Abraham is renowned for four altars: at Shechem, Gen. 12. 6-7; at Bethel, v. 8; back to the altar at Bethel after an altarless journey to Egypt, 13. 1-4; at Hebron, v. 18; and at Moriah, 22. 2. Jacob is known for his four pillars: at Bethel, 28. 18-19; at Mizpah, 31. 45; again at Bethel, 35. 14-15; and near Bethlehem, v. 20. But Isaac is noted as a well digger.
Isaac’s first well, Gen. 24. 13, was in Mesopotamia. He never drank from its depths, but there he benefited from the resource of the sovereign purpose of God. As the servant declared, ‘I being in the way, the Lord led me …’, 24. 27.
We are told, 26. 15, that the Philistines out of envy had stopped up the wells that Abraham had dug. So Isaac’s first task was to restore what had been lost to the enemy, v. 18.
The next specific well linked to Isaac, 25. 11, is curiously juxtaposed between these facts: ‘And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac … Now these are the generations of Ishmael …’, vv. 11-12. Beer-lahai-roi was the very place where God had promised Hagar her son. This would remind us of the resource of the overruling providence of God. He can take even our worst failures and turn them to His glory, for here He is revealed as the God who sees and hears us in our distress.
Following are two wells that Isaac and his men excavated which he was never allowed to use. Named by him Esek (Contention) and Sitnah (Hatred), they are resources we should not draw upon on our pilgrim way; see Jas. 1. 20.
Isaac’s third well, 26.22, following these disappointments, was named Rehoboth (The Lord has made room for us). Not only had God renewed His covenant with Isaac, but Isaac learned the truth, ‘When a man’s ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him’, Prov. 16. 7; see Gen. 26. 26-31. Here we see the resource of the unlimited provision of God.
His fourth well, 26. 32-35, was at Beersheba. Here he and Rebekah suffered the grief of family troubles with Esau’s marriages to two Hittite women. Yet they would be reminded, as we can be in our family griefs, of the resource of the unchanging promises of God at ‘the well of the oath’.
