In case you might think he was talking about that previous famine, accordingly he added, besides the famine in the patriarch’s time, that is to say, another similar famine beset the land in Isaac’s time as in his father’s time. The scarcity of the necessities of life threw everyone into great apprehension, compelled them to leave their own home and travel to those places where it was possible to find an abundance of resources.

Hence this good man too, on seeing the famine, took the journey, the text says, to visit Abimelech in Gerar. This was where Abraham came too, you remember, after his return from Egypt.^[1]

Now it is likely that Isaac also made for there on account of his intention to continue on from there into Egypt; for proof of this, listen to what Scripture says: God appeared to him and said, ‘Don’t go down into Egypt.’ I do not want you to make that long journey, he is saying, but to stay here. Instead of allowing you to experience that hardship, I am going to put into effect the promise made to your father; the promises to him will be fulfilled in you, and you will experience the pledges to him. Don’t go down into Egypt but dwell in the land that I show you, and be a sojourner in that land.

Lest the good man think it was out of a wish for him to experience the hardship of famine that God gave this direction not allowing him to go into Egypt, God said, Don’t be distressed; don’t be concerned—stay here: I will be with you. You have the supplier of all good things, so entertain no concern. After all, I the Lord of all will be with you—and not only that, but I will bless you. That is to say, I will make you prosperous and provide you with blessing from myself. What could be more blessed than this good man in receiving such a wonderful promise from God, I will be with you and bless you? . . . But how will I bless you? To you and your descendants I will give this land. You think you are visiting these parts as a stranger and nomad; know that to you and your descendants all this land will be given. That you may have confidence, realize that the oath I swore to your father Abraham I will fulfill in you.

Observe God’s considerateness; he did not simply say, The covenant I made with your father, nor the promises I made; instead, what? The oath I swore. I assured him with an oath, he is saying, and I must put my oath into effect and bring it to fulfillment. Do you see God’s loving kindness? His words are uttered not with a view to his own dignity but out of considerateness of our limitations.

Then he teaches Isaac what it was he promised and the things about which God had given him confirmation. I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven. This, you remember, he had said to the patriarch as well, that his descendants would be so numerous as to be compared with the stars and the sand: I will give all this land to your descendants, he said, and in your descendants will all the nations of the earth be blessed.^[1] Hence the promises made to him I will fulfill in you, for the reason that your father Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my commands, my judgments and my laws.^[2] See God’s wisdom in stirring up the good man’s thinking, making him more enthusiastic and having the effect of rendering him an imitator of his father. After all, God is saying, if Abraham was judged worthy of such a wonderful promise for obeying my voice, on account of his virtue I am about to fulfill it in you, the child born to him. And if you yourself become an imitator of him and tread in his path, consider the degree of favor you will enjoy from me and the care you will be accorded. I mean, the man destined to prosper for someone else’s virtue will be accorded much greater favor if he himself proves virtuous.

By our similar faith we have become children of Abraham. For, just as he believed the voice of God and was justified thereby, so have we believed the voice of God (which was spoken again to us by the prophets and the apostles of Christ) and have renounced even to death all worldly things. Thus God promised Abraham a religious and righteous nation of similar faith and a delight to the Father; but it is not you, in whom there is no faith.^[1]

Notice how he makes the same promises to Isaac and Jacob. Here are God’s words to Isaac: In your seed shall all the nations be blessed. And to Jacob: In you and in your seed all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed.^[2] But God does not address this blessing to Esau, or to Reuben or to any other but only to them from whom Christ was to come through the Virgin Mary in accordance with the divine plan of our redemption. If you were to think over the blessing of Judah, you would see what I mean. For the seed is divided after Jacob and comes down through Judah and Perez and Jesse and David. Now this was a sign that some of you Jews would be certainly children of Abraham and at the same time would share in the lot of Christ.

But what is the meaning of for the reason that he obeyed my voice and kept my commands, my orders, and my judgments? I said to Abraham, Go forth from your country and your kindred, onward to a land that I will show you.^[1] He left what he had and set off for an uncertain goal. He did not dally or delay; instead, with complete enthusiasm, Abraham obeyed my call and carried out my commands. In turn I promised him things beyond nature and, despite his despair on the score of age and the unsuitability for childbearing on the part of himself and your mother, he heard from me that his descendants would develop into such a great number as to fill the whole land. Yet he did not become deranged in mind or lose faith. Hence it was reckoned as righteousness in Abraham^[2] to trust in my power and have confidence in my promises. . . .

