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From there he went up to Beersheba. And the Lord appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of Abraham your father. Fear not, for I am with you and will bless you and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham’s sake.” So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord and pitched his tent there. And there Isaac’s servants dug a well.  Genesis 26:23-25

Has God spoken to you in the land of your youth?  Have you visited your birthplace, prayerfully pondered your beginnings, and tried from an adult’s perspective to discern God’s purposes?  If so, I hope you landed on the theological truth that not one detail of your life was a mistake from the vantage point of God’s sovereignty.

Isaac visited home after he had lived a long time, too.  He went home to Beersheba, the land of his youth.  It is there that God spoke to him.  He heard the same blessing that his father heard so many years ago.  It was there that he dug another well, and providentially, found water.

Going back home to visit is a different experience for each person.  While it can be wonderful for one, it can be extremely painful for another.  One thing is certain; it reveals whether or not I have made peace with my past. It doesn’t even require visiting the house where I grew up.  (Most can’t do that anyway.)  All I have to do is take a day and walk down a few familiar streets.  Memories will come flooding back.

There are truths I must embrace as God’s child.  There was a blessing for me in my beginnings.  God promised to be with me.  I can claim that for the present but fail to know it regarding the past as I review my life from a school playground. The promise can be real about my future but vague as I process memories from my adolescence.

Isaac went home to spend his final years where it all began.  He found God there!  Can’t you feel the peace in that statement?  So it is with my life.  I will have no strong purpose or closure if I can’t make peace with the past.  God’s voice can be heard in my childhood, but I must be willing to hear it.  Proclamations of love and blessing grate against my heart’s grain if I’m unwilling to pursue the treasures of the darkness from days long ago.  They’re there, and they’re abundant, but are found in the wisdom and compassion of a Father who promises to redeem every single thing that stunted my growth.  Until now . . .

You didn’t arrive on the scene halfway through my life and ignore my beginnings.  Help me see evidence of your blessing and care in every season of my life.  Amen

But when Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of spring water, the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that also, so he called its name Sitnah. And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth, saying, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”  Genesis 26:19-22

If following Christ were easy, more would do it. Oftentimes the markers are hard to decipher.  I wonder how discouraged Isaac was as he sought for a place to settle.  Everywhere he tried to put down roots, there were obstacles.

Because a well was critical to survival, the first thing Isaac explored was an adequate water supply.  At each site, he re-dug the wells that Abraham had originally dug, the very ones that the Philistines had filled in with dirt.  I can imagine him celebrating as water bubbled up again in them.  But then, arguments from resident people erupted about whose well it really was.  Cramped quarters caused Isaac to move on. God used the selfishness of others and tight quarters to guide Isaac to his rightful place.  Isaac named the 3^rd well ‘Rehoboth’ ~ which means broad places.

It has been my experience that God has used cramped quarters and discontent to move me to my own promised land.  But while I was conflicted, I misread my circumstances.  I accused God of leading me to a place of unhappiness.  I even second-guessed the steps that led me there.

Like my spiritual fathers, I can be called to camp somewhere for a little while.  God shows me that it just might be time to move on when arguments erupt, and quarters become too cramped.  My discontent is often a flashing marker that it’s time to gather my things.

I wonder if Isaac knew, from his father’s stories, that God uses adversity and the sins of others to guide His children to better places.  Hmm, I seem to recall that Abraham and Lot were also cramped.  God used that to separate them.  Lot chose Sodom, Abraham went to his land of blessing.  If I can stop writhing in my discomfort and ask God to show me the bigger picture, I would see my angst as a gift.  It propels me out of my spiritual cocoon into my own ‘Rohobeth’.

Though pain has felt senseless in my past, there has been no such thing, Lord.  You used it all for my good.  Even, and especially, other’s sins against me.  Amen

And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. The Lord blessed him, and the man became rich, and gained more and more until he became very wealthy. He had possessions of flocks and herds and many servants, so that the Philistines envied him.  The Philistines had stopped and filled with earth all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham.  Genesis 26:12-15

Having grown up in a very small town of less than a thousand people, I can personally attest to the power of generational feuding.  At extended family gatherings, stories were told with disgust about certain families.  Such tales only bred a bias in our young impressionable minds.

This incident in Isaac’s life occurs long before King David is born.  The famous story of the Philistines warring against the people of Israel, taunting them to provide a warrior to battle Goliath, has its roots in Isaac’s generation.  The war began here.  Isaac is prospering, so much so, that the Philistines are filled with envy.  Envy is turning into anger and will erupt in aggression.

