Latest / Reformed Thinking / From Contention to Room: God’s Providence and Peaceable Perseverance in Isaac’s Wells (Genesis 26:18–22)

Transcript

From Contention to Room: God’s Providence and Peaceable Perseverance in Isaac’s Wells (Genesis 26:18–22) · Reformed Thinking

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to another session of Reformed Thinking.
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  It is really good to have you with us today as we open up the
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  sources and and just get right into the text.
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  Today we are doing a deep dive into a narrative that I think a
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  lot of us might actually remember from Sunday school.
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  Oh yeah, the the classic flower graph board stories.
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  Right. But honestly, we probably
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  remember a highly sanitized version of it.
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  We are looking at Genesis 26 today, specifically verses 18
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  through 22. It is a phenomenal text, Isaac.
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  The Philistines and the Wells. Yeah, and you are right, it
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  often gets treated as a as a nice little story about farming,
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  or maybe just a moral lesson on persistence.
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  You know, try and try again. Right.
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  But, but when you look at the theology here, and we view this
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  through the lens of the Westminster Confession and
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  robust Reformed theology, this is not a story about
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  agriculture. No, absolutely not.
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  It is about survival. It is about Providence and
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  honestly, it is about conflict. So the mission for this deep
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  dive is pretty clear. We want to move past the surface
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  level and analyze this narrative of Isaac and the Wells to
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  understand a really robust theology of how God preserves
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  His people. And we have a couple of great
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  sources guiding us today. We do.
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  We are pulling from a really sharp pastoral essay on
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  peaceable perseverance. Yeah.
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  That 1 was great. Exactly.
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  Wait, I mean, absolutely. And we also have a sermon guide
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  focused on reclaiming ancient truths.
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  Both of these sources highlight that we need to see the covenant
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  succession happening here, because let's set the scene for
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  the listener. This isn't a vacation spot.
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  Far from it. Context is everything here.
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  Isaac is in Gerar. This is Philistine territory.
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  It is arid, it is hostile. And the neighbors are they are
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  not bringing over welcome baskets.
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  Yo, they are really not. And what makes this so tense is
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  that earlier in the chapter, God explicitly speaks the promise to
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  Isaac. Genesis 26, verse three.
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  God says Soji, in this land I will be with thee and will bless
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  thee. So you have the promise in one
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  hand. I will bless thee.
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  But in the other hand, you have the immediate reality, which is
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  tension, it is heat, it is dust, and the central conflict here is
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  water. Which in that region is life.
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  We aren't talking about tap water or running down to the
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  convenience store, right? A well is the difference between
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  your flocks living or dying. It is.
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  Stability is a future. If you have a well, you have a
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  claim to the land. And if you don't, you are just a
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  wanderer who is going to Paris. Start on.
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  And that brings us to the inciting incident of this whole
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  drama. The Philistines had actually
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  stopped up the wells that Abraham, Isaac's father, had
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  dug. Which is just.
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  It is an act of pure spite, it. Really is filling a well with
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  dirt in a desert is it is malicious?
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  So here is the theological stake, and I want to pose this
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  to you right off the bat and also to you listening.
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  How does a believer, how does Isaac, or even us today live
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  when the world essentially disputes your right to exist?
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  That is a huge question. When they try to plug up the
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  very source of your life. That is the core issue.
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  It is the problem of promise. In a fallen world, you have
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  God's word saying you are the heir and you have the world
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  saying get out. Get out and die.
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  Yes, the sources we are looking at today, they both highlight
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  that this is not just a property dispute, it is spiritual
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  warfare. OK, let's unpack this.
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  We are starting with segment 1 here.
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  Looking at verse 18. This is the act of digging
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  again. The text says Isaac quote digged
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  again the wells of water which they had digged in the days of
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  Abraham, his father. And there are two Hebrew verbs
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  here that really drive the point home.
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  In our source material you have Chaffer.
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  Chaffer. Yes, which means to dig, but it
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  implies sweat. Heavy labor really cutting
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  through the hard earth. But then you have shove.
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  Shove meaning to return. To return or to do again.
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  So he isn't looking for new water.
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  Precisely, and that is the key. Isaac does not go out and try to
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  invent a new well. He returns to the ones Abraham
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  dug. Which is what the pastoral essay
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  calls covenant continuity. Yes, Isaac is validating his
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  status as the heir. He isn't improvising a future,
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  he is inheriting one that is grounded in God's prior word to
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  his Father. That is a really interesting
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  distinction because I feel like the pressure, especially today,
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  is always to do the new thing, innovate or die, right?
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  You hear that constantly everywhere.
