Genesis 26:19

Digging Wells

And Isaac's servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing (RVm ‘living') water. Genesis 26:19.

The boys and girls of this country hardly know the real value of a well. Once a party of children gathered round a genuine old-fashioned well which supplied the water. The little girls lay flat on the grass and tried to see the reflection of their faces in the water, while the boys on their knees kept screaming with delight because someone had put a trout into the well and they could see it. One and all, they took the well for granted. It was one of the things in the world out of which they could get a little fun. They never thought of the fact that some man had had very hard work digging it.

I believe it was the same in Palestine long, long ago: the children took the wells and there were a great many of them as a matter of course. But more than children gathered round the wells of Palestine.

Women came there to draw water. They loved the well simply because they met their friends there, and it was a place where sometimes very interesting things happened. Wells were a necessity in Palestine; for some parts of it were very dry, and we can imagine the effect that the finding of a spring would have on those who had been digging for a long time. They sometimes couldn't keep from singing for joy. We are told of one great man who dug wells. You know him; it was Isaac. He was a man who often meditated and dreamed dreams, for he had a very poetical mind; but he did not allow himself to forget that work had to be done. He made a special study of well-digging, and under his direction the well of our text was dug “a well of living water.”

Those old wells keep speaking parables to us. There are wells round about you. What are they?

1. There are the wells which have been dug for you. These are many, but I shall mention one. There is your home. It meant a lot of digging, a lot of hard work and self-denial on your father's part before he provided your home. And it meant a lot of digging for your mother too. It meant a lot of thinking and planning and many busy hours with her needle and her brain. And yet, boys and girls, you take it all for granted. You have even been known to grumble, yes, grumble, because the home they had made for you was not just exactly what you wished in one or two small particulars. You forgot the love that had planned and provided for your happiness. Perhaps it would be truer to say you never realized that such a lot of thought and trouble went to providing a home. Think of it now. And the next time you are tempted to complain, say to yourselves, “No, I shan't. I'll remember what it cost to dig this well.”

2. Then there are the wells that we dig for ourselves. These also are many, but again I want to speak of one.

In a large city lived a poor young woman who worked hard all day. She sometimes felt very sad and hopeless, for she had an invalid mother to keep, and however hard she worked she could hardly get ends to meet. One day a friend asked her to go to a meeting in a house not far off. She went, and found that this was a meeting where a number of young people were engaged digging. Digging in a house! Yes. They were all trying to find out the true meaning of a book of poems. The girl was not very clever, but she got a copy of the little book and took it home.

Then she began to dig. Night after night she kept digging, and at last she came upon a well of living water. Like the diggers in the Bible, she felt she could sing for joy, for from the little book there came the message that God is Love.

God's in his heaven

All's right with the world!

says the poet she was studying. She did not need to be afraid of difficulties or sorrow any longer.

There are among you, boys and girls who have a natural capacity for digging. To them, I say Dig, dig, dig. You will get your reward you will find the living water.

And I want to add this for digging wells there is no soil like the Bible. Only dig deep enough there.

Try it, boys and girls, prove it, for it is a poor life indeed that never tastes of the real “well of living water.”