Living with unbelievers

Genesis 26 has some good teaching on this.

1. Our relationship with others is always through God-colored glasses. God makes promises to Isaac to obtain this land, as he moves in with the Philistines.
2. We can try to help those promises along in unhelpful ways, through less-than-honest dealings with unbelievers. This doesn't work. Isaac gets in trouble - is even convicted by the Philistines for what he does.

3. It is God's material blessing that makes a big difference. The first reaction of the unbelievers is envy and harassment. They stop up the wells he digs and evict him from their land. Like Aquila and Priscilla and the others Jews evicted from Rome at one point. Like the Jews' businesses repressed and then looted.

4. Isaac's response is forbearance. He doesn't appeal to a higher civil authority (if there was one). He doesn't go to war, even though he is mightier than they. He keeps working, letting them take advantage of him until they leave him alone.

5. The second response of unbelievers is acknowledgement of Isaac's right to be there. They come to make an alliance with him, so he won't hurt them! And he agrees.

The promise has begun to come true. The Philistines who own the land have acknowledged Abraham's son's right to be there.

This is a goldmine for how we should be relating to the world, contrasted with how evangelical Christians often actually do so. More on that another time perhaps.