Gen 26:16 | KingComments | STEP | It is remarkable that the LORD blesses Isaac in Gerar. He has His intention for that. It is His way of letting Isaac leave Gerar. Because of his many possessions there is jealousy among the Philistines and quarreling over wells of water. The wells dug up by his father Abraham have been stopped up by the Philistines. Wells of water, a picture of the versatile Word of God, from which believers have drawn in the past, are stopped up by filling them with earth, the things of life. When life is full of all that the world has to offer, there is no desire to read the Bible, the well of water is stopped up. Also what believers in earlier days have dug up for us from God’s Word and written down in comments, remains closed for us. There is no interest in God’s Word or in books that explain and apply God’s Word. Isaac digs the stopped-up wells again. In this way it is also possible for us to reopen closed wells in personal faith. Then we must first remove from our lives ‘the earth’, with which the wells have been stopped up. That means that the earthly things that fill our lives no longer have that dominant place. This opens the way to make use of what others have discovered and dug up from the Word ( ). Although we have to make use of the light of previous times, that does not mean that we have stay there. We will have to do our own research, by which the knowledge will increase ( ). The discoveries we make then are new to us, but they are the same things that believers have discovered in earlier times. The truths we learn from God’s Word must always be mentioned by the same names – “he gave them the same names which his father had given them” – neither give them another meaning. If the digging of wells takes place in the land of the Philistines, Christianity, where nominal Christians are in charge, quarrel is the result. Nominal Christians claim the truth, but then indeed their own idea about the truth, while they reject the truth of God’s Word. If we come up with the truth of God’s Word, they will quarrel over it. In order not to have that quarrel anymore, separation is necessary. Isaac moves from there and goes somewhere else. As a result, he digs another well and they do not quarrel over it. He acknowledges in this the good hand of the LORD and gives the well a name that speaks of the room given to him by the LORD. Separation from evil means being released from human bonds in order to serve the LORD in freedom by the power we may draw from His Word in ever new ways.

‏ Genesis 26:16

Wells of Water

It is remarkable that the LORD blesses Isaac in Gerar. He has His intention for that. It is His way of letting Isaac leave Gerar.

Because of his many possessions there is jealousy among the Philistines and quarreling over wells of water. The wells dug up by his father Abraham have been stopped up by the Philistines. Wells of water, a picture of the versatile Word of God, from which believers have drawn in the past, are stopped up by filling them with earth, the things of life. When life is full of all that the world has to offer, there is no desire to read the Bible, the well of water is stopped up. Also what believers in earlier days have dug up for us from God’s Word and written down in comments, remains closed for us. There is no interest in God’s Word or in books that explain and apply God’s Word.

Isaac digs the stopped-up wells again. In this way it is also possible for us to reopen closed wells in personal faith. Then we must first remove from our lives ‘the earth’, with which the wells have been stopped up. That means that the earthly things that fill our lives no longer have that dominant place.

This opens the way to make use of what others have discovered and dug up from the Word (Job 8:8 ; 10). Although we have to make use of the light of previous times, that does not mean that we have stay there. We will have to do our own research, by which the knowledge will increase (Dan 12:4). The discoveries we make then are new to us, but they are the same things that believers have discovered in earlier times. The truths we learn from God’s Word must always be mentioned by the same names – “he gave them the same names which his father had given them” – neither give them another meaning.

If the digging of wells takes place in the land of the Philistines, Christianity, where nominal Christians are in charge, quarrel is the result. Nominal Christians claim the truth, but then indeed their own idea about the truth, while they reject the truth of God’s Word. If we come up with the truth of God’s Word, they will quarrel over it.

In order not to have that quarrel anymore, separation is necessary. Isaac moves from there and goes somewhere else. As a result, he digs another well and they do not quarrel over it. He acknowledges in this the good hand of the LORD and gives the well a name that speaks of the room given to him by the LORD. Separation from evil means being released from human bonds in order to serve the LORD in freedom by the power we may draw from His Word in ever new ways.