CRITICAL NOTES.—
Genesis 26:13. Went forward.] Heb. “Went or walked, going;” i.e., “Became increasingly greater.” The Heb. term for walk is frequently used in the sense of continued increase.
Genesis 26:20. Strove.] Heb. “They oppressed him.”—
Genesis 26:21. Strove for that also.] This is a different word from the former, and signifies contended. Situah. From the term Satan, meaning accusation.
Genesis 26:22. Rehoboth.] Meaning space, enlargement.—
Genesis 26:26. Ahuzzath.] Called here “one of his friends,” by which we are to understand his priry counsellor. Phichol. Probably an official name for the commander-in-chief. But Grove (Biblical Dict.) says that it is a Philistine name, of the meaning of which we are ignorant.—
Genesis 26:33. And he called it Shebah; therefore the name of the city is Beer-sheba unto this day.] “He called the well Sheba (oath), in commemoration of the oath here made, thus confirming the name given the town by Abraham on the like occasion. (Genesis 21:31.) It is not here said that the place now first took its name, but that it retained its name under this new confirmation up to the writer’s day. It was rather the well that was named by Abraham ‘Beer-sheba,’ meaning ‘Well of an oath.’ Now the name was again given to the well, and was therefore fixed upon the city.” (Jacobus)—
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Genesis 26:12-33
THE PROSPERITY OF ISAAC
We have here a picture of the prosperity of the patriarch, and also of the blessings and dangers of that condition.
I. His prosperity was evidently due to the Divine blessing. His prosperity was wonderful. “Thirty, sixty, and a hundred fold,” is the range of fertility in that land. Thus the yield of Isaac’s land reaches the highest degree of productiveness. In ordinary cases the return is not greater than twenty-five or thirty fold. All this prosperity was due to the blessing of God.
1. Such was the position of the sacred historian. He who relates this history, after describing the prosperity of this man, adds, “And the Lord blessed him.” (Genesis 26:12.)
2. It was evident to Isaac himself. His prosperity, the rest he enjoyed from his enemies, and room to enlarge in, he ascribed all to God. (Genesis 26:22.)
3. It was evident to his enemies. They were constrained to acknowledge that God was with him. The impression made by Abraham’s character still lived in history, and they saw that the son was also a friend of God and enjoyed His presence and favour. (Genesis 26:28.)
II. His prosperity made him a mark for envy. We are told that “the Philistines envied him.” His prosperity was not without alloy. Every blessing of this world is accompanied by some disadvantage or evil. Civilisation is a blessing, but we lose thereby some of the virtues and natural endowments of simpler times. Great possessions are a blessing, but they often rob us of our quiet and repose, and they bring us new anxieties. High station in society is a blessing, but it oftens renders a man the object of jealousy. He becomes public property, and he is robbed of his peace. We have to pay a price for every earthly good.
III. His prosperity served to develop the virtues of his character. Bacon has said that, “Prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue.” And human experience shows that such are the usual effects of these conditions. But in the case of Isaac there were virtues that shined out in his prosperity.
1. The virtue of patience. The Philistines carried their envy into action. They stopped up the wells which he had inherited from his father. (Genesis 26:15.) But he met all this envy by patience. When persecuted in one place he fled to another. He removed from well to well. (Genesis 26:18-22.) (a.) His patience was victorious. It won upon his enemies. The Philistines were, at length wearied out. They came round, and asked for a treaty. (Genesis 26:28-30.) (b.) His patience won the Divine approval. The Lord appeared to him and renewed the old promises. He was assured of perpetual protection and guidance.
2. The virtue of forgiveness. He had suffered a grievous wrong, but he forgave it on the entreaty of Abimelech. This was not the easy virtue of a man who has no strong feelings and who is soon won over. He keenly felt the wrong. His sense of honour was wounded, he smarted under the indignity. It was principle, and not a weak feeling, that made him forgive. So it was with our Lord Himself, who while He could forgive in the greatness of His love, could yet feel indignity and shame under the cruel taunts and ingratitude of His enemies. He could say, “Why smitest thou Me?” “Are ye come out against me as against a thief with swords and with staves.?”
3. The virtue of reverence. He set up an altar for the worship of God and pitched his tent there as if he would dwell in the Lord’s house. (Genesis 26:25.) He bears a public testimony to the obligation of religion. Many a man forgets God with increasing prosperity, but it was not so with Isaac. With him it served to deepen the feeling of reverence and to strengthen every duty of piety. He kept up the old traditions of his father. (Genesis 26:33.) When he opened again the wells which Abraham had digged he called them by the old names. (Genesis 26:33.) This would remind him to follow in his father’s faith and footsteps.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Genesis 26:12-13. It is a further stage in progress when a wandering tribe changes from a pastoral to an agricultural people. In this advance we see the preparation of the chosen people to become a great nation.
Genesis 26:14. Here again we see how vanity attaches to every earthly good; prosperity begets envy, and from envy proceeds injury.—(Fuller.)
Envy is the constant companion of prosperity, as David felt and complained. Succoth and Peniel contemn Gideon, out of envy of his victory; Joseph’s brethren cannot abide him, because more favoured of his father. Korah maligneth Moses; Saul, David; the Pharisees, our Saviour; their malice wilfully crossing their consciences.—(Trapp.)
Genesis 26:15. In those countries a good well of water was a possession of immense value; and hence in predatory wars it was always an object for either party to fill the wells with earth or sand in order to distress the enemy. Had the Philistines merely forced their way to these wells and drank of them, it might have been encased; but to stop them was an act of downright barbarity, and a gross violation of the treaty of peace which had been made between a former Abimelech and Abraham (Genesis 21:25-31). But envy considers that which is lost to another as gained to itself, and not only delights in working gratuitous mischief, but will even punish itself, in a measure, to have the malicious satisfaction of doing a still greater injury to an enemy.—(Bush.)
