We find ourselves now in the longest chapter in the book of
Genesis. This is the story of Isaac and Rebekah and the way in which the Lord brought
them together. We will divide this
chapter into 2 sessions. Today we will consider how the Lord found a wife for
Isaac and next time we shall consider Rebekah’s response.
This portion of inspired Scripture provides us with some
great lessons, but the greatest lesson here is the fact that God, and Abraham, and Abraham’s
servant deeply cares about who Isaac, the son of the
covenant promise, should marry. Let us
then unpack the story as it unfolds.
V.1 Abraham was “old and well advanced in years” - about 140.
He had just lost Sarah in Chapter
23, and in Chapter 25 we shall see
that he will be remarried to Keturah, with
whom he will eventually have 6 more sons. But it is Isaac alone, his first born from Sarah his
first covenant wife, who remains the son of promise. The Bible is structured very clearly around
the great themes of promise, covenant and election. Romans 9:6-9 comments in
this regard, 6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who
are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7 and not all are children of
Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your
offspring be named.” 8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh
who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted
as offspring. 9 For this is what the promise said: “About this time next
year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.”
One of our favourite new hymns is, “By Faith” composed by Keith and Kristyn Getty,
and this is what they affirm to be true
in our day about the promise…
By faith we see the hand of God, In the light of
creation's grand design,
In the lives of those who prove His faithfulness, Who walk
by faith and not by sight
By faith our fathers roamed the earth, With the power
of His promise in their hearts,
Of a holy city built by God's own hand, A place where
peace and justice reigns.
We will stand as children of the promise, We will
fix our eyes on Him our soul's reward,
Till the race is finished and the work is done, We'll
walk by faith and not by sight.
In Chapter 24 we see then that
Abraham, Isaac’s father is deeply concerned that the son of the Promise should find not just any wife,
but a wife according to the promise. God is seeking godly offspring (Mal. 2:15) and mixed marriages, where the
wife is not of godly persuasion will not produce godly offspring. So, this passage is about much more than
simply a God-fearing parent desiring a believing spouse for his child. This
passage is about the continuation of the line of promise. And that ought to be
a concern for every young man and woman here today as they seek a future
marriage partner.
Vv.2-4 So, as Abraham takes initiative on
behalf of his son of promise, he does not simply sit back, but he is
proactive. As he is old now , he gets
his most trusted servant (Maybe this is
still Eliezer of Damascus about whom we were told about back in Genesis 15:2) to play a key part in this. Abraham
makes sure that his trusted servant understands the seriousness of his
assignment. He does so by making him swear
an oath (vv.2&3 cf. Jacob and
Joseph in Gen. 47:29). The oath relates
to the fact that Abraham wants his servant to make sure that he must not find a
wife from among the local Canaanite girls. The wife must come from his own
family (vv.3,4). The Canaanites/ Amorites were steeped in
paganism and its vile practises. In fact, we are told that they are a people
destined for destruction. In Genesis
15:16 we see that their sins are piling up. God told Abraham that a day would come when God’s
judgement would be poured out upon them.
So he must not take a wife from among them. All this foreshadows
something very important. Believers
must marry only “in the Lord” (1 Cor.
7:39). “Do not be unequally
yoked with unbelievers.” (2 Cor. 6:14-16).
V.5
With this in mind we find in the servant
asking some clarifying questions: (i) how can
I be sure that this girl from your
country and kindred would want to come back with me? (ii)
And
then, if she should not be found, should I take Isaac back to your ancestral home?
Vv.6-8 To which Abraham responds firmly,
because he stands on the covenant promises of God. The wife of Isaac must
come from his home (v.7) God said so. Abraham is totally convinced that God
is going to provide not only some wife, but the right wife for Isaac, and she
wasn’t going to come from the Canaanites, the people among whom he had settled.
He
might have learned this lesson the hard way, in having a child called Ishmael
with Hagar, a woman not of the covenant promise. If Isaac should marry a girl
from a local family, then Abraham and he would no longer be regarded as
‘a distinct people' in the land of Canaan. Such a marriage would have
involved a ‘Canaanizing’ of the seed of promise. (Geoff Thomas)
And so his word to his servant is clear and firm:
(i) No, don’t take Isaac back to my
ancestral home in Mesopotamia. Isaac
must take possession of the land of promise which God has made to me (ii) I am sure that God will find him a wife from
there (v.7). (iii) Should no woman be found, then the servant
would be freed from the oath (v.8).
I find this last thought very interesting. Abraham leaves his
servant with an escape clause, so that he is not bound, should things not turn out
as planned. Is that not a contradiction to
Abraham’s faith? Should he not just believe that it will happen
according to his faith, and sow no uncertainty into the mind of his servant? No! While God has made his will clear in terms
of the girl that he wants Isaac to marry, this does not always means that the
road to that end will be straight forward. God’s word and God’s will are clear.
