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That's ConnectWithSkip.com. Now let's get into today's teaching with Pastor Skip Heitzig. Oh no, Lord. I can't face that. Don't let me go through that valley. I like the mountaintop experiences. In fact, I would love it, Lord, if in my life you could just airlift me from mountain peak to mountain peak to mountain peak.
That's the victorious Christian life. Do you know that in the Middle East, when a shepherd leads the sheep down into the ravines, and by the way, you know why they do it? In the summertime, it's very hot. And the wool, even if it's shorn, it's still very hot on that animal. And so the shepherd, to cool down his sheep, will move the sheep into the cooler, dark ravines where the shadows are, and it's just better for them to hang out. But sheep hate going down into valleys. They hate ravines. They can't see very well. It's dark.
It's unpredictable. So the shepherd has to lead them through the valley. But at the very bottom of the ravine, guess what's there?
Water. That's where the rainwater, they call them in Israel wadis. And if you're going from Jericho to Jerusalem and it's barren, there's this little wadi kelp, and I always see shepherds leading sheep around there. But at the bottom of that wadi kelp, at the bottom of that ravine, there's flowers growing.
There's vegetation growing because the rainwater or the springs are down at the bottom of the valley. So often it is the dark valley that you hate the most that is the very path of God's blessing and green pastures. God's saying, I'm trying to lead you to green pastures. I don't want to go. Yeah, but I'm talking about refreshment.
No, I don't want to be refreshed. You just got to know who your shepherd is. Well, he's freaked out. He's scared. Doesn't want to go through this valley. He's afraid about his wife. So he says, she's my sister. Now it came to pass.
We're not making very good time, are we? It came to pass when he had been there a long time, Abimelech, the king of the Philistines, looked through a window and saw there was Isaac showing endearment to Rebekah, his wife. King James is sporting with her.
Flirting with her would be the idea. And Abimelech called Isaac and said, quite obviously, she is your wife. So how could you say she is my sister? Isaac said to him, because I said, lest I die on account of her. And Abimelech said, what is this that you have done to us?
One of the people might soon have lain with your wife and you would have brought guilt upon us. Now just a little historical note on the name Abimelech. The name Abimelech means my father is king, Abimelech, my father is king. It is thought that that is either a family name, that is obviously not the same Abimelech when Abraham was around, it's a different one, or it's a dynastic name. It's either a throne name or a dynastic name. A throne name like Pharaoh or a dynastic name like the Herod family.
You'd have several Herods, but they're all different people. So it's one of the relatives of the Abimelech with Abraham, but a completely different person. Now what's sad in verse 11, well let's finish off verse 11. So Abimelech charged all his people saying, he who touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death. Boy it's a sad day when the world rebukes the believer. That's a very, very, very sad day when the testimony gets so low that the world is rebuking the believer.
Jesus said, let your light so shine among men that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father which is in heaven. Isaac isn't doing much of that these days. The irony of this story is that the pagan king of Gerar seems to have better morals than the man of God, the patriarch Isaac. This man of the world understands that men and women of God should be honest, faithful, have lives filled with integrity. And so here is the unbelieving king rebuking this man of God. It's sort of similar to the prophet Nathan after David sinned.
You remember the story, 2 Samuel when Nathan came in after David committed adultery with Bathsheba. He said, you are the man. But then he said, because you have done this thing you have given great occasion for the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme or literally show utter contempt. You've given unbelievers fuel for them to mock the believer because you've done this, David. And I would say the same thing for this man, Isaac.
So Abimelech charged all his people. I read that now, verse 12. Then Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. Now again, watch this, and the Lord blessed him.
I'm baffled. He blows it once, God says, I'm going to bless you. Here's the promise of Abraham.
He blows it again, God, a hundredfold. Now it's one thing to get a hundred times what you expect in a harvest. It's another thing to get it in a place where it's a border land, where you don't get very much moisture at all.
It's arid, it's desert, and there's not much water. And obviously the blessing of God is upon him. The man began to prosper and continued prospering until he became very prosperous.
For he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servants. So the Philistines envied him. God blessed him once, God blessed him twice. God did not bless him because he was Mr. Wonderful, but because he made a promise to Abraham.
Now listen carefully. God doesn't bless you because you're Mr. or Mrs. Wonderful, though you might be a wonderful person. But that's not why he would ever bless you. God knows the truth about you and I. But he blesses you because of his wonderful son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the covenant that has been made through his blood that allows us to become children of God.
That's the reason. It's not our merits, it's his merit alone. Because of that covenant, God has blessed us. And you'll also notice in verse 14, he had possessions of flocks, herds, great number of servants. So the Philistines envied him. So the material blessings proved to be a problem in and of themselves. Whenever you are blessed materially, you should just take it for granted that people around you will envy you. You shouldn't be blessed, in their opinion. They should be blessed. And they're angry and envious because they are, they think, much better a person than you are. But God doesn't seem to be blessing them like he's blessing you, and it ticks them off. They were envious.