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  But Isaac says no. I am going back to the old
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  source. That is a major point in our
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  sermon guide. Source.
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  There is a strong critique here of the modern tendency to dig
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  new wells. You see this in the church all
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  the time. Pragmatism.
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  Pragmatism, seeking new methods, trying to be culturally relevant
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  by inventing new theologies or new ways of doing church.
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  It is this total obsession with novelty.
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  Like we think the old water just isn't good enough anymore.
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  That is the implication. But the Reformed view and the
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  biblical view here is that faithfulness often looks like
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  clearing the dirt out of the old wells.
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  Yeah. It isn't about inventing a new
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  doctrine. It is about going back to the
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  historic confessions, the orthodox doctrines, the ancient
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  paths. Which takes work, Chaffer.
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  It takes digging. Absolutely, Isaac is saying the
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  God of Abraham is still the God of Isaac.
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  I'm going to do the work to uncover that.
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  I love that image of clearing the dirt because the text says
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  the Philistines had stopped them up.
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  And again, why would they do that?
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  I mean, water is scarce, why ruin a perfectly?
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  Good. Well, it is sabotage.
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  Our sources are clear that it is an act of erasure.
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  By filling the well with Earth, the Philistines are making a
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  massive statement. They are saying Abraham is gone.
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  His claim is gone. His God is gone.
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  It is a deliberate attempt to rewrite history and say that the
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  Covenant family was never there to begin with.
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  That is incredibly petty but also effective if you don't
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  fight back. It is pure envy.
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  Our sources actually call it sheer malice.
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  And look at Isaac's response to that malice.
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  He doesn't just clear the hole. The text says he called their
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  names after the names by which his father had called.
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  Them the naming. Rights.
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  It is huge. Names preserve meaning.
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  They preserve history. If Isaac had renamed them like
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  Isaac's Well or New Hope Spring, he would be starting a new
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  brand. Right, he would be conceding the
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  erasure. Wow, yeah.
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  But by using Abraham's names, he is insisting that the God of the
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  past is the God of the present. He is restoring the story that
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  the Philistines tried to bury. It is gritty, though.
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  I think that is what strikes me the most when reading through
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  the sources. We talk about God's promise, but
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  the way Isaac experiences that promise is through a shovel.
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  It is sweat and blisters. That is the doctrine of
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  Providence in action. God's promise is maintained
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  through means. Not a magic trick.
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  Right. It isn't usually a lightning
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  bolt zapping the dirt away. It is servants, shovels, sore
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  backs and a refusal to let the world erase the truth.
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  So Isaac reclaims the old wells, but he needs more water.
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  Obviously his flocks are huge, so they keep digging and this
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  moves us into Segment 2, the cycle of conflict.
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  The cycle begins. Verse 19 says Isaac's servants
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  dug in the valley and found a well of springing water.
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  In Hebrew, that is maimed chime, living water.
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  Living water? That sounds familiar.
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  It should, but in this specific agricultural context it
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  distinguishes a spring from a cistern.
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  OK, what is the difference for the listener who isn't a farmer?
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  A cistern catches rain. It is a pit.
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  The water sits there and it can get stagnant or dry up.
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  A spring, however, is flowing from an underground source.
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  It is fresh. It is the best possible find you
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  could hope for in Jarrar. So they hit the jackpot.
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  They find the absolute best water.
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  You would think, OK, God is blessing us, everything is going
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  to be great. And that is exactly when the
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  fight starts. The immediate reaction from the
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  world to this living water is conflict.
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  This is well number one in our new digging phase.
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  They name it isec. Isec.
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  It translates to strife or contention.
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  Because the Philistine herdsmen show up and say the water is
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  ours. Which is remarkably bold claim
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  considering they didn't do the digging.
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  But this is the NZ we talked about earlier.
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  Isaac's flourishing unsettles the neighbors.
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  It terrifies them. They view his prosperity as a
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  direct threat. If he has living water, he is
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  too powerful, he is too established.
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  So they contend for. It and Isaac names it Isec.
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  He doesn't sugarcoat the situation.
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  No, he doesn't. And that is a really crucial
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  insight from the pastoral essay. He names the reality honestly.
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  He doesn't pretend peace exists where it doesn't.
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  He marks the spot. He says this is where we fought.
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  But notice what he doesn't do. He doesn't fight back.
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  He doesn't war for it. He doesn't raid their camp.
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  He exercises unbelievable restraint.
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  Which is hard. I mean, you spent days, maybe
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  weeks, cutting through rock and dirt to find this thing.
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  It is your water. By all rights.
