Genesis chapter 24. It's a long
chapter. I want to read it with you because
the account is so important to hear all at once. So we're just
going to read through this. The situation here is that Abraham
is old now and his wife Sarah has died. Isaac is 40, Abraham's
140, and it's time according to God's appointed time for Abraham
to find his son a wife. And you would think after Sarah
died that he would have done that immediately, but that shows
something about the patience of Abraham. If you consider how
weighty it was that Isaac find a wife because all of the promises
of God were to Abraham through his son Isaac in Christ, then
if it were me, I would have been running around trying to make
it happen. But Abraham seems relaxed. He's 140 years old. He doesn't seem to be worried
at all. And finally sends out his servant to find a wife for
his son Isaac. So I hope you can understand
this if the younger people will just pay attention as we read
through this and see if you can appreciate what's happened here.
In verse 1 of Genesis 24 it reads this way, And Abraham was old
and well-stricken in age. And the Lord had blessed Abraham
in all things. To be well-stricken in age means
he's not only old, but he feels the effects of his age. 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 thy needs bring thy son
again unto the land from whence thou camest? And Abraham said
to him, Beware that thou Bring not my son thither again, 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 of 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. And the servant took ten camels
of the camels of his master, and departed, for all the goods
of his master were in his hand." So this was Abraham's most trusted
servant. Everything that Abraham had was
under his stewardship. He was to take care of it all.
Even this great and most significant thing, to find a wife for his
son. And he arose, the servant arose, and went to Mesopotamia
unto the city of Nahor. Nahor was Abraham's brother.
Turns out it was also the name of Abraham's grandfather. So the city of Nahor was probably
after the name of his grandfather. Verse 11. And the servant 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. In those days the women would
go to the well and bring water for the household. And he said,
the servant said, now listen to what he does. He prays. The
first thing he does here, O Lord God of my master Abraham, I pray
thee, send me good speed. In other words, give me success
this day. And 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, the
young woman, 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. 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." What a prayer. He prays to God. This is Abraham's
servant. Compare his servant to Lot's
household. After he left Sodom and Gomorrah,
he didn't have any, not his children even, except his two daughters.
What a sad tale that was. But here Abraham's servant is
a God-fearing man. In verse 15, And it came to pass
before he had done speaking, even before he had done speaking
those words in prayer, that, behold, Rebekah came out, who
was born to Bethuel, the son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor,
Abraham's brother, with her pitcher upon her shoulder. And 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, and came
up. And the servant ran to meet her, and said, Let me, I pray
thee, drink a little water of thy pitcher. And she said, Drink,
my lord. And she hasted, 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. That's an amazing thing. I think camels must drink a lot
of water. When I was a kid one time, I don't know if you've
ever seen a large beast drink, but I remember I was about in
the third grade and never seen a horse drink before. My dad
had this big barrel that he had filled with water from the creek,
and it was probably about this deep. And the horse stuck his
face in there and began to drink, and the level, I could see the
level in that barrel go down as he drank. That was quite a
thing. I learned from that that horse
can really drink water. I can't imagine what a camel
could drink, but she did. She hasted down and she emptied
her pitcher into the trough and ran again to the well to draw
water and drew for all his camels. What a woman, beautiful and capable. And the man, wondering at her,
held his peace to wit whether the Lord had made his journey
prosperous or not. And it came to pass, as the camels
had done drinking, that the man took a golden earring of half
a shekel weight and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels
weight of gold, and said, Whose daughter art thou? Tell me, I
pray thee, is there a room in thy father's house for us to
lodge in? That would have to be a big room with all the camels.
And she said to him, I am the daughter of Bethuel, the son
of Milca, which she bear unto Nahor. Milca was the wife of
Nahor. And she said this, she said,
moreover unto him, we have both straw and provender enough and
room to lodge in. And the man, listen to the response
of this man when he heard her answer. The man bowed down his
head and worshipped 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. Now I'm sure that he
prayed this prayer out loud with Rebecca right there in the hearing
of it. He was not ashamed and he was open about his entire
dependence upon God. His worship of God and his prayers.
Verse 28, And the damsel ran and told them of her mother's
house these things. And Rebekah had a brother, and
his name was Laban. And Laban ran out unto the man,
unto the well. And it came to pass, when he
saw the earring and bracelets upon his sister's hands, and
when he heard the words of Rebekah his sister, saying, Thus spake
the man to me, that he came to the man, and, behold, he stood
by the camels of the well. And he said, Laban, Come in,
thou blessed of the Lord. Wherefore standest thou without?
