Pastor Andy Davis preaches an expository sermon on Genesis 24. The main subject of the sermon is how God provided a wife for Isaac after his mother’s death.
Pastor Andy Davis preaches an expository sermon on Genesis 24. The main subject of the sermon is how God provided a wife for Isaac after his mother’s death.
– SERMON TRANSCRIPT –
We’re looking today, as you heard, at Genesis 24, and I stand before you, a blessed man. I’m thinking about Ephesians 1, in which it says that, as a Christian, I’m “blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” All of those spiritual blessings are mine, but I’m blessed in the earthly realms too by my wife, and the delight in having her as a wife is infinitely greater because I believe that God gave her to me. Not just that we stumbled on each other and as luck would have it, or like in some of those romance novels — which I don’t read, but I imagine what they would be like — as boy meets girl and all that kind of thing, just the random swirling chance that puts a man and a woman together. I don’t believe in that. I believe, rather, that God makes marriages. I believe he draws a man and a woman together, he puts them together. Now, I think it’s mysterious, like it’s very mysterious how God works, and I doubt that any of it, if I spoke to the married couples, those who have been married a long time or a short time, and I asked, How did you get together? I doubt that the watering of camels had anything to do with it.
And if I were to follow the lives of single people and find out how you eventually got married, again, I don’t think camels are gonna be involved. But yet there are some amazing principles here in Genesis 24. That show us that there’s a God at work in this process, that God puts a man and a woman together, and yes, it’s mysterious and yes, it’s hard to understand. The wisest man who lived before Christ was Solomon. This what he wrote in Proverbs 30 — I love this — he says, “There are three things that are too amazing for me, four that I do not understand: the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a maiden.” “I don’t know how that works,” Solomon says, “I don’t know how he’s acting like he’s never acted before, and how she’s actually interested as a result and how the whole thing comes together. I don’t know, it’s a mystery to me,” says Solomon. It’s a mystery to me as well. But I see the Father’s hand in it, don’t you?
I. What God Joined Together: Isaac Marries Rebekah
And Jesus told us when he was speaking on divorce in Matthew 19, He said, “…what God has joined together, let man not separate.” God makes marriages, that’s a delightful thing, isn’t it? And so therefore, the gift that I have in Christi, the gift that all of you have in your spouse, it’s come to you from God, and that makes it a million times more precious. Amen? That’s what Genesis 24 is about. It’s about the sovereign hand of God. It’s about providence. It’s about how God causes specific things to happen at specific moments, so that a specific man knows a specific thing, and a couple gets together.
Now we’re gonna look at this chapter over two weeks, this morning, we’re just gonna look at what happens in this, the longest chapter of Genesis. You know that there’s no way I could preach 67 versus in a time you’d wanna listen to, okay? So, what we’re gonna do is, we’re just gonna go through 67 verses and just find out what’s here. Next week, we’re gonna look at five theological principles that come from this chapter; we’re gonna look at three different ways to look at this chapter, points of perspective, so that we can gain applications; and then we’re gonna really draw out some applications on how it is that God makes marriages and how God works even today.
Okay? So, let me just give a summary of the chapter as a whole. When Abraham grew very old, he sent a trusted servant to his ancestral homeland to find a wife for his unmarried son, Isaac. Once he was there, the servant prayed to God that a woman would offer him and his camels water, and that was to be a sign that that was the woman that Isaac was to marry. Rebekah at that moment, the beautiful granddaughter of Abraham’s brother, came to the well, and when the servant asked for a drink, she gladly gave it to him and to his camels as well. She offered him and his camels shelter also for the night at her home. When the servant told the family why he was there, they said that the whole matter was obviously from the hand of the Lord, so what could they say one way or the other? That God was working this out. That night, the servant gave gifts of gold and silver to everyone in the family. In the morning, Rebekah said, “I will go”, and riding upon the camel, she and her maids followed the servant back to the land of Abraham. She and Isaac met and were happily married.
That’s the whole story, and it’s a marvelous story, because in it, the sovereign hand of God is celebrated all the way through. And so, frankly, while the centerpiece is marriage, there’s a bigger issue here, and that’s just that God is sovereignly, providential at work in your life. And the things that you want the most, whether it’s a spouse or for me, a fruitful evangelistically powerful, godly church, or any one of a number of good things you could desire, God works to bring those things about in answer to prayer. He’s a powerful God. And so, yes, marriage is centerpiece, and we’re gonna talk a lot about that, and next week we’re gonna talk about principles of how God forms marriages and we’re gonna get into those details. But the big picture is, a God who fulfills His promises, who is sovereign, who’s at work in the details, the nitty-gritty of your life like watering camels (you don’t have any camels, but anyway), the nitty-gritty of your life, He’s at work in those things, fulfilling His purposes for you. Let’s look at it piece by piece.
God joined Isaac and Rebekah together. Jesus said so, as I mentioned in Matthew 19:6, “…what God has joined together, let man not separate.” The basic lesson here then is that God makes marriages, he’s in the business of making marriages, and this was true from the very beginning. In Genesis 2:22, it says, “Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.” That’s very similar to our chapter, isn’t it? We’ll talk more about that next week, but God put Adam and Eve together. He made that first marriage. Jesus understood that principle.
Well, so also God was providing a woman, a wife for Isaac. Now, the context here is significant, this is Genesis, this is one of the last chapters of Abraham’s life. Who was Abraham? Well, he was a specially-called instrument of God, and it says that God had blessed him in every way, but the first blessing was the call of God, that came. Genesis 12: “The LORD had said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.’” That’s the original call, Genesis 12.
And later, God kind of unfolded and expanded. Abraham said, “Well, I’m gonna be a father of many nations and all that, but I don’t have a son. And Eliezer of Damascus is my heir and you’ve not given us a child.” And so God spoke in Genesis 15 said, ”This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.’ He took him outside and said, ‘Look up at the heavens and count the stars — if indeed you can count them.’ [And then He spoke the word of promise, what I would say is the word of gospel promise for Abraham.] Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ Abraham believed the Lord and he credited it to him as righteousness.” And so, God would provide for Abraham descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. Well, Isaac in the course of time, was born a miracle baby to Abraham and Sarah when she was 90 years old, and Abraham was 100 years old. Now, however, Sarah is dead, she’s died, she’s been buried at Machpelah, the cave, and Isaac’s 40 years old, and there’s no indication of any worry that’s saying, “We gotta get going here.” Alright, it’s time for a wife.
Absolutely essential to the redemptive plan of God. God is a God of means, and if through Isaac, all peoples on earth are gonna be blessed, he needs to have a wife. And so, Genesis 24, the longest chapter in Genesis is the answer to how Isaac, the next link from Abraham to blessing all nations got his wife.
“God is a God of means, and if through Isaac, all peoples on earth are gonna be blessed, he needs to have a wife.”
II. Abraham Charges and Commissions His Servant
Now, the first section is Abraham charging and commissioning a servant. That’s in verses 1-9. Look what it says in Verse 1-4, “Abraham was now old and well advanced in years, and the LORD had blessed him in every way. He said to the chief servant in his household, the one in charge of all that he had, ‘Put your hand under my thigh. I want you to swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living, but will go to my country and my own relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac.’” Now, Abraham is old, doesn’t know how much longer he will live, and his great concern is that Isaac, his son, will compromise and go the easy route and just marry one of the women that’s around there somewhere.
Now, notice the father’s role in getting a wife for his son. He’s involved. And notice how much Isaac trusts his father in that process. And so there’s a role there for the father in reference to the son, trusted his father’s judgment. Now, Abraham’s grandson, grandchildren must be brought up in the covenant, they must be brought up knowing about the Lord. This is absolutely essential. Remember what it said in Genesis 18, God speaking of Abraham, saying, “Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.” In other words, essential to the choice, the calling of Abraham was the training of children, the training of Isaac, and then that Isaac would train also his children after him, so that they would remember and keep the way of the Lord and so bring about the promise.
