Issac, the Patriarch of Peace

 Devotional thoughts for today.

"If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all." - Romans 12:18

A little about my morning methodology. I typically choose a section of the Bible to meditate on during each year, and this year I'm reading through the "Torah" (or the first five books of the Bible, which are foundational not only to Jews but also to our Christian faith). Today, I was reading in Genesis 26.

Genesis 26 mostly covers the life details of the life of Isaac. Isaac doesn't get much press, being sandwiched in between Abraham and Jacob in the Patriarch line, but he is significant nonetheless. More is written about what is done TO Isaac vs. what Isaac himself has done. However, Genesis 26 gives a glimpse into it.

Perhaps the reason for the lack of press (if I can speculate) is that Isaac's life was pretty non-dramatic. Other than the circumstances of his birth, the fateful trip to Mount Moriah, and Jacob's act of deception, Isaac appeared to have lived a fairly boring life by Genesis standards. Okay, he did use that "she's not my wife she's my sister" line (which I don't recommend at all, guys. That wasn't cool even then).

What I found is that Isaac listened to God and did what he was instructed to do, and ran into some disagreements with the people in the land he was sojourning in. The dispute was typically over water, which was a valuable resource to those people and required well digging.

Three times, they moved to a place and dug a well. The first two times, the local herdsmen argued with Isaac's people about ownership of the well and Isaac...

Moved on, found another spot, and dug another well (Genesis 26:21-22), until they found a spot where there was no dispute.

He didn't fight them. He just moved on. Isaac also walked with God, and knew that God would provide for him and knew that there was enough water for everyone. No drama, let's just find another place to pitch our tent. Besides, this life of moving the tent and sojourning is the life that God has called me to.

God blessed him tremendously, and because, I believe, Isaac was a man of peace and seen to be very powerful, the local people acknowledged that the blessing of God was on Isaac's life and subsequently made moves to create peace with him (Genesis 26:26-33).

How do we apply this to our lives today?

First, God has made peace with us through His Son Jesus Christ, and our position as Christians is that God won us through the cross and His posture toward us now is peace. We should mimic God in this and seek to be peaceful in our dealings with others. This is the life we have been instructed to sojourn in if we belong to Christ.

Second, be winsome in our conversations. Note I didn't say wimpy (where we don't speak truth). Winsomeness has got a bad rap in some circles because the people using that language are compromising (and using "winsomeness" as an excuse), but we should be pleasant to be around as Christians and even when we are sharing uncomfortable truth, we should consider the audience and seek to show the kindness of God in every interaction. I believe many Christians sadly fall into the ditch of "too harsh" because they have gotten turned off by a "winsome" crowd that's fallen into the ditch of compromise.

Third, think about where to engage in conflict. Clue: The comments section of the post that that person who is trolling you probably is not the venue. If this is a conflict you believe you need to engage in, find ways to do it person-to-person, face-to-face if you can, and 1:1 rather than creating drama in the comments section. I do believe this is our version of "moving to dig another well."

Finally, our instruction as Christians is to live peacefully with all, if it is possible. It may not be. We live in a broken world. However, the onus to live at peace with our neighbor is on us, so let's be people of peace to those around us, even if they don't agree with what we stand for. This may mean that we have to walk away, but that's okay. We did everything in our power to maintain peace.