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29 - Commentary on The Book of Genesis · Philosophy and Faith

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Speaker 1: Chapter twenty six. In this chapter we have numeral one
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Speaker 1: Isaac in adversity by reason of a famine in the land,
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Speaker 1: which number one obliges him to change his quarters verse one,
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Speaker 1: but number two God visits him with direction and comfort
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Speaker 1: Verses two through five. Number three. He foolishly denies his
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Speaker 1: wife being in distress, and is reproved for it by
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Speaker 1: abimelech Verses six through eleven. Numeral two Isaac in prosperity
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Speaker 1: by the blessing of God upon him Verses twelve through fourteen,
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Speaker 1: and number one. The Philistines were envious at him Verses
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Speaker 1: fourteen through seventeen, Number two. He continued industrious in his
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Speaker 1: business Verses eighteen through twenty three. Number three. God appeared
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Speaker 1: to him and encouraged him, and he devoutly acknowledged God
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Speaker 1: Verses twenty four and twenty five. Number four. The Philistines
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Speaker 1: at length made court to him and made a covenant
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Speaker 1: with him Verses twenty six through thirty three, Number five.
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Speaker 1: The disagreeable marriage of his son Esau, which was an
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Speaker 1: alloy to the comfort of his prosperity Verses thirty four
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Speaker 1: and thirty five. Removal of Isaac to Jerrar b c.
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Speaker 1: Eighteen o four Verse one. And there was a famine
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Speaker 1: in the land beside the first famine that was in
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Speaker 1: the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech, king
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Speaker 1: of the Philistines, unto Jerrar verse two. And the Lord
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Speaker 1: appeared to him and said, go not down into Egypt,
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Speaker 1: dwell in the land which I shall tell thee ab
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Speaker 1: verse three. Sojourn in this land, and I will be
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Speaker 1: with THEE, and will bless THEE. For unto THEE and
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Speaker 1: unto thy seed, I will give all these countries. And
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Speaker 1: I will perform the oath which I swear unto Abraham,
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Speaker 1: thy father, verse four. And I will make thy seed
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Speaker 1: the multipli as the stars of heaven, and will give
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Speaker 1: unto thy seed all these countries. And in thy seed
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Speaker 1: shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. Verse five.
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Speaker 1: Because that Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge,
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Speaker 1: my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. Here numeral one,
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Speaker 1: God tried Isaac by his providence. Isaac had been trained
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Speaker 1: up in a believing dependence upon the divine grant of
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Speaker 1: the land of Canaan to him and his heirs. Yet
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Speaker 1: now there is a famine in the land. Verse one,
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Speaker 1: What shall he think of the promise when the promised
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Speaker 1: land will not find him bred? Is such a grant
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Speaker 1: worth accepting upon such terms? And after so long a time, Yes,
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Speaker 1: Isaac will still cleave to the covenant. And the less
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Speaker 1: valuable Canaan in itself seems to be the better. He
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Speaker 1: is taught to value it. Number one as a token
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Speaker 1: of God's everlasting kindness to him, and the number two
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Speaker 1: as a type of Heaven's everlasting blessedness. Note the intrinsic
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Speaker 1: worth of God's promises cannot be lessened in a believer's
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Speaker 1: eye by any cross providences. Numeral two. He directed him
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Speaker 1: under this trial by his word. Isaac finds himself straightened
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Speaker 1: by the scarcity of provisions. Somewhere he must go for supply.
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Speaker 1: It should seem he set out for Egypt, whether his
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Speaker 1: father went in the like straight But he takes Jerar
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Speaker 1: in his work, full of thoughts, no doubt which way
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Speaker 1: he had best steer his course, till God graciously appeared
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Speaker 1: to him and determined him abundantly to his satisfaction. Number one.
