All right, let's take our Bibles
and turn with me to the book of Genesis, chapter 24. Genesis
24. The amazing thing about the 24th
chapter of the book of Genesis, of course, this is the account
of Abraham sending his servant to seek a bride for Isaac. And there's many passages in
the word of God where the spirit of God has been pleased to give
very few details. But this book is, I mean, this
chapter right here is amazing in the fact of the detail that
the spirit was pleased to grant unto us. And having given that
detail, we want to be very careful, very cautious to consider that
which he has written. So the steward, the servant of
Abraham was commissioned, commanded by Abraham to go out. Now we're not told who the steward
is, who the servant is. Very possibly it was Eleazar. That was one that Abraham named
back chapters ago that he thought would be his only heir. But the
Lord said he's not gonna be your heir. But the Spirit of God doesn't
tell us. that it's Eleazar. So we don't
want to presume who it is. The exclusion of this servant's
identity is to the honor of the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, we
find often whenever the Lord is pleased to to reveal something,
for that we're thankful. And when he doesn't, he does
it. Whenever John the Baptist was asked, are you the one, are
you the Christ? And he said, I'm not the Christ. Who are you? He said, I'm voice,
crying in the wilderness. make straight the way of the
Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah. So we learn from these things
that we seek to bring honor unto our Lord and not to ourselves. Well, this servant sent by Abraham
and led by God's Spirit goes to the country of Abraham, not
knowing who the woman might be, but knowing the natural place
where women would gather to come and fill their watering pots. And he's not assuming, he's not
being presumptuous, but rather he's keenly mindful of the importance
of the oath that he's entered into with Abraham, not just any
woman is going to do. It must be the appointed damsel
for Isaac, a fit picture of the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our Lord is no beggar. He's not trying to get somebody
to love Him or try to get somebody to come to Him. It's not going
to be just any bride. There is a bride that has been
chosen by the Father, has been redeemed by the Son, and shall
be called in time by the Spirit of God, regenerated, and therefore
is accepted in the Beloved. Now, beholding the significance
of our passage here. The servant now begins to, he's
come to this place, he's come to a well, and he pours out his
heart unto the Lord. Verses 12 to 14, Genesis 24,
he says, O Lord God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me
good speed this day. and show kindness unto my master
Abraham. Let's learn what we just read. Whenever we're called to do something,
whatever we're doing, whatever we're doing, let's remember,
Lord, give me good speed here. Lord, bless this. Bless this
my effort, bless my direction. 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 pray thee that I may drink,
and she shall say, drink. And I will give thy camel's 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." Now, we're taught something here. We have liberty
to ask specifically. We ask our Lord in the garden. Remember, I brought this out.
He asked specifically. He said, Father, if this cup,
if this cup might pass from me, if it be your will, nevertheless,
if this cup may pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will but
thine be done. He asks specifically. And this
servant is asking specifically. I mean, he's very specific on
what he's asking. And he's trusting. And he's waiting
until the Lord opens the door. He's gonna bring to pass his
will and his purpose, his counsel is gonna stand. And so therefore,
we're commanded, the Lord said in Matthew 7, 7 and 8, and it shall be given you. Seek,
and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened
unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth. Now this is specific. And to
him that knocketh it shall be opened. He said, you ask, you
seek, and you knock, and I will answer. Now the answer may be
no, but he's going to answer. Somebody said, well, I don't
think the Lord's given me an answer yet. Well, keep knocking.
Keep seeking. He that asketh, he that seeketh,
knocketh. Verse 15, and it came to pass.
Before he had done speaking, and behold, Rebekah came out,
who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, wife of Nahar, Abraham's
brother, with her pitcher upon her shoulder. Now here now time
and eternity meet. Here was the Lord's servant,
Abraham's servant, seeking according to the Lord's will, asking specifically,
and the Lord who works all things out according to His will, hears. And it wasn't that the prayer
of the servant moved God to act. Let's remember, it was the will
of the Lord to bring about His purpose. moving the servant by
his spirit that helpeth us, because we don't know what to pray for.
It was the Lord that moved the servant to ask according to the
Lord's will. So may we learn to wait and see
the salvation of our God. Remember this, our prayers don't
change things. worketh all things after the
counsel of his own will. Brother Henry said this one time,
he said, prayer doesn't change things. The one to whom we pray
orders all things. according to his will. Does that
mean we don't pray? No, that means we do pray. And
when you pray, but when we pray, we ask the Lord, Lord, if it
be your will, Lord, if it be your purpose, if it be according
to your good pleasure. So here, verse 16 says, the damsel
was very fair to look upon, a virgin, neither had any man known her.
