What does Rehoboth mean?

Rehoboth is from a Hebrew word that literally means "a wide spot in the road." That’s a funny name for a church, isn’t it? That is, unless you know (as Paul Harvey says) the rest of the story.

In Genesis 26, in the first book of the Bible, Isaac, the son of Abraham and the father of Jacob and Esau, went to live in the land of the Philistines because there was a famine in the land where he was living. While there, he was so prosperous that he was asked to leave. The first time he moved, the other herdsmen in the area quarreled with his herdsmen over a fresh well Isaac’s herdsmen had just dug. He named the well "dispute" and moved from there. The second placed yielded the same results, so he named the well "opposition." But the third place did not result in a quarrel with the locals. There he stayed. This well he named Rehoboth or "room." And just as Isaac came to a land where there was a place for him, we want you to know that there is a place for you here…room for you…room to grow…room to serve…