May it please God to bless us
together this morning as we meditate in his word Let us turn to the
book of Genesis chapter 24 and we'll read verse 56 Genesis chapter
24 and reading verse 56 And he said unto them hinder
me not seeing The Lord hath prospered my way. Send me away that I may
go to my master. It is a great blessing that we
have the Word of God that gives us so much direction, especially
for our spiritual life, but also, of course, for our natural life. And here in this chapter of Genesis,
It gives clear direction with regard to those who are seeking
for a husband or a wife. New young people need to take
on board the condition that we find existed here with Abraham. He was living in the land of
Canaan and clearly it was not a godly place and therefore he
didn't want his son to take a wife from that kind of company, a
godless company, a worldly company. He wanted his son Isaac to have
a godly wife. And therefore he speaks to his
servant to go to the country where Nahor was, which he knew
was a place of godliness, and he prayed therefore and desired
that this servant might indeed find a suitable wife for his
son Isaac. And we should recognise how God's
servant Abraham, who I'm sure we're very familiar with, spoke
so clearly and he speaks and he prays to God and he reminds
God of his situation. He says, 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 swear unto me, saying,
Unto thy seed I will give this land. He shall send his angel
before thee, and thou shalt take a wife unto my son from thence."
Now what do we see there? We see that Abraham was blessed
with faith in God. He'd come out, hadn't he, from
Ur of the Chaldees many years before. And that was an amazing
thing to do. There he was, living in that
land of Ur, and God told him to leave Ur. He didn't know where
he was going. Didn't know where he was going.
And yet, God gave him faith to believe that God would indeed
be with him. And God was with him. And God
spoke to him, and God gave him many encouragements. And now,
he looks back and realises how God had been with him and how
God was with him. And therefore it gave him that
living faith to believe that God would provide a wife for
his son Isaac. And so he commands his servant,
his chief servant, to go and to seek for this wife. And this man goes, obedient to
his master. He was no doubt very aware of
his master's religion because quite clearly he had been blessed
with it himself. And so he travels many miles
and comes at last to Mesopotamia, the city of Nahor. And there
he made all his camels to kneel down. And what does he do? He prays. How important it is
for us in our lives to pray that the Lord will appear. He might
have thought, well, Abraham has sent me so quite clearly it's
going to work out alright and I needn't really worry. No. He
was here and he prayed. And all of us have to pray. We
cannot rely on anyone else's prayers, anybody else's religion.
We need to come. We need to pray. And so here
we have this servant praying and saying, O Lord God of my
master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day and
show kindness unto my master Abraham. And then he speaks to
God and asks if there might be a certain clear way by way he
may know that God was with him. We can think back, can't we?
Or at least think forward to the days when Gideon... was told
by God to go and fight and destroy the Moabites. And he desired
that God would show him if it was a right way or a wrong way.
And of course, he asked that there might be that fleece laid
upon the ground and everywhere else would be wet and the dew
might come not on the fleece and then again it might come
on the fleece and not on the ground around. And so it came
to pass God heard Gideon's prayer and God was to hear the prayer
here of Abraham's servant and let us believe that God still
hears our prayers today. God still appears for us when
we pray to him and the great truth is that we need to pray
in faith and we need to pray for God's will to be performed
but we should come therefore seeking God's will to come to
pass, and that's exactly what happened on this occasion. And
therefore Abraham's servant said, Behold I stand by the well of
water, and the daughters of the men of the city come and out
to draw water. Let it come to pass. 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 my servant Isaac. Thereby shall I know that
thou hast showed kindness unto my master." Now, we do today,
in our little lives, need the evidence that God is with us. In whatever situation, we need
to know that God is with us. And so, here we have the wonderful
appearance of God performing an answer to this prayer. Because
we're told, and it came to pass, before he had done speaking,
before he had done speaking, God knew what he was to do. But
he tells us, he will be inquired of, We do have to pray to him.