Every Sunday, as I’ve mentioned before, my children and I, we read a Psalm and talk about it as we drive into church — we have about a 20-25 minute drive. This morning, we read Psalm 78, and in Psalm 78, it talks about how one generation will commend God’s mighty deeds to the next, so that they will learn to fear the Lord and trust in Him, and would not turn away like their ancestors did. And I said, “Do you see,” (the children and I were talking) and I said, “Do you see how important it is for your mother and I to tell you the stories about Exodus and about God and about what happened with Abraham and Isaac, and the manna, and the quail, and the rebellion in the Red Sea, and all these stories that have been your mind since you were little. Do you see how vital it is?” “Yes.” “Why is it vital?” Well, it says there in Psalm 78:7, “So that they would trust in the Lord, so that their sins would be forgiven, so that faith will be formed inside.” Well, that is also in God’s mind and it’s in Abraham’s mind too. And that kind of intensive training of children cannot really be done with a Canaanite wife, with an unbelieving, a pagan wife. And Abraham’s very concerned about this, very difficult to do with a mixed marriage.
Paul talks about this in Corinthians, talking about an unequally yoked situation: “What fellowship does a believer have with an unbeliever?” How in the world can you saturate your children’s mind with the Word of God, if the two of you aren’t pulling, yoked, in the same direction? Very tough. As a matter of fact, Isaac’s own son, Esau, compromised, didn’t he, and married some Hittite women. And Rebekah, Esau’s mother says, “I’m disgusted with living because of these Hittite women that Esau’s married. Please don’t let my son Jacob get one of these Canaanite women for himself, but go back to the ancestral homeland and get a believing, a godly woman for him.” So, it’s the same concern; you see it. Abraham wants to be sure that Isaac has a godly and a believing wife. It’s also vital in the redemptive plan that Isaac not be allowed to leave the Promised Land. He’s gotta stay there. The servant asked, “Now what if the woman’s unwilling to go?” A big issue; we’ll come back to it in a minute, “But what if she’s not willing to come back, and should I bring your son there so that she can meet.”
They didn’t have the internet back then or the pictures, you know all that. So, it’s really gonna be very tough, you’re asking a lot of a woman here. Can he go and so that they can meet and maybe she’ll like him, maybe she won’t, and we can work this thing out. And he said, “Make sure you do not take my son. He must stay here in the promised land.” It’s vital. Abraham is not willing to compromise in this. It’s essential to the redemptive plan of God. And so he solemnly commissions his servant with an oath: “Put your hand under my thigh and swear.” It’s a very solemn, a very serious oath, sworn by the God of heaven and the God of earth, the sovereign Lord of all the universe, concerning this matter.
Now, the servant has some questions. A very reasonable question, as I mentioned a moment ago, is what if she doesn’t wanna come back? We are asking this young lady to leave her country and her people and her homeland, very much like Abraham did, and go across hundreds, if not a thousand miles or more of burning sand, and marry a man she’s never seen before. What if she doesn’t wanna do it?
And I just love Abraham’s answer. It’s so faith-filled, but it’s also practical. Look at it, verses 7-8: “The LORD, the God of heaven, who brought me out of my father’s household and my native land and who spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give this land’ — he will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there.” Totally confident in God there, do you see? Do you see the similarity between this and his answer to Isaac, when Isaac said, “Here’s wood and here’s fire, but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?” You remember what he said in Genesis 22: “God will provide the lamb, my son.” And so he says to the servant, God will provide. He will send His angel and He will work this out; trust in Him. But practically speaking, I know you need to know. And so, he says in verse 8, “If the woman is unwilling to come back with you, then you will be released from this oath of mine. Only do not take my son back there.” So he’s adamant about this. He says, “You’ve got to go and you’ve gotta try. Trust in the Lord, watch what he does. Alright? But don’t take my son back there.” And so, the commission is given, the servant swears the oath, verse 9, “So the servant put his hand under the thigh of his master Abraham and swore an oath to him concerning this matter.” That’s the first section.
III. Abraham’s Servant: Journey and Model Prayer
The second section is this the journey of the servant and his remarkable and model prayer, verses 10-14. Now Abraham has chosen the servant wisely. It was the chief servant in his household. Some commentators think it may have even been Eliezer of Damascus, but we don’t know, it doesn’t say. But he was a remarkable man. And clearly from the text, a believer in the Lord, the God of heaven and earth. And so, I think that Abraham had been evangelistic within his own household. He had led this servant to faith in the true God, the living God, and we see the servant’s faith on display, don’t we? It’s not just Abraham who believes, but the servant is a believer. Abraham has chosen well. And so he get’s sent out, he makes provisions for the journey, 10 camels, that’s a lot of camel-age. We’ll get to that again later, ’cause they’re very thirsty, alright?
But there’s a lot of goods for the journey. They’re taking provisions for the journey, but they’re also taking a lot of good stuff. And why? Well, it’s going to be a display of wealth to the young lady’s father, so that he will release her to him. And so all kinds of good things are laden on this camel. Now, one thing you can’t tell because the focus is so totally on this one servant, but there’s a bunch of men that ride with him. They’re mentioned in verse 32, so the men are there, and the image there that I get, like in World War II, when there were ships that were going over to besiege England from America, and there were Nazi submarines attacking and picking off these ships one at a time. So, what they did was they started having a convoy, surrounded by destroyers, so that they couldn’t be picked off and sunk one at a time. It is a dangerous journey this servant’s making. He’s going across roads and deserts where there will be Highwaymen, robbers who are ready to pick off such a lavishly appointed train.
So my guess is there’s a lot of men involved here, and they’re traveling back to the ancestral homeland. However, the real protection was not the men. They were there, it’s reasonable to have them there, but like it says in Psalm 27, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.” And so they were trusting in God as they went, and God did protect them and watched over their journey. Now, the arduous journey itself passed over in silence, so there’s no point in commenting, just that it was a difficult trip, it would not have taken a short time to get there, it was arduous and difficult.
And so, they’d come to the town of Nahor, Abraham’s father’s name, where Abraham’s brother Bethuel lived. Notice that the servant wastes no time searching anywhere else, he goes right back to Abraham’s hometown. He feels very much that that’s where God is going to provide a wife for Isaac. Now, when he gets there, he prays this faith-filled model prayer. Look at verses 11-14: “He had the camels kneel down near the well outside the town; it was toward evening, the time the women go out to draw water. Then he prayed, ‘O LORD, God of my master Abraham, give me success today, and show kindness to my master Abraham. See, I am standing beside this spring, and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water. May it be that when I say to a girl, “Please let down your jar that I may 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.’”
Now, there’s some remarkable aspects of this prayer, I really love it. First of all, notice how faith-filled and specific it is. I think it’s wonderful to teach children a prayer such as, “God bless the world.” I’m glad that children can learn how to have a generally positive disposition toward the world and ask God that God would bless that. But I’ll tell you something, you can never measure a prayer like that. Now, this prayer is specific: “May it be that when I ask such and such, that she says such and such.” That’s remarkable, isn’t it? Do you pray like that? Anything like that. Do you pray in such a way that you could tell whether there would be an answer or not? Faith-filled and specific prayer. It’s remarkable. And by the way, what is he asking? It was a small thing that she would offer him a drink. That’s no big deal. Common desert hospitality, “Could I have a drink?” “Sure, here you go.” But to water the camels, now that’s a whole different ball game.
Had to do some research on this. It’s true, I don’t know much about what camels drink. Okay? But a thirsty camel can, it seems, drink up to 32 gallons of water. A gallon of water weighs a little over 8 pounds; with the ceramic jar you’re talking 10 pounds for each gallon. That would be a total of 320 gallons, or sorry, 320 pounds of water that she’s moving. Have you ever moved water? You remember when we had the ice storm? We’re on a well and we had no water, and we had to go get water for certain necessities. Okay? So, we had to move water and it was heavy. It’s very heavy. So, he’s asking something to God that he would never ask her directly, “Please, would you mind moving 320 pounds of water for me and my camels?” That’s a thing that she must volunteer, and she does. That’s a remarkable thing. Very specific prayer, it’s based on his need for immediate identification of the young woman that God has chosen.
IV. God’s Providential Answer: Rebekah Waters the Camels
Well, God gives a providential answer. Look at verses 15-27. And by the way, one of the most amazing things about providence is not that miraculous things happen, such as as things suddenly pop out of thin air or whatever. It’s not that. What’s amazing about providence is how common place things happen in remarkable timing; that’s what it is. It’s that ordinary things happen and they just click in at just the right moment. Now, that’s what makes it so amazing. You have to know what to look for. And so it is that there’s a remarkable answer here. Look at verse 15, “Before he had finished praying, Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder.” I mean, God didn’t waste any time. Before he’d finished praying, there she is. The first one that he interacts with. Amazing timing.
