God Goes With You - Pastor Tom Loghry
In Genesis 24, we see the faithfulness of God in providing a wife from Isaac from the family of Abraham, and the way that He works in all circumstances.
Transcript:
Two Sundays from now, it will be St. Patrick's Day. Many people treat the day as an occasion to celebrate their Irish heritage, or maybe their love of the color green, or perhaps their affection for alcohol. This tendency distracts us from paying much attention to the namesake of the day, the man called Patrick.
His importance emerges in light of the calling that God placed upon his life, such that we would remember him with a day of his own. God made Patrick a missionary to Ireland. In fact, the missionary through whom God would begin to turn a pagan people to Christ. That turn of events becomes quite surprising when you learn how things began for Patrick.
His family lived in Roman Britain around the 4th century AD. As a teenager, he was kidnapped by raiders to be made a slave in Ireland. Though his family was Christian, he had not been especially devout before all this happened. But that started to change. In the steepest of valleys. Reflecting on this period later in life, Patrick said, Every day, I used to look after sheep, and I used to pray often during the day.
The love of God and a holy fear of Him increased more and more in me. My faith began to grow, and my spirit was ardently stirred. Often I would pray as many as a hundred times in a single day, and nearly as many at night. Even when I was staying out in the woods or on the mountain. I would rise before dawn for prayer, in snow and frost and rain. I felt no ill effect, and there was no slackness in me. As I now realize, it was because the Spirit was maturing and preparing me for a work yet to come.
At age twenty two, he was able to escape slavery and return to Britain. He went to mainland Europe to study for ministry, and it was during that time he felt called to return to Ireland, to the people who had enslaved him, to bring them the gospel message.
He knew their language and culture because of his time in slavery. God had uniquely orchestrated his life to prepare him for this calling and the rest, as they say, is history. As we look at Genesis 24 today, I want to direct your attention to notice God's faithful presence. Nothing is left to chance or luck.
God acts in keeping with promise, with his promise to Abraham. Opening verses of this chapter show us how Abraham at this point in his life now anticipates this. So looking first at verses 1 through 4, which have already been read, it says that Abraham was now very old, and we figured Abraham was pretty old as it was because he was about a hundred when Isaac was born.
At this point though, based on information that we get from the next chapter when it says that Isaac was 40 years old when he was married, we can say that Abraham was 140 years old at this point. So yes, they had a a little bit better longevity back then, and it says that the Lord had blessed him. in every way.
So that covers about 40 years. It was just full of blessings for Abraham. But at this point, Abraham does have a concern that his son Isaac would find a wife. And so he calls upon one of his servants and it would seem to be a servant whom he trusted greatly. We might speculate that perhaps this was Eliezer who was supposed to inherit Abraham's estate if he wasn't going to have a son, but he had a son, and so it doesn't go to him.
But perhaps him, because he would have been something that, someone that Abraham trusted greatly. He calls upon the servant and tells him to put his hand under his thigh. Like, what's that about? That's, that seems weird. Well, it was an ancient way of making an oath. We have some weird things, too. Making a pinky promise. Less weird, you know, let's shake on it. The point was, this was a way of demonstrating that the servant was going to keep the oath that he was going to make to Abraham. And what Abraham was asking him to swear was this. It was that. He would go to Abraham's relatives to find a wife, rather than going to the Canaanites, amongst whom they lived.
Now, this leads us to wonder, why? Why was it that Abraham was so insistent that he would go and get a wife from very far away, rather than one right in their own neighborhood? Now, later on in scripture we do find some similar prohibitions. we find in Deuteronomy 7 verses 3 through 4 of how the Israelites are commanded not to intermarry with those who are outside of Israel.
It says, Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons. For they will turn your children away from following me to serve other gods. And the Lord's anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. So we see in that place, clearly, it's not so much about ethnicity.
