But turn with me please to Genesis
chapter 24, and we will read from verse one through to verse
28. And Abraham was old and well-stricken
in age, and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. 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,
unto my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac.' And the servant
said unto him, Peradventure, the woman will not be willing
to follow me unto this land. Must I needs bring thy son again
unto the land from whence thou camest? And Abraham said unto
him, Beware thou that thou bring not my son thither again. The Lord God of heaven, which
took me from my father's house, and from the land of my kindred,
and which spake unto me, and that swear unto me, saying, Unto
thy seed will I give this land, he shall send his angel before
thee, and thou shalt take a wife unto my son from thence. And
if the woman will not be willing to follow thee, then thou shalt
be clear from this my oath, only bring not my son thither again.'
And the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his
master, and swear 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, and he arose and
went to Mesopotamia, unto the city of Nehor. And he made his
camels to kneel down without the city by a well of water at
the time of the evening, even the time that women go out to
draw water. And he said, O Lord God of my
master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day 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 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. And it came to
pass that before he had done speaking, that behold, Rebecca
came out, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor,
Abraham's brother, with her picture 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 picture, 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. And she hasted and emptied her
pitcher into the trough, and ran again unto the well to draw
water, and drew for all his camels. 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 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 Milca, which she bare unto
Nahor. She said moreover unto him, We
have both straw and provender enough, and room to lodge in.
And 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. And the damsel ran and told them
of her mother's house these things. Amen. May the Lord bless this
reading to us today. So, as we've said, this chapter
is quite long, so I think only we should look to the first half
of it today. But there's plenty to bless us
and to teach us herein, I am sure, as we see the Lord's hand
in these events which unfold before us. There are four simple
principles that flow from these verses that we have read together. And as we think about them, may
the Lord lay them upon our hearts and cause them to grow and to
flourish in our hearts. The first thing I want you to
be aware of is that here we can see in these verses that Abraham
was faithful to God's revelation. So he is desiring a wife for
his son Isaac and he sends this trusted servant back to the land
that Abraham had come from in order to get a wife for Isaac. But the Lord had shown Abraham
that the land of Canaan in which he now dwelt was the land that
he would possess. And so he tells his servant that
he is to beware that he does not take his son Isaac back to
where Abraham had come from because he knew that Isaac was to be
the possessor of this land of Canaan in which he now dwelt.
And the lesson from that is this, that the Lord's people do not,
and indeed the Lord's people cannot, go back when the Holy
Spirit brings us to the knowledge of the truth. You know, when
the Lord teaches us something, when the Lord shows us something,
when the Lord brings us to some understanding, we cannot unlearn
these things. We cannot go back from these
things. We have to be faithful to the
revelation of God. And it does not matter if that
faithfulness brings us to a lonely place. It does not matter if
that faithfulness brings us to a lack of our brothers and sisters
around about us, our family around about us. We have to be faithful
in that place that we inhabit. Isaac was the child of promise.
Isaac was the one who had to have children as well because
Abraham knew that Isaac, this late child in his marriage with
Sarah, was the one through whom the Messiah would come and the
one through whom God's blessings would come. And it's very interesting
to think that Isaac at this time was at least 40 years of age,
and yet he was not choosing a wife for himself, but rather this
servant was directed to go back many, many miles, hundreds of
miles, in order to bring a wife to Isaac in the place that he
was, so God would provide for the needs. Is it a concern to
you where you are, what your circumstances are, who your wife
or husband might be someday? Listen, that's God's problem,
not yours. Let us be like Abraham and learn
patience and trust and reliance upon the Lord. Here's another
lesson. Let us be confident in the power
of God. The Lord had promised Abraham
much, both with respect to the land and with respect to a spiritual
seed. And here we see Abraham continuing
to trust in the word of the Lord. This is a faith that endures. There was confidence in Abraham. There was confidence in this
man. And he says to his servant, the
Lord shall send his angel before you. The Lord will prepare the
way. The Lord will open doors. The
Lord will fix these things. And Abraham believed that. that
the Lord would prepare the way and provide for success in the
matter of Isaac's wife. And it's interesting that Abraham
did not insist on the same degree of faith from others because
he knew that the giving of faith was a divine work. The Lord had
convinced Abraham that he would fix this matter and provide a
wife for his son Isaac. If the servant didn't have the
full faith that Abraham had, then again, Abraham says, if
the Lord doesn't do this for you, then you're no longer under
the oath that I have put you under. And I admire that Abraham
did not impose his faith upon his servant. And neither can
we as parents, or indeed grandparents, impose our faith upon our children. But we commit them into the care
of the Lord, and we promise that that one in whom we trust is
able to accomplish his purposes. Here's another thing that we
learn. that we look for the will of God. And that's what the servant
did in this situation. He said, O Lord God of my master
Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day. You know,
we don't know what a day will bring. Sometimes it will be hardship,
sometimes it will be sadness, sometimes it will be loss. We
don't know how our day is going to turn out, but it is a good
thing to commit our days, all our days, into the care and into
the hand of the Lord who knows the end from the beginning. And asking for a sign is not
to be despised, especially following the servant's prayer for help
and for a good outcome, so that the purpose of God would be fulfilled
and that the mind of the servant would be directed to see the
hand of God in this whole affair. And point four, seeing the hand
of God in a situation is a blessing and a comfort to us. The servant
had his prayer answered the servants saw the demonstration of God's
goodness, God's providence, in the way in which this girl, Rebecca,
cared first for him in giving him a drink, and then for his
camels in providing for them also. And this showed Rebecca's
kindness, and it confirmed, indeed, that Abraham's servants' prayers
had been answered. She was, she revealed to the
servant, the daughter of Abraham's brother Heron, or indeed the
granddaughter, she was of the family. But there was much yet
to do, because Rebecca and her family needed to be convinced
of the suitability of the match with Isaac, and she had to be
willing to leave her home and to leave her family and to leave
all that was familiar to her, and to travel back to Canaan
with Abraham's servant to meet a man that she had never met
before. And it was a big ask, and it
was a lot to hope that she would be willing to do so. Now, I said
that I had four points. Actually, I've got five, and
here's the fifth one. Remember to come back next week
and listen to the second half of the story. Amen.