Isaac's Wells and Rehoboth: Where God Made Room (Genesis 26:12–25)

Why did the Philistines stop up Isaac's wells?

The Philistines stopped up the wells because they envied Isaac, and in the dry south a herdsman without water has to leave. "So the Philistines took dirt and stopped up all the wells that his father's servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham" (Genesis 26:15).

Abimelech sent him away, and Isaac camped in the Valley of Gerar among wells full of earth.

Why did Isaac give the wells his father's names?

Isaac gave the wells his father's names because each name kept a record of what God had done for Abraham, and Isaac chose to remember it. "Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the days of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died. And he gave these wells the same names his father had given them" (Genesis 26:18).

Abraham had argued for one of those wells and given Abimelech seven ewe lambs "as my witness that I dug this well" (Genesis 21:30). Isaac's servants cleared out the dirt, and the old names came back with the water.

What do the names Esek, Sitnah and Rehoboth mean?

Esek means quarrel, Sitnah means accusation and Rehoboth means room, each named for what happened there. The herdsmen of Gerar claimed the first new well, "So he named the well Esek, because they contended with him" (Genesis 26:20). They fought over the second as well, and he named it Sitnah.

Nobody quarrelled over the third. "He named it Rehoboth and said, 'At last the LORD has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land'" (Genesis 26:22). Two names keep the hard days honestly, and the third is a sentence of praise said aloud every time someone drew water.

What did God say to Isaac at Beersheba?

God told Isaac not to be afraid, because He was with him and would keep every promise He had made to Abraham. On his first night at Beersheba, "the LORD appeared to him and said, 'I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you'" (Genesis 26:24).

Decades earlier God had told Abram, "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward" (Genesis 15:1). Isaac had kept his father's names, and now the God of those names spoke the same words to him. To know God is to know the One who has spoken before and speaks again. "So Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the LORD" (Genesis 26:25).

How do Isaac's wells point to Jesus?

Isaac's wells point to Jesus because Jesus sat at a well handed down from Isaac's son Jacob and offered water nobody can stop up. "Since Jacob's well was there, Jesus, weary from His journey, sat down by the well" (John 4:6). He told the woman who came to draw, "But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst" (John 4:14).

A Philistine with a basket could fill Isaac's well in a night. The water Christ gives rises inside the one who drinks it and lasts to eternal life.

Name what God has done

When God makes room for you, give that day a name and write it down in the Doxa app, with the date and the words He spoke. When envy and quarrels come, read the names back: they are the record of the God who speaks and keeps His word, the God of Abraham and Isaac, who is with you now. We are the people who remember, and He is faithful for the whole journey.

What has God done for you that deserves a name you will say again?

Deeper study today in the Doxa Deeper Dive: the living water hidden in Isaac's well, and what the second well's name shares with the accuser. Read it here.