For I have prepared the house and room for the camels." We
know Laban's character. I always wonder when I read this
if he saw the earrings and the gold and he somehow gave him
more respect because of that. But whatever the case may be,
what he said was true. This man was truly blessed of
the Lord. Verse 32. And the man came into the house,
and he ungirded his camels, and gave straw and provender for
the camels, and food to wash his feet, and the men's feet
that were with him. Obviously he was not traveling
alone, he had a whole caravan with him, coming to get this
one woman. What a sight it must have been.
And there was set meat before him to eat. But he said, I will
not eat until I have told mine Aaron. And he said, the reason
he said that is because it was more important to him to do what
he had been given by Abraham to do, than it was to eat. And there's a lesson in that
also. And so he told them this. when
they set meat before him. And he said, I won't eat until
I've told my errand. And they said to him, speak on.
And he said, I am Abraham's servant. That's a dignified title. And
the Lord hath blessed my master greatly. And he has become great. And he hath given him flocks,
and herds, and silver, and gold, and menservants, and maidservants,
and camels, and asses. And Sarah, my master's wife,
bare a son to my master when she was old, and unto him hath
he given all that he hath. This is, he's telling, who's
he telling about here? Who's the servant telling about
here? He's telling about Abraham and about his son Isaac, his
only son. Verse 37, And my master made
me swear, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife to my son of
the daughters of the Canaanites in whose land I dwell, but thou
shalt go into my father's house and to my kindred and take a
wife unto my son. And I said unto my master, Peradventure,
the woman will not follow me. And he said to me, The Lord before
whom I walk will send 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. Then thou shalt be clear from
this my oath, when thou comest to my kindred, and if they give
not thee one, thou shalt be clear from my oath. 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. So he was seeking a wife for
Abraham's son, his master's son, and he wanted to make sure he
found the woman that the Lord had appointed for his son. And
before I had done speaking to my heart..." He's rehearsing
now. He's telling again the story. And that's an important fact.
He's saying it again. He says, "...before I had done
speaking to my heart, behold, Rebekah came forth with her pitcher
on her shoulder, and she went down to the well and drew water.
And I said to her, Let me drink, I pray thee. And she made haste
and let down her pitcher from her shoulder and said, Drink,
and I will give thy camels drink also. So I drank, and she made
the camels drink also. And I asked her, and I said,
Whose daughter art thou? And she said, The daughter of
Bethuel, Nahor's son, whom Milcah bare to him. And I put the earring
upon her face, and the bracelets upon her hands. And I bowed down
my head, and worshipped the Lord, and blessed 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. And now, This is a servant
talking to Rebecca's family. He says, And now, if you will
deal 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. Then
Laban and Bethuel answered and said, The thing proceedeth from
the Lord. We cannot speak unto thee good,
bad, or good. That's an amazing statement that
they made there. What good does it do to say anything if God
is determined to make it happen? It's going to be done and it's
going to be right no matter what we say or do about it. So that's
what they said. This is the Lord's doing, clearly.
Behold these men, Laban and Bethuel. Bethuel was Laban's father and
Rebekah's father. They said, Behold, Rebekah is
before thee. Take her, and go, and let her
be thy master's son's wife, as the Lord hath spoken. And it
came to pass, that when Abraham's servant heard their words, he
worshipped the Lord, bowing himself to the earth, right there, right
before them. He bowed down himself, and he
worshipped God because of what they said. And the servant brought
forth jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment, and gave
them to Rebekah. He gave also to her brother and
to her mother precious things. And they did eat and drink, he
and the men that were with him, and tarried all night. And they
rose up in the morning and said, Send me away unto my master.
