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Genesis 12-25 7. How God Provides Dan Bidwell, Senior Pastor Genesis 24:1-25:11 27 March 2022 Once upon a time there was a frog who was very lonely, so he went to see a fortune-teller. The frog asks her: “Will I ever meet that someone special?” The fortune teller tells him not to worry. She says, “You’re going to meet a beautiful young girl, and she will want to know everything about you.” “That’s great!” the excited frog says. “When will I meet her?” And the psychic says, “Next semester... in biology class.” Our Bible passage today is the story of how one man meets a beautiful young girl. There’s no frog and no fortune telling, but it’s an amazing story that speaks of God’s kindness. So why don’t we pray that God would teach us from the story of Isaac and Rebekah? Our heavenly Father, as we open your word today, would you teach us about the way that you provide for us, and the way that you direct the circumstances of our lives. Help us to trust you with every aspect of our lives, we pray. In Jesus’ name, Amen. Well this is our final week in our sermon series from Genesis 12-25. For the last 6 weeks we’ve been following the story of Abraham and the promises that God made to him. It all began when God spoke to Abraham at the age of 75, and called him to leave the land of his ancestors, and to go to the land that God would show him. And God made three promises to Abraham – Land, Nation, and Blessing. God promised to give the land we now know as Israel to Abraham’s descendants. He promised to make Abraham into a great nation – he would have as many offspring as the stars in the sky, or the sand on the seashore. And lastly God promised to bless Abraham, and to use Abraham’s offspring to bring blessing to all the peoples of the world. These are three foundational promises that shape much of the rest of the Bible. And over the last 6 weeks we’ve seen God keep those promises, but perhaps not in the way we expected. Abraham and Sarah ended up waiting 25 years for their first child to be born. It takes more than 60 years for Abraham to own a part of the promised land, and then it’s just a field and a cave where he lays to rest his wife. The story of Abraham and the promises of God is not like the story of Aladdin and the lamp. God is not a genie who grants every wish right when we want it. But that doesn’t mean that God is powerless to intervene in our lives. And that’s what we’ll see today in the story of Isaac and Rebekah. 1 Now this is the longest chapter in the book of Genesis, so I’ve only given you part of it on the handouts. But it’s an amazing story, so let’s get into it. Our story starts (v1) with Abraham now a very old man. Abraham was now very old, and the Lord had blessed him in every way. (Genesis 24:1) Abraham is old enough to look back on his life and see all the ways that God had blessed him. What a great attitude. Wouldn’t it be good to be like Abraham when we grow older? God has blessed him in every way. But there was still one thing missing. A wife for his son, Isaac, who was now almost 40 years old. So Abraham calls the senior servant in his household (v2), the one in charge of all that he had. And he asks the servant to make a solemn promise to find a wife for Isaac: (v3) 3 “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, 4 but will go to my country and my own relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac.” Abraham wants to make sure that the servant finds Isaac a wife from amongst Abraham’s own relatives. And not the people of Canaan. There are two issues with Isaac marrying a Canaanite. First, Canaan was the promised land, that God had promised to Abraham and his offspring. If Isaac intermarries with the Canaanites, then the land would still partially belong to the Canaanites. Second, the Canaanites represent a people with their backs turned away from God. Noah had cursed the Canaanites, and in Genesis 15 God himself promised to one day judge the Canaanites for their religious practices, which included child sacrifice. Abraham didn’t want his son or his descendants to be mixed up with false gods. Not that Abraham’s family of origin was much better. As we’ve learned, Abraham came from a middle eastern culture that engaged in moon worship, and included human sacrifice. But Abraham had made a decisive break with his old ways when he made the decision to follow the call of YHWH, the God of the Bible. Because you can’t follow two opposing gods – that’s syncretism. The servant is worried that it might not work out. What if the woman is unwilling to come back with me to this land, he asks in v5? Then should I take your son there, he asks? V6 Abraham is adamant that his son must not leave the promised land. In fact he says it twice in this paragraph. Abraham knows that this land has been promised to his offspring, and he doesn’t want Isaac to leave it ever. (Perhaps it’s a reflection on Abraham’s wandering, both 2 literally and metaphorically, from God’s promises? We do that as parents – we try to protect our kids from making the same mistakes that we made. It’s a good thing...) Back to the story. Abraham is so certain that this will work out, that he says God will send an angel before his servant so that he can get a wife for his son. I just want to reflect on this idea briefly, the idea of the angel going before the servant. It doesn’t say it in the text, but possibly God had spoken to Abraham and explained how his son would find a wife with the help of an angel. Maybe. We don’t know. It’s not