So look what happens. Now the Philistines had stopped all the wells which his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father. We read about that a few chapters ago, and they filled them with earth. And Abimelech said to Isaac, Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we. Then Isaac departed from there and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar and dwelt there. Isaac dug up again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines stopped them up after the death of Abraham.
He called them by the names which his father called them. Now the rest of this chapter you could title it, Oh Well, because it's all about wells. It's all about water.
Okay, sorry. Again, water was so precious because it was so scarce that whenever it would rain they sought to collect the water, either in wells or in cisterns. It wasn't like the Tigris, Euphrates, River Valley over in Iraq, Mesopotamia where Abraham had come from and Rebecca grew up in.
It wasn't like Egypt where Isaac wanted to go down to. So water was precious. In fact, today some Bedouins would just as soon give you their milk that they milked from their goats than give you their water, because water is more scarce and more precious. I was watching a special last night, I forget which channel, History Channel or National Geographic, about the Somalis and the Horn of Africa, the people in the Horn of Africa where water is scarce.
Water is so scarce that there are armed militia men, guys with guns to protect water sources, because others with guns will seek to steal the water source and divert it for themselves. So in those countries it's very tentative, life is very harsh. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we return to Skip's teaching, if you've ever wondered what the Bible has to say about some of our culture's big issues, we have a great resource for you. When you give a gift of $50 or more this month to support the ministry of Connect with Skip Heitzig, we'll send you God Speaks, biblical answers for today's issues. This special resource bundle contains six of Pastor Skip's booklets that address topics like suicide, why the truth matters, heaven and hell, and the church's response to racism. You'll gain valuable insight into what God's Word says about the big questions in our culture, and get equipped to stand for the timeless truth of Scripture.
Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copy when you give $50 or more. Now let's get back to Skip for more of today's teaching. Now the land, any land can support life, but you have to dig down or you have to have an abundance of water. California is experiencing right now a huge water crisis.
And I believe the world in the next several years will experience a huge water crisis because of the population. Now a long time ago there was a visionary named William Mulholland. He was an Irishman. And he decided, he thought that he would take Los Angeles basin and plant things in it. I don't know if you've ever seen ancient pictures or old pictures of California. My dad was a real estate guy so he had all these aerial. California was a desert.
Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego. Unless you plant something there, it is a barren desert. But it's been called the Cadillac Desert.
Because whatever you plant there thrives from the dew and if you divert water. So William Mulholland was brilliant. He took water from the Owens Valley 230 miles away and brought it into the Los Angeles basin. And that's why the population could be sustained because a man years ago had that kind of vision.
But that vision can only last a while. When you overpopulate an area, not enough water even with the Owens River Project. Okay, I'm getting off. It has nothing to do with this. 19, Isaac's servants dug in the valley and formed a well of, notice what? Running water. Okay, this is different. This is something that is bubbling up.
It's always fresh. It's a unique source of water like an artesian well. But the herdsman of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's herdsman saying, the water's ours. So he called the name of the well Esek, which means contention. Because they quarreled with him. And they dug another well and they quarreled over that one. So he called the name of it Sitna, which means opposition. Then he moved from there and dug another well.
They did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehabot, which means roominess or there's room for us. Because he said, for now the Lord has made room for us.
And we shall be fruitful in the land. I see an interesting difference between Isaac's personality and his father Abraham's personality. If you will recall, when there was a dispute in the same territory with Abraham, between his herdsman and the herdsman of the Philistines, Abraham always got involved and would confront the people who were arguing. To settle it. It's like, okay look, you got a beef with me? What? Tell me. And they would talk it out, he would confront it, he wouldn't avoid it, and they would deal with it.
Isaac seems to want to avoid all confrontation. You want my well? Okay. Let me just name it first. And then there's another one.
You want that one? Okay, well let me just name that one. And then he goes on and goes, there's no argument.
He just rolls over. So one was a contender, that's Abraham. One was a peacemaker. I'm not saying it's bad.
Both are good. We need the discernment from God to know which one to use at what time. The Bible does say in Romans chapter 12, as much as lies in you, be at peace with all people. As much as is possible, be at peace with all people. Amen. Now I'm glad it said as much as is possible. Sometimes it's not possible. You try, but it's not possible.
Here it was possible. He made peace and he moved on. Verse 23, and he went up from there to Beersheba. Do you remember what that means? Well of the oath. Remember Abraham called that? Because of the oath that Abraham made with the people of the Philistine country.
Well of the oath. This was the place Abraham lived for a while and prospered. You might say this is home for Isaac. Here he goes down to Egypt. God stops him. He stays in Gerar. He stays there a long time. He even plants a garden there. So he's there for a while. Finally he goes back home and he's going to build an altar to God there.
Here's my question. What will it take to get you back home to Beersheba, to the place of worship, to the place of communion with God? It might take grief. It might take bitterness. It might take anxiety.