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Speaker 1: God bade him stay where he was and not go
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Speaker 1: down into Egypt. So journ in this land Verses two
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Speaker 1: and three. There was a famine in Jacob's days, and
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Speaker 1: God bade him go down in Egypt. Chapter forty six,
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Speaker 1: Verses three and four. A famine in Isaac's days, and
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Speaker 1: God bade him not to go down. A famine in
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Speaker 1: Abraham's days, and God left him to his liberty, directing
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Speaker 1: him neither way. This variety in the divine procedure, considering
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Speaker 1: that Egypt was also a place of trial and exercised
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Speaker 1: God's people, some ground upon the different characters of these
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Speaker 1: three patriarchs. Abraham was a man of very high attainments
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Speaker 1: and intimate communion with God, and to him all places
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Speaker 1: and conditions were alike. Isaac was a very good man,
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Speaker 1: but not cut out for hardship. Therefore he is forbidden
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Speaker 1: to go to Egypt. Jacob was inured to difficulties, strong
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Speaker 1: and patient, and therefore he must go down into Egypt,
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Speaker 1: that the trial of his faith might be to praise
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Speaker 1: and honor and glory. Thus God proportions his people's trials
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Speaker 1: to their strength. Number two. He promised to be with
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Speaker 1: him and bless him verse three. And he may go
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Speaker 1: anywhere with comfort when God's blessings goes with us, so
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Speaker 1: we may stay anywhere contentedly if that blessing rests upon us.
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Speaker 1: Number three, he renewed the covenant with him which had
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Speaker 1: so often been made with Abraham, him repeating and ratifying
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Speaker 1: the promises of the Land of Canaan a numerous issue,
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Speaker 1: and the Messiah Verses three and four note those that
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Speaker 1: must live by faith have need often to review and
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Speaker 1: repeat to themselves the promises they are to live upon,
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Speaker 1: especially when they are called to any instance of suffering
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Speaker 1: or self denial. Number four, he recommended to him the
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Speaker 1: good example of his father's obedience and that which had
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Speaker 1: preserved the entail of the covenant in his family. Verse five,
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Speaker 1: Abraham obeyed my voice. Do thou do so? Two, and
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Speaker 1: the promise shall be sure to thee. Abraham's obedience is
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Speaker 1: here celebrated to his honor, for by it he obtained
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Speaker 1: a good report both with God and man. A great
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Speaker 1: variety of words is here used to express the divine
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Speaker 1: will to which Abraham was obedient. My voice, my charge,
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Speaker 1: my commandments, my statutes, and my laws, which may intimate
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Speaker 1: that Abraham's obedience, while universal, he obeyed the original laws
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Speaker 1: of nature. The revealed laws of divine worship, particularly that
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Speaker 1: of circumcision, and all the extraordinary precepts God gave him,
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Speaker 1: as that of quitting his country, and that which something
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Speaker 1: is more especially referred to, of the offering up of
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Speaker 1: his son, which Isaac himself had reason enough to remember.
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Speaker 1: Note those only shall have the benefit and comfort of
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Speaker 1: God's covenant with their godly parents that tread in the
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Speaker 1: steps of their obedience. Isaac's denial of his wife b. C.
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Speaker 1: Eighteen forty, verse six. And Isaac dwelt in jerrar verse seven.
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Speaker 1: And the men of the place asked him of his wife,
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Speaker 1: and he said, she is my sister. For he feared
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Speaker 1: to say she is my wife. Lest said he the
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Speaker 1: men of the place should kill me for Rebecca, because
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Speaker 1: she was fair to look upon verse eight. And it
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Speaker 1: came to pass, when he had been there a long time,
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Speaker 1: that a Bimelech king and the Philistines, looked out at
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Speaker 1: a window and saw, and behold, Isaac was sporting with
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Speaker 1: Rebecca his wife. Verse nine. And a Bimelech called Isaac
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Speaker 1: and said, behold of a surety, she is thy wife.