We can't expect things just to happen. We must pray. And this
man had prayed. But before he had done the speaking,
Rebecca came out. And Abraham's servant ran to
meet her. And she said, Let me, I pray
thee, drink a little water of thy pitcher. And she said, Drink,
my lord. And she hastened and 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. Well, here was
an encouragement, wasn't it? What an encouragement for this
man. And so we read, and the man wondering
at her held his peace as to whether the Lord had made his journey
prosperous or not. Well, we may perhaps have those
questions. It's good, isn't it, to question
whether this is the right way, and it was clearly the right
way, because he asked her whose daughter she was and she told
him Bethiel, the son of Melchior, which he buried in Nahor. And
she said we have straw and provender enough and room to lodge in.
And what was the effect? And this is very important for
all of us. What was the effect upon this man? Did he just accept
it? No. bow down his head and worship
the Lord and 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 being in the way the Lord led me to the house of my
master's brethren. He clearly had the evidence that
God was with him, God had directed him and God had blessed him and
so he worshipped. Now that will be a very clear
indication in our lives that God is with us and God is in the matter, whatever
that may be, Because the effect will be that we will bow down
before God and worship. That's just what happened here. So Rebecca then, as we know,
she ran and told her brother, and her brother came out to meet
him. And what did he say? Come in, thou blessed of the
Lord, wherefore standest thou without? So this man was brought
in with his men and his camels and they came into the house
and they set food before them. And it's good that we see here
priority. It's very good in our life when
we see priority. There was food set before them.
They were no doubt hungry. They had done a long journey.
But what does Abraham's servant say? He says, there was meat set before him
to eat and he said, I will not eat until I have told my Aaron. He had something to say. important
it was, more important than partaking of natural food, to be able to
tell of how God had appeared, how God had answered prayer.
These things are more important than our natural food. And it's
good to have a wonderful example of something like this recorded
for our instruction, for our encouragement, And therefore
they said, speak on. They wanted to hear what God
had done. And may it be so in our lives. And we encourage people to speak
on of what the Lord has done. And those who have had the evidence
also to speak on. And so he comes and he gives
an account. And he gives a full account. And in this account, there is
more spoken than that which we read earlier on. Because he tells
us of what Abraham's master had said. And he said unto me, the
Lord before whom I walk will send his angel with thee and
prosper thy way. What do we see there? Confidence
in God. Confidence in God and it's good
for us to have confidence in our God and His angel with thee
and prosper thy way and thou shalt take a wife for my son
of my kindred and of my father's house and Well, he spoke of that
and then he said, he came to this well and he told them what
he'd said. It's good, isn't it, if we are
able to give a good account, a good testimony of our prayers,
have we requested for the blessing of God and how the Lord has appeared
and has answered. And so he tells us, before I
had done speaking, in my heart, here was this man, praying in
his heart. And you and I can pray calmly
in our heart. Remember, again, the example
in Nehemiah's day, when he stood before King Ahasuerus. And there he was sad because
of the state of his people back in Jerusalem. And the king asked
him, what's wrong? This is sorrow of heart. And
what did he do in that moment before the king? He prayed unto
the God of heaven in his heart. We have wonderful evidence, don't
we? Wonderful examples in the Word of God, how you and I are
to react. Never think there's an occasion when we can't pray. Here was Abraham's servant reiterating
this great truth before I had done speaking. In my heart, Rebecca
came forth." So everything worked out as he had humbly requested
before his God. And he also comes and tells us,
and I bow down my head and worship the Lord. Bless the Lord God
of my master Abraham, which had led me in the right way to take
my master's brother's daughter unto his son Was confirming what
he'd been able to do We should always desire to honor God you
see We can often be tempted the devil will often say well I You
mustn't say that because that will be boasting and that will
bring pride. Well, God knows how to deal with
that, don't worry about that. You do that which is right. You
bring honour and glory to God. Here was a very clear testimony
of God's servant, how the Lord had worked in his life, in his
heart, and had heard and answered his requests. Now he asks, And
he says, and now, if you will do kindly and truly with my master,
tell me, and if not, tell me, that I may turn to the right
hand or to the left. And what was the answer? What
was the reaction? Well, it was a good reaction.
