Let's turn in our Bibles this
evening to Genesis chapter 24. Genesis chapter 24. The first
thing that we read in this chapter about Abraham is that he was
old and well stricken in age. How old was Abraham at this point? How old was he? Well, we know
he was 100 years old when Isaac was born, and Isaac was now about
40 when he married Rebekah. So at this time, Abraham, as
the scripture says, was old, 140 years. And yet we know that he lived
another 35 years and died at the good old age of 175. The
second thing that we read in this chapter about Abraham is
that the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. This was true
of Abraham and it's true of all of his spiritual seed, everyone
here tonight. We have all been blessed. Those
of us who know him, know Christ as our Lord and Savior. As the
Apostle Paul said, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ. And when did he bless us with
all spiritual blessings in Christ? Before the world began. From
the foundation of the world. This is what the scripture tells
us. Well, tonight I'm going to point
out four truths that stand out to me and I believe to all of
us in this chapter. The chapter itself concerns a
bride for Isaac, a bride for Abraham's son, his promised son,
his well-beloved son, Isaac. But the first thing that stands
out to me, the importance of marriage. the importance of marriage. Let's read verses two through
six. And Abraham said unto his eldest
servant of his house that ruled over all that he had, put, I
pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and I will make thee swear
by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that
thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the
Canaanites among whom I dwell. But thou shalt go unto my country,
and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac. And the servant
said unto him, Peradventure, the woman will not be willing
to follow me unto this land. Must I needs bring thy son again
unto the land from whence thou camest? And Abraham said unto
him, Beware thou that thou bring not my son thither again. The importance of marriage. Abraham
knew, and I'm sure that his son Isaac, as I said, almost 40 years
of age, that he was in agreement that this was most important,
that he not be married to a Canaanite, a woman of Canaan. Now the term
Canaanite may have included the six nations of the land of Canaan. There was one of those nations
which was actually called the Canaanite nation, but there were
five others that were in the land of Canaan. And these nations,
these six nations, are the nations that God had earlier told Abraham
that their iniquity was not yet full. Their iniquity was great. They were descendants of Noah,
Noah's son, rather, Noah's son Ham, upon whom upon whom Noah
pronounced that curse, cursed be Canaan. They were all idolaters
for sure. And Abraham knew, and as I said,
I know that Isaac saw the importance of the woman that he married
not being from Canaan. We know that when Isaac married
Rebekah and had two sons, Esau and Jacob, that Esau married
women from Canaan, and it was a provocation to his mother and
father. Jacob, of course, we know, went
back to seek a bride from his own country, his own father's,
his grandfather's family, rather. The point for us tonight is that
marriage, marriage was given to unfallen man. Before man ever
sinned, before man became a sinful creature, God gave him the ordinance
of marriage, the blessing of marriage. And he did so because
even though Adam was ruler over everything here in God's earth,
There was not found for him a helpmate. There was no one with which he
could compart love and have fellowship with. And God saw it was not
good that the man should be alone. Let's look back at that passage
in Genesis chapter two. Just a few words here in Genesis
chapter two. I'll read verse 20 where it says,
and Adam gave names to all cattle and to the fowl of the air and
to every beast of the field. Now notice this, but for Adam,
there was not found and help made for him. I know people today
love their animals, their pets, but a pet cannot really interact
in a social way with a human being. I'm just going to I say
that probably makes someone mad, not here tonight, but some people,
if they heard that. But we need another human being
to interact with, to love, and to fellowship with, and to enjoy
the blessings of life, to share in the things of this life. So
God saw that there was not found a helpmate for him, And the Lord
God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam. Incidentally, don't
we see here the goodness of the Lord? The goodness of God. He saw that Adam, with all that
he had, he was alone. And God, out of his goodness,
gave him a wife. Caused him to sleep and he took
one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And
the rib which the Lord God had taken for man made he a woman
and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, this is now bone
of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because
she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his
father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they
shall be one flesh, they shall be joined in one. And we know
that this is a beautiful picture of the union between every child
of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. The union which exists between
Christ, the mystical union between Christ and His church. Let me
read us a few verses here in Ephesians chapter 5 where the
Apostle Paul declares this truth. In verse 30 of chapter 5, he
said, For we are members of his body, that is, those of us who
know Christ as our Lord and Savior, those of us who trust in him.
We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall
be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh."
This is a great mystery, and it is, isn't it? This mystical
union which exists between Christ and His people. This is a great
mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and His church. Nevertheless,
let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself. and the wife see that she reverence
her husband. So the importance of marriage. The second thing that stands
out to me in this passage of scripture is once again the faith
of Abraham. Verses seven through nine. The
Lord God of heaven, which took me from my father's house, and
from the land of my kindred, and which spake unto me, and
that swear unto me, saying, unto thy seed will I give this land.
