Genesis 24:29-67 “The Son of the Covenant Meets His Bride“

This then is the love story of Isaac and Rebekah.  Our Scripture reading is virtually a repeat of the first 28 verses. Abraham’s servant has been successful.  The Lord God has heard Abraham’s prayer and his servant’s prayer. He has found a beautiful wife for Isaac through a remarkable set of providences, inspired by prayer to the God of Abraham, who has created this world and everything in it. And yet, as I hope to show you, this is much more than a love story. This is much more than a story of a God-fearing parent looking for a suitable marriage partner for his son.

Isaac and Rebekah will be an important puzzle piece in the history of God’s redeeming grace in this sinful world. They will continue the story of God’s covenant dealings with mankind. Last time we were reminded that the theme of covenant runs right through the Bible. The Bible is made up of an Old and a New covenant (Testament).  

The story line of the Bible  and the development of the covenantal theme  essentially goes like this.  Following creation (Genesis 1 &2)  follows the fall  of mankind into sin (Genesis 3)  follows the  fact that God, the holy Creator of this  world and the Universe   has  determined that despite the  fall, He would  call out a people for Himself in  this world.  The question then becomes this:  How can this holy God, who is of purer eyes than to  see evil  (Hab. 1:13)  have anything to do with sinners? The answer is this; God makes a way, by way of covenants, which all point to ONE COVENANT!  We have already noted the Noahic  covenant (8:20 – 9:17) in which  God  called  out to  Himself the family of Noah, also   promising  never to destroy the earth  through a universal flood again. The sign of that covenant  is the rainbow.  

In  Genesis 15/17   we find the   Abrahamic  covenant. Once again God chooses   for Himself a people, beginning with Abraham.  The sign of that covenant is circumcision.  This  covenant is ratified by   sacrifice and blood (Gen. 15:17)[1].   All this points to  that great  New Covenant  in Christ, who was given on the cross, shedding  His blood  for those  who  are given to Him by the Father  (John 17), those who will come to Him and who  believe in His Name.  The sign of entering into that covenant is believers baptism.   

The message of the whole Bible remains the same.  From this fallen world,  God is calling out for Himself a particular people, called not by their own  merit, but called according to God’s  love. There would be ultimately two kinds of people in this world: the serpent’s offspring and the woman’s offspring (Gen. 3:15).  God promised Abraham that He would fill heaven with a vast number of his offspring – born from among all the nations of the world.  

Now I need to point out that   whilst Rebekah   did come from Abraham’s earthly family she was not as yet a part of the covenant family. In this story we see God bringing her into the covenant through her marriage to Isaac.  So again we need to see the big picture here.  

This is not just about Isaac and Rebekah, and finding a suitable marriage partner (though that is true of course). It is about the greater work of God in our lives. Little do we know what God is up to in the bigger scheme of things? Did the mother of Moses know who she gave birth to?  Did Hannah know that she was going to be the mother of Samuel, one of Israel’s most revered prophets?  Did the mother of David know that her youngest son would be the greatest human king of Israel? Did Isaac and Rebekah know that they were going to be the parents of Jacob, from whom the tribes of Israel would be descended? Did Mary (descended from the tribes of Israel) know that she was going to be the human mother of the Saviour of the world?  And does anyone know and appreciate what Christ is to the people He died for? He is the Bridegroom of the church.  God the Father gives a bride to his Son. Marriage is at the heart of God’s covenant of grace.  The theme of  the covenants  runs  like a string of pearls through the Scriptures …  beginning with the marriage covenant of Adam and Eve  in Genesis 2  and ending  with the marriage supper of the church  and   the  Lamb of God  in Revelation 22.

Here then is Abraham. He is the beginning of the Bibles’ narrative concerning a people for God, as numerous as the sand on the seashore – as numerous as the stars in the sky. But the materializing of this promise is not going to be straight forward.  In fact, it is going to be against the odds.   God deals with Abraham in a remarkable way, testing, strengthening, forgiving and making him fruitful with Sarah in great old age. That is the background to this chapter and its narrative of the marriage of Isaac, the marriage of the heir of the covenant.

We have read the passage and the key text and question to Rebekah now is this, "will you go with this man?" (Genesis 24: 58) Is she going to fulfill her calling in God’s bigger scheme of things? 