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Speaker 1: And how saidest thou she is my sister? And Isaac
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Speaker 1: said unto him, because I said, lest I die for
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Speaker 1: her verse ten. And Abimelech said, what is this thou
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Speaker 1: hast done unto us? One of the people might lightly
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Speaker 1: have lain with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought
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Speaker 1: guiltiness upon us verse eleven. And the Bimleck charged all
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Speaker 1: his people, saying he that toucheth this man or his
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Speaker 1: wife shall surely be put to death. Isaac had now
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Speaker 1: laid aside all thoughts of going to Egypt, and, in
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Speaker 1: obedience to the heavenly vision, sets up his staff in Gerrar,
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Speaker 1: the country in which he was born verse six. Yet
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Speaker 1: there he enters into temptation, the same temptation that his
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Speaker 1: good father had been once and again surprised and overcome by,
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Speaker 1: namely to deny his wife and to give out that
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Speaker 1: she was his sister. Observe numeral one. How he sinned
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Speaker 1: verse seven because his wife was handsome. He fancied the
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Speaker 1: Philistines would find some way or other to take him off,
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Speaker 1: that some of them might marry her, and therefore she
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Speaker 1: must pass for his sister. It is an unaccountable thing
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Speaker 1: that both these grave and good men should be guilty
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Speaker 1: of so strange a piece of dissimulation by which they
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Speaker 1: so much exposed both of their own and their wise reputation.
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Speaker 1: But we see number one, that very good men have
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Speaker 1: sometimes been guilty of very great faults and follies. Let
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Speaker 1: those therefore the stand take heed lest they fall, and
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Speaker 1: those that have fallen not despair of being helped up. Again.
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Speaker 1: Number two, that there is an aptness in us to
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Speaker 1: imitate even the weaknesses and infirmities of those we have
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Speaker 1: a value, for we have need them, therefore, to keep
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Speaker 1: our foot, lest while we aim to tread in the
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Speaker 1: steps of good men, we sometimes tread in their by steps.
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Speaker 1: Numeral two. How he was detected and the cheap discovered
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Speaker 1: by the king himself a bimelech, not the same that
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Speaker 1: was in Abraham's Days Chapter twenty, for this was nearly
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Speaker 1: one hundred years after that. But this was the common
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Speaker 1: name of the Philistine kings. As Caesar of the Roman
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Speaker 1: emperors saw Isaac more familiar and pleasant with Rebecca than
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Speaker 1: he knew he would be with his sister. Verse eight,
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Speaker 1: he saw him sporting with her, or laughing. It is
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Speaker 1: the same word with that from which Isaac had his name.
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Speaker 1: He was rejoicing with the wife of his youth Proverbs
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Speaker 1: verse eighteen. It becomes those in that relation to be
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Speaker 1: pleasant with one another as those that are pleased with
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Speaker 1: one another. Nowhere may a man more allow himself to
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Speaker 1: be innocently merry than with his own wife and children.
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Speaker 1: Abimelech charged him with the fraud verse nine, showed him
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Speaker 1: how frivolous this excuse was, and what might have been
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Speaker 1: the bad consequences of it verse ten. And then to
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Speaker 1: convince him how groundless and unjust his jealousy of them was,
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Speaker 1: took him and his family under his particular protection forbidding
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Speaker 1: any injury to be done to him or his wife
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Speaker 1: upon pain of death verse eleven. Note one, a lying
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Speaker 1: ton is but for a moment. Truth is the daughter
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Speaker 1: of time, and in time it will out. Two. One
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Speaker 1: Sin is often the inlet to many, and therefore the
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Speaker 1: beginnings of sin ought to be avoided. Three the sins
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Speaker 1: of Professor's shame them before those that are without. Four.
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Speaker 1: God can make those that are incensed against his people,
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Speaker 1: though there may be some color of cause for it,
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Speaker 1: to know that it is at their peril if they
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Speaker 1: do them any hurt see Psalms Chapter one oh five
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Speaker 1: verses fourteen and fifteen Isaac's removal to Beersheba b. C.