And her brother and her mother said, Let the damsel abide with
us a few days, at least ten, after that she shall go. And
he said to them, Hinder me not, seeing the Lord hath prospered
my way, send me away, that I may go to my master. And they said,
We will call the damsel and inquire at her mouth. And they called
Rebekah, and said to her, Wilt thou go with this man? And she
said, I will go. And they sent away Rebekah, their
sister, and her nurse, and Abraham's servant, and his men. And they
blessed Rebekah. And they said to her, thou art
our sister. Be thou the mother of thousands
of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which
hate them. Now that's a prophecy. Rebekah
was the mother of all those who sprang from Abraham, and he's
speaking here of a billion, thousands of millions, billions, of all
the seed God had promised to give Abraham. In verse 61, And
Rebekah arose, and her damsel, and they rode upon the camels,
and followed the man. And the servant took Rebekah,
and went his way. And Isaac came from the way of the whale, the
Hiroy, for he dwelt in the south country. And Isaac went out to
meditate in the field at the eventide. And he lifted up his
eyes, and saw, and behold, the camels were coming. And Rebekah
lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off
the camel. For she said unto the servant,
What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And
the servant had 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's tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and
he loved her. And Isaac was comforted after
his mother's death. What a great account that is. What does it mean? Well, there's
many things you can see here that are clear. First of all,
the first thing that you see here is the love of Abraham for
his son Isaac. The love of Abraham for his son
Isaac. All of this chapter has to do
with what Abraham had purposed to have for his son Isaac, his
wife, according to God's promise. So it's about Abraham's love
for Isaac. But it's also about a faithful
servant. And most of it seems to be taken
up with what this faithful servant did. And then it's about this
son, Isaac, and the wife that God gave to him. And this is
an amazing thing. You know it says in Proverbs
18.22, Whoso findeth a wife, findeth a good thing, and obtaineth
favor from the Lord. This is exactly what has happened
here. Abraham, according to the promise
of God, set out to choose a wife for his son Isaac. Isaac was
40 years old. You would think that Isaac would
have chosen his own wife, wouldn't you? But that's not the way it
was. His father chose a wife for him. And that's significant. His father
chose a wife for him. And the Lord appointed that woman
to be Isaac's wife. Well, one of the things you see
right away here about this servant is that the servant, in everything
that he did, went about doing what he was given to do, depending
on God to bring it to pass. Isn't that a plain lesson for
us? Everything God has given us to do, we have to go about
it depending upon God to give us the strength, to give us the
way, to guide us in the way, and to make it all happen. That's
what Abraham's servant did here. It's a very plain lesson for
us. But there's a much deeper lesson
here, and we really want to understand all of this together. But I want
you to see here, first of all, how this servant prayed. Notice
what he did. When he first set out, after
talking with Abraham, he gathered the camels, and in verse 12,
after he arrived at the place where the well was, he immediately
prayed to God. He prayed to the Lord God, the
God of Abraham. Now, he was just a servant. There's
no mention really, well there was perhaps if it's the same
servant, he was the one that Abraham said in chapter 15 was
the only servant in his house. I'm trying to remember his name,
but it doesn't come to me right now. But in chapter 15 of Genesis,
Abraham asked the Lord, since he didn't have any children,
was the servant of his house Eliezer? He said, is he going
to be my heir? And the Lord said, no, no. So
this could have been Eliezer, but it doesn't say here his name. But I notice here that even though
he was a servant of Abraham, he prayed to the Lord God, the
God of Abraham. There is no other God. The God
of Abraham is the only God, the only true God. And He's the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And this man asked the
Lord to give him success so that he might find a wife for Isaac.
So he's asking God to do what Abraham instructed him to do,
to go out and find a wife for his son. And he asked God not
only to give him success, but to give him that success in order
to show kindness to his master Abraham. What a servant! He didn't
ask for himself. He was asking for Abraham and
for Isaac. That was his job, not to get
something for himself, but to get it for his master, because
he was a servant. All that he did, all that he
lived for, was for his master. And that's the way we are to
live our lives, for our master. So he prayed for Abraham's sake.
He prayed concerning God's will, that promise that Abraham had
been given by God. And Abraham had made known that
promise to his servant. So he understood, this servant
understood God's will. because it had been told to him
by Abraham the prophet. Abraham spoke for God. He spoke
God's word. He revealed God's will by the
word he spoke. And the servant understood God's
will by what Abraham told him. And so he prayed according to
that will. He prayed because God had promised, because he
desired the blessing for Abraham. He wasn't disinterested in the
promise. Sometimes we have a temptation
to think, well, if God's going to do it, then I don't have to
worry about it anymore. But that's to be disinterested in what God
has promised. It's to consider God's promises
and blessings as we really don't care about them. That's not the
way God works in our hearts. He always moves us, aligns us
to pray and to seek and desire what He has promised. Like David
said, Lord, do what you've said. And so he prayed that way, desiring
the promised blessing. Not disinterested, but praying
for God to do His promise. Now, we must understand that
what God does, it's required that God Himself fulfill His
word. And God promised to fulfill His word. But we remember that
though God promised to bring the nation of Israel, Abraham's
descendants, into Canaan, He didn't fulfill His promise to
the people who came out of Egypt that didn't believe, but to their
children. And so, when God has made a promise, sometimes we
think, well, we can act sort of in a fatalistic way that
God is going to do it without our involvement, but that's not
the way God works. Because the people who were going
in, who left Egypt to go to Canaan, they acted in that way. There
were some though who believed and they did enter Canaan. And
so that's the point here is that the one who believes prays according
to God's promise. We desire what God has promised.