After your birth your mother was ill disposed toward her maidservant’s child Ishmael and wanted to drive him out of the house with Hagar so that he should have nothing in common with you. The patriarch had some natural inclination toward him out of his fatherly affection; but when he heard from me, Do what Sarah wants, he ignored his natural affection and drove out Ishmael along with the maidservant, obeying my call and keeping my commands in every detail. I mean, when he received the ultimate command from me to offer up as a sacrifice the son he so much desired, the gift of his old age, Abraham did not pry into the reasons. Neither was he disturbed in his thinking; nor did he betray the news to your mother or reveal to you what was about to be done by him. Instead, with steadfast resolve and heightened zeal, he pressed ahead to put my command into effect. So I rewarded his intention by preventing the execution of the deed. Since, then, he had in everything given evidence of complete obedience and observance of my commands, consequently I am making you, his child, the inheritor of the promises made to him. So imitate his obedience, and believe my words so as to be found worthy of a manifold reward for your father’s virtue and also for your own obedience. Don’t go down into Egypt; rather, stay here. Do you see God’s loving kindness in strengthening Isaac’s resolve through the memory of his father’s virtue?

Isaac is a patriarch who had no second wife, nor any concubine, but was content with the twins who were the fruit of a single intercourse. He too had the same fears as his father of the perilous beauty of his wife when he lived among strangers, and he too called her sister without a word about her being his wife, since in fact she was nearly related on the paternal and the maternal side. And Rebekah too was safe, once it was known that she was his wife. Not, however, that we should esteem him higher than his father for knowing no woman other than his single wife; undoubtedly the merits of his father’s faith and obedience were so much greater that it was because of the father that God was so good to the son.

Those who assert that sometimes we must lie make inappropriate mention of Abraham as having lied about Sarah whom he called his sister. For he did not say She is not my wife but She is my sister, because Sarah was in fact of a family so closely related that without lying she could be called his sister. This fact Abraham confirmed afterward when Sarah was returned by him who had led her away. Abraham replied to him, saying, Also she is truly my sister, the daughter of my father, and not the daughter of my mother,^[1] that is to say, belonging to his father’s family but not to his mother’s. Thus he concealed something of the truth but did not say anything false in concealing the fact that she was his wife and in saying that she was his sister. His son Isaac also did this, for we know that he too chose a relative of his as wife. Hence it is not a lie when truth is passed over in silence but when falsehood is brought forth in speech.

Isaac means rejoicing. The inquisitive king saw him playing with his wife and helpmate, Rebekah. The king (his name was Abimelech) represents, I believe, a wisdom above this world, looking down upon the mystery signified by such childlike playing. Rebekah means submission. Oh, what prudent playing! Rejoicing joined to submission, with the king as audience. The Spirit exults in such merrymaking in Christ, attended with submissiveness. This is in truth godly childlikeness. . . .

It is possible to interpret the meaning of the inspired Word in still another sense: that it refers to our rejoicing and making merry because of our salvation, like Isaac’s. He rejoiced because he had been saved from death; that is why he played and rejoiced with his spouse, as we with our helpmate in salvation, the church. The church too has been given the reassuring name submissive endurance, either because its enduring continues for all eternity in unending joy or because it is formed of the submission of those who believe: of us who are the members of Christ. The testimony given by those who have submissively endured until the end, and their gratitude as well, is a mystical playing; the helpmate of this holy gladness of heart is salvation. The king is Christ, looking down from above on our rejoicing and peering through the door, as Scripture says, on our gratitude and benediction that works in us joy and cheerfulness with submission.

Now Isaac was there a long time. Abimelech looked out of the window and saw him fondling his wife, Rebekah; he summoned him and said to him, So she is your wife? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister?’ ^[1] Since the good man was unmasked by this evidence, instead of dissembling any further, he admitted it and gave a clear explanation of why he brought himself to call her his sister. He said, I was afraid I might be killed on her account; the fear of death drove me to this extreme.

