Wells, Wells Everwhere but not a Drop to Drink (Genesis 26)

Isaac headed to Egypt because there was a famine in the land and he got to Gerar, which from what I can tell, is very close to what is now Palestine on the edge of the promised land. When he got to Gerar God appeared to him in a dream and told him not to go to Egypt but to stay FOR A WHILE in Gerar. The actual word used here is "gur" which means to turn aside from the road. It's obvious that God didn't intend for Isaac to stay there, but in verse 6 we read that Isaac dwelt in Gerar. The word for dwelt is "yashab" which means to sit down. So God told Isaac to turn aside and Isaac sat down.

Now regardless of Isaac's disobedience God kept his promise and blessed him greatly but Isaac's stay was not without problems. The King, Abimelech,tried to marry Isaac's wife because Isaac lied to him and told him it was his sister. When the king found out he scolded Isaac for his dishonesty. As a side note I find it interesting the Abimelech actually has more integrity than Isaac does and he's not a follower of God.

Isaac farmed the land and raised cattle and God continued to bless him greatly; so much so in fact that the people began to fear him because he was becoming to powerful. In response to his growing wealth the Philistines stopped up all the wells that he used to water the cattle and for drinking. That might seem like almost a harmless prank but it was actually a very serious problem. Isaac and all his family and cattle would have been in serious trouble very quickly.

In response to the aggression of the philistines, Isaac did not retaliate. Instead, he packed up and left. At this point we go through several rounds of well digging and well stopping. Each time one of Isaac's wells is stopped up Isaac packed up and moved. Finally he ended up in Beersheeba (which is to the north in what would eventually become the promised land). Once there, God appeared to him and renewed His covenant again, and promised to bless him. Finally Abimelech showed up again and formed a peace treaty with Isaac.

What I find interesting about this section of scripture is that Isaac is living in disobedience to God. He's in a place where God had not intended him to go. God blesses him but he encountered a great deal of trouble because of the choices he made along the way. I think sometimes we like to believe that our problems are thrust upon us by forces outside our control. We pray for God to remove the trial rather than looking at why there would be a trial in the first place. It seems like it's a popular trend these days to simply will your problems away. Some people's theology would say that God just wants us to be successful and that if we just have faith and pray, he will remove those roadblocks from our path. This however, is faulty theology because God sometimes is the architect of the roadblock. In this case God was driving Isaac back to the promised land. One he got there, God renewed the covenant and blessed him richly, so much so that Abimelech felt the need to come and create a peace treaty. We see these types of road blocks throughout scripture: Jonah and the whale, Balaam and his donkey, Paul in Acts 16.

If Isaac had fought against the Philistines for control of the land he may never have seen the end to his troubles. Instead, each time there is conflict Isaac backed off and actually moved rather than quarrel. When you find a roadblock in your path don't immediately try to plow it down. God may have put it there for a reason.

Also, I think there's something to be learned from Isaac's disposition throughout all these trials. He never retaliated against those who were being openly hostile toward him. He chose the path of peace and when given the opportunity with King Abimelech he made a peace treaty with him.

For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God" (I Pet. 2:19-20)

The next time you encounter a roadblock, before you complain or ask God to remove it, make sure He isn't just trying to save you from yourself.

Stewing Over Who I am in Him

Gen 25:30-34 He said to Jacob, "Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I'm famished!" (That is why he was also called Edom.) Jacob replied, "First sell me your birthright." "Look, I am about to die," Esau said. "What good is the birthright to me?" But Jacob said, "Swear to me first." So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright.

When I read this verse in the past I always thought that it was pretty rotten of Jacob to blackmail his brother into giving up his birthright. Tonight when I read this the phrase “What good is the birthright to me?” it caught my eye. I always thought of the birthright as Esau’s inheritance as the first born son and it is, but it’s more than that. As the grandson of Abraham Esau was not only in line for the inheritance of his wealthy father Isaac’s estate, but he was also first in line to be the recipient of the promises included in the covenant that God made with Abraham. So when Esau says what good is a birthright to me, he’s basically saying, look, I don’t give a rip about God right now, I’m hungry, give me some food.

This got me thinking about how many times I shove God to the back burner in my life when I have more pressing matters to worry about. God has made me the recipient of His covenant promise through Jesus. I am adopted as His son, and as His son, I am in line for His inheritance. But all too often I’m willing to ignore my relationship and give priority to seemingly meaningless trivialities of the day. Yeah God, I know I haven’t spent time with you today, but look, I need my sleep. Yeah God, I know I don’t pray much but look I don’t have much time to myself after the kids get to bed.