We desire His will because it's good and because it's best. Our
blessing is what God has promised, and that's the only blessing
we have. God is good to Israel. God is good to His people. It
says in Psalm 73, 1. And God has promised mercy to
sinners. And so, it leads us to pray what
the psalmist says in Psalm 106. Turn to Psalm 106 and see this.
The psalmist here is one of God's people. And listen to what his
prayer is, though. He prays as one like us. He says in Psalm 106 verse 4,
after he's going to spend the entire chapter talking about
God's people, but in verse 4 of Psalm 106, he says, Remember
me, O Lord, with the favor that Thou bearest unto Thy people.
Oh, visit me with thy salvation, that I may see the good of thy
chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that
I may glory with thine inheritance. You see how he wasn't disinterested? He knew that in order for Him
to be blessed, God had to give Him the same favor and blessings
that He does to His chosen people. And so He prayed for them. And
it's right for us to pray according to the revealed will of God.
Not to say, well, God's going to save whom He will, so I don't
have to worry about it. That is not the attitude of those
who believe God. The publican beat on his breast,
and he said, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. It was a desire
God put in his heart. The woman, with an issue of blood,
pressed through the crowd to touch Jesus, to touch His clothes. And the blind man, Bartimaeus,
he sat by the roadside, but when he heard Jesus was coming, he
cried out, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. And so there's
this earnest and urgency that comes with faith. And so the
servant prays accordingly. So see how the servant prayed
for God's blessing on his master. He prayed that God would show
kindness to Abraham by showing him the woman God had chosen
from Abraham's family. Everything he did was by prayer
and supplication. And it reminds us of everything
God has said in scripture about prayer, doesn't it? Jesus taught
his disciples to pray. He said, pray like this, Our
Father, which art in heaven, you rule over all things, hallowed
be thy name, his name is holy because he is holy. And he goes on to say, Your will
be done on earth as it is in heaven. All that we pray is according
to God's will. We want God's will to be done
even when it seems like God's will would be against our good,
present good. Because we know His will is best.
Don't we trust Him? And so we pray to Him the same
words and the same way that Abraham's servant did. Now, I want you to see in this
how Abraham's servant accomplished the work. How did Abraham's servant
accomplish this task that Abraham gave him to do? What did he do? Well, we just saw that he did
it through prayer. But what else did he do? Every
time he began, he spoke what Abraham had given him to do.
He told about the will of God that had been revealed to him
through God's prophet, Abraham. He simply spoke the word of God.
And he prayed and spoke the word of God that God gave him to do.
And guess what? God brought it to pass. This
is an amazing thing. And I'm building all these things
up to you so I can also We can also consider the fulfillment
of the pattern that's set up in this chapter of how God saves
His people and His eternal purpose. So this man accomplished God's
will by speaking God's word. He says all these things. In
fact, He rehearsed what God had done. When it happened, when
He prayed the first time and Rebekah answered Him according
to what He prayed, and then He worshipped the Lord, then He
goes on and when He meets Laban and Bethuel and He sits down
with them, He rehearses the whole thing again. Because by rehearsing
what God had done, rehearsing God's will through the word that
Abraham spoke to him, that was the way he accomplished his task.
Through prayer and by speaking God's word. And teaches us how
to behave, right? We pray and we say what God has
done. We desire it and we want it to
come about and we hope for it. Now God took Abraham from his
father's people. Remember back in Ur of the Chaldees?
It says, look at verse 7 of Genesis chapter 24. This is Abraham talking
to his servant. He says, the Lord God of heaven,
which took me from my father's house and from the land of my
kindred. Abraham was taken. God took him
out of that land. What was this land like? Who
were the people of this land? Well, they were the descendants
of Shem, who was the son of Noah. And God, in Genesis 9-26, said,
Blessed be Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant. So God had already
blessed the whole line of Noah's family through Shem. And it turns
out that Abraham was in that line. He was a descendant of
Shem. So was Abraham's household. So his entire household was the
descendants of the family of Shem. And so that's why Abraham
sent his servant back to his own family to take a wife for
his son Isaac from that family. But did you notice that this
family, which also later Jacob went back and served Laban for
seven years, first for Leah, then another seven for Rachel.