He shall send his angel before thee, and thou shalt take a wife
unto my son from thence. And if the woman will not be
willing to follow thee, then thou shalt be clear from this
my oath, only bring not my son thither again. And the servant
put his hand under the thigh of Abraham, his master, and swore
to him concerning that matter." Abraham confessed in these verses
that I just read. He confessed his belief, his
faith, his confidence that God would send his angel before his
servant. And thou shalt." He didn't say,
you may take a wife or perhaps you will take a wife. No, Abraham
believed. He said, thou shalt take a wife
unto my son from these. This tells me Abraham's words, Abraham's faith. This tells me that God had communicated
to him to take a wife for his son from his kinsmen. I say this
because of his faith, and faith must be bottomed on something.
Faith must be settled on something. And it's not settled on our feelings.
Faith is bottomed and settled upon the Word of God. And we're
not told this, but obviously God had somehow communicated
to Abraham that Isaac's wife was going to come from his kinfolks
in that land from which God had called him. Our faith. My faith tonight is based upon
the Word of God. Your faith is based upon the
Word of God, the Word of the God who cannot lie, and as we
saw last week, who has even taken an oath, he swore by himself,
to give us assurance. And don't you love that verse
in 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 24? It says, Faithful is he that calleth you,
who will also do it. Isn't that wonderful? Faithful
is he, faithful is God, who calleth thee, who will also do it. Pastor friend of ours just recently
was at the doctor's office. His wife had cancer and was going
to be operated on These two people told the doctor, well, we are
believers. We trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the doctor said to him, well,
some people need their faith to lean on. And my friend said,
I just wanted to scream out so loud, so loud. I'm not leaning
on my faith. No. My weak faith, my faith sometimes
is strong, sometimes it's weak. I'm not leaning on my faith.
I'm leaning on the object of my faith. The object of our faith. The object of our faith is our
faithful God. Faithful is He who hath called
you, who will also do it. He's faithful to Himself. He
will not deny Himself. If he gives you a promise and
he goes back on that promise, he would deny himself. He would
no longer be immutable. He would no longer be truthful.
He's faithful to himself. He's faithful to his covenant,
that everlasting covenant of grace, which he made before the
foundation of the world. He's faithful to his son, who
came as a surety for his people. And he promised him. That if
He would give His life for His people, that He would give unto
them eternal life. He's faithful to His Word. And
He's faithful to you. He's faithful to me. He's faithful
to every soul that leans upon Him. That's what the word faith
means, isn't it? To lean. We used to sing a chorus,
learning to lean, learning to lean. And all through life, we're
learning, aren't we? To lean, lean, lean upon Him. Abraham told his servant, I want
to point this out before I go to the next thing that stands
out to me. Abraham told his servant that
God, notice in verse 7, God's going to send His angel before
thee. He's going to send His angel before thee. You know,
in the New Testament, in the letter of Hebrews, the apostle
tells us that angels are ministers. They're ministers for them who
shall be heirs of salvation. And one of the ways, obviously,
that God's ministers, angels, one of the ways that they minister
unto those who are heirs of salvation is by guiding us in the way. We pray and we ask the Lord to
guide us and we trust that the Lord will guide us and lead us
through this world. There's many situations we find
ourselves in and we are nonplussed. We don't know which way to go,
to the right or to the left, but thank God we have his promise
that he will send his angel before us and guide us in the way. Now the third thing that stands
out to me is the place of prayer. Notice verses 10 through 14.