And it's good, you know, when we're able to see the reaction. What do they say? The thing proceedeth
from the Lord. We cannot speak unto the bad
or good. It was clear, wasn't it? And
you and I today need to know in our lives there are those
things which proceed from the Lord. And as I said, we cannot
speak unto the bad or good. because it was proceeding from
Almighty God. And they were willing, weren't
they? They were willing, the family
were willing. But they came and they said, not surprisingly,
he said, send me away unto my master. And what did they respond? They said, well, let the damsels
abide with us a few days, at the least ten, After that, she
shall go. And we might think, well, that
was not an unreasonable request, was it? That wasn't an unreasonable
request. But Abraham's servant here was
so clearly moved by the Holy Spirit, so clearly blessed with
this clear leading of the great God who he trusted in, that he
couldn't agree to that. He couldn't agree to that. And
he says, Hinder me not, seeing the Lord hath prospered my way. Send me away, that I may go to
my Master. You know, it's a good thing in
our lives when we're not hindered. Yes, there may be what we might
think might be reasons. Well, I don't think I can do
that just now. I want a bit more time. I want
a bit more time. Well, if God has spoken, if God
has directed, if God has appeared, if God has led, then how can
we really agree to any delay? And the psalmist, wonderful isn't
it, we've got the Psalms to encourage us and the psalmist gives us
some good words and in the 110th Psalm, We read this, thy people shall
be willing in the day of thy power. That's the word of God. And God's people are made willing
in the day of his power. Well, what a blessing if we have
known something of the power of God come upon our spirit. This man, Abraham, he knew something
of the power of God coming upon him in his life and seeing the
wonderful appearing. And therefore, not only was he
made willing, but also the people were made willing. And they said,
we will call the damsel and inquire of her mouth. Let's see what
she's got to say. Just think of this. Just the
day, just the previous day, she met this man and now she was
being asked to go with him to an unknown place, to meet an
unknown man, to be her husband. What was she going to say? Was
she going to say, well, yeah, I'd like a few more days here
with my family. I'd like to just stay and enjoy
this situation. Which, of course, doesn't have
any responsibility. She knew that once, if she'd
agreed and she became this person's wife, that there would be a responsibility. But they ask her a very simple
question. Will they go with this man? And what was her response? What
was her response? No conditions. Very simple response. I will go. I will go. It was of the Lord. And so in
our little lives, when the Lord appears, when the Lord hears
prayer, and there may be those temptations put before us To
slow us down in our Christian path and there are many Hindrances
today. There are many hindrances today
in our spiritual life many hindrances You see the devil Wants us to
stop. He doesn't want us to go forward
at all No, he wants us to stay where we are as it were and at
least for a bit and Well, what a blessing if we hear such a
word like this in our heart, as Abraham's servant said, hinder
me not. Let us not be hindered. If the
work is of God, let us say, I will go. I will go. And you know, we have those beautiful
words in Corinthians where we're told, I will go. How do we go? I will go in the strength. Our own strength? No. I will
go in the strength of the Lord God. I will mention of his righteousness,
even of thine only. Yes. You see, here was the testimony. What was this servant of Abraham
doing, he was making mention of what God had done. And so
today it's good if you and I can make mention of what God has
done for our souls in showing us the wonderful favour of the
heavenly bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, to be united
to Him. Here was the natural situation. It illustrates to us the spiritual
situation that you and I should be concerned. Therefore, to be
directed to the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour, as our friend,
as the heavenly bridegroom and be able to concur with the bride
of Christ as she speaks in the Song of Solomon, this is my beloved. This is my beloved. It comes
down to this, doesn't it? What think ye of Christ is the
test. What do we think? Well, you see,
here was this woman, Rebecca. She was willing to go. willing to go because she'd had
the evidence and the testimony that God was in it. The thing
proceedeth from the Lord. And what a blessing if in our
lives we have the evidence that God's work in our heart proceedeth
from the Lord. It's not something that we've
imagined. No, it was a very clear leading.