So he also, Jacob, received two wives from this same family. But when Rachel came back with
Jacob, she had idols in the In the saddle, or whatever you call
it, the furniture of the camel. So she was hiding these idols.
So in this same family, there was a mixture. A mixture of those
who worshipped God, the true and living God, and those who
served idols. There was a combination of these
two things. And yet God called Rebekah. He
took Abraham out of that country and now in the same way he's
going to take Rebekah out of that country. And later he would
take Leah out of that country and Rachel out of that country.
And that's an amazing thing, isn't it? Not all who are called
Israel after the flesh are the true Israel of God. But those
God promised in his own secret counsel to be his people from
eternity. And this is something, this is
the truth. Abraham sent his servant to take a wife for his son Isaac,
but he sent his servant to that family, and even in that family,
not all, but only some of them were called. Now listen to this
verse in Psalm 65 verse 4. God chose Abraham. God called
Abraham. And He called him and He says
He took him out of that land. Listen to what it says in Psalm
65, verse 4. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causest to approach to thee, that he may dwell in
thy courts. You see how God called Abraham
and chose Abraham and brought him out? And God chose all of
his people this way in Christ. We just read in Psalm 106, Remember
me, O Lord, with the favor that you bear to your people, to your
chosen people. And so Abraham was chosen. But
in the same way, God had already appointed Rebekah to be Isaac's
wife and took her from that people and that land just as he had
before with Abraham. Remember what the servant asked
Abraham? What if the woman isn't willing to come? What if I ask
her, what if they're not willing to let her come? Or she's not
willing to come? And Abraham said, well if she's
not, then you're free from this oath. But in Psalm 110, verse
3, it says, Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy
power. And Jesus said this in John 6, 37, All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. So here we have the whole historical
account here as a setting that teaches us the gospel. in a very
powerful way. And this is the thing that we
see in this whole account here. We see, as I mentioned, a loving
father, we see a faithful servant, we see a beloved son, and we
see a God-given wife. And if you remember that, a loving
father, a faithful servant, a beloved son, and a God-given wife, then
what do you see? What do you hear when you hear
those terms? Who is the loving father? Who is the beloved son? Who is the faithful servant?
And who is the chosen and given wife? Isn't God the Father? The Father who loved his people? And isn't the Lord Jesus Christ
his beloved son? And isn't the Holy Spirit that
faithful servant who goes and finds the wife for his son Isaac? Because the wife for Isaac is
the woman that God had appointed for his son. for Isaac, the one
through whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed.
And who is that son? It's the Lord Jesus. Who is that
wife? It's the Church of the Living God. And see how the Holy
Spirit draws her and brings her. And how does he do that? How
does he accomplish his task? by interceding to God for her,
and also by speaking the Word of God. Isn't it the Spirit of
God who tells the will of God and speaks the Word of God, the
will of God, by what He does? Jesus said this in John 6, 63.
He said, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and
they are life. When God calls us, when He saves
us, it's through the power of His Spirit. So I want to give
you three things that God has revealed from his word that he
does to save sinners. How does God save sinners? Know
this, that it is God who saves us. If we're ever saved, God
will have to do the saving. And he always saves his people
without any contribution from them. That's called grace. God's grace means God does the
work and God gets the glory and man contributes nothing. And
so the loving Father is God the Father. How did God the Father
love his people? How did he do it? Well it says
in Jeremiah 31.3, I have loved thee with an everlasting love.
So his love for his people was from eternity. And how else did
He love them? Not only was it everlasting,
but He loved them by choosing them. Because it says in Ephesians
1 verse 4, He has chosen us in Christ. In Christ. That's the
Beloved Son. In His office as our mediator,
as our High Priest. As the one who would bring us
to God. God chose us in Him. Just like God the Father, I mean,
God had appointed a wife for Isaac. Abraham's son? God the
Father appointed a wife for His son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and
gave us to Him. So God the Father loved us from
eternity and He chose us in Christ to be His bride. And He gave
us to Him from eternity. And He chose us to be His sons.
