By:              Bro. Daniel Idogar

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INTRODUCTION

God is often identified as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Isaac is rather unique. He is the son of a famous father (Abraham) and the father of a famous son (Jacob). However, Isaac is not well known.

There are thirteen chapters detailing the life of Abraham and ten chapters describing the life of Jacob. But when we start looking for information about Isaac, we find that there is only one chapter where the focus is almost exclusively on Isaac, and that is chapter 26.

The chapter opens up with a serious situation that there was a famine as it happened in the days of Abraham, and this hit Isaac really hard that he had to move to a certain place called Gerar. This set the tone for some series of events that would otherwise shape the life of Isaac.

LIKE FATHER LIKE SON – (Genesis 26: 2-11)

• Isaac did some things that are similar to what his father, Abraham did.

In verse 2, it’s obvious that God seemed to have known that Isaac would go to Egypt, just as his father did. So God warned him against it. In verse 6, Isaac obeyed the voice of the Lord just as his father did. In verse 7, Isaac lied that his wife was his sister, just as his father did.

• Be careful not to do what your parents did, because their blood runs in your veins.
• It’s a common pattern for children to repeat their parents’ mistakes.
• Be careful on being too hard on your parents because you might go father than they did.
• Young people never do an adequate job of obeying their elders, but they never fail to emulate them. The problem is not listening, it’s imitation!
• What you leave behind as a legacy for your children matters a lot; because it could be their own legacy too. Abraham passed down a legacy of obedience.
• The point being made here is Isaac became the spiritual beneficiary of a godly parent, but he had the opportunity to increase God’s blessing on him through his own obedience to God.

THE PRINCIPLES OF SUCCESS (Genesis 26: 12-14)

• Verse 12 records that Isaac sowed in that same land in a time of famine and reaped a hundred folds that same year. It’s outrageous. It’s abnormal. But it’s only possible if God says so.
• Isaac was only successful because he applied God’s divine rules.
• The problem with this generation is that we want to get to prosperity without investment. Isaac did something that made him so prosperous. He sowed. He sowed with the little he had. He sowed even in the land of famine.
• Sowing is not all about money. You can sow your time, talent, treasures.
• You reap the rewards of respecting God’s rules.
• Some of us may never prosper because we are stingy. We want to wait to have that extra money before we sow. The best time to sow is in tough times.

RE-DIGGING THE WELLS (Genesis 26: 15-22)

Most of us do not really think much about water today. It’s not so much of a big deal because we have it naturally and readily available.

But it was a different case for Isaac. It was almost a matter of life and death. And to dig a well was incredibly hard work.

In fact, historians tell us that digging a well was a way of claiming ownership over the land where the well was located. We might even compare it to planting a flag.

And then to fill in a well could be taken as an act of war, or at least, a way of sending a powerful message; it was an act of vandalism.

Verse 18 gives us a picture of Isaac as a well digger. Permit me to call him a generational digger. Many a times, we seek for solutions to our problems but we avoid the main issue.

We do not want to go back to the roots. But that is where the problem and the solution lie – in digging.

• You have to learn how to relocate and re-dig.
• It is not everything you fight. Learn to understand when God is moving you to a better place.
• Don’t be like the Philistines. Don’t be a gold digger, be a well digger.
• For ministry to survive, you need someone (or people) who understands values and principles. Isaac seemed to understand his father’s values to the point he re-names the wells with the same names his father gave them.
• Re-dig the old wells. The source of your life is hidden in the beginning of your journey. The things you started with. Re-evaluate your music life. Re-evaluate your evangelism life. Re-evaluate your relationship with God. Those are the old wells. 

CONCLUSION

Isaac wasn’t portrayed in this passage as a perfect person and that sends a big message.

Isaac was one who did trust in God’s promises and directives even though they were against the norm.

It takes great faith to do that. Isaac was an investor but a super investor at that. I mean, an inexperienced farmer who had a bountiful harvest.

He surely applied God’s laws of business and sowing. We can too!

And most importantly Isaac was a well digger, a peace maker and a generational leader.

We need to re-dig into our spiritual wells and obtain that water of life we once took a thirst from. We may have lost it. Maybe our wells have been covered with dirt of sin and apathy.

Let’s dig again and find those sweet waters of life in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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