CHARACTER NEEDED – BIBLE SKETCHES
Scripts by Robert Allen
Character Needed,
by Robert Allen, published by Regular Baptist Press, includes 33 skits
illustrating the truths of each of the verses in Proverbs 15. These Character
Needed – Bible Sketches are designed to accompany those contemporary plays,
illustrating the same character traits by use of a Bible story.
CHARACTER NEEDED
ISAAC, THE
WELL-DIGGER
Proverbs 15:1
Genesis 26:17-33
Character trait –
Gentleness
Cast of Characters
Narrator
Isaac
Servant
Philistine
King
NARRATOR: Isaac lived in the southern part
of the land of Israel where it was very dry. There was plenty of grass and other plants in
the winter when the rains came. But in
the summer, it was as barren and hot as a desert. So everyone in the Negev, or southern part of
Israel,
had to have a well. Isaac needed a very
good well, because he needed water not only for his family but also for his
servants and for his large flocks of sheep.
Isaac’s father Abraham had also lived in the Negev,
and he had dug some wells. But the
Philistines had filled those wells back up with dirt. So when Isaac came along the wells were no
longer there. It was not Isaac’s fault
that the Philistines had not liked his father.
He certainly had a reason to be angry with the Philistines for filling
in those wells. He could have said…
ISAAC: I’m going to get those
Philistines if it’s the last thing I do.
They messed up my wells, so I’m just going to go over and mess up their
wells. That’s what they deserve.
NARRATOR: And then he could have marched all
of his servants right over to the Philistines and filled up all their
wells. But that’s not what Isaac
did. Instead he told his servants…
ISAAC: All right men. Tomorrow morning we’re going to start digging
a new well.
SERVANT: A new well? Why don’t we just go over and take one away
from the Philistines?
ISAAC: No. We’re going to dig a new well.
NARRATOR: And that’s what they did. They next day, in the hot sun, without enough
water to drink, they started to dig. The
ground was hard and the rocks were big, and the sun was hot. All day they worked hard, and just before
dark…
SERVANT: Water! We’ve struck water!
NARRATOR: It was a good well. The cool water gurgled up from underground
and the men drank and carried water for the sheep. They decided this was a good place to settle
down for awhile. They could stay all
summer and never run out of water. But
the next morning when they took the sheep over to the well for watering,
someone was already there. It was a
group of Philistine shepherds. They were
watering their sheep.
SERVANT: Hey, what do you think you are
doing?
PHILISTINE: This is our well. It’s our water.
SERVANT: No it isn’t. We dug that well just yesterday. It’s our well.
PHILISTINE: Nope. We’ve always grazed our sheep in this
valley. If there’s any water here it belongs
to us.
SERVANT: Isaac! Isaac!
What are we going to do? The
Philistines have taken our well. They
say it is theirs. Shall we get our
swords and chase them away?
ISAAC: No. Let them have the well.
SERVANT: Let them have it? We worked so hard to dig it. It’s ours!
ISAAC: Yes, I know. But if we fight them for it, some of us will
probably die. And there is more water
around. We’ll just go dig another well.
NARRATOR: So Isaac and his servants loaded
up their tents and herded their sheep farther up the valley and started to dig
again. The ground seemed harder than
before. The rocks were bigger and they
went down even deeper than the last time until…
SERVANT: Water! We’ve struck water!
NARRATOR: They had another successful
well. Again the tents went up. Again the sheep were watered and everyone
settled down for the night and a long stay through the hot summer months. Since the Philistines had the well down the
valley, they would surely leave this one alone.
But the next morning…
SERVANT: Oh, no. Philistines again. What do you think you are doing?
PHILISTINE: We’re watering our sheep. This is our water. This is our well.
SERVANT: But we just dug this well
yesterday.
PHILISTINE: We have always grazed our sheep
in this valley. You are the
trespassers. Water that is discovered
belongs to us. So you can just pack up
your tents and hit the dusty road.
SERVANT: Isaac! Isaac!
They’ve done it again. They’ve
taken our well a second time. Let’s go
fight them. We can take it back.
ISAAC: It certainly doesn’t
seem right that they should do that.
After all, we did all the work of digging it. But if we become angry and talk to them the
way they talk to us, there’s going to be real trouble. There’s still more water around here, I’m sure. Maybe the day will come when we have to
fight. But we’re going to move on and
dig another well.
NARRATOR: So they packed up the tents and
rounded up the sheep and set off again through the hot, barren desert to find
another place to dig a well. Again the
servants started to dig. The rocks
seemed bigger, and the ground seemed harder, and they dug deeper than either of
the two previous times. But finally,
after long, hard work…
SERVANT: Water! We’ve struck water!
NARRATOR: They had another well. Some of the servant wanted to wait until the
next day to set up the tents just in case the Philistines came again.
ISAAC: No, men. We are going to set up the tents. This is where we will be staying for the
summer.
NARRATOR: The next morning they took the
sheep to be watered…and no Philistines.
Isaac gave the well a name that meant the Lord had made room for them in
the land. They gave God the glory for
giving them a well that the Philistines wouldn’t take away. A little while later the king of the
Philistines and his army captain met Isaac in Beersheba.
KING: Isaac, because of the
way you acted toward our people we have realized that the Lord is with
you. We want to sign a covenant with
you. No longer will we take away your
wells. Instead we want you to live among
us in peace.
NARRATOR: It had certainly paid off for
Isaac to use a soft answer to turn away wrath.
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