Latest / Reformed Thinking / Witness at the Well: The Believer’s Public Oath and Eternal Hope (Genesis 21:27–34)

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Witness at the Well: The Believer’s Public Oath and Eternal Hope (Genesis 21:27–34) · Reformed Thinking

• 0:00
  Welcome back to the show. We're calling this particular
• 0:02
  deep dive Reformed Thinking. We are, yeah.
• 0:06
  And there's a good reason for that.
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  There is. We're looking at a text that I
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  think really opens up when you alley a specific theological
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  framework to it. We are in the Book of Genesis
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  way at the end of chapter 21. Specifically, verses 27 through
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  34. And when you first read it, it's
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  it almost looks like a business Ledger or some kind of ancient
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  legal document. It does.
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  It can feel a little dry at first glance.
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  Yeah. You know, you're reading through
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  this grand narrative of the patriarchs and suddenly you hit
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  this section about a well. A dispute over a hole in the
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  ground. Basically you have a political
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  treaty getting signed with a Philistine king, a guy named
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  Abimelech. And then this really particular
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  and kind of strange exchange of sheep and oxen.
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  It would be so easy to just skim right past it, thinking it's
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  just, you know, administrative housekeeping from the ancient
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  world. But the whole mission for us
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  today is to show that this is actually, well, it's a master
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  class. It's a master class on how a
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  believer is supposed to live in the public square.
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  Yeah, that's the big idea. How do you handle your business
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  dealings? What about legal disputes or
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  property rights? How do you deal with, let's face
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  it, difficult neighbors all without losing your core
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  identity as a worshipper of God? It's that friction, isn't it?
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  The friction between the sanctuary and the marketplace.
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  And that's where most of us live, Monday to Saturday.
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  Oh. Absolutely.
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  I think we all have this tendency, this habit of
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  splitting our lives into these two separate boxes.
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  You've got the spiritual box that's, you know, Sunday
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  worship, your prayer time, reading the Bible.
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  That feels like holy ground set apart.
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  And then there's the other box, the secular.
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  One, and that's the office. It's the contract negotiation
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  you're working on. It's the dispute with the City
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  Council over a zoning issue, or I mean even something as simple
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  as trying to get a refund for a product that broke.
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  And we tend to think one of two ways.
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  Either we think, OK, I'll be a Christian on Sunday, but come
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  Monday morning, I have to be a shark.
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  I have to play by the world's rules because that's just how
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  the real world operates. That's one ditch.
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  The other ditch is the opposite extreme.
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  Right. The idea that, well, because I'm
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  a Christian, I have to be a doormat.
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  I can't stand up for myself or defend my property because you
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  know, that wouldn't be nice. And that's the trap of what some
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  have called pious passivity. But this passage, Genesis 21, it
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  just smashes that whole idea to pieces.
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  It does. It takes Abraham, the father of
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  the faith, right after this incredible spiritual peak, the
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  birth of Isaac, and it drops him right into a dirty, gritty, down
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  to earth legal battle over water rights.
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  In the middle of a desert, no less.
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  So let's let's set the stage with the characters first.
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  Obviously we have Abraham. We know him as the patriarch,
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  the friend of God. But in this specific context,
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  politically speaking, what is he?
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  He's a sojourner. A foreigner.
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  He's a resident alien. He has a lot of wealth, a lot of
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  livestock, but he has no actual citizenship.
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  He has no passport. He is, in a word, vulnerable.
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  He is. And then on the other side you
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  have Abimelech. The King of the Philistines.
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  He is the local Pagan ruler. He represents the political and
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  military authority of the region.
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  And he doesn't come alone, he brings his general guy named
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  Fico with him, which is a subtle, or maybe not so subtle
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  show of force. Here's my commander.
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  It's a power move for sure. And the setting you mentioned
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  it, the Negev, we have to get the geography right here to
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  really feel the tension. This isn't, you know, a lush
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  garden. No, not at all.
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  It's the Southland. It's semi arid.
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  Water is not a luxury item there.
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  It's not about having a nice lawn.
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  It's survival. And simple.
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  If you control the wells, you control life.
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  It's that straightforward. If you lose your well, your
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  flocks die. And if your flocks die?