surprising to hear Abraham talk about angels, since angels have featured already in four different stories between Genesis 16 and 22. As we read on in the chapter, however, no angel appears. No angel speaks. If there is any angelic agency at work in this story, they are not the hero of the story. If there are angels, it is only because God has sent them. You can see it there in v4 – ‘He will send his angel’... We need to remember that angels aren’t to be worshiped. They are just God’s messengers, God’s heavenly butlers, his staff. When things happen, it’s because God makes them happen, no matter how he makes it happen behind the scenes. The servant goes (v10). He takes ten camels, loaded with all kinds of good things from his master. He sets out for Aram Naharaim, the land between the two rivers (or modern day Iraq) 1000 miles to the east of Canaan. He arrives at a little town called Nahor at dusk, he brings his camels to the well outside the town. The narrator tells us in v11 that this was ‘the time the women go out to draw water.’ And so the servant prays. V12: “Lord, God of my master Abraham, make me successful today, and show kindness to my master Abraham. 13 See, I am standing beside this spring, and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water. 14 May it be that when I say to a young woman, ‘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.” (Genesis 24:12-14) The servant prays for a sign, of sorts. Not a supernatural sign, actually a very understated sign. He prays that he will meet a woman kind enough to give water to a stranger, and to his camels. The servant’s prayer was answered before he had even finished praying (v15): 15 Before he had finished praying, Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel son of Milkah, who was the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor. 16 The woman was very beautiful, a virgin; no man had ever slept with her. She went down to the spring, filled her jar and came up again. 3 This is a cinematic moment in the Bible if ever there was one. The servant opens his eyes, and there she is. The woman of his prayers. She’s movie-star beautiful. The servant asks her for some water. “Drink, my Lord,” she says, and then she adds: “I’ll draw water for your camels too, until they have had enough to drink.” You have to understand, this is like the Bible version of the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet. This scene is enshrined in Jewish folklore. We are meeting a major character in the storyline, in a highly memorable way. The Bible goes on to repeat the motif of the well as the place for meeting the partner of your dreams. Isaac and Rebekah’s son Jacob meets his wife, Rachel, at the very same well. And later Moses will meet Zipporah at a well also. You may not know this, but we have a well right here on the church property, just on the other side of the coffee area. So just in case anybody here is searching for a husband or a wife, we’ve set up some tables for two there today with champagne and tickets for a hot air balloon ride... But coming back to the story... Rebekah carries water for the servant’s camels. This is no small task, and the servant watches her silently while she goes down into the spring time after time, carrying jug after jug of water for his thirsty camels. As the camels finish drinking, the servant is convinced that Rebekah is the one he is meant to find for his master. So he takes out gifts – a nose ring and two bracelets made of gold – an expensive gift. He asks whose daughter she is, and if there is room in her father’s house for him to stay. That’s when Rebekah reveals that she is the daughter of Bethuel, the son that Milkah bore to Nahor. In other words, Rebekah is a relative of Abraham, just like Abraham had requested back in v4. She is Abraham’s brother’s granddaughter. Does that make her a grand-niece? So far she fits all the criteria that Abraham had wanted for the wife of his son. And we wait with anticipation for what will happen next, although we kind of know because we’ve all seen romance movies before... Rebekah’s hospitality at the well extends to offering the servant a place for the night, and fodder for his camels. Rebekah runs ahead to tell her family about the meeting at the well, while the servant takes a moment to stop and worship the Lord. 26 Then the man bowed down and worshiped the Lord, 27 saying, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not abandoned his kindness and 4 faithfulness to my master. As for me, the Lord has led me on the journey to the house of my master’s relatives.” (Genesis 24:26-27) I love that the servant is able to pause in the middle of this exciting story to worship God. His earlier prayers have been answered, and he is reminded of God’s kindness. If you look back at v12 and v14, the servant had appealed twice to God’s kindness in his first prayer: ‘show kindness to my master.’ This kindness (hesed) is actually one of God’s core characteristics. Commentator Andrew Reid describes hesed-kindness as: “overflowing, surprising and non- obligated generosity or love.” And isn’t it true? How often do surprisingly good things happen in our lives? Moments of unexpected goodness, or an act of genuine generosity. When those moments happen, they are not just the universe sending you good vibes. They’re not just serendipity. It is God showing you his kindness. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to stop and worship God when you recognize that He is behind all of those little things that come together to make your life unexpectedly wonderful at times. The servant recognized God’s kindness. And he thanked God for it, even though the kindness wasn’t really for himself at all. It was God’s kindness to his master. We learn a lot about the servant’s character in this scene. He is humbly able to enjoy his master’s success. This is possibly Eleazar of Damascus, who Abraham had considered naming his heir when he was unable to have a child with Sarah some 50 years earlier. If it’s the same man, then he has missed out on inheriting the entire land of Canaan, and he has instead spent his entire life as a servant and not a son. And yet, there is no sense of envy here. Just genuine happiness for his master’s sake. The servant recognizes God’s kindness, and he overflows with the same kindness and non- obligated generosity. The servant has been transformed by grace, it would seem. There is something else remarkable about the servant’s prayer. He worships God because he recognizes that God has led him on the journey to just the right place. No angels, no shining star to follow to Bethlehem, just God working through the everyday events of life – the delays, the customs, the stresses, the chance meetings. Theologian J.I. Packer says: “[believers] are never in the grip of blind forces (fortune, chance, luck, fate); all that happens to them is divinely planned, and each event comes as a new summons to trust, obey, and rejoice.”1 This story is a reminder that God is at work in your life, just as he is at work in my life. God may not speak to you like he spoke to Abraham, but when we seek after his will for our lives, he will 1 Quoted in R. Kent Hughes, Genesis Beginning and Blessing, p316. 5 lead us on the journey to just the right place. It takes genuine trust to believe that we are right where God wants us. But I think that’s what the scriptures say. Proverbs 3:5-6 says: 5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6) When we submit our lives to the Lord and trust him with all our heart, he will lead us to right where he wants us. It might not be where you wanted to go, but Romans 8:28 teaches us that: in all things God works for the good of those who love him... (Romans 8:28) You might be in a hard season right now. You might be in the valley of the shadow of death. Trust that God is leading you into green pastures. You might be facing a big decision. Bring it to the Lord. Pray about it. Submit yourself and your future to him, and then follow the pathway that opens up before you. Is it the right one? If it’s not, you can trust that God will bring you back to the right path eventually, even if there are lessons for you to learn along the way. What I’m trying to say is that God works in the everyday circumstances of life to lead us. You can trust him, whatever decision you take, when you put God first. And that’s what Rebekah did. Let me quickly tell you how the story ends. The servant arrives at Rebekah’s home. Her brother Laban comes out to greet the servant, and puts on a show of hospitality. Laban will play a major role in the next season of Genesis (but like Netflix you’re going to have to wait until next year to find out what happens.) But just a little preview: we get a hint about the dark side of Laban’s character here. He can’t take his eyes off the gold jewelery, and we are led to doubt that his motives are pure. However, when he hears the story of how Abraham had sent his servant all the way from Canaan, and how the servant had met Rebekah at the well just the way he had prayed about, even Laban recognizes that it is from God (v50): 50 Laban and Bethuel answered, “This is from the Lord; we can say nothing to you one way or the other. 51 Here is Rebekah; take her and go, and let her become the wife of your master’s son, as the Lord has directed.” (Genesis 24:50) When they ask Rebekah what she wants to do, she says simply: “I will go.” 6 In the space of less than 24 hours, Rebekah makes the choice to leave behind her family, and to follow the call of God. Just like Abraham had done, all those years earlier. Rebekah returns to Canaan with the servant, she meets Isaac and they marry the same day. Abraham dies at the age of 175, with his family gathered around him. One chapter is closed, and the next chapter with Isaac and Rebekah is ready to begin. But like I said, you’ll have to wait until next year when we pick up the story again. PAUSE As we finish this series about Abraham and the promises of God, I want to challenge you to consider: are you following the call of God on your life. I’m always struck by the obedience of the first disciples – Jesus said to them, “Follow me.” And they did. Often without all the information, and all the right answers. They heard the call of Jesus and they followed him. Jesus is still saying the same thing today. Follow me. Entrust your life to me, let me lead you and I will bring you into the fullness of all of God’s promises: - the promised land - the new heavens and the new earth; - the great nation – he will make you a child of God; - and blessing – in Jesus, we see the fulfilment of the promises that through Abraham’s offspring all the world will be blessed. When you make the choice to follow Jesus, you will know blessing beyond what you could ever imagine, in this lifetime and the next. So if you hear God calling your name today, how will you respond? Will you pray with me? 7 Watch at: https://youtu.be/5oP5theOlaQ File Downloads: https://dq5pwpg1q8ru0.cloudfront.net/2022/04/09/05/34/23/aff66c02-35b1-4f59-9598-7ee014ee0996/03.27.22%20Sermon%20Transcript.pdf