I don’t think we lowered our buckets deep enough in the well at ‘Beer-Sheba.’  So, let’s go back and give our buckets a little more rope and take another sip.  Gen. 25:21 says, “Isaac entreated (pleaded) with the LORD for his wife because she was barren (sterile) and the LORD was entreated by him (or granted his request) and Rebekah his wife conceived.” Isaac was 40 in v.20 when he married Rebekah and 60 in v. 26 when Jacob and Esau were born, so Rebekah was barren for the first 20 years of their marriage and barren again for the remainder of their marriage. “Isaac entreated or pleaded with the LORD for his wife.” This word means to burn incense in worship, to intercede, pray, or entreat (a’thar). Its Arabic cognate means to slaughter a sacrifice, perhaps the Hebrew word has a sacrificial basis too.  It means to make an earnest request or prayer, to beseech or implore.  Biblical prayer is spontaneous, personal, motivated by a need and unconditioned by time or place.  Its marks are a child like sincerity, simplicity and confidence.  The LORD can be approached anytime, anywhere, for anything.  With all of Israel’s detailed instructions on sacrifice, there is no fixed liturgy for prayer.  It is spontaneous, sincere, simple and child like; like a child talking to their father.  Isaac pleaded with the LORD for his wife, ‘He entreated the LORD for his wife, and the LORD was entreated by him.”  God listened to his prayer and v.21 says, “the LORD granted his plea.”

God listened to his prayer, He hearkened, (shama) listened with understanding, and was intent on doing something about it. Why?  Isaac was desperate, destitute, and determined.  Interesting how God withheld children from Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Hannah, Elizabeth and others.  Remember, Isaac is living near the well, ‘Beer-La-Hai-Roi’ (The well of the One who lives and sees me).  Sixty years of Isaac’s life is gone, now he comes to God with an urgent prayer request and God listens and grants it.  I believe he had been praying for 20 years but now he is desperate, destitute, and determined.  God answers that kind of prayer and that’s what God has been waiting for.  Psalm 127:3 says, “The fruit of the womb is His reward.”

There was strife in Rebekah’s womb (rasas) a struggle, to crack in pieces, to break, bruise, crush, oppress; This word is used to describe maltreatment and oppression. There was trouble in her womb from conception, abnormal movement, one trying to break the other in pieces.  In Romans 10:9-14 while in Rebekah’s womb, God said, “Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated.” Two nations struggling (rasas) in the womb.  Was one trying to eliminate the other before birth?  I believe he was!  So, Rebekah inquired (daras) of the LORD.  To seek with care, to consult for knowledge, advice or insight into a particular problem, and that’s just what Rebekah had, a problem!  Her two boys were trying to break each other into pieces in her womb, they were born for contention as sure as sparks fly upward, and their lives bore this out.  Two answers to prayer, one an entreaty, the other an inquiry and God answered them both, why? They were desperate, destitute and determined!  It does not matter what your problem is, or how big it is, bring it to God.  He is the God of the impossible, in fact His middle name is ‘Impossible!’  The moment you say, “I can’t!”  He says, “I Can!”

In Gen. 26 Isaac follows the same route as Abraham his father, even by running to Gerar and lying to Abimelech about his wife, but God chooses to bless him anyway.  Not because of him but in spite of him and because of His promise to Abraham.  We have a covenant keeping God, one who never breaks His promises, One who must keep His word, and that is a ‘Key principle to remember in prayer.’  We have a tremendous transformation in the life of Isaac in this chapter and it is brought about by prayer.  You don’t see much of Isaac’s prayer life; He runs v.1; God speaks to him v.2-5; He lies v.7; God blesses him v.12; He digs wells v.18ff; God reveals Himself to him v.24; God confirms His covenant with him v.24; He builds an altar and finally calls on the LORD v. 25; At Beer-Sheba the ‘Well of the Oath’ where Abraham and Abimelech made a covenant Gen. 21:31.  Despite all the promises, protection, and blessings of God; we don’t read about any sacrifices, prayers, or altars of Isaac until now!  It wasn’t enough just to live in his father’s past and dig up his father’s wells and receive blessings due to his fathers faithfulness and obedience; He must return and worship for himself his father’s God, El Shaddai, El Olam, Elohim; Who appears to him in Beer-Sheba and Isaac finally builds an altar and calls upon the name of the LORD JEHOVAH, The Self-Existent, Eternal One, and he builds an altar to the God of, The God of Isaac!  Gen. 26:25 says, “He built an altar; He called on the name of the LORD; And he pitched his tent there.”  Sounds pretty decisive!  Remember Abraham never built an altar in Beer-Sheba, he planted a Tamarisk Tree, Gen. 21:33, to the ‘Everlasting God, El Olam‘ and his servants dug a well and called it Sheba.

Isaac is about 80 years old at this point and it took him that long to begin to practice the presence of Almighty God, El Shaddai, and when he did the Philistines knew it, v.28 and they said, “We saw certainly that the LORD was with thee:”  It is exciting when the unsaved say that about the saved. Amen?  They saw it and they feared it, what a testimony to, “Practicing The Presence of God” in the midst of your enemies.  We need to pitch our tents, build our altars, and call on the name of our LORD in the midst of our enemies.  We need to stop riding on the sleds of the past and stop bowing to the demigods of yesterday and strike out on our own and discover that God the LORD is a covenant keeping God.  One who never breaks His promises and must keep His word if we v.5 obey His voice, keep His charge, His commandments, His statutes, His laws, stay in His word and let His word stay in us and obey it.  The God of Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Moses and David is the God of Roger, Mary, Jane, Frank, Eden, and John; He is our personal God.  So, lets pitch a tent, build an altar, dig a well, call on the name of our LORD, and ‘Practice The Presence of God’ in the midst of a heathen society.  Amen?    “Between The Lines”

“Oh LORD, may we daily practice Your eternal presence so that You might manifest Your power through us among the unsaved around us and bring glory to your name.”  In Your Son’s name we ask. Amen!

“Portraits of Prayer in Genesis”  ‘Isaac The Well Digger -4’