City Life Starter

Written by Scott Fiddler

The Word

26 When Abimelech went to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol the commander of his army, 27 Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, seeing that you hate me and have sent me away from you?” 28 They said, “We see plainly that the Lord has been with you. So we said, let there be a sworn pact between us, between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you, 29 that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you and have done to you nothing 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 In the morning they rose early and exchanged oaths. And Isaac sent them on their way, and they departed from him in peace. 32 That same day Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well that they had dug and said to him, “We have found water.”

³³ He called it Shibah; therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.

Genesis 26:26-33

¹³ Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

John 4:13-14

Reflection

When Isaac is forced by Abimelech to root up his family and move out of the city of Gerar to the country, Isaac’s herdsmen began looking for a source of water. They dig and find water, but the people of that area claim the water belongs to them (v. 16-20).

Then Isaac’s people dig another well, and Philistine herdsmen claim that water belongs to them also (v. 21).

So, Isaac moves again and arrives in Beersheba, where God repeats His promise of blessing to Isaac (vv.22-24). Isaac’s servants begin digging again looking for water (v. 25).

Then Abimelech arrives and seeks a covenant of peace with Isaac. The next day Isaac and Abimelech exchange oaths and his party leaves. The very same day, Isaac’s servants come and tell Isaac they have found water (v. 30-32).

For a nomadic tribe in a desert climate, a well represented provision, independence, and a place to settle. It was a premier blessing. For Isaac, this blessing, like God’s blessing of prosperity in the city of Gerar, came in the midst of continued turmoil and conflict with the Philistines around him.

Application

When Jesus encountered the woman at the well in Samaria, she was in the midst of her own ongoing turmoil, going from one failed sexual relationship to another. She came to the well for the same reason Isaac’s servants kept digging for wells: she was looking for the source of sustainable life.

Jesus’ said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this [well] water shall thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14). In the midst of her turmoil, the Samaritan woman found a well of eternal blessing in Jesus.

The blessing of God in a fallen world comes often in the midst of tribulation and rarely in the absence of it. His blessing is like streams in a desert (Isaiah 43:19). And His blessing, the well that never runs dry and cannot be filled in by those who seek to harm us, is Jesus.

Prayer

Lord, thank You for being an eternal source of blessing in the midst of trials and tribulation. Amen.