Because we know that even in Christ's own line, that there are those who are outside of Israel that were included. Think about Ruth. She was a Moabite. She was not a Jew, ethnically speaking. But the concern of marrying outside of Israel is that when you took someone from a pagan religion, it was going to lead the people of Israel astray to follow after false gods.
Later, in the New Testament, we find a similar instruction given to us as Christians. Paul in 2 Corinthians 6: 14 says, Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? Now, this is instruction that applies beyond just marriage.
It gives us some guidance in the sort of partnerships we make with others, but it especially applies to marriage. Now, to be clear, Paul in 1 Corinthians 7 says to those that are married to unbelievers, you should absolutely remain faithful to those relationships. There's no call for divorce there. But, for those who are single, those who are seeking Christian spouses, they ought to find someone that likewise believes in Christ, who shares their faith.
And, you know, you ask why, and the very simple reason is, I mean, just think about it. What puts you in the best position to follow Jesus? The person that you're sharing your life with, if they are similarly devoted to Christ. And so it's for that reason that that instruction is given. Now that's not exactly what's going on here.
Granted, we see in Genesis 26 that later on, when Isaac has kids of his own, he and his wife are a little bit bothered by their son Esau's choice in women. He marries two Hittite women and they, it says that they give him a, it, these women basically give them a headache. They bother them greatly. And we find that later on in Genesis 27, in Genesis 27, Isaac and his wife are very, direct and mindful in sending their son Jacob elsewhere so that he does not marry a Hittite woman.
They had had enough of them. Now, some of that might be cultural difference, character difference. Probably, but we see that it wasn't necessarily because of religion, at least at this point in the case of Abraham. Now this might be a little bit surprising, but when you read the biblical narrative close, you'll notice some curious things.
So, we see later, that Abraham's relatives aren't strict monotheists. So we see in Genesis 31, that Laban, who is the brother of Isaac's wife, that he had household gods, that his daughter would end up stealing. So, the interest that Abraham has here in sending Isaac away isn't so much a concern of marrying someone who is a faithful monotheist worshipping only one God.
No, what Abraham's interest is here is to walk in accordance with God's command and promise given to him. That he would make of Abraham a distinct nation. Now, I think you can wrap your mind around this in this sort of way. Imagine if you, or maybe your son or daughter, were to live in China. If you were to marry someone from China, and then your kids were to marry someone from China, and so on and so forth, you'd really lose any sense that you were American, your family.
They would just become Chinese. And the same would be true in the opposite direction, if someone from China moved here and they just married Americans and they would become just American. The situation might be different though, if you had moved to China and then you said, Nope, I'm going to only marry someone that's from America.
And you constantly went back and you sent your kids back to America and their kids back to America. And so you'd have almost like a little American enclave within China. So that's kind of the idea of what's going on here in the case of Abraham and sending his son Isaac away. He is creating an ethnic enclave because he's been called by God to trust in this promise that he would make of him a nation.
Now, imagine the position that this service and servant is in of fetching a wife. I mean, how many of us won't want that job? Have to find someone and get her to agree with you to come back hundreds of miles to a guy that she had never met. Naturally, you might be wondering, what if she says no? How about that?
What if she says no? What am I to do then? And we see that covered in verses 5 through 8. Abraham makes it clear, you, you know, it's fine. You know, if she says no, she says no, but under no circumstances are you to take Isaac back. The reason being is because God had promised the land of Canaan to Abraham and his family.
And Abraham was concerned that Isaac would get stuck back there, and there's some wisdom in that because we see in the case of his grandson Jacob that he does get stuck over there for quite a while.
But amidst all this, what we see kind of shining forth is Abraham's confident faith. In verse 7, we see it says, the Lord the God of heaven who brought me out of my father's household in my native land, and who spoke to me and promised me on oath saying to saying to your offspring, I'll give this land, he will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there.