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Speaker 1: Eighteen o four Verse twelve. Then Isaac sowed in that
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Speaker 1: land and received in the same year an one hundredfold,
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Speaker 1: and the Lord blessed him verse thirteen. And the man
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Speaker 1: waxed great and went forward and grew until he became
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Speaker 1: very great verse fourteen. For he had possession of flocks,
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Speaker 1: and possession of herds, and great store of servants. And
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Speaker 1: the Philistines ended him verse fifteen. For all the wells
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Speaker 1: which his father's servants had digged in the days of
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Speaker 1: Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them and filled
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Speaker 1: them with earth verse sixteen. And Abimelech said into Isaac,
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Speaker 1: go from us, for thou art much mightier than we
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Speaker 1: verse seventeen. And Isaac departed, thence and pitched his tent
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Speaker 1: in the valley of Jerrar, and dwelt there Verse eighteen.
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Speaker 1: And Isaac digged again the wells of water which they
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Speaker 1: had digged in the days of Abraham his father, for
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Speaker 1: the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham.
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Speaker 1: And he called their names after the names by which
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Speaker 1: his father had called them. Verse nineteen. And Isaac's servants
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Speaker 1: digged in the valley and found there a well of
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Speaker 1: spring water. And the herdman of Gerard did strive with
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Speaker 1: Isaac's heard men, saying the water is ours. And he
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Speaker 1: called the name of the well Essek, because they strove
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Speaker 1: with him verse twenty one. And they digged another well
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Speaker 1: and strove for that also, and he called the name
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Speaker 1: of it Sitna verse twenty two. And he removed from
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Speaker 1: thence and digged another well, and for that they strove not.
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Speaker 1: And he called the name of it Rehoboth. And he said,
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Speaker 1: for now the Lord hath made room for us, and
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Speaker 1: we shall be fruitful in the land verse twenty three.
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Speaker 1: And he went up from thence to Beersheba verse twenty four.
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Speaker 1: And the Lord appeared to him the same knight, and said,
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Speaker 1: I am the God of Abraham, thy father. Fear not,
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Speaker 1: for I am with THEE, and will bless thee and
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Speaker 1: multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake verse twenty five.
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Speaker 1: And he builded an altar there and called upon the
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Speaker 1: name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there. And
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Speaker 1: there Isaac's servants digged a well. Here we have numeral
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Speaker 1: one the tokens of God's good will to Isaac. He
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Speaker 1: blessed him and prospered him, and made all that he
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Speaker 1: had to thrive under his hands. Number one. His corn
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Speaker 1: multiplied strangely verse twelve. He had no land of his own,
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Speaker 1: but took land of the Philistines and sowed it. And
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Speaker 1: be it observed for the encouragement of poor tenants that
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Speaker 1: occupy other people's lands. And our honest and industrious God
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Speaker 1: blessed him with a great increase. He reaped a hundredfold,
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Speaker 1: and there seems to be an emphasis laid upon the time.
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Speaker 1: It was that same year when there was a famine
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Speaker 1: in the land. While others scarcely reaped at all, he
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Speaker 1: reaped thus plentifully. See Isaiah chapter sixty five, verse thirteen.
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Speaker 1: My servant shall eat, but you shall be hungry Psalms
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Speaker 1: chapter thirty seven, verse nineteen. In the days of famine,
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Speaker 1: they shall be satisfied. Two. His cattle also increased verse fourteen,
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Speaker 1: and then three. He had great store of servants, whom
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Speaker 1: he employed and maintained. Note. As goods are increased, those
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Speaker 1: are increased that eat them. Ecclesiastes chapter five, verse eleven.
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Speaker 1: Numeral two. The tokens of the philistines ill will to him.
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Speaker 1: They envied him verse fourteen. It is an instant, number
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Speaker 1: one one, of the vanity of the world, that the
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Speaker 1: more men have of it, the more they are envied
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Speaker 1: and exposed to censure and injury. Who can stand before envy?
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Speaker 1: Proverbs Chapter twenty seven, verse four. See Ecclesiastes, chapter four,
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Speaker 1: verse four, number two of the corruption of nature, for
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Speaker 1: that is a bad principle, indeed, which makes men grieve
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Speaker 1: at the good of others, as if it must needs
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Speaker 1: be ill with me, because it is well with my neighbor. One.
