Genesis 26:12-17

Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year one hundred times what he planted. Yahweh blessed him. The man grew great, and grew more and more until he became very great. He had possessions of flocks, possessions of herds, and a great household. The Philistines envied him. Now all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped, and filled with earth. Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go from us, for you are much mightier than we.”

Isaac departed from there, encamped in the valley of Gerar, and lived there.

Now we see that Abimelech wasn’t all that good after all. God blessed Isaac far more than anyone around and it really bothered them. I consider envy to be the worst sin in the world.
It was this sin that caused both angels and mankind to fall. Satan and mankind thought it would be good to be like God and took action to make it happen. Many other sins have envy as their underlying motivation. People hate, steal, murder, slander and do all kinds of other things for envy and the love of money.

When a person really loves someone who is blessed by God they rejoice with them when they are successful. They don’t love them if they get jealous and desire to be separated from them. When God blessed Isaac in the presence of the Philistines, it cause the Philistines’ true motives to be exposed. They weren’t as interested in doing what God wanted as they were in being blessed financially by God. When God decided to bless someone else, they quickly turned on God’s man.

This desire to be rich by way of God is something that we need to address in our churches today. God does not promise riches to Christians here on earth. In fact, God promises that all of our riches here will be destroyed someday. Jesus told us that if we really want to be rich, we should give everything we have away and follow Him and we will be rich in Heaven. Since we are children of God, we are already rich. It’s only a matter of time.