April 2003

HIDDEN BIBLE SECRETS

Part 30

 

Chapter 26:

Verse 6.    "Ánd Isaac dwelt in Gerer."

Verse 7.    "And the men of the place asked him of his wife, and he said, She is my sister: for he feared to say, She is my wife: lest, said he, the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah, because she was fair to look upon."

Here he is facing the same doubts that Abraham had. But Isaac stayed with Abimelech and did not go down into Egypt. Abimelech was in real life a priest and teacher, so Isaac went back to school to learn. Then he was able to come back up out of doubt.

Verse 8.    "Ánd it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekeh his wife."

Verse 9.    "And Abimelech called Isaac, and said, Behold of a surety she is thy wife: and how saidist thou, She is my sister? And Isaac said unto him, Because, I said, Lest I die for her."

Verse 10.    "Ánd Abimelech said, What is this thou has done unto us? One of the people might lightly have lain with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us."

Verse 11.    "And Abimelech charged all his people, saying, He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death."

Isaac was feeling that he could not live up to the high spiritual level he once had. But look what he then proceeded to do.

Verse 12.    "Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year a hundredfold: and the Lord blessed him."

His studying brought a hundredfold of increase in consciousness.

Verse 13.    "And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great."

Verse 14.    "For he had possession of flocks, and possessions of herds and great store of servants: and the Philistines envied him."

Verse 15.    "For all the wells which his father's servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth."

There was so little spirituality in the land of the Philistines that they stopped the flow of the spiritual with material matter. Is not that just what we do today. Unable to face the fact that we SHOULD be living a spiritual oriented life we fill it up with the material possessions.

Verse 16.    "And Abimelech said to Isaac, God from us; for thou art much mightier than we."

Verse 17.    "And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar (a lodging place), and dwelt there."

Verse 18.    "And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham: and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them."

Verse 19.    "And Isaac's servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water."

The difference here is that it is spring water and flowing meaning that it is a symbol of spiritual flow. Isaac is back on course and can go out and teach.

Verse 20.    "And the herdmen of Gerar (a halting place) did strive with Isaac's herdmen, saying, The water is ours: and he called the name of the well Esek (strife, contention): because they strove with him."

The people fought over the wells because they wanted what Isaac had . . . his spirituality. But you cannot get it that way it must be found for yourself.

Verse 21.    "And they digged another well, and strove for that also: and he called the name of it Sitnah (strife, adversary)."

Verse 22.    "And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth (enlargements); and he said: For now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land."

From here to the end of the chapter Isaac moved to the well of Beer-sheba where he made a covenant with the Philistines to live in peace together. Isaac had pitched a tent at Beer-sheba because all through Genesis you will find the patriarchs pitching tents to indicate that their stay is only temporary. The effort to stay in the higher that their stay is only temporary. The effort to stay in the higher consciousness was always a struggle and he reaffirmed the covenant of continence with God, of self-restraint.

This covenant is where later Jacob falls down. The wells of Sheba will come up again. By the time we have gotten through Abraham and Isaac to Jacob we are getting a good ides of the ancient system of spiritual training, it is laid right out there. Abraham and Isaac were successful in reaching a fairly high level of spiritual growth, but Jacob didn't quite make it. In the early stages of their training it is very strenuous, mentally and physically. That is symbolized in Jacob by the birth of his twelve sons. The twelve signs of the zodiac have a great meaning in the spiritual education of the Israelites. They call this now the Mazzaroth. Jacob was supposed to have his twelve sons in order of the twelve zodiac signs, but Jacob did not follow the order, for he had sons by a couple of handmaidens and that put things further out of order. He was back on track again with Joseph and Benjamin, but by then it was too late, he had gone down into the psychic and he never did make it back up again. Each son had a step in the development. Jacob is typical of each of us in how we jump from one discipline to another and do not follow the Divine Order of development.

It is here in Verse 34 of Chapter 26 that Genesis jumps back into the story of Jacob and Esau.

Verse 34.    "And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beer-I the Hittite, and Besh-e-math the daughter of Elon the Hittitie."

Verse 35.    Which were a grief to mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.

I don't wonder if they were concerned; just look at the meaning of their names.
Judith - the female version of Judah - praise Jehovah 
Beer-I - my well; of a fountain, but used to build up the physical aspect as do the New Age disciplines of today. 
Hittites - sundered, dismay, dread, resistance. 
Bash-a-math - fragrant aromatic, intuition. 
Elon - strength, power, stability, an oak. 
Esau - the really physical one yet wanted to be married to or wedded to the intuition out of again strength and power. His parents foresaw Esau would have a struggle in his life' s path. 
As we will find out later.

PJR

Sept 2003