Perhaps, however, he had been forewarned, since Isaac’s father too had saved his own life by devising such a stratagem, and, for this reason, Isaac followed the same path. The king, however, had a lively memory of what he had suffered in the case of the patriarch for abducting Sarah, and at once he admitted his liability to punishment from on high by saying to him, Why did you do it? Some one of my people could easily have slept with your wife, whereas you would have had us be in ignorance.^[2] This deception, he is saying, we have already undergone at the hands of your father, and in the present case had we not quickly come upon the truth, we were on the verge of undergoing the same. You would have let us be in ignorance. You see, that time too they were on the verge of sinning through ignorance, and this time you were within a hairsbreadth of causing us to fall into sin out of ignorance.

See God’s providence; see his ineffable care. The One who had said, Don’t go down into Egypt; stay in this land, and I will be with you, was the one arranging all this and putting the good man in such a safe position. I mean, notice the king going to such trouble to ensure that he could live in peace and be free from all concern. After all, Abimelech threatened them all with death, the text says, if anyone laid a hand on him or his wife. You see, since it was the fear—of death, I mean—that shook Isaac’s resolve, consequently the loving Lord caused him to be rid of it and from then on to live in complete security. See the strange and remarkable thing in the way God, who is creative and wise and transforms everything according to his own wish and finds means where there are none, brings about in every way the security of his servants.

Whence was it, after all . . . that this king showed such care for the good man, as if proclaiming his merits to all the inhabitants of the city and presenting him as a famous person and much admired by himself? In this way too Nebuchadnezzar, after casting the three children in the furnace and learning by experience the invincible power of the young men’s virtue, began then to sing their praises and in every way to render them famous by his own tongue.^[1] This, after all, is a particular index of the abundance of God’s power, when he causes his servants to be celebrated by their enemies. The man who with relish had the furnace lit and then saw that, on account of help from on high, the children’s virtue survived even the fire’s heat, was all at once changed, and he cried out, Servants of God the most high.^[2]

And after these things the text says, Isaac sowed barley and found a hundredfold. And the Lord blessed him, and the man was magnified, and by his progress he became greater until he became very great.

Why is it that Isaac sowed barley and not wheat, and [why] is [he] blessed because he sows barley, and [why] is [he] magnified until he becomes great? It appears, therefore, that he was not yet great until after he sowed barley and gathered a hundredfold. Then he became very great.

Barley is the food especially of beasts or of peasants. For it is a harsher species and would seem to prick one who touches it as if with some kind of barbs. Isaac is likened to the Word of God. This Word sows barley in the law but wheat in the Gospels. He provides the one food for the perfect and spiritual, the other for the inexperienced and natural, because it is written, Men and beasts you will preserve, O Lord.^[1] Isaac, therefore, the Word of the law, sows barley, and yet in that very barley he finds fruit a hundredfold.^[2] For even in the law you find martyrs, whose fruit is a hundredfold.

But also our Lord, the Isaac of the Gospels, said certain things that were more perfect to the apostles, but to the crowds he said things which were plain and common.^[3] But do you wish to see that even he presents barley to beginners? It is written in the Gospels that he fed the crowds a second time.^[4] But those whom he feeds the first time, that is, the beginners, he feeds with barley loaves.^[5] But later, when they had progressed by this time in the word and teaching, he presents them loaves of wheat.

Isaac was insignificant in the law, but with the passing of time he becomes great. He becomes great, with the passing of time, in the prophets. For while he is in the law alone he is not yet great, since indeed it too is covered with a veil. He grows, therefore, now in the prophets; but when he has arrived at this point that also he may cast aside the veil, then he will be very great. When the letter of the law has begun to be separated like the chaff of its barley and it has appeared that the law is spiritual,^[1] then Isaac will be magnified and will become very great.

For notice that also the Lord in the Gospels breaks a few loaves, and notice how many thousand people he refreshes and how many baskets of leftovers remain.^[2] While the loaves are whole, no one is filled, no one is refreshed, nor do the loaves themselves appear to be increased. Now consider, therefore, how we break a few loaves: we take up a few words from the divine Scriptures and how many thousand men are filled. But unless those loaves have been broken, unless they have been crumbled into pieces by the disciples, that is, unless the letter has been discussed and broken in little pieces, its meaning cannot reach everyone. But when we have begun to investigate and discuss each single matter, then the crowds indeed will assimilate as much as they shall be able. But what they haven’t been able to digest should be gathered and preserved, lest anything be lost.^[3]

We also, therefore, preserve whatever the crowds cannot receive and gather it into baskets and hampers. . . . Let us see what fragments we have diligently collected lest they be lost, and what we are preserving in baskets until the Lord command what also should become of them.