One of her obstacles is her family. Abraham’s first encounter is with her brother, Laban. He is the first to meet and engage   Abraham’s servant (vv. 29-50).  As the story is heard, Laban and Rebekah’s father, Bethuel’s conclusion is,   “This thing has come from the LORD…” (note the mentioning of the covenant name- YAHWEH).   The truth of the matter is that whole narrative is driven by God’s earlier promise in v.7, “To your offspring I will give this land.” God has made these arrangements and the servant simply has to go out and find her, and Rebekah’s parents, perhaps against their natural inclinations, will be made to see this.

But, as indicated, we are here to see the greater picture behind this story. Since everything in covenantal history   ultimately points to Christ, we can now see how this question, “will you go with this man?"  points us to the relationship  between  Christ and His bride, the church.  It is from our perspective an evangelistic question that the servants of Christ the Master are asking.  This is where we are as a congregation that serves the Lord.  We are involved in God’s mission to bring in the bride of Christ. God has purposed that from the lost sons of Adam to give a bride to his Son. Among all the nations is the bride of Christ.  And so we can labour confidently in the assurance that our preaching, our seeking after a bride for Christ will be successful. How many of you have been found by faithful servants of God in the last few years?  What a wonderful assurance then, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” (Jn. 6:37)

And so  Rebekah  is asked the critical  question,  “Will you go with this man?”, and while  in context, this is a marriage proposal,  in which Rebekah says, “I will go” (v.58), we with  the entire testimony  of Scripture, and an understanding of the covenants  behind us,  can apply this ultimately to the offer of the  gospel;  “Will you go with Jesus?  Will you go with Jesus this very moment, for better for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health; will you take His people to be your people?

And so we see that Rebekah was ready to go. But not without a challenge! After that important question,  "will you go with this man?", they retired  for the night, but the next morning, as  the servant is  eager to take her to her bridegroom Isaac,   as he makes the request,  “Send me on my way to my master” (v.54), 800 km’s away,  there is some hesitation  on the part of the family. “Let her remain with us a while, at least 10 days, after that she may go.”  “Don’t go yet!” You need to see what is happening here. 

From the bigger perspective we see  the enemy of God,  Satan at work here. He is  working his delaying tactics through  human instruments. He does not want this thing to happen.  He knows that  “The seed of the woman that will eventually crush his head “ (Gen.  3:15). This marriage must  be stopped!  “Delay! Have second thoughts. Put it off. Why be in a rush? Wait!”  But Abraham’s servant is urgent.  He cannot be delayed.    She must come with him now.   

Since the Old Testament  points us  to Christ, our heavenly bridegroom, we cannot be slow in making the application as it relates to us as New Testament believers.  The Gospel calls us to follow Christ now. The call to follow Christ is not ‘later’ but now – see Matthew  8:18-22.  Now is the time!

Rebekah is chosen for a moment such as this. She must go now. She is an important  role player in God’s history of redemption.  It is  significant that the only New Testament reference to Rebekah is in the context of the covenant purposes of God.  In Romans 9:10-12  we read, “Rebekah’s children had one and the same father, our father Isaac. Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad – in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls – she was told, ‘The older will serve the younger’.  She is a vital part of the purposes of God in election. She must come. She must give birth to Jacob, the son of the covenant.

And now she is sent away by her family  with a rich  blessing  (v.60), and  perhaps  unknowingly  they  prophesy,   “ Our  sister may you become thousands of ten thousands and may your offspring  possess the gate of those who hate  him.”  This agrees with the Abrahamic blessing in 22:17.  Rebekah's family had no idea how  great a role she would play in   Yahweh’s redemptive purposes.

And now finally, in vv. 61-67 Rebekah   is brought to Isaac.

Please note that  the servant did not say to Rebekah, “Now that  I have found you make your own way there“.  No! We read, “Thus the servant took Rebekah and went his way” (v.61). He took her all the way to Isaac. He made sure that she was brought to him and joined to her bridegroom.The servants of the church make sure that the hearts of those that come to Christ are tied to Christ. We do not abandon people upon their profession of faith and love to Jesus!  We accompany them. We disciple them. We make sure that they are sustained until they meet their bridegroom.

And so we read that Isaac lifted up his eyes and saw the camels were coming. Rebekah likewise lifted up her eyes and she saw Isaac. They recognised one another instantly.  True believers will recognise Christ when they see Him. They recognise Him as their Shepherd and they will follow Him (John 10).  When the heart finally meets Jesus it is at home.

