Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
May I ask you to reflect back over your life journey for a moment? When have you seen undeniable evidence that Almighty, Holy God, the Creator of heaven and earth, reached down to planet earth, right to YOU, and did something only God could do? How did you respond and how was your life story impacted?
Today let’s look at one of those events. Abraham’s servant is searching for a wife for Isaac, and has amazingly connected with relatives of Abraham living several hundred miles away from where Abraham lives. This servant has never met any of these people and he had come on a very specific mission… to find the one woman God had been preparing to become Isaac’s wife, even though she didn’t know Isaac or anything about him! Yesterday we looked at how this servant connected with Rebekah as she drew water from a well. Today let’s pick up the story in Genesis 24:28, “The girl Rebekah 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… ‘Come, you who are blessed by the LORD, why are you standing out here? I have prepared the house and a place for the camels!’ So Abraham’s servant went to the house and the camels were unloaded.” (Gen. 24:28-32)
Probably you have received visiting family or friends at your home. Suitcases, traveling bags, travel weariness, travel hunger, and so much more. Laban’s family quickly cared for the camels, and put a meal before Abraham’s servant and the men who had traveled with him. But before he lifted a first bite to his mouth, the servant said: “I will not eat until I have told you what I have to say…” And he began at the beginning, explaining God’s blessing upon Abraham in wealth, land and a miracle son. Explaining the mission Abraham had sent him on. Explaining how God had apparently answered his prayer at the well, even before he had finished praying, as Rebekah approached to draw water. As we sit with them, look around at the faces of those who are listening to this remarkable story. Eliezer, and the other servants who had come from Abraham, Laban, Rebekah and their father Bethuel, Abraham’s nephew. When Abraham’s servant finally finished, he sat back and took a sip of tea, waiting for their response.
I wonder if Laban, Betheul & Rebekah got up and went outside to discuss the preposterous story they’d just heard? The record simply says “Laban and Bethuel answered ‘ This is from the LORD; 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 directed!” (Gen. 24:50) WOW, what a statement! You might need to read it again, and maybe even a third time. Evidently Laban and Bethuel are absolutely convinced they have just experienced a reach of God from heaven to earth, directly to their family, and God was inviting Rebekah to join with God and the Covenant miracle God was doing in Abraham’s family!! If Rebekah did go with this servant of Abraham, 400 miles back to where Abraham lived, likely they would never see her again and she would never see her family, her home again. But none of them could deny the obvious work of God. The only real question was their willingness to accept God’s invitation to join with HIM in what God was doing hundreds of miles away. May I ask… have you ever been invited by God to join with HIM in doing something special? What did it require of you, and what did you do, and what impact has that defining moment had on the rest of your life since then?
The record says “When Abraham’s servant heard what they said he bowed down to the ground before the LORD…” Worship was the only appropriate response to this sacred experience. Normal people, like you and me, had an undeniable encounter with GOD who was directing a young woman to leave her family and go with someone she’d met only an hour or two before, and travel several hundred miles, to marry someone she’s never seen! Let that remarkable reality simmer in your mind and heart for a moment or two, and ask yourself this question: how big of a faith step are you willing to take with God, when you see the evidence that God is inviting you to partner with HIM in something big HE is doing, which is far outside your comfort zone!?
Genesis 24 tells us Abraham’s servants unloaded the camels and distributed gifts, lots of gifts, to Rebekah, Laban, Bethuel and their family. Then they all sat down to a feast and went to bed that night amazed at what they had experienced with God that day! The record says: “When they got up the next morning, Abraham’s servant said, ‘Send me on my way to my master.’ But Laban and Rebekah’s mother replied ‘Let Rebekah remain with us ten days or so; then you may go.” Now that sounds reasonable to me, how about you?
But maybe Abraham’s servant didn’t have a daughter and so couldn’t really grasp what Rebekah’s family was facing here. He said “Do not detain me, now that the LORD has granted success to my journey. Send me on my way so I may go up to my master.’ Then they said, ‘let’s call the girl and ask her about this.’ So they called Rebekah and asked her, ‘Will you go with this man?’ (Gen. 24:57) Look around the room at the faces of everyone, what do you see? Anxiety, fear, excitement? It raises an important question if you consider yourself to be a genuine follower of Jesus Christ: Once you have sensed God’s clear direction for you to take specific action...how long does it take for you to obey? Do you ask for a second and third confirmation? Do you seek the counsel of several other people?
Rebekah’s response was short, to the point, and was a powerful statement of her trust in God. She simply said three words… “I will go!”
The record next says: “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 gates of their enemies.’
Then, Rebekah and her maids got ready and mounted their camels and went back with Abraham’s servant.” (Gen. 24:59-61) Oh there were hugs and tears no doubt. This was a permanent farewell. But there was also a very strong sense of God’s Presence in that place and that moment. Obedience to God’s call brings with it powerful contentment even in painful goodbyes. Just ask foreign missionaries and their families!
Of course neither Abraham nor Isaac had any idea about all that was transpiring thus far in Genesis 24, hundreds of miles away. The record says “Now Isaac had come from Beer Lahai Roi for he was living in the Negev.” We remember the name of that place don’t we? It’s where God met Hagar as she fled Abraham and Sarai when she was pregnant with Ishmael, and God comforted her, gave her guidance and assurance of her future. (Genesis 16) She gave God a special name in that experience and in that place… Jehovah Lahai Roi which means “the God who sees me”. That event happened nearly 15 years before Isaac was born, so I don’t know what he knew of that story, but in God’s sovereignty, it’s interesting to me that he has come from that place and was out walking in the fields one evening contemplating, perhaps praying for God’s guidance of Abraham’s servant whom he knew was searching for a wife for him.
The record says “…as Isaac looked up, he saw camels approaching. Rebekah also looked up and saw Isaac. She got down from her camel and asked Abraham’s servant, ‘who is that man in the field coming to meet us?’ The servant identified Isaac as the man for whom the servant had been seeking a wife. Rebekah appropriately covered her face with her veil… the moment of their first encounter had arrived. Isaac and Rebekah saw each other for the first time. “Then the servant told Isaac all that had happened.” Can you imagine the power of those moments as Eliezer recounted the miracle?
I can see Isaac looking intently at Rebekah’s eyes, the only part of her visible behind her full body veil. Oh my, eyes can speak, can’t they? And what was the Holy Spirit of God saying into Isaac’s heart as he listened? The record simply says: “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.” (Genesis 24:67)
Oh the dramatic power of what can happen when God finds people willing to fully trust HIM and step out from their personal agenda, and trust the SOVEREIGNTY of God, and follow Him. Here’s a new worship song I’ve found which will help us praise God for this great truth of His Sovereignty. . .
Today’s Scripture is Genesis 24:28-67.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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