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  Your family creates no wealth, you have no economy, and
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  eventually you starve or have to move on.
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  A well is the entire economic engine of a patriarchal clan.
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  And that is the conflict. A well has been taken.
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  Stolen. The text says it was seized
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  violently. So, yeah, stolen.
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  Which brings us to the core question we want to wrestle
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  with. How does a man of faith, a man
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  like Abraham, deal with the stolen?
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  Well, does he just turn the other cheek and watch his
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  livelihood dry up? Or does he fight back
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  physically? And if he does stand up for
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  himself, how does he do it in a way that still honors God?
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  That's the puzzle. To get to the answer, we have to
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  look at the context first. So let's start with verses 22
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  through 26, the setup for the main event.
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  The narrative position here is just so crucial.
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  You can't understand the story if you don't know what just
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  happened. What's the immediate back story?
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  Well, we are coming directly off of some of the highest spiritual
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  drama in Abraham's entire life. The first half of Genesis 21 is
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  the birth of Isaac. The promise some the.
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  Fulfillment of 25 years of waiting.
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  It is a straight up miracle. Sarah, at 90 years old, is
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  laughing thing with joy. It is the tangible proof that
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  God keeps His word. A massive high point, but it's
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  also a low point in the same. Chapter it is because it's also
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  the time of Ishmael's expulsion. Which is a heavy, heavy moment,
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  a painful family fracture. It's heartbreaking for Abraham.
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  He loves Ishmael, so think about that emotional whiplash.
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  He has gone from the miracle of the wound to the emotional
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  crisis of losing a son, and now, bam, suddenly he's dealing with
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  a property dispute. It's like coming home from a
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  really moving church retreat where you feel close to God and
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  and then finding a certified letter from the IRS waiting for
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  you in the mailbox. That is a very good modern
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  comparison. The text deliberately moves from
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  the vertical God fulfilling his promise to Abraham to the
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  horizontal. Abraham having to live out that
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  promise in a world that doesn't know God and frankly doesn't
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  care about him or his promise. Exactly 1 of the sources we
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  looked at made a great point here.
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  Isaac's birth proves that God acts miraculously,
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  supernaturally, but this treaty with Abimelech shows how God
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  preserves that miraculous life through ordinary common means.
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  That's a great distinction. God gives the life and then he
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  uses normal everyday structures to protect that life.
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  He does, and part of that is understanding Abraham's status.
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  We mentioned he's a sojourner. Let's talk more about that in
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  between state he's in. He has the promise of the land.
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  God has told him. All this land you see, it's
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  yours and for your descendants. He has the promise, but he does
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  not hold the deed. He doesn't have the title.
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  He is, for all intents and purposes, A squatter with a
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  divine promise. Which must have been a strange
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  way to live. A life of faith, right?
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  And it's in this state that Abimelech approaches him.
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  This is in verse 22. The Pagan king comes to Abraham
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  and the first words out of his mouth are God is with you in all
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  that you do. That's a stunning.
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  Admission. It's shocking coming from Pagan
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  king who worships other gods. He's not saying I like you,
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  Abraham, or you're a good businessman.
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  He's making a theological observation.
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  He is saying, I see a power behind you that is not of this
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  world. It tells us something really
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  significant that the world, even the unbelieving world, notices
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  Providence. They see the effects of God's
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  hand even if they don't understand the 'cause.
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  Right now, Abimelech isn't converting here.
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  He's not asking to join the Covenant people.
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  His motives are, shall we say, mixed.
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  He's afraid. He's afraid.
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  He sees Abraham getting wealthier and more powerful.
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  He sees the flocks growing, the household expanding.
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  Abimelech is a politician. He's thinking ahead.
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  He's thinking I need to get a treaty with this guy before he
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  becomes a threat to my Kingdom. It's a matter of national
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  security for him. It's fear and a desire for
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  political stability. But this is the key.
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  Even with those mixed self interested motives, he correctly
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  identifies the source of Abraham's success.
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  He recognizes the hand of God. So it's worth remembering that,
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  you know, even if you're living faithfully in your workplace or
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  your community, people who don't share your faith can still see
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  that something is different. They can recognize blessings,
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  stability, prosperity. You can so they start talking
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  about a treaty. Abimelech basically wants a non
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  aggression pact. Swear you won't deal falsely
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  with me or my descendants. And Abraham could have just
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  smiled and said of course and signed on the dotted line.
