The Well at Beersheba

Gen 21:22 – 34

Connection/Tension

Most of us live with neighbors all around us who not only disagree with us, but hold deep convictions and beliefs about God and human beings that are radically different than our own.

When Charlotte and I moved into our home, the first neighbor to welcome us to the neighborhood was a man from a few houses down whose worldview, in many ways, couldn’t be more different from our own. At the end of the day, we are not aligned with many of the people we live around and work with on the things that matter most.

How should we go about navigating that tension? When should we disagree? When should we be silent? And how should we carry ourselves in disagreements when they come up?

We are going to look to the life of Abraham to learn these lessons this morning.

Context

In this story, as Abraham and Sarah adapt to life with Isaac, the child of promise, a character of the past- Abimelech, king of Gerar, comes up again. As before, Abraham has a conflict with this man he must navigate. Let’s jump in and take a look at that:

Revelation

22 At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army said to Abraham, “God is with you in all that you do. 23 Now therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my descendants or with my posterity, but as I have dealt kindly with you, so you will deal with me and with the land where you have sojourned.” 24 And Abraham said, “I will swear.”

In this new era in Abraham’s life, after Issac has been born, a figure from Abraham’s past reemerges. Abimelech, the king of Gerar (20:2), approached Abraham with Phicol, the leader of his military.

If you remember from chapter 20, Abimelech is one of the kings of Canaan who greedily snatched Sarah into his harem when he got the opportunity while Abraham passively looked on. Abraham acted in fear that first time around, yet now, it appears that the roles have flipped, and it’s Abimelech who comes to Abraham to deal with his fears.[1]

He comes to Abraham, acknowledging that God is with him. Likely, Abraham’s household has continued to grow in people and wealth even in a foreign place where he has no land of his own. Going back further, he had won a miraculous military victory against an alliance of five other kings with a mere 300 men (14:15).[2] Throughout it all, there is a sense of God’s presence upon this man’s life that other people- even those outside the people of God- can notice.

Our first core value in this church community is “be with the Father.” That’s because our hope of changing the hearts of our neighbors and these cities comes down to whether the manifest presence of God is upon us and flowing through us. Later when the disciples are ministering in Jerusalem, the authorities could “recognize that they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). How I pray for myself and this community that the most defining feature of our lives would be the presence of God and all its effects!

Abimelech has a sense of God’s favor for this pilgrim in his land and seems to fear military confrontation with him, so he comes seeking assurance that Abraham won’t rebel against him (as for the moment, Abimelech was the rightful king in that area).[3]

Before, Abraham showed courage before the kings of Canaan and defied them when they offered him corrupt riches (14:22 – 24). Yet, when foreign king now offers Abraham something that doesn’t get in the way of him worshipping his God, and even seems to be a way God is providing him rest and a home in this hostile place, he takes it.[4] He swears a kind of allegiance to this king- not to obey him, not to depend on him, but simply to live at peace with him.

We are already seeing here a picture of something good we ourselves should imitate: we should not offer our fallen city or world our allegiance or our loyalty, but we should offer peaceful relations whenever the opportunity arise. We are now going to see how this relationship with this worldly king plays out and learn some valuable lessons about how to conduct ourselves in this world:

25 When Abraham reproved Abimelech about a well of water that Abimelech’s servants had seized, 26 Abimelech said, “I do not know who has done this thing; you did not tell me, and I have not heard of it until today.” 27 So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a covenant.

The Confrontation

Apparently, just basic fear without love for Abraham did not restrain Abimelech and his kingdom’s greed. Whether he knew about this well snatching incident is not clear. Yet, it’s a second incident in Abimelech’s kingdom taking what doesn’t belong to them (the first being Abraham’s wife Sarah, 20:2). It shows the culture of greed and disregard for other humans this king had sown into his kingdom.

And what a tense moment this would have produced for Abraham and his household! For in threatening his supply of water, Abimelech’s servants threatened their very lives in this desert-like area in which he lives.[5]  Everything was now in the balance of how Abraham responds to this crisis.

