we know that all of God’s elect did come out (of the churches), but along with them were many others that were not God’s elect, just like all Israel leaving Egypt, along with a “mixed multitude.”  So, too, have God’s elect come out of the churches and congregations, and there were others that were not God’s elect that come out of the churches and congregations.  And because they are unregenerate deep down and their heart has not been changed, they trust in that work, and they think they are in good standing with God because they are not part of the churches. 

And, even now, they like to point the finger back at the churches.  And as the Lord is opening up information about judgment on the world  where they are, they refuse it, and they would interpret all the verses that clearly indicate that the wrath of God has come on the world and they would say, “This verse has to do with the church. Everything has to do with the church.”   In other words, everything has to do with the church (where they are not) and not with the world (where they are).  And it is a maneuver to escape the Biblical language of judgment on the place where they and their families are residing.

It is just like those in the churches and congregations try to ward off the judgment of God because, after all, they were in the churches: “We are the people of God, and we are in the church and the gates of hell will never prevail against the church of God.”  They attempted to ward off the wrath of God my misinterpreting verses that are really speaking of the eternal church or heavenly Jerusalem, and have nothing to do with the earthly church or the “Jerusalem that now is.”

So, too with those that have come out of the churches.  They have been found out because they refused the revelation of God’s righteous judgment.  They did not refuse it honestly.  They did not refuse it like a Berean by searching these things out and examining them to see if they are so, but they refused them outright so that they do not have to listen to them.  They refuse them, just like when Stephen was declaring the Word of God that brought judgment to certain of the Jews, and they literally stopped up their ears.  And that is what these people are doing.  So some of those that are outside the churches may be in view regarding these herdmen of Gerar.

And the word “herdsmen” is Strong’s #7062 in the concordance, and it is a word that has to do with “feeding” and “shepherding.”  It is translated both as “shepherd” or “pastor,” and, Lord willing, we will look more at this word when we get together in our next Bible study.