Have you ever felt like you’re doing all the right things—working hard, trusting God, trying to live with integrity—but you feel like you’re constantly facing a strong headwind?
Maybe you’ve faced rejection, conflict, or slammed doors. Maybe you’re wondering if there’s an end to all of the frustration.
If you’ve felt that, then Isaac’s story in Genesis 26:12-33 is just what you gotta see.
12 Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the Lord blessed him. 13 The man became rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy. 14 He had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him. 15 So all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the time of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up, filling them with earth.
Genesis 26:12-33, New International Version
16 Then Abimelek said to Isaac, “Move away from us; you have become too powerful for us.”
17 So Isaac moved away from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar, where he settled. 18 Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died, and he gave them the same names his father had given them.
19 Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and discovered a well of fresh water there. 20 But the herders of Gerar quarreled with those of Isaac and said, “The water is ours!” So he named the well Esek, because they disputed with him. 21 Then they dug another well, but they quarreled over that one also; so he named it Sitnah. 22 He moved on from there and dug another well, and no one quarreled over it. He named it Rehoboth, saying, “Now the Lord has given us room and we will flourish in the land.”
23 From there he went up to Beersheba. 24 That night the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bless you and will increase the number of your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham.”
25 Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord. There he pitched his tent, and there his servants dug a well.
26 Meanwhile, Abimelek had come to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his personal adviser and Phicol the commander of his forces. 27 Isaac asked them, “Why have you come to me, since you were hostile to me and sent me away?”
28 They answered, “We saw clearly that the Lord was with you; so we said, ‘There ought to be a sworn agreement between us’—between us and you. Let us make a treaty with you 29 that you will do us no harm, just as we did not harm you but always treated you well and sent you away peacefully. And now you are blessed by the Lord.”
30 Isaac then made a feast for them, and they ate and drank. 31 Early the next morning the men swore an oath to each other. Then Isaac sent them on their way, and they went away peacefully.
32 That day Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well they had dug. They said, “We’ve found water!” 33 He called it Shibah, and to this day the name of the town has been Beersheba.
In a time of famine, the Lord tremendously blessed Isaac. But the Philistines became jealous. They filled his wells with dirt and cut off his water supply. The more Isaac tried, the more opposition he faced.
But did you notice something about Isaac’s actions? He didn’t seek vengeance. He didn’t quit. He kept digging.
It’s not until verse 22 that we see the result of Isaac’s tenacity: “He moved on from there and dug another well, and no one quarreled over it. He named it Rehoboth, saying, ‘Now the Lord has given us room and we will flourish in the land.’”
The Hebrew word Rehoboth means “wide spaces” or “room.” After all the frustration, fights, and work, the Lord gave Isaac Rehoboth—room.
Rehoboth is the reminder that our Lord isn’t just watching us bang our heads on the wall. He’s working in the middle of it all. In His timing, the Rehoboth will open, and we will experience His refreshment.
Maybe you feel stuck on a hamster wheel of striving. Maybe the grind feels like two steps forward and one step back. Opposition and disappointment keep showing up. But remember Isaac’s story: Rehoboth is near!
Don’t stop digging now! What seems like oppression and disappointment now is the preparation for the Lord’s Rehoboth to you.
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