(paid link) or find the following in your Bible:
Genesis 26:17-27:46
Matthew 9:1-17
Psalm 10:16-18
Proverbs 3:9-10
”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.” ~Genesis 26:22
As I mentioned a few days ago, the person who owned our property before us had no running water. He was content with collecting the rain that fell off his trailer roof and into some rain barrels he’d rigged up below the gutter spout. But we had no desire to continue that system, so we hired someone to dig a well for us. That man had to dig 60 feet before he could find acceptable water for us. And that’s in Puget Sound, which has water a’plenty.
I can’t imagine how hard it is to strike water in the desert. Yet what we see in today’s passage is that every time Isaac (or his men) dug, they found water. And even though they ended up abandoning those wells (except for the last one) in the name of peace, I still find it remarkable that they seemed to have a perfect record of water-discovery.
Of course, when God is with you, these things happen.
Something I love about this passage is seeing how just the presence of God’s people in a place blessed others. Long after Isaac and his family had left each of those wells, the people around them were able to draw water. Not only that, but the fact that they kept finding water didn’t go unnoticed by the people. What did Abimelech say to Isaac, when Isaac asked why he had come to him? “We have certainly seen that the Lord is with you” (Genesis 26:28).
How I long to be that kind of person — that others would see that God is at work within and around me, and that I could leave a little goodness behind when I leave a place. We carry the Living Water within; what a joy it is when we can share Him with the one who thirsts.
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