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.