.
● Gen 26:14b . . so that the Philistines envied him.
Some feel that the Philistines' envy was rooted in anti-Semitism. Well . . .
there are always those seeking to enhance their own image as a victim; and
this chapter would certainly seem a good source of propaganda for that
purpose.
Envy is a normal human emotion that is typically blind to racial and ethnic
identities. Envy isn't restricted to anti-Semitism, nor does it serve to identify
it. Envy is a powerful passion; destroying friendships, fueling fierce rivalries,
generating strong desires for revenge, and fracturing solidarity.
NOTE: Madison Avenue typically combines envy with gloating; which
Webster's defines as to show in an improper or selfish way that you are
happy with your own success or another person's failure. Whenever
someone's goods and/or services in an ad are superior to others, there's
usually no sympathy shown by the one with the superior stuff; only gloating
over those less fortunate with no concern at all for their feelings. Thus
advertisers encourage consumer rivalry and smug satisfaction. It's very
common in TV ads.
Just watch the ads on TV, and the ones in magazines and you'll see. They
constantly provoke us to keep up with and/or surpass our peers in clothing,
cars, physical appearance, business success, and popularity. Envy is a
powerful, negative feeling that overwhelms us whenever others are doing
better than ourselves.
● Gen 26:15 . . And the Philistines stopped up all the wells which his father's
servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham, filling them with earth.
You would think the Philistines would value those wells and put the water to
use for themselves. But actually, there weren't really all that many
Philistines in the Gerar area at the time. They didn't need the water; and
they sure didn't want any squatters to discover the wells and thus be
encouraged to settle down in their region.
Abimelech forbade his citizens to harm Isaac; but that didn't preclude
harassing and annoying him. Cutting off his water supplies was very serious
because Isaac needed them to irrigate crops and water the livestock.
Without adequate water supplies, Isaac Enterprises was doomed. He had a
right to file a complaint. But Abimelech felt it best for all concerned to run
Isaac out of the country.
NOTE: I've a suspicion that the rural Philistines had become territorial; which
can be roughly defined as an assumed property right due to long-time
occupation; whether legal or otherwise. In other words; Isaac's rivals
probably felt that although they didn't actually own the countryside, they
had been there longer than Isaac so they had a preemptive right to dictate
its use. It's a Neanderthal's way of thinking, but goes on all the time;
commonly in work places where senior employees are inclined to dominate
new hires.
● Gen 26:16 . . And Abimelech said to Isaac: Go away from us, for you have
become far too big for us.
Just exactly what Abimelech meant by "far too big for us" is hard to know for
sure. But it looks suspiciously like a cowardly act of favoritism; pure and
simple. Instead of being fair and equitable with Isaac, Abimelech, like a
cheap politician, ignored the vandalism his citizens had done against Isaac
and made it look like this whole nasty business was his fault; vz: he was just
getting too greedy and beginning to crowd everybody else out.
Was this maybe the first antitrust suit in history? Antitrust laws, in reality,
put a limit on prosperity. They say that the principles of life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness are okay as long as you don't pursue them to an
extreme. People often believe in a free enterprise system; but typically only
up until somebody else's enterprise is having much better success at it than
theirs.
● Gen 26:17 . . So Isaac departed from there and encamped in the wadi of
Gerar, where he settled.
A wadi named Nahal Gerar is on modern maps of the Gaza region. Whether
or not that was Isaac's wadi I don't know. Wadis are basins in which brooks
flow, and therefore, were the well-watered and fertile parts of the country.
In times of scant rain up in the highlands, the brooks in many wadis dry up,
and then it becomes necessary to dig wells down into the subterranean
water table.
According to ERETZ magazine, issue 64, the Gerar river draws its waters
from tributaries that run along the slopes of the rain-swept Hebron
mountains. Enormous amounts of water flow through it in winter, flooding
the channel an average of seven times a year.
● Gen 26:18 . . Isaac dug anew the wells which had been dug in the days of
his father Abraham and which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham's
death; and he gave them the same names that his father had given them.
Those wells were dug nearly a hundred years prior to this event; and makes
one wonder how Isaac knew where they were and how he knew the names
his dad had named them. The Gerarians probably waited until Abraham was
dead to plug them up because they feared him. He had a reputation as a
military leader and he also had a pact with the king Abimelech of Abraham's
period.
● Gen 26:19-20 . . But when Isaac's servants, digging in the wadi, found
there a well of spring water, the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's
herdsmen, saying: The water is ours. He named that well Esek, because
they contended with him.
Isaac was much too affable. He didn't have to let those guys buffalo him;
after all, Isaac had a pretty good sized army of his own; left to him by his
dad. He could easily have posted an armed platoon by the well to keep the
local cowboys away from it. But no, he chose rather to condescend and let
them have their own way. Isaac was truly a "turn the other cheek" kind of
guy who was willing (maybe a bit too willing) to bend over backward to
accommodate people and prevent violence and ill will.
Esek was a new well; not one of Abraham's. The herdsmen were motivated
by envy so they were reluctant to share the regions resources with the likes
of Isaac because they hated his success. They didn't contest Isaac's access
to the water in Abraham's wells. They probably felt he had a right to use
those; but the men would not tolerate Isaac taking any more water than
that; and most especially water of this quality. It was literally living water
viz: artesian.
Urban dwellers really don't appreciate their water and typically haven't a
clue where it comes from nor how it gets into their homes. But in Isaac's
day, people couldn't live too far from a natural source of water. Many of the
ancient cities and communities were located adjacent to rivers for that very
reason.
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