And the servant took 10 camels of the camels of his master and
departed. For all the goods of his master
were in his hand. And he arose and went to Mesopotamia
unto the city of Nahar. And he made his camels to kneel
down without the city by a well of water at the time of the evening,
even the time that women go out to draw water. And he said, O
Lord God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed
this day. Show kindness unto my master
Abraham. Behold, I stand here by the well
of water, and the daughters of the men of the city come out
to draw water, and let it come to pass that the damsel to whom
I shall say, let down thy pitcher, I will pray thee that I may drink,
and she shall say, drink, and I will give thy camels drink
also. Let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant
Isaac, and thereby shall I know that thou hast showed kindness
unto my master. And then look down to verse 42,
when he is relating this experience to Laban. In verse 42, the servant
relates what had taken place, what we just read there. And
I came this day unto the well, and said, O Lord God of my master
Abraham, if now thou do prosper my way which I go, behold, I
stand by the well of water, and it shall come to pass that when
the virgin cometh forth to draw water, and I say to her, give
me, I pray thee, a little water of thy pitcher to drink, and
she say to me, both drink thou, and I will also draw for thy
camels. Let the same be the woman whom
the Lord hath appointed out for my master's son. Now notice this,
and before I had done speaking in mine heart. Rebecca didn't
hear him pray this prayer and then give him a drink of water
and water his camels. He was praying, but he was praying
in his heart. He was praying in his heart to
the Lord. And in my mind, this is an illustration
of that word in Isaiah 65 and verse 24, when God said, And
it shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer. And
while they are speaking, I will hear. The servant was praying,
and he was praying, and God heard him. You notice that the servant
prayed to the Lord God of his master. We pray to the same God that
he prayed to, the God of Abraham. But we do not call him the God
of our master Abraham. We do not call him either the
God and father of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, though he was. And
he went by that name in the Old Testament. We call him the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray to him, my Father
and my God. My Father and my God. You know, there's much about
this man's prayer from which we should learn. The first thing
I see is he believed God. He believed God could. He asked,
you know, that statement years ago, someone said, ask great
things of God and expect great things of God. Well, he expected
a great thing from God. When you think about what he
asked for the Lord to send this woman out here to get water and
to draw water for his camels, and camels can drink a lot of
water, folks. They really can. And she watered them. She watered
him. He asked a great thing. He expected
a great thing. He asked and he asked that he
would do it. He thought, he asked that God
could, he knew that God could do it and he asked that God would
do it. And fourth, the fourth thing
that stands out to me is the providence of God. You notice
in verse 15, He ends his prayer in verse 14. And it came to pass, before he
had done speaking. That's what that verse in Isaiah
says, isn't it? Before they call, I will answer. And while they are yet speaking,
I will hear. Before he had done speaking,
behold! Behold! As luck would have it, oh no,
not hardly, Rebecca came out, who was born to Bethuel, son
of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, with her picture
on her shoulder. Wasn't this what we call God's
providence? And do you know what God's providence
is? It is God working out in time.
what he ordained in eternity. That's what God's providence
is. And God's providence, before
there ever was a star twinkling in the sky, had ordained that
Rebecca would come along with her picture at this particular
time. What a God we've served. Amen. What a wonderful, wonderful God. She gave the servant water, watered
his camels, and he learned that she was a daughter of Abraham's
family. And notice in verse 27, as this
goes on, he immediately, what did he do? He blessed God. That's
a lesson for us, isn't it? When we pray and ask the Lord
for our needs, and the Lord provides our needs and answers our prayers,
then we forget sometimes to thank him and bless him. But this man
didn't. He said, blessed be the Lord
God of my master Abraham, who hath not left destitute my master
of his mercy and his truth. I've been in the way the Lord
led me to the house of my master's brethren. When her family, that
is Rebecca, when they heard this story, of Abraham and his son
Isaac, to whom he had given everything, and how God's providence had
brought him to the well, and he had prayed that prayer, and
Rebecca came along, and she did exactly what he had asked the
Lord that the person would do. And when he related that to her
family, they immediately saw, this is of the Lord. This is
God's will. Notice that in verse 50 and 51. Then Laban and Bethuel answered
and said, The thing proceeded from the Lord. We cannot speak
unto thee bad or good. Behold, Rebekah is before thee. Take her and go and let her be
thy master's son's wife, as the Lord has spoken. They recognize
this as God's will, as God's providence. And they are queased
in sending Rebecca to be married to Abraham's son. But you know,
there appeared to be one catch. The servant, he had been away
from Abraham for some time and he knew Abraham was anxious for
him to come back. He knew Isaac was looking for
his wife and he wants to leave immediately. He wants to leave
immediately. As soon as they agreed that Rebecca
should be the wife of Isaac, he's ready to go. But Rebecca's
family, as any family, would want a few days, a few days yet
to be with her before she leaves, because in all likelihood, she'll
never come back. They'll never see her again.
I've partied with our children. Some of you've partied with your
children when they were gone away. And it's always a serious
time, isn't it? I mean, it's a special time,
emotional time, many times, when we say goodbye to our children.