It’s not about guilt. It’s about remembering who I am in Him. If I can keep that first and foremost in my mind, then maybe I’ll be less likely to cast Him aside for a bowl of soup.

What's in a Name?

So last year about this time I decided that I was going to make it my goal to read through the bible every year. I've done that before but I wanted to commit to doing it every year. I don't tell you this as though that somehow that should make me more spiritual in your eyes, or that there's anything particularly magical about reading the whole bible as opposed to reading it in pieces. But one thing I learned last year as I read through is that when taken as a whole the bible tells a story, and it's a completely cohesive unified story even though it is actually 66 individually books written by many different authors over thousands of years.

So anyway, this year I decided that as I started reading I was going to pay particular attention to the individual people and possibly focus on some of the not so popular folks. It has helped that we're also studying some of the early bible patriarchs in our Sunday school class. As I read through the early chapters of Genesis I was paying particular attention to the names given to these people and what the bible says about their meanings.

Adah - ornament
Enosh - mortal
Irad - fugitive
Jabal - stream
Japheth - spreading out
Mahalalel - praise of God
Methushael - man who is of God

In each case the name given to the person ended up personifying their life in a major way. So I'm wondering; their parents could not have possibly known what these people would grow up to be like. Obviously God played a hand in their lives, and right from the beginning, right down to what their name was.

I love it when the bible shows me that God is involved in our lives in the most intimate ways. But that intimacy may look a bit different than I want it to. I want to think about God as though we was like my wife sitting across the room who's bound to listen to my complaining and whining, or bad attitude, and always be patient and loving in response. The reality I think, is that God has a very detailed plan; His plan is about Him not us, but we get to be involved. Because we're involved God weaves himself into the intimate details of our lives and as a result, our lives become part of the story He's telling the world. His story. I want to be able to say God, this story isn't going so good, can you please change this chapter?. But God is saying, Ed, you were created to be in this chapter, connect to Me and find out why.

So all this got me thinking about my name, Edward. All the references I could find say my name means wealthy guardian. I guess I could think of worse things to be named, but what I really want to know is if God was going to name me, what would He call me? Would he call me, "TV watcher", or how about "the great sitting wonder"? I think the name Methushael would be a pretty good one. It might not get allot of attention from the ladies, but I think if God saw me as "one who is of God" I think I would pretty happy about that.

What do you think God would call you?

So Why Write a Blog

I've been kicking around writing a blog for a while and have held off until now for a couple reasons. First, I wasn't sure I had anything of value to say. I have a lot swirling around in my noggin but I'm never sure that those ideas are things people want to read about. Second, I believe there's a danger in current trends in social networking and the bloggosphere. That danger is that people can get online, get a big head, and spout any kind of trash for others to read. Others read these ideas and take them as realities perpetuating their inaccuracies.

In addition to the aforementioned concerns I worry about my own tendency to get wrapped up in the concerns of the day. Anyone who has seen my posts on Facebook knows full well that I have a tendency to focus on the negative. The reality is I am very passionate about a ot of things and I like to talk about them. I try to make postings that will stimulate conversation however most of the time I get either no response or only surface reaction rather than dialogue. Facebook isn't really very good at facilitating discussion however which brings me to the reason for writing the blog. My hope is that by posting my ideas here that the people who take the time to read them will be more likely to respond and dialogue about them.

As for content, the title of the blog says it all. While I'm passionate about several topics none more so than that of my faith. Recently I read a post of Facebook by a homosexual acquaintance of mine who stated "You either believe we're equal or you don't". I thought about that statement for a while because of course, I don't support much of the homosexual agenda but I wondered if that automatically makes me an enemy of the average homosexual. I don't wish to be enemies of course, but increasingly I feel like as a Christian, my faith puts me at odds with more and more of society.

I don't intend for this to be a commentary on homosexuality but instead a commentary on society, how it relates to God and how I as a Christian relate to God and society. I can't help but notice that the homophobia of the past has been replaced with theophobia (the fear / hatred of God)of the present.

So this long winded explanation is to say that I consider myself a theophile, or a lover of God. As a lover of God, I find myself increasingly out of place in this world. This blog is a place where I Will try to take the words that I read in my bible and to relate them to the world around me to try and make sense of it all. I welcome you to come along if you choose.