It might take all sorts of things that are unpleasant. But if they drive you back home to God, they are blessings. He finally comes back to Beersheba, the well of the oath. And the Lord appeared to him that same night and he 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. So he built an altar and called on the name of the Lord and he pitched his tent there. And Isaac's servants dug a well.
Abimelech came from Gerar with Ahuza, one of the friends, and Fichol, the commander of his army. And Isaac said, why have you come to me since you hate me and you sent me away from you? But they said, we have certainly seen that the Lord is with you. So we said, let there now be an oath between us, between you and us. And let us make a covenant with you that you will do us no harm since we have not touched you, since we have done nothing to you but good and have sent you away in peace.
You are now the blessed of Yahweh, the Lord. So he made them a feast and they ate and drank. They arose early in the morning and swore an oath with one another, and Isaac sent them away and departed from him in peace. It came to pass the same day that Isaac's servants came and told him about the well which they had dug and said to him, we have found water. So he called it Sheba, oath.
Therefore, the name of the city is Beersheba to this day. When Esau was 40 years old, Esau, now that's the first born son of Isaac, we talked about him last week, we'll really go into depth with him and his brother next week because that is really the central issue of this story. When Esau was 40 years old, he took as wives already, that's a red flag. I know there was in that culture many wives sometimes, but God did say originally in Genesis, for this reason a man will leave his father and mother in Cleveland to his wife singular. He marries two wives. Their names, Judith, the daughter of Biri the Hittite, and Basimath, the daughter of Elan the Hittite. So they're two Canaanite wives. And notice how it ends, the chapter. And they were a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekah. There are some parents here that can relate to that.
I'm not going to ask you to nod your head of which. Others are blessed because the Lord brought into your child's life somebody really great who will care for them and love them. I am so blessed as such to have a wonderful daughter-in-law. But here they weren't so blessed because Abraham was the one that set the precedent, you remember in chapter 24, when he said to Eleazar his servant, go from here, don't get any wife from here for my son Isaac, go to my country, my relatives. Somebody who has a closer worldview than the one that we have here in Canaan. But they were a grief of soul because they were not of the covenant, they were unbelievers.
Whenever you get married, you bring the families and cultures and values along into the family that you're marrying. So as Warren Wiersbe says, there was peace with his neighbors, but there was war in his home. A grief of mind.
Chapter 26 could be viewed a couple of different ways. Number one, it could be viewed as a huge disappointment. What a disappointment to see Isaac. Not very noteworthy.
The only thing he's really known for is two stupid things, running away in a famine and saying, my wife isn't my wife, she's my sister, so he wouldn't die. Not trusting God. A great disappointment. Now it is a disappointment if you view it horizontally from the human perspective, but if you view it from the divine, that is from the vertical, it's a great encouragement. It's a story not just of the faithlessness of Isaac, but the faithfulness of God in blessing and reiterating promises to unfaithful Isaac. So just as faithful God faithfully promised to unfaithful Abraham, so faithful God does to unfaithful Isaac. It's a story of God's faithfulness. God's mercy.
God's grace. That's why I love reading through the scriptures. All of its heroes are flawed, and the Bible points out those flaws, doesn't cover them up, doesn't spin it a certain way.
Tells us the truth. I had you turn at the very beginning to Exodus chapter 20. I think I'll have you turn there once again, just to close off, to tie a bow on the evening, to notice something we quickly skipped over in Exodus chapter 20, where God said He's a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me. And that's where people stop and get hung up on that dumb thing called generational curses, and they neglect the very next verse, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. I find it interesting that sin, according to God, would affect three or four generations, but God's mercy would affect thousands of generations. I love God's math.
It's great math. Whatever blessing your disobedience takes away from you, God's mercy is able to multiply back to you. To thousands, it says, to those who keep My commandments. You want a real legacy? You want something to pass on to your children and your children's children? You want to perpetuate a good cycle instead of an evil cycle? Have a covenant with the living God. Walk with the living God. And when you fall and you fail, be honest about the faults and the failures, and you tell your son or your daughter, Daddy blew it.
That was wrong. God forgave him. Will you? And you let that transparent honesty and that covenant reality guide you and your family.
And whatever family you have come from, maybe you have been dealt like, you know, you are the adult child of a left-handed cigar-smoking golfer, or your parents were drug abusers or physical abusers or alcoholics. You have a Heavenly Father now. He's perfect. Emulate Him. Follow Him. Let Him restore those three or four generations and give you thousands upon thousands of blessings. That's His math.
I've watched Him do it. We're glad you joined us today. Before you go, remember that when you give $50 or more to help reach more people with the gospel through Connect with Skip Heitzig, we'll send you God Speaks, Biblical Answers for Today's Issues, which contains six of Pastor Skip's booklets to help you understand what the Bible says about big issues like racism, the importance of truth, suicide, and heaven and hell. To request your copy of God Speaks, Biblical Answers for Today's Issues, call 800-922-1888.
That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. For more from Skip, be sure to check out the many resources available at connectwithskip.com slash store.
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