And so we read that she became his wife and he loved her (v. 67).  And now all the covenantal blessings became hers because of being united with Isaac.

She became an heir of all the promises of the covenant which God had made with Abraham by being united with the son of the covenant, the son of Abraham.

And so as we read the Scriptures we see Isaac gradually fading away and we realize what this is all about. It is all about the greater Son of Isaac –it is all about the Lord Jesus Christ our heavenly bridegroom to whom we are led by the gospel and her gospel servants. We can’t wait to meet Him!  

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[1] A heifer, a female  goat , a ram, a turtledove and  a young pigeon were cut in half , and each half laid over against each other  and God, in a symbolic , yet real fashion  passed between these pieces and made a covenant  with Abraham, promising  Abraham  and thus Himself  an  offspring  of faithful believing  people ,  who would  inherit a promised land.

Genesis 24:1-28 “Finding a suitable wife for Isaac“

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.  

Acts 28:11-31 "The Last Word of the Book of Acts"

As we come to the final verses of the Acts of the Apostles we will find Paul finally in Rome. All this began in Acts 21:27ff when he was arrested in the temple in Jerusalem on charges of undermining the law and the temple and Caesar (25:8). He is saved from angry mob justice by a  Roman cohort in Jerusalem, and this begins a process  whereby  Paul is sent from Felix the Roman governor to  Festus another governor, under whom he makes this appeal to appear  before Caesar (25:11)  in Rome.

V. 11 Last time we saw him in Malta, the island where they ran aground in the shipwreck. Here   Paul and his entourage   stayed approximately from mid-November to about mid-February, whilst waiting out the storm season.  Eventually they had found a ship from Alexandria  that had  wintered in the island.  The ship had the figurehead of the twin gods Castor and Pollux, patron deities of sailors on her bow.  Luke probably records this intentionally. The pagan  sailors  would have attributed their rescue from the shipwreck  to these twin gods, but it is clear that these were not  the ones in whom Paul had put his trust. In 27:23-25 Paul has made it clear  who  his Protector and Deliverer is.

V. 12  After a  90 kilometre  journey north, the ship  lands in  Syracuse  the provincial capital city of Sicily,  at the tip of the boot of the Italian peninsula.  Here they stayed for three days. 

V. 13 From there they sailed on to Rhegium in southern Italy ,  another 110 kilometres further and from there,  with the south wind in their sails  they  arrived in Puteoli 2 days later,  and 325 km’s further. In Puteoli  they found some brothers and stayed with them for 7 days.  Isn’t this worldwide network of support and encouragement amazing?  This must have meant  that  the centurion  and guard must have given his consent.

v. 14 And now he is in Rome, through many dangers toils and snares ... ship wreck, snakebite  … This marks the  fulfilment of God's promise to Paul (23:11; 27:24).

v. 15   The way he got to  Rome from  Puteoli ( a 210 km  journey) there was on land. First  Paul made his way  about 30 kilometres  up the Via Compana to its intersection with the Via Appia, or the Appian Way.  The Forum of Appius  is about 70 km’s from Rome   and  some 16 km’s  further  was the place called the  three Taverns. At both these places Christian brothers from Rome, who had heard that Paul and the others were coming, came to meet him.  At the sight of these men Paul thanked God and took courage. Why?  This show of support was surely most encouraging  to Paul. He knows that he is in God’s hands, but it is also good to know that there are caring Christian  people, visible tokens  of the love of God. Furthermore Paul knew that the end of the long journey was now in  view. They  had met some significant obstacles.  So, when  with God's help, we achieve divinely appointed goals, the proper response is thankfulness to God.

v. 16  When Paul entered Rome  he  is  put under house arrest and  guarded by a soldier. At this stage he has considerable liberties.

28:17-22 Encounter with Jewish Leaders

v. 17 Three days after his  arrival, and  in accordance with his "to the Jew first" strategy, he called together the local  leaders of the Jews[1] .  It is estimated  that the Jewish community at Rome numbered  some fourty  to fifty thousand people, most  of them being Roman  slaves and freedmen. The names of ten to thirteen synagogues have been recovered from inscriptions in the catacombs[2]. As Paul began to speak he addressed his hearers as brothers. He saw each new audience of Jews as potentially containing some of the elect remnant who would hear and respond to the gospel.  This brief address to them contains four statements:

(i)               He is innocent before the Jews (28:17b, 19c). They can bring no sustainable charges against him, and he has none to bring against them. The Jews may have charged that Paul is working against the Jewish people and their customs, but the charges aren’t true because Paul was always working for his Jewish brothers (Rom 10:1). He always respected Jewish customs (21:23-24, 26).