Basically what Abraham is saying is, God has brought me this far. He called me out of that land, brought me here, gave me a son in my old age. That's kind of implied in all of this. God has been faithful so far. He's not going to fail now. He's going to go ahead of you to make sure that you're successful in finding this woman.
God has promised and God will make a way. Now, he does address the fact that, you know, if she says no, and this is really addressing the servant's concern, it's not an indication of his own lack of faith, he says, if for some reason she was to say no, then you're released from this oath. So then picking up in verse nine, it says, so the servant put his hand under the thigh of his master Abraham and swore an oath to him concerning this matter.
Then the servant left taking with him 10 of his master's camels loaded with all kinds of good things from his master. He set out for Aram Naharaim and made his way to the town of Nahor. He made, he had the camels kneel down near the well outside the town. It was toward evening, the time when women go out to draw water.
Now the thing that you should understand is that this was no small journey. This is basically back to the neighborhood that Abraham was living in, when he was living in Haran. Nahor is not that very, very far away from there. So we're talking about a distance of 500 miles, thereabouts, and the servant is coming with quite a caravan.
He's bringing ten camels. The reason why he brings ten camels isn't because they're cool. It's because he needs to have something to carry the gifts that he's going to bring to convince this woman to come back with him and her family to let her go with him. So he comes to Nahor and he stops by the well.
And this is a great strategic position for him to be in because he understands that the women are going to be coming to the well. Why would they go in the evening? To escape the heat of the sun. Best time to have to go and lug water back and forth. And so he goes there in hopes of finding the woman who would be the wife of his master's son.
But even though he is in a good position to meet some women, he's still very concerned about finding the right one. He can't just take anyone. And it's here that we see that Abraham's faith in God has shaped the servant's own response when facing a challenge. We see that he prays to God for help.
Picking up in verse 12, it says, Then he prayed, Lord, God of my master Abraham, make me successful today and show kindness to my master Abraham. See, I am standing beside the spring and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water. May it be that when I say to a young woman, please let down your jar that I might have a drink.
And she says, drink, and I'll water your camels too. Let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master. So the servant prays. And he prays to God, seeking a sign. And this isn't unusual for this time. We see this, you remember in the case of Gideon, those of you who are familiar with the story where he sets out a fleece.
It's not unusual for the people of that time to seek a sign where they basically get a basic yes or no from God. In order for it to be a sign, though, it must be something that is rather abnormal that occurs. Now, hospitality is normal in the Near East. So, it wouldn't be that unusual that if the servant was to ask for a drink, that one of these women would provide it.
What would be unusual, however, would be if she were to volunteer to water his camels. Now the reason why that would be unusual is because of the number of the camels. Remember, he's got ten camels. Now John Walton, biblical commentator, says that each camel is able to have about 25 gallons of water. And the jar at that time would have contained about 3 gallons a jar.
So that means this woman would have been willing to draw around 80 to 100 times in order to provide water for these camels, if they were to be filled up. Even if it was less than that, still lots of drawing water from a well. Who would volunteer to do that? For that reason, it's a sign. Now, we can understand that this isn't to be a normative example for us that we should ask for such incredible signs and trying to understand things.
Now, sometimes you can pray and you can ask God, I really don't know what to do here, please guide me. And God will guide you in incredible ways. But, the servant's not demanding. He's saying, may, he says, may it be that these things would play out. And, as it turns out, The incredible circumstances of him being led to this woman is going to be an important part of him persuading the woman's family to let her go with him back to Isaac, who's living hundreds of miles away.
Now, picking up in verse 15, it says, Before he had finished praying, Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel, son of Milkah. It was the wife of Abraham's brother Nahor. The woman was very beautiful, a virgin. No man had ever slept with her. She went down to the spring, filled her jar, and came up again.
The servant hurried to meet her and said, Please give me a little water from your jar. Drink, my lord, she said, and quickly lowered the jar to her hands and gave him a drink. After she had given him a drink, she said, I'll draw water for your camels, too, until they have had enough to drink. So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough, ran back to the well to draw more water, and drew enough for all his camels.
