Rehoboth

When there was a famine in the land of Canaan, Isaac went to Gerar. And Lord God also asked him to dwell in that land, and promised him that, “I WILL BE WITH YOU AND BLESS YOU; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father……”

Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the Lord blessed him. And he began to prosper, and continued prospering. He had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servants. So the Philistines envied him. They had stopped all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, and they had filled them with earth. And Abimelech, the king of Philistines in Gerar, also said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.”  So he departed from there with peace and pitched his tent in the Valley of Gerar, and dwelt there.

But Isaac was not discouraged; he dug again the wells of water which Philistines filled with mud. Even his servants dug twice in the valley and found well running water. Philistine herdsmen quarrelled and claimed that the water is theirs. Originally, Isaac’s servants had dug those wells, but now they came to lord over it.  So Isaac gave names to the wells ‘Esek’ and ‘Sitnah’ because they quarrelled. But again he did not stop to dig well even though envious Philistines filled his wells and quarrelled with him. He was the son of his father i.e. Abraham – a man of faith. He did not give up by all these discouragements. He simply moved from there and dug another well. This time, they did not quarrel over it. He named it ‘Rehoboth’ which means, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”

All these things happened to Isaac, and God knew that Isaac needs divine encouragement. So SAME NIGHT God appeared 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 My servant Abraham’s sake.”

What more he could need or ask, if God almighty will give assurance that, ‘Do not fear of those Philistines, I am with you, I will bless you in front of them.’ God was his shield and defense. Though they had stopped his well and asked him to go, they could not stop the blessings of God on Isaac. They might have thought that by quarreling and falsely claiming the wells, Isaac will be discouraged and poor. But they did not succeed, for the Lord God, the Maker of the Universe, was with Isaac and blessed him. When they filled one well with mud, they must have thought that, they succeeded. But God’s blessing on Isaac was not confined to that one well. God kept on opening other wells for him. No power could stop the blessings upon Isaac. He was the promised son of Abraham- a friend of God.

In the same way, when we grow in the Lord, in His Word, in relationship with Him, devil cannot stand with it. He tries every possible thing to fill our overflowing wells i.e.  our growth in the Lord.  Even he uses people of scheming minds also to discourage us. But if God decided to bless us, no evil or deceitful scheme can withhold blessings from us.

All we need to focus is on the author and finisher of our faith Lord Jesus and rest upon His promises. Never give up or quit in growing in the Lord and in His Word, when envious people try to suppress us and fill our wells. God is there to open up other wells in front of them.  We just have to strengthen ourselves in the Lord and go forward.

(Narration of the incident taken from Genesis 26:12 to 25)

Again I am reminded of the Jewish tale – ‘A donkey in the pit’

One day, a donkey fell into a pit. The animal cried and whined for hours while his owner tried to figure out what to do. Finally, the farmer decided that since the animal was old, and the pit needed to be covered up anyway, he would just bury the old donkey right there. He got a shovel and started filling the pit. The donkey kept up its wailing, but then fell silent. After an hour of furious shovelling, the farmer paused to rest. To his amazement, he saw his old donkey jump out of the pit and trot away!

At first, when the donkey realised what was happening, he cried even more piteously. But then the wise animal hit on a plan. As each spadeful of dirt hit his back, the donkey would shake it off and take a step up on the growing mound of earth. Eventually, the mound grew high enough for him to jump out of the pit.

Life or people are going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to get out of the pit is to shake it off and take a step up. We can get out of the deepest pits by not stopping and never giving up. Just shake it off and take a step up.

Try it, it works! God bless….

~ Anjali Jose