All right, turning back to Genesis
24, Genesis 24. This particular chapter has been
one, as I said before, that has been, according to good pleasure
of the Spirit of God, one that has been given, or we have been
given, let me say it like that, much detail, much detail. in this particular chapter. And
therefore, we want to prayerfully and reverently consider very much these verses. The bride for Isaac has been
found, and she heard the report of the servant of Abraham And
Rebecca has declared her readiness and her willingness to leave
her home for him. And the scripture says in verse
61, and Rebecca arose and her damsels and they rode upon the
camels and followed the man and the servant took Rebecca and
went his way. She was like the prodigal that
was spoken of in the New Testament, that had come to himself. He
said, I will arise and go to my father, like the prodigal. Rebecca, when she was of a determined
mind to go to Isaac, she didn't confer, with flesh and blood. She didn't listen to the desires
of her family. Remember, her family wanted her
to stay 10 months or a year before she went, but she was led providentially
by the Holy Spirit to go to Isaac. She was willing. She was ready,
she was ready to go. There was gonna be a crossing
of the bride with the bridegroom, and it was gonna be at an appointed
time, and this was the time. She was going to meet a man for
the first time. She'd heard about him, convinced
in her heart of him, He's led by God's spirit, just as God's
people are being led by the spirit of God. We've never seen him. We've never seen him with his
corporal eyes. We know him. We know him. Paul
the apostle said, I know whom I have believed. And I'm persuaded
that he's able to keep that which I've committed unto him against
that day. So she's ready to go. Now the
journey is surely going to be tiresome, just as our journey
in this world. This world is not our home, but
as we consider, as she did, the husband at the end of the journey,
one provided by the Lord, she leaves, she's ready. Abraham's
servant had faithfully set forth the promise unto Rebecca of a
loving and devoted and able husband. A promise that she heard in her
heart, believed, and this is the way we are. We know he's
the great shepherd. We know that he's leading us
and guiding us. And she went like we went, like
we're going, walking by faith, not by sight. This is the way
we're going, coming to Him. That's the way we're walking. So she followed the servant of
Abraham with the assurance that she would find acceptance. She would find favor. in Isaac's
eyes. No record that she doubted. No record that she said, well,
I wonder if he'll see me and want me for a bride. She had
the assurance Isaac would accept her. She would love him. Don't we have the assurance?
We're accepted in the beloved. We have a faith. We believe according
to the revelation of God's word. We believe our sin is pardoned. We were robed in the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are assured that we are joint
heirs with Christ. We hear those words. We hear
those scriptures. And we believe it. We believe
it. The Lord's given us a heart.
She believed. She would see Isaac, and he would
love her, and she would love him, and she's going, she's going.
We're convinced. We're washed from the guilt of
our sins through the merit of the shed blood of our precious
Savior. We believe that in Him, There's
no spot, there's no blemish. Oh, we see in our flesh, we know
in our flesh that there dwells no good thing, but we believe
God. We believe that there is therefore
now no condemnation to them that walk by faith and not by sight. Why do we have this hope? Because we believe God. He that
believeth on him is not condemned. Now that's what we got. That's
what we got. We got God's word. That's all we got. He that believeth,
he that trusteth, he that cast himself upon the mercy of almighty
God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not looking to
himself or anything. Rebecca wasn't looking to herself
or anything. She didn't have anything to bring to the table.