It says in 1 John 3, verse 1, He says, Behold, what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called
the sons of God. That's love, isn't it? But He
loved us so much that not only did He just choose us to be His
sons, but it says in Romans 5 that He loved us when we were ungodly.
without strength, enemies, even the enemies of God. And when
we were enemies, He reconciled us to Himself by the death of
His Son. That is love, love unknown. Herein is love, God said in 1
John 4, herein is love, not that we love God, but that He loved
us and gave His Son to be a propitiation for our sins. That's the love
of God the Father for His people. It's an everlasting love, a love
in Christ, a love that made us His sons by His eternal choice
and His gift of us to Christ, and a love that brought us to
Christ. And what of the love of God the Son, the Son of God?
The Apostle Paul said in Galatians 2.20, the Son of God who loved
me and gave Himself for me. So the Lord Jesus Christ loved
His people too. And He loved them so much that
He gave Himself for them. This is amazing. The Lord Jesus
Christ said in John 15,15, The Lord Jesus looked at us from
eternity and he saw us as God's gift to him as his wife,
and he saw us as his friends, as his beloved wife, and as his
sheep, as his brethren, as his church, his own body, and he
loved us and gave himself for us. That's the love of the Lord
Jesus Christ. A love that goes on from eternity
to eternity. And what is the love of the Spirit
of God? Who is the Spirit of God? Or we might even ask it
this way, what is the Spirit of God? Is He a what? Or is He
a person? When we think of the Spirit of
God, do we think about a force? Do we think about just an influence? God, the Spirit of God is God
Himself. He is God Himself. We know this
from scripture. He says in 1 John 5, 7 that there
are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word,
and the Holy Spirit. And also throughout scripture
he speaks about the Spirit of God. He says, do not grieve the
Holy Spirit of God. Don't grieve him by treating
your brother in Christ with unkindness. You can't grieve a force. You
can't grieve someone who... You have to grieve a person.
And he says that we blaspheme the Spirit of God. And you can't
blaspheme a force, an influence. You blaspheme God. So he's God
himself. And you can't lie to a force,
but you lie, as Ananias and Sapphira did, to the Holy Spirit. All
these things teach us that the Holy Spirit is God Himself, co-equal
with the Father and the Son, and co-eternal with Him. And
so the love of the Spirit of God for us is what? What is the
love of the Spirit of God for us? Well, look at this in Ephesians
2, verse 4. God the Father loved us, the
Son of God loved us from eternity, and the Spirit of God loved us.
He says in Ephesians chapter 2. If you read through Ephesians,
I encourage you to do this. Read through Ephesians chapter
1 and 2 today and think about Genesis 24. In the first part
you'll see God the Father choosing us. Predestinating us unto the
adoption of sons by Jesus Christ. Accepting us in Christ the Beloved. And then the Lord Jesus Christ
redeeming us by his precious blood. And our inheritance is
in Christ, in verse 11. And then he shows in chapter
1, in verse 22, he says, and God has put all things under
his feet. Just like Abraham gave all to
his son Isaac, God has given everything to his son, the Lord
Jesus. And he says the reason why is
for his church, for his wife. That's why God has done this.
But in chapter 2, he says, "...you who were dead in trespasses and
sins, wherein in time past you walked according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,"
that's the devil, "...the spirit that now works in the children
of disobedience, among whom we all had our conversation, or
our behavior, our lifestyle, in times past, in the lust of
our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." When
we were like this, listen, this was our condition and our state
before God. This is what the Spirit of God did. But God, who
is rich in mercy, For His great love, wherewith He loved us,
even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with
Christ. By grace you are saved. This
is salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. It
is of God the Father. It is of God the Son. It is of
God the Holy Spirit. God chose us, God the Father
chose us, but Him choosing us is not enough to save us. What
else is required? The Lord Jesus Christ had to
lay down His life and redeem us. But even that is not enough
to save us. What else is required? The Spirit
of God has to speak God's Word to us concerning Christ and give
us life with faith to believe Him. Joining us to Him in a living
union with the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of God. Christ
in you is the Spirit of God in us, the hope of glory. When God
saves us, He gives us that hope. And so you see this in his whole
account here. The purpose of God the Father,
the love of God the Father for his son. The whole chapter is
about Isaac. About God's purpose for him.
And it's meant to teach us that God's purpose is all about his
son. all about His Son and His people,
to bring them to Him. It's a purpose of love that God
had from eternity, and what a thing it is. We can't comprehend. It's an incomprehensible thing.
