“22 At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his forces said to Abraham, “God is with you in everything you do. 23 Now swear to me here before God that you will not deal falsely with me or my children or my descendants. Show to me and the country where you are living as an alien the same kindness I have shown to you.” 24 Abraham said, “I swear it.”
25 Then Abraham complained to Abimelech about a well of water that Abimelech’s servants had seized. 26 But Abimelech said, “I don’t know who has done this. You did not tell me, and I heard about it only today.”
27 So Abraham brought sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a treaty. 28 Abraham set apart seven ewe lambs from the flock, 29 and Abimelech asked Abraham, “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs you have set apart by themselves?” 30 He replied, “Accept these seven lambs from my hand as a witness that I dug this well.” 31 So that place was called Beersheba, because the two men swore an oath there.
32 After the treaty had been made at Beersheba, Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his forces returned to the land of the Philistines. 33 Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called upon the name of the Lord, the Eternal God. 34 And Abraham stayed in the land of the Philistines for a long time.”
Trusting the promises can lead to some pretty humbling circumstances; it can lead to a concentration camp. Corrie TenBoom’s trust in the promises brought her to Ravensbruck concentration camp. God had promised that He accepts religion which cares for those in distress and TenBoom took that promise seriously. She hid Jews during World War Two—that certainly qualifies as caring for those in distress. As a result she was arrested and put in Ravensbruck. She slept on a mattress infested with bedbugs in a room that reeked of urine. That’s humbling. That’s humiliating. She lived there because that’s where trusting the promises had brought her.
Corrie found it humbling. She also found encouragement. She said that God was true to His promises even in Ravensbruck. She wrote, “I’ve experienced His presence in the deepest, darkest hell that men can create. I have tested the promises of the Bible, and believe me, you can count on them.”
God’s promises led Corrie TenBoom into some very humbling circumstances, but God’s promise keeping also encouraged her in those circumstances. The same was true for Abraham. The promises led him into some very humbling circumstances, but God’s promise keeping also encouraged him in those circumstances. Maybe that’s you this morning. You’ve trusted in God’s promises and they’ve led you to some humbling circumstances; you need to see that these very same promises will encourage you in your humble circumstances. The promises of God encourage even as they lead through humbling circumstances. That’s the claim of this sermon.
We will study this in Abraham’s life in two points. First: the treaty. Second: putting down roots. In verses 22-31, we see the treaty between Abraham and Abimelech. In verses 32-34, we see Abraham putting down roots.
First: the treaty. For the last two weeks we’ve been seeing the promises of God at work in different ways in Abraham’s home. We’ve studied the grand laughter that came with Isaac’s birth and the anguish that came from Ishmael’s choices. Now we see God’s promises at work in the wider world. This is a reminder that God’s promises have to do with the most local matters of the heart and the most distant matters of the nations; verse 22, ‘At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his forces said to Abraham, “God is with you in everything you do. Now swear to me here before God that you will not deal falsely with me or my children or my descendants. Show to me and the country where you are living as an alien the same kindness I have shown to you.”’
When Abraham last met Abimelech, Abraham seemed powerless. Abraham felt the need to lie to Abimelech to save his own skin. Now Abimelech is the one who seemed worried. He brought his top general Phicol as a show of force. The text reflects Abraham’s growing power by using his name seven times—or eight depending on how you count—just as it uses Abimelech’s name seven times. Abraham was now on par with this king. What has brought about this new balance of power? Abimelech told Abraham; verse 22, “God is with you in everything you do.”
Abimelech remembered that Abraham’s God had intervened on the man’s behalf. God had most likely continued to prosper Abraham’s flocks and herds. Abraham had recently experienced a very public miracle. His ninety-year-old wife gave birth to a baby. The king couldn’t ignore the fact that this God had clearly sided with this foreigner who lived in his land.
To Abimelech it looked as if everything Abraham touched turned to gold, but ask yourself, is that how Abraham would have seen his life in this moment? The first three words of this passage tell us that this happened, “at that time.” At what time? This visit happened at the time when Abraham sent Ishmael away. In the midst of that anguish which were part of the promises, you find this great encouragement with the promises. The promises had taken Abraham into some very humiliating places, but here you have a pagan king reminding Abraham of where the promises would take him. He would become a great nation. He would become a blessing to the entire world.