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Speaker 1: They had already shown their ill will to his family
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Speaker 1: by stopping up the wells which his father had digged
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Speaker 1: verse fifteen. This was spitefully done, because they had not
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Speaker 1: flocks of their own to water at these wells. They
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Speaker 1: would not leave them for the use of others. So
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Speaker 1: absurd a thing is moul and it was perfidiously done,
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Speaker 1: contrary to the covenant of friendship they had made with
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Speaker 1: Abraham Chapter twenty one, Verses thirty one and thirty two.
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Speaker 1: No bonds will hold ill nature. Two. They expelled him
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Speaker 1: out of their country Verses sixteen and seventeen, the king
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Speaker 1: of Jerrar began to look upon him with a jealous eye.
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Speaker 1: Isaac's house was like a court, and his riches and
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Speaker 1: retinue eclipsed of imelechts, and therefore he must go further off.
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Speaker 1: They were weary of his neighborhood because they saw that
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Speaker 1: the Lord blessed him, whereas for that reason they should
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Speaker 1: the rather have courted his stay, that they also might
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Speaker 1: be blessed for his sake. Isaac does not insist upon
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Speaker 1: the bargain he had made with them for the lands
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Speaker 1: he held, nor upon his occupying and improving them, nor
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Speaker 1: does he offer to contest with them by force, though
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Speaker 1: he had become very great, but very peaceably departs thence
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Speaker 1: further from the royal city, and perhaps to a part
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Speaker 1: of the country less fruitful. Note we should deny ourselves,
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Speaker 1: both in our rights and in our conveniences, rather than quarrel.
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Speaker 1: A wise and a good man will rather retire into obscurity,
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Speaker 1: like Isaac here into a valley, than sit high to
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Speaker 1: be the butt of envy and ill will Numeral three.
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Speaker 1: His constancy and continuance in his business still number one.
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Speaker 1: He kept up his husbandry and continued industrious to find
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Speaker 1: wells of water and to fit them for his use
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Speaker 1: verse eighteen, et cetera. Though he had grown very rich,
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Speaker 1: yet he was as solicitous as ever about the state
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Speaker 1: of his flocks, and still looked well to his herds.
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Speaker 1: When men grow great, they must take heed of thinking
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Speaker 1: themselves too big and too high for their business. Though
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Speaker 1: he was driven from the conveniences he had had, and
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Speaker 1: could not follow his husbandry with the same ease and
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Speaker 1: advantage as before, yet he set himself to make the
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Speaker 1: best of the country he had come into, which it
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Speaker 1: is every man's prudence to do. Observe One. He opened
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Speaker 1: the wells that his father had digged verse eighteen, and
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Speaker 1: out of respect to his father, called them by the
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Speaker 1: same names that he had given them. Note in our
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Speaker 1: searches after truth, that fountain of living water. It is
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Speaker 1: good to make use of the discoveries of former ages,
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Speaker 1: which have been clouded by the corruptions of later times.
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Speaker 1: Inquire for the old way, the wells which our fathers digged,
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Speaker 1: which the adversaries of truth have stopped up. Ask thy elders,
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Speaker 1: and they shall teach thee Two his servants dug new
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Speaker 1: wells verse nineteen. Note, though we must use the light
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Speaker 1: of former ages, it does not therefore follow that we
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Speaker 1: must rest in it and make no advances. We must
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Speaker 1: still be building upon their foundation, running to and fro
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Speaker 1: that knowledge may be increased. Daniel chapter twelve, verse four. Three.
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Speaker 1: In digging his wells he met with much opposition Verses
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Speaker 1: twenty and twenty one. Those that opened the fountains of
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Speaker 1: truth must expect contradiction. The first two wells which they
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Speaker 1: dug were called essek and Sitna, contention and hatred. See here.