But now, as much as possible, let us either eat of the bread or draw water from the wells. Let us attempt to do also that which wisdom admonishes, saying, Drink the waters of your own springs and wells, and let your spring be your own.^[1]

Therefore you also attempt, O hearer, to have your own well and your own spring, so that you too, when you take up a book of the Scriptures, may begin even from your own understanding to bring forth some meaning, and in accordance with those things which you have learned in the church, you too attempt to drink from the fountain of your own abilities. You have the nature of living water within you.^[2] There are within you perennial veins and streams flowing with rational understanding, if only they have not been filled with earth and rubbish. But get busy to dig out your earth and to clean out the filth, that is, to remove the idleness of your natural ability and to cast out the inactivity of your heart. For hear what the Scripture says: Prick the eye, and it will bring forth a tear; prick the heart, and it brings forth understanding.^[3]

Do you want to know how grow should be understood? Listen to what Isaac did. Scripture says of him, Isaac progressed and became greater, until he became great, and very much so. His will always tended toward the better and kept making progress. His mind kept contemplating something more divine, and he kept exercising his memory, to store up more in his treasure house and retain it more securely. So this is the way it came about. Isaac cultivated all his virtues in the field of his soul, and thus he fulfilled the command that ordered him to grow.

And Isaac began, the text says, to dig wells, wells that his servants had dug in the time of his father Abraham, but the Philistines had stopped them up and filled them with earth. First, therefore, he dwelt at the well of vision,^[1] and having been illuminated by the well of vision, he undertakes to open other wells, and not first new wells but those that his father Abraham had dug.

And when he had dug the first well, the Philistines, the text says, were envious of him.^[2] But he was not deterred by their envy, nor did he yield to their jealousy. But the text says, he again dug the wells which the servants of his father Abraham had dug and the Philistines had stopped up after the death of his father Abraham; and he gave them names in accordance with the names which his father had given them.^[3] He dug therefore those wells that his father had dug and that had been filled with earth by the malice of the Philistines. He dug also other new wells in the valley of Gerar, not indeed himself, but his servants, and he found there, the text says, a well of living water. But the shepherds of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s shepherds saying the water was theirs. And he called the name of the well ‘Injustice.’ For they dealt unjustly with him.^[4] But Isaac withdraws from their malice and again dug another well, and for it no less, the text says, they quarreled, and he called its name ‘Enmity.’ And he withdrew from there and dug again another well, and they did not quarrel about it; and he called its name ‘Breadth,’ saying that now God has given us room and has increased us on the earth.^[5]

Well does the holy apostle say in a certain passage when considering the magnitude of mysteries: And for these things who is sufficient?^[6] In a similar way—nay, rather dissimilar by far, to the extent that we are by far inferior to him—we also seeing such great depth in the mysteries of the wells, say, And for these things who is sufficient? For who is able worthily to explain either the mysteries of such great wells or of those things that are related to have been done for the wells? Who is able unless we invoke the Father of the living Word and he should deign to put the word in our mouth so that we may be able to draw a little living water^[7] for you who thirst from those wells which are so copious and numerous?

This Isaac, therefore, our Savior, when he has come into that valley of Gerar, first of all wishes to dig those wells that the servants of his father had dug; he wishes to renew the wells of the law, of course, and the prophets, which Philistines had filled with earth.

Who are those who fill the wells with earth? Those, doubtless, who put an earthly and fleshly interpretation on the law and close up the spiritual and mystical interpretation so that neither do they themselves drink nor do they permit others to drink.

Hear our Isaac, the Lord Jesus, saying in the Gospels: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, since you have taken away the key of knowledge, and you yourselves have not entered, nor have you permitted those who wish to enter.^[1] Those therefore are the ones who have filled with earth the wells which the servants of Abraham had dug; those who teach the law carnally and defile the waters of the Holy Spirit; who hold the wells for this purpose, not that they might bring forth water but that they might put earth in them. Isaac therefore undertakes to dig these wells. And let us see how he digs them.