Now notice here, the servant He didn't ask. It wasn't like he was trying to stack the deck, like, Oh, and will you water the camels? I just kind of want to find somebody so I can get back home. He didn't do that. She just volunteered. And at this point, he doesn't know that she's the daughter of Bethuel. He just knows that she is beautiful, and perhaps that she is unmarried.
So, continuing on in verse 21. It says, Without saying a word, The man watched her closely to learn whether or not the Lord had made his journey successful. When the camels had finished drinking, the man took out a gold nose ring weighing a becca and two gold bracelets weighing ten shekels. Then he asked, whose daughter are you?
Please tell me, is there room in your father's house for us to spend the night? She answered him, I am the daughter of Bethuel, the son that Milkah bore to Nahor. And she added, we have plenty of straw and fodder as well as room for you to spend the night. Then the man bowed down and worshipped the Lord, saying, Praise be to the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not abandoned his kindness and faithfulness to my master.
As for me, the Lord has led me on the journey to the house of my master's relatives. So, everything plays out. The woman has given water to the servant's camels. And, in response, The servant gives her gifts. Gives her a nose ring. See, that's not a recent innovation. Nose rings go back a long ways. Gives her a nose ring.
And he gives her two bracelets ten shekels each in gold. Now, ten shekels of silver at that time would have been about a year's wages. So, imagine that. I mean, gold is worth more. So, giving someone two gifts that are worth like two years of your wages. Unfathomable. Abraham had done very well. God had indeed blessed him.
And, so he asks after her father, you know, Who is your father? And, he learns that, it's in fact a relative of Abraham. It's, it's Abraham's nephew. And so in that case, Rebekah is Abraham's great niece. And so from all this coming together, you know, making this connection and Rebekah getting these gifts.
She's very excited. I mean most women like jewelry, like Rebekah is very excited and picking up in verse 28 says the young woman ran and told her mother's household about these things. Now, Rebekah had a brother named Laban, and he hurried out to the man at the spring. As soon as he had seen the nose ring and the bracelets on his sister's arms and had heard Rebekah tell what the man said to her, he went out to the man and found him standing by the camels near the spring.
Come, you who are blessed by the Lord, he said, why are you standing out here? I have prepared the house and a place for the camels. So again, offering him great hospitality, inviting the servant into their home. Laban, Rebekah's brother, you'll figure later into the story of Jacob, he recognizes, not only that this man has been good to his sister, but that he is in fact blessed by the Lord.
He says, come you are blessed by the Lord. Now, After that point, we have a whole series of verses that basically just re articulate to everything we've just gone over, so I'm not going to read those verses. I'm just going to pick out a few highlights. So first, we look at verses 32 through 38. We see that they invite him in, they sit him down to eat, put food before him, and the servant's like, I'm not going to eat until I tell you the story that I have to tell.
This is, he's on a mission. He's there to get a wife for Isaac. And so he relates to them that he's Abraham's servant and also makes it clear to them that Abraham has done very well for himself. And that, in verse 36, it says that he has given everything that he owns to his son Isaac. So he's basically trying to paint a really great picture to them, in order to persuade them to allow him to take Rebekah back to be Isaac's wife.
He'll be able to take care of her. They've done well for themselves, Abraham's family. Going on into verses 39 through 44, he once again relates Abraham's faith in God and his own faith in the God of Abraham. Of how Abraham had told them that, yes, The angel of God will go before you to make the journey a success, and how he prayed that God would give him this sign at the well.
Now the reason why this is significant here is because he's trying to show Laban and Bethuel, their family, of how God has truly orchestrated things to bring them together, that this is no accident. And so we move on to verses 45 through 48. And he relates everything that happened, how she offered to water the camels, and how he gave her these gifts, and how he worshipped God in response because of what he had done.