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Speaker 1: One what is the nature of worldly things? They are
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Speaker 1: makebates that occasions of strife? Two? What is often the
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Speaker 1: law even of the most quiet and peaceable men in
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Speaker 1: this world? Those that avoid striving yet cannot avoid being striven?
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Speaker 1: With Psalms Chapter one, twenty, verse seven. In this sense,
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Speaker 1: Jeremiah was a man of contention Jeremiah chapter fifteen, verse ten.
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Speaker 1: And Christ himself, though he is the prince of peace.
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Speaker 1: Three What a mercy it is to have plenty of water,
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Speaker 1: to have it without striving for it. The more commonness
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Speaker 1: mercy is, the more reason we have to be thankful
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Speaker 1: for it. Four. At length, he removed to a quiet settlement,
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Speaker 1: cleaving to his peaceable principle rather than to fly than five,
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Speaker 1: and unwilling to dwell with those that hated peace. Psalms,
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Speaker 1: Chapter one hundred twenty, verse six. He preferred quietness to victory.
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Speaker 1: He dug a well, and for this they strove not
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Speaker 1: verse twenty two. Note those that follow peace sooner or
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Speaker 1: later shall find peace. Those that study to be quiet
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Speaker 1: seldom fail of being so. How unlike was Isaac to
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Speaker 1: his brother Ishmael, who right or wrong, would hold what
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Speaker 1: he had against all the world Chapter sixteen, verse twelve.
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Speaker 1: And which of these would we be found? The followers
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Speaker 1: of this well they call Rehoboth enlargements room enough in
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Speaker 1: the two former wells, we may see what the earth
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Speaker 1: is straitness and strife. Men cannot thrive for the throng
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Speaker 1: of their neighbors. This wealth shows us what heaven is.
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Speaker 1: It is enlargement and peace. Room enough there, for there
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Speaker 1: are many mansions. Number two. He continued firm to his
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Speaker 1: religion and kept up his communion with God. One God
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Speaker 1: graciously appeared to him verse twenty four. When the Philistines
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Speaker 1: expelled him, forced him to remove from place to place,
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Speaker 1: and gave him continual molestation. Then God visited him and
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Speaker 1: gave him fresh assurances of his favor. Note when men
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Speaker 1: are found false and unkind, we may comfort ourselves that
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Speaker 1: God is faithful and gracious, and his time to show
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Speaker 1: himself so is when we are most disappointed in our
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Speaker 1: expectations from men. When Isaac had come to Bearsheba verse
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Speaker 1: twenty three, it is probable that it troubled him to
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Speaker 1: think of his unsettled condition, and that he could not
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Speaker 1: be suffered to stay long in a place and in
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Speaker 1: the multitudes of these thoughts within him. That same night
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Speaker 1: that he came weary and uneasy to bear Sheba, God
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Speaker 1: brought him his comforts to delight his soul. Probably he
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Speaker 1: was apprehensive that the Philistines might not let him rest there.
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Speaker 1: Fear not, says God to him. I am with thee
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Speaker 1: and will bless thee. Those may remove from comfort that
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Speaker 1: are sure of God's presence with them wherever they go. Two.
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Speaker 1: And he was not wanting in his returns to duty
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Speaker 1: to God, for there he built an altar and called
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Speaker 1: upon the name of the Lord. Chapter five, verse twenty five.
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Speaker 1: Note one, wherever we go, we must take our religion
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Speaker 1: along with us. Probably Isaac alters and his religious worship,
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Speaker 1: gave offense to the Philistines and provoked them to be
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Speaker 1: the more troublesome to him. Yet he kept up his duty,
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Speaker 1: whatever ill will he might be exposed to buy it. Two.
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Speaker 1: The comforts and encouragements God gives us by his word
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Speaker 1: should excite and quicken us to every exercise of devotion
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Speaker 1: by which God may be honored, and our intercourse with
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Speaker 1: Heaven maintained. Isaac's covenant with Abimelech be Sees seventeen sixty,
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Speaker 1: verse twenty six. Then Abimlek went to him from Jerrar,
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Speaker 1: and Ajumath, one of his friends, and Peshol, the chief
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Speaker 1: captain of his army, verse twenty seven. And Isaac said,
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Speaker 1: unto them, wherefore come ye to me, seeing ye hate
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Speaker 1: me and have sent me away from you verse twenty eight.