His providences, and the way to His will are not always clear. Life may take
many surprising turns, and by these turns God works out his purposes in our
lives. There are factors at work unknown
to us and we may never know why God allowed us to go down what we now consider
to be a blind alley. The apostle Paul on his journeys knew that he was to be
the apostle to the gentiles, but his mission to the gentiles took many
unexpected turns. The doors which he supposed to take were not always opening.
And so Abraham gives these instructions to his servant: “Look, I know that it’s God’s will for my son to have a wife, so I want
you to go and find her. I believe that my sending you to get her is God’s will,
but if you come back without a wife for Isaac, don’t worry fret. God will show
us another way to find a wife for the son of promise.”
We all need to learn this lesson well. God’s purposes stand, but the way to that end
is often mysterious. In fact, we often learn
more from our shattered dreams and disappointments than we learn from the
things that have worked out smoothly. Having said that Abraham still believes that God will
provide his servant with success.
Vv.10-27 The rest of the story focuses
on the servants journey
to Mesopotamia and his search for God’s woman of choice.
Vv.10-14 The
only direction and clarity he has is that he must get to Mesopotamia, the city of Nahor (v. 10)
a journey of 800 kilometres, a journey that might have
taken well over a month, if we assumed
that they did 25 kilometers a day. Having arrived, he takes the camels to a
well of water, where the
women come in the evening to draw water.
The big question is, “Which woman, Lord?
“ God must lead him and guide him to the right one. And so we see
that he commits his request to
God in prayer. It was very
specific.
· V. 12 Oh
LORD, God of my master Abraham,
please grant me success today and
show steadfast love ( hesed – faithful covenantal love) to my
master Abraham. The servant appeals to God on the basis of the
covenant relationship which he knows that Abraham has with God. Today, as we
pray, we do the same thing as we pray to God in the Name of the Lord Jesus. Our
prayer is made in the Name of our Master, the Lord Jesus. In His Name we ask from our Heavenly Father
all that we need, physically, emotionally and spiritually (see the pattern of
the Lord’s prayer). He also boldly asks for success. This is not for self -centred success, but it
has to do with the glory of God as the will of God is desired and prayed
for.
·
Vv 13 & 14
Note the specific request,
“Let the young woman to whom I shall say, ‘Please let down your
jar that I may drink,’ and who shall say,
‘Drink, and I will water your camels ’ –
let her be the one you have appointed for
your servant Isaac’”
Vv. 15-22 The answer to prayer arrives in the form of
Rebekah, and everything happens just as he had asked. We are deeply impressed
how Rebekah serves this stranger, and we might say that she behaved as a woman
of faith. For Abraham’s servant this was a wonderful answer to prayer. God had
made his journey successful (v.21). Truly, the angel of God had led him to her (v.7)
and so, when she had finished helping him
in accordance with his request from the
Lord, the servant took a gold ring weighing a half a shekel and two bracelets for her
arms weighing 10 gold shekels. That’s a lot of money right there - the
equivalent of a common man’s annual wages.
Vv. 24,25 The servants joy doubles as he now
hears of her family background, “I am the
daughter of Bethuel, the son of Milcah,
whom she bore to Nahor.” This was
too wonderful for words. This girl was a granddaughter of Abraham’s brother,
Nahor. Her mother was Milcah.
Vv. 26,27 The servant's response: “he bowed his head and worshipped
the LORD”. The
gut level response to such providence
is not self –exaltation, ‘ Well done old chap’, and by
the singing of a hymn ‘I did it my way’. No! He bowed down and worshipped God! What an example he is to us all.
V. 28 Rebekah’s
response: “ She ran and told her mother’s household about these things…“ We
will consider this next time.
SOME FINAL THOUGHTS
1.
How does this relate to the NT? It represents the heavenly Father
choosing a Bride (the Church) for His Son. The bride (the church would not be clinging to the old life but
dedicated exclusively and faithfully to her bridegroom , Christ. We often emphasize that the Son is the Father’s
love gift to the world (Jn. 3:16), but we forget that His Bride, the
Church, is actually the Father’s love gift to His Son. (Jn. 17:2, 6, 9, 11-12,
24)
2.
Are you in a covenant relationship
with God? This is the evangelistic question I must ask you. If you are not in a covenant relationship with God, I urge you to seek the LORD with all your heart, NOW! If you are a child of promise then you
may know that the LORD is committed to guiding your footsteps. “The steps of a good man are ordered by the
Lord” (Ps 37:23).
3.
This passage has obvious implications for
Christian parents’ prayers for their children's marriages. It reminds us of the importance of
marrying in the Lord and of praying for the spouses of our children in the
future.
4.
It is important for Christians to
marry in the Lord and not to be yoked with unbelievers. Evangelizing our children is
difficult as it is. But having a non-
Christian spouse makes it even more difficult.
No comments:
Post a Comment