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  But he doesn't. He has a grievance.
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  He does not stay silent. Verse 25 says Abraham reproved
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  Abimelech because of a well of water that Abimelech servants
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  had seized. He reproved him.
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  That's a strong word. He didn't just mention it.
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  He got in his face about it, legally speaking.
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  He was direct, he was firm. He did not let it slide.
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  Which brings us back to the water issue in the ancient Near
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  East. Seizing a well wasn't like, you
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  know, your neighbors fence being 6 inches over your property
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  line. No, this was an act of
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  aggression. It was Grand Theft.
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  It was a direct threat to his entire existence.
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  And Abrahams reaction here is so instructive for us.
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  John Calvin has a note on this passage that I found very
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  helpful. What does Calvin say?
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  Calvin notes that Abraham was stout in his defense of his
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  property. Stout.
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  That's a great old word. It is, isn't it?
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  It means firm, sturdy, unyielding.
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  Calvin's points that Abraham did not view passivity as a form of
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  holiness. He didn't think being spiritual
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  meant being a pushover. That is a distinction we so
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  often miss. Today.
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  We can get this warped idea that holiness means never
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  complaining, never standing up for your rights, just quietly
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  accepting injustice. That's a serious
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  misunderstanding of the moral law.
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  Think about the 8th Commandment. Thou shalt not steal.
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  The Westminster Larger Catechism, in its exposition of
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  that commandment, explains that not only forbids theft, but also
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  requires the lawful procuring and furthering the wealth and
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  outward estate of ourselves and others.
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  So wait, defending my property is actually a way of obeying the
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  commandment not to steal? Yes, because you are a steward
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  of what God has entrusted to you.
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  If God has given you resources, well, a business, a house, you
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  are responsible for managing and protecting them.
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  So to just allow someone to steal from you without a lawful
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  protest is actually poor stewardship.
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  It's poor stewardship of God's gifts, and it's also unloving to
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  the thief. You are enabling their sin by
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  your silence. Abraham understood that
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  defending his estate was part of his faithful walk with God.
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  So he pushes back. He reproves Abimelech, and
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  Abimelech, of course, claims ignorance.
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  I didn't know anything about this.
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  Which is, of course, a very convenient diplomatic answer.
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  Oh, my servants, I had no idea. Very convenient.
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  But Abraham doesn't let it end there.
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  He moves the conversation from just a complaint to a formal
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  contract. And this brings us to the
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  cutting of the covenant in verse 27.
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  This is where the action starts, the text says.
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  So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and
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  the two men made a covenant. The Hebrew word therefore made a
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  covenant is very specific, isn't it?
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  It is. The word is carath and it
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  doesn't mean to make in the sense of building something.
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  It means to cut. To cut a covenant.
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  In the ancient world, you didn't sign a contract on paper, you
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  cut it, and this usually involved taking animals, cutting
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  them in half and arranging the pieces on the ground.
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  It's a graphic image. It's meant to be.
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  The parties involved in the covenant would then walk between
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  the pieces of the slain animals. What did that signify it?
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  Was a self meledictory oath. You were essentially saying if I
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  break my word in this deal, May God do to me what has been done
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  to these animals. It sears the bond with the fear
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  of death. It's a deadly serious
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  commitment. Now something that really stands
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  out to me in this verse is the shift in Abraham's initiative.
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  If you look back to the previous chapter, Genesis 20, when he was
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  also dealing with Abimelech. He was passive, he was lying out
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  of fear, saying Sarah was his sister.
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  He was reacting, but. Here he's taking charge, the
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  text says. He took the sheep and gave them.
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  He is the one initiating the terms of the covenant.
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  He's acting as an equal or maybe even as a superior in this
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  exchange. He is not a vassal paying
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  tribute to a king. He's behaving like a Prince of
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  God, establishing the terms of peace.
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  I feel like I have to ask the skeptics question here.
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  I can hear someone thinking isn't this a lack of faith?
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  Shouldn't Abraham have just said God gave me this land, I trust
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  him, I don't need a piece of paper or cut up sheep with you.
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  Is he relying on politics instead of God?