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  The fleshly instinct is to defend it.
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  It is, but Isaac moves, and this leads us to the second well, and
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  this is where the narrative gets noticeably dark.
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  Yes, first 21. It says they dug another well
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  and they strove for that also, and he called the name of it
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  Sitna. Sitna, that sounds heavier than
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  ESAC. Much heavier, our source
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  material points out that ESAC is contention, kind of like a
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  lawsuit or a property quarrel. But sitna means hostility,
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  enmity, or accusation. And here is the fascinating
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  linguistic connection the sermon guide makes.
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  Sitna shares the exact same linguistic route as Satan.
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  Satan the Accuser. Correct.
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  So this isn't just a local property dispute anymore, this
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  is spiritual warfare. It elevates the whole scene.
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  It does. This is the seed of the serpent
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  opposing the seed of the woman. As we see all through Genesis,
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  the conflict is hardening. It is becoming deeply personal
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  and adversarial. It is an attempt to stop the
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  covenant line from even existing.
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  So when we face obstacles, sometimes it feels like just bad
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  luck. But the text implies there might
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  be a more active spiritual hostility at work.
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  The sources describe this as the serpent's enmity.
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  It is a literal accusation against God's people.
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  You don't belong here. You have no right to this water.
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  And yet, in the face of that satanic opposition, Isaac moves
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  again. He does.
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  Is that? Weakness.
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  I feel like some people, maybe a lot of guys reading this today,
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  would look at that and say, Isaac, you're acting like a
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  doormat. You let them take the first,
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  well, now you let them take the second.
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  Well, stand your ground, man. It is the classic confusion
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  between meekness and weakness. Our sources are very clear on
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  this point. This is absolutely not
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  cowardice. Isaac moves his location, but he
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  does not leave the land. He doesn't pack up and run back
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  to Egypt where things might be easier.
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  He doesn't abandoned the calling God placed on him.
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  He yields ground, but he does not yield the promise.
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  That is a phenomenal distinction, yielding ground
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  versus yielding the promise. Right, the pastoral essay points
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  out two errors we fall into. There is a combative error where
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  you think you have to fight for every single inch of dirt to
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  prove your worth or defend God's honor.
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  Which is just the flesh reacting.
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  Yes, but there is also a cowardice error where you just
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  quit the faith entirely because it got hard.
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  Isaac does the incredibly hard thing in the middle.
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  He trusts that God can provide elsewhere in the land of
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  promise. He refuses to let the conflict
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  define his identity. He refuses to get stuck living
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  in Sitna, living in accusation. He keeps digging.
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  He just keeps digging. So he moves to the third
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  location. This brings us to segment 3, the
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  resolution verse 22 quote. And he removed from vents and
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  digged another well, and for that they strove not.
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  Finally, silence. The absence of conflict.
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  And notice the text implies that this absence of conflict is a
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  distinct gift. It isn't that Isaac got better
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  at hiding his wells or hired better security.
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  It simply says for that they strove not.
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  The restraint of the enemy is as much a miracle as the finding of
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  the water itself. Yes.
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  And he names this third one Rehoboth.
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  Rehoboth it translates to broad places, room or spaciousness.
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  For now, the Lord have made room for us.
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  This is the theological climax of the entire story.
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  Up until now, we have seen digging, striving, contending,
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  moving. But right here, Isaac explicitly
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  brings Yahweh into the verbal picture.
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  He confesses the Lord hath made room.
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  He attributes the relief entirely to God, not to his own
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  nonviolent strategy, not to his stubborn persistence, but to the
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  Lord's sovereign hand. This is pure Westminster
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  Confession chapter 5, isn't it? It is the doctrine of
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  Providence. God, the Great Creator of all
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  things, does uphold, direct, dispose and govern all creatures
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  actions and things. Even angry Philistine herdsmen.
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  Yes, God restrained the Philistines.
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  God guided the shovel to the water.
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  Isaac recognizes that the room he has to live and breathe is a
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  grant of sovereign grace. And he adds, after saying God
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  made room, he says, and we shall be fruitful in the land.
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  Which connects right back to the original promise in verse three
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  that we talked about at the start.
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  I will bless thee. The sequence here is so vital
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  for us to grasp as believers. The sources map it out like
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  this. It goes from constriction and
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  conflict to faithfulness, which is digging again to God-given
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  spaciousness, and finally to fruitfulness.
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  We always want to skip the middle parts though.
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  Oh always we want promise and then immediately, fruitfulness.
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  We hate the constriction, we hate the E sick and the sitna.
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  We want to bypass the strife and the accusation.
