This week, we are looking at a story that is recorded for
us in the very first letter in the Bible, called the book of Genesis.
Yesterday, we looked on as Abraham approached the end of his life and recognized
that there was something that he needed to make sure was taken care of before
he died. The loose end to be tied up before Abraham died was to make sure that
Isaac found a wife. And since Abraham was now too old and frail to do what he
believed was necessary to find Isaac the right wife, Abraham called upon his
most trusted servant, the servant that had been with him the longest, to tie up
this loose end.
Abraham’s servant was to head, by himself, to the land of
Abraham’s relatives, which was 400 miles away, find Abraham’s relatives, and
then find a wife for Isaac from one of those relatives, without Isaac. Today,
we will look on as the search begins, as we see in Genesis 24:10:
Then the
servant took ten camels from the camels of his master, and set out with a
variety of good things of his master's in his hand; and he arose and went to
Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor. He made the camels kneel down outside the
city by the well of water at evening time, the time when women go out to draw
water. He said, "O LORD, the God of my master Abraham, please grant me
success today, and show lovingkindness to my master Abraham. "Behold, I am
standing by the spring, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out
to draw water; now may it be that the girl to whom I say, 'Please let down your
jar so that I may drink,' and who answers, 'Drink, and I will water your camels
also '-- may she be the one whom You have appointed
for Your servant Isaac; and by this I will know that You have shown
lovingkindness to my master."
After entering into the oath and commitment to find Isaac
a wife, the servant grabs ten camels, along with some other prized possessions
of Abraham and travels north to the city Nahor. Now the city of Nahor was near
the city of Haran, which is where Abraham originally came from. As we
discovered earlier in this series, this would not have been a short trip.
Instead, this journey would have taken a month to complete. The ten camels and
other prized possessions were part of what was called the bride price, which in
the culture of the day was given as a gift to the bride’s family.
Now imagine yourself as this servant. Most likely, you
have never met and have no idea who Abraham’s relatives are. And Abraham did
not give you a specific place or list of names to search. There is no Google.
So how are you going to find his relatives, let alone know which woman is the
right woman for Isaac? So what would you do?
Here we see the servant do two things. The first thing
that the servant did was to place himself in a position where there was the
greatest opportunity to encounter Abraham’s relatives. The servant placed
himself by the well at the outskirts of town late in the day, when the most
people would head there to get water.
The second thing that the servant did was to pray. And
this prayer was bold and this prayer was specific. Now this prayer, if
communicated in the language we use in our culture today, would have sounded
something like this: O Lord, you are large and in charge, you rule and you
reign. I have seen your activity in my master’s life. And I come to you and
pray that you would guide and direct me to find the right woman for Isaac. I
pray that you would continue to show your faithful devotion to my master. And
God I pray that you would give me a sign to make sure that I find the right
woman. So God, I am going to stand by this well, and I pray that the woman who
gives me a drink of water and offers to water all the camels would be the women
you have determined that would marry Isaac”.
The servant asks for two specific signs. The first sign,
that the girl would offer him something to drink, would not be that unusual.
The second sign, however, which was to offer to water all ten of the servants
camels would be much more unlikely to happen.
Now a natural question that arises here is “well Dave are
we supposed to pray like that? Are we supposed to pray that God would give us
signs, like three green traffic lights in a row, to determine God’s will and
direction for our lives?” The answer to that question is no, you shouldn’t, to
which some of you now are thinking “well why not, the servant did”.
Here is the reason we should not pray that way. The
reason why the servant prayed that way is due to the reality that at this point
in God’s story, the servant is lacking the Holy Spirit and the Bible. In
addition, there are no priests or religious authority. So if you were the
servant, how else would you try to discern God’s will?
In addition, notice that nowhere does it say that God
agreed to these signs; all the Bible tells us is that the servant presumed upon
these signs. You see, the servant was desperate for God’s guidance. The servant
recognized that he had made a promise to make sure that Isaac would be in line
with God’s promises. And the only way that he believed that he would be able to
fulfill his promise was to ask God for guidance and direction to help position
Isaac to experience God’s promises. So the servant prayed for guidance. And as
the servant prayed, we see what happens in verse 15:
Before he
had finished speaking, behold, Rebekah who was born to Bethuel the son of
Milcah, the wife of Abraham's brother Nahor, came out with her jar on her
shoulder. The girl was very beautiful, a virgin, and no man had had relations
with her; and she went down to the spring and filled her jar and came up. Then
the servant ran to meet her, and said, "Please let me drink a little water
from your jar." She said, "Drink, my lord"; and she quickly
lowered her jar to her hand, and gave him a drink. Now when she had finished
giving him a drink, she said, "I will draw also for your camels until they
have finished drinking." So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough,
and ran back to the well to draw, and she drew for all his camels. Meanwhile,
the man was gazing at her in silence, to know whether the LORD had made his
journey successful or not. When the camels had finished drinking, the man took
a gold ring weighing a half-shekel and two bracelets for her wrists weighing
ten shekels in gold, and said, "Whose daughter are you? Please tell me, is
there room for us to lodge in your father's house?" She said to him,
"I am the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Milcah, whom she bore to
Nahor." Again she said to him, "We have plenty of both straw and
feed, and room to lodge in." Then the man bowed low and worshiped the
LORD. He said, "Blessed be the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has
not forsaken His lovingkindness and His truth toward my master; as for me, the
LORD has guided me in the way to the house of my master's brothers."
Can you imagine what that must
have been like for the servant? As you are praying, a woman who just happens to
be Abraham’s grandniece, who just happens to be of marriageable age and a
virgin, who just happens to be beautiful, of high moral character, generous,
and kind, walks up to you, gives you and drink and offers to spend the next
hour watering all your camels. The servant responded by observing Rebekah in
silence and she fulfilled all of the signs that he had asked God for.
And not only did Rebekah
fulfill his signs, Rebekah also offered food and lodging for the servant. And
at that point, the servant could remain silent no longer, but instead burst out
in public praise and worship of God. The servant basically exclaimed “praise be
the Lord, who has shown His faithful devotion to my master Abraham. Praise be
the Lord who has answered my prayer by guiding me to Abraham’s family and providing
me this woman for Isaac”.
Friday, we will see how Rebekah’s
family responded to Abraham’s servant and discover a timeless truth about God
and God’s promises…
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