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  Yeah. Is this a spiritual compromise?
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  That is a crucial question, and the Reformed tradition based on
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  Scripture would argue emphatically, no, this is not a
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  compromise. This is a perfect the example of
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  common grace and the goodness of civil order.
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  OK, break that down for us, Common Grace.
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  Common grace is the idea that God in his goodness maintains
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  order in the world, even among unbelievers.
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  He gives good gifts like law, government contracts, and social
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  structures that restrain evil and promote a measure of peace
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  and justice for everyone, not just for Christians.
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  So God uses ordinary means to preserve his people and maintain
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  order in the world. He uses livestock exchanges.
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  He uses treaties. He uses legal agreements and
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  public witnesses. These are all tools of the
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  common realm, and they are good gifts.
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  So using a lawyer is not a sin. Having a clear contract is not a
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  sign of weak faith. Far from it.
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  It's a sign of wisdom and good stewardship.
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  Abraham is making a civil treaty for peace.
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  This is key. He is not entering into a
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  religious union with Abimelech. He's not saying, hey Abimelech,
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  let's mix our religions and worship together, No.
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  He's saying let us agree on property lines and non
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  aggression so that we can live together peaceably.
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  He's drawing a clear line between the two.
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  He cooperates without assimilating.
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  Precisely, And in doing so, the text validates the legitimacy of
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  contracts and clear agreements with non believers.
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  You can and you should have secular contracts that are fully
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  honoring to God because they establish order, truth and
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  justice in the public square. But then, right in the middle of
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  this otherwise normal treaty ceremony, things get strange.
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  They do. We move from the general
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  covenant to the mystery of the seven Lambs.
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  This is the visual disruption in the narrative.
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  I want you to try and picture the scene.
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  You have these large herds of sheep and oxen being brought
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  forward for the main treaty. It's a big exchange.
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  There's noise, there's dust, there are animals moving
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  everywhere. It's a.
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  Significant economic transaction.
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  Very big one. And then suddenly Abraham pauses
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  everything. He stops the proceedings, he
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  walks over to the flock and he carefully sorts through it and
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  pulls out seven specific female lambs.
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  Just 7 and he puts them off to the side by themselves.
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  The Hebrew verb used here is hitsif.
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  It means to station or cause to stand firm.
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  It's a military term. He posts them like Sentinels.
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  He makes them stand apart. It's theatrical.
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  He is deliberately stopping the show and creating a moment of
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  tension. He is.
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  He's pausing the entire ceremony to force a question.
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  The general treaty is fine. It says we will not harm each
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  other. But that's not enough for
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  Abraham. He needs a specific writer on
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  this contract. A specific clause.
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  He's a clause that says and by the way, that well over there,
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  the one your men stole, that well is mine.
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  And his strategy works perfectly.
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  Abimelech takes the bait. He asks what is the meaning of
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  these seven you lambs that you have set apart?
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  That is exactly the question Abraham wanted him to ask.
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  He engineered this moment. And Abraham replies, these seven
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  you lambs, you will take from my hand that this may be a witness
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  for me, that I dug this well. The word witness is the legal
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  key here. It is the Hebrew is ADA.
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  It means legal testimony. We have to remember this is a
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  largely pre literate society. They don't have a county clerk's
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  office where you can go file a deed and get it stamped.
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  The legal record is the memory of the community.
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  It's about who saw what happened and.
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  Public symbolic acts. So for Abimelech to accept those
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  seven Lambs, that is the signature on the dotted line.
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  By taking the lambs, he is publicly admitting in front of
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  his general and presumably other witnesses, that Abraham is the
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  one who dug the well. He is acknowledging Abraham's
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  ownership. It's a formal title transfer,
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  sealed by the exchange of property.
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  And there's another layer here, an incredible bit of Hebrew word
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  play going on. Between 7:00 and Oath.
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  That's the one. Yeah.
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  There's a brilliant pun that unlocks the whole scene.
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  The Hebrew word for the number 7 is sheva.
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  OK, Sheva. And the Hebrew verb to swear an
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  oath is Shaba. Sheva and shabba, they sound
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  almost identical. To the Semitic year, they're
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  intrinsically linked. To swear an oath is, in a very
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  real sense, to 7 oneself. It means to bind yourself
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  completely with the perfection and completeness that the number
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  7 represents. So when Abraham sets out seven
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  lambs, he is. Physically acting out the oath.
