“My sons,” Isaac said, finally putting his arms around each of them and drawing them away from the sight below, “never forget, our God does not want the sacrifice of children or of princes or of just ordinary young men. He does not want human beings, made in His image, sacrificed.”
The next day Isaac rode out with his two sons to the place where his men were preparing to re-dig one of his father’s wells that Abimelech’s men had stopped up. It was going to be difficult if not impossible. The sun was blistering hot and the well filled with large stones. “We have no choice but to unstop the wells,” Isaac said, as they rode on to inspect the other wells that had also been filled in with sand and debris. “We will all starve without water and food,” he said.
After Isaac and his sons had ridden on, the men went back to their digging. It was hard, backbreaking work and they were making very little progress. Then one of them, who had jumped up onto a pile of the rocks, called out, “See that cloud of dust? It’s the men from the king coming to fight over the well.”
He was right. Within minutes the well diggers were surrounded. Men with helmets and breastplates of leather waved spears in the air and threatened them. “In the name of the king,” the leader said, “this unlawful activity must stop. Throw down your picks and spades or we will add your dead bodies to the debris in the well.”
Isaac had told them not to fight. “They are too strong for us,” he had cautioned. However, his men were so frustrated and angry at the senseless waste that they picked up rocks and began to throw them with deadly accuracy. The fight lasted long enough for several of the king’s men to suffer crippling injuries and Isaac’s men to retreat with two of their men suffering from arrows imbedded in the flesh of their arms and legs.
In this way a daily struggle began between the king’s men and Isaac’s servants. Even when Isaac tried to stop the carnage, tempers flared and the battles around the wells grew so intense no work was done. Instead of being grateful for the grain and the water, the people of the village became angry and resentful. They began to grumble and complain to the king, “This Isaac and his men must be driven out.”
It made them even angrier to have to admit to themselves that in spite of their sacrifices and offerings to the goddess Anat, they still had no rain. Instead it was Isaac who had prospered. This was more than they could endure. “Their wells are an affront to the goddess and their prosperity unnatural,” they said.
Without further ceremony, Abimelech called Isaac to him and told him that he and his family, relatives, and servants must all leave Gerar. “You have grown too strong for us,” he said. His eyes were dark and his mouth twisted into a grimace.
It was obvious that he had come to almost hate this man who had once been his friend. He now saw Isaac and his people as a threat. They were a constant irritation of one kind or another. They did not worship in the temple of the goddess; they did not believe in making sacrifices to the goddess. Worst of all, Isaac had lied to him about his wife.
The story had gotten out and it made Abimelech look foolish. Now by digging in the earth for water, they were ignoring the prayers and sacrifices that had been made to placate the goddess. Baal, the god of lightning and thunder, could also be preparing to wreak havoc among them for letting these strangers ignore his authority.
Abimelech did not care where they went or what they did as long as they were no longer right at his door causing a constant disturbance. “It’s better,” he said, “for people to separate if they do not agree on important things.”
Isaac was saddened but he understood. He reminded himself that though Abimelech and his people had once known of the true God, El, He had long been forgotten for the more popular gods and goddesses. Now it had come down to a more practical matter; they wanted gods they could understand and manipulate, even if at times it cost them their dearest treasures.
In anger and frustration, Abimelech not only drove them from the city but sent his men to guard the site of Abraham’s wells they had stopped up. Isaac’s men must not be allowed to dig there again.
The king was just beginning to feel a sense of power and elation when his shepherds came to tell him that instead of being discouraged and giving up, Isaac’s men were out in the valley digging a new well. “They are stronger than all of us,” his men reported. “They say they have a right to dig, but we know that whoever digs a well can also claim the land.”
* * *
Isaac had indeed conferred with his men and they had decided to dig a new well. “It may be easier to dig a new well than to clear the rubbish out of the wells that have been filled in,” he said.