Rebekah: Generous Triumph
Cloud of Witnesses • Sermon • Submitted
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Givers
Givers
Have you ever met a giver? If you’re like me you’ve been overwhelmed by another person or group of people’s generosity. These people are givers. Our hero this week is a giver, and I want us to take special note of that.
Our text this morning comes from
Then the servant took ten of his master’s camels and departed, taking all sorts of choice gifts from his master; and he arose and went to Mesopotamia to the city of Nahor. And he made the camels kneel down outside the city by the well of water at the time of evening, the time when women go out to draw water. 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 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 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, Rebekah, who was born to Bethuel the son of Milcah, 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 water to drink 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 said, “I will draw water for 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.
When the camels had finished drinking, the man took a gold ring weighing a half shekel, and two bracelets for her arms weighing ten gold shekels, and said, “Please tell me whose daughter you are. Is there room in your father’s house for us to spend the night?” She said to him, “I am the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor.” She added, “We have plenty of both straw and fodder, and room to spend the night.” The man bowed his head and worshiped the Lord and said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his steadfast love and his faithfulness toward my master. As for me, the Lord has led me in the way to the house of my master’s kinsmen.” Then the young woman ran and told her mother’s household about these things.
Background
Let’s back up and see how we got here. It starts with Abraham, and I won’t go into too much detail, because we’ll be looking at Abraham next week.
Who is Rebekah
If you remember the story of Abraham, God commands him to get up and leave his country and go another land that the Lord would give him, and he is promised to become a great nation and that the Lord will make his name great blessing to the earth. God had made a covenant with him, “I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counter.” () - but Abraham was old, and so was his wife Sarah.
Finally, after a lot of twists in the story Abraham and Sarah have a child and that child’s name is Isaac. His first born, the fulfillment of God’s promise. Fast forward to and Abraham is old.
He’s in a new land, not the land of his people. And he makes his servant promise to find a wife for his son Isaac from among his people. But, under no circumstances is the servant to take Isaac back to his former home for Canaan is the land promised to him by God.
So Abraham’s servant does so.
Let’s look at the scene again.
Then the servant took ten of his master’s camels and departed, taking all sorts of choice gifts from his master; and he arose and went to Mesopotamia to the city of Nahor.
This is a journey of at least 3 weeks.
He has 10 camels with him, and he says a prayer asking for a specific response.
Genesis 24:1
Let the young woman to whom I shall say, ‘Please let down your jar 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.”
Now before we go any further, let’s think about this. This is no small task. We know that Abraham’s servant has 10 camels with him. A camel can drink 20 gallons of water when it is thirsty. Let’s do a brief calculation.
10 camels X 20 gallons of water = 200 gallons of water
200 gallons drawn with a 5 gallon jar = 40 trips from the well to the camels.
40 trips! If each trip takes, say 3 minutes, thats 120 minutes or 2 hours just to water the camels.
That’s generosity.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
That’s the message that Rebekah would share with us as our “witness”. as we run that lap together I think she would remind us:
Go the extra mile.
Perhaps because that is her sentiment she runs an extra lap with us in our journey.
If we’re going to go the extra mile, we have to remember:
You can’t be generous and legalistic at the same time.
You can’t be generous and legalistic at the same time.
Rebekah did more than what was asked. She was simply asked for a drink of water from a thirsty traveler. She recognized that if he was thirsty his camels must be also and so she generously offers to get them water as well.
Sadly, today too often people only want to do what is expected.
Sentiments of “that’s not in my job description” or “that’s above my paygrade,” or worse, “that’s below my pay grade.”
There is nothing that would have prevented Rebekah from having said, “no,” to the initial request much less to offer such a generous offering of her time and energy.
She chose to be generous.
Questions to ponder:
Questions to ponder:
Do you hesitate to give when the request will take a lot of time, energy or money?
Do you hesitate to give when the request will take a lot of time, energy or money?
Rebekah didn’t stop with the offering of a drink or the watering of the camels. She then offers a place to stay for this weary traveler.
Do you often ask, “What’s in it for me?”
Do you often ask, “What’s in it for me?”
There is no indication that Rebekah thought that she would receive anything for her generosity.
Could you be the answer to someone’s prayer?
Could you be the answer to someone’s prayer?
Rebekah’s response was the direct answer to the servant’s prayer. How cool is that? Imagine how your response could possibly be the direct answer to someone’s prayer. What a privilege to join in what God is doing.
Let’s pray:
Lord, thank you for Rebekah and what she’s taught us here today. We ask that you would give us eyes to see opportunities everyday, in everyday situations, opportunities to be your hands to reach out and touch someone with your love, to give more than is required or expected. Lord, give us the heart to do so with motives that are pure and not self-seeking. We pray this in Jesus Name. AMEN