(ii)              He is a prisoner of the Roman government and there are reasons for this (28:17c, 19b).  He was handed over[3] as a prisoner from Jerusalem to the Romans. He was forced to appeal to Caesar (v. 19; also see 25:11).

(iii)            Romans and Jews had  different opinions  toward Paul (28:18a, 19a). The Romans wanted  to release him. The Jews objected to Paul's release (25:3, 7). This situation is very similar to Jesus. 

(iv)             He was  not guilty of any crime deserving death (28:18). Paul is innocent before the Roman state (23:28-29; 25:25; 26:31-32).

V. 20  In this  verse Paul gets to the point.  He has been preparing the ground for the question, "so if you are innocent , then why are you here ?  And Paul answers, "Why am I here?  I am here because of the hope of Israel ...that is why  I am wearing this chain."  The Jewish leaders respond to Paul's statements by saying that they have heard nothing bad about Paul, whether by letter or by word of mouth.  What they do know however,  is that  this sect (Gr. haireseōs) which Paul represents  is spoken against everywhere (v.22). Clearly, Christianity was not viewed positively by them.  

28:23-28 Explaining the Gospel to the Jews 

v.23. The Jewish leaders  want to give Paul a fair hearing and so they agree upon a day. They arrive in force at his rented  lodgings (vv. 16, 30).  He expounded to them from morning till evening,  testifying  (Gk  diamartyromenos[4]-  23:11)  to  the kingdom of God and trying to convince them  about Jesus, both from  the law of Moses and the prophets. All this is just another way of saying that he was preaching the gospel to them with great intensity.

v. 24.The response to the message was mixed: some were convinced… but others disbelieved ( see this pattern also in 13:44-45; 14:1-2; 17:4-5).

vv. 25-27   Now to interpret this mixed response, Paul quotes from the Old Testament (Isa. 6:9-10). Paul takes the Jewish  Scriptures, given in a particular setting in Isaiah’s day, and he does not hesitate to apply this  to  these Romans  Jews. Isaiah in his day  spoke about  what happens when people hear  saving truth without appropriating it.  They  would  be  ever hearing but never understanding (compare the use of parables in  Lk. 8:10 with Isa. 6:9). Isaiah attributes this lack of understanding  to a hard heart, deaf ears , blind eyes. There is nothing defective or unclear in the message. The defect is  found in the audience's sinfulness. This sickness affects the heart (i.e. the willingness to be willing to hear and see) and the mind (whose  access is barred by faulty  hearing and seeing).     If they would but see with open  eyes, hear with open  ears,  and respond with  soft hearts, they would turn (repent)  and  God would heal them. The truth is  that  human sinfulness has made us so hard , so blind and so deaf that no –one would be saved. It takes a miracle, it take intervention from  God  to cure this condition.  

v. 28.  The gentiles will listen …. This is the third time Paul speaks of Jewish rejection and Gentile reception (13:46; 18:6).

28:30-31 The  Gospel is preached  for two years to all who wanted to hear  

For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him, proclaiming the kingdom of God  and teaching about the  Lord Jesus Christ… This final summary statement  brings to conclusion the thesis  of the  Book of  Acts, in Acts 1:8,  that  ‘ you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria  and to the ends of the earth.  This also corresponds with Luke’s closing statements by Jesus  in   Luke 24:47.  That "repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in [Jesus'] name to all nations" (Note in  Lk.24:45, Jesus opened their minds to understand the Scriptures)  

And so we read that Paul was able to speak with boldness and "without hindrance" (akōlutōs).   This word points to the work of  a sovereign God whose saving plan, who  determined it that the gospel will be preached in Jesus' name to all nations, will not be hindered.

 SUMMARY

The Book of Acts traces the birth and phenomenal  growth of the church. At the beginning there were only a few hundred believers in Jesus Christ, and at the end, we can scarcely guess how many. Everywhere,  men, women and children  came  to believe in the Lord Jesus  Christ -   in Jerusalem, in Judea,  in Samaria, and also  among the gentile nations, which is where this book now abruptly ends.