So just notice kind of a pattern here, just on the whole, as we kind of just look over things again. Abraham had faith that God would provide, and so did this servant. God acted, and then, in response, He worshipped. That's a great model for us of how we trust in God that He will act. We remember how He has acted in the past, particularly in the case of Jesus Christ, for our salvation, and in response, we worship Him for what He has done.
Now this leads to a conclusion, verses 49 through 51. I'll read this. It says Now if you'll show kindness and faithfulness to my master, tell me and if not, tell me so I may know which way to turn Laban and Bethuel answered, this is from the Lord. Again, there they're recognizing the powerful testimony that he's given.
This is from the Lord. We can say nothing to you one way or the other. Here's Rebekah, take her and go, and let her become the wife of your master's son as the Lord has directed. So between the, his gifts, the report of Abraham's wealth, and the testimony that he offered of God's divine superintendents of leading him to Rebekah, Laban and Bethuel give Abraham's servant their blessing.
And this once again leads the servant to worship God. In verse 52 it says, When Abraham's servant heard what they said, he bowed down to the ground before the Lord. Then the servant brought out gold and silver jewelry and articles of clothing and gave them to Rebekah he also gave costly gifts to her brother and to her mother.
Then he and the men who were with him ate and drank and spent the night there. When they got up the next morning, he said, Send me on my way to my master. But her brother and her mother replied, Let the young woman remain with us ten days or so, then you may go. But he said to them, Do not detain me, now that the Lord has granted success to my journey.
Send me on my way, so I may go to my master. So, God had provided, just as Abraham had faith he would, the servant, as part of kind of the marriage arrangements at that time, offers this dowry of all these, this jewelry and clothing. Spends the night, and as we saw earlier, he wasn't willing to eat before he told this story.
He remains urgent and eager to get back to Isaac because of the success that God has given him. Now, Rkahcca's family is not so keen on necessarily having her leave just like that. There's a little bit of a risk involved. I mean, they just met this guy and we could also imagine, perhaps, that they wanted to spend a little bit more time with her before she's gone off hundreds of miles away.
They say, let the young woman remain with us ten days or so, then you may go. Now, it's here at this point that we see that Rebecca does actually have a say in these matters. So in verse fifty seven, we see that it says, and then they said, let's call the young woman and ask her about it. So they called Rebekah and asked her, Will you go with this man?
I will go, she said. So they sent their sister Rebekah on her way along with her nurse and Abraham's servant and his men. And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, Our sister, may you increase to thousands upon thousands. May your offspring possess the cities of their enemies. And Rebekah and her attendants got ready and mounted the camels and went back with the man.
So the servant took Rebekah and left. So we see that When Rebecca leaves, she doesn't go alone with this man. She goes with her nurse, someone who would have been with her her whole life. Her name's Deborah. That, we learn that in Genesis 35. And she has all these attendants as well. And before she leaves, her family gives her this blessing in verse 60.
Our sister, may you increase to thousands upon thousands. May your offspring possess the cities of their enemies. It's interesting because their blessing aligns with God's promise to Abraham, that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars of the sky, as the grains of sand that we find in Genesis 22.
So we see how everything is really coming together here, and this leads up to the big moment that the couple meets. In verse 62, it says, now Isaac had come from Beer Lahai Roi, for he was living in the Negev. He went out into the field one evening to meditate, and as he looked up, he saw camels approaching.
Rebekah also looked up and saw Isaac. She got down from her camel and asked the servant, who is that man in the field coming to meet us? He's my master, the servant answered. So she took her veil and covered herself, and then the servant told Isaac all he had done. Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he married Rebekah.
So she became his wife, and he loved her. And Isaac was comforted after his mother's death. So Isaac had been living in the Negev, the wilderness. He obviously could tolerate a bit of a rough sort of lifestyle. And it says that he went out to the field one evening to meditate. Now you wonder, what does that mean, meditate?
