A Visit With Mrs. G

Guest (Male): Here we are.

Guest (Female): I hope she's home. Can I ring the bell?

Guest (Male): May I ring the bell?

Guest (Female): But I want to!

Guest (Male): Well, somebody better, or we'll miss our visit with Mrs. G.

Mrs. Kitty Griffiths: Hello, I'm glad to see you. I was listening for you. Come on in.

Guest (Female): How about some stories?

Mrs. Kitty Griffiths: Stories? Yes, I've got some specially for you.

Well, the great Sheikh Isaac, Abraham's son, was very calm and polite to King Abimelech when he roared, "Get out of our country! There's far too many of you! You're using up our water! We shall have none left! Get out!"

Guest (Male): Why, certainly. And thank you very much for having us.

Mrs. Kitty Griffiths: And Isaac gave orders that the camp must begin to move immediately out of King Abimelech's territory.

Guest (Male): Well, there goes our master again. Young Master Esau would have let us fight them and teach these people a lesson. They're afraid of us as it is because we are so many. We could have whacked them easily.

Mrs. Kitty Griffiths: As they walloped the stuff together, they pretended that they were walloping the Philistines. It made them feel a little better.

They couldn't move very fast, this great camp—hundreds of people, little children and old people among them, and thousands of animals: donkeys, sheep, goats, camels. But they moved on a day's journey and pitched camp.

Water had to be found. Joktan and some well-diggers had gone ahead, Joktan to divine the water and the others to dig down and make a well. No sooner had they dug a good well and everybody in the tribe had unpacked and settled down again, then who should turn up but angry Philistine herdsmen?

Guest (Male): That's our water you're taking!

Mrs. Kitty Griffiths: They were horribly surly. Isaac gave orders to his herdsmen to give way. "We'll move on in the morning," he said. And he called that well a name: the Well of Anger. Perhaps Isaac and all his people felt better, a bit, when they'd called the well a name.

Joktan, the water diviner, and his well-diggers and earth-disposers went ahead. They got a well dug and the great camp moved on and pitched nearby. They'd all just got nicely settled when who should show up but some more Philistine herdsmen?

Guest (Male): You're stealing our water! You're robbing our country of water!

Mrs. Kitty Griffiths: Isaac calmly gave orders for the great camp to be ready to move off in the morning. He called this well a name, too: the Well of Argument. Of course, everybody had to carry water with them for their journey.

Joktan, the water diviner, and his helpers, diggers, and dirt-draggers went ahead. They could travel faster than the camp. They found water and dug another well, and the camp moved up round the well. Isaac's great camp was almost back at Beersheba by now.

And believe it or not, no Philistines turned up to yell at them.

Guest (Male): Well, at last, there's room for us.

Mrs. Kitty Griffiths: And he just had to give this well a name. People were waiting for it. This was the name that Isaac gave this well: the Well of Room Enough for Us at Last.

Guest (Male): Well, we're safe at last and so near home. We might as well all get back to Beersheba.

Mrs. Kitty Griffiths: Which is where they'd set out from in the first place, in the land that God had promised to give Abraham and his family. And they were Abraham's family.

The very first night that Isaac and his great company got back to Beersheba, God spoke to him. Actually spoke to him. "Isaac," God said, "I am the God of Abraham." To be sure, Isaac trembled with fear and thrill and excitement. It's something to hear God's voice.

"Don't be afraid, Isaac," God said. "I am with you, and I will bless you, and you shall become a great nation of people for My servant Abraham's sake." God did think a lot of Abraham, didn't He? We read that God called Abraham, "My friend."

Anyway, Isaac stopped quaking and felt very elated and pleased and safe, and the first thing he did right then and there was to get an altar built. He chose out his very best lamb and offered it to God as a sacrifice. There was just no other way that he could say thank you and please God.

Then Joktan got busy with his Y-shaped twig again. It had to be a newly cut one with the sap in it. The children watched Joktan walking up and down, up and down, up and down, holding the two arms of his witch hazel twig.

How the children clapped when the twig danced! And they loved watching the diggers and the men who emptied the earth from the buckets. And when at last the buckets that were being let down sloshed and splashed in water, and the diggers had to be dragged up to the top because the water in the well they were digging was over their ankles, coming up to their knees, the children got so excited that they forgot to go home to their dinners.

Well, the camp had just about got their tents up and their things unpacked when what should happen but a messenger come from King Abimelech.

Guest (Male): Whatever now? We're out of his territory now. A messenger from King Abimelech to Chief Isaac.

Mrs. Kitty Griffiths: But Chief Isaac was very calm. And when the messenger said, "King Abimelech wants to come to see you," Isaac said, "Certainly. Tell him to come to dinner."

Guest (Male): We're hardly unpacked yet, but tell him come to dinner and do bring a few friends along with you.

Guest (Male): King Abimelech says thank you very much, he'd love to come to dinner. He's bringing one of his special friends and the captain of his army with him. Of course, there may be some others.

Guest (Male): Rebecca, King Abimelech and his army chief and a few others will be here today. They've consented to eat with us. Put on your special dish, that delicious favorite, and we'll use the gold and silver family plate that father and mother brought from Ur and Haran. We'll do them proud and make a real fuss of them. I will wear my Sheikh's robe.

Guest (Female): Oh, Isaac, you peacemaker. They don't deserve it. But it shall be done as you say. Now, you'll want Jacob in on the negotiations. I've heard it said if only they could get Esau involved, they'd love it. They can play rings round Esau, they say. But Jacob, that long-headed son of Isaac, he knows the right end of a bargain. We don't want him in negotiations. Which means that he's the one you should have.