“What’s amazing about providence is how common place things happen in remarkable timing; that’s what it is. It’s that ordinary things happen and they just click in at just the right moment. “
Now, when Rebekah came out so quickly, the servant was ready to move, he’s ready to not just pray but to be an answer to prayer, be involved, he trusts in the sovereignty of God, but he knows he’s got some acting to do too. And so in Verse 17, it says, “The servant hurried to meet her [so, he goes out to make himself available for God’s answer to the prayer. He’s energetic, he’s going out, he’s not just there like, “Lord, you gotta do it.” No, no, no, he’s gonna go out, he hurries, is she the one? Maybe she is. And so he says,] ‘Please give me a little water from your jar.’” Now, Rebekah’s qualities are immediately put on display. She is a high quality woman, she is a good choice for Isaac. Now, the servant doesn’t know this yet, but she’s about to show what kind of person she is.
First of all, her family origin: she was a daughter of Bethuel, Abraham’s brother, as it turns out, Bethuel is Abraham’s nephew and Isaac’s cousin. That would make Rebekah Isaac’s first cousin once removed. Now, if you think I know that kind of thing, I don’t, but I went on the internet and found a chart where you can work it out, and she was his first cousin once removed, that was their relationship. But the key thing is she comes from the family ancestry that Abraham had in mind. He wanted somebody from home. So, family origin was there.
Physical beauty — it says of the girl that she was very beautiful. We understand it says in 1 Peter 3, that the beauty of a woman comes from a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight, but God had also made Rebekah physically beautiful, and it mentions that Isaac would be very pleased when he saw her. It also speaks of her virginity; it says specifically, no man had ever lain with her. Nowadays, virginity is seen almost as a joke, it’s almost like how quickly can we throw it away, but it’s a precious and valuable thing, and that’s why it’s mentioned specifically here in the text, no man had ever lain with her. And so, that which is precious to God we should consider precious too, and we should protect. I’ll talk about more about that next week, but it’s listed as one of the qualities.
It also speaks of her hard work. It says that she quickly worked doing a difficult task. She hurried. She drew enough water for all the camels — 320 pounds of water — a huge amount of work that she does cheerfully. We see also her hospitality; we see it many times in this account. First to offer him some water and then to extend it to the camels, and then to extend it to all of the entourage to stay with them. We see her respectfulness, she calls him, “My Lord.” She uses an honorific title, she’s a respectful young lady, gives him a title of honor. We see also her graciousness and her compassion, she’s concerned for the needs that he may have and his entourage after their long travel. Eventually in the account toward the end, we’re gonna see her courage and her faith. Now, young ladies, especially unmarried young ladies, would you have done what Rebekah did? Now, stop and think about it. Would you have just led by the Lord, traveled a thousand miles back to marry some guy you have never met, never seen, nothing, just because God was leading you to do it? That’s remarkable. She had incredible faith and she had incredible courage. She was a great choice for Isaac.
Now, Rebekah, the key thing with her, was her hospitality. And isn’t it amazing how God can use a little thing like that, a character trait formed in her from her youngest days to be the issue which would click her together with her husband. If she had been surly or rude or lack compassion or inhospitable, she would never have been chosen, she would not have met the request that the servant prayed. She would have just said, “Here, have some water, I gotta be on my way.” She would have been surly or brusque, but instead she was hospitable. God used that to bring her into His redemptive plan. Remarkable. And so it is, everyday life has significance, how you treat a single individual who makes a simple request of you, it has significance. Everything matters. There was no way she could have known that that request and the offer to water camels would eventually lead her to the Promised Land, but so it did.
Well, her hospitable answer leads her to a bunch of work. The Bible says in Matthew 10:42, “And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.” What kind of reward is she gonna get for 320 pounds of water? So, she is working hard, working hard, but notice the servant, what does he do? He stands and watches her and doesn’t say a word. What is he waiting for? He’s waiting for her to finish the job. It doesn’t count if she does it halfway or three-quarters of the way. He’s waiting to see if God has answered the prayer and he will not know until she has watered the last camel. And when she has watered the last camel, then he goes up and he asks some questions, verse 23: “Then he asked, ‘Whose daughter are you? [Kind of an important question. And then he says,] 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 Milcah bore to Nahor.’ And she added, ‘We have plenty of straw and fodder, as well as room for you to spend the night.’”
Now, here’s the deal. The servant knew before anyone else. Isn’t that wonderful? He knew before Abraham, he knew before Isaac, he knew before any of the men, he knew before Rebekah, he knew before Laban, he knew before anybody, she is gonna be Isaac’s wife. And what does he do? He bows down and he worships the Lord God. He praises the Lord: “Then the man bowed down and worshiped 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.’” I tell you, great joy comes from being in the center of God’s will. Great joy comes from seeing remarkable coincidences happen to specific prayers done for the glory of God. Incredible joy comes from that.
My first Christmas as a Christian, Christmas of 1982, I went on evangelism project with Campus Crusade for Christ in Philadelphia. And we went out witnessing. It was my first experience witnessing. I was terrified. We’re going door to door in the streets of Philadelphia; we come to an inner city home, a town house. A lady opened the door. We talked to her about some things; she wanted to talk to us about the Lord, she invited us in. We came in and it was utter mayhem. There were, it seemed like, 50 kids in the house (there were probably more like four or five) but they’re running around like little Indians. It was crazy — it was loud and the TV was blaring. And it was just very, very difficult. I felt there was no way we’re gonna be able to talk to this lady, she was interested, but she didn’t have a chance. We sat down at the table and my partner began witnessing to her, and I began to pray. I said, “Oh Lord,” — I mean, I’m a new Christian — I said, “Lord, please, make these kids be quiet, make them… Or go out or something.” Because I can’t hear myself think and the lady was getting distracted every 30 seconds. Well, I don’t remember, I think I got into the conversation with my partner and we’re talking, but I notice about 10 minutes later, all five of them are sitting on the couch, ching, ching, ching, ching, ching. I looked over and the mother hadn’t said anything in a while. She’s absorbed in the gospel. And one of the children, about six, seven years old, gets up, goes across the floor, turns the TV down and goes back and sits down. Now tell me, that’s not a miracle! That was amazing! It was a specific answer to prayer.
William Temple once said, “The more I pray, the more coincidences happen. And the less I pray, they stop happening.” And so, that was a coincidence, wasn’t it? No, it wasn’t. It was an answer to prayer. And so it was, he’s worshipping God. Let me tell you something, if you’re missing joy in your life, maybe you’re not stepping out in faith and serving, maybe you’re not in the center of God’s will, maybe you’ve kind of veered away from God’s redemptive plan. Go out and take some risks for him, do some things that you wouldn’t ordinarily do because you’re a Christian and trust Him for some specific things and see the coincides start to happen in your life again. And see your joy go off the charts. Abraham’s servant was the first to know, and he fell down, and he worshipped God.
V. Rebekah’s Family Learns of God’s Providence
Well, then the family learned about God’s providence in verses 28-49. They noticed that Rebekah is a little different. First of all, she’s wearing some jewelry. They hadn’t seen that before — she’s got the bracelet, she’s got the nose ring… No comment, we’ll just move on. She’s got the bracelet, she got the nose ring, she’s just… looking good, in that culture. And then she goes and we meet this man for the first time named Laban. Laban is her older brother, and Laban is taking the role, it seems, of the head of the household. Now, I don’t know if Bethuel is just too old or whatever, but it really seems that Laban is the one negotiating concerning Rebekah. Laban is the one who receives the gifts, and so he’s taking that significant role. We will meet, God willing, in the future, Laban again, when Jacob goes to get a wife and he ends up with Laban’s daughters, Leah and Rachel. And we find out what kind of man he is at that point. I’ll tell you right now what kind of man he is. He is a conniver, he’s a con-artist; he’s the kind of man that God will use to change Jacob forever. But we’ll get to Laban in due time.
