J. Douglas Dortch, Jr., Ph.D.
First Baptist Church, Tallahassee, FL
“Succeed Anyway”
From the Series "The Paradoxical Commandments"
Scripture: Genesis 26:1-6, 12-22
September 23, 2007
In an old cartoon, two characters are riding down a road that is marked by a sign with an arrow that reads, “Road to Success.” They’re riding down the road with big smiles and clear confidence, until they come unexpectedly to a second sign, which reads, “Be prepared to stop.” On the road to success, you must always be prepared to stop.
Isn’t that how life goes for most of us? We find ourselves zipping along one day, only to find ourselves at complete stop the next. Things happen. Mistakes occur. Obstacles appear. A good bit of what happens does so on its own, but not all of it. There’s also a good part of the stuff that stops us that comes from people around us.
One of the paradoxical commandments has it that if you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. You will encounter people in your life who are envious of your success and who will do everything in their power to frustrate your progress. Sometimes they will talk sweetly to your face while cutting you down behind your back. At other times they will give you the cold shoulder. Still at other times they will sabotage your best efforts. But you must never allow them to hinder what you hope to accomplish for God. You must rise above their expressions of envy to experience even more of the Lord’s favor.
But how do you do that? This story about Isaac gives us some clues.
Isaac is something of a “sandwich” character in the Bible. By that I mean that he falls between two more dominant personalities in the patriarchal narratives of Genesis – father Abraham and son Jacob. Isaac almost gets lost in the shuffle. But even then Isaac is an important person in salvation history, if for no other reason than for how the promise of blessings extends through him to the generations that are to follow.
At this point in his story, Isaac finds himself in Philistine territory. As nomads in the ancient world would often do, Isaac lingered in that region long enough to do some planting, and because God’s blessings were upon him, Isaac reaped an impressive harvest of a hundredfold.
It was that harvest that brought about the envy of the Philistine king, Abimelech. Abimelech was so concerned about Isaac’s prosperity and power that he ordered Isaac to move away. Abimelech was a king, and yet he was threatened by the prosperity of Isaac.
Some years ago, I was introduced to Steven Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Say what you will about Covey’s faith background, he speaks the truth on what often separates successful people from those who wallow in mediocrity. One of the habits he identifies has to do with what he calls “the principle of abundance.” The principle simply states that some people live with the belief that there’s enough to go around for everyone – enough stuff, enough position, enough authority. But on the other hand, there are other people who live with what he calls “the principle of scarcity” – there’s only so much stuff, only so much position, only so much authority. And for those people who live on the basis of scarcity, whatever you get takes away from whatever might be at my disposal.
How would you characterize Isaac and how would you characterize Abimelech? And more importantly, how would you characterize yourself?
It doesn’t take a Ph.D. to see that Abimelech was clearly on the side of scarcity. Not only did he order Isaac to leave, he encouraged Isaac’s retreat by having his henchman fill up Isaac’s wells with dirt. Isaac moved away and dug more wells, wells that his father Abraham had originally dug. But the Philistines contended that even those wells now belonged to them. Isaac continued moving farther away, until there was enough distance between him and his detractors. And when he found peace, he dug yet another well and called it “Rehoboth,” which means, “space,” and there he acknowledged that it was God that had given him space and blessing.
A lot of commentators on this story try to psychoanalyze Isaac. They see him as timid and weak and wonder if perhaps Isaac’s behavior was a reflection of some emotional baggage he must have still been carrying around from when father Abraham tried to sacrifice him back at Mount Moriah. They want Isaac to have taken a stand against Abimelech and to have put up a fight for those wells, especially the wells that his father had dug.
But I think Isaac did take a stand. I think he took a stand for God. I see Isaac diligently pursuing God, and when Isaac came to a place where Abimelech’s thugs were no longer an issue, he acknowledged God’s help and he trusted in God’s continued blessing. “Now the Lord has given us room, and we will flourish in the land” (v.22).