But their family wasn't any different. They loved Rebecca. Now, I can't
help but think, since Laban's involved, if that servant had
waited a few days, he would have come back with another part of
this deal, because Laban was that kind of a man. We know how
he tricked Jacob. He had him serve for Rachel for
seven years, and then he gave him Leah to be his wife. And he had him serve another
seven years. And he was just that kind of
a man. He was a trickster. But no, the
servant, he wants to leave immediately. The family doesn't want her to
leave immediately. And so they decide, well, let's
set the matter before Rebecca. After all, she's the one going,
she's the one leaving, she's the one that's going away, traveling
to a far distant land, being married to a man she's never
seen. Never met? Let's ask her. And look down
at verse 58. And they called Rebekah and said
unto her, Wilt thou go with this man, this man you've never seen
before in your life until yesterday? Will you go with him? Will you
leave with him and go into a far off country and be the wife of
a man you've never met? Notice what she said. I will go. I will go. And then, down to verse 63. And Isaac went out to meditate
in the field at the eventide. He lifted up his eyes and saw,
and behold, the camel's coming. And Rebekah lifted up her eyes,
and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off the camel. For she had said
unto the servant, what man is this that walketh in the field
to meet us? The servant has said, it is my
master. Therefore, she took a veil and
covered herself. And the servant told Isaac all
things that he had done. And Isaac brought her into his
mother Sarah's tent. I think Sarah had been gone now
about three or four months. Took her into his mother Sarah's
tent and took Rebecca and she became his wife and he loved
her. And Isaac was comforted after
his mother's death. That's a beautiful story, isn't
it? That's a true story. It's a beautiful, it's a love
story, isn't it? Sure it is. And it's a beautiful
story. Well, consider some pictures
that we see in this history. There's several. There's more
than what I'm going to mention tonight. But first of all, I
would point out to us that Abraham gave all to his son Isaac. Everything he had. Notice that
in verse 36. And Sarah, my master's wife,
bare a son to my master when she was old, and unto him, unto
Isaac, this promised son, hath he given all that he hath." What
a picture of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, His only
begotten Son. God the Father has given all
things into His hands. The apostles tell us this about
the Lord Jesus Christ, that in Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. In Christ, in the God-man, dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And the apostle Paul
tells us in Colossians, in whom, that he is in Christ, are hid
all, not most, Not a large amount, but all the treasures of wisdom
and knowledge. They're all hidden in Jesus Christ. And the Savior Himself said,
all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. The Father
has given all things to His Son. All creation is given unto Him. He rules. and reigns in creation. All mankind is given unto him. The apostle said, we live, we
move, we have our being in him, in Christ. What a picture here. What a thought is brought to
us. A second thing that I think of, God appointed the bride for
Isaac. If you notice that in verse 14,
the servant said that. He said, And let it come to pass
that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher, I
pray thee that I may drink, and she shall say, Drink, and I will
give thy camels drink also. Now notice, Let the same be she
that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac. God appointed
the bride for Isaac, and God has appointed the bride for his
son. And verse in I Thessalonians
5 and verse 9 says, For God hath not appointed us to wrath. He's writing to believers, to
God's children. He has not appointed us to wrath,
but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. He appointed
us to obtain salvation. In other words, He determined
that His people those that he gave to his son as his bride,
that we obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. God appointed
the Savior's bride in sovereign election. A third thing that
I see is the servant who is so prominent in this whole chapter,
in this whole history, the servant who goes to seek the bride, he's
not named. He's not named. Now, people can
suppose he is that servant that is named in another place, but
we don't know that. This servant was not named. And
some people say, well, that is a picture or a type of preachers,
that God sends men out to preach the gospel and God is calling
out his elect. But listen, I wonder if this
is not also a picture of God the Holy Spirit. of God the Holy
Spirit is typical of his work. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
said this about him. He said, Howbeit when he, the
Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth,
for he shall not speak of himself. This man didn't say anything
about himself. He didn't talk about how long
he'd served Abraham, how faithful he was, how he was a trusted
servant. He didn't say anything about
that. The Holy Spirit talks about Christ. And then in that same
passage the Lord said, he shall not speak of himself, he shall
glorify me. This servant is talking about
Abraham and all of his riches and all of it is given unto his
son. What a picture. The precious
things that the servant showed him. He pulled all those jewels
out. I bet Laban's eyes got about that big, big as a saucer when
he saw the jewels, the gold. I mean, he put a gold ring on
her forehead and bracelets on her arm. That was first of all.
And then when he got to the house, he just pulled all that wealth. He had everything, everything
at his disposal to get this bride. And the precious things, they
were not his. Not the servants. They were his
masters. They were Isaac's. And the last
thing that I see as a picture here, the bride, Rebecca, was
willing to go. Now, who can read this and picture
the circumstance and not believe that this is almost against nature? That a young lady would ride
off on a camel with a man she had never seen before one day,
into a land that she didn't know anything about, to a people she
didn't know anything about. She'd leave her home and her
family. It seems almost against nature.
But you know, in my case and in your case, in the sinner's
case, it is against our nature. It is against our nature to say,
I will. I will have this man to reign
over me. But thank God, the scripture
says, in the day of thy power, thy people shall be willing.
And he makes us willing, makes us willing to fall down before
the Lord Jesus Christ as mercy seekers, bringing nothing, having
nothing, looking to him for everything. Only God the Holy Spirit is able
to make a person willing. Aren't you thankful tonight if
you are a willing follower of Christ? He made you willing. You didn't make yourself willing.
He made you willing. May the Lord bless His Word tonight. We'll sing a hymn before we're
dismissed.