Nothing. Everything that she had was given
to her by the servant of Abraham. She obediently arose and obeyed
the instruction of Abraham's steward. And God's people do
the same thing. They know that the Lord has sent
preachers. I will give you pastors after
my heart. The Apostle Paul was moved by
the Spirit of God to say, obey them that have the rule over
you and submit yourselves for they watch for your souls as
they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not
with grief. For that is unprofitable for
you. The sheep of God obey God's preachers
when the sheep hear the word that's being faithfully preached
by God's preacher. When it says obey them that have
the rule over you, hear the word is what it's talking about. The
only thing that a faithful pastor has to say is what saith the
Lord. So whenever they preach the gospel
of God's free grace, obey them that are speaking God's word. Those called of God, they're
not to be concerned about their own opinion, their own fame,
but rather they're governed and directed by the spirit of God
for the glory of God and the spiritual welfare of God's people,
the hearers. They give account. Obey them,
they have the rule of you, they must give account. We give account,
first of all, unto the Lord. For what's preached, we give
an account to those that hear the message. You hear it, and
you're looking. That's what I always say. Listen
to what I'm preaching, and look at it. Look at it in the book.
and find out, is this what the book is saying? Is this what
the scriptures are saying? And if it's not what the scriptures
are being said, then I have no business standing here. But they
give account unto the Lord, they give account to those that hear,
and they give account to their own conscience. If the message
is faithfully preached and received, the scripture says, they give
account that they may do it with joy, if the Lord is pleased to
bless the message. And God calls out one of his
own, or they're encouraged, and they find comfort. Paul said
concerning those that heard him, he said, Philippians 1, 3, I
thank my God upon every remembrance of you, your faith. If the message is refused, Obey
them that have the rule over you, that they may do it with
joy and not with grief. And you know, if the message
is refused. And we all have, we have those
that we love and want them to hear. We want them to, we want
the Lord to save them. We want the Lord to do something
for them. And we pray and we ask the Lord
to bless the word, bless the message. Bless it as it goes
forth, make it go forth in power. Lord, would you bless it. And
those that refuse to hear, we're grieved because we know the end
of those that refuse. We know the end. We know that
there's coming a day when they'll stand before God. So the messenger
of Abraham bore within his heart the responsibility, the desire
of faithfulness to his master, to Abraham. He wanted to be truthful.
And God's people, they want to hear the gospel and God's preachers
want to preach faithfully. So there's the end. She had heard
all and she arose in her damsels and rode upon the camels and
followed the man. And the servant took Rebekah
and went his way. And then verse 62 said, and Isaac
came from the way of the well of Lehiroi, for he dwelt in the
south country. Now, as Rebekah was coming to
Isaac, being led by the servant of Abraham, Isaac was also coming. He was coming, he was led the
same way, led by the Spirit of God. But the Scripture says he
was coming from the way of the well of Lahairoi, for he dwelt
in the south country. Now, that place, Lahairoi, that's
the same place that's referred to when the Lord met Hagar. in Bir Lahairoi, the well of
him that liveth and seeth. And I looked, and every reference
that I could find gave the same, it said it's the same place.
It's the same place. That well was where the Lord,
when Hagar was cast out, whenever Sarah told Abraham, cast the
bondwoman out and her son. He's not gonna share in the inheritance
of my son. And the Lord spoke to Abraham
and said, do it, that's what you do, I want you to do that.
And so there was Hagar out in Ishmael, and the Lord met her
there, met Hagar there. She was gonna go off and just
get off in a place somewhere where she wouldn't see her son
die, that's what she was gonna do, and the Lord came. in overruling
Providence, he delivered her in Ishmael. And this is the place where Isaac
was. He was coming from this place,
a place that may have been the place where he He went to seek
the Lord's direction, a place where the blessing of God had
been seen prior and surely a place where the person and the glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ was set forth. That is, picturing
Him who is the well. It was a well there. That's what
it was. It was a well. And here is a picture of Him
from whom flows the rivers of living water. speaking of the
Spirit of God. So both Rebekah and Isaac were
providentially being directed toward each other. You know,
the scripture says, the steps of a good man, one made so by
the blood of Christ, being washed in the blood. The steps of a
good man are ordered by the Lord. But think again, here again,
let's look past history. This is history, this is history,
no doubt about that. That's true, this really happened.