This is just right now, at this point, her older brother. And he finds out what’s happening, he takes them in, the servant tells the story in verses 34-49, he goes over some details, and the bulk of this section is just a repetition of what we already knew. But he does focus on Abraham’s wealth. He says, “The Lord has blessed him. He’s got lots of sheep and cattle and donkeys, he’s got silver and gold, he’s got men servants and maid servants, he is very wealthy. And Isaac, the one that we have in mind here, is the sole inheritor. He’s the sole heir, if that matters to you.” Well, it mattered to Laban. In all seriousness, it’s vital for a young man to be able to provide for a young woman, and the servant’s message is, he can provide for your daughter, for your sister, he can meet her needs. And so the final confirmation in verses 47-48, “I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ She said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel son of Nahor, whom Milcah bore to him.’ Then I put the ring in her nose and the bracelets on her arms, and I bowed down and worshiped the LORD. I praised the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me on the right road to get the granddaughter of my master’s brother for his son.” Now the servant pops the question. Verse 49: “Now if you will show kindness and faithfulness to my master, tell me; and if not, tell me, so I may know which way to turn.” What is it? What’s it going to be? Is it yes or no.
VI. Rebekah and Her Family Submit to God’s Providence
And so, Rebekah and her family submit to God’s providence in verses 50-60. The first key to this is you have to recognize the hand of the Lord. You have to see it, you can’t see events as just swirling mass of nothingness — luck and chance and all kinds of coincidences, no. This is the hand of the Lord. And so, the first thing they do is they say, “This is the hand of the Lord. We see it, we acknowledge that God is doing something.” Just like Henry Blackaby in Experiencing God, to see where God is at work and join him. They could see that God was at work here. “This is from the LORD…” verse 50.
And then they submit to the hand of the Lord, that’s the next step. First, you got to see that God is acting, and then next you gotta submit to it. In verse 50-51, “We can say nothing to you one way or the other. Here is Rebekah; take her and go, and let her become the wife of your master’s son, as the LORD has… [literally, it says] as the Lord has spoken.” Now, there must have been a good deal of sadness here. The key is not just submission, as though it’s grim, but glad submission. I really believe the essence of the kingdom of heaven is glad submission to Jesus as the king. That’s the essence of the kingdom of heaven. But they submit to the hand of God, and I’m sure there must have been some sadness there.
“I really believe the essence of the kingdom of heaven is glad submission to Jesus as the king.”
And then they rejoice verse 52:“When Abraham’s servant heard what they said, he bowed down to the ground before the LORD. [And then, they profited from it. Verse 53] 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.” Let me tell you something, weddings are expensive. I mean, they did a study recently, somebody… investigative reporters, and they said, “We’re doing a retirement dinner for a boss and we wanna get a photographer, how much is it gonna cost?” A rate was given. They call back about an hour later and say, “We’re having a wedding, etcetera.” The rate was three times what it was for the retirement dinner. It’s very expensive to have a wedding, everybody knows you’re gonna spend a lot of money. In the United Arab Emirates, for example, a bridegroom can expect to spend an average of $75,000 to get married. Lavish gifts, parties, clothing, incredible. In every culture, it’s expensive. And so we see these gifts, these material gifts.
But then the time comes to complete the task without delay. The next morning the servant is ready to go back, and so he says, “I wanna go back and complete the task that the master has given.” Well, they don’t want her to leave so soon, and we’re gonna see this pattern later in Genesis, in due time, in the future, God willing, but Laban doesn’t want them to leave, and so he’s bargaining for some more time. He say, “Well, let us stay for 10 days.” Finally, they just put the matter to Rebekah. And by the way, it’s the first time she’s asked. You may find that interesting as 21st century people. She’s not been asked up to this point, but now she’s asked, “Will you go with this man or not?” And she says, “I will go.” And with that word, you see her heart, you see her courage, you see her faith, her willingness to follow God.
VII. Isaac Marries Rebekah
Well, in verses 61-67, we see Isaac marrying Rebekah. “Then Rebekah and her maids got ready and mounted their camels and went back with the man. So the servant took Rebekah and left. Now Isaac had come from Beer Lahai Roi, for he was living in the Negev. He went out to 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 is my master,” the servant answered. So she took her veil and covered herself. 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.”
Now, the journey has passed over in silence again as they come back, but you can well imagine that Rebekah talked to the servant, “What kind of man is Isaac?” Do you think she was curious? Would you have been? I would have been, wondering what is this… What is he like? And so, I’m sure they had plenty of time to talk, and by the time she got back to that area, she was ready to meet him.
It’s a pretty dramatic first meeting. It’s more dramatic in the Hebrew than it is in any English translation. I’ve talked with Jeremy and others about whether I’m gonna tell you what it really says happened concerning the camel. But literally, it says, “She fell from her camel.” Now, I know that that makes it seem undignified. It’s just a simple word, Hebrew word, for fall, so she sees him and down she goes. But let’s let her light gracefully.
Okay. So she comes down and lands, and then she finds out that it’s Isaac. “It’s my master,” and notice the servant calls him “my master”, because he’s the sole heir, he is also his master. She covers herself chastely with a veil. The chastity, the purity, it’s so beautiful. Then he, understanding who she is, talking to the servant, he does a remarkable thing. He brings her to his mother’s tent, to Sarah’s tent, and it says, “And he married her.” Now, what’s remarkable about this account is that the wedding ceremony itself is passed over, I really believe with all my heart they had one. This was the same group of people that celebrated greatly with a big party when the child was weaned, when Isaac was weaned, so there’s no way that they’re gonna skip the wedding. It just doesn’t say anything about it.
What’s remarkable is that Rebekah symbolically has now taken Sarah’s place. She becomes somewhat the clan matriarch. She’s immediately given a position of honor, because she’s going to be Rebekah, Isaac’s wife, and he’s the heir. And so, he takes her and she’s set up in Sarah’s tent. But there’s one other thing. She has to some degree taken Sarah’s place now in Isaac’s heart. And this is really beautiful, isn’t it? It says, the final word in the chapter is, “And so Isaac was comforted concerning the death of his mother, Sarah.”
Let me tell you something, it must have been incredible to have Abraham as a father: he was called the friend of God, he was a faith-filled man, incredible life, the whole experience of Mount Moriah, but you know something, there were things that only Sarah could do for Isaac. The woman’s touch, the woman’s place, irreplaceable in Isaac’s life, irreplaceable. And so, he’s had an emptiness, a vacuum in his life ever since Sarah died, and now Rebekah has come to fill that place. And then, even more, to be an avenue of comfort and of blessing, and so she would be. Song of Songs 8:10 says, “I’ve become in his eyes like one bringing contentment.” And that’s exactly what she was, she was a fountain of contentment and a blessing. “A godly wife, who can find? Her worth is more precious than rubies or jewels.”
She’s essential to God’s salvation plan. Without Rebekah, we don’t get Jesus Christ. And that’s where I wanna end this message today, Jesus Christ. We’re gonna talk next week about theological implications and marriage and all those things in due time. But the center of this is God’s faithfulness to keep his promises. Isaac needed a wife. Only God could have brought Isaac and Rebekah together in this way, to give Rebekah enough courage and faith to get on that camel and go back with the servant and marry a man she’s never met before. But she does because God brought it about. God is sovereign.
And all of God’s promises, all of the flow of redemptive history, all of the words spoken to Abraham, and then Isaac and Jacob, all of it was pointed toward the coming of Jesus Christ. In Christ and in Christ alone are all the promises of God, yea and amen. Everything comes down to Jesus Christ. And my question is, just like Abraham’s servant, do you have enough faith to trust in Jesus Christ, not just for the provision of an earthly spouse, not just for health or for physical prosperity. Oh no, I’m talking about something far greater than that. Do you have enough faith to trust in Jesus Christ for the resurrection of your body and the salvation of your soul? Where is your faith today?
“And all of God’s promises, all of the flow of redemptive history, all of the words spoken to Abraham, and then Isaac and Jacob, all of it was pointed toward the coming of Jesus Christ.”
And I believe I’m talking to two different categories of people right now. Those that have made a profession of faith in Christ already, but who perhaps are tempted to drift away from faith, I prayed for you this morning already. Perhaps already your hearts are getting a little hard. You’re turning away from Christ, you’re drifting from Him. Can I urge you to come back to Christ? He is the lover of your soul. Come back again to the things you did at first, to prayer and Bible reading, to service in Him, to loving Christ. And then I believe in this large assembly, there must be some that have never trusted in Christ. Jesus Christ is a lover of your soul, He is the only savior there is, trust in Him. Put your faith in Him. All of the promises of God are focused on Him. Know Him and love Him today.