When the servants of Isaac, who are the apostles of our Lord, were passing through grain fields on the sabbath, Scripture says, they plucked the ears and ate, rubbing them in their hands.^[2] At that time, therefore, those who had filled his father’s wells with earth said to him, Behold, your disciples are doing that which is not lawful on the sabbath day.^[3] In order to dig out their earthly understanding, Jesus says to them, Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him, how he went in to Abiathar the priest and ate the consecrated bread, he and his servants, which it was not lawful to eat but for the priests only?^[4] And he adds these words: If you knew what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would certainly never have condemned the innocent.^[5] But what do those men reply to these words? They quarrel with his servants and say, This man is not of God who does not keep the sabbath.^[6] In this way, therefore, Isaac dug the wells which the servants of his father had dug.

Isaac therefore digs also new wells; no, rather, Isaac’s servants dig them. Isaac’s servants are Matthew, Mark, Luke, John; his servants are Peter, James, Jude; the apostle Paul is Isaac’s servant. These all dig the wells of the New Testament. But those who mind earthly things^[1] nor permit new things to be established nor old things to be cleansed also quarrel for these wells. They oppose the gospel wells; they resist the apostolic wells. And since they oppose in all things, since they quarrel in all things, it is said to them, Since you have made yourselves unworthy of God’s grace, henceforth now we go to the Gentiles.^[2]

Consider the degree of evil of those inhabitants such as even to begrudge the good man water. Not even the king, despite his having so much wealth, could withstand the impulse of envy but said, Depart from us, because you have become far too powerful for us. What terrible malice; why, in fact, are you driving the good man off? Surely Isaac caused your subjects no harm? Surely he did no wrong? But that is what envy is like: It does nothing out of calm reason. I mean, on seeing the good man enjoying such favor from the God of all, Abimelech should rather have respected him, should rather have shown him honor so as himself to win favor from on high because of the honor shown him. But instead of doing that, he even tried to drive him off, saying, Depart from us, because you have become far too powerful for us.

That is what envy is like, after all: It cannot simply accept others’ success but instead regards the neighbor’s prosperity as a disaster for itself and is devastated by the neighbor’s good fortune. That is precisely what happened here: having authority over the whole city and holding everyone in his thrall, the king said to this nomad, this vagrant, wandering hither and yon, Depart from us, because you have become far too powerful for us. Isaac really was more powerful, with help from above in every circumstance and protected by God’s right hand.

For who is able worthily to explain either the mysteries of such great wells or of those things that are related to have been done for the wells, unless we invoke the Father of the living Word and he should deign to put the word in our mouth so that we may be able to draw a little living water for you who thirst from those wells which are so copious and numerous?

There are, therefore, wells that the servants of Abraham dug, but the Philistines had filled these with earth. Isaac therefore undertakes first to clear these wells. The Philistines hate water; they love earth. Isaac loves water; he is always seeking wells; he cleans old wells, he opens new ones.

Consider our Isaac, who has been offered as a sacrifice for us,^[1] coming into the valley of Gerar, which means wall or hedge. [He is] coming, I say, that he might destroy the middle wall of hedge, the enmities, in his flesh.^[2] [He is] coming to remove the wall that is between us and the heavenly virtues, that he might make both one^[3] and carry back to the mountains^[4] on his shoulder the lamb which had strayed and restore it to the other ninety-nine which had not strayed.^[5]

For Abraham dug wells and Isaac too—that is, the mighty patriarchs—and Jacob also, as we find in the Gospel,^[1] as if they were fountains of the human race, and specifically fountains of faith and devotion. For what is a well of living water but a depth of profound instruction? On this account Hagar saw the angel by a well^[2] and Jacob found his wife Rachel by a well;^[3] Moses too earned the first rewards of his future marriage beside a well.^[4] Therefore Isaac undertook to open wells out of a depth of vision and in good order, so that the water of his well might first wash and strengthen the reasoning faculty of the soul and its eye, to make its sight clearer.

