November 23, 2025
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Last time we discussed the powerful promise of 2nd Corinthians 9:8 that God will make His grace abound to us and cause us to always have all sufficiency in everything, leading to an abundance for every good deed. We also studied the obedience of Isaac and the blessing that flowed to him and made him a wealthy man during a famine. The power of our obedience to God’s word not only blesses us but leads to our doing good deeds in the accomplishment of His will in the earth.
Today, we will continue with the story of Isaac and the famine in the land of Gerar, where God told him to sojourn.
Genesis 26:
1 ¶ Now there was a famine in the land, besides the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech king of the Philistines.
2 And the LORD appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; stay in the land of which I shall tell you.
3 “Sojourn in this land and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham.
4 “And I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed;
5 because Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws.”
6 ¶ So Isaac lived in Gerar. (NASB)
Isaac was fleeing a famine. Note that the Lord appeared to Isaac and gave him direction on where to live and where not to. God promised in verse 3 that He would be with Isaac and bless him and his descendants. On the strength of the Lord’s word, Isaac obeyed and lived in Gerar, where he planted and received tremendous blessings.
To relate this passage to our lives, famine is symbolic of a financial lack. Perhaps things at work are slowing due to a poor economy. We might want to look for new work to avoid a layoff. Or the opposite may be true. Maybe you are comfortable staying at the job you have, but God sees a famine coming and wants to move you out into something new. Remember the Lord appeared to Isaac and counseled him by speaking into his spirit. As children of the promise, we are to remain sober to hear the wisdom of the Lord.
Isaac was staring at lack when God told him not to go to Egypt. God said stay in this place and I will bless you. But notice that Isaac just didn’t just sit on his hands waiting for the blessing. Verse 12 continues the story and explains that Isaac sowed in that land.
Genesis 26:
12 ¶ Now Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. And the LORD blessed him,
13 and the man became rich, and continued to grow richer until he became very wealthy;
14 for he had possessions of flocks and herds and a great household, so that the Philistines envied him.
Isaac could have gone to Egypt. He could have had good reasons in the natural to do that. He was running from a famine. But He obeyed the Lord’s word, he stayed in Gerar, and he sowed, reaped a hundredfold, and became wealthy. Isaac sowed in that land, which means he invested his time, talents, and treasure there. And he reaped one hundred times his investment.
For us, this could mean the Lord directs us to plant a seed in a ministry in the face of a famine, or to invest our time for the benefit of others. One time, the Lord told me to shut down my job search and to instead fast and pray for three days. I obeyed that word and got a job offer on the third day. The child of the promise will reap one hundredfold on his or her investment.
Note this was a word that God spoke into Isaac’s spirit. Verse 2 says the Lord appeared and spoke to him: “…Do not go down to Egypt; stay in the land of which I shall tell you…”
When the Lord speaks into our spirits, if we are sober to hear and obey, there are blessings that result. But as we see next in Genesis 26, when we pursue the will of the Lord, there is also opposition.
Dry Wells
Genesis 26:
15 Now all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines stopped up by filling them with earth.
16 Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are too powerful for us.”
17 And Isaac departed from there and camped in the valley of Gerar, and settled there.
18 Then Isaac dug again the wells of water which had been dug in the days of his father Abraham, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham; and he gave them the same names which his father had given them.
It is interesting that the land that God told Isaac to sojourn in had wells that Abraham’s servants had dug, but they had been stopped up by the Philistines.
Let’s take a moment and think about what Isaac must have been thinking at this point. God sent him to this place in the middle of a famine, but all the wells there were dried up. Without water, how do you keep your flocks and your crops alive for food? He could have become angry with God, and gone to Egypt, but instead he re-dug his father’s wells in the valley of Gerar because he had a word from God to sojourn in that place.
What is a man or woman of God to do when they face opposition and dry wells?
Keep Digging
Isaac kept digging wells…
Keep in mind that Isaac had been blessed with flocks and herds and a great household, meaning servants, so that the Philistines envied him. He had the wherewithal to keep digging wells because God’s grace abounded to him, so he always had all sufficiency in everything, so that he had an abundance for every good deed (2nd Corinthians 9:8). Isaac always had all sufficiency, even in a famine.
So, Isaac’s servants dug in the valley…
Genesis 26:
19 But when Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of flowing water,
20 the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with the herdsmen of Isaac, saying, “The water is ours!” So he named the well Esek, because they contended with him.
21 Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over it too, so he named it Sitnah.
The name “Esek” means strife. When you pursue God’s will, some will quarrel with you. Friends and family may cause strife in your spirit, thinking they are trying to help with good advice. It is important in these times to trust the word of the Lord, as Isaac did.
In the face of continuing opposition, Isaac kept digging…
Genesis 26:
22 And he moved away from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it; so he named it Rehoboth, for he said, “At last the LORD has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”
23 Then he went up from there to Beersheba.
24 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 the sake of My servant Abraham.”
25 So he built an altar there, and called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well.
If you persist in God’s word, you will dig another well and overcome the opposition. Notice that he was on the move. Verse 22 says he moved away from the quarrelers and dug a well. Then, verse 23 says he went from there to Beersheba. Remember, God told him to sojourn there, which means a temporary stay, or a visit. When God tells us to go somewhere or do something, stay tuned for next steps.
