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“True faith is always tested, either by temptations within
us or trials around us, because a faith that can’t be tested can’t be trusted,”
my commentary said again. And Isaac’s
faith was about to be tested. Isaac faced a famine as his father had. God specifically told him not to go to Egypt, “but live in the
land where I tell you to live. Stay in this land…”
It’s hard to tell how well Isaac obeyed, because he traveled
to Gerar, the Philistine capital.
Although technically he had
moved, he was still within the
boundaries of Canaan. But like his
father, he worried that he’d be killed to get his wife, and Isaac lied that she
was his sister, too. Isaac settled down
after being found out, becoming a farmer, and God richly blessed him, to the point that the Philistines worried about
his strength and influence and began stopping up the wells that Abraham had
dug. This finally forced him to move to
Beersheba.
There God appeared to him and again blessed him, and Isaac
built an altar and worshiped Him there.
Seeing how God was blessing
him in spite of their best efforts, the Philistine king came and made an
agreement with Isaac to avoid future conflict.
However, another conflict began at home. “His worldly son Esau had married two heathen
wives who caused grief to Isaac and Rebekah.”
Isaac’s experience with redigging the old wells his father
had originally dug brought up an important message in my commentary for
churches today: “The church keeps
looking for something new, when all we need is to dig again the old wells of
spiritual life that God’s people have depended on from the beginning – the Word
of God, prayer, worship, faith, the power of the Spirit, sacrifice, and service
– wells that we’ve allowed the enemy to fill up.”
Father, help me, like Isaac to discern when to be confronter
and when to be a peacemaker. I know that
my faith gets tested, and I must remember that it can’t be trusted until it is tested.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
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