Now when we follow the story thread here, we are going to see not only Abraham, but Isaac as well is constantly it seems having problems with water wells because they were so important to the existence of the people. In this particular occasion there are two things that are stressed. One is the personal dignity and the strength of Abraham who deals with the situation with, I would call it, authoritative forcefulness. But even more important is that Abimelech recognizes that God is with Abraham in all that he does and that is why Abimelech wants to make a covenant. You will notice how this section begins.
Now here in the land of the Philistines, in the land of the worldly-wise, Abraham had enough impact from his personal example, from his witness, that the people of the land who were pretty well advanced, and I would have to say that from all that we see in the Bible about the Philistines, they were a pretty powerful people. They were a people that Israel always seemed to be afraid of. Yet here they are, coming to Abraham hoping to make a treaty of some kind with him because they recognize that God is with him. The occasion that is being taken advantage of by Abraham and Abimelech is a squabble over a well of water.
Now what it leads to is an agreement between the two of them, basically stating, You stay here and I'll stay there. You keep your men there and I'll keep my men here. This is my well, you go dig your own well. Abraham dealt a very strong hand, which gives me an indication there was a great deal of respect by these people for not only what he was personally, but apparently he represented a great deal of wealth and power that they would respect.
Beersheba means, the well of oaths. There are some who insist that it means the well of seven, because the word oath comes from the same root as the number or word seven. Now apparently there were seven wells in Beersheba, and two of which are apparently still today sources of an abundant supply of pure water. Nobody knows whether Abraham and his people actually dug the wells, but one of them is pretty impressive. It is twelve and a half feet in diameter, forty-four and a half feet from the surface of the ground to the surface of the water, and it is constructed with masonry.
It shows every evidence of having been there a long, long, long, long, long time. It is still holding together, and it is still flowing. still pumping out. I would say there is a spring there that is still pumping out a great deal of water.
The last sixteen and a half feet down of this well is carved out of solid rock. Now how did they do that? Did they have jack hammers? Did they have steel chisels? Is it a sedimentary type of rock, you know like shale? I do not know. The resource that I had did not say, it only said that it was a solid rock, maybe a sandstone type that would not be quite so hard as granite. But nonetheless, it is quite an accomplishment because sixteen and a half feet through solid rock, and they dug down deep enough that as the water seeps into the well, there is a reservoir down there that can always be drawn upon whenever they throw their buckets in.
The second well that is still in service is about nine hundred feet away from the first one and it is not quite as impressive. It is about five feet in diameter and is only twelve feet deep, but it has never run dry either. Over thousands of years, it is still putting out water.
Both the Abimelech of Abraham's day and the Abimelech of Isaac's day seem to have the same motivation for seeking a covenant. They sue for peace. Abimelech tells Abraham, recorded in Genesis 21:22, God is with you in all that you do. Similarly, a later Abimelech tells Isaac, We have certainly seen that the Lord is with you (Genesis 26:28) and, in verse 29 You are now the blessed of the Lord. The pagan Gentiles, recognizing the prosperity of the people of God, seek peace with them. The two witnesses of patriarchal covenant with the Philistines probably establish an important leg of the business model Israelites will use in dealing with the Gentiles in the Millennium. Do not initiate covenants with Gentiles; do not sue for peace them; do not initiate action. But, make agreements with them when they sincerely want them. It is to be noted that, in the covenant made by Abraham, peace is not explicitly mentioned, but only a quid pro quo, as it were, stated in