After these things, then, Isaac dug a third well and called the name of that place ‘Room-Enough,’ saying, ‘Now the Lord has given us room and has increased us on the earth.’ ^[1] For truly now Isaac is given room and his name is increased on all the earth since he has fulfilled for us the knowledge of the Trinity. For then God was known only in Judea^[2] and his name was named in Israel, but now their sound has gone forth into all the earth and their words into the ends of the world.^[3] For the servants of Isaac going throughout the whole world have dug wells and have shown the living water^[4] to all, baptizing all the nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.^[5] For the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.^[6]

But also each of us who serves the Word of God digs wells and seeks living water, from which he may renew his hearers. If, therefore, I too shall begin to discuss the words of the ancients and to seek in them a spiritual meaning, if I shall have attempted to remove the veil of the law and to show that the things which have been written are allegorical,^[1] I am indeed digging wells. But immediately the friends of the letter will stir up malicious charges against me and will lie in ambush for me. They will contrive immediately hostilities and persecutions, denying that the truth can stand except upon earth.

But if we are servants of Isaac, let us love wells of living water and springs. Let us withdraw from those who are contentious and contrive malicious charges and leave them in the earth, which they love. But let us never cease digging wells of living water. And by discussing now indeed things that are old and again things that are new, let us become like that scribe in the Gospel, of whom the Lord said, He brings forth from his treasures new things and old.^[2]

So therefore the wells that Abraham dug, that is, the Scriptures of the Old Testament, have been filled with earth by the Philistines, or evil teachers, scribes and Pharisees, or even hostile powers; and their veins have been stopped up lest they provide a drink for these who are of Abraham. For that people cannot drink from the Scriptures but suffer a thirst for the word of God^[1] until Isaac should come and open them that his servants may drink. Thanks therefore to Christ, the son of Abraham—of whom it is written, The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham^[2]—who has come and opened the wells for us. For he opened them for those men who said, Was not our heart burning in us when he opened to us the Scriptures?^[3] He opened therefore these wells and called them, the text says, as his father Abraham had called them.^[4] For he did not change the names of the wells.

And it is astonishing that Moses is called Moses even among us, and each of the prophets is addressed by his own name. For Christ did not change the names in the Scriptures but the understanding. And he changes it there that now later we might not pay attention to Jewish fables^[5] and endless genealogies,^[6] because they turn their hearing away from the truth indeed but are turned to fables.^[7]

Christ opened therefore the wells and taught us, that we might not seek God in some one place but might know that sacrifice is offered to his name in every land.^[8] For it is now that time when the true worshipers worship the Father neither in Jerusalem nor on Mt. Gerazim but in spirit and truth.^[9] God therefore dwells neither in a place nor in a land, but he dwells in the heart. And if you are seeking the place of God, a pure heart is his place. For he says that he will dwell in this place when he says through the prophet, I will dwell in them and walk in them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, says the Lord.^[10]

Consider therefore that perhaps even in the soul of each of us there is a well of living water, there is a kind of heavenly perception and latent image of God, and the Philistines, that is, hostile powers, have filled this well with earth. With what kind of earth? With carnal perceptions and earthly thoughts, and for that reason we have borne the image of the earthly.^[1] At that time, therefore, when we were bearing the image of the earthly, the Philistines filled our wells. But now, since our Isaac has come, let us receive his advent and dig our wells. Let us cast the earth from them. Let us purge them from all filth and from all muddy and earthly thoughts, and let us discover in them that living water that the Lord mentions: He who believes in me, from within him shall flow rivers of living water.^[2] Behold how great the Lord’s liberality is: the Philistines filled our wells and hindered our small and trifling veins of water, and in place of these, springs and rivers are restored to us.

If therefore you also hearing these words today should faithfully perceive what is said, Isaac would work also in you; he would cleanse your hearts from earthly perceptions. And seeing these mysteries that are so great to be lying hidden in the divine Scriptures, you progress in understanding, you progress in spiritual perceptions. You yourselves will also begin to be teachers, and rivers of living water will proceed from you.^[3] For the Word of God is present, and this now is his work, that he might remove the earth from the soul of each of you and open your spring. For he is within you and does not come from without, just as also the kingdom of God is within you.^[4]

Now Isaac reopened many wells that his father had dug, but strangers had filled them after the death of his father Abraham. Beyond the others he dug the following wells: one in the valley of Gerar, and he found there a well of living water; and the shepherds of Gerar disputed with Isaac’s shepherds, because they claimed the water of this well as their own, and he called its name Injustice. And he dug another well over which a quarrel arose, and he called it Enmity. And he dug a third well, over which no dispute began among the shepherds, and he called it Room Enough. He also dug a well and did not find water in it and called that well Well of the Oath. Would anyone reading of these things consider that those works were earthly rather than spiritual?

