Genesis
24
A Perfect Bride
We are about to
say
good-bye to Abraham and follow the development of God's covenant
promises through Isaac, the promised son. But Abraham has one
more major scene in this transitional chapter. Here, in effect,
Abraham passes the torch on to Isaac. The promises of God will go
with his offspring and be fulfilled through him.
- The Faith of Abraham (1-9)
- Abraham's Desire - To Continue the Godly Line
(1-4)
- Abraham takes his action for two reasons
- He is old
- He is "old, advanced in years,"
the Bible tells us, so we won't miss the point.
- We've been told this once before
in 18:11
- Then it was about Abraham and
Sarah
- Then they did not have Isaac
and the phrase sets up some tension, some drama: Will God fulfill his
promise and give Abraham a son by Sarah before they die?
- Now Abraham has the promised son
- And he is getting on in years. He
will die soon. It is time for Isaac to take up Abraham's position as
the covenant bearer and the one to whom God has made promises.
- Abraham must pass along this
privilege and obligation to Isaac.
- The Lord has blessed him in all things
- Abraham has learned to trust the
Lord, because the Lord has always been faithful to keep his promises.
- The Lord favored Abraham when he
was full of faith, walking about the land to see the possession God had
promised him.
- The Lord favored Abraham when he
faltered in his faith.
- When he went down to Egypt and
told Sarah to lie
- When he pulled the same stunt
with Abimelech
- When he initially could not
believe the Lord's promise that he would bear a son by Sarah
- Here, the Lord favored him
with two things
- The faith to believe
that Isaac would be born
- The actual birth of
Isaac
- For although he doubted at
first, the Bible tells us that both he and Sarah eventually believed
and that without faith, Isaac would never have been conceived.
- So the Lord has also favored him
when he was strong in the faith.
- With protection in the land
- When his nephew Lot was
captured and taken away; Abraham went and brought him back
- When Sodom and Gomorrah
were destroyed, Abraham looked on, untouched.
- With the birth of Isaac
- With the life of Isaac when he
was about to kill him
- How can Abraham, who has received
so much, fail to trust the Lord now?
- How much more then we, who
have received the Spirit of the risen Christ, have cause to trust the
Lord in all things.
- God has done much greater
things since Abraham's time in fulfillment of his promises.
- Indeed all his promises are
Yes in Christ Jesus.
- Let us then with even greater
confidence imitate Abraham's faith as it is related to us here.
- Abraham seeks a wife for Isaac
- Because the Godly line must continue
through Isaac. Therefore, he needs a bride.
- But he is too old to seek one himself,
so he calls his most trusted servant to do the task
- So Abraham seeks a solemn oath from the
servant
- Put your hand under my thigh
- I.e. by my loins - by the source
of my power - a common Ancient Near Eastern way of heightening the
solemnity of an oath.
- Also, the servant is putting his
hand near Abraham's organ of procreation.
- Thus they are both reminded that
this oath involves the perpetuation of the seed of Abraham; for God has
made promises concerning that seed.
- And further, this is the area of
the body where Abraham and his servant have been circumcised.
So they are reminded that this oath deals with matters of God's
covenant with Abraham.
- Swear by the Lord, the God of heaven
and the God of the earth
- the creator of all
- You cannot hide from him
- The oath has two parts
- Do NOT take a wife for Isaac from the
daughters of the Canaanites
- Remember that the descendants of
Abraham are supposed to possess Canaan by driving out and killing the
Canaanites.
- So to mingle the Godly line with
the wicked line would be disastrous
- If Isaac takes a Canaanite wife,
then his own children would be under God's curse, and how could they
then inherit the blessing?
- So important is this to Abraham
that he mentions it first, even before he makes his positive
request known.
- Whatever you do, don't
take a wife for Isaac from the Canaanites.
- Go to my family and take a wife for my
son
- Since he must marry, let it be
someone whose lineage we know.
- And let it be someone whose blood
line is connected with mine so that there is a sort of genetic
closeness to the covenantal family.
- The Servant's Question and Abraham's Response
(5-9)
- Servant: What if I find such a woman and
she won't return with me here? Should I take Isaac back to her?
- Abraham: Absolutely not!!
- See to it that you don't. Beware
of that
- God took me from that house and that
land (7)
- I left that land in faith that God
had something for me here.
- So how can I send Isaac back there?
- He swore, To your seed I will give this
land
- Going back would be a sign of
unbelief, of giving up on the promises of God.
- It would be Isaac turning his back
on heaven and going to live in the world
- That same God will guide you
- And if the woman will not come back
with you…
- It is more important that my son
not deny the faith by going back there.
