Scripture Daily

Context No. 1445 of 4322 · Genesis

Context · Reflection

Genesis 26:28-35: in context

28They said, “We saw plainly that the LORD was with you. We said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, even between us and you, and let’s make a covenant with you, 29that you will do us no harm, as we have not touched you, and as we have done to you nothing but good, and have sent you away in peace.’ You are now the blessed of the LORD.” 30He made them a feast, and they ate and drank. 31They rose up some time in the morning, and swore an oath to one another. Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace. 32The same day, Isaac’s servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water.” 33He called it “Shibah”. Therefore the name of the city is “Beersheba” to this day. 34When Esau was forty years old, he took as wife Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite. 35They grieved Isaac’s and Rebekah’s spirits.

Abimelech and his men, who had earlier sent Isaac away out of envy, now come to him seeking a covenant of peace. We saw plainly that the LORD was with you, they tell him, so let there be an oath between us; you are now the blessed of the LORD. Isaac makes them a feast, they eat and drink, and in the morning they swear peace and part. That same day Isaac's servants report that they have found water in a new well, which he names Shibah, giving the place the name Beersheba. The chapter ends on a sadder note: Esau marries two Hittite women, and they are a grief to Isaac and Rebekah.

The reason Abimelech and his men give for seeking peace is worth noticing: we saw plainly that the LORD was with you. These were people who had once envied Isaac and driven him away; and now they come to make a covenant with him, not because he pressured them, but because they could see, plainly, that God was with him. His life had become a visible testimony; the blessing of God on him was evident enough that even former adversaries recognized it and wanted to be at peace with him rather than against him. There is something to aspire to in that. Isaac did not have to argue that God was with him or announce it; it simply showed, in the flourishing of his life and the evident favor on him, until others drew the conclusion for themselves. A life in which God's presence is genuinely evident has a drawing power; it can turn even opponents toward peace, because they sense they are dealing with someone God is with. This is not about outward prosperity as a reward for virtue, a notion scripture elsewhere complicates; it is about a life so marked by God's presence that others can see it. The question it raises is whether our own lives give off that testimony, whether those around us, even those inclined to oppose us, would say, we saw plainly that the LORD was with you.

Is God's presence evident enough in my life that others, even those inclined to oppose me, might recognize it as Abimelech recognized it in Isaac, and does the way I live give off the testimony, we saw plainly that the LORD was with you?

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