Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died, and he gave them the same names his father had given them.
(Genesis 26:18 NIV)
Have you ever watched someone dig a water well? In modern days we hire a drilling company to do the hard work of cutting through the ground to the water level and putting in some sort of mechanism to draw the water up to the surface. In Bible times, this was a much more labor-intensive process.
The wells mentioned in the Bible were dug out by hand; imagine spending days or even weeks digging out a 20-100 feet deep hole. In order to filter the water you’d add some gravel at the bottom. In order to keep surface contaminants out, you’d seal the top with clay and put a stone across the top. Often the sides of the well would need to be lined with clay or some sort of similar material. And, of course, to get the water to the surface you’d need some sort of vessel and rope – or even a pulley system – to bring up the water. Now imagine using that bucket and rope system to put gallons upon gallons of water into the troughs for the herd of animals you care for, and you can imagine how much work that would be.
Yet, for obvious reasons, wells were vital to the life of a community. Aside from the importance of water for physical needs, the well also served as a gathering place for the people. Men and women who were herding flocks would bring them to the well if there was no water available in the fields. Women would come to the well in the cooler morning or evening to get supplies for their family’s cleaning and cooking needs. I expect that a community’s well was also a place to exchange news or other conversations.
The Bible tells us that, in that time, Abraham’s servants dug wells for his flocks, which were evidently prosperous. By the time of Abraham’s son Isaac, those wells had been “stopped up” – filled with earth – by the neighboring competitors, the Philistines. These wells were a source of conflict between the Philistines and Isaac, but eventually they were reopened by Isaac’s men.
As you can probably tell, I’ve been thinking about wells and water lately, but I sense a definite spiritual metaphor in this story.
How many times in life do we find ourselves spiritually parched – going through a dry, desert time, seemingly with no spiritual “water” available? We may be struggling through complicated circumstances or health issues or relationship trials and ask, “where is God in this?” Perhaps it feels as if our spiritual “well” has been filled with earth and rocks, and no longer provides the water we desperately need.
Isaiah 12:3 (NIV) promises us, “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.”
Those wells are not permanently stopped. God is that spiritual well of salvation, that source of eternal hope. God opens those spiritual wells, offering us the Living Water.
Drawing water from that well is actively trusting, worshipping and receiving from God.
The spiritual water is what Jesus called the “Living Water,” that which fully satisfies our spiritual thirst and gives us eternal life.” This Living Water comes from the place of God’s joy, which we can access.
Today, let us call upon the Living Water.
God,
You, God, are our God, earnestly we seek you; we thirst for you, our whole being longs for you. You are the One who pours spiritual water on our thirsty souls. You pour out your Spirit and blessings on all your children. Today we ask that where we feel tired and weary, parched and empty, you would fill us with your Living Water. May our well of salvation overflow out of the depths of our being and be a blessing to ourselves and those around us, we ask in Jesus’s name, AMEN.
For I will pour water on the thirsty land,
and streams on the dry ground;
I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring,
and my blessing on your descendants. (Isaiah 44:3 NIV)
Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” (John 7:37-38 NIV)
[Isaac] had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him. So all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the time of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up, filling them with earth.
Then Abimelek said to Isaac, “Move away from us; you have become too powerful for us.”
So Isaac moved away from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar, where he settled. Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died, and he gave them the same names his father had given them.
Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and discovered a well of fresh water there. But the herders of Gerar quarreled with those of Isaac and said, “The water is ours!” So he named the well Esek, because they disputed with him. Then they dug another well, but they quarreled over that one also; so he named it Sitnah. He moved on from there and dug another well, and no one quarreled over it. He named it Rehoboth, saying, “Now the Lord has given us room and we will flourish in the land.” (Genesis 26:14-22 NIV)
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14 NIV)
“You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land where there is no water.” (Psalm 63:1 NIV)