As therefore the Lord himself accommodates his form in correspondence to the place and time and certain individual conditions, so also the saints, who prefigured him, should be believed to have represented types of mysteries in correspondence to places and times and conditions. [This] also we see now to be the case in Isaac, of whom we have heard it read, He went up, the text says, from there to the well of the oath, and the Lord appeared to him that night and said, I am the God of Abraham your father; fear not. For I am with you, and I will bless you and multiply your seed because of Abraham your father.^[1]

The apostle Paul set forth two figures of this Isaac to us. One, about which he said that Ishmael indeed, the son of Hagar, represented the people according to the flesh, but Isaac the people who are of faith.^[2] The other, about which he said, He did not say, and to his seeds, as of many, but to his seed, as of one, which is Christ.^[3] Isaac therefore represents the people and Christ. Now it is certain that Christ is spoken of as the Word of God not only in the Gospels but also in the law and prophets. But in the law he teaches beginners; in the Gospels he teaches the perfect. And Isaac therefore represents now the Word that is in the law or the prophets.

We have also already said previously that the embellishment of the temple and of those divine services which were performed therein was an ascent of the law. The increase of the prophets also can be called an ascent of the law. And for this reason perhaps Isaac is said to have gone up to the well of the oath and there the Lord is said to have appeared to him. For through the prophets the Lord has sworn and he will not repent, that he is a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.^[1] God appeared to him, therefore, at the well of the oath confirming the fulfillment of the promises made to him.

Isaac builds indeed an altar even now in the law and pitches his tent, but in the Gospels he does not pitch a tent but builds a house and establishes a foundation. For hear Wisdom saying of the church: Wisdom, Scripture says, has built herself a house and has set up seven columns.^[1] Hear Paul also saying about this: For no man can lay a foundation but that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus.^[2]

Where, therefore, there is a tent, even if it should be pitched, it is doubtless to be folded up. But where there are foundations and a house is built upon a rock, that house is never destroyed, for it has been founded on a rock.^[3] Nevertheless Isaac digs a well there too, nor does he ever cease digging wells until the fountain of living water^[4] arises and the stream of the river makes the city of God joyful.^[5]

This Abimelech, as I see it, does not always have peace with Isaac, but sometimes he disagrees, at other times he seeks peace. If you remember how, in what precedes, we said of Abimelech that he represents the learned and wise of the world who have comprehended many things even of the truth through the learning of philosophy, you can understand how he can be neither always in dissension nor always at peace with Isaac, who represents the Word of God in the law. For philosophy is neither opposed to everything in the law of God nor in harmony with everything.

For many of the philosophers write that there is one God who has created all things. In this they agree with the law of God. Some also have added this, that God made and rules all things by his Word and it is the Word of God by which all things are directed. In this they write in harmony not only with the law but also with the Gospels. Indeed, almost the total philosophy that is called moral and natural holds the same views we do. But it disagrees with us when it says matter is coeternal with God. It disagrees when it denies that God is concerned about mortal things but that his providence is confined beyond the spaces of the lunar sphere. They disagree with us when they appraise the lives of those being born by the courses of the stars. They disagree when they say this world is permanent and is to have no end. But there are also many other things in which they either disagree with us or are in harmony. And therefore in accordance with this figure, Abimelech is sometimes described as being at peace with Isaac and sometimes as disagreeing.

But also I do not think that this was of idle concern to the Holy Spirit, who writes these things, to relate that two others came with Abimelech, that is, Ahuzzath his kinsman and Phicol the leader of his army.

Now Ahuzzath means containing and Phicol the mouth of all, but Abimelech himself means my father is king. These three, in my opinion, figuratively represent all philosophy, which is divided into three parts among them: logic, physics, ethics, that is, rational, natural, moral. The rational is that which acknowledges God to be Father of all, that is, Abimelech. The natural is that which is fixed and contains all things, as depending on the forces of nature itself, which Ahuzzath, which means containing, professes to be. The moral is that which is in the mouth of all and pertains to all and is situated in the mouth of all because of the likeness of the common precepts. Phicol, which means the mouth of all, signifies this.