Pastor Andy Davis preaches an expository sermon on Genesis 24. The main subject of the sermon is how God provided a wife for Isaac after his mother’s death.
– SERMON TRANSCRIPT –
We’re looking today, as you heard, at Genesis 24, and I stand before you, a blessed man. I’m thinking about Ephesians 1, in which it says that, as a Christian, I’m “blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” All of those spiritual blessings are mine, but I’m blessed in the earthly realms too by my wife, and the delight in having her as a wife is infinitely greater because I believe that God gave her to me. Not just that we stumbled on each other and as luck would have it, or like in some of those romance novels — which I don’t read, but I imagine what they would be like — as boy meets girl and all that kind of thing, just the random swirling chance that puts a man and a woman together. I don’t believe in that. I believe, rather, that God makes marriages. I believe he draws a man and a woman together, he puts them together. Now, I think it’s mysterious, like it’s very mysterious how God works, and I doubt that any of it, if I spoke to the married couples, those who have been married a long time or a short time, and I asked, How did you get together? I doubt that the watering of camels had anything to do with it.
And if I were to follow the lives of single people and find out how you eventually got married, again, I don’t think camels are gonna be involved. But yet there are some amazing principles here in Genesis 24. That show us that there’s a God at work in this process, that God puts a man and a woman together, and yes, it’s mysterious and yes, it’s hard to understand. The wisest man who lived before Christ was Solomon. This what he wrote in Proverbs 30 — I love this — he says, “There are three things that are too amazing for me, four that I do not understand: the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a maiden.” “I don’t know how that works,” Solomon says, “I don’t know how he’s acting like he’s never acted before, and how she’s actually interested as a result and how the whole thing comes together. I don’t know, it’s a mystery to me,” says Solomon. It’s a mystery to me as well. But I see the Father’s hand in it, don’t you?
I. What God Joined Together: Isaac Marries Rebekah
And Jesus told us when he was speaking on divorce in Matthew 19, He said, “…what God has joined together, let man not separate.” God makes marriages, that’s a delightful thing, isn’t it? And so therefore, the gift that I have in Christi, the gift that all of you have in your spouse, it’s come to you from God, and that makes it a million times more precious. Amen? That’s what Genesis 24 is about. It’s about the sovereign hand of God. It’s about providence. It’s about how God causes specific things to happen at specific moments, so that a specific man knows a specific thing, and a couple gets together.
Now we’re gonna look at this chapter over two weeks, this morning, we’re just gonna look at what happens in this, the longest chapter of Genesis. You know that there’s no way I could preach 67 versus in a time you’d wanna listen to, okay? So, what we’re gonna do is, we’re just gonna go through 67 verses and just find out what’s here. Next week, we’re gonna look at five theological principles that come from this chapter; we’re gonna look at three different ways to look at this chapter, points of perspective, so that we can gain applications; and then we’re gonna really draw out some applications on how it is that God makes marriages and how God works even today.
Okay? So, let me just give a summary of the chapter as a whole. When Abraham grew very old, he sent a trusted servant to his ancestral homeland to find a wife for his unmarried son, Isaac. Once he was there, the servant prayed to God that a woman would offer him and his camels water, and that was to be a sign that that was the woman that Isaac was to marry. Rebekah at that moment, the beautiful granddaughter of Abraham’s brother, came to the well, and when the servant asked for a drink, she gladly gave it to him and to his camels as well. She offered him and his camels shelter also for the night at her home. When the servant told the family why he was there, they said that the whole matter was obviously from the hand of the Lord, so what could they say one way or the other? That God was working this out. That night, the servant gave gifts of gold and silver to everyone in the family. In the morning, Rebekah said, “I will go”, and riding upon the camel, she and her maids followed the servant back to the land of Abraham. She and Isaac met and were happily married.
That’s the whole story, and it’s a marvelous story, because in it, the sovereign hand of God is celebrated all the way through. And so, frankly, while the centerpiece is marriage, there’s a bigger issue here, and that’s just that God is sovereignly, providential at work in your life. And the things that you want the most, whether it’s a spouse or for me, a fruitful evangelistically powerful, godly church, or any one of a number of good things you could desire, God works to bring those things about in answer to prayer. He’s a powerful God. And so, yes, marriage is centerpiece, and we’re gonna talk a lot about that, and next week we’re gonna talk about principles of how God forms marriages and we’re gonna get into those details. But the big picture is, a God who fulfills His promises, who is sovereign, who’s at work in the details, the nitty-gritty of your life like watering camels (you don’t have any camels, but anyway), the nitty-gritty of your life, He’s at work in those things, fulfilling His purposes for you. Let’s look at it piece by piece.
God joined Isaac and Rebekah together. Jesus said so, as I mentioned in Matthew 19:6, “…what God has joined together, let man not separate.” The basic lesson here then is that God makes marriages, he’s in the business of making marriages, and this was true from the very beginning. In Genesis 2:22, it says, “Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.” That’s very similar to our chapter, isn’t it? We’ll talk more about that next week, but God put Adam and Eve together. He made that first marriage. Jesus understood that principle.
Well, so also God was providing a woman, a wife for Isaac. Now, the context here is significant, this is Genesis, this is one of the last chapters of Abraham’s life. Who was Abraham? Well, he was a specially-called instrument of God, and it says that God had blessed him in every way, but the first blessing was the call of God, that came. Genesis 12: “The LORD had said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.’” That’s the original call, Genesis 12.
And later, God kind of unfolded and expanded. Abraham said, “Well, I’m gonna be a father of many nations and all that, but I don’t have a son. And Eliezer of Damascus is my heir and you’ve not given us a child.” And so God spoke in Genesis 15 said, ”This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.’ He took him outside and said, ‘Look up at the heavens and count the stars — if indeed you can count them.’ [And then He spoke the word of promise, what I would say is the word of gospel promise for Abraham.] Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ Abraham believed the Lord and he credited it to him as righteousness.” And so, God would provide for Abraham descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. Well, Isaac in the course of time, was born a miracle baby to Abraham and Sarah when she was 90 years old, and Abraham was 100 years old. Now, however, Sarah is dead, she’s died, she’s been buried at Machpelah, the cave, and Isaac’s 40 years old, and there’s no indication of any worry that’s saying, “We gotta get going here.” Alright, it’s time for a wife.
Absolutely essential to the redemptive plan of God. God is a God of means, and if through Isaac, all peoples on earth are gonna be blessed, he needs to have a wife. And so, Genesis 24, the longest chapter in Genesis is the answer to how Isaac, the next link from Abraham to blessing all nations got his wife.
“God is a God of means, and if through Isaac, all peoples on earth are gonna be blessed, he needs to have a wife.”
II. Abraham Charges and Commissions His Servant
Now, the first section is Abraham charging and commissioning a servant. That’s in verses 1-9. Look what it says in Verse 1-4, “Abraham was now old and well advanced in years, and the LORD had blessed him in every way. He said to the chief servant in his household, the one in charge of all that he had, ‘Put your hand under my thigh. I want you to swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living, but will go to my country and my own relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac.’” Now, Abraham is old, doesn’t know how much longer he will live, and his great concern is that Isaac, his son, will compromise and go the easy route and just marry one of the women that’s around there somewhere.
Now, notice the father’s role in getting a wife for his son. He’s involved. And notice how much Isaac trusts his father in that process. And so there’s a role there for the father in reference to the son, trusted his father’s judgment. Now, Abraham’s grandson, grandchildren must be brought up in the covenant, they must be brought up knowing about the Lord. This is absolutely essential. Remember what it said in Genesis 18, God speaking of Abraham, saying, “Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.” In other words, essential to the choice, the calling of Abraham was the training of children, the training of Isaac, and then that Isaac would train also his children after him, so that they would remember and keep the way of the Lord and so bring about the promise.