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Speaker 1: And they said, we saw certainly that the Lord was
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Speaker 1: with THEE. And we said, let there be thou an
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Speaker 1: oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and THEE, and let
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Speaker 1: us make a covenant with Thee verse twenty nine, that
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Speaker 1: thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not
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Speaker 1: touched THEE, and as we have done unto thee nothing
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Speaker 1: but good, and have sent thee away in peace. Thou
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Speaker 1: art now the blessed of the Lord verse thirty And
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Speaker 1: he made them a feast, and they did eat and
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Speaker 1: drink verse thirty one. And they rose up betimes in
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Speaker 1: the morning and swear one to another. And Isaac sent
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Speaker 1: them away, and they departed from him in peace verse
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Speaker 1: thirty two. And it came to pass the same day
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Speaker 1: that Isaac's servants came and told him concerning the well
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Speaker 1: which they had digged, and said, unto him, we have
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Speaker 1: found water verse thirty three. And he called it Sheba.
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Speaker 1: Therefore the name of the city is Beersheba. Unto this
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Speaker 1: day we have here the contests that have been between
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Speaker 1: Isaac and the Philistines, issuing in a happy peace and reconciliation.
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Speaker 1: Numeral one. A Bimelech pays a friendly visit to Isaac
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Speaker 1: in token of the respect he had for him. Verse
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Speaker 1: twenty six. Note when a man's ways please the Lord,
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Speaker 1: he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. Proverbs,
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Speaker 1: Chapter sixteen, verse seven. King's hearts are in his hands,
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Speaker 1: and when he pleases, he can turn them to favor
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Speaker 1: his people. Numeral two. Isaac prudently and cautiously questions his
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Speaker 1: sincerity in this visit Versi twenty seven. Note in settling
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Speaker 1: friendships and correspondences, there is need of the wisdom of
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Speaker 1: the serpent as well as the innocence of the dove.
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Speaker 1: Nor is it any transgression of the law of meekness
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Speaker 1: and love, plainly to signify our strong perception of injuries received,
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Speaker 1: and to stand upon our guard in dealing with those
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Speaker 1: that have acted unfairly. Numeral three. Abimelek professes his sincerity
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Speaker 1: in this address to Isaac and earnestly courts his friendship
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Speaker 1: Verse twenty eight and twenty nine. Some suggest that Abimelech
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Speaker 1: pressed for this league with him because he feared lest
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Speaker 1: Isaac growing rich, should some time or other avenge himself
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Speaker 1: upon them for the injuries he had received. However, he
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Speaker 1: professes to do it rather from a principle of love.
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Speaker 1: One he makes the best of their behavior towards him.
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Speaker 1: Isaac complained they had hated him and sent him away. No,
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Speaker 1: said Ebimelech, We sent thee away in peace. They turned
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Speaker 1: him off from the land he held of them, but
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Speaker 1: they suffered him to take away his stock and all
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Speaker 1: his effects with him. Note the lessening of injuries is
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Speaker 1: necessary to the preserving of friendships, for the aggravating of
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Speaker 1: them exasperates and widens breaches. The unkindness done to us
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Speaker 1: might have been worse. Two. He acknowledges the token of
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Speaker 1: God's favor to him, and makes this the ground their
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Speaker 1: desire to be in league with him. The Lord is
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Speaker 1: with Thee, and thou art the blest of the Lord,
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Speaker 1: as if he had said, be persuaded to overlook and
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Speaker 1: pass by the injuries offered THEE, for God had abundantly
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Speaker 1: made up to THEE the damages thou receivest. Note those
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Speaker 1: whom God blesses and favors have reason enough to forgive
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Speaker 1: those who hate them, since the worst enemy they have
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Speaker 1: cannot do them any real hurt. Or For this reason,
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Speaker 1: we desire thy friendship, because God is with thee. Note
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Speaker 1: it is good to be in covenant and communion with
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Speaker 1: those who are in covenant and communion with God. First John,
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Speaker 1: chapter one, verse three. Present addressed to him was the
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Speaker 1: result of mature deliberation. We said, let there be an
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Speaker 1: oath between us, whatever some of his peevish envious subjects
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Speaker 1: might mean otherwise, he and his prime ministers of state,
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Speaker 1: whom he had now brought with him, designed no other
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Speaker 1: than a cordial friendship. Perhaps a Bimelech had received by
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Speaker 1: tradition the warning God gave to his predecessor not to
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Speaker 1: hurt Abraham Chapter twenty, verse seven. And this made him
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Speaker 1: stand in such awe of Isaac, who appeared to be
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Speaker 1: as much the favorite of Heaven as Abraham was. Numeral iov.
