Many things had taken
place. In Genesis 20, we saw how God dealt with Abimelech and preserved Sarah
from being added to his harem. This God did to ensure that His plan for Isaac
would not be jeopardized. Then when we come Genesis 21, we saw the birth of Isaac
and the jealousy that Ishmael had over Isaac. He was then driven away with his
mother and was rescued by the Lord and became an archer. The last we read was
that he married a woman from Egypt.
Time had elapsed and
Abraham had gained some standing, that King Abimelech visited him with Phicol,
the commander of his army. He recognized the hand of God with Abraham and treated
him as an equal in his dealings with the patriarch. We recall that in Genesis
20, he saw Abraham as a nomad that had come to visit his land in Gerar. Now in Genesis
21, his treatment of Abraham was very different. The last we saw was Abraham
prayed for him and the change that had happened. Now Abimelech saw how the Lord
had blessed Abraham and he had increased in everything: herds, servants and
descendants.
We can sense from verse 25 that the servants of Abimelech and
those of Abraham were having some contention over a well. The servants of
Abimelech had seized the well. While Abraham consented to deal with Abimelech in
a non-aggressive agreement over the matter, he however wanted the well to be released
and returned. The well was vital to Abraham and his
people. For they needed it for irrigation to cultivate their crops. Apparently,
Abimelech was unaware of it. So he told Abraham, “I
do not know who has done this thing; you did not tell me, nor did I hear of
it until today.”
Abraham made a pact with Abimelech to seal the
fact that the well belonged to him. He offered the king of Gerar, sheep and
cattle in the pact. Abraham also set apart seven ewe lambs from the flock. That
aroused the curiosity of Abimelech so he asked Abraham what that meant. He
wanted the king to acknowledge that the well his servants had seized was indeed
dug by Abraham and therefore belonged to him. The king returned the well and
Abraham named it Beersheba, meaning the well of oath. Now that the matter was
resolved, Abimelech and Phicol returned to the land of the Philistines. This gives
a clue that king Abimelech was a descendant of the Philistines.
Abraham’s response to the whole matter was to
plant a tamarisk tree. The significance of what he did was that he called upon
the name of the LORD, the Eternal God. The fact that Abraham prayed to God showed
us that the Covenant God Abraham served and worshipped is an eternal God. He
had proven Himself to be faithful to Abraham, His servant. Abraham now had the
heir God had promised him, and also could roamed freely in the land of Philistine.
He would have been a fulfilled man. However, he was unaware of the great impending
testing of his faith that was soon to come. An untested faith is not worth believing,
so his faith would soon be tested. And so will ours. Just as Abraham, our
salvation in Christ will also lead us into times where we will be tested.
However, we need to know that they are intended to cause us to draw nearer to God.
So whatever we are facing now, know that it’s a call to draw nearer to God.
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