Every Sunday, as I’ve mentioned before, my children and I, we read a Psalm and talk about it as we drive into church — we have about a 20-25 minute drive. This morning, we read Psalm 78, and in Psalm 78, it talks about how one generation will commend God’s mighty deeds to the next, so that they will learn to fear the Lord and trust in Him, and would not turn away like their ancestors did. And I said, “Do you see,” (the children and I were talking) and I said, “Do you see how important it is for your mother and I to tell you the stories about Exodus and about God and about what happened with Abraham and Isaac, and the manna, and the quail, and the rebellion in the Red Sea, and all these stories that have been your mind since you were little. Do you see how vital it is?” “Yes.” “Why is it vital?” Well, it says there in Psalm 78:7, “So that they would trust in the Lord, so that their sins would be forgiven, so that faith will be formed inside.” Well, that is also in God’s mind and it’s in Abraham’s mind too. And that kind of intensive training of children cannot really be done with a Canaanite wife, with an unbelieving, a pagan wife. And Abraham’s very concerned about this, very difficult to do with a mixed marriage.
Paul talks about this in Corinthians, talking about an unequally yoked situation: “What fellowship does a believer have with an unbeliever?” How in the world can you saturate your children’s mind with the Word of God, if the two of you aren’t pulling, yoked, in the same direction? Very tough. As a matter of fact, Isaac’s own son, Esau, compromised, didn’t he, and married some Hittite women. And Rebekah, Esau’s mother says, “I’m disgusted with living because of these Hittite women that Esau’s married. Please don’t let my son Jacob get one of these Canaanite women for himself, but go back to the ancestral homeland and get a believing, a godly woman for him.” So, it’s the same concern; you see it. Abraham wants to be sure that Isaac has a godly and a believing wife. It’s also vital in the redemptive plan that Isaac not be allowed to leave the Promised Land. He’s gotta stay there. The servant asked, “Now what if the woman’s unwilling to go?” A big issue; we’ll come back to it in a minute, “But what if she’s not willing to come back, and should I bring your son there so that she can meet.”
They didn’t have the internet back then or the pictures, you know all that. So, it’s really gonna be very tough, you’re asking a lot of a woman here. Can he go and so that they can meet and maybe she’ll like him, maybe she won’t, and we can work this thing out. And he said, “Make sure you do not take my son. He must stay here in the promised land.” It’s vital. Abraham is not willing to compromise in this. It’s essential to the redemptive plan of God. And so he solemnly commissions his servant with an oath: “Put your hand under my thigh and swear.” It’s a very solemn, a very serious oath, sworn by the God of heaven and the God of earth, the sovereign Lord of all the universe, concerning this matter.
Now, the servant has some questions. A very reasonable question, as I mentioned a moment ago, is what if she doesn’t wanna come back? We are asking this young lady to leave her country and her people and her homeland, very much like Abraham did, and go across hundreds, if not a thousand miles or more of burning sand, and marry a man she’s never seen before. What if she doesn’t wanna do it?
And I just love Abraham’s answer. It’s so faith-filled, but it’s also practical. Look at it, verses 7-8: “The LORD, the God of heaven, who brought me out of my father’s household and my native land and who spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give this land’ — he will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there.” Totally confident in God there, do you see? Do you see the similarity between this and his answer to Isaac, when Isaac said, “Here’s wood and here’s fire, but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?” You remember what he said in Genesis 22: “God will provide the lamb, my son.” And so he says to the servant, God will provide. He will send His angel and He will work this out; trust in Him. But practically speaking, I know you need to know. And so, he says in verse 8, “If the woman is unwilling to come back with you, then you will be released from this oath of mine. Only do not take my son back there.” So he’s adamant about this. He says, “You’ve got to go and you’ve gotta try. Trust in the Lord, watch what he does. Alright? But don’t take my son back there.” And so, the commission is given, the servant swears the oath, verse 9, “So the servant put his hand under the thigh of his master Abraham and swore an oath to him concerning this matter.” That’s the first section.
III. Abraham’s Servant: Journey and Model Prayer
The second section is this the journey of the servant and his remarkable and model prayer, verses 10-14. Now Abraham has chosen the servant wisely. It was the chief servant in his household. Some commentators think it may have even been Eliezer of Damascus, but we don’t know, it doesn’t say. But he was a remarkable man. And clearly from the text, a believer in the Lord, the God of heaven and earth. And so, I think that Abraham had been evangelistic within his own household. He had led this servant to faith in the true God, the living God, and we see the servant’s faith on display, don’t we? It’s not just Abraham who believes, but the servant is a believer. Abraham has chosen well. And so he get’s sent out, he makes provisions for the journey, 10 camels, that’s a lot of camel-age. We’ll get to that again later, ’cause they’re very thirsty, alright?
But there’s a lot of goods for the journey. They’re taking provisions for the journey, but they’re also taking a lot of good stuff. And why? Well, it’s going to be a display of wealth to the young lady’s father, so that he will release her to him. And so all kinds of good things are laden on this camel. Now, one thing you can’t tell because the focus is so totally on this one servant, but there’s a bunch of men that ride with him. They’re mentioned in verse 32, so the men are there, and the image there that I get, like in World War II, when there were ships that were going over to besiege England from America, and there were Nazi submarines attacking and picking off these ships one at a time. So, what they did was they started having a convoy, surrounded by destroyers, so that they couldn’t be picked off and sunk one at a time. It is a dangerous journey this servant’s making. He’s going across roads and deserts where there will be Highwaymen, robbers who are ready to pick off such a lavishly appointed train.
So my guess is there’s a lot of men involved here, and they’re traveling back to the ancestral homeland. However, the real protection was not the men. They were there, it’s reasonable to have them there, but like it says in Psalm 27, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.” And so they were trusting in God as they went, and God did protect them and watched over their journey. Now, the arduous journey itself passed over in silence, so there’s no point in commenting, just that it was a difficult trip, it would not have taken a short time to get there, it was arduous and difficult.
And so, they’d come to the town of Nahor, Abraham’s father’s name, where Abraham’s brother Bethuel lived. Notice that the servant wastes no time searching anywhere else, he goes right back to Abraham’s hometown. He feels very much that that’s where God is going to provide a wife for Isaac. Now, when he gets there, he prays this faith-filled model prayer. Look at verses 11-14: “He had the camels kneel down near the well outside the town; it was toward evening, the time the women go out to draw water. Then he prayed, ‘O LORD, God of my master Abraham, give me success today, and show kindness to my master Abraham. See, I am standing beside this spring, and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water. May it be that when I say to a girl, “Please let down your jar that I may 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.’”
Now, there’s some remarkable aspects of this prayer, I really love it. First of all, notice how faith-filled and specific it is. I think it’s wonderful to teach children a prayer such as, “God bless the world.” I’m glad that children can learn how to have a generally positive disposition toward the world and ask God that God would bless that. But I’ll tell you something, you can never measure a prayer like that. Now, this prayer is specific: “May it be that when I ask such and such, that she says such and such.” That’s remarkable, isn’t it? Do you pray like that? Anything like that. Do you pray in such a way that you could tell whether there would be an answer or not? Faith-filled and specific prayer. It’s remarkable. And by the way, what is he asking? It was a small thing that she would offer him a drink. That’s no big deal. Common desert hospitality, “Could I have a drink?” “Sure, here you go.” But to water the camels, now that’s a whole different ball game.
Had to do some research on this. It’s true, I don’t know much about what camels drink. Okay? But a thirsty camel can, it seems, drink up to 32 gallons of water. A gallon of water weighs a little over 8 pounds; with the ceramic jar you’re talking 10 pounds for each gallon. That would be a total of 320 gallons, or sorry, 320 pounds of water that she’s moving. Have you ever moved water? You remember when we had the ice storm? We’re on a well and we had no water, and we had to go get water for certain necessities. Okay? So, we had to move water and it was heavy. It’s very heavy. So, he’s asking something to God that he would never ask her directly, “Please, would you mind moving 320 pounds of water for me and my camels?” That’s a thing that she must volunteer, and she does. That’s a remarkable thing. Very specific prayer, it’s based on his need for immediate identification of the young woman that God has chosen.
IV. God’s Providential Answer: Rebekah Waters the Camels
Well, God gives a providential answer. Look at verses 15-27. And by the way, one of the most amazing things about providence is not that miraculous things happen, such as as things suddenly pop out of thin air or whatever. It’s not that. What’s amazing about providence is how common place things happen in remarkable timing; that’s what it is. It’s that ordinary things happen and they just click in at just the right moment. Now, that’s what makes it so amazing. You have to know what to look for. And so it is that there’s a remarkable answer here. Look at verse 15, “Before he had finished praying, Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder.” I mean, God didn’t waste any time. Before he’d finished praying, there she is. The first one that he interacts with. Amazing timing.
