Day 8: Genesis 26:28

Day 8: Genesis 26-28

Third Time’s a Charm

Just in case you haven’t learned the lesson from Abraham and Sarah, you know the whole claiming to be siblings rather than a couple, the story is once again repeated with Isaac and Rebekah. Once again, we see Isaac as an alien in a strange land. Once again, afraid his wife’s beauty would cause his death, Isaac lies that his wife, Rebekah, is his sister. At least this time the King figures it out before someone acts on their desires. This time, unlike the others, God did not have step with a plague or a dream. This time, the story was different.

As in previous stories, the outcome was similar. The King gives land and other prized possessions to the family of Isaac. However, this time Isaac is given too much. For the first time we see the community reject Isaac due to fear of his power. Even the King who gave Isaac gifts and land fears that this man has become too powerful.

I often wrestle with this very issue. I see this part of Isaac’s story as a reminder to those who have ever been oppressed. Isaac was an alien in the land, but once he was given power those around him feared what he would do. I think this is often what happens when those who were without power, those oppressed, are given power. Power can change people into what they had fought against.

A few weeks ago I saw the movie Invictus with Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. A major part of the plot deals with Nelson Mandela, played by Freeman, rebuilding a country with a new power, a power in which those that had no power were suddenly granted power. During the movie, and throughout Mandela’s political career, the issue of reversed power was pervasive. Yet, even being a victim of hate and abused power, Mandela emerges able to see that his power is needed to protect all people.

I wonder if Isaac had such insight.

Wells of Life

Isaac’s story continues, once again as an alien. For fear of Isaac, the people of had filled in the wells dug by Abraham. After leaving the Philistines, Isaac re-dug the well his father had dug in Gerar. Hoping to claim this space as his own, Isaac was suddenly surrounded by turmoil. The herders of the land began to fight over the rights of the well. Isaac gives the well to these herders and moves to another location to once again dig a well. Again controversy occurs and Isaac again moves. Yet another well is dug, but no one quarreled.

Although a well was present, Isaac still moved on. This time God revised the promise of Abraham’s numerous decedents to Isaac. In that place, the place of God’s encounter, Isaac’s servants dug another well. At this place Isaac and his community begin to thrive. Seeing this, the people that once chased Isaac out for too much power came back to him for assistance. After the reconciliation of these people, including Isaac, the servants found water in the newly dug well.

In today’s reading I felt a new connection with the digging of the wells. Often in our lives we dig wells. When we meet a new person, either romantically or platonically, we dig a well that we hope will never run dry. Often the wells we dig dry up, cave in or never have water to begin with. Whether through controversy or an odd sense of not being where we belong, we move on to dig another well in another location.

Interestingly, the text never mentions water in the wells dug by Isaac until the very last well has been dug. This last well, dug after the reconciliation with those that Isaac had encountered in the past, harbors water, an amazing gift in the heart of the wilderness. I wonder what relationships we need to reconcile before we can find water. I wonder what we need to do in our church, in our community and in our personal lives to find the life-giving water in the wells we have dug.

Doubt

More to come later tonight…