Then Abraham rebuked Abimelech because of a well of water which Abimelech’s servants had seized. And Abimelech said, “I do not know who has done this thing; you did not tell me, nor had I heard of it until today.” (Gen 21,25-26)

 

I have already written that Abraham did not feel quite safe in Gerar, as though he was not on friendly ground. He and his servants worked hard, dug a well (a deep and challenging task in the desert areas due to the low degree of mechanization at the time), but once Abimelech's servants found out, they came and grabbed it from him. Abraham was certainly not standing alone at the well at that time. There were at least 300 men on his farm, but they did not engage in the in battle, but rather retreated. Is it possible that Abimelech was unaware of the incident? Gerar was not big and there were many people involved, moreover, namely "his servants". So it's probably a lie. In any case, the Phichol must have known about it, because the Philistines seized the well by force. They must have had so many men ready on the spot that they were outnumbered and Abraham did not think of fighting. (Though perhaps he would not have fought anyway, just as Isaac did not later fight over the dug well in the same area (see Gen 26), and probably thereby followed this example of his father. Since Isaac also experienced here exactly the same treatment from the local men, this is obviously a kind of usual behavior here.) But the Philistines assumed he might fight. After all, resolving things by violence was even more common in the world of that time than it is today. It is always the case, after all, that some try to create something, and others seize their fruit. A war has always been a profitable business in this sense.

 

God's people use to have a double experience on earth: on one hand, God's favor, but on the other, the hostility of the environment. We are not always loved here, but often rather suffered. The only meaningful way remains anyway not to succumb to small-mindedness and to try to invent and create things, even if they are then sometimes taken away from us.

And it came to pass at that time that Abimelech and Phichol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham, saying, “God is with you in all that you do. Now therefore, swear to me by God that you will not deal falsely with me, with my offspring, or with my posterity; but that according to the kindness that I have done to you, you will do to me and to the land in which you have dwelt.” (Gen 21,22-23)

Abimelech had previously had a terrifying experience because of Abraham, in which God told him directly that He would kill him and his men if he took Sarah. He had previously come to take her by right of the tribal leader of the area Abraham had come to dwell in. After this divine intervention, Abimelech was shaken, as only a man can be shaken who encounters firsthand the living God with whom he is not reconciled, and thus comes to know Him primarily as a judge. After this experience, Abimelech had a special relationship of respect, but not love, for Abraham. Sometimes similar relationships between two parties who are cut from completely different cloth are quite helpful. In fact, by keeping a respectful distance between the two, they prevent the emergence of conflict.

Abimelech clearly had a stronger army than Abraham, who had only a volunteer troop (if we can call armed peasants that way) numbering hundreds of men (Gen. 14:14), while Abimelech had professionals (...the piper, the commander of his army...). And yet he feared Abraham. Or perhaps another way: he feared his God. So he wanted to protect himself by making a covenant with him, feeling that it was not advisable to mess around with this man - his God might come and bring about something big.

He therefore tries to impress Abraham by supposedly "'having shown him mercy.'" Does he mean he didn't kill him outright? These are deceptive and rather insincere words. As we shall see, Abraham clearly did not feel very friendly in this land from the beginning; he was rather only tolerated there.

Sometimes God's seed in this world feels just that way. We are different, and therefore are sometimes only suffered by others. But we need to be thankful that even in such times and places something sovereignly of God can be born in our lives, just as Isaac was born to Abraham right there.