“What’s amazing about providence is how common place things happen in remarkable timing; that’s what it is. It’s that ordinary things happen and they just click in at just the right moment. “
Now, when Rebekah came out so quickly, the servant was ready to move, he’s ready to not just pray but to be an answer to prayer, be involved, he trusts in the sovereignty of God, but he knows he’s got some acting to do too. And so in Verse 17, it says, “The servant hurried to meet her [so, he goes out to make himself available for God’s answer to the prayer. He’s energetic, he’s going out, he’s not just there like, “Lord, you gotta do it.” No, no, no, he’s gonna go out, he hurries, is she the one? Maybe she is. And so he says,] ‘Please give me a little water from your jar.’” Now, Rebekah’s qualities are immediately put on display. She is a high quality woman, she is a good choice for Isaac. Now, the servant doesn’t know this yet, but she’s about to show what kind of person she is.
First of all, her family origin: she was a daughter of Bethuel, Abraham’s brother, as it turns out, Bethuel is Abraham’s nephew and Isaac’s cousin. That would make Rebekah Isaac’s first cousin once removed. Now, if you think I know that kind of thing, I don’t, but I went on the internet and found a chart where you can work it out, and she was his first cousin once removed, that was their relationship. But the key thing is she comes from the family ancestry that Abraham had in mind. He wanted somebody from home. So, family origin was there.
Physical beauty — it says of the girl that she was very beautiful. We understand it says in 1 Peter 3, that the beauty of a woman comes from a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight, but God had also made Rebekah physically beautiful, and it mentions that Isaac would be very pleased when he saw her. It also speaks of her virginity; it says specifically, no man had ever lain with her. Nowadays, virginity is seen almost as a joke, it’s almost like how quickly can we throw it away, but it’s a precious and valuable thing, and that’s why it’s mentioned specifically here in the text, no man had ever lain with her. And so, that which is precious to God we should consider precious too, and we should protect. I’ll talk about more about that next week, but it’s listed as one of the qualities.
It also speaks of her hard work. It says that she quickly worked doing a difficult task. She hurried. She drew enough water for all the camels — 320 pounds of water — a huge amount of work that she does cheerfully. We see also her hospitality; we see it many times in this account. First to offer him some water and then to extend it to the camels, and then to extend it to all of the entourage to stay with them. We see her respectfulness, she calls him, “My Lord.” She uses an honorific title, she’s a respectful young lady, gives him a title of honor. We see also her graciousness and her compassion, she’s concerned for the needs that he may have and his entourage after their long travel. Eventually in the account toward the end, we’re gonna see her courage and her faith. Now, young ladies, especially unmarried young ladies, would you have done what Rebekah did? Now, stop and think about it. Would you have just led by the Lord, traveled a thousand miles back to marry some guy you have never met, never seen, nothing, just because God was leading you to do it? That’s remarkable. She had incredible faith and she had incredible courage. She was a great choice for Isaac.
Now, Rebekah, the key thing with her, was her hospitality. And isn’t it amazing how God can use a little thing like that, a character trait formed in her from her youngest days to be the issue which would click her together with her husband. If she had been surly or rude or lack compassion or inhospitable, she would never have been chosen, she would not have met the request that the servant prayed. She would have just said, “Here, have some water, I gotta be on my way.” She would have been surly or brusque, but instead she was hospitable. God used that to bring her into His redemptive plan. Remarkable. And so it is, everyday life has significance, how you treat a single individual who makes a simple request of you, it has significance. Everything matters. There was no way she could have known that that request and the offer to water camels would eventually lead her to the Promised Land, but so it did.
Well, her hospitable answer leads her to a bunch of work. The Bible says in Matthew 10:42, “And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.” What kind of reward is she gonna get for 320 pounds of water? So, she is working hard, working hard, but notice the servant, what does he do? He stands and watches her and doesn’t say a word. What is he waiting for? He’s waiting for her to finish the job. It doesn’t count if she does it halfway or three-quarters of the way. He’s waiting to see if God has answered the prayer and he will not know until she has watered the last camel. And when she has watered the last camel, then he goes up and he asks some questions, verse 23: “Then he asked, ‘Whose daughter are you? [Kind of an important question. And then he says,] 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 Milcah bore to Nahor.’ And she added, ‘We have plenty of straw and fodder, as well as room for you to spend the night.’”
Now, here’s the deal. The servant knew before anyone else. Isn’t that wonderful? He knew before Abraham, he knew before Isaac, he knew before any of the men, he knew before Rebekah, he knew before Laban, he knew before anybody, she is gonna be Isaac’s wife. And what does he do? He bows down and he worships the Lord God. He praises the Lord: “Then the man bowed down and worshiped 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.’” I tell you, great joy comes from being in the center of God’s will. Great joy comes from seeing remarkable coincidences happen to specific prayers done for the glory of God. Incredible joy comes from that.
My first Christmas as a Christian, Christmas of 1982, I went on evangelism project with Campus Crusade for Christ in Philadelphia. And we went out witnessing. It was my first experience witnessing. I was terrified. We’re going door to door in the streets of Philadelphia; we come to an inner city home, a town house. A lady opened the door. We talked to her about some things; she wanted to talk to us about the Lord, she invited us in. We came in and it was utter mayhem. There were, it seemed like, 50 kids in the house (there were probably more like four or five) but they’re running around like little Indians. It was crazy — it was loud and the TV was blaring. And it was just very, very difficult. I felt there was no way we’re gonna be able to talk to this lady, she was interested, but she didn’t have a chance. We sat down at the table and my partner began witnessing to her, and I began to pray. I said, “Oh Lord,” — I mean, I’m a new Christian — I said, “Lord, please, make these kids be quiet, make them… Or go out or something.” Because I can’t hear myself think and the lady was getting distracted every 30 seconds. Well, I don’t remember, I think I got into the conversation with my partner and we’re talking, but I notice about 10 minutes later, all five of them are sitting on the couch, ching, ching, ching, ching, ching. I looked over and the mother hadn’t said anything in a while. She’s absorbed in the gospel. And one of the children, about six, seven years old, gets up, goes across the floor, turns the TV down and goes back and sits down. Now tell me, that’s not a miracle! That was amazing! It was a specific answer to prayer.
William Temple once said, “The more I pray, the more coincidences happen. And the less I pray, they stop happening.” And so, that was a coincidence, wasn’t it? No, it wasn’t. It was an answer to prayer. And so it was, he’s worshipping God. Let me tell you something, if you’re missing joy in your life, maybe you’re not stepping out in faith and serving, maybe you’re not in the center of God’s will, maybe you’ve kind of veered away from God’s redemptive plan. Go out and take some risks for him, do some things that you wouldn’t ordinarily do because you’re a Christian and trust Him for some specific things and see the coincides start to happen in your life again. And see your joy go off the charts. Abraham’s servant was the first to know, and he fell down, and he worshipped God.
V. Rebekah’s Family Learns of God’s Providence
Well, then the family learned about God’s providence in verses 28-49. They noticed that Rebekah is a little different. First of all, she’s wearing some jewelry. They hadn’t seen that before — she’s got the bracelet, she’s got the nose ring… No comment, we’ll just move on. She’s got the bracelet, she got the nose ring, she’s just… looking good, in that culture. And then she goes and we meet this man for the first time named Laban. Laban is her older brother, and Laban is taking the role, it seems, of the head of the household. Now, I don’t know if Bethuel is just too old or whatever, but it really seems that Laban is the one negotiating concerning Rebekah. Laban is the one who receives the gifts, and so he’s taking that significant role. We will meet, God willing, in the future, Laban again, when Jacob goes to get a wife and he ends up with Laban’s daughters, Leah and Rachel. And we find out what kind of man he is at that point. I’ll tell you right now what kind of man he is. He is a conniver, he’s a con-artist; he’s the kind of man that God will use to change Jacob forever. But we’ll get to Laban in due time.