- More important even than him
having a wife; even though without a wife, I cannot see how
God's promises will be fulfilled.
- What marvellous faith Abraham now has at
last!
- Abraham is no longer afraid that God
cannot keep his promise.
- He sends his servant to find a bride
for Isaac in faith.
- Two things would show a lack of faith:
- If he did not try to find a bride
for Isaac at all. (That would be like refusing to have relations with
Sarah his wife when a son had been promised to them.)
- If he felt it was up to him to
provide the bride at all costs. (That would be like what he did with
Hagar, trying to fulfill God's promise for him by producing Ishmael
with his maidservant.)
- Abraham falls into neither trap.
- He is a towering example of faith.
- He calls out to us across centuries
and millenia: Imitate me in my faith! Act in faith that God will
fulfill all his promises and do not attempt to fulfill any of God's
promises for him.
- So he sends his servant off to find a
bride for Isaac. But if the bride will not come with him, Abraham says,
you are released from your duty. He is utterly, majestically calm about
the event; he knows that God will do all that he has promised.
- So he says, go look for a bride and
see what God provides.
- Don't you dare take a bride for
Isaac here. For that would be an attempt to fulfill God's promise for
him, just like with Ishmael.
- And what a disaster that would
be!
- To take a Caananite wife for
Isaac.
- To mix the bloodlines of the
blessed and the accursed.
- How then shall the seed of
Abraham destroy the seed of the serpent if his own offspring will be
half and half?
- But if you can't find a bride,
don't worry about it. God will fulfill his promise some other way.
- God, who brought me out of
Haran to this land.
- God, who brought be back from
Egypt when I was faithless and made me rich though I didn't deserve it.
- God, who saved me from the
destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah so that not a hair of my head was
singed.
- God, who gave me Isaac though
I was as good as dead.
- God, who told me to sacrifice
Isaac and at the last minute stayed my hand.
- God, who passed through the
pieces of cut up animals, swearing by his own life that he would
fulfill his covenant with me.
- I don't always understand why
or how he does what he does.
- But I have complete and utter
confidence that he does all things well. If there is no bride for Isaac
in my brother Nahor's household, then God - who can do all things -
will surely raise up a bride by some other means.
- Why, he is able if he wishes
to make a bride for Isaac even out of these stones!
- So go in faith, servant, to
seek a bride.
- And if you cannot find her,
come back in faith still. God will provide everything he
promised.
- Heads of household take note!
Abraham's confidence and faith become the confidence and faith of his
servant.
- The Faith of the Servant and the Faithfulness of
God (10-61)
- God answers the servant's prayer
- The prayer and its result (10-28)
- The servant prays specifically
- And God answers him specifically
according to his prayer.
- The servant tells the tale of God's
faithfulness (29-49)
- The Holy Spirit could have made the
story shorter here.
- The story could read, "And the servant
told them all that God had done."
- But Scripture likes to linger on these
points, lovingly showing how God was faithful, right down to the
minutiae.
- Let us, like the servant, tell the tale of
God's faithfulness
- How much more has God shown his
faithfulness in Christ?
- Let us never tire of repeating that
story to one another!
- The family submits to the will of God
(50-53)
- They acknowledge that the thing is
from the Lord
- And they give Rebekah to the servant
as Isaac's bride
- What joy! What giddy happiness! The
Lord is providing for the line of Abraham and Isaac to continue, just
as he promised.
- And such a bride!
- The perfection of the bride
- As we first meet her (15-28)
- Of the right family (15)
- Very beautiful (16a)
- Pure - a virgin whom no man had known
(16b)
- Abraham-like in her hospitality
- Remember Abraham sitting in his
tent in the heat of the day?
- He saw three men and he rushed
to greet them and he hastened to persuade them to stay so that
he might give them food and drink.
- In this we saw that Abraham's
heart was not with the goods of this world but was rather full of the
love of his neighbor.
- And we said this was a sign of
the faith God had granted Abraham.
- Rebekah is the same way; a
wonderful sign!
- She is a whirlwind of
hospitality on the servant's behalf.
- She "quickly" lets the
pitcher down to give the servant a drink.
- She "quickly" empties the
remainder into a trough for his camels.
- She runs to get
more water for the camels.
- She too does not love the
goods of this world but is full of the love of her neighbor.
- She too counts the comfort of
a stranger more important than her own.
- She too behaves as a woman of
faith.
- As she is willing to forsake all for Isaac
(57,58)
- She agrees to go with him.
- Just as God called Abraham away from
his country, his family, his father's house; so God calls Rebekah.
- And as Abraham left all that behind in
faith, so Rebekah is willing to as well.
