Today’s Devotion
Topic: Blessings In The Midst Of Complications and Opposition (Self Assessment 164)
Part 3
Background: For the past two weeks we’ve been looking at the concept of blessing that is not void of complications. Our case study has been Isaac and the severe famine that hit the entire land in his days. Do you remember how God told him not to move to Egypt, but to stay right in the land of Gerar where he had earlier migrated to? You may also recall how the Lord promised to bless and make him great, just as He swore to his father; Abraham.
Well, according to Genesis 26: 12- 15, Isaac did not only obey the Lord by staying in the land of Gerar, but he also planted crops in that land. That same year reaped a hundredfold, because the Lord blessed him. He became rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy to the envy of the Philistines.
Let’s continue our study by measuring the extent to which the Philistines expressed their envy of Isaac; just because he was so blessed and see what lessons of tolerance and perseverance we can learn from this
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Text: Genesis 26: 16- 22
16 Then Abimelek said to Isaac, “Move away from us; you have become too powerful for us.” 17 So Isaac moved away from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar, where he settled. 18 Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died, and he gave them the same names his father had given them.
19 Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and discovered a well of fresh water there. 20 But the herders of Gerar quarreled with those of Isaac and said, “The water is ours!” So he named the well Esek, because they disputed with him. 21 Then they dug another well, but they quarreled over that one also; so he named it Sitnah. 22 He moved on from there and dug another well, and no one quarreled over it. He named it Rehoboth, saying, “Now the Lord has given us room and we will flourish in the land.” Amen.
Questions:
1. Why do you think Abimelek asked Isaac to move away from them because he had become too powerful for them? What was the danger or threat in Isaac being too powerful?
2. Kindly read verse 16 again. What do you do when God asks you to stay at a place and the people there ask you to move because you are too great for them?
3. What can we say about verse 17? Did Isaac actually move from where God asked him to stay?
4. The bible doesn’t say explicitly, but do think there will be any spiritual essense or socio-economic reason why Isaac reopened the wells his Father, especially in a period when he was an object of envy to the Philistines who had earlier stopped all these wells?
5. How does verse 19 confirm God’s promise to Isaac if he stayed in the land of Gerar? What can we learn from this regarding God’s promises to us?
6. But wait, if this was the Lord blessing Isaac, how come the herders of Gerar claimed the well as theirs? Is it ever possible that God blesses us with something and others can later claim ownership of it?
7. What did Isaac do about the disputed well in verse 21?
8. When Sitnah also became an avenue of dispute, what did Isaac do? (Verse 22).
9. Will there always be a ‘Rehoboth’ after a believer has endured mistreatment and opposition for whatever great thing God was doing in their lives?
10. What then will be some of the practical things a believer can do when he/she faces opposition for, and at every blessing God brings his/her way?
11. What have you learnt from today’s discussion?
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