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  But the text suggests that the fruitfulness is sweeter, and
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  perhaps only even possible, after we have learned to trust
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  God through the contention. It really rejects the scarcity
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  mindset, doesn't it? The idea that I have to fight
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  you to the death for this one. Well, because there isn't any
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  more water in the world. Yes, Isaac seems to believe.
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  If you take this, my God has more water over there.
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  He owns the whole aquifer. Right.
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  But on the flip side, it also completely rejects the
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  prosperity mindset that says if I am faithful, I will never have
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  conflict in my life. Isaac was incredibly faithful
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  and he had terrible, unjust conflict.
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  He was blessed and opposed. Both were true at the exact same
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  time until God decided to make room.
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  So let's zoom out a bit here for segment 4.
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  We need to synthesize this. What are the big theological
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  takeaways here? And specifically, what are the
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  modern errors our sources are wanting us about?
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  Well, the first big synthesis is Providence and means.
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  We have touched on this, but it bears repeating.
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  God uses ordinary means, digging, digging, but He is the
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  ultimate source of the blessing believers have to hold labor
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  independence together. You dig as if it depends on you,
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  but you trust as if it depends on God.
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  Which is a very hard balance to strike.
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  Usually we drift to one side or the other.
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  We either stop digging and just wait on the Lord, passively
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  expecting a miracle while we sit on the couch.
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  Or we dig frantically burning ourselves out and completely
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  forget to pray. That is the danger.
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  Now regarding the modern church, our sources are quite sharp
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  here. They identify three major errors
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  we fall into when we don't understand this text.
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  First is the error of novelty. That is the new wells thing we
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  brought up earlier. Right, the church trying to be
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  seeker sensitive or inventing new theologies to suit the
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  cultural moment. The sermon guide compares this
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  to digging broken cisterns. Jeremiah too.
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  Yes, the call of the Genesis text is to return to the ancient
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  wells, Scripture, historic orthodoxy, the Reformed
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  confessions. It is the idea that the old
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  truth is actually the living water, even if the world has
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  thrown a bunch of cultural dirt on it.
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  Yes, we have to clear the dirt of secular philosophy, of sheer
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  pragmatism, of bad theology, and find the fresh water that was
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  always there. We don't need a new gospel.
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  What is the second error? The error of pragmatism.
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  This is doing whatever works just to avoid conflict with the
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  culture. So if the Philistines mad, maybe
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  we just stop being so distinct. That is the temptation.
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  Let's not name the well, ESEC. Let's not say anything that
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  offends the modern sensibilities.
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  Let's just blend in. But Isaac didn't compromise the
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  truth. No he didn't.
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  He didn't say OK the water is yours.
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  You are right, he moved to keep the peace, but he kept his
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  identity as the heir. He didn't assimilate into
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  philistine culture just to get a drink.
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  He refused fleshly fighting, but he also absolutely refused
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  spiritual surrender. That is a tightrope and the
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  third error. The error of triumphalism.
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  This is the pervasive idea that God's favor prevents hardship.
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  You know I'm a child of the King, so why is my life so hard?
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  Isaac's life answers that pretty clearly.
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  It does. You are the heir and that is why
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  your life is hard. The world hates the air.
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  They want the inheritance. That is a tough pill to swallow,
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  but it is also freeing in a way because when trouble comes, you
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  don't have to spiral into this panic of what did I do wrong?
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  Is God mad at me? It might just be Sitna.
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  Correct. It might just be the enemy
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  accusing you because you are digging the right wells, and
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  that leads to the ethics of it. This is what reformed theology
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  calls the third use of the law. The narrative guides our
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  gratitude and our daily obedience.
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  How to handle conflict practically?
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  Yes. We name it, we call it E SEC.
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  We don't pretend it isn't happening, but we are not
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  consumed by it. We trust God to vindicate us in
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  His perfect timing. Which brings us to the ultimate
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  vindication, Segment 5. We cannot read the Old Testament
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  as Reformed Christians without seeing the trajectory pointing
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  forward to Christ. We have to read this
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  christologically. The sources make a strong case
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  that Isaac is a type. A type of Christ, A pattern, a
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  foreshadowing in history. Look at the parallels.
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  Isaac is the promised son. He was born miraculously to
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  Sarah in her old age. He is the sole heir of the
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  Covenant. And here he undergoes intense
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  opposition from the world, but he trusts the Father's
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  provision. Who does that remind you of?
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  Jesus, the greater Isaac. The greater Isaac think about
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  the water imagery. Isaac finds physical water that
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  keeps a flock of sheep alive in the desert, but Jesus meets the
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  woman at the well in John chapter 4 and talks about living
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  water that springs up to eternal life.