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  He is literally sevening the agreement.
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  He is making the abstract concept of an oath into a
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  concrete, visible, tangible reality.
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  Wow. It's a fleshy witness.
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  It's not just abstract words floating in the air.
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  It's seven living, breathing Lambs standing.
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  There is testimony. And this brings us right back to
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  the argument against that idea of pious passivity.
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  A lot of people today, especially within the Church,
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  have this idea that the highest Christian virtue is just to be
• 16:51
  nice, to be winsome, to never create any friction.
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  The mantra is don't rock the boat.
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  A conflict diverse person would have said just let the well go,
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  it's not worth the trouble. God will provide another one.
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  A modern business consultant or a conflict resolution specialist
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  might have told Abraham, look, you're the new guy in this
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  region. Don't antagonize the local king
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  over a well. Just let him have the water.
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  Focus on building the relationship.
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  But Abraham risks the relationship to establish the
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  truth. He insists on clarity.
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  He insists on the facts being acknowledged.
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  He knows deep down that a piece that is built on a lie, in this
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  case the lie that the well right flea belongs to Abimelech or is
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  the least disputed, is not real peace at all.
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  It's just appeasement. It's kicking the can down the
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  road. And it will lead to more
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  conflict later. Abraham understood that truth is
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  the only solid foundation for lasting peace.
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  If you just paper over the cracks in the foundation, the
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  walls going to fall down eventually.
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  That is such a powerful principle.
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  Let's call it the seven U Lambs principle.
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  I like that. Sometimes you have to establish
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  specific, costly, undeniable evidence of integrity.
• 18:00
  Sometimes you have to make things a little bit awkward in
• 18:03
  the short term to make them right in the long term.
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  You do. Abraham wanted a piece that
• 18:08
  would last for generations for Isaac and his children, so he
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  knew he had to have the hard, clear, transactional
• 18:15
  conversation right then and there.
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  And this hard conversation, the sevening of the oath, leads
• 18:20
  directly to the naming of the place Beersheba.
• 18:24
  This is geography as a sermon. We hear the name Beersheba all
• 18:28
  the time in the Old Testament, the classic phrases from Dan to
• 18:31
  Beersheba meaning the whole land of Israel from north to South.
• 18:35
  But this is the origin story. This is where the name comes
• 18:37
  from, and the name itself carries that dual meaning we
• 18:39
  just discussed. Beer is the Hebrew word for
• 18:42
  well. So Beersheba can mean well of
• 18:44
  the seven. Or because of the pun, it can
• 18:47
  also mean well of the oath. Both are true.
• 18:49
  The seven Lambs seal the oath about the well.
• 18:51
  So every single time someone in the future said the name of that
• 18:55
  town, every time a traveler passed through Beersheba, they
• 18:58
  were unknowingly retelling the story.
• 19:00
  The name itself becomes the memorial.
• 19:02
  That's the function of it. It anchors the truth of the
• 19:05
  agreement in the very geography of the land.
• 19:08
  It forces future generations to remember this is the place where
• 19:12
  the sworn agreement happened. This is where truth was
• 19:14
  established. It's a monument to conflict
• 19:16
  resolution through truth and law, not through violence and
• 19:20
  coercion. And look at the immediate result
• 19:22
  in verse 32. After the covenant is cut and
• 19:25
  the place is named, it says Abimelech and Fecal, the
• 19:28
  commander of his army, rose up and returned to the land of the
• 19:31
  Philistines. He called the general, the
• 19:33
  muscle, the guy who was there at the beginning as an implicit
• 19:36
  threat. He was the ever present threat
• 19:39
  of military coercion. But because of the oath, because
• 19:42
  the clarity established by the seven lambs, that threat
• 19:45
  recedes. They pack up and they leave.
• 19:47
  And there's a separation. That is a really significant
• 19:49
  point. The peace is real, the treaty is
• 19:52
  in effect, but there is distance.
• 19:54
  Abraham remains distinct. He doesn't move into Abimelech's
• 19:57
  capital city. He doesn't assimilate into
• 19:59
  Philistine culture. He stays the well.
