Sunday, November 18, 2018

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.  



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