But I want you to see a couple other things here. How this compares,
this account teaches us the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. As
God, first one, consider this, as God took Abraham out of Ur
the Chaldees, so God made Rebekah willing. That's the first thing
you see. He made her willing to leave
her father and her own house, her country. What woman would
do that? Why would she just up and leave?
This was a city. Where was she going? To live
in a tent. Why? She had never met Isaac.
But she had heard of him. And she had heard of him by faith.
Look at Psalm 45. This is what the Lord says about
his people. He tells them this. This is the
Lord speaking to the church. In Psalm 45 and verse 10. He says, Harken, O daughter,
and consider and incline thine ear. That's what she did. She just heard what the servant
of Abraham said. He said, Harken, O daughter,
and consider and incline thine ear. Forget also thine own people
and thy father's house. Just forget it. So shall the
king greatly desire thy beauty, for he is thy Lord, and worship
thou him. Now this is talking about God
telling the people, his people, about the Lord Jesus Christ.
Forget your father's house. Forget your people. And when you do, in considering
the Lord Jesus, then the King, the Lord Jesus, will greatly
desire your beauty. It's a God-given beauty. It's
a God-given desire. Faith is God's gift, and it's
a gift of His grace. When we seek Christ and desire
Him so much that as Rebecca left her household, then the Lord
Jesus Christ confesses that He will greatly desire us. Because
it's His work, isn't it? And He always delights in His
work. In Isaiah 55 it says this, In verse 5, "...Behold, thou
shalt call a nation that thou knewest not..." This is Isaiah
55.5. It's speaking about the Lord
Jesus. God is talking to him. He says,
"...Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knewest not, and nations
that knew not thee shall run unto thee, because of the Lord
thy God, for the Holy One of Israel, for He hath glorified
thee." When God glorifies His Son in the eyes of sinners, showing
them that even though under the law they're guilty, helpless,
condemned, and justly so. And then he shows them that all
that they need before God is in Christ. And they see his humility,
how he came and gave himself and his love for his people.
They greatly desire him and they run to him. And that's what God
does for us. And so God took Abraham out of
that country and God took Rebecca and he changed her heart. Because
even though Christ died for us, the Spirit of God has to change
our hearts. Christ put away our sins by his
own self, but he didn't change our hearts until he sent his
Spirit. And he did that from his throne.
He sent his Spirit to change our hearts, and all of it is
needed for us to be saved. So consider the second thing.
Isaac was old enough to choose his wife, but who chose his wife
for him? It was his father Abraham. And
who chose the church for Christ? His father did. He's the one
who Jesus said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to
me. We were chosen by God the Father
to be his sons by adoption, but it was by Jesus Christ. And so
God the Father gave us to Christ. He chose us to be His wife. He
appointed us to that. Just like God said in Ephesians
1, 22 and 23, the Church of God, He exalted Christ in order that
He might give all these things to the Church. It's an amazing
thing. And thirdly, consider this, Abraham's faithful servant
went to find and take a wife for Isaac from Abraham's kindred. Even so, in the same way, the
Spirit of God sends his ministers, his preachers, to bring sinners
into a living union with Christ. That's an amazing thing, isn't
it? Remember how King David sent for Mephibosheth? The son of
Jonathan, King David was the king over Israel, and he had
a relationship with Jonathan, who was Saul's son, the former
king. And King David and Jonathan made a covenant together. And
in that covenant, David promised that he would treat Jonathan's
seed, his children, his son, for Jonathan's sake. And so,
when King David was made king, he sent Saul's servant Ziba to
fetch Mephibosheth. And even in the same way, the
Lord Jesus Christ, when He ascended to the throne and was crowned
and exalted on heaven's throne, He sent His Spirit at the appointed
time to fetch those who were the objects of His love to Himself. And this is what the Spirit of
God does. He calls us. And so Abraham's servant made
known these things to Rebekah. And did you notice that at the
end of this account, Abraham's servant, when Rebekah was coming
in the field, Isaac showed up. Isaac walked out in the field
at the even time, and he was meditating, and he saw the camels
coming, and Abraham's servant and Isaac's servant pointed to
Isaac, He's told Rebekah, he's pointing to Isaac and said, this
is my master. This is Isaac. And so she got off her camel.
Who is it that teaches us? Who is it that makes known the
Lord Jesus Christ to us? Isn't it the Spirit of God? He
says in 1 Corinthians 2 that the only one who knows the mind
of God is the Spirit of God. And God has made known Christ
to us by Him. So in 2 Corinthians 4.6 it says
that as God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness
has shined in our hearts to give us the light of the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ. Look at 1 Thessalonians 1. You see how the Spirit of God
makes Christ known to us. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, he
says this in verse 4, he says, Knowing brethren, beloved...