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  Ma'am, Chime. Yes, Isaac's well points to the
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  spiritual, eternal reality that Christ actually offers to dead
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  sinners. And what about the conflict?
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  How does the greater Isaac handle Isaac and Sitna?
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  Jesus endured the ultimate sitna, the ultimate cosmic
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  accusation and hostility at the cross.
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  The world in the demonic realm shouted.
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  This is ours. You don't belong here.
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  They tried to erase him just like filling the walls with
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  dirt. They put him in the dirt.
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  They tried to stop up the wall of salvation permanently.
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  But he didn't revile in return. As Peter writes in First Peter
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  chapter 2, when he was reviled, he reviled not again.
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  Jesus displayed that same restraint, that same meekness
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  Isaac showed, but on an infinite holy scale.
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  He trusted the Father to vindicate him through the
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  resurrection. And because he did, he secured
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  the ultimate Rehovahs for his people.
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  The ultimate room. In my father's house are many
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  rooms. Oh wow.
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  He went to prepare a place for us because Christ endured the
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  hostility of the cross. We have the spaciousness of
• 18:50
  grace. We have permanent room in the
• 18:52
  Covenant family. So for the church today, for you
• 18:54
  listening right now, this changes our entire posture
• 18:58
  toward a hostile culture. It has to because Christ has
• 19:01
  already secured the eternal inheritance.
• 19:04
  Because our rehomed is permanently guaranteed in
• 19:06
  heaven, we can afford be peaceable right now on earth.
• 19:10
  We don't have to win every single cultural quarrel to feel
• 19:13
  secure. We don't have to win every
• 19:15
  Twitter argument. We don't need to dominate the
• 19:18
  school board meeting to prove God is on our side.
• 19:20
  Our security isn't in the specific well we are standing
• 19:23
  next to today. It is in the mediator who
• 19:26
  purchased the entire land. That takes the pressure off
• 19:28
  completely. It takes all the frantic,
• 19:30
  fleshly pressure. We just have to be faithful.
• 19:32
  We just have to keep digging the ancient truths and let God
• 19:35
  handle the enemies. I love that.
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  So let's wrap this up. We have covered a massive amount
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  of ground today, literally and theologically.
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  If we have to summarize the key takeaways from the essay and the
• 19:46
  sermon guide, what are we leaving the listener with?
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  First, God is faithful to the covenant, even in deeply hostile
• 19:53
  lands. Your negative environment does
• 19:56
  not cancel God's positive promise.
• 19:57
  That is a huge comfort. 2nd the call for the church is to dig
• 20:02
  again. Don't look for new fancy
• 20:04
  spiritualities or life hacks. Reclaim the truth of God's Word.
• 20:09
  Do the hard work to clear the dirt out of the ancient
• 20:11
  doctrines. And 3rd. 3rd conflict is normal.
• 20:15
  Isaac and Sitna are part of the Christian life, don't be shocked
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  by it, but remember that God is the one who makes room.
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  Rillaboth is his gift, not your achievement.
• 20:24
  That is striking, and I want to leave you, the listener, with a
• 20:27
  final thought to chew on as you go about your week.
• 20:29
  We talked a lot about digging today.
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  Consider the wells in your own life right now.
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  Maybe it is your job, your marriage, your relationships, or
• 20:35
  your own personal spiritual disciplines.
• 20:37
  Ask yourself what kind of digging you were doing.
• 20:40
  Are you trying to dig brand new wells out of anxiety?
• 20:43
  Are you frantically trying to invent a fresh solution because
• 20:48
  the old ways feel too hard? Or are you willing to do the
• 20:51
  hard, sweaty work of clearing the dirt out of the ancient
• 20:55
  truths? Are you willing to go back to
• 20:57
  what God has already clearly said in His Word and just stand
• 21:00
  there? And reflect on this as well, the
• 21:03
  room you have right now. Whatever.
• 21:05
  Peace. Whatever financial or relational
• 21:08
  stability you enjoy today, it is not because you were
• 21:11
  exceptionally clever or strong. It is a specific mercy from the
• 21:15
  Lord. Is Rijo both?
• 21:17
  And the purpose of that room isn't just so you can sit back
• 21:19
  and be comfortable, it is so you can be fruitful for his Kingdom.
• 21:22
  Fruitful in the land that is the goal of the Christian life.
• 21:26
  Thank you so much for diving deep with us today on Reformed
• 21:28
  Thinking It. Has been a real pleasure.
• 21:30
  Keep digging. We will see you next time.