We should admire Abraham’s just and courageous response. Rather than reaching for his sword, or slinking away to hopefully find water elsewhere, he boldly confronts Abimelech for this injustice. Abraham demonstrates how life in community must happen, we must neither retaliate nor ignore injustices and offenses- but boldly and clearly speak about them so that we might resolve them and be at peace with one another and our neighbors.

And by God’s grace, this confrontation leads to an amazing result! At first, Abimelech responds to Abraham’s rebuke- yet does so in the way of the world. He takes no ownership for what his servants did. He fails to offer any way to mend the situation. Instead, he simply excuses himself, and even seems to shift the blame to Abraham for not telling him sooner.

The Covenant

While Abimelech has responded as a typical king of the world, Abraham responds as if he were a man from heaven. Though he suffered the offense, he’s going to take the initiative to heal the relational breach, at his own expense.

Now, instead of making excuses, like Abimelech, Abraham makes a covenant. And out of his own generosity, he supplies the animals for the ceremony.

At this point, many of us may feel confused, what exactly is a covenant? It’s a formal relationship of commitment with a public ceremony.[6] It creates a structure for relationship in the context of faithfulness. We live in a fallen world filled with fear and mistrust, and covenant is a means to overcome the alienation that comes from that and forge deep relationship.

If you notice, at first they “swear” to one another- it’s an informal commitment to one another kind of like if a man were to tell a woman “I love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you.” Then, in making a covenant, there is a public ceremony to solidify that commitment (like a marriage ceremony that goes further in deepening the commitment).

The sheep and oxen he provides are necessary for the covenant making ritual in the ancient world. Like we saw with Abraham in Gen 15, they would likely cut these animals apart and walk between the parts of the animal, illustrating that their commitment to one another is so strong that they should die if they break it. To make a covenant is to say that, “our bond is stronger than life, and I will be faithful to you.” We can see the great lengths Abraham is going through to pursue peace with this man he lives beside!

And isn’t this exactly what our Jesus did for us? Out of his own generosity, he removed the hostility between him and his people. He not only promised he would be faithful unto death, he was faithful unto death, sacrificing his own life in place of our own. By his life, death, and resurrection, he created a new covenant for his people by which we live in peace with him both now and forever. And what’s craziest of all, he sought us out to do all this when we were being hostile towards him and making excuses for why our sin wasn’t our fault. He knew it was- and he was generous to us anyways.  

What’s so different about following Jesus is you never have to worry about him breaking a promise. Usually, when we commit our lives to someone else, like in marriage, we promise “till death do us part” and then we must hope and trust they keep their word, without ever knowing for sure if they’ll be faithful unto death. Not so with Jesus- he already was faithful unto death, he already gave up his life, he already laid himself down in total surrender. He can’t break a promise- not ever, not today- because he already kept all his promises in the costliest way. You can truly trust him as Lord, surrender to him fully, and enjoy the peace he’s provided for his people.

And if you don’t yet have peace with God because you’ve never repented and believed in Jesus, this sermon is an invitation for you to receive peace with God now and forever, not because you’re good all on your own, but because he’s good and wants to give you and me what we don’t deserve.

Now, see what happens next,

28 Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock apart. 29 And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs that you have set apart?” 30 He said, “These seven ewe lambs you will take from my hand, that this may be a witness for me that I dug this well.”

Here we see how Abraham continues to act with heavenliness and godliness towards this king of Canaan. Abraham has encountered the generous God of creation again and again in his travels, and over the years, it has changed his heart to be radically generous. He’s now going to go further in pursuing peace at his own expense, going to every length to clarify and cement a relationship of faithfulness.

He takes seven “ewe lambs” – that is, female lambs that are ceremonially clean and that Israel will later use in their sacrifices.[7] The number of them, seven, points to the abundance of this provision as it echoes God’s seven days of creation and the abundance he provided in the beginning.