And she went down to the well and filled her pitcher Now, we're
not told whether there were any other women there at the well,
and so, again, we don't speculate. But there's one thing that we
do know about this particular woman, and the scripture says
that she was very fair to look upon. Now, do we not see a beautiful
picture of the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ, the elect bride
of our Lord in her particular beauty to him, to him. Song of Solomon 4.9, thou has
ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse, thou has ravished
my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck. Being
chosen, in Christ, being redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ, having
a new man formed within by the Holy Spirit, robed in his righteousness. The scriptures set forth the
fairness of the bride. That's what the Lord said. You've
stolen my heart. One of your eyes, you stole my
heart. So we see Rebecca here being a picture of God's work
of grace within his people and her countenance. I'm looking
at a group of people right here and you know everybody, I've
said this before. This is what I would always use
as an example when painting a portrait. Everybody's got a nose. Two eyes,
two ears, and a mouth. But it's something about every
person that's different. There's just something about
them that's different. They all have those basic characteristics,
but there's something about every one of them that's different. And that countenance, that visage,
was given by God. And Rebecca's countenance was,
too, given by the Lord. And it wasn't a beauty she was
fair to look upon, but it wasn't a beauty that was produced by
her own cunning or ability. And the beauty of the bride is
not found within herself either. The Scripture says in Psalm 149,
for the Lord taketh pleasure in his people, he will beautify
the meek with salvation. So we look upon this picture
of Rebekah right here and we see how the beauty of this woman
is a picture type of the beauty of the Christ. And then notice
also the action of Rebekah as she pictures the spotless virgin
of God's eternal love and counsel, though as yet the servant did
not know who she was. The scripture says that she went
down, she went down to the well. Now again, in these beautiful
scriptures that set forth these details about this particular
woman and this particular servant, and Isaac and Abraham, and seeing
this unfold before our eyes. These details, these truths are
not put there just for fun. This is breathed by God's spirit.
She went down to the well, the well being a picture of Christ
himself, the living water himself. She went down to the well, a
picture of that which the Lord causes all of his people, to
whom he'd been pleased to show mercy. He brings us down in ourselves,
abasing us before Him that He might lift us up in mercy and
in compassion. So she went down to the well,
and the Scripture says she went down to the well and filled her
pitcher. Shadow again, a type again of being brought low before
the well Himself and being filled by Him. And the picture being
filled, you know, she came up, that's what it says, she came
up, beautiful picture of our rescue. Turn to Psalm 30, beautiful
picture of our being rescued and lifted up in our precious
Savior. Look at this Psalm 30, here's
a beautiful verse of scripture. One verse, Psalm 30, verse one,
I will extol thee, O Lord, for thou has lifted me up. and has
not made my foes to rejoice over me." So here she is, this servant,
he's just prayed. And while he was praying, before
he finished praying, Rebecca, she came up and she's got this
water pitcher and she goes over to the well and he just watches. And she fills her pitcher with
water. Now he knows what he's asked
the Lord. He asked it in his heart. He
says that later in this chapter. He said, I was speaking in my
heart. And he said, let the woman that be, you know, Lord, your
choice. Let it be that she'll come and
she'll draw water. And then I'll ask her for a drink
of water. and she'll give me a drink of
water. And then also she'll not only say, I'll give you a drink
of water, but I'm gonna water your camels for you too. So here's
this woman, he's watching her and she's just beautiful, beautiful
woman. And she takes that pitcher and
she goes down and she fills that pitcher up with water. And the
scripture says in verse 17, and the servant ran to meet her and
said, let me, I pray thee, drink a little water of thy pitcher. Now, He waited until this woman
went down to that well, and he saw her fill that pitcher with
water, and he runs up to her, and she's not been revealed to
him yet. What he's doing is he's waiting
on the Lord. He's not assuming anything. He's waiting. This woman has
the outward characteristics of that which would be desirable
for a wife. She was fair to look upon, and
she was obviously industrious, and she was humble, she was a
prudent woman, and Providence so ordered that her actions began
to answer, they began to answer what he had asked concerning
that prayer. He asked for a drink, not merely
to quench his physical thirst, but rather that his spiritual
thirst for the Lord's direction might be seen. You just ask her
for a glass of water, drink of water. And then in 18 to 20,
it says, and she said, drink my Lord. And she hasted, let
down her pitcher upon her hand and gave him drink. And when
she had done giving him drink, she said, I will draw water for
thy camels also until they have done drinking. And she hasted
and emptied her pitcher into the trough and ran again under
the well to draw water and drew for all his camels. Now, without
being prompted, he asked her for a drink of water, but without
being prompted to do anything else, she not only gave him to
drink, but offered the services of giving water to the camels
and then having beheld so much that would be naturally speaking,
cause many to prematurely act, this servant just wisely continued
to wait. He just watched. I've watched
reading this over and over and over. It was amazing to me. Man,
I'm telling you, there's times that something will start happening
like this, and I'm the first one, I'm gonna just jump right
in there and say, you know, well, whoa, here we go. Not him, no
sir. The scripture says in verse 21,
and the man wondering at her held his peace to wit whether
the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not. The servant,
having seen what he had, was now wondering. Actually, he was
astonished. He was stunned. Now, I'm sure
that those of you that know him, there's times when there's things
that we have asked, or thought or prayed about, and we begin
to see something of those things, and you're thinking, he hears. He really heard me. You know, we read that in the
scripture. The Lord heareth the prayers of his people. He knows.