The gospel advances despite much opposition. Persecution, beatings, death,  imprisonment, shipwrecks, snakebites all threatened the spread of the Gospel. So, too, did sinfulness and faithlessness within the church (e.g. Acts 5:1-11). However, in spite of all the opposition and difficulties this  account of  Luke indicates  that the Gospel will  spread  without hindrance. 

This is a principle of timeless application. The Gospel  spread  in an unhindered fashion in the early church (cf. 6:7; 9:31; 12:24; 16:5; 19:20),  and  it does so now. The gospel did not cease to be proclaimed  when Paul was martyred. The future of the gospel  was not in Paul’s hands, but in God’s hands, and it is so   until this very day.  No-one can  stop the progress and ultimate victory of the gospel.

So, what does the Lord require of you, as you continue with  Acts 29, after the Gospel centered fashion  of the book of Acts, following in the footsteps of Paul ?

1.     Share the Gospel clearly and often.

2.     Do not worry too much about the outcome. You cannot save a soul. God alone can do that. You do not have to feel responsible for the salvation or damnation of anyone.

3.     Speak when it is given to you to do so, and do it  with all your heart and with a heart that loves the Lord Jesus  as well as the soul before you.

4.     Don't bully people into decisions. Let the Holy Spirit work.

5.     Be creative. Don’t  feel that you must share the Gospel in exactly the same way each time. Make sure that you know your Bible so that the Holy Spirit can bring the stored up  Word in you  to memory.  6.     Don't get into arguments. You don’t have to win an argument. You are already on the winning side. The Gospel is unhindered. So speak with confidence, urgency and love for this lost soul  before you. 

7.     Avoid developing an Elijah complex. You are not alone in  this gospel  work.

Regardless of how things may seem, the good news of the Gospel is, was, and always will be without hindrance. Jesus is building His church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 

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[1]  See 13:5, 14; 14:1; 16:13; 17:2, 10, 17; 18:4; 19:8

[2] http://www.catacombsociety.org/jewish-congregations-in-late-ancient-rome/

[3] Gk paradidomi

[4] emphasizes witnessing done with a high level of self-involvement, i.e. with strong personal interest motivating it. https://biblehub.com/greek/1263.htm

Genesis 23 "Lessons from the Death of Sarah"

About 17 years have passed between Chapters 22 and 23, the sacrifice of Isaac and the death of his mother, Sarah. In Genesis 22, Abraham reached the pinnacle of faith and obedience as he takes Isaac to Mount Moriah to sacrifice him there. Now in Genesis 23, Abraham descends into the depths as we watch him  grieving, saying goodbye to his wife, Sarah. 

Chapter 23 is about the death of Sarah, the wife of Abraham, but it contains much more than the death of Sarah. Here we learn lessons about grieving, about  true values.  We learn about our ultimate home.  

23:1 The death of Sarah. Sarah lived one hundred and twenty-seven years; these were the years of the life of Sarah. Sarah is the only woman in the Bible whose age at death is recorded. Another interesting   fact is that nowhere in the Bible are we told to look to Mary the mother of Jesus as an example of a godly woman (and doubtless she was), but  twice we are  told to look to Sarah as such an example (Isa. 51:1-2 ; 1 Pet. 3:3-6).

23:2 Abraham grieves over Sarah. And Sarah died in Kirjath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. Sarah was 127 years old when she died. Isaac, her son Isaac would now be thirty-seven. She died before she would see her son Isaac married, but   God was gracious to allow her to see her son to be a man.

Abraham mourned and wept over Sarah. What a hard day it is when a man must bury his wife- his best friend!  Grief is a good and proper, God given emotion to man. Every emotion in proper proportion  and  measure   (e.g. joy, sorrow and even anger) is good. At the grave of Lazarus Jesus wept (Jn. 11:35) and it was commented upon by the Jews, ‘See how he loved him’ (Jn. 11:36).