Look how we behold the bride of Christ being providentially
brought unto the Lord Jesus Christ, predestinated unto the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good
pleasure of his will. So just as Rebecca and Isaac
will surely meet, the Lord is ordering and working all things
after the counsel of his own will to bring his bride unto
himself. Job said, in my flesh, I'm going to see God. I'm going
to see him. I'll see him. And verse 63, and
Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide. And he lifted up his eyes and
saw, behold, the camels were coming. Isaac's heart was surely
prepared, made sensitive to seek the Lord, to meditate upon the
Lord's will. That particular word, meditate,
there's different words meditate in the scriptures. That word
meditate is used one time, right there. and I looked it up and
it means, this is the meaning, to muse pensively. Well, I had to go and look the
word pensively up to find out what that means. It means one
that is thinking but weighing and pondering considering in
an absorbed and sober thoughtfulness. Weighing, he wasn't just out
daydreaming. He was weighing heavily upon
what was going on. The scripture sets forth that
he had gone out He went out in the field. He got alone. He got
alone. This was a closet to him. You pray, go to your closet,
get somewhere by yourself. And if the Lord doesn't give
a man or woman a heart to do that, they won't do it. And I think about what a blessing
it is to meditate upon the things of God, to meditate on that,
to think about that. How many times did, before we
ever knew Him, did we go day after day, day and night, day
after day after day after day, years, years, years, never thinking
about the goodness of God that gave us life. the mercy, the
kindness of God, to thank the Lord for life. You know, there's
a sense of, well, not a sense, it is, it's the truth. All people
benefit from the goodness of God. All men do. The scripture says the sun rises,
on the good and evil. It rains. You've got people out
here, big farms and stuff raising, and they don't know God. And
the Lord's providing. It's all for His people. But
there's the blessing in that they're ignorant. Never met,
never thinking that they're one heartbeat away from entering
eternity and without Christ. Never considering that. But there's
a time when the Lord moves upon a vessel of his mercy and gives
him a heart to contemplate and to meditate upon his goodness. And here's Isaac meditating. Meditating, that's what he did.
He went out to meditate in the field at the even time. The end of the day, we're not
told the extent of his thoughts, but you think about this, here
we are, it's the end of the day. We're coming to the end of the
day. The sun has gone down. We've been blessed with another
day. We've had a day. God's given
us 24 more hours and here's Isaac meditating concerning the mercy
and the grace that God had shown him. I wonder how many times he thought
upon laying down on that altar, up on top of that mountain in
Moriah, looking up at his dad with that
knife in his hand, and then beholding a ram caught in the thicket with
horns tangled up. And his daddy taking that ram
and loosening him and putting that ram on top of that altar
and offering that ram in his stead. I wonder how many times
he thought about that. How many times would you think of it?
If that had been you. It really happened? Musing. And what a blessing. to muse
upon that blessed picture of that ram taking his place and
how the Lord being a substitute for his people made what we are. Is that not the meditation of
the believer's heart? And I realize how many times
we think these things, and for me, I'll just speak for me, they're
so fleeting. It's like for a fleeting moment,
I think, I almost thought about it maybe, about the goodness
of God. And then I'm so distracted and
I'm just, it's like I lose it. And I think, am I thankful at
all? Do I have any heart to meditate
upon these precious things? How God allowed me, blessed me
to live until I heard the gospel. I went to school, there's a lot
of y'all did. How many people in your high
school class have already passed and you're still here? How many
of them left this world without knowing God? And here we are
with a desire to come and hear basically the same thing. Let's use a different passage.
Still got one message, one message. I'm gonna tell you about him.