Now Abimelech wasn’t looking to be encouraging. He was acting in his own self-interest. God was using Abimelech’s self-interest to encourage Abraham to continue to trust the promises; that’s how God weaves human freedom and his sovereign plan together; it was totally God and it was totally Abimelech; that’s how it works in your life too.
Abimelech wasn’t looking to be encouraging; he was simply concerned about the growing potential threat that Abraham posed within his borders. He could see that Abraham was becoming a great nation and he was concerned about his own nation. That’s why he brought up the kindness which he showed to Abraham earlier; verse 23, “Show to me and the country where you are living as an alien the same kindness I have shown to you.” Abimelech had been kind to Abraham in Abimelech’s land, and he wanted Abraham to be kind to Abimelech’s descendants if this was ever Abraham’s land.
This would become Abraham’s land. Beersheba was the southernmost point of the Promised Land. Beersheba would have been part of the first stanza of Woody Guthrie’s This Land is Your Land if Guthrie were an ancient Israelite—“This land is your land, and this land is my land, from the California to the New York Island; from the redwood forest to the Gulf stream waters; this land was made for you and me.” That first stanza is just a geographical outline of America—California in the west, New York island in the east, the redwood forests in the northwest, the Gulf stream waters in the southeast. If Guthrie was an Israelite he would have sung about Dan in the north and Beersheba in the south.
This land would be Abraham’s land, but for now Abraham didn’t even have a well; that’s what verses 25-30 are all about. The man to whom the God of the land had promised the entire land in the future didn’t have reliable access to water in the present.
It is hard to overstate the importance of wells in the Ancient Near East. Even those of us with animals don’t truly understand it because we have consistent access to water for ourselves and our livestock. Imagine trying to do any of what you do without reliable access to water or any access and you can see why as E.W. Heaton put it, “Bickering over precious wells [was] characteristic of nomadic life.” That’s verse 25, “Abraham complained to Abimelech about a well of water that Abimelech’s servants had seized.”
Abraham was in the curious position of living as a vulnerable stranger in a land that he knew was as good as his. One day, he would possess it all from Dan to Beersheba but today he couldn’t even protect the well that he dug.
Imagine that Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, woke up tomorrow as a packer in one of his warehouses. There is a different CEO in charge, and no one has ever heard of Jeff Bezos. It’s like something out of the Twilight Zone. Yesterday Bezos was the unquestioned head of a trillion-dollar company; today he is in charge of making sure that those Milk-Bone dog treats you ordered are placed in the right box. Yesterday it was all his. Today he would be treated as a joke if he claimed that it was all his. How humbling and even at times humiliating would that be? That’s a picture of what it must have been like for Abraham to know that the land was his but to possess none of it—not even a well. Calvin said that Abraham was “lord only in expectation while in fact he was a pilgrim.” Abraham’s whole life from the moment of the promise forward was humbling. That is often the position of the people of God in this world; as Paul put it, we are, “genuine, yet regarded as impostors… having nothing, and yet possessing everything.”
You know what that is like. Jesus has promised that you, the meek, will inherit the earth. You will rule with Christ over all of it as Adam and Eve did originally. All of this is as good as yours. Is that generally acknowledged? How many leaders in our halls of power are honestly thinking, “you know those disciples of Jesus will get it all one day”? I dare say not too many. If you brought that up in the halls of power you would be, “genuine, yet regarded as an impostor… having nothing, and yet possessing everything.”
It was all Abraham’s by promise but he didn’t even have water rights in the present. This treaty secured him those rights. That’s why this well is so important. That’s why the text speaks of those seven lambs designed to highlight the importance of Abraham’s rights to this well. That’s why the text tells us that the name of that place was Beersheba meaning either “well of swearing”—because of the treaty—or “well of seven”—because of the lambs. This well meant that Abraham had acquired rights to water from one well.