But Christians ought never to be overtaken by   their grief to the point in which they become emotionally crippled and hopeless, unable to function.  There is a distinction between grief and despair. Grief is proper and good according to the Scriptures. It is important to grieve and to shed tears. There is, after all a real sense of loss. The death of Sarah is a very hard experience for Abraham. But that sense of loss must not lead to despair. Despair is grief without hope.   Paul, in writing to the Thessalonians makes this point,   “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope” (1 Thess. 4:13). The death  of a loved one can be a very soul- crippling  experience  and it can be  a distracting factor to our  living,   and some  people never properly  recover from grieving. They grieve without hope. Abraham does not. In Chapter 25 we shall see that Abraham will remarry, and Keturah his second wife will bear him 6 more sons (25:2).  Remarriage was no betrayal of Sarah. Sarah would always have a special place in Abraham’s heart.

So then, as was customary in those days, and being nomadic people, the body of Sarah was placed in a tent, and Abraham is with her and it is here that we find him weeping. The memories that flood his mind are many.  He probably remembers when they were first married, when they were first called by God to leave their family in Ur and go to an unknown land- the land of promise. Sarah had shared everything with him - his uncertainty, his hardships, the unsettled life and the sinful decisions. He remembers how Sarah cried bitter tears over her barrenness. In her desperation to give him a son, she even offered her servant girl Hagar to him and Ishmael was born. He remembered too, how finally Isaac, the son of promise was born. And now she is dead. We can scarcely imagine the impact of Sarah's death upon Abraham. They had had been married, perhaps, for well more than a 100 years. And now Abraham must carry on this life without her.

23: 3-9 Abraham buys land for Sarah’s burial from the Hittites. “I am a foreigner and a foreigner among you”.  Abraham was a foreigner among these Hittites, but that was not what made him feel as a foreigner. Hebrews 11:8-10 helps us to understand.  He wasn’t ultimately looking for a piece of earthly real estate. “He was look for that city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.”  He recognized his real home and abiding was not here on earth.  David knew this truth (1 Chron. 29:14 and   Ps. 39:12).  And that is one of the great reasons why Abraham did not despair when Sarah died, and why David did not despair when his little son died (2 Sam. 12:15-23). Their hearts were not in the hands of death and grief. Their hearts were in God’s hands.  

The commentator Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse  illustrates this  in a moving story.[1]  He told of a young woman whose husband had been killed in action during the war. When the telegram came, she read it and then said to her mother. "Mother, I am going up to my room and please don't disturb me." Her mother called the father at work and told him what had happened. He came home and immediately went up to the room. He opened the door quietly.  He saw her kneeling beside her bed. The telegram was spread open on the bed before her as she was bowed over it. And as he stood there,he heard her say, "Oh, my heavenly Father, Oh, my Father, my heavenly Father." Without a word the man turned around and went back down the stairs and said to his wife, "She is in better hands than mine."

And now Abraham asks for a place to bury her. “Give me property for a burial place among you” (23:4). He had a particular place in mind – the cave of Machpelah.  It was situated on the land owned by Ephron the son of Zohar. Abraham had earlier lived in this area and here he had built an altar to God (Gen. 13:18).

23: 10-16 Abraham negotiates with Ephron the Hittite for the land of Sarah’s tomb. This is one of few places in the land of Palestine that has been authenticated today. One can visit the cave of Machpelah- the cave of the Patriarchs.[2] This is also where Isaac and Ishmael would bury Abraham (Gen 25:9). Isaac and Rebekah were both buried here (Gen. 49:31). Jacob buried Leah here (Gen.49:31); Joseph buried Jacob here (Gen. 50:13). Joseph did not want to be buried in Egypt. He wanted his bones brought back to the land of Canaan and buried with the patriarchs (Gen. 50:25). It is located in the old city of Hebron. A  mosque has been built above it.

Ephron says to Abraham, “I give you the field and the cave”.  He did not mean it literally. This was apparently  a typical way of negotiating  in ancient cultures.  First, the seller offered to give the item free of charge – confident that the buyer would refuse the ceremonial offer. When the buyer refused ‘the gift’, the seller would suggest a price, which in our case he claimed was modest but was really very high. Abraham paid 400 shekels (23:15). By comparison, Jeremiah paid 17 shekels for a field (Jer. 32:9) and  David paid only 50 shekels to buy a site on which the temple  in  Jerusalem  was built. (2 Sam 24:24). This was a rip off!

23:17-20 Abraham buys the field and buries Sarah. The text emphasizes that this property was Abraham’s land by title deed.  It was the only piece of land Abraham ever owned, in the land promised to him. Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was a famous Russian writer of short stories and novels. He wrote a short story entitled, “How much land does a man need?” 