But whenever you see it, you think, Lord, God of heaven, forgive
me. where I failed to thank you. He sat there and he, wondering,
just astonished. He didn't know anything, but
rather he held his peace to wit or to know whether the Lord had
made his journey prosperous or not. Now, do we not see wisdom
here? How quickly we would naturally
act rather than just waiting. You say, yeah, but it's all,
it's just everything has come to pass. You're gonna wait, he's
gonna wait. Do we not wonder to behold the
marvel of the unfolding of his power to accomplish bringing
about which he's eternally purposed? And you know, we wonder at the
miracle of his mighty hand to bring down pride naturally found
in every vessel of his affection. It's just always there. That's
why we're born. But we look and we behold. these things that
we read in these scriptures. I was thinking about this this
afternoon, just before we came over here. How consistent. You go back in the book of Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, right on through all the scriptures, and you see
the way the attitude, you see the word, the speech of these
believers back then. And this way we talk. We talk
just like they talk. You know, we wonder just like
they wondered. We behold just like they did. You think this
is the way God's people react. And he saw what was going on
and he was stunned by it. And he didn't say anything. He
just waited to see whether or not the Lord would prosper his
journey. Then in verses 22, 25, it came
to pass as the camels had done drinking, that the man took a
golden earring, half a shekel of weight, two bracelets for
her hands of 10 shekels, weight of gold, and said, whose daughter
art thou? Tell me, I pray thee, is there
room in thy father's house for us to lodge in? And she said
unto him, I am the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Milcah. which she bare unto Nahar, and
she said moreover unto him, we have both straw and provender
enough, and room to lodge in." Now, this servant, when you read
this, it said that he took out, he came to pass, when they had
done drinking, that the man took a golden earring, half a sheker,
and he took this jewelry out. Now, the thing is, he gave these
gifts unto Rebecca after he asked her who she was. The reason I
know that, turn over to verse 47. In this account right here,
same chapter, But he's relating now to her family. Lord, we'll
get this. He's relating to his family.
Now, after all this has taken place, look at verse 47. He said,
I asked her and said, whose daughter art thou? And she said, the daughter
of Bethuel, Nahar's son, whom Milcah barren to him. And I put
the earrings upon her face and the bracelets upon her hand.
So what, you know, it just tells us when he gave, he took them
out and he asked her, he said, who are you? Who are you? Well, he surely gave her these
gifts. I don't doubt this for a second
as a token of his appreciation for her help and her kindness
and her assistance. Give him a drink and she watered.
I don't, but more so he's going to set forth the wonder and the
beauty and the wealth of Isaac. He's there to find a bride for
Isaac. And he's gonna tell her everything
that he can set forth to her concerning Isaac. And Isaac is
the son of Abraham. And Abraham has been blessed
of God. Now here's Abraham, a picture
of the father. And Isaac is a picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And what do we do when we preach
the gospel? We're setting forth the glory,
the honor, the majesty, the power, the wealth, the kindness, the
compassion of our Lord and Savior. We're telling the world. You
go into all the world and you preach the gospel to every creature. The gospel is concerning the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's Romans 1. That's what
the gospel is. It's the proclamation of who
Christ is, what he's done, where he is now, and soon to come back
to get his people. And we're telling people, you
go into all the world and you tell everybody, you preach the
gospel to everybody. And everything that anybody knows
about the Lord Jesus Christ is what they hear through a preacher.