This man, Abraham's servant, had come many miles and God had
appeared in a remarkable way. We perhaps in our lives may not
have quite such remarkable occasions, but nonetheless, Thank God, if
you and I have the evidence that God is in it, and that God is
leading us, and God is directing us to none other than the blessed
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And as, by faith, there was faith
all along here, wasn't there? As faith, you and I look to Him,
as the only one that can deliver our soul, the only one who can
save our soul, the only one who could satisfy the holy law of
God and pay the price to atone for our sin, the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, what a favour for us today
if we know something of the power of God in our hearts. made willing
in the day of his power. Power belongeth unto God. And it is the power of the Holy
Spirit which moves us and directs us so that we are able to acknowledge
such a statement as this. Will thou go with this man? the Lord Jesus Christ? Will we
go with him? Will we walk with him? Will we
take up our cross? Will we follow him? Or are we
being hindered? Well, says this man, hinder me
not, hinder me not, seeing the Lord hath prospered my way. So if God is prosperous, let
it not be hindered. Let us remember that it's the
devil's desire to hinder the work of God and impossible to
stop it being evidenced. He doesn't want any honour and
glory coming to God. And in this account, isn't it
clear that the result was that the name of God was
honoured and glorified. Honoured and glorified, but a
very clear result that there was worship. And what a blessing
in our lives today, if in answer to prayer, the Lord appears,
the Lord blesses, and therefore we then come and we bow our head
and we worship, acknowledging that God is with us. God was
with Abraham's servant in all this matter. And we know, of
course, that it was to be wonderfully blessed. And as Rebekah arose
and her damsels, and they rode upon the camels and followed
the man and the servant to Rebekah, and they went his way, and Isaac,
came from the way of the well Leheroi for he dwelt in the south
country and as it went to meditate in the field at the even tide
he lifted up his eyes and saw and behold the camels were coming. Oh he knew didn't he that Abraham's
servant had gone to seek for a wife for him he knew and he'd
gone out you see in the field to meditate no doubt to ponder
before God about these things and to seek what was to come. And there he was then and Rebecca
lifted up her eyes and she saw Isaac. She knighted off the camel
and she said to the servant, what man is this that walketh
in the field to meet us? And the servant 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 and took Rebekah. And she became
his wife. And he loved her. And Isaac was
comforted after his mother's death. Well, you might say, well,
that's a wonderful account and a wonderful result. Yes, it is. But let us be very clear and
encouraged to know that we worship today the same God, this great
almighty God, who still does appear, who still does great
things. And let us look into each of
our own hearts and try and see if God has been with us and blessed
us. And perhaps even today there
may be that temptation to hinder, to halt, to stay, to stop and
to not do that, which appears to be the right way, because
there may have been that encouragement to go forward, to go forth, and
yet we're tempted. Oh, let's just wait a bit longer. Let's just wait a bit longer.
No, says This man, hinder me not. This is the work of God. And if the work of God is truly
the work of God, we should never try and hinder it. We should
never try and stop it. And let me tell you very clearly
that if you and I walk contrary to God, the word of God is very
clear. He will walk contrary to you
and to me. And I know from painful experience,
that is very true, never, never walk contrary to God. If the Lord has set before you
an open door, my friends, no man can shut it. The devil will try to, be sure
of that, but he won't be able to. Bless God if there's an open
door. Here we see in this case there
was this open door. The door had been opened by Almighty
God. And so, Rebecca was willing in
the day of God's power to walk this way. And so may we be willing
in the day of God's power to follow despised and crucified
man. She didn't know what the future
held, nor do we. But if God be for us, who can
be against us? No one can be against us. People
may try, but if we've got God on our side, that's the great
thing, isn't it? If God be for us. God was for
this situation. He was for this marriage. You
see what a mercy in our lives if we have the evidence that
God is for this glorious marriage of you and me joined to Christ. Joined to Christ. Married to
Christ. What a blessing. What a favour. May we have the evidence. And
if we should be tempted sometimes to, well, just wait a bit longer,
just tarry a few days, let us hear the words, hinder me not,
seeing the Lord hath prospered our way. And then when asked
the very important question, what thou go with this man? What
thou go with the Lord Jesus Christ? Will a follower despise a crucified
man? To be able to say, in humble
confidence, trusting in the Lord. I will trust in the Lord at all
times. It's the only way to go forward.
Trusting in the Lord. To be able to say, yes, I will
go. I will go. Well, this is a wonderful
account, is it not? The wonderful account it sets
before us faith, it sets before us godly obedience, it sets before
us thankfulness to God, it sets before us willingness to do God's
will, it sets before us quite clearly that the Lord is in the
matter and also it tells us there is a good outcome. What a blessing
therefore for us today. if we hear the word of God speaking
to us in such a way, in our little lives, and in answer to this
question, would I go with this man, be able to say, by God's
grace, I will go. Amen.