"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God." (Matthew 5:9)
What is a peacemaker? Most people suppose that it is one who separates people who are fighting, or who acts as mediator between two persons who are quarreling, bringing them into at least outward agreement. A peacemaker is this and much more: it is one who literally makes--manufactures--peace, and who always keeps a stock on hand, so that nobody and nothing can exhaust the supply.
The man who makes peace by being so peaceable that it is impossible for anybody to quarrel with him, is a peacemaker in a far higher sense than is one who merely induces belligerents to cease their outward warfare. It was this sort of peacemaker that Isaac was. Read the story of how he made peace in the land of the Philistines, whither he had gone on account of a famine in the land of Canaan. No apology is necessary for reprinting it.
"Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year a hundredfold: and the Lord blessed him. And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great: For he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants: and the Philistines envied him. For all the wells which his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth. And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us; for you are much mightier than we. And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there. And Isaac dug again the wells of water, which they had dug 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. And Isaac's servants dug in the valley, and found there a well of springing water. And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac's herdmen, saying, The water is ours: and he called the name of the well Esek [contention]; because they strove with him. And they dug another well, and strove for that also; and he called the name of it Sitnah [hatred]. And he removed from thence, and dug another well; and for that they strove not: and be called the name of it Rehoboth [room, or wideness]; and he said, For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land." (Genesis 26:12-22)
Take in the whole situation, and you have a most striking lesson. Isaac was wealthy and powerful. His father Abraham had so many trained servants in his own household that he could arm them and pursue a victorious army and put it to flight; and Isaac had inherited all his father's wealth and had greatly increased it. The Philistine king himself acknowledged that Isaac was mightier than he; yet at his request that Isaac should leave him, Isaac left without a word. This was the first instance of Isaac's peaceable disposition.
It would have been but natural for Isaac to respond to Abimelech, when the latter said, "Go from us; for you are much mightier than we." "Go yourself; I am more powerful than you are, and you cannot help yourself; I have as much right to the country as you have; and shall stay where I please."
That would have been natural; but Isaac was born of the Spirit, and therefore the peace of God reigned in his heart; so to avoid all trouble he quietly went away.
Then the Philistine herdman claimed a well of water which clearly belonged to Isaac. It had formerly belonged to his father, and Isaac's servants had dug it out afresh.
"There," someone might say, who believes in one's standing up for his rights, "that is just what might have been expected: let people impose on you once, and they will keep on imposing on you; when once they find that you will not resist, they will take everything you have."
Well, it didn't work that way in the case of Isaac, as the story shows. True, the Philistines did take advantage of Isaac's meekness to seize two valuable pieces of property that belonged to him; but at the last God made room for him, and he really lost nothing; whereas if he had stood on the defensive, some lives might have been lost, and no property on earth is worth as much as one human life.
The second well was dug, and the herdmen strove for it; but Isaac would have no strife, so he quietly went away and dug another. What a marvelous exhibition of meekness! Why was the account written? In order that we might know how all might act; who claim to be heirs of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
"Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise." (Galatians 4:28)
It is said of the Christians immediately after the great Pentecost, when the Spirit was poured out so abundantly, and all were filled with it: "Neither said any of them that aught of the things which he possessed was his own." (Acts 4:32)
That being the case, it is evident that none of them would have fought or gone to law to recover any property which a covetous person might have seized. Whenever professed Christians make use of carnal weapons, or go into the courts of earth, in defense of their possessions, they really deny God; they tacitly say that their support is the same as that of the world, and that God does not specially care for His people, but that they must look out for themselves. Oh, how little real Christianity there is in the world!
It is a hard thing for those who have riches, or for those who want to have riches, and who trust in them, to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Isaac had riches; but he held them only under God, and therefore he would not strive for them. The man who does not claim anything that he has as his own, has no occasion or inclination to fight for it.
When at last the Lord had made room for Isaac, he built an altar, and preached in the name of the Lord, just as Abraham had done. "And he built an altar there, and called upon the name of the Lord." (Genesis 26:25)
What effect do you think his preaching would have had if he had quarreled with the Philistines, even in the most dignified and legal way, for the possession of his property? Do you not see that when Isaac proclaimed the name of the true God, the Creator of heaven and earth, the heathen readily saw that he believed in the existence of such a Being?
But if Isaac had striven with them, and had insisted on maintaining his "rights," they would have said: "If you believe in a God that made heaven and earth, and that still upholds all things by the word of His power, why do you not trust Him to take care of you, and to protect you? You make use of exactly the same methods that we do; what is the difference between you and us?"
How often the name of God is blasphemed among the heathen through the worldly policy and unbelief of professed Christians! Who will show himself to be a child of God indeed, by keeping the peace of God, which Christ left to all His followers?--Present Truth, August 22, 1901--Genesis 26:12-25.
E.J. Waggoner