Tell you about His glory, His mercy. Whenever the Lord Himself, turn
with me to Luke 2, Luke chapter 2, when the Lord was born of
Mary, His mother, earthly mother, Scripture declares, Luke 2, listen
to this, Luke 2 7, He brought forth her firstborn
son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger
because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were
in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping
watch over their flocks by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord
came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about
them, and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them,
Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy,
which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day
in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ, the Lord, the
promised Messiah. And this shall be a sign unto
you, you'll find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in
a manger. Those clothes are swaddling clothes
that the priests would wrap little lambs in, pure lamb. They'd examine
these lambs and wrap them in swaddling clothes to keep them
from being harmed. Blemished swaddling clothes,
they'd wrap a lamb up, a sacrificial lamb. You're going to find this
baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a mansion. Suddenly,
there was with an angel a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God
and saying, Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill
toward men. And it came to pass, as the angels
were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one
to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem. and see this
thing which has come to pass, which the Lord hath made known
unto us. And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and
the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they
made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning
this child. They started telling people what
the angels told them. And all that heard it wondered
at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary
kept all these things, pondered them in her heart, what she was
pondering about. I tell you, turn back to chapter
one of Luke. Look at verse, Luke one, verse
26. And in the sixth month, the angel
Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth
to a virgin, a spouse to a man whose name was Joseph of the
house of David, And the virgin's name was Mary, and the angel
came in unto her and said, Hail, thou that art highly favored,
the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women.
And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast
in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel
said unto her, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with
God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth
a son, and shall call his name Jesus. He shall be great and
shall be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God shall
give unto him the throne of his father David. He shall reign
over the house of Jacob forever, of his kingdom there shall be
no end. And then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be,
seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said
unto her, the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power
of the highest shall overshadow thee, therefore also that holy
thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son
of God. And she came and she heard what
those shepherds said that these angels had told her. They came
and they said, unto you a savior. It's Christ
the Lord. And you're gonna find him in
a manger, Bethlehem, wrapped in swaddling clothes. And there's
the child wrapped in swaddling clothes. And these angels, I
mean, these shepherds come in and say, angels told us this
tonight. And she looks at that child pondered
all these things in her heart. This is God. Made flesh. She pondered those things. Meditated
upon those things. What a thing to ponder. Christ
in you. The hope of glory. God in me. The hope of glory, yeah. That which is born of God that
doesn't sin. There's a new man in me that
doesn't sin. Ponder that. Meditate upon that. Here was Isaac. He went out to
meditate in the field. eventide, to reflect upon the
mercies of that day and seeking solitude with the Lord, His presence,
desiring to hold communion with Him, surely asking for direction,
not only for Himself, but also for the bride that would be brought
to Him and praying, praying for her deliverance. Turn to John
17. Wasn't that the prayer of the
Lord Jesus Christ, praying for the bride that was being delivered,
coming? It's coming unto him. Look at
John 17. Look at verse six. I've manifested thy name unto
the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they
were, and thou gavest them me. They've kept thy word. Now they
have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.
For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me, and
they have received them, and have known surely that I came
out from thee, and that they have believed that thou didst
send me. I pray for them. I pray not for
the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they
are thine. For all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am
glorified in them, and now therefore I am no more in the world. But
these are in the world, and I come unto thee, or come to thee. Holy
Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given
me, that they may be one as we are. While I was with them in
the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest
me I've kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition,
that the scripture might be fulfilled. And now come I to thee. These