• 20:02
  He cooperates, but he separates. He maintains his identity.
• 20:05
  He does so. The business deal is done, the
• 20:09
  contract is signed, or rather cut.
• 20:11
  The sheep have been exchanged. The king and his army are gone.
• 20:15
  Most of us at this point would breathe a huge sigh of relief,
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  maybe have a feast to celebrate the deal and go to sleep.
• 20:22
  The hard part is over. You would think, yeah, but
• 20:25
  Abraham does something else, something unexpected, and this
• 20:27
  is the pivot point of the entire passage, where it moves from the
• 20:30
  horizontal to the vertical. The Tamarisk Tree and the
• 20:33
  Everlasting God, verse 33. The text says Abraham planted A
• 20:37
  tamarisk tree in Beersheba. OK, on the surface that just
• 20:40
  sounds like, you know, a bit of landscaping.
• 20:43
  But a tamarisk tree? Is there something special about
• 20:45
  this particular kind of tree? There is the Hebrew word is
• 20:49
  echel and it's a very significant choice.
• 20:52
  A tamarisk is an Evergreen which is a symbol of life in a dry
• 20:56
  land. It is very hard, durable wood,
• 20:59
  but the most important characteristic of a tamarisk is
• 21:02
  that it grows very, very slowly. So this isn't like planting a
• 21:05
  vegetable garden for this year's harvest.
• 21:07
  You don't plant a tamarisk for the shade you're going to get
• 21:09
  next summer. Not at all.
• 21:11
  You don't even really plant a tamarisk for yourself.
• 21:13
  You planted for the next generation.
• 21:15
  It's a statement of permanence. It's a long term investment in
• 21:17
  the future. So Abraham the sojourner, the
• 21:20
  guy who lives in tents and moves around.
• 21:22
  By planting this tree, he is claiming residency in a new way.
• 21:27
  He is putting a physical, living stake in the ground.
• 21:30
  It's an act of faith that says I am not just passing through my
• 21:34
  children and my children's children will sit under the
• 21:36
  shade of this tree. It's an act of faith in the land
• 21:39
  promise, even while he still doesn't technically own any of
• 21:41
  it except a tomb. Exactly, and then after he
• 21:45
  plants the tree he worships. The text says he called there on
• 21:48
  the name of the Lord, but it gives a specific title that he
• 21:51
  used. El Olem.
• 21:53
  El Olem. Which means the everlasting God
• 21:56
  or God of eternity. God of the ages.
• 21:58
  Now think about the profound contrast the text is drawing
• 22:01
  here. He has just made a treaty with
• 22:03
  Abimelech, a human king. And treaties are temporary.
• 22:06
  They are. Kings die, regimes change,
• 22:08
  armies get defeated, servants forget their promises.
• 22:12
  The peace he just cured with Abimelech is fragile and time
• 22:15
  bound. But God is Olem.
• 22:17
  He is everlasting. He is immutable.
• 22:20
  He stands outside of time. He's the vanishing point on the
• 22:23
  horizon of history. It reminds me of the Westminster
• 22:25
  Confession, which describes God as infinite in being and
• 22:29
  perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body parts or
• 22:34
  passions, immutable, immense, eternal.
• 22:36
  Abraham is making a massive theological statement.
• 22:39
  The treaty with Abimelech secures the well for now.
• 22:42
  It solves the immediate problem, but it's Al Olam who secures the
• 22:46
  promise forever. And that's why the narrative
• 22:48
  doesn't end with a successful business deal.
• 22:50
  The climax of the story is not the contract.
• 22:53
  It ends with worship. The goal of securing the peace
• 22:55
  treaty was to create a safe and stable space where public
• 22:58
  worship of the one true God could happen.
• 23:00
  That's it. Notice that Abraham doesn't pat
• 23:02
  himself on the back for being such a clever negotiator.
• 23:04
  He doesn't say, wow, look at the brilliant deal I leveraged with
• 23:07
  those seven lambs. No, his immediate response is to
• 23:11
  turn his attention away from himself and the secondary means,
• 23:14
  the treaty, and to acknowledge the primary cause behind it all.
• 23:19
  He worships, He anchors his fleeting, fragile human life and
• 23:23
  the God who proceeds and outlasts all of history.