If one well doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, the fact that it was to Abraham should show you just how humbling his circumstances were. Living by the promises takes you into some very humbling circumstances, but the promises will continue to encourage. It seems as if Abraham has next to nothing, but this treaty only happens because others fear that one day he will have everything. He acquires the well as a sign from God that one day it will all be his.
That is where we live as the people of God. We receive only bits and pieces of the promises as we walk through this life—enough to keep us going. We are foreigners and strangers in the midst of everything that will one day be ours. About this the author of Hebrews wrote, “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.” That’s Abraham. If that describes your experience, take that as an encouragement.
That’s also Jesus. Everything belonged to him and yet he had no place to lay his head. He created everything and yet he died pennliess. He was the Son of God and yet he was mocked because no one was certain about who his father was. Everything was his but it seemed as if nothing was. It should come as no surprise that the way of faith in the promises will make you more like your savior.
That’s what we see in Abraham as he made this treaty with Abimelech. That’s also what we see as Abraham puts down roots as a result of that treaty. That’s our second point: putting down roots. This is the story of how Abraham found a more permanent home. That’s why it ends with verse 34, “And Abraham stayed in the land of the Philistines for a long time.”
This was an act of trust on Abraham’s part. He was trusting that this treaty and well were from the hand of God and that God would continue to provide enough water for him to live in one place. These water rights enabled Abraham to give up his semi-nomadic lifestyle and settle down. If you keep reading Genesis, you will see that the patriarchs even planted crops here, which would be unthinkable for nomads.
Here you read about him planting a tamarisk tree. The tamarisk is a slow growing tree that requires a lot of water. You can find all sorts of articles online debating just how much of a water hog it is today. Abraham planted this tree as an act of faith that the God who had just provided water would continue to provide water.
He planted it for many of the same reasons that the Sioux Valley Grille recently expanded. They expanded in anticipation that people would continue to frequent their restaurant. They expanded in anticipation that more people would frequent their restaurant. That was an act of trust in the customers informed by the customers’ track record. Abraham planted that tamarisk in anticipation that God would continue to provide water. That was an act of trust in God informed by God’s track record. It might be worth considering what acts of trust you show in God based on His track record.
Abraham planted this tree as an act of trust. He also called God, “El Olam” or “the Eternal God” in verse 33 as an act of trust. We’ve seen that different names for God carry different implications. Hagar called God “El Roi”, which means, “the God who sees me,” because God saw her misery. God called Himself “El Shaddai”, which means, “God Almighty”, before telling Abraham that He was about to do the impossible. Now as Abraham reflects upon God’s continued promise keeping, he calls Him, “El Olam”, “the Eternal God.” The Eternal God had kept His promises in the past. He was keeping His promises in the present. He could be trusted to keep His promises in the future.
You need to understand that Abraham chose to interpret this treaty and well in this way. He could have met with Abimelech and Phicol, gone to bed that night and said to Sarah, “why in the world would they want to make a treaty with me?” He didn’t. He interpreted what was going on in his life in terms of the promises.
You need to do the same. Think about the promise of the new creation, which is our closest analogy to Abraham’s promised land. Interpret what God is doing in your life in terms of the promise of the new creation. He has given you tastebuds to enjoy apple pie this fall? Consider how much better pie will taste in the new creation. It seems that He is letting your body waste away with disease? Recognize that this pain is real but temporary; the no more tears, no more mourning, and no more pain of the new creation are eternal.
Living by the promises can be very humbling in the present, but it continues to be encouraging because of the promise for the future and God’s promise keeping in the present. That’s how it was for Abraham. That’s how it was for Jesus. Because of the promises he was born in a barn. He was publicly tried as a criminal. He was executed naked. That’s humbling. As Paul put it, “he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” That’s where the promises brought Jesus. They also exalted him highest place and gave him the name that is above every name. That’s the life of the promised son of Abraham. That’s the outline of the life of everyone who has faith like Abraham. That’s the outline of your life if you have faith like Abraham—often very humbling in the present, even more encouraging for the future and enough encouragement by way of God’s promise keeping today. Amen.