Fear Not, but Trust and Obey

Genesis 26:19-35

19 Also Isaac's servants dug in the valley, and found a well of running water there. 20 But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well Esek, because they quarreled with him. 21 Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that one also. So he called its name Sitnah. 22 And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth, because he said, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”   23 Then he went up from there to Beersheba. 24 And the Lord appeared to him the same night and 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.” 25 So he built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord, and he pitched his tent there; and there Isaac's servants dug a well.
    26 Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath, one of his friends, and Phichol the commander of his army. 27 And Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?”  28 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, 29 that you will do us no harm, since we have not touched you, and since we have done nothing to you but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the Lord.’ ”  30 So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. 31 Then they arose early in the morning and swore an oath with one another; and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.  32 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.” 33 So he called it Shebah. Therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.  34 When Esau was forty years old, he took as wives Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite. 35 And they were a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekah.

After leaving the Philistines and digging out the old wells, they found more water essential to living there.  But these locals claimed the water of this and the next well.  The third well was not contested.  Then the Lord came to Isaac to reassure His presence and blessings of promise as to Abraham.  “Do not fear,” He said.  “I am with you,” He continued.  He promised again to less and make Isaac fruitful for the sake of Abraham (because of his father’s faith to take God at His word, and for his descendants).  After all this, the king of the Philistines who asked him to leave them because of God’s work in Isaac, this king came to make an agreement out of this fear to not attack each other.  He wanted safety and knew that Isaac was a man of integrity, so he wanted him to make that covenant for protection.  As they feasted to commemorate this treaty, Isaac’s servants found more water as a blessing from God.  But then in this prosperity Isaac married two more wives outside his people who would become a snare of trouble, a “grief of mind” to both Isaac and Rebekah.  We also see how perseverance is needed for God’s blessings, but also how our responsibility to follow in trust that obeys is critical to avoiding further snares and troubles.