Genesis 26:16-17. Abimelech understood the temper of his people and therefore he sought to persuade Isaac to remove. He used the language of compliment and flattery. Isaac might have stood upon his ground and urged the rights of the covenant made with his father. But he was a man of peace, and choose rather to forego a right than enter into a quarrel. He acted upon the maxim of the wise man,—“yielding, pacifieth great offences.”
A little with peace and quietness is better than much with envy and contention.—(Fuller.)
Genesis 26:18. It is a pious duty to keep up the memorials of the great and good.
It seems wherever Abraham went, he improved the country; and wherever the Philistines followed him, their study was to mar his improvements, and that for no other end than the pleasure of doing mischief. Isaac, however, is resolved to open these wells again. Their waters would be doubly sweet to him for their having been first tasted by his beloved father; and to show his filial affection still more, he “called their names after the names which his father had called them.” Many of our enjoyments, both civil and religious, are the sweeter for being the fruits of the labour of our fathers; and if they have been corrupted by adversaries since their days, we must restore them to their former purity.—(Fuller.)
Genesis 26:19-20. Isaac’s servants also digged new wells, and which occasioned new strife. While we avail ourselves of the labours of our forefathers, we ought not to rest in them without making farther progress, even though it expose us to many unpleasant disputes. Envy and strife may be expected to follow those whose researches are really beneficial, provided they go a step beyond their forefathers. But let them not be discouraged: the wells of salvation are worth striving for, and after a few conflicts, they may enjoy the fruits of their labours in peace.—(Fuller.)
Genesis 26:21-22. We are told that he met the envy with patience, and removed from well to well. At last the Philistines desisted. Thus patience wears the world out. Endurance, meekness, the Gospel spirit, this is the only true weapon against the world. Hence, Christianity can have no addition. It is final. There is nothing beyond this—“Love your enemies.” Isaac, like Christ, had conquered by meekness.—(Robertson.)
Genesis 26:23-24. There is shed abroad in his heart that deep peace which is most profound in the midst of storm. God was with him. The waves which lash the surface of the sea are only on the surface; below, the depths are calm. And Isaac quietly leaving place after place felt the deeps of his soul untouched. What was the loss of a well, or ten wells, to him with whom God was, for his portion, his exceeding and all-sufficient great reward.—(Robertson.)
“God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” Therefore Isaac is assured that his father has not perished by death, that he is not clean gone for ever with the breath which he gave up. God’s covenant with his friend was not annulled.
This is the same person as the Angel of the Covenant who appeared to Moses in Horeb, in the burning bush (Exodus 3:2) and is therefore the Messiah. Abraham was the man of faith, Isaac the man of endurance, and Jacob was the man of prayer. God is God to each believer in his peculiar circumstances. Isaac is here promised the blessing for Abraham’s sake. This is the actual working of the household covenant. God has so displayed Himself in all the history of the Church as a covenant God to the families of His people.—(Jacobus.)
Genesis 26:25. He called upon the name of the Lord that had made room for him; and now, by His presence and promise, comforted him. Let the streams of God’s bounty lead us, as the watercourse doth, either to the spring upward, or downward to the main ocean, to the source and fountain whence they flow. Let God taste of the fruit of His own planting. We are no better than brute beasts, if, contenting ourselves with a natural use of the creatures, we rise not up to the Author; if, instead of being temples to His praise, we become graves of His benefits. Isaac first built an altar, and then digged a well.—(Trapp.)
Every dwelling-place of the godly should be a sanctuary.
Genesis 26:26-27. True meekness does not arise from insensibility. The meek keenly feel the wrongs and indignities committed against them.
Isaac, while they acted as enemies, bore it patiently, as a part of his lot in an evil world; but now that they want to be thought friends, and to renew covenant with him, he feels keenly, and speaks his mind. We can bear that from an avowed adversary which we cannot bear from a professed friend; nor is it any transgression of the law of meekness and love plainly to signify our strong perception of the injuries received, and to stand on our guard in dealing with those who have once acted unfairly.—(Bush.)
Genesis 26:28. The world pays an involuntary tribute of respect and admiration to good men. This is the crown of glory which society places upon their head.
Genesis 26:29. They had shown acts of hospitality to Isaac at first; but their kindness soon turned to hatred, and their hatred to persecution. Men magnify the few acts of kindness they have done for others, but forget the many wrongs they have committed against them.
“Thou art now the blessed of the Lord.” This explains the one-sidedness of the covenant. Isaac needed no guaranty from them as Jehovah was with him. This clause may refer to his being under the Divine protection, and therefore safe, or as being sufficiently provided for not to make account of the injury done him by the servants. Or it may express the king’s salaam at the conclusion of the treaty pronouncing him blessed, or supposing he makes the treaty as proposed, calling him blessed of Jehovah.—(Jacobus.)
Genesis 26:30-31. It was a large-hearted generosity which was content to admit so poor a plea. He who would work out great purposes of charity towards mankind must be prepared to make large allowances.
This reconciliation between Isaac and Abimelech was pledged in a feast. They both sware unto one another; so is our reconciliation with God pledged in the Christian feast of the Lord’s Supper.—(Robertson.)
Genesis 26:32. Blessings follow quickly in the path of a large-hearted charity. As Isaac forgave them for depriving him of his wells (rather than quarrel with them), so the Lord opened to him another well for his need the same day.—(Jacobus.)
Genesis 26:33. Beer-Sheba unto this day. So it was before; but the name was almost worn out, the well being stopped up. Isaac therefore now names it, and so preserves it for a monument of God’s mercy to his father and to himself.—(Trapp.)