Wishing to strategically hurt Isaac where he is vulnerable, they target his wells.  Without water, his livestock will die.  His wealth will diminish.  The Philistines proceed to fill all of Abraham’s wells with dirt.  History reveals that this is not the end of the story.  The Philistines might have thought that they won.  No water.  No wealth.  But they didn’t know God.  Their aggression was pathetic against the covenant of God over His people.

Who is against you today?  Perhaps you are trying to exist in a familial relationship where ill-will and aggression are common occurrences.  Or maybe you exist in a workplace fraught with private wars. Others target where they perceive you are vulnerable.  A blessed existence seems out of reach. 

God has not forgotten you.  His covenant love is intact.  Walk in faithfulness and God will clothe you in sustaining grace.  He will make a way to feast at the table of your spiritual enemies, prospering your soul.  A war against God’s child is a personal war against God.  Who can fight God and win?  Look at history and consider that it is Yahweh that is on your side!

Someone can threaten to block my water supply, Lord.  But You make rivers in the desert.  I stand on your Word in Isaiah 42:13  ‘You, the LORD, go out like a mighty man, like a man of war You stir up Your zeal; You cry out, You shout aloud, You show Yourself mighty against Your foes.’  Praise be to the Lord of hosts.  Amen

So Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, she is your wife. How then could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac said to him, “Because I thought, ‘Lest I die because of her.’ ” Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.”  Genesis 26:9-10

Unbelievers sin and put God’s people in danger.  Consider the vast number of believers suffering across our world as you’re reading this.   But the opposite can also be true.  Christians sin and put non-Christians in harm’s way.  Disobedience to God’s law, no matter who commits it, affects everyone in the vicinity.

Like father ~ like son ~ in this Genesis story.  Abraham was afraid of Abimelech, feared that this pagan king would take Sarah to his harem.  But it was the pagan King who feared God and spared Sarah.  Isaac, years later, does the same thing.  Fearing for Rebekah, he lies to King Abimelech about her identity and once again, it is the pagan who makes the moral choice.  He knows that Isaac’s sin has put him and his people in a precarious position with God and Abimelech trembles over the ramifications.

I can suffer the effects of others’ choices too.  Anyone in authority over me can exert his free will and bring calamity in my direction.  Whether the head of a household, the head of a company, or the head of a church, no sin stays isolated to the one who commits it.

I consider the story of Jonah.  The ‘perfect storm’ came upon the ship that carried Jonah.  The sailors feared for their lives, and it dawned on them that someone on the ship might be responsible for bringing their misfortune.  They confronted Jonah, he accepted the responsibility for their peril, and the rest is history.

Under whose hand are you suffering today?  No wonder we are called to pray for those in authority.  In humility, we are called to speak up when prompted by the Spirit, to give the one in charge the opportunity to see his sin and repent.

Or it could be that I am the one who is sinning against God.  I can assume that this is private and that only I am affected.  This is one of Satan’s greatest deceptions.  If God would allow me to see into the future, I would understand the extent to which my choices affect the lives of those around me.  It may appear that they are unaware, but even on a subconscious level, they may be forming a new behavioral default because of what I normalized.

Oh, let me learn from history.  It is begging to be my teacher.  Let righteousness be my legacy – even down to the small things.  Amen

When the men of the place asked him [Isaac] about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he feared to say, “My wife,” thinking, “lest the men of the place should kill me because of Rebekah,” because she was attractive.  Genesis 26:7

Can you believe it?  Isaac repeated the same sin as his father Abraham.  Afraid of the resident king, and also aware of his wife’s utter beauty, Isaac felt he had to lie and spread the word that his wife was really his sister. Isaac’s plot was a carbon copy of the one his father concocted years before.

Oh, the power of a bloodline.  Joyce Carol Oates, a modern-day author, said that “We are linked by blood and blood is memory without language.”  Absolutely true.

Did Abraham tell Isaac the story of selling Sarah?  I wonder.   If Abraham did reveal the story of his own lie to King Abimelech, and stress how tragic the outcome would have been without God’s intervention, I doubt that Isaac would have been quick to repeat it.

I can be quick to tell my children the family stories I am most proud of but shy to reveal my past mistakes.  I feel I must protect my reputation at all costs.  How many parents die with secrets?  Probably most.

But let’s assume Abraham did tell Isaac the story of his earlier sin and related it with great passion.  Isaac could have grown up making a vow under his breath, “I’ll never do what my father did!”  How many young adults breathe these kinds of inner vows in anger?  They spend their lives endeavoring to be UN-like someone in their family.  But, by default, they are just like them and often can’t see it.

The spiritual pull of a bloodline is a powerful force and I’d be foolish to underestimate it.  Holy legacies are passed down but so are UN-holy ones.  How can I be saved from repeating my parent’s sin?  By acknowledging their sin before God, asking God to forgive them, and trusting God to wipe all effects of their bad choices from me and my children.  Only the resurrection power of God can stand up against generational bondages and win.  You and I need not walk in the ways of our fathers nor even feel the allure.