• 23:26
  It puts the politics in perspective.
• 23:28
  The politics are necessary. The contracts are good, but they
• 23:31
  are not ultimate. They're not.
• 23:33
  The treaty is a useful tool. God is the ultimate reality.
• 23:37
  The well provides water for a time.
• 23:39
  God is the source of living water forever.
• 23:41
  So we have the well, the oath, the tree, and the worship, and
• 23:44
  then we finally at the last verse of the chapter, verse 34.
• 23:47
  And Abraham sojourned many days in the land of the Philistines.
• 23:50
  Many days after all that drama, it just ends with that.
• 23:52
  It sounds almost. Boring.
• 23:54
  It's the grind. It's the long obedience in the
• 23:56
  same direction. And notice the tension in that
• 23:58
  final verse. He has a well, he has an oath.
• 24:01
  He has planted a tree. He has security, but the text
• 24:04
  still calls him a sojourner. A resident alien.
• 24:08
  The Hebrew word is jur. He still does not own the land
• 24:11
  in the full sense. He has a foothold, but he is
• 24:14
  still living by faith, waiting for the promise to be fully
• 24:17
  realized. The lesson of many days is that
• 24:20
  faithfulness is often a long, boring grind.
• 24:23
  It's not always spectacular mountaintop experiences.
• 24:26
  It's not always angels visiting or fire from heaven.
• 24:29
  Sometimes faithfulness is just tending your sheep, honoring the
• 24:33
  treaty you made, and drinking from your well for 20 years.
• 24:36
  It's about perseverance, and the text implicitly asks, how do you
• 24:40
  endure living as a stranger in a hostile culture for many days?
• 24:44
  And the answer is found in the previous verse by looking to El
• 24:48
  Olam. You can only endure the many
• 24:50
  days of the present if your hope is firmly anchored in the God of
• 24:54
  all the ages, the God of eternity.
• 24:57
  OK, let's try to apply this. We like to break these things
• 24:59
  down into head, heart, and hands.
• 25:01
  So let's start with the head, the doctrine.
• 25:03
  What does this story teach us that we need to think
• 25:05
  differently about? I think the big idea here is
• 25:07
  covenant succession. We need to learn to think like
• 25:10
  the tamarisk tree. Meaning think in terms of
• 25:13
  generations. Yes, our culture is so obsessed
• 25:17
  with the immediate quarterly results, the next election
• 25:20
  cycle, what's trending right now.
• 25:21
  Abraham, by planting that tree, was thinking about his
• 25:24
  grandchildren. As believers, we need to have a
• 25:28
  long term vision, trusting that God's promises are irrevocable,
• 25:32
  even if we don't see the full fruit in our own lifetime.
• 25:34
  That's good. OK, now for the heart, Our
• 25:37
  fashions. What does this passage call us?
• 25:39
  To love or to feel differently? I would say it calls us to a
• 25:43
  posture of resting in conflict, and that is so hard for us.
• 25:47
  It is. We hate conflict.
• 25:49
  We do, but this passage teaches us to love God's name and His
• 25:52
  truth more than we love social approval or a conflict free
• 25:56
  life. Abraham risk being disliked by a
• 25:59
  powerful king to secure the truth about as well.
• 26:02
  Our hearts need to find their security in the immutability of
• 26:04
  God in El Olam, not in the stability of our politics or the
• 26:08
  stock market. If your heart breaks and your
• 26:10
  pieces shattered every time the new cycle changes, you are not
• 26:13
  anchored in El Olam. That's a convicting way to put
• 26:15
  it, yes. And finally, for the hands, our
• 26:17
  practice, what do we do on Monday morning because of this
• 26:19
  text? I think it comes down to
• 26:21
  distinct integrity. We need to figure out what the
• 26:24
  seven U Lams of our lives are. What does that look like
• 26:28
  practically? It means meticulously honest
• 26:31
  contracts. It means setting clear
• 26:33
  boundaries and relationships and business dealings.
• 26:36
  It means paying your taxes scrupulously.
• 26:39
  It means treating your employees and your neighbors with such
• 26:42
  transparent fairness and truthfulness that it becomes a
• 26:45
  witness in itself. It means that when you do
• 26:46
  business, people know exactly where you stand because your yes
• 26:50
  is yes and your no is no. There's no ambiguity.