Also note that God re-affirmed His promise to Isaac in verse 24 by again speaking into his spirit. And so, Isaac’s servants dug yet another well in Beersheba.
About this time, Abimelech and his advisors came to Isaac and proposed a truce whereby they agreed to co-exist peacefully in the land. They saw how the Lord was with Isaac and wanted to be at peace with him. Isaac agreed, and they ate and drank that night to commemorate the deal. The next day, they signed the peace covenant, and Abimelech and his people left.
Genesis 26:
32 Now it came about on the same day, that Isaac’s servants came in and told him about the well which they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water.”
33 So he called it Shibah; therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.
The Hebrew word for “Shibah” means seven, which is a number representing sacred fullness.
There is a word for us here. When God speaks to us, and we obey, blessing will come to us, but we also face opposition as we continue in obedience. We are to persist in God’s will as Isaac did. Keep digging our wells and trust Him for the water of life.
Water and the Spirit
And so, we know there is a significance to this well water. Water is needed for life in the physical sense, but water also has a spiritual significance.
John 3:
5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Matthew 3:
16 And after being baptized, Jesus went up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, [and] coming upon Him,
17 and behold, a voice out of the heavens, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”
In John 4, when Jesus encountered the Samaritan woman at the water well, we see a spiritual connection to the wells that Isaac’s servants had dug.
John 4:
1 ¶ When therefore the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John
2 (although Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were),
3 He left Judea, and departed again into Galilee.
4 ¶ And He had to pass through Samaria.
5 So He *came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph;
6 and Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
There are some interesting parallels here. Isaac ran into opposition as He dug wells in Gerar. And Jesus was running into opposition from the Pharisees as He baptized in water and in Spirit. In addition, Jesus was weary, so He sat at Jacob’s well. Of course, Jacob was Isaac’s son. Recall that God promised Isaac in Genesis 26:24 that He would bless his descendants as well. Jacob also dug wells, as his father did.
A Deeper Spiritual Well
Sitting at Jacob’s well, Jesus engaged the Samaritan woman in a deep discussion about the water of life.
John 4:
7 There *came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus *said to her, “Give Me a drink.”
8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
9 The Samaritan woman therefore *said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
11 She *said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water?
12 “You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself, and his sons, and his cattle?”
13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again;
14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
Jesus proceeded to give the woman words of knowledge about her life, the number of husbands she had, and how the man she lived with now was not her husband. You can see from the following exchange how the gift of knowledge increases faith.
John 4:
19 The woman *said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.
20 “Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you [people] say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”
21 Jesus *said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall you worship the Father.
22 “You worship that which you do not know; we worship that which we know, for salvation is from the Jews.
23 “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.
24 “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
25 The woman *said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.”
26 Jesus *said to her, “I who speak to you am [He.”]
27 ¶ And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He had been speaking with a woman; yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why do You speak with her?”
28 So the woman left her waterpot, and went into the city, and *said to the men,
29 “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I [have] done; this is not the Christ, is it?”
30 They went out of the city, and were coming to Him.
So, we can see the power of Isaac sowing in Gerar in obedience to Father God. Jacob dug a well in Samaria, and Jesus used that well to sow faith into the Samaritan woman, which led to many salvations in Samaria.
John 4:
39 And from that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all the things that I [have] done.”
40 So when the Samaritans came to Him, they were asking Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days.
41 And many more believed because of His word;
42 and they were saying to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.”
43 ¶ And after the two days He went forth from there into Galilee.
What Isaac sowed in Gerar eventually led to important life-supporting wells dug by Isaac’s and Jacob’s servants. One such well led to a well of water springing up into eternal life and the harvest of many souls in Samaria. Jesus said:
John 4:
35 “Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and [then] comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest.
36 “Already he who reaps is receiving wages, and is gathering fruit for life eternal; that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.
37 “For in this [case] the saying is true, ‘One sows, and another reaps.’
38 “I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
Jesus is teaching that the harvest is upon us. It is time for Him to harvest the souls from the fields. Our job is to sow, that He may reap. And our job is to reap where another has sowed. One sows, and another reaps. May we dig wells so the thirsty may take the water of life without cost.
Revelation 22:
17 And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.
Never Tire of Well Doing
Galatians 6:
8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
10 As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. (KJV)
2nd Corinthians 9:
8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed; (NASB)
Closing
The harvest is upon us in these end times. When we encounter opposition to the will of God, we are to persevere and keep sowing and digging wells, that one such planting and one such well will lead to a well of water springing up to eternal life. That well is Jesus, and many souls await His water. May they take the water of life without cost.
Let us pray.
Father God, thank You for Jesus, who is the well of living water that springs up into eternal life. Speak into our spirits as You did Isaac’s and guide us in wisdom to direct our lives and decisions. Help us to overcome opposition to Your will and help us to keep sowing and digging wells of water leading to Jesus. Draw us to worship You in Spirit and in Truth. And strengthen us that we would not be weary in well doing. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
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