- And she is willing to go immediately
- The family wanted a delay
- The servant begs for none
- And she agrees.
- She has put her hand to the plow
and will not look back. What is there for her in her homeland? She has
a new family now.
- As she is prophetically blessed by her
family (60)
- May you become the mother of thousands
of ten thousands and may your descendants (seed) possess the gates of
their enemies.
- Does this sound familiar?
- It's the same blessing given to
Abraham when he proves faithful in the sacrifice of Isaac: "blessing I
will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the
stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore;
and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies." (Gen
22:17)
- What a perfect bride!
- The prophecies concerning her are
the same as those concerning Isaac.
- They shall see them fulfilled
together
- In a single seed, Christ
Jesus, who shall indeed possess the gates of his enemies
- He shall overcome the
devil, the accuser, at the cross and at the empty tomb
- He shall burst the gates
of the grave wide open, rising again.
- And so in us, the countless
host of those who like Abraham and Isaac and Rebekah believe in this
promised seed.
- The gates of hell shall
not prevail against us either
- For we have triumphed over
hell and death in Christ.
- The last enemy, death,
shall be shown to be defeated at last when he returns.
- She is a picture of the bride of Christ,
even as Isaac is a picture of Christ
- But how can this be a picture of us,
for we are sinners?
- We were not of the right family
but were born children of the world
- We were not pure virgins, like
Rebekah, but filthy fornicators and adulterers
- We were not hospitable at all, but
selfish, wrapped up in our own needs and desires.
- Oh wretched ones that we were! How
could we become the pure and righteous bride of Isaac's greater
son, the true seed of Abraham, Jesus?
- To answer this, we look ahead to
another meeting at another well
- Jesus comes to the Samaritan woman
- A woman of mixed heritage. Her
ancestry went back both to Abraham and to the Gentiles.
- She was exactly what Abraham
had feared when he told his servant, don't take a wife for Isaac from
around here. Don't mix the people of faith with those marked for death.
- She is not a virgin. She is
not pure. She has had 5 husbands and is now living with a man who is not
her husband.
- He asks her for a drink, just like
Abe's servant
- Yet unlike Rebekah, she is
slow to respond.
- Not because she is
inhospitable, but because she is already disqualified from being the
one Jesus seeks. She is a Samaritan. He shouldn't even be talking
to her.
- Yet he comes to her
- he comes to this filthy,
unchaste, adulterous woman that he may make her pure.
- he comes to this
many-husbanded, husbandless woman that he may take her as his bride.
- he comes to this woman of
mixed race, of mixed family, that he may make her once and for all the
child of God
- he comes to this woman though
she has no water to give him, and he offers her the water of eternal
life.
- he comes to make her into a
Rebekah so that he may be her true Isaac, the seed of Abraham who
brings her into covenant with God.
- And not only her but all who, like
her, believe on the name of Jesus. The townspeople testify to this with
joy.
- And in that way, her story becomes
your story as well.
- In Rebekah, you may see yourself
along with the rest of the church, though you were once a Samaritan
woman, unfit for any marriage.
- Now we are the bride of Christ,
and in Rebekah we may see ourselves as Christ sees us - virginal, pure,
perfect, delightful, and full of service to him.
- And we have been prophetically
blessed as well - The gates of our enemy (of death) shall not prevail
against us. Christ has promised it.
- You have been made like Rebekah in the
eyes of Jesus, solely by his grace. And you have received even greater
promises than she did.
- Therefore, walk in this grace. Walk as
Rebekah walked
- Forsake the world and all it
offers you
- by showing hospitality to
strangers far and near
- by leaving behind your
homeland, this earth, to seek the kingdom of God and covenant with him
- Devote yourself wholly to your
husband and trust that life with him is worth far more than whatever
you have left behind.
- Successors for Abraham and Sarah (62-67)
- Isaac identified as Abraham's successor
- "meditating" or "walking about" in the
field
- The word is of uncertain meaning
- Either he is praying in that
field, presumably for the success of the servant's mission or just
because this is his general habit.
- Or he is walking about it,
presumably in restless anticipation of news of a bride.
- either way, he is a man of faith
- Called "my master"
- This is what the servant had called
Abraham several times in this chapter.
- Now the name is given to Isaac
- He is Abraham's successor, taking
Abraham's place
- The covenant and the promises will
continue through him
- Rebekah identified as Sarah's successor
- brought into Sarah's tent
- A comfort to Isaac in Sarah's death
- Abraham may now depart in peace.
- The covenant has been handed down.
- The hope of the world now rests on Isaac
and Rebekah
- And indeed through that line Christ was
born.
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