The central character of this story is a man called Pahom, a greedy man. He complains that he does not own enough land. He says: "if I had plenty of land, I shouldn't fear the devil himself". Unbeknown to him, Satan is sitting behind the stove and listening. Satan accepts his challenge and also tells him that he would give Pahom more land, and then to snatch everything from him.   I will omit a lot of detail of Pahom’s greedy pursuit of land, but at the end of the story he is introduced to a family, the Bashkirs, who own a huge amount of land.  Their offer is very unusual.  For a sum of one thousand roubles, Pahom can walk around as large an area as he wants. He starts early in the morning, marking his route with a spade along the way. If he reaches his starting point by sunset that day, the entire area of the land which he has marked will be his, but if he does not reach his starting point as the sun goes down, he will lose his money and receive no land. He is delighted as he believes that he has hit upon the bargain of a lifetime. The day comes. He stays out as late as possible, marking out land until just before the sun sets. Towards the end of the day, he realizes that he is far from the starting point and runs back as fast as he can to the waiting land owners, the Bashkirs. He finally arrives at the starting point just as the sun sets, but he has utterly exhausted himself from the run, and as he arrives Pahom drops dead.

His servant buries him in an ordinary grave only six feet long and three feet wide. This answers the question posed in the title of the story, “How much land does a man need?”  

From Abraham’s perspective this was the only land that he needed on this earth to bury the mortal remains of his loved ones. The heavenly city was waiting. When you die the only piece of property you will own will be a plot in a cemetery. Everything else will belong to someone else.

There is a lesson  to be learned about the  request for a burial place.  Sarah’s soul is gone, but her body is here, and it is precious to the Lord and to Abraham.  The body- the remains ought to be precious to us too. When Mary discovered that the tomb in which Jesus was laid is empty, she doesn’t say, “They have taken away Jesus’ body and I don’t know where it is.” Her Lord had been taken away. Where was he? Abraham was conscious that this was the body of Sarah and it needed to be shown respect and love. This body must have a proper resting place, and a loving burial.   Burial plans ought to matter to us. Where his dear wife was to be buried was more than a matter of sentiment. Burying his wife was also a statement of faith. Have you considered what is going to happen to your body after your death? Where are you going to be buried? Have you drawn up a will? Do your loved ones know of your wishes? Have you thought of what you want said or sung at your funeral service? Who do you want to take that service?

CONCLUSION:

The big point behind  this story is that  Sarah dies in the land of Canaan, the land of promise, a reminder of the ultimate promise as found in Hebrews 11:13,  “All these died in faith without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.” This chapter is about persevering to the end, trusting in God and his promises,  trusting in  Him  even when our dreams  do not materialize in this world. 

Sarah died. There is escape from death.   In fact, the whole world is a hospital and every person in it is a terminal patient.  The question is ' how will you die?' Sarah  died in  hope and in faith,  even  though  she never   never saw her son’s bride; she never saw her offspring in this life; she never saw her grandchildren . She  never saw  her ultimate offspring – the Messiah in this life.

But  this we know, that when she died, when she left this body, her faith turned to sight, and whatever was unclear  for her on earth is now clear in heaven, as she has become a  citizen of  the eternal city.  

From that perspective you and I stand exactly where Sarah and Abraham stood 4000 years ago. We have not yet received the fulfillment of all God has promised. But we have the down payment, the inner assurance of the Holy Spirit, based upon  the promises in the Word. 

We will die, but the promises of God  continue  and await  the  fulfillment when we get to our heavenly Canaan. He who has been with us so far will not leave us when we depart from this world.

Thank God then  for these lessons  and encouragement from the life of Sarah. 

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[1] Told by Ray Stedman https://www.raystedman.org/old-testament/genesis/till-death-do-us-part

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_of_the_Patriarchs The Cave of the Patriarchs, also called the Cave of Machpelah (Hebrew: מערת המכפלה,  About this sound Me'arat ha-Makhpela  trans. "cave of the double tombs") and known by Muslims as the Sanctuary of Abraham or the Ibrahimi Mosque , located in the heart of the old city of Hebron (Al-Khalil) in the Hebron Hills.[Gen. 23:17-19][Gen. 50:13]  The site of the Cave of the Patriarchs is located beneath a Saladin-era mosque, which had been converted from a large rectangular Herodian-era Judean structure.