This is just right now, at this point, her older brother. And he finds out what’s happening, he takes them in, the servant tells the story in verses 34-49, he goes over some details, and the bulk of this section is just a repetition of what we already knew. But he does focus on Abraham’s wealth. He says, “The Lord has blessed him. He’s got lots of sheep and cattle and donkeys, he’s got silver and gold, he’s got men servants and maid servants, he is very wealthy. And Isaac, the one that we have in mind here, is the sole inheritor. He’s the sole heir, if that matters to you.” Well, it mattered to Laban. In all seriousness, it’s vital for a young man to be able to provide for a young woman, and the servant’s message is, he can provide for your daughter, for your sister, he can meet her needs. And so the final confirmation in verses 47-48, “I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ She said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel son of Nahor, whom Milcah bore to him.’ Then I put the ring in her nose and the bracelets on her arms, and I bowed down and worshiped the LORD. I praised the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me on the right road to get the granddaughter of my master’s brother for his son.” Now the servant pops the question. Verse 49: “Now if you will show kindness and faithfulness to my master, tell me; and if not, tell me, so I may know which way to turn.” What is it? What’s it going to be? Is it yes or no.
VI. Rebekah and Her Family Submit to God’s Providence
And so, Rebekah and her family submit to God’s providence in verses 50-60. The first key to this is you have to recognize the hand of the Lord. You have to see it, you can’t see events as just swirling mass of nothingness — luck and chance and all kinds of coincidences, no. This is the hand of the Lord. And so, the first thing they do is they say, “This is the hand of the Lord. We see it, we acknowledge that God is doing something.” Just like Henry Blackaby in Experiencing God, to see where God is at work and join him. They could see that God was at work here. “This is from the LORD…” verse 50.
And then they submit to the hand of the Lord, that’s the next step. First, you got to see that God is acting, and then next you gotta submit to it. In verse 50-51, “We can say nothing to you one way or the other. Here is Rebekah; take her and go, and let her become the wife of your master’s son, as the LORD has… [literally, it says] as the Lord has spoken.” Now, there must have been a good deal of sadness here. The key is not just submission, as though it’s grim, but glad submission. I really believe the essence of the kingdom of heaven is glad submission to Jesus as the king. That’s the essence of the kingdom of heaven. But they submit to the hand of God, and I’m sure there must have been some sadness there.
“I really believe the essence of the kingdom of heaven is glad submission to Jesus as the king.”
And then they rejoice verse 52:“When Abraham’s servant heard what they said, he bowed down to the ground before the LORD. [And then, they profited from it. Verse 53] 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.” Let me tell you something, weddings are expensive. I mean, they did a study recently, somebody… investigative reporters, and they said, “We’re doing a retirement dinner for a boss and we wanna get a photographer, how much is it gonna cost?” A rate was given. They call back about an hour later and say, “We’re having a wedding, etcetera.” The rate was three times what it was for the retirement dinner. It’s very expensive to have a wedding, everybody knows you’re gonna spend a lot of money. In the United Arab Emirates, for example, a bridegroom can expect to spend an average of $75,000 to get married. Lavish gifts, parties, clothing, incredible. In every culture, it’s expensive. And so we see these gifts, these material gifts.
But then the time comes to complete the task without delay. The next morning the servant is ready to go back, and so he says, “I wanna go back and complete the task that the master has given.” Well, they don’t want her to leave so soon, and we’re gonna see this pattern later in Genesis, in due time, in the future, God willing, but Laban doesn’t want them to leave, and so he’s bargaining for some more time. He say, “Well, let us stay for 10 days.” Finally, they just put the matter to Rebekah. And by the way, it’s the first time she’s asked. You may find that interesting as 21st century people. She’s not been asked up to this point, but now she’s asked, “Will you go with this man or not?” And she says, “I will go.” And with that word, you see her heart, you see her courage, you see her faith, her willingness to follow God.
VII. Isaac Marries Rebekah
Well, in verses 61-67, we see Isaac marrying Rebekah. “Then Rebekah and her maids got ready and mounted their camels and went back with the man. So the servant took Rebekah and left. Now Isaac had come from Beer Lahai Roi, for he was living in the Negev. He went out to 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 is my master,” the servant answered. So she took her veil and covered herself. 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.”
Now, the journey has passed over in silence again as they come back, but you can well imagine that Rebekah talked to the servant, “What kind of man is Isaac?” Do you think she was curious? Would you have been? I would have been, wondering what is this… What is he like? And so, I’m sure they had plenty of time to talk, and by the time she got back to that area, she was ready to meet him.
It’s a pretty dramatic first meeting. It’s more dramatic in the Hebrew than it is in any English translation. I’ve talked with Jeremy and others about whether I’m gonna tell you what it really says happened concerning the camel. But literally, it says, “She fell from her camel.” Now, I know that that makes it seem undignified. It’s just a simple word, Hebrew word, for fall, so she sees him and down she goes. But let’s let her light gracefully.
Okay. So she comes down and lands, and then she finds out that it’s Isaac. “It’s my master,” and notice the servant calls him “my master”, because he’s the sole heir, he is also his master. She covers herself chastely with a veil. The chastity, the purity, it’s so beautiful. Then he, understanding who she is, talking to the servant, he does a remarkable thing. He brings her to his mother’s tent, to Sarah’s tent, and it says, “And he married her.” Now, what’s remarkable about this account is that the wedding ceremony itself is passed over, I really believe with all my heart they had one. This was the same group of people that celebrated greatly with a big party when the child was weaned, when Isaac was weaned, so there’s no way that they’re gonna skip the wedding. It just doesn’t say anything about it.
What’s remarkable is that Rebekah symbolically has now taken Sarah’s place. She becomes somewhat the clan matriarch. She’s immediately given a position of honor, because she’s going to be Rebekah, Isaac’s wife, and he’s the heir. And so, he takes her and she’s set up in Sarah’s tent. But there’s one other thing. She has to some degree taken Sarah’s place now in Isaac’s heart. And this is really beautiful, isn’t it? It says, the final word in the chapter is, “And so Isaac was comforted concerning the death of his mother, Sarah.”
Let me tell you something, it must have been incredible to have Abraham as a father: he was called the friend of God, he was a faith-filled man, incredible life, the whole experience of Mount Moriah, but you know something, there were things that only Sarah could do for Isaac. The woman’s touch, the woman’s place, irreplaceable in Isaac’s life, irreplaceable. And so, he’s had an emptiness, a vacuum in his life ever since Sarah died, and now Rebekah has come to fill that place. And then, even more, to be an avenue of comfort and of blessing, and so she would be. Song of Songs 8:10 says, “I’ve become in his eyes like one bringing contentment.” And that’s exactly what she was, she was a fountain of contentment and a blessing. “A godly wife, who can find? Her worth is more precious than rubies or jewels.”
She’s essential to God’s salvation plan. Without Rebekah, we don’t get Jesus Christ. And that’s where I wanna end this message today, Jesus Christ. We’re gonna talk next week about theological implications and marriage and all those things in due time. But the center of this is God’s faithfulness to keep his promises. Isaac needed a wife. Only God could have brought Isaac and Rebekah together in this way, to give Rebekah enough courage and faith to get on that camel and go back with the servant and marry a man she’s never met before. But she does because God brought it about. God is sovereign.
And all of God’s promises, all of the flow of redemptive history, all of the words spoken to Abraham, and then Isaac and Jacob, all of it was pointed toward the coming of Jesus Christ. In Christ and in Christ alone are all the promises of God, yea and amen. Everything comes down to Jesus Christ. And my question is, just like Abraham’s servant, do you have enough faith to trust in Jesus Christ, not just for the provision of an earthly spouse, not just for health or for physical prosperity. Oh no, I’m talking about something far greater than that. Do you have enough faith to trust in Jesus Christ for the resurrection of your body and the salvation of your soul? Where is your faith today?
“And all of God’s promises, all of the flow of redemptive history, all of the words spoken to Abraham, and then Isaac and Jacob, all of it was pointed toward the coming of Jesus Christ.”
And I believe I’m talking to two different categories of people right now. Those that have made a profession of faith in Christ already, but who perhaps are tempted to drift away from faith, I prayed for you this morning already. Perhaps already your hearts are getting a little hard. You’re turning away from Christ, you’re drifting from Him. Can I urge you to come back to Christ? He is the lover of your soul. Come back again to the things you did at first, to prayer and Bible reading, to service in Him, to loving Christ. And then I believe in this large assembly, there must be some that have never trusted in Christ. Jesus Christ is a lover of your soul, He is the only savior there is, trust in Him. Put your faith in Him. All of the promises of God are focused on Him. Know Him and love Him today.
