Good Morning.
Now the Philistines had stopped up all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, and they had filled them with earth. And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.” (Genesis 26:15-16)
It’s amazing to see how those things that happened to Abraham are repeated in the lives of his descendants. Years before Abraham had a dispute with Abimelech over wells that Abraham had dug. His son got into a dispute with the same nation over those same wells thus the Jewish belief that what happens to the fathers is bound to happen to the children.
Notice that jealousy and intimidation is what drove Abimelech to tell Isaac to leave the country. How do we know that he was intimidated? Notice the statement, “You are much mightier than we.” When the nations start saying this about God’s people, trouble is ahead. In Isaac’s case it was the push to move away from the Philistines. Years later, Pharaoh would say of the children of Israel, “They are more and mightier than we” (Exodus 1:9), prompting him to oppress God’s people in an effort to destroy them.
If what happened to the fathers is bound to happen to the children then we shouldn’t be surprised to find that we will, in time, become the objects of the world’s disdain. Those who at one time respected us will turn and come to despise us. Why? For the same reasons I would suspect. In other words, they will come to recognize that God’s people are more and mightier than they are. I realize that might be difficult for some of us to imagine but even if we are fewer in number, because of He who lives in us, we are mightier than they are. Through Moses, God said:
“Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight; your enemies shall fall by the sword before you.” (Leviticus 23:8)
This is nothing that we should take pride in but it is a truth that we should find hope in. If we walk upright before Him and are faithful to obey His voice, then none can stand against us. As Paul said, “ If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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