things I speak in the world that they might have my joy fulfilled
in themselves. I've given them thy word. And
the world hath hated them because they're not of the world. Even
as I'm not of the world, I pray not that thou shouldest take
them out of the world, but thou shouldest keep them from the evil. Don't
you know that he was thinking on the bride? He knew the servant
was gone. He knew that the servant, he
knew what his daddy said. His daddy told the servant, The
angel of the Lord shall go before you and prosper your way. He
knew. Well, the scripture says that
while he was meditating back in Genesis 24, he lifted up his
eyes and saw, and behold, the camels were coming. Now, we know
that no scripture is given without divine inspiration, importance. We know that, as our Lord said,
how many times have we considered this? Beginning with Moses. This is Moses right here, this
is Moses writing. Beginning with Moses, all the
scriptures expounded unto them, those things concerning himself. Now, Isaac seeing these camels,
There's no exception. I mean, there's no exception
of that not having spiritual meaning, divine meaning. A little
quick confession to you right here. I was reading this yesterday,
going over my notes, and I read that portion of scripture. And
behold, the camels were coming. And I'm just going to express
my ignorance. I read that and I thought, Okay. But this morning I arose,
I was reading that again, and it, by the grace of God, had
a much greater meaning, much greater in the sense that I went
back and rewrote all my notes. The camels, behold, behold. Remind when John the Baptist
says, behold, you gaze upon, you look upon this, you gaze
at the camels were coming. Throughout this chapter, we've
been made to consider these camels. And we beheld them, first of
all, in verse 10. And I'm closing with this. Verse
10 of chapter 24, we behold these camels as the property and the
provision of Abraham and by Abraham. Look at verse 10. 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. He arose and went
to Mesopotamia under the city of Nahar." So we see where these
camels were provided by, they were the property of Abraham. And the care of these camels
was especially important, especially important to the servant as he
sought the Lord's direction. for the bride, look at verse
14, Genesis 24, 14. Let it come to pass, he's praying,
that the damsel to whom I 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. Let the same be she that has
appointed for thy servant Isaac, and therefore shall I know that
thou has shown kindness of me." The Lord moved upon that servant
to think upon those camels as being worthy of notice, worthy
of being cared for, worthy of being attended to. So here they
come and they're provided by Abraham, they're carefully watched
over by the servant of Abraham, and they were closely attended
to by Abraham's servant. Genesis 24, look at verse 29
and 30, and Rebekah had a brother. And his name was Laban. And Laban
ran out unto the man, unto the well. And he came to pass, when
he saw the earring and bracelets upon his sister's hand, and when
he heard the words of Rebekah his sister, saying, Thus spake
the man unto me, that he came unto the man, and behold, he
stood by the camels at the well." Don't you think that's kind of
an unusual thing? This is what he said to me. This is what he
said to me, and he stood by the camels at the well. He was closely
attendant. He was closely attending to the
camels. But most significantly, and remember,
all scripture speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is the
point I came to by the grace of God. I don't have the sense
to come to this. The Lord has to teach a man anything,
It's those camels were the means of bringing the bride to Isaac,
those camels. That was the mean. Rebecca arose
in her damsels and they rode upon the camels. When Isaac lifted
up his eyes, behold, what did he see first? He saw the camels. He saw those camels coming. She
was coming, not by her own provision, I don't doubt that maybe her
family had some mode of transportation. Maybe they had a nice little
buggy of some kind. Maybe she was very fond of her
means of transportation, but the issue was she was coming
by way of Abraham's provision. And those camels were a beautiful
type and picture. because of the significance that
was made by the Spirit of God concerning God's means of getting
her where she was going. They were coming by means of
the camels, Abraham's choosing. They were a blessed type and
picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to the words of our Lord,
John 14, 6. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh
unto the Father, But by me, these camels bore the journey. They bore the heartache. They
were riding on the camels, but the camels carried them. Reminded
me when the Lord said he had lost a sheep and had left the
99. What'd he do? Put it on him. He bore the little lamb. These camels bore all the provisions
that were needed for the journey and finally and safely delivered
the bride to the son. The apostle Paul was moved to
say, my God shall supply all of your need according to his
riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Hebrews 12, and I'll stop. Hebrews
12, verse 10. Hebrews 12, 10. I'm sorry, 2, 10. I said 12,
I meant two. Hebrews 2, verse 10. For it became Him for whom are
all things and by whom all things in bringing many sons unto glory
to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. He went out, he was meditating,
and he lifted his eyes and behold, those are the camels of my dad's
provision. Behold, he saw the camels coming
and knew the bride will be with him. I pray God bless this to
our hearts for Christ's sake.