Isaac and Rebekah

0:00Well, good morning. I again, for those who can hear me on the Zoom, I am very sorry that I did not get the sermon notes sent properly. I promise I will fix that next week, and I'll speak very clearly and hopefully, Lord willing, so you can hear me fine. Open your Bibles with me to the book of Genesis. We're going to be covering chapter 24 this morning. Let me see if I can find it. This is a rather long section of text, so we're not going to be reading the whole story, but we're going to go through it all and we're going to read a few sections of it. We're going to focus this morning on the continued provision of God. Okay, the same theme. I feel like maybe I'm going to be repeating myself a little bit, but this bears repeating. We're going to be focusing on the continued provision of God. Sarah is dead now at this point in our story. Her tent is empty, which means that not only does the beginnings of Israel not have a mother now, but Isaac has no one with whom to continue the promise to bring about this numerous people from Abraham that was promised. It's also worth pointing out from the story that if Sarah is 127 now when she dies, which we're going to read that, and she had Isaac when she was 90, this makes Isaac 37 at the time of her death. And we know that a fair amount of time passes just in this story that we're going to read this morning because the servant of Abraham has to make this journey from the land of Canaan all the way back to Abraham's homeland, which is approximately, or maybe exactly, I'm not sure. It's 400 miles away, give or take. That is not a short trip on camels, right? 400 miles. Could they have at this point already begun to question the provision of God? Could they have already started to question the provision of God? Isaac is near 40 now, still with no wife. What I hope and pray that we see reinforced again from the text this morning, that which we've been talking about again for weeks now, is that God, in his timing, will make provisions to fulfill his promises. Secondly, I pray that we see that a large part of that provision is God answering our prayers that are prayed according to his will. And we will see that this morning. Finally, I pray that we continue to deepen our trust in God, that he will grow his church and his people. This work of creating and calling together a people for his own possession is a work of God. And it is a work that he has promised that he will do. To quote Professor Greg Nichols this morning, our God will maintain his work. He will maintain his work. And I trust that we see that this morning. So let's read our text. We're going to jump around a little bit. So hang with me if y'all want to stand as I read. We're going to start. We're going to start in verse 1 of chapter 24. Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years, and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. And Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who had charge of all that he had, put your hand under my thigh, that I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell, but will go to my country and to my kindred and take a wife for my son Isaac. Let's skip to verse thirteen. Behold, I am standing by the spring of the water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. Let the young woman to whom I shall say, Please let your jar down that I may drink, and who shall say, Drink, and I will water your camels. Let her be the one whom you have appointed for your servant Isaac. By this I shall know that you have shown steadfast love to my master. Before he had finished speaking, behold, Rebecca, who was born of Bethuel, the son of Milkah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, came out with her water jar on her shoulder. The young woman was very attractive in appearance, a maiden, whom no man had known, she went down to the spring and filled her jar and came up. Then the servant ran to meet her and said, Please give me a little drink of water from your jar. She said, Drink, my lord, and she quickly let down her jar upon her hand and gave him a drink. When she had finished giving him a drink, she says, I will draw water from your camels also until they have finished drinking. So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough, and ran again to the well to draw water, and she drew for all his camels. The man gazed at her in silence to learn whether the Lord had prospered his journey or not. Finally flipped to uh verse sixty-two. Now Isaac had returned from Berlah, sorry, I messed that up, and was dwelling in Negib, and Isaac went out to meditate in the field toward the evening, and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and behold, there were camels coming along. And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she dismounted the camel, and she said to the servant, Who is that man walking in the field to meet us? The servant said, Is my master. So she took the veil and covered herself. And the servant Isaac told all the things that he had done. Then Isaac brought her into the tent of Sarah his mother, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother's death. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word. Please now we ask that you would speak for Christ's sake, and it is in his name that I pray. Amen. According to research organizations and Gallup polls, Christianity in America is on a continued and increasing decline. Just looking at those statistics alone, one could perhaps predict that the Christian church in America will be nonexistent at some point in the future. It certainly looks like that is the trajectory. This could be cause for unease for us, right? How could God let his church dwindle or become so small? Have we failed God to such a degree that we have allowed the church to shrink and continue shrinking? Further, each of us have gone through many seasons of life, perhaps even now, where we feel as though things are slipping from us. Where are you, God? Have you forgotten about us? Have we prayed these things? The same questions undoubtedly were in the minds of the people of God at many points throughout the history of the church. Imagine being at the cusp of receiving the blessed land from God that He promised you, but because of your lack of trust in His promises, you were left to wonder in the wilderness for 40 years. We see very often the people of God questioning him during those difficult days. Why did we come all the way out here if this is what we get? Even this church experienced some dwindling days before God providentially gave us this place. And during those times, I think we would be lying if those who were here didn't have some questions about whether or not God even wanted us to continue. Or even had plans to allow us to continue. All that to say, nowhere in God's word nor in the lives of any of his people is the climb to glory always uphill and progressively good. That never happens. And to judge God and His plans or His ways on the basis of a singular snapshot in time never gives you the full picture. If someone took a snapshot in time of the beginnings of the church and ran it through their cultural filters, they would have absolutely concluded that the plan of God for his people was certainly doomed here. The people of God that began with Abraham and Sarah, and we know, of course, it started before Abraham and Sarah, but humor me there. It continued through Isaac. It just barely by the skin of their teeth continued through Isaac, right? That was a few weeks ago. And now where are they? Sarah has died. And God's promised people now sit at the two. And Isaac, the heir of all the nations, is a near 40-year-old bachelor with no prospects whatsoever. How is God going to continue his promises in this situation? I do think there is great comfort here, though. Lord willing, we will see that the people of God, his chosen vessels to continue his promise, went through seasons of life where they had to find their way again. This is comforting for us because when we feel lost, or when we are lost, it's natural for us to question God, right? But then we come to his word and we read this story, and we can find peace and assurance that God will take care of his own. This is a theme that has occurred multiple times now so far through Genesis. Hope is never lost because as desperate as things seem at times, the mighty hand of God is at work. And he will bring about the fulfillment of his promises. He will take care of and provide for his own. Because he has promised to do that. And God always maintains his word. We see this in the providing of a wife for Isaac. God has an ordained plan to continue his people. And a person, a specific person with whom he is going to bring this plan to pass with. The first step in that plan is that the wife of Isaac not be from the people of the land in Canaan, right? God has a plan and he's put conditions on the plan, and that first step is that the wife of Isaac not be from the people of the land of Canaan. We might be tempted when reading that to say, well, that seems pretty harsh and exclusionary, right? But the fact is that the people of Canaan were not followers of the true God. These were not the people of God. And this prohibition is about preserving the holiness, the fear, and the common direction for the people of God. Intermarrying with the Canaanites would lead inevitably to adopting their spiritual customs. I'll say that again. Intermarrying with the Canaanites would lead inevitably to adopting their spiritual customs and traditions that are holy against our God. So this is not an ethnicity issue, it's a spiritual issue. And the same prohibition still applies, of course, as we know, to New Testament Christians. 2 Corinthians 6, 14 to 16. Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Baalal? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols, for we are the living, for we are the temple of the living God? Again, 2 Corinthians 6. 