Dig Another Well

What do you do when there's a famine in the land? Leave? Stay? Run away? Tough it out? Find someplace where things are better?

That's the dilemma Isaac faced in Genesis 26. I feel sure his first thought was "I'm outta here!" But the Bible says the Lord appeared to him and said, "Do not go to Egypt. Stay in the land." Stay where it's hard. Stay right there, in the midst of a bad situation. Hang in there in spite of the famine.
That's not what most of us want to hear when faced with difficult times, is it?

Isaac did as the Lord told him to do. He stayed. That in itself is commendable. How often do we find ourselves compounding the difficulties we face simply because we won't obey? We go when He says stay.

But Isaac did more that just stay. He got busy. Verse 12 tells us he sowed in the land. Remember, it was a land in the midst of famine. He sowed anyhow. And the Bible says, "... he reaped in the same year a hundred fold. And the Lord blessed him." (I know what you're thinking. Sowing. Reaping. Hundredfold. You've heard this stuff before, right? Burger's gone over to the prosperity gospel crowd. Hang on.)

Look what else he did. Five times in Genesis 26 the Bible says 'he dug a well.'

First, the Philistines stopped up the wells his father Abraham had dug. Enemies will do that kind of thing. So he re-dug those wells.
Then the Bible says his servants dug in the valley, "... and found a well of flowing water." This was the good stuff. But his neighbors quarreled with him over the water. No problem. They dug another well. But there was contention over that one, too. (You see, it's usually easier to argue with someone else than it is to dig your own well.)
Finally, they moved on a little ways and dug yet another well. Now that's a lot of work in a hot, dry desert in the midst of a famine. That's a lot of well-digging going on.

But even then Isaac wasn't through.
He moved on just a little ways to Beersheba. The Bible says, "He built an altar there, and called upon the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there; and there Isaac's servants dug a well."

I've been thinking: Maybe God wants us to stay in the land when things get tough. Stay in spite of the famine. Maybe it's time we stop looking for a way out. Stop thinking about Egypt.
Instead, dig a well. Find God's provision in the midst of the famine. I think you'll see His hand of blessing. There may even be some contention along the way. Someone nearby may see your well and grow envious. That's okay. Keep digging. Proverbs 10:22 says: "It is the blessing of the Lord that maketh rich, and He adds no sorrow with it."

Build an altar. Pitch your tent. And dig a well. I like that. Sounds like something a chaplain would tell an inmate. Don't think about Egypt. Don't run away. Just build an altar. Pitch your tent. And dig a well.