The extra generosity of Abraham grabs the attention of king Abimelech and he asks, “What is the meaning [of these lambs]?”

Abraham basically is saying, “receive these as a gift from me as an additional witness to whom this well belongs to so that we may never fight or dispute over it again.”

This gift would further put the king’s fearful heart to rest that he has anything to fear from Abraham. Abraham is out to take from him and they are in competition with one another (as he would have been with his other Canaanite neighbors).  No, this man is different. How striking it would have been for a poorer and smaller people who possess no homeland to be generous with a king of that time and place. It would testify to Abimelech that Abraham has a source of provision beyond what they can see and touch. He worships and trusts an unseen God who can meet all his daily needs.

Church, your acts of provision and generosity testify to the same unseen God. The way we use our resources we can see is always saying something about the God we cannot.

Because he is now walking in faith, Abraham is becoming an image of God who represents God rightly to this fallen king who needs to know him. Before, Abraham was deceitful about his wife and brought curse rather than blessing on the kingdom of Abimelech when he passively let Abimelech take Sarah into his harem. Now, he’s fulfilling his purpose to bless the nations by bringing peace and clarity to their relationship and showing this man what God is truly like (12:3).

And now we get to move on to the conclusion of this story,

31 Therefore that place was called Beersheba, because there both of them swore an oath. 32 So they made a covenant at Beersheba. Then Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army rose up and returned to the land of the Philistines. 33 Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and called there on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God. 34 And Abraham sojourned many days in the land of the Philistines.

The name “Beersheba” could mean “the well of swearing” and that’s likely because the reason it has that name is “because there both of them swore an oath.” The Bible is a story of the unseen God becoming visible in time and space through his works so that people worship him. Here’s another example, this well now serves as a memorial to the peace the Lord brought through the generosity of Abraham his servant. Its name would always point back to these events and the God behind them.

In our time and place, the Bible describes the church, God’s people, using the imagery of a building. His people become a visible signpost in space and time meant to show people what the unseen God is like and lead them to worship him.

Now, Abimelech leaves with the commander of his military, not to conduct war, but to live in the peace that Abraham had achieved and brought about.

And in celebration of this great victory, Abraham plants a tree and worships the God who lives and rules forever. And why a tree? Throughout the story of Abraham we often find him living near trees (12:6; 13:18; 14:13; 18:1). The author is likely drawing attention to this as a nod toward Eden- though Abraham is far from home and wondering through a foreign land as a stranger- yet, because he lives in the presence of God, he’s already home. The place he most needs to be is not a nation where he rules but in the presence of God where he receives all his needs.

This observation brings us full circle to the beginning of the text where Abimelech notices that God is with Abraham. The supernatural peace that God brings to Canaan comes through a man who lives in the presence of God.

Christ and His Church

Abraham here serves as a picture of the people of God: living in a land not their own, striving for and making peace with those around them, all the while still more at home than anyone because they live in the presence of God.

As we follow Jesus, this is what we increasingly become because he was the ultimate peacemaker from heaven that Abraham’s life anticipated. And, as we live in his presence, and his Spirit fills us, we increasingly become supernatural peacemakers.

Jesus died and rose again not only to create peace, but also to create a community of peacemakers who remove hostility through sacrificial love like he did. That’s why Jesus said in his sermon on the mount, “blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” (Matt 5:9)

I want to call our community this morning, All Peoples Church, to increasingly become a community of peacemakers. It’s what pastor Alexander Strauch refers to as our call to “wage peace.”[8] Kings surrounded Abraham who were experts at waging war, yet this man of God distinguishes himself as a man who wages peace instead.

There is so much we could say about fighting for peace in our community and how critical that is. And yet, the story this morning is not primarily about how Abraham fought for peace within his household, but with someone outside of his household who does not yet believe in his God. And so, I want us to think about how we can pursue peace with our neighbors, family, and friends who do not yet know God.

