Genesis 26:17-22:
So Isaac moved away from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar and settled there. Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died, and he gave them the same names his father had given them. Isaac's servants dug in the valley and discovred a well of fresh water there. But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's herdsmen and said, "The water is ours!" So he named the well Esek {quarrel} because they quarreled with him. Then they dug another well, but they quarreled over that one also, so he named it Sitnah {opposition}. He moved on from there and dug another well, and no one quarreled over it. He named it Rehoboth, saying "Now the LORD has given us room and we will flourish in the land.
As I studied these passages, the Holy Spirit began speaking to me and giving me very profound revelation of the parallel Isaac experienced with these wells, and what we have gone through in the past eight years trying to found a fellowship that could operate in love and unity. First, Isaac went back to RE-OPEN the wells of his father. That was a good thing! Abraham was a tower of faith, a righteous man, and a man through whom God would choose to bring the seed of the Messiah. In other words, he himself was a "well," producing living water. Isaac understood it was time to go back and re-open those wells, in order for his line to produce fruit and flourish. However, he first encountered people who chose to quarrel with him and oppose him, rather than embrace his vision. Obviously they were a selfish people, not willing to compromise, or as the teachers used to say when we were in elementary school, "does not play well with others"! They insisted "the water is ours" and refused to work with Isaac in the spirit of community. So, those first two wells were named Quarrel and Opposition. That could easily be referring to a majority of Messianic communities and/or church fellowships couldn't it?
Yet, Isaac persevered. He did not give up! I believe he was moved by the Spirit of God and the solid counsel and inheritance of his father, to keep digging! By the time he dug the third well we are told that no one quarreled with him and Isaac interpreted that to mean that God had given him room, or space, in the land; a space where they could plant and the water could freely flow and where the people could be in a peaceful, loving community, sharing the living water with one another.
This is exactly what has happened to us in our own local experience. It appears that the time of all the quarreling and division is coming to an end, and as we have established this new fellowship, the Door of Hope, the Lord has given us room (in the form of a beautiful old church building), where we might truly become such a unified family in Messiah. It has been thrilling to watch what is happening in this Rehoboth well we have dug here in our small town! People are not only coming into unity, but returning to the important principles of giving, outreach to the poor and the orphans, and evangelism of the Gospel. And what happens when a community is in that kind of loving accord?
Genesis 26:23-25
From there he went up to Beersheba. That night the LORD appeared to him and said, "I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bless you and will increase the number of your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham. Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of YEHOVAH. There he pitched a tent, and there his servants dug a well.
That's what happens! The LORD shows up! When He finds a people who are no longer quarreling selfishly and opposing one another, but rather coming together to worship at the well of Living Water (Yeshua), He shows up and He blesses! He lets us know that He is with us to bless us, and to increase our numbers. And our response must be to "build Him an altar" of worship - and then keep digging as Isaac did! Water represents life - mayim chaim in Hebrew - and everything we do together as a community should be producing life.
Isaac moved from the wells of Quarreling and Opposition and Room, all the way to the well at Beersheba, which means Well of Seven. In Hebrew the number seven represents perfection, or completion. Have we arrived at perfection and the Well of Seven? No...but the important thing is that we are no longer a people divided; we are people who have come together to re-open the wells of our father Abraham by learning to keep God's Torah, His loving teaching and instruction, and keep digging into His Word as we journey on to the Well of Seven!