14 and 36, 14 through 16, sorry. You can get mad at me if you want. I don't think you will. But you can get mad at me if you want. But the children of God have no business marrying unbelievers. More than that, it's strictly prohibited in Scripture. Righteousness has no business yoking itself to lawlessness. So, young people, don't even think about it. I don't care if she's cute or nice. It's not going to happen. Why are you so mean, you might say? I'm only as mean as the Bible allows me to be. We see it clearly here with Isaac, and it's still true today. The most important consideration in marriage is maintaining your walk with God and increased transformation into holiness. That's really the only goal. If you get that right, everything else will take care of itself. Further, we see that Isaac is not going to go to her, but rather he is to stay in the land that God has delivered, where he is called, and she is to come to him. The temptation to stay with his kin, right, if he were to go with her, where perhaps things might be more comfortable, that temptation would be very strong for him, inevitably, right? After all, he had no one in Canaan but Abraham and God himself, so he was strictly alone in that respect, physically alone, maybe it would be wise, right, to go and live nearer to the people that he knew. And then while that might be pragmatic, that was not what God had called him to do, right? And doing that in this instance would have been abandoning the provision of God and Abraham. Sorry, I will say, would have been abandoning the provision of God. And Abraham, like any good father should do, made sure that he did not allow that temptation to come upon his son. He withheld him from that temptation. So that was a little aside, not necessarily completely relevant to the text or to the message, but it's in there, so I had to point out that application. Now we fast forward in the story a bit to the servant of Abraham showing up in Mesopotamia, right? This is the city of Nahor. And the first thing that he did when we read in the story, and I don't think, well, we we did read that section, this starting in verse 13 of Genesis 24. The first thing that he the servant sh does when he shows up in Mesopotamia is he prays. This was starting in verse 12, and he said, O Lord God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today, and show steadfast love to my master Abraham. Behold, I am standing by the spring of the water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. Let the young woman to whom I shall say, Please let down your jar that I am a drink, and she shall say, she shall. That's a tongue twister. And and she shall say, sorry, drink, and I will water your camels. Let her be the one whom you have appointed for your servant Isaac. By this I shall know that you have shown steadfast love to my master. That sounds a bit like the servant of Abraham is to lay down a fleece, or he's laying down a fleece, kind of metaphorically, so to speak, in an attempt to discern the specific plan of God. As though he is saying, God, I don't know who this woman is that you have appointed for Isaac, so would you please be so kind as to show me a sign? And this is the sign that I want you to show me. Is that what he is really doing here, do we think? And I know that we do that a lot. We pray, God, I don't know who should who I should marry, perhaps. Just give me a sign, right? Just give me a sign. Show me a sign. I like the name Cade, oh Lord. If his name is Cade, I know that will be the one for me. Do we do that? Maybe. Is that what's happening here? Is he praying for some kind of supernatural sign? I don't think so. The prayer was not about a miraculous sign as much as it was about the type of woman whom such a prayer represents. The woman who fulfills this sign or this prayer is a woman who is kind, right? The servant says, Please, I'm thirsty, let me drink, and she will offer freely a drink for him. The woman is not selfish with her time or her energy, but she will give to others. Further, this woman will be hard-working. The servant here has a whole fleet of camels when he enters this long journey. Thirsty camels will drink gallons of water at a time. And there was ten of them here. Ten camels is what he had. Some scholars estimate that this watering of the camels that Rebecca did could have taken more than 80 trips down to the well and back. This would have taken hours to complete. The character of a woman who would empty herself physically for a stranger is to be admired. And if she would do that for a stranger, what more would she do for her husband and her family? In short, then, the woman who answers this prayer is kind and caring, diligent, hardworking, hospitable, and not afraid of hard work. In that way, this servant of Abraham's prayer is in accordance with the will of God to seek that kind of woman. To show him the woman who, by the grace of God, possessed the quality of character that was suitable to marry Isaac. This is what he is truly looking for. And this applies to all of our prayers, even today, but certainly those who are seeking direction in life. Do not pray seeking some arbitrary sign, like the next one with brown hair who walks by. That's going to be the one for me. But rather pray that the answer and the direction that you seek will align with the character and nature of God. This is how we pray. Because that will be his will for you. How do you know the will of God? Does it match his character? Does it support his nature? Does it conform to his holiness? Does it align with his word? Then there you go. It's right in front of you. We don't pray for the ability to read tea leaves. We pray that our lives and everything we do are in accordance with his character and it bring about a life transformed into his image. That's what really matters. Everything else, as we see and always see, takes care of itself. Okay. As we read, God, of course, confirms all of confirms all of these things, right, through Rebecca. And after just a little bit of convincing, we didn't read all of that