“So
Isaac departed from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar and
settled there. And Isaac dug again the wells of water that had been
dug in the days of Abraham his father, which the Philistines had
stopped up after the death of Abraham. And he gave them the names
that his father had given them. But when Isaac’s servants dug in
the valley and found there a well of spring water, the herdsmen of
Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, ‘The water is
ours.’ So he called the name of the well Esek, because they
contended with him. Then they dug another well, and they quarreled
over that also, so he called its name Sitnah. And he moved from there
and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called
its name Rehoboth, saying, ‘For now the Lord has made room for us,
and we shall be fruitful in the land.’ “ -Genesis 26:17-22 (ESV)
[Read Genesis 26]
Isaac
had gone with his family, servants and herds to Gerar to seek to
escape from the famine in the land where his father, Abraham, had
settled. Already, Jacob, with his mother Rebekah’s help, had
tricked the twins’ father, Isaac, into awarding the first-born
twin, Esau’s birthright to the second-born twin, Jacob. God had
appeared to Isaac and told him not to go to Egypt to escape the
famine, but to go to Gerar. Abimelech was king of the Philistines
who dwelt in the land of Gerar. Isaac told Abimelech that Rebekah was
his sister, (as Abraham, Isaac’s father, had claimed about Sarai,
Isaac’s mother, years before.). King Abimelech found out beautiful
Rebekah was Isaac’s wife. When he found out the truth about Rebekah
and Isaac, King Abimelech warned his people, “Whoever touches this
man or his wife shall surely be put to death.” (Genesis 26:11).
However, everywhere that Isaac was in Gerar, he dug again the wells
Abraham had dug before, and gave them the same names. But the
herdsmen of the Philistines said, “These are our wells; this is our
water.” Isaac moved on, opening other wells; but the result was the
same: contention. Until Isaac opened the well at Rehoboth, and there
the Philistines did not come and take possession of that well.
Rehoboth means, “For now, the Lord has made room for us, and we
shall be fruitful in the land.”
My
husband, the Rev. Grover Duffie Jones, was ordained to the gospel
ministry at Choestoe Baptist Church, Blairsville, GA on July 9, 1951.
After a “grueling” questioning by the Presbytery (Examining
Board) of area Baptist ministers and deacons, he “passed the test”
and was recommended for ordination, which proceeded immediately after
the questioning period. My husband had also to preach his own
“ordination” sermon, one he took from the passage of Scripture
I’ve quoted above. As his beloved wife, I thought he did a
remarkable presentation of the sermon, “Digging Again the Wells.”
I won’t give the outline of his sermon here, but I will say that he
was invited back to Choestoe Church on occasions of homecoming and
special events to repeat the sermon he delivered on the day of his
ordination to the gospel ministry. Fast forward to November 3, 1996,
a day when Mrs. Dora Hunter Allison Spiva, noted (retired) high
school mathematics and Latin teacher, and later a counselor, was
being honored at a special “Aunt Dora Day: This is Your Life” at
2:00 p. m. However, at the morning service that day, Rev. Grover
Jones was invited to give the sermon—the very one he had preached
on his ordination day on July 9, 1951. Even though my dear husband
had already been declared with dread Alzheimer’s then, he could
still read and preach, if he had manuscript before him. And so, that
glorious day, he preached “Digging Again the Wells.”