You don’t just change behaviors, You change the heart behind them.  Thank you for writing Your Word on my heart and giving me freedom.  Amen

And the LORD appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you.  Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands.  So Isaac settled in Gerar.”  Genesis 26:2-3,6

God told Isaac to dwell in the land.  “Dwell” means that he is a resident alien.  He is camped out there in ‘Promised Land Territory’ but it’s not his homeland.  Not yet. The promise is right in front of him, right outside the flap of his tent but he must live amongst pagans. 

Has God called you to ‘dwell’ in a place where you are the outsider?  Others are clearly in the majority, and they are comfortable, but you are spiritually out of sync with the culture.  All you want to do is pack up and move on.  It could be a city where you live, a church that you attend, a job where you work, or even a difficult family situation that appears to be stuck in dysfunction.  You spend your idle time planning your exit, dreaming of it, in fact.  For Isaac, it was Egypt.  God said, “Don’t leave!  Dwell!”

My family and I have spent time in a few such places.  We lived amongst some who treated us like enemy (over spiritual issues) and acted out with aggression.  We experienced great loss, were extremely vulnerable, and each time we voiced the name of the town where we lived, it was sour on our tongue.  We begged for God to move us.

But He didn’t.  His Word to me one morning in prayer came from the Psalms.  “Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.”  There’s that ‘dwell’ word again.  Our family was to sanctify our home, be faithful to God, and make that little corner a place where God’s glory fell and stayed.  How much we learned about loving and praying for our enemies, about persevering in a place where you didn’t belong.

God moved us a few years later.  The three years did seem like an eternity, but I do have the gift of hindsight that recognizes the treasures in the darkness.  Our faith grew, our spiritual muscles toned, our ability to endure hardship increased, and never did we feel closer to Jesus than when we needed Him so badly.

There were times you said, “Go!” That was hard but it was not as difficult as the day I heard you say, “Stay and dwell.”  I looked to escape but You invited me to learn to live in You for my joy.  I’m so glad I did.  Amen

Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way.  Thus Esau despised his birthright.  Genesis 25:34

Why does it often seem that those who appear to have everything think little of it ~ when those who are without would sell their souls to get it?  The one who has it all can think nothing of his blessings.

Esau was the firstborn.  He would enjoy a double portion of his father’s inheritance.  He would also be the recipient of God’s promises within the covenant.  Instead of standing in awe of these blessings, he thought nothing of them.  He despised everything that came with being the firstborn, including God’s promises for the future.  His cavalier attitude was on full display the day he come in from hunting, smelled Jacob’s stew, and offered to give Jacob his birthright for a portion of the stew.  An even trade?  Not even close.  But the absurdity of the exchange reveals how much he held his birthright in contempt.

I can read the story, think about Esau’s choice, and mutter “How foolish!”  Yet, holding God in contempt for the promises He has made to me is easy to do.  I’ve done it.  I’ve read a promise and, in a bad moment, shook my head and turned the other way.  “Yeah right, like God is really going to do that for me!”  My contempt causes me to cite the numerous times I felt God didn’t keep His promises. I punished Him by exchanging the benefits of His covenant for the lies of His enemy.

When it appears that God doesn’t come through for me and, instead, sets the stage for my unbelief, it is time to exercise faith ~ not judgment.  In the dark moments of Jesus’ life, it could have appeared to Him, and everyone close to Him, that His Father failed to love, protect, and preserve His life.  Hindsight shows that God had a plan of redemption for His Son and kept every promise to sustain Him.  I cannot judge God by the dark moments.  That which causes me to hold God in contempt are the very things plagued by insufficient spiritual vision.  Thanksgiving, not contempt, should mark the demeanor of every blood-bought child.

Forgive me for every time I sit in the judge’s seat and sift your promises into two piles; those You keep and those You don’t.  Wash away the sin of my unbelief.  Amen

When her days to give birth were completed, behold, there were twins in her womb. The first came out red, all his body like a hairy cloak, so they called his name Esau. Afterward his brother came out with his hand holding Esau’s heel, so his name was called Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.  Genesis 25:24-26

Esau cared little about being the firstborn and ended up trading his inheritance for a pot of red meat stew.  What Jacob wanted, he didn’t possess and ended up using deception to get it.  Each had different cravings.  What each craved was in the hands of the other brother.

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?  This contrast of interests, personalities, and unholy appetites is much like Cain and Abel.  That didn’t end well either.