All these therefore come to the law of God in the learning of instructions of this kind and say, We certainly saw that the Lord is with you, and we said, ‘Let there be an oath between us and you and let us establish a covenant with you, lest you do evil with us, but as we have not cursed you, so also you are blessed by the Lord.’ ^[1]

Those three, who seek peace from the Word of God and desire to anticipate his fellowship with a covenant, can indeed represent the magi who come from parts of the East learned in the books of their fathers and in the instruction of their ancestors and say, We certainly saw^[2] the one born king,^[3] and we have seen that God is with him,^[4] and we have come to worship him.^[5]

But also if there is anyone who has been instructed in learning of this kind, seeing that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself^[6] and who has admired the majesty of his works, let him say, We certainly saw that the Lord is with you, and we said, ‘Let there be an oath between us.’ ^[7] For approaching the law of God he says necessarily, I have sworn and am determined that I shall keep your commandments.^[8]

For it is certain that he who serves the Word is debtor to the wise and the unwise.^[1] Because, therefore, he is producing a feast for the wise, for this reason it is said that he made not a small but a great feast.

And you, if you should not still be a little child and in need of milk but should bring your senses exercised^[2] and should come more capable to an understanding of the Word of God after very much instruction has been set before you, there will also be a great feast for you. The vegetables of the weak^[3] will not be prepared for you as food, nor will you be nourished with milk with which little children are nourished, but the servant of the Word will make a great feast for you. He will speak to you the wisdom that is offered among the perfect. He will offer you the wisdom of God hidden in a mystery, which none of the princes of this world knew.^[4] He will reveal Christ to you in this respect, that in him all the treasures of wisdom are hidden.^[5]

He makes you therefore a great feast, and he himself eats with you if he should not find you to be such that he should say to you, I could not speak to you as to spiritual, but as to carnal, as to little ones in Christ.^[6]

He says this to the Corinthians, to which he also adds, For when there are contentions and dissensions among you, are you not carnal and walk in a human way?^[7] Paul did not make a great feast for these, insofar that when he was with them and was in need, he was a burden to no one. Nor did he eat bread he did not pay for from anyone, but laboring night and day, his own hands served himself and all who were with him.^[8] The Corinthians therefore were so far from having a great feast that the preacher of the Word of God could have not even the least or a little feast with them.

But there is a great feast for those who know how to hear more perfectly, who bring their senses instructed and exercised^[9] for hearing the Word of God.

Let us imitate Isaac’s goodness; let us imitate his purity. Isaac was certainly a good and virtuous man, devoted to God and faithful to his wife. He did not return evil for evil. He yielded to those who drove him out, but he received them again when they were sorry, being neither harsh to insolence nor obdurate to kindness. When he went away from others, he fled to avoid strife. When he received them again, he readily forgave them, and he was exceptionally kind when he pardoned. Men sought to associate with him, and he added a delightful feast.

See how much can be learned from these few words. I mean, why did it indicate to us Esau’s age? Not idly, but for us to learn from it Isaac’s advanced years and the fact that he was now well beyond his prime. You see, if we recall what was said before, that at the time he married Rebekah he was in fact forty years old, whereas when the children were born he was sixty, we will realize that now at a hundred he had reached the height of old age. Since, in fact, it is next about to recount to us that because of his age he had poor eyesight, accordingly it indicates his age to us so that we might be in a position to know precisely Isaac’s time of life. So it said, Now, Esau was forty.

Then for us to learn the boy’s indiscretion in taking brides from races he should not have, it revealed to us that one was from the race of the Hittites, the other from the Hivites.^[1] Yet knowing as Esau did the pains taken by the patriarch in giving express orders to his servant to select a bride for Isaac from his own tribe and the fact that their mother Rebekah came from Haran, he should not have set his mind on any such thing. In order, however, to show from the outset the undisciplined character of Esau’s behavior, he took those wives before seeking advice. And for us to learn their intractable nature Scripture says, They were at odds with Isaac and Rebekah. What could be more galling than this antipathy when they were due to show complete respect and not only did not do this but were even prepared for hostility?