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Speaker 1: Isaac entertains him and his company and enters into a
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Speaker 1: league of friendship with him Verses thirty thirty one. Here
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Speaker 1: see how generous the good man was. Number one in giving,
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Speaker 1: he made them a feast and bade them welcome. Number
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Speaker 1: two in forgiving. He did not insist upon the unkindnesses
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Speaker 1: they had done him, but freely entered into a covenant
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Speaker 1: of friendship with them, and bound himself never to do
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Speaker 1: them any injury. Note religion teaches us to be neighbourly,
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Speaker 1: and as such as in us lies to live peaceably
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Speaker 1: with all men. Numeral five. Providence smiled upon what Isaac did,
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Speaker 1: for the same day that he made this covenant with
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Speaker 1: a Bimelech, his servants brought him the tidings of a
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Speaker 1: well of water they had found Verses thirty two and
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Speaker 1: thirty three. He did not insist upon the restitution of
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Speaker 1: the wells which the Philistine had unjustly taken from him,
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Speaker 1: lest this should break off the treaty, but sat down
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Speaker 1: silent under the injury. And to recompense him for this
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Speaker 1: immediately he is enriched with a new well, which, because
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Speaker 1: it suited so well to the occurrence of the day,
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Speaker 1: he called by an old name Versheba, the well of
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Speaker 1: the Oath. Esau's foolish marriage v. C. Seventeen sixty, verse
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Speaker 1: thirty four. And Esau was forty years old when he
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Speaker 1: took to wife Judith the the daughter of Hie the Hittite,
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Speaker 1: and Bashamath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite, verse thirty five,
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Speaker 1: which were of a grief of mind unto Isaac ann
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Speaker 1: to Rebecca. Here is number one Esau's foolish marriage. Foolish,
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Speaker 1: some think in marrying two wives together, for which perhaps
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Speaker 1: is called a fornicator Hebrews Chapter twelve, verse sixteen, or
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Speaker 1: rather in marrying Canaanites, who were strangers to the blessing
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Speaker 1: of Abraham and subject to the curse of Noah. For
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Speaker 1: which he is called profane. For hereby he intimated that
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Speaker 1: he neither desired the blessing nor dreaded the curse of God.
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Speaker 1: Number two the grief and trouble it created to his
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Speaker 1: tender parents. One it grieved them that he married without asking,
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Speaker 1: or at least without taking their advice and consent. See
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Speaker 1: whose steps those children tread in, who either contend nor
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Speaker 1: contradict their parents in disposing of themselves. Two it grieved
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Speaker 1: them that he married the daughters of Hittites, who had
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Speaker 1: no religion among them. For Isaac remembered his father's care
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Speaker 1: concerning him, that he should, by no means marry a Canaanite.
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Speaker 1: Three it should seem the wise he married were provoking
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Speaker 1: in their conduct towards Isaac and Rebecca. Those children have
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Speaker 1: little reason to expect the blessings of God who do
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Speaker 1: that which is a grief of mind to their good parents.
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Speaker 1: And of Chapter twenty six