Nothing stirs up our flesh like family rivalry.  The personality and gifts of one child can be celebrated more than the uniqueness of another child.  Or one parent favors one child while the other parent favors another.  From birth, affections and privileges are often divided.  Harmony among the children is doomed from the start through no fault of their own.

Some siblings spend their lives at odds.  The tension is never resolved.  Even in old age, the stuff of youth is still being rehearsed.  Perhaps that’s because all of our past seems like yesterday to us ~ which keeps the wounds fresh.

What can heal cravings for love, respect, favor, and wealth?  How can life-long prejudices dissolve?  Someone new must arrive on the scene to offer things greater in value than old cravings.  Someone has ~ and His name is Jesus.  Healing for severely fractured families is possible but only as they come together to love and worship Jesus.  Each one’s appetite must be transformed by seeing the beauty of Jesus Christ, who makes the stuff that comprised their arguments seems minuscule. 

Perhaps you have life-long angst inside of you regarding other members of your family.  If you think about that person right now, you feel your insides churning.  Being loved by Jesus and becoming emotionally engaged with your spiritual birthright and coming inheritance melts away resentment.  The thing you are trying to extract from another family member could be abandoned for what Jesus offers.  Hope is deferred, but it is real, and it is yours.  Nothing and no one may revoke it.

Help families re-orient so that our hands are clutching You instead of things that perish. Amen

         Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him in the cave of Machpelah.  Genesis 25:9

This tiny gem of a verse can be missed.  It’s sitting on the edge of a long genealogical list and normally, it’s the part I’ll skip over.  This morning, the meaning of the sentence hit me. The two brothers had been alienated from each other.  Their estrangement began with fighting and Sarah would have none of it.  She told Abraham to cast out Ishmael, and his mother, from their household.  Hagar and Ishmael nearly died during their exile in the desert and, in fact, would have if an angel hadn’t rescued them.  Did hatred and resentment run deep in Ishmael’s heart? That would be human nature.

And yet in this part of their story, they come together to honor and bury their father.  In their grieving, they found something in common.

How difficult it was to be siblings in the O.T.  Cain killed Abel.  Jacob and Esau’s rift was legendary.  Joseph’s brothers hated him enough to sell him off to slave traders.  Only Moses and Aaron were a successful pair, leading the children of Israel out of Egypt.

Are you at peace with your siblings or are there hurts that run deep? A brother wronged is more unyielding than a fortified city; disputes are like the barred Gates of a citadel.  Proverbs 18:19  Family wounds are old, personal, and usually entrenched.

Not all family wounds will be healed.  It takes two to reconcile and each must deal with the truth of the offenses.  But it only takes one to forgive.  By forgiving, I poise myself on the line of reconciliation and pray for my brother, or sister, to meet me there in truth and humility.

Nothing is too hard for You, Lord.  Reunite and bind together what is broken.  Loose families from grudges, misinformation, and pride.  Amen

These are the days of the years of Abraham’s life, 175 years. Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people.  Genesis 25:7-8

How many parents die before seeing their children and grandchildren inherit their spiritual blessings?  I have personally seen people hang on at the end because they worried about loved ones.  Can such unrest result in a miraculous peace even though answers to prayer are not yet realized?  Oh, yes.  It’s called faith.

Abraham lived 175 years, yet he didn’t see the long-term promises of God fulfilled.  The writer of Hebrews described it. These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar.  Hebrews 11:13 Abraham couldn’t see all his descendants with his physical eyes but he was able to see it with spiritual eyes.  He died peacefully with full assurance of what would come to pass later.

Most of us live in the in-between stages of life, the ‘now’ and the ‘not yet.’ While we wait, how will we wait?  Is there deep frustration with a God who appears to be taking too long to answer or is there confident expectancy in what God will do?  The undercurrent of the first is fear and unbelief.  The foundation of the second is faith. 

I remember talking to a retired missionary couple, mentors to me, about a wayward son who showed no sign of coming back to the Lord.  Over the years, they shed many tears.  But when I asked them about the joy that I sensed, simultaneous to the pain they felt regarding their son’s detour from the kingdom, they quick to assure me.  “We are joyfully confident of what God will do.”  They both died before their son returned to faith, but soon after they died, he did embrace Christ. He has a successful medical practice blessed by God and is passionate about medical mission work.  Both his parents saw his future with spiritual eyes.

God’s waiting room of prayer is the place where faith is cultivated.  Outside of this secret place however, the enemy is very present, attempting to tip the balance of faith toward unbelief and anger.  Faith can win.  How can I be sure of what is unseen?  By believing in the character of God and the promises He’s made.  I must feed my faith with the Word and starve my fears.  Nothing and no one should be able to steal my confidence.

Some of your promises may be fulfilled outside my lifetime.  If I’m not okay with that, show me what I’m missing so that I can find peace.  Amen