Abimelech, Isaac, the birth of Free Enterprise, and Peace

April 8, 2001

 

Starting with Chapter 26, it describes a scene where Isaac meets Abimelech, the king of the Philistines. God appears to Isaac and gives his schpiel about “multiplying thy seed as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these lands”, just as he did to his father Abraham. What’s especially significant in this section is what’s revealed in verse 5: God acknowledges that Abraham was a good trooper who listened to him and kept his laws and commandments. Isaac and the ancient Hebrews benefit from Abraham gaining favor in God’s eyes.  

 

Also like his father once did, Isaac tells the King that his wife is his sister, for Rebecca is “fair to look upon”. In yet another respect, the son is like the father. Yet starting with verse 12, we see a significant difference: “And Isaac sowed in the land, and found in the same year a hundredfold; and the Lord blessed him”. When Abraham went to Egypt, we don’t know how he made his fortune. We do know that God blessed him in all things (from Chapter 24, verse 1). This is confirmed by Abraham’s servant when he speaks to Rebekkah in verses 34-35: “I am Abraham’s servant. And the Lord hath blessed my master greatly, and he is become great; and He hath given him flocks and herds, and silver and gold, and men-servants and maid-servants, and camels and asses.”

 

It appears that while Abraham was rewarded because he “hearkened unto the voice of God”, obeyed his laws, and met his challenges, Isaac is blessed because he works for a living! He is a farmer who “sowed in that land” and increased yields a hundred fold. (Of course another interpretation is that he inpregnated 100 women!). He became rich in flock and herds.

 

Now Abraham’s servants had dug wells in his day, but the Philistines had taken control of them and filled them with dirt. In other words, the servants of Abraham were enterprising while the Philistines were destroyers of that enterprise. Nevertheless, Isaac once again dug the water wells in Gerar. Through his own hard work and that of his servants, he is revitalizing the source of life and the economy of his people: water. Against the backdrop of working in a dry land struck by famine, where water was probably scarce, they were creating a market economy of sorts.

 

With every well that was dug, the herdmen of Gerar contended for ownership of the well. There was a fight over water rights. The herdsmen said “The water is ours” (Chapter 26, verse 20). Isaac and his herdsmen kept digging wells. They did so in Rehovot, then in Beer Sheva. In Beer Sheva, they found water. The city was named Beer Sheva because Isaac called the well Shibah.

 

The fundamental question of land ownership is at issue here. Who’s land is it, the ancient Hebrews or the Philistines? No question that the Hebrews were more enterprising when it came to digging wells and finding sources of water. But if the land did not belong to them, then they had no right working on it. There are no statutory provisions for land ownership in this time. Land is granted by God. In this case, God tells Isaac that “I am with thee, and will bless thee,” (verse 24). It appears that he favors the actions of Isaac and his herdsmen. Still, this doesn’t give them a right of property ownership. That concept is murky at best in the book of Genesis.

 

Starting with verse 26, we see that the Philistines are convinced that God is on the side of Isaac.  Abimelech speaks to Isaac and says in verse 28: “We saw plainly that the Lord was with thee, and we said: Let there now be an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee ...” First, how did the Philistines see that the Lord was on Isaac’s side? Did they overhear God speaking to him, or did they become convinced that the successful enterprise of Isaac and his servants was inspired by their God? Second, they are clearly making a peace offering to the Hebrews. They even want a covenant between them; in a respect, they want to become God’s chosen people as well, for the Hebrews have a covenant with God.

 

In verse 29, Abimelech continues: “ ... that thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee, and as we have done unto thee nothing but good, and have sent thee away in peace; thou art now the blessed of the Lord”. This might be a lot of hubris, but it’s still a peace offering in the making.

 

One can’t help but notice the parallels to modern day Israel. Israel is certainly an enterprising nation. In a land with a scarcity of resources, Israel has “made the desert bloom”. They have irrigated the land in many novel ways (e.g. drip irrigation), drilled for brackish water, extrapolated minerals and used the water for irrigation, harnessed solar energy for water heating, and so forth. The drilling for water, in particular, is a striking parallel to the wells that were dug in Isaac’s time.

 

Furthermore, there are similarities between Philistines and Palestinians. First, their names are similar. Some have argued that the modern day Palestinians are descendents of the Philistines. While no direct archaological evidence exists to support this thesis (or that they’re descendents of the Canaanites), there have been some similarities in farming methods between Roman-era “Palestinian” farmers (the Romans named the land Palestine) and modern-day terraced farming practiced by some Palestinian farmers. This certainly doesn’t establish a connection between the Roman era residents and the Palestinians, nor between Philistines and Palestinians, but it at least opens the door to some speculations that could be worthy of intellectual pursuit.

 

The greatest parallel involves the lesson of peace between feuding peoples. The Philistines realized they could not defeat the ancient Hebrews, just as many Palestinians realize they can’t destroy Israel. Both the Philistines and Palestinians entered a peace process, fragile as that process can be at times. The ancient Hebrews and modern day Israelis, for their part, realized that they would benefit from peace. For the most part, they refrained from hoarding the land and resources, as tempting as it was to do so. While these comparisons are somewhat idealized, they nevertheless point to tendencies that have at least been partially realized.

 

Peace goes hand in glove with free enterprise. A free market economy must by necessity be based upon the virtue of mutual voluntary exchange. Warfare is the art of coercion, even of imperialism, unless it’s a defensive war or coming to the aid of a victim. There is no mutual voluntary exchange in wars of aggression. In a free market, each worker must work for an honest living, trade his services for wages, buy goods at fair market value, or exchange goods for services. Productivity occurs when skilled workers effectively provide their labor and services to their employers in a working environment that promotes effective development of goods and/or services.

 

One final note is the interesting view of the noted Classical Liberal thinker, Friedrich Hayek. I will have to fully read his seminal work, “The Constitution of Liberty”. This is a book we read through in some high school or College class (I don’t remember which). I’ve been told that Hayek felt that the "Rule of Law" has its origins in the Old Testament, that a market economy is built upon such Rule of Law, and that the ancient Hebrews had a strong work ethic. If so, I feel that the origins of a market economy are found in the stories of Abraham and Isaac.