You see, there are lots of successful people in the Bible who garner the envy of others. There’s Moses who as he was leading the children of Israel to the Land of Promise had to deal with the envy of Korah, the Levite, who considered himself superior to Moses (Numbers 16:1-11). There’s Gideon, the great judge who delivered Israel from the Midianites, who had to deal with the envy of the men of Succoth and the men of Peniel, who questioned his ability to lead the people into battle (Judges 8:4-17). There’s Jesus, our Savior and Lord, who had to deal with the envy of the Pharisees, who resented the manner in which the crowds saw Jesus as “one who taught with authority” (Matthew 7:29).
The thread that runs through all of their stories – the story of Isaac, the story of Moses, the story of Gideon, the story of Jesus – is a diligent devotion to the favor of God. It is the belief that God was in control in each situation and had placed His hand on each person’s life so that no matter how much animosity others showed to them, God had enough favor to give that they never need worry that somehow they might miss God’s blessing.
I love how Jesus put it in his Farewell Discourse to his disciples. “In my Father’s house are many mansions” (John 14:2). That verse can also be translated: “In my Father’s house are many rooms.” In other words, “In my Father’s house there’s plenty of space.” Our God is a space-giving God. He’s a God who provides for His own. He’s a “Rehoboth” God, as Isaac discovered. He’s a God who gives us room and enables us to flourish in the land.
But we must be diligent in our devotion. Like Isaac, we must not allow the evil and the envy of others to bring us to a stop. We must trust God to keep us going along the road to success, which is a path we purse not for our sake, but for His.
Back in the forties, Clarence Jordan founded a unique community just up the road in Americus, Georgia. He called it “Koinonia Farm,” koinonia being the word for “communion” in the New Testament. It was a place dedicated not just to the theory but to the expression of Christian unity and cooperation between the races – not a popular theme in this country at that time.
One night, a group of envious vigilantes came and burned every building on the farm except for Jordan’s home. Imagine how discouraged Jordan must have been for all that work to have gone up in flames. Imagine how fearful he must have been, wondering if the next time it might be his own home.
Jordan was home during the raid, and as he listened to the voices of the vigilantes, he recognized the voice of a local reporter. In an amazing show of sheer gall, that same reporter showed up the next day at the farm to do a story about the arson while the rubble of the buildings was still smoldering. He found Jordan in the field, planting seeds. “Heard the awful news of your tragedy last night, Clarence, and I came out to a story on the closing of your farm.”
Jordan just kept planting and hoeing, planting and hoeing. Thinking that Jordan didn’t hear him, the reporter spoke louder. “Hey Clarence, I heard about the fire last night. I figured you’d be shutting down the farm, and I came to do a story.” Nothing. No response whatsoever.
Finally, the reporter said, “Clarence, you’ve got two Ph.D.’s. You’ve put fourteen years into this farm. There’s nothing left, except for this field and your house. Just how successful do you think you’ve been?”
That got Jordan’s attention. He stopped his hoeing and his planting and looked up at the reporter. “You just don’t get it, do you? You just don’t understand Christians (even though the reporter probably claimed to be one, and most likely a Baptist).” “What we’re about,” he said to the reporter, “is not success.” “What we’re about is nothing but faithfulness.”
What we’re about is nothing but faithfulness.
One day when I stand before my Maker, I don’t believe He will ask me if I’ve been effective. I don’t believe He will ask me if I’ve been healthy or well-adjusted. I don’t believe He will ask me if I’ve been prosperous or popular, though there’s not anything inherently wrong with any of those things; they’re just not the things that God looks for first in His people. I believe He’ll ask me if I’ve been faithful. I believe He’ll ask me if I’ve been diligently devoted. And I believe that when you stand before Him, He will ask you the same thing.
If on your path of life some way becomes blocked, look for another. If some work of faith becomes torched, do another. If some well gets filled up, dig another. With God’s help, look for another. Do another. Dig another.
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. You will encounter people who will envy your success. Succeed anyway. For now you know what success in God’s eye is all about. It’s nothing but faithfulness.