Genesis 25:11: The story goes on without him, at the well a runaway slave named
Read it →Commentary on Genesis 25:11
Abraham is dead, and the promise now rests on his son Isaac. Scripture records only two things here: the blessing he receives, and the place he chooses to live.
The blessing passes to the heir
Abraham's death is not a break in God's purpose but a handover:
Then the great holder of all promise passes off the scene, whatever its fulfilment and development. It closes as to both flesh and spirit — Isaac and Ishmael bury him. We begin again quite fresh with Isaac, the resurrection heir, and the path of faith or unbelief (as it was with Abraham) under that principle. Isaac now takes up the place of blessing and the subject of testimony.
Abraham had other descendants. Isaac's blessing is of a different kind:
Isaac is now the only one left of those who shared the same promise before him. He has this marked distinction — God blessing him. That is a precious reality in a world under curse through sin. And this is not the general form of blessing extended to those who sprang from Abraham. It is his as the heir.
What the name of the well means
The place where Isaac settles already had a history, and its name records it:
This means "well of the living and seeing one." A well situated between Kadesh and Bered, "in the way to Shur," so in the south. Hagar fled from Sarai, and here the angel of the Lord met her. Her cry then, "You are a God of seeing," gave the well its name.
Hagar was a servant who had run away. The heir of the promise settles at the very spot where God met her.
How different the path that awaited Ishmael and Isaac! Here the Lord heard Hagar's distress; here God blessed Isaac, already blessed on a still higher plane and with better blessings in hope.
The well as a picture of the Word and the Spirit
Isaac's home was a tent beside a well. That pairing carries a lesson:
A well was a natural and fitting companion for the tent of a pilgrim. Water is the first necessity for keeping life going. So for us is the "living water" — the Spirit acting through the Word.
The same writer will not let the Word and the Spirit come apart:
Where do you find the Spirit without the water, without the Word? Nowhere! The Word is the direct instrument of the Spirit… The Spirit without the Word is mere fanaticism. In fact there is no such thing. The Word without the Spirit is mere rationalism. It is as empty and useless as it can be. The living water is God's thought for us — the living water, such as we find in the well here.
Living under the eye of God
The name of the well points to what refreshed Isaac:
Isaac takes the place of Abraham as a vessel of God's testimony, and God blesses him. He lives by Beer Lahai Roi, "the well of Him who sees me." There is true spiritual refreshment (the well) in being conscious that we live under the eye of God.
Where Isaac lived also marked what he had turned his back on:
"See to it that you do not take my son back there," was Abraham's chief instruction to his servant. Isaac must not return to the country his father had been called out of. So at his father's death we find him living by the well Lahai-roi. It is the well of Him who lives and sees me — the secret of the presence of God.
Isaac as a picture of Christ
This chapter says two plain things about Isaac, and one writer traces both to Christ:
In the beginning of Genesis 25 we read, "Abraham gave all he had to Isaac," and "God blessed Isaac his son." These are very simple statements. But how important they are as pictures, and how far-reaching in their spiritual meaning! They suggest that all blessing and every promise is made good in Him who is the true Isaac. He is the One now out of death. He waits for the Spirit's mission to be finished — the forming of the bride, according to the Father's counsels.
Summary
- Death, then blessing. Abraham passes off the scene. The account begins fresh with Isaac, the resurrection heir, who takes up the place of blessing and testimony.
- Blessed as heir. Abraham had other descendants. Isaac receives God's blessing itself — not the general form, but the heir's portion in a world under curse.
- A well with a name. Beer-lahai-roi means the well of the living and seeing One, named by Hagar when God met her in her distress.
- A well to live by. Water keeps a pilgrim alive. For us the living water is the Spirit acting through the Word. The Spirit without the Word is fanaticism; the Word without the Spirit is rationalism.
- The true Isaac. Isaac never goes back to the old country; he stays under the eye of God. And all he pictures is made good in Christ, the true Isaac, who is now out of death.