We live in a time where peaceful relationships (especially between Christians and non-Christians) seem harder than ever to come by. As the culture increasingly turns against us, it can become tempting to become combative to match its tone.

And yet what’s glorious about Abraham’s response is that he’s a peacemaker in the face of hostility (and Jesus even more than Abraham). So, let us embrace the unchanging identity of peacemaker regardless of our environment. So, what does peacemaking with our unbelievers look like in this fallen age for we who follow Jesus. Here are [number] principles for us to consider:

1.      The absence of conflict does not imply the presence of full and biblical peace. That’s because even if you’re neighbor is technically at peace with you, if they are not yet at peace with God, There’s a relational rupture between them and the person they need to know most. Jesus’s followers care about that, and we step into the gap with the good news of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection as peacemakers from God.

 

2.      As far as it’s possible, seek to disagree about nothing except the gospel with those who don’t yet believe. Sometimes you just can’t avoid it (like a time I got in a fender bender and the other person ran through a stop sign, so I needed to disagree with them that they were in the wrong). Many times, we can sidestep unnecessary disagreements and conflicts so we can limit our disagreement with someone to the only thing that matters forever- their relationship with Jesus. You only have so much relational capital with someone, and you should strive to use it all to convince someone of the gospel. I regret conversations from the past with unbelievers where I spent time and energy disagreeing about cultural and political issues rather than talking about heart issues and Jesus.  

 

 

3.      (And this one is most important) Whenever you do disagree with someone else about who Jesus is (or anything else), always do it in a way that shows what the gospel is like. Jesus comes to us with patience, gentleness, yet with boldness and clarity, and that’s how we need to carry ourselves in conflict as well.

 

This looks like finding good and right moments to sacrifice ourselves to make peace with someone else to show what Jesus is like. Here’s an example:  

Over the summer my MC helped one of my neighbors whose yard had overgrown with knee high weeds and she had a rusty windmill in her backyard that was waking up her neighbors. She’s so fearful of relationship, we had to struggle for weeks with her to get her permission to come and help her. After mowing her hard, fixing her windmill, and trimming her trees, we heard nothing from her. Finally, she came over a few weeks later. Yet, it wasn’t to thank us. She was quite upset about a small hole in her front yard that we had left when we dug out a deeply rooted weed.

It's moments like these where we face undeserved hostility that we have the opportunity to shine the light of the gospel. For us that day, it looked like patiently filling in that hole and reassuring her that her yard and the foundation of her house was alright.

Our goal was not just to heal conflict between her and us, it was to create peace between her and God by showing her what God was like, and that could only happen through generous self-sacrifice in that moment. Church, this is the way. It’s the only way we are going to be able to demonstrate the power of the gospel to those who do not yet know Jesus and melt their hearts.

 

Church, let us become generous community of peacemakers like our Lord Jesus. We’ve been called to both radical sacrifice and radical blessing all at once. I want each of us to find ourselves making gospel-shaped sacrifices for others and then finding ourselves deeply in the presence of God, calling on his name in worship, and increasingly bringing heaven’s peace to earth.

Let’s pray.  

[1] “little nation,” John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries on Genesis, trans. Henry Beveridge (BakerBooks, 2009), 552.

[2] Mark Sheridan, ed., Genesis 12–50, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 100.

[3] John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries on Genesis, trans. Henry Beveridge (BakerBooks, 2009), 555.

[4] ibid, 552.

[5] Ibid, 554.

[6] See Peter J. Gentry and Stephen J. Wellum, Kingdom through Covenant: A Biblical-Theological Understanding of the Covenants, 2nd edition (Crossway, 2018).

[7] Rick Brannan, ed., Lexham Research Lexicon of the Hebrew Bible, Lexham Research Lexicons (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2020).

[8] Alexander Strauch, If You Bite & Devour One Another: Biblical Principles for Handling Conflict (Lewis & Roth Publishers, 2016), 109.