I
wrote a poem, using the title of his sermon, and the idea from the
Scripture at the beginning of this devotional, as a superscript to my
poetic thoughts. I share that poem I wrote November 2, 1996 prior to
the wonderful “Aunt Dora Hunter Spiva Day” at Choestoe Baptist
Church. Aunt Dora (called “aunt” in respect by the congregation
and many others) was actually my father’s first cousin through
Dora’s mother, Martha Souther Hunter, and my Grandmother, Sarah
Souther Dyer, sisters; and also first cousin to my mother, Azie
Collins Dyer, through Aunt Dora’s father, James Hunter, sister to
Azie’s mother, Georgianne Hunter Collins. Now, have I confused you
completely on this double-cousin relationship? But they were all
good, hard-working, honest Christian people, and Choestoe people’s
church memberships were spread out to several Baptist Churches: some
at Choestoe, some at Old Liberty, some at New Liberty (where my
Souther great, great grandfather gave the land for building the
church and forming the cemetery at a church now on Town Creek School
Road), Old Union (called also Church Up on the Nottely River). Quite
a spread of land, that district of Choestoe, where our ancestors came
from Va, SC and NC before Union County was formed in 1832 while the
Cherokee still fished along the Nottely River and lived in Choestoe,
which the Indians named, meaning “The Place Where Rabbits Dance”
in the Cherokee language. At the forced “Trail of Tears” exodus
of the Cherokee in 1838, several of the Indians hid out in caves thus
escaping the exodus. My ancestors befriended many of these and
learned much of herbal medicine. For example, my own grandmother,
Sarah Evaline Souther Dyer, was a noted herbalist doctor and the
delivered hundreds of babies in the Choestoe District.
And
here is my poem. It is a parody (written in the style and meter of) a
poem entitled “The Bridge Builder” by Will Allen Dromgoole, and
published in “Father: An Anthology of Verse (New York: E. P.
Dutton), 1931. You may look up Dromgoole’s poem on “Google” to
see how my pattern of verse follows his in his “The Bridge
Builder.”
The
Well Digger
(A
parody on “The Bridge Builder,” a poem by Will Allen Dromgoole’s,
1931)
[Based
on Scripture from Genesis 26:17-24, when Isaac digs again the wells
dug first by Abraham]
An
older person going a desert way
Came
at the evening, cold and gray,
To
an overgrown well, covered side to side,
With
sand and debris piled at angles wide.
The
aged one began with deliberate aim
To
shovel debris and the well reclaim;
Working
long hours at the arduous task
At
last drew clear water and filled his flask.
“Old
One,” said a thirsy pilgrim near,
“You
are wasting your strength on this well, I fear.
Your
thirsting will end as your life closes;
Don’t
you know your work also soon reposes?
Soon
you will drink your last from this well;
Why
work so hard when it soon may refill?”
The
well digger lifted his old gray head.
“Fellow
Thirster, there are others seeking water,” he said.
“Seeking
the Fountain of Life, and they cannot find it,
Because
cares of this world so often hide it.
This
well on life’s path I open for them,
With
a prayer that a drink may point to Him
Who
is Living Water. Taking Him, never thirst.
Drinking
from Him, the blessings of Heaven burst.
That
is why I labor, at the close of my day,
Pointing
others to the Truth, to the Living Way.”
-Ethelene
Dyer Jones
November
2, 1996
{Written,
years later, to accompany my husband’s sermon, “Digging Again the
Wells” based on Genesis 26:17-22. It was the sermon he preached on
his day of ordination to the gospel ministry, July 9, 1951, at
Choestoe Baptist Church, and several times subsequently during his 44
½ years of ministry. But a special day, “The Aunt Dora Day” at
Choestoe Church, Blairsville, was the occasion of his preaching the
sermon again, to honor this gracious lady and my kinswoman and
teacher in high school and in Sunday School at Choestoe Church, Mrs.
Dora Hunter Allison Spiva. It is interesting, too, to note that the
School of Education at Truett McConnell College (now University) at
Cleveland, GA was named for Mrs. Spiva.) Grover Jones and I were
charter students at that small Baptist School that opened its doors
for students September 15, 1997. We graduated in the first (Truett
McConnell Junior College) class in 1949. Through God’s grace and
hard study, I was declared the valedictorian of that first class,
1949, and my address was “Making a Spiral Instead of a Circle.”
Mrs. Dora Hunter Allison Spiva, my favorite high school teacher at
Union County High, Blairsville (I a graduate, Class of 1947 from high
school; valedictorian. Mrs. Dora inspired me to become a teacher, and
I taught at Choestoe School in 1949-50. The school had dwindled from
2-teacher my 7 years there, to one teacher, and I was “it”! That
year. Grover and I married December 29, 1949. And Mrs. Dora was there
to congratulate us! Some autobiography! - Ethelene Dyer Jones
03.18.2018