Guest (Male): Oh, certainly, I want Jacob in on this transaction. He knows when to speak and when to hold his tongue. Poor Esau, well-meaning lad, opens his mouth and puts his foot in it—both feet sometimes. Poor boy. He can be there, but I'll forbid him to speak.

Guest (Female): Isaac, you're really talking sense this morning about Esau. I ask you how, just how on earth, can he be the leader of God's people? Impossible, preposterous, ridiculous. But this isn't the time to talk about that.

Anyway, it's just absurd to imagine him as God's chosen one. In any case, God said Jacob. I've told you that over and over. But this isn't the time to talk about that. Negotiations with King Abimelech for you today and for me a feast to prepare. May God help us.

Mrs. Kitty Griffiths: Isaac was dressed in his Sheikh's clothes. Rebecca got busy setting the servants to prepare the meat, young goat for roasting, others to prepare the drinks, others to unpack and polish the family golden goblets and silver pitchers for serving the drinks, the silver bowls for the fruit and the nuts. Some servants went to the market in Beersheba to fetch the choicest fruits and vegetables that were to be had.

Guest (Male): What's up, Mother? Who's coming?

Guest (Female): King Abimelech and his army captain and various friends of his.

Guest (Male): Does he come in peace?

Guest (Female): Well, we hope so. Your father thinks so. King Abimelech has consented to eat with your father and you and Esau.

Guest (Male): Oh, I'll help you to prepare the feast, Mother.

Guest (Female): Oh no, no, my son. Dress in your best clothes. You must be in on the negotiations.

Guest (Male): Oh no, Mother. I'm not the eldest son. Esau is Dad's right hand. The fact that he sold me his birthright hasn't made any difference at all. Dad doesn't even bother to acknowledge that Esau sold me his birthright.

Guest (Female): My son, your father has told me this very morning that he must have you in the conference with King Abimelech. Jacob has a far-seeing wit, he said. No one can muddle him as they can muddle Esau. Esau opens his mouth and puts his foot in it—two feet.

No, no, your father says, Jacob knows when to speak and when to hold his tongue. I must have Jacob with me, he said. Esau will be there too, but your father will forbid him to speak. You are obviously the one to lead God's people, Jacob. In any case, God told me that you were before you were born. Do go and dress ready, Jacob, and go into your father's tent. I think the King will soon be here, and your father wants to discuss a few points with you before he arrives.

Guest (Male): Is that you, Jacob?

Mrs. Kitty Griffiths: Isaac peered at his son as he entered the tent. What a shame about Isaac's eyesight. No public optical or anybody else to supply spectacles in Isaac's day. What a pair of spectacles would have done for Isaac. It would have made all the difference in the world to his life and other people's if only Isaac could have had a pair of spectacles, as we shall hear in another story.

Guest (Male): Father, it's me, Jacob.

Guest (Male): Ah, Jacob. Today we're to have visitors: King Abimelech and his army captain, chief of staff, and who knows who else.

Guest (Male): I hope they come in peace, Father.

Guest (Male): Oh, I think so, Jacob. They've consented to eat with us, which is a good sign. I have an inkling that they're afraid of us. Our tremendous harvests in the semi-desert lately. Whoever gets a hundred times as much grain as he planted, as we did last year?

They've put our success down to our unseen God, which, of course, it is. He showed us where to dig for that gushing spring of water and enabled us to irrigate our crops. But Abimelech and his people eye the whole thing with suspicion, as if we had magic powers.

Guest (Male): Well, long may they think so.

Guest (Male): They want us and our unseen God as allies, not enemies now. They're afraid of us.

Guest (Male): Long may they be so. Oh, you're so mild, Father. You never fight for your rights.

Guest (Male): Why should I when I have a God who fights for me and so much better than I ever could?

Mrs. Kitty Griffiths: Just then, King Abimelech arrived. Servants on hand for feet washing. Greetings were exchanged.

Guest (Male): I'm glad to see you, Your Majesty, but I must say I'm surprised that you should come to see me after turning us out of your country the way you did.

Guest (Male): I'm sorry. Today I come to ask you to be our friends, to promise that you'll never fight us. You are stronger than we are, and you have a wonderful God. We want you to be our friends. Let's promise that we'll never hurt each other.

Guest (Male): I'll promise.

Mrs. Kitty Griffiths: The dinner was a huge success: lovely food, delicious fruit, drinks, speeches, stories, songs. And the guests stayed all night. In the morning, they each took solemn oaths to seal a non-aggression pact between the people of Chief Isaac and the people of King Abimelech. The royal party left for home in a good, happy mood.

Guest (Male): We've discovered a strong, gushing spring of water in the well that's being dug now, Master!

Mrs. Kitty Griffiths: Isaac couldn't help it. He just had to call that well a name.

Guest (Male): The Well of the Oath.

Mrs. Kitty Griffiths: And they thanked God.

Guest (Male): Now, boys. Don't the happenings of today show that it's better not to fight? Tell God your problems and leave it to Him to work it out.

Guest (Male): Thank you for visiting Mrs. G today. God's word, the Bible, has hundreds of stories and you can find many of them retold by Mrs. G. When you visit our website at www.biblestoriesalive.org, you can download audio of these stories and also find them on CDs and in books.

You can also read copies of our newsletter or help us send Bible stories to the rest of the world free of charge. That address again is www.biblestoriesalive.org. Mrs. G's Bible stories are also available from Trans World Radio in several languages, including Arabic, Mandarin, and Spanish. Visit our website for more information at www.biblestoriesalive.org. Until next time.

Mrs. Kitty Griffiths: Goodbye and God bless.