It's interesting because this is the only time this word occurs in scripture. It's from the Hebrew word suah. And they, the translators believe this is the best translation of of that word. Something to just understand is that biblical meditation is not like eastern meditation, like, that is so popular today.
It's different. Now, there's a different word used. It's also translated, meditation, but we see in Joshua 1: 8 that Joshua is called to meditate, this is the word haga, on God's law. And Christians, obviously, should meditate on God, on his word. We should totally embrace that kind of meditation. He's out in the field and he sees this woman approaching.
And when Rebekah sees him, understands that it's Isaac, she puts a veil over herself. She wouldn't have worn a veil at all times. Obviously, she wasn't wearing a veil when she was with the servant, the rest of the men there. But, kind of in keeping with the traditional, you know, wedding, where the bride wears a veil, that's what's going on here. And they are married. Now, there's no report of a ceremony taking place. That's perhaps possible. But what we do understand here is that the central reality of marriage is found in the consummation of their male female union. Which, that's, that's the, that's the very essence of marriage.
And that's why we insist that it's a male female union. There is no marriage outside of that. So, once again, all this wrapped up, tied together, we see God's continued provision. His faithfulness in providing a wife for Isaac. Even from hundreds of miles away. And it brings to mind Solomon's instruction to us in Proverbs 3, verses 5 through 6, many of you are familiar with it.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
Trusting God is not just a passive affair. Just sitting back and letting things play out. Trusting God also includes knowing God's will and responding with obedience, even if you don't know how everything will come together. So maybe you are, maybe one day you'll be looking for a spouse just like Isaac.
Your eyes tell you there are more non Christians than Christians. Well, that's certainly true. But if you are called to marriage, won't you trust God to lead you to someone who will share your love for Christ? You should trust Him. Because that's what He wants for you. But this isn't just about marriage, though.
This applies to dealing honestly with others. Showing grace to people who have stepped on your toes. Being patient rather than rushing to act. And everything else included in the way that Jesus does things. The way that we are called to follow. It especially applies to our commission today. Abraham's commission was to form a family.
A nation. Our commission is to grow God's family and make disciples of all nations. Jesus tells us this in Matthew 28, verses 18 through 20. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
And surely I'm with you always to the very end of the age. There will be occasions when you wonder whether the time, money, and energy that perhaps you've given as part of this church body is making any difference at all. You'll wonder how in a culture like ours we can find a way forward to connect with people who don't know Jesus. You will wonder, I will wonder, but this is what we can know. If this is God's command, then he has gone before us. He went ahead of Abraham. He went ahead of Patrick, and he goes before us. Jesus has told us he is with us always. to the very end of the age. Don't put your trust in probabilities.
Don't decide your path on what seems possible. Let God guide your path. Seek his will. Know his will. And obey him and trust. Let's pray.
Father in your word this morning, we have set before us the reality of who you are and an example of who we ought to be. Father, we see once again your love and care for us. Of how you are a God who keeps your promises. And how in the case of Isaac, you have prepared a wife for him. From hundreds of miles away.
And how you went before Abraham's servant, so that he might find her and bring her back to him.
Father, we know that you keep your word. In that knowledge, Father, help us, like Abraham and his servant, to trust in you. To seek your guidance, and to have confidence that you will lead us in a way that we should go. Father, help us not to resort to just the easy options that are immediately around us, but to really seek what is in accordance with your will.
Give us faith, Father, to persevere, even when everything seems against us when it seems like no one will hear of Jesus or the gospel. And it seems like everyone has turned their back on the truth. Help us to persevere, Father, because we know that you will make a way. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Hey there, Pastor Tom here. I hope you enjoyed this sermon I offered to Rockland Community Church. Rockland Community Church is located at 212 Rockland Road in North Scituate, Rhode Island, just around the bend from Scituate Public High School. We invite you to join us this Sunday, as we continue our sermon series looking at the Bible's account of Abraham.
It's our joy to welcome you into our community.
Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)