Believing And Trusting- Part 10
October 12, 2026 – 3:29 amTo walk in the Abrahamic Covenant, you should expect to become prosperous!
We were born for fruitfulness, even in famine.
Moses recorded by The Holy Spirit in Genesis chapter 26:
1 There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, in Gerar.
2 Then the LORD appeared to him and said: “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land of which I shall tell you.
3 Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.
[4] And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed;
Why?
5 because Abraham obeyed My Voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”
12 Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the LORD blessed him.
13 The man began to prosper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous;
14 for he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servants. So the Philistines envied him.
Genesis 26:14 says that Isaac had so many “flocks and herds and servants” that the Philistines envied him. The verse follows the account of Isaac planting crops during a famine and receiving an unusually large harvest because the Lord blessed him (Genesis 26:12–13).
The verse shows that Isaac’s prosperity was visible in the ordinary resources of his time: livestock, workers, and a productive household. But it also introduces a problem. His growing wealth stirred envy among his neighbors, and the next verses describe the Philistines filling in the wells Abraham’s servants had dug (26:15–16). Those wells were essential to Isaac’s household and animals.
In the larger story, God’s blessing did not mean Isaac would face no opposition. Isaac kept moving, reopened wells, and eventually found room to live in peace (26:17–22). Later, when the Philistine king sought a treaty, he acknowledged, “We see plainly that the LORD has been with you” (26:28).
So Genesis 26:14 is both a description of prosperity and a turning point in the story: Isaac had abundance, others envied it, and his response to the resulting conflict became part of his testimony.
As FATHER prospers us, we will be envied by those who are not fruitful. In some cases, we will be opposed and challenged to the point of conflict so don’t be surprised.
Let us not become complacent once prosperity surrounds us.
To be complacent is to become so satisfied or comfortable with how things are that you stop paying attention to what needs to change.
It is different from being content. Contentment means you can be grateful and at peace while still acting faithfully. Complacency means you overlook a responsibility, a problem, or an opportunity to grow.
James wrote by The Holy Spirit in James chapter 1:
22 But be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
23 For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror;
24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
In a spiritual sense, complacency might look like hearing God’s Word but no longer putting it into practice, or assuming that past growth means you do not need to keep growing. Paul expressed the opposite attitude when he said he had not yet “attained” his goal but continued to press on (Philippians 3:12–14).
A useful question is: “Am I at peace because I’m trusting God, or am I comfortable because I’ve stopped responding to what He’s showing me?”
The Abrahamic Covenant extends to us as we are doers of The Word. We will be blessed in whatever we do just as Isaac was blessed, even in famine!
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