Beloved is another word for you're loved of God. Knowing brethren,
beloved, your election of God. God chose you, that's what election
is. For our gospel, our gospel, what's the gospel? It's the testimony
of God concerning His Son. That's what Abraham's servant
did here. He spoke what God had told him through Abraham concerning
Isaac. The gospel came not to you in
word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in
much assurance, So here we see how God did this, how He saves
us, how He makes known Christ to us through the Holy Spirit.
Look at 2 Thessalonians 2. In 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 13,
He says this, We are bound to give thanks always to God for
you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, Again, there's that word,
we're loved of the Lord because God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation. And how did he do that? What
was the way we were going to be saved? How was his salvation
going to come to us? Through sanctification of the
spirit and belief of the truth. Where unto he called you by our
gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So Abraham's servant is teaching us how the Spirit of God takes
the things of Christ and shows them to us. And by doing so,
he joins us to the Lord Jesus in love. The other thing we saw
was that this servant did all that he did simply by hearing
the word of God through Abraham the prophet and speaking that
word and praying. And so when we read, it doesn't
surprise us then in Romans chapter 8 verse 26 where it says that
the Spirit of God, though we don't know what to pray, the
Spirit of God in us intercedes for us because He knows the will
of God. So the Spirit of God knows the
will of God and He prays according to that will in us. And so we
see the servant of Abraham constantly praying throughout this whole
chapter. And we also see him speaking the Word of God, because
the Spirit of God is the One through whom God speaks to His
people. Not only spoke the Scripture
by men of old, but also speaks it now, applying the things of
Christ to us. All that He accomplishes, He
accomplishes by His Word. In Job chapter 33, it says, "...the
Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty has
given me life." And then in Psalm 33, verse 6, it says, "...by
the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host
of them by the breath of His mouth." All that God does, He
accomplishes by His word. And that's an amazing thing to
think about, isn't it? So all these things teach us
the gospel of God's grace to sinners. How God the Father gave
all that He had to His Son, and then gave His Son a people. He
gave them to His Son to redeem them by His own precious blood,
and He gave His Son then to His people, those He chose and predestined
to be His children. And this is what God has done
in this chapter here in type. It's an amazing thing, isn't
it? When you read this chapter, I am in awe at the faithfulness
of this servant. I'm in awe at the love, the respect
that this servant had for his Master. How he did everything
for his Master's good. His prayers were for his Master's
good. His prayers were for Isaac's. His prayers were to bring this
woman into a union of marriage with his master Isaac. That's what the Spirit of God
does. He does all these things in his
office as our comforter, in his office as our intercessor. He
does all these things according to the will of God. It's a service
of love that He does to God the Father and God the Son according
to that eternal covenant for His people. How could we as people
who are sinners have anything by which we can compare this
love that God himself in the Father, in the Son, and the Holy
Spirit would be all of our salvation according to an eternal purpose
and a love incomprehensible? out of grace, for nothing in
us, all because God loved His Son, and had a purpose, to glorify
Himself in their salvation, and to our salvation, and bring us
to Him in love." If God hadn't chosen us, if He hadn't brought
us out of this land, we all would have perished, just like those
left of Abraham's kindred who stayed in that land, who were
idolaters. We would have all perished, wouldn't
we? If Christ hadn't died for us, we would have died in our
sins deservingly. And if the Spirit of God had
not quickened us, made us alive, and given us faith in Christ,
we would never know the salvation. We would never have submitted
in willingness to this call to come to Christ. We would never
have seen beauty in Christ. But knowing ourselves to be sinners
by the law of God, by God's work in our heart, making us desperate
and drawing us to Christ by the gospel, then we come to Him.
And we're brought to Him by God's work. And God admires His work
and He tells us about it in this chapter and throughout scripture.
How He saves His people from their sins by the Lord Jesus
Christ and brings them to Him by His own Spirit. Let's pray. Dear Lord, we pray that you would
show us this grace that you showed to Abraham and Isaac and all
your people, that you would bring us to Christ and make us love
him. Even as Isaac loved Rebecca,
we pray that you would show us the love of Christ to us, who
loved us and gave himself for us, and so our hearts would run
out to him in love. Thank you for this scripture.
Thank you for your gospel, this truth, by which we're saved.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.