story there, but there's some bit of back and forth, a little convincing. She returns to be the wife of Isaac, right? Her family is convinced and she agrees to return. Great story, right? Lots of practical application, but how do we get to Christ and to the plan of redemption? That's where I really want to go. And to do that, I think we have to put ourselves in the shoes of those who would have initially been told this story. They would have known full well, because they would have seen it in themselves, right? That if Isaac had taken a wife from the Canaanites, this would have been a clear act of disobedience against God and a very unrighteous decision. As a result, Israel would not have existed. If the servant of Abraham had not prayed according to the will of God, would he have even noticed Rebekah? Or would he have been looking for someone else? What if Rebekah had refused to go with the servant of Abraham? Or the family had refused to allow her to go. Any one of those things doesn't happen, and God's redemptive plan would have failed. And those hearing this story for the first time would have seen firsthand both the blessings that come through trusting and the plan and the word of God, and the obedience by faith that inevitably flows through that, and they would have also well known the dangers of not trusting God in his word and the disobedience. That flows through that. But God in his mercy, working through all of those little regular means, those small details, brings about the further fulfillment of his promise. This would have been great encouragement to Israel, to see the hand of God working providentially through all of these details to continue his promise. God would not let his plan fail, right? And he so ordered and arranged every detail, not only that we may see his hand in everything, but that we may trust him and depend on him in all things. And we know this to be true, because this same application was given to us explicitly by Christ Himself. And these promises were confirmed and re-established in Christ first for the church. Matthew 16, 17 and 18. Blessed are you, Simon Bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but the Father who is in heaven. I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The confession that Peter gave, and our confession, that Jesus is the Christ, the promised one of God, the fulfillment of God's redemptive plan, is the very rock on which the church is built. And it is through that confession and trust in Christ that He will sustain His church. Not sustain us so that we can hide in a corner or cower until the end, but sustain us such that not even the very gates of hell shall be able to withstand the will of God working through his people. Second, for you, Christian. Matthew 6, 25 and 33. Therefore I tell you, these again are the words of Christ, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, they neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not more valuable than they? And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field which is today alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you? O you of little faith. Therefore do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. John 16, verse 33, I have said all these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome the world. Why do we doubt that God is taking care of us? Look at what he has done to bring together Isaac and Rebekah to continue his church. Look at what he has done through all of redemptive history to bring about his purposes. Look how he provides for everything that he has created. Look at the reality that he has overcome the world and all its sin. Will he not care for you? For us? Does he not know your needs and your concerns? Does he not know the needs and the concerns of this church? He has never failed us once. Will he start now with this church or the church in America? Will he start now with you? Surely he will not. He cannot. Both because he has promised that he will not fail you, and because our God always maintains his work. And you, dear Christian, are his most precious work. And he will surely work all things for your good. Finally, I'll close with the words of Peter again, 1 Peter 5 7. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. Amen. Let's pray. We thank you again, Lord, for your word. We thank you for the providential hand that you have shown us in your word. We thank you that you teach us how to pray here, Lord. We pray and ask that you would help us by your grace to continue to pray according to your will for our lives, Lord. We thank you for the assurance that this gives us, that you are working in your people and in your church. Lord, comfort us in that promise, Lord. Help us to cast all of our anxieties and cares upon you, Lord. Help us to not be burdened by all of the tiny details in each of our lives. Because we know that you are taking care of us. You have ordained and appointed all of those details. And you will bring about our glorification and sanctification. And we trust you in that, Lord. And help us. And may we testify to the faith in Jesus Christ and the work that He has done on the cross for us, Lord, and for the forgiveness of our sins by the bread and the wine that we are about to partake, Lord. Bless this. We ask all these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.