That's all they know. That's all this woman knows.
All she knows about Isaac is what that servant, that steward,
is gonna tell her. That's all she knows. May have
never heard of him. Never heard of Abraham. Maybe
she did, maybe she didn't. I don't know. She was of his
family, but I don't know how much she knew about, I don't
know. But I tell you this, she didn't know that she was a sought-out
bride, and neither does the bride of Christ. They don't know they're
being sought out, not until the Spirit calls them. They don't
know they're one of God's elect. They don't know anything. So
what do we do? We tell everybody. We preach
the gospel. And the Spirit of God, who moves
and blows as the wind, He's gonna call out the bride. So we're
talking, he's talking to her and he's got, he brings out these
jewels. I do say, I know he gave her some, you know, out of appreciation,
gave her some jewelry for what she did. But more than that,
these were more than just a token of his appreciation. They're
a declaration of the wealth of Abraham and Isaac. This servant had told her of
the wealth of his master, and now he's going to show her something.
Show her something of the promise that would be given, the inheritance
that would be given. Here's what he's saying. He knows
he's looking for a bride. And whoever is the bride of Isaac,
all of this is going to be hers too. That which is the sons is
the bride. We're heirs of God and joint
heirs with Christ. And here's the wealth. This is the wealth of my master
and the servant acted not out of hasty presumption, but rather
acted prudently. He's holding his peace, he's
watching, he's taking note of that which is unfolding before
him. And though she had done what
he had asked the Lord, still he waited to see if this woman,
if this woman, he's not there yet. He hadn't asked the question
yet. He's gonna tell him, Lord willing,
we'll start looking at this next time, but he's gonna start telling
him that what he's there for. why he's come. I'm on a mission. I'm here to find a bride for
my master's son. I'm here to find a bride, and
he's gonna see whether or not this woman's gonna be willing
to come. This is why he's holding his peace. This is why he's patient.
He asked her lineage again in response to Abraham's demand. Who are you? Who are you? What's your daddy's name? What's
your lineage? And she tells him, here's who
I am right here. So in response to Abraham's demand,
you go to my country and you go to my people, you go to my
lineage. And he asked, is there room in
your father's house for us to lodge? And would the Lord move
upon this woman? and her family to have him, those
that he might be and stay and be tended to, that he might have
opportunity to expound more fully. He's gonna tell them why he's
there. Obviously, she's one given to
hospitality. She's, we got room, we got room,
we got food, we got food for your servants here, we got room
for your animals. And then the scripture says in
verses 26 to 28, and we'll stop here for tonight, and the man,
after he asked her in verse 25, and she said, yes, this is who
I am. I'm the daughter of Bethuel,
son of Milcah, bearer of Nahar. Nahar, this is Abraham's brother. And so he said, this is Abraham's
family. And she said, we have straw,
provender enough, room to lodge in, we got room for you. And
verse 26, and the man bowed down his head and he worshiped the
Lord. And he said, blessed be the Lord
God of my master Abraham, who has not left destitute my master
of his mercy and his truth. I being in the way, the Lord
led me to the house of my master's brethren. and the damsel ran
and told them of her mother's house these things." With a heart
of thanksgiving. This servant of Abraham, he worships
God. He gives unto the Lord the honor
and the glory that's due his name. He's worshiping the covenant
God of all grace. When you see that capital L-O-R-D,
you say, that's Jehovah. That's right, that's Jehovah.
Father, Son, Spirit. That's the covenant God. That's
the God of covenant grace. And that's what he says. He bowed,
he worshiped, he said, blessed be the covenant God of my master,
Abraham, who's not left me destitute. And then hearing that, prayer
of the servant, the damsel, the scripture says, she ran home
and shared that which had transpired that day. And she did the very
thing that the Lord commanded that delivered demoniac of Gadara. When that regenerated sinner asked the
Lord, he said, can I, I wanna go with you. And the Lord said,
no. He said, you go back to your
home. and you tell your family, you tell your people what great
things the Lord has done for you. That's what I want you to
do. You do that. That's what she did. And Lord
willing, the next time we look at it, we'll begin to see that
conversation that just opens up and how the Lord was pleased
to just call out this bride. You know he's gonna call her.
You know the story, but isn't it wonderful just to walk through
these scriptures and see how he did it one more time? I pray
God bless this to our heart. Okay, Gary.