• 26:52
  Even if it costs you something, remember the seven lambs were a
• 26:55
  cost to Abraham. Integrity is expensive, but in
• 26:59
  the economy of the Kingdom it buys you a witness that is
• 27:02
  priceless. Before we wrap up, I want to
• 27:04
  make sure we trace the Christological connection here.
• 27:06
  As Christians read in the Old Testament, we know these stories
• 27:09
  are pointing forward. They absolutely are, and the
• 27:12
  line from this story to Christ is beautifully clear.
• 27:15
  You go from the well at Beersheba, which provides
• 27:18
  physical water. To Jesus at the well in Samaria
• 27:21
  in John chapter 4, offering living water that will well up
• 27:24
  to eternal life. And think about the oath.
• 27:26
  Abraham makes an oath with Abimelech.
• 27:29
  But the book of Hebrews in chapter 6 tells us that when God
• 27:32
  made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater
• 27:35
  by whom to swear, he swore by himself.
• 27:38
  The ultimate unbreakable oath is God's own pledge to save his
• 27:42
  people. And the cutting of the covenant,
• 27:44
  the carafe. Abraham cut a covenant with
• 27:46
  animals to secure a temporary peace.
• 27:49
  The prophet Isaiah says that the Messiah would be cut off from
• 27:53
  the land of the living to secure an eternal covenant sealed with
• 27:56
  his own blood. And finally, the lamb.
• 27:58
  The most powerful connection. Abraham offered seven lambs,
• 28:02
  says the price for a well. God the Father offered the one
• 28:05
  true Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world.
• 28:08
  The price Abraham paid for a bit of water security points us to
• 28:11
  the infinite price God paid for our eternal redemption.
• 28:14
  When you see it that way, it just changes how you read the
• 28:17
  whole story. It does.
• 28:18
  It's not just a story about ancient water rites anymore.
• 28:20
  It's a story about the God who provides true, lasting, eternal
• 28:24
  life. So to summarize the movement of
• 28:26
  this deep dive today, we started with the anxiety of a stolen
• 28:30
  well, a real earthly threat of loss.
• 28:33
  And we move from there, through the grit and strategy of
• 28:35
  negotiation, through Abraham's insistence on public truth, the
• 28:39
  witness of the Lambs. And we didn't end there.
• 28:41
  We ended in the quiet confidence and security of worshipping the
• 28:45
  everlasting God. I think the big lesson is this.
• 28:48
  We use lawful common grace, means, treaties, witnesses,
• 28:52
  lawyers, contracts to live peaceably and justly in the
• 28:56
  world. We are not anarchists, we
• 28:58
  respect civil order, but our worship is reserved for El Olam
• 29:03
  alone. We do not worship the state, we
• 29:05
  do not worship the economy, and maybe most subtly, we do not
• 29:09
  worship our own deal making skills.
• 29:11
  That's the one that can sneak up on you.
• 29:13
  So as we close, here is a final provocative thought for you to
• 29:16
  take with you this week. This really struck me as we
• 29:18
  prepared for this. Go for it.
• 29:19
  If Abraham a vulnerable so Jenner refused to let a Pagan
• 29:23
  king define his reality, insisting instead on a costly 7
• 29:27
  lamb witness of truth, Where are you and I currently accepting a
• 29:31
  piece that is actually just a silence about the truth?
• 29:34
  That's the question, isn't it, In our workplaces and our
• 29:37
  families and our communities. Where are we choosing to not
• 29:41
  rock the boat at the expense of what is right?
• 29:44
  And are we planting tamarisk trees for a future we trust God
• 29:48
  to handle? Or are we just desperately
• 29:50
  trying to survive the week? Are we building for the next
• 29:53
  generation or just trying to get through the next quarterly
• 29:55
  meeting? It really does change your
• 29:57
  perspective on what matters on a Monday morning.
• 29:59
  It certainly does. Thank you for joining us on this
• 30:01
  deep dive into reformed thinking.
• 30:03
  We hope this gives you some encouragement as you handle your
• 30:05
  own wells and oaths this week. Grace and peace to you.
• 30:09
  See you next time.