All About the Master's Business - Genesis 24:1-67

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1 All About the Master’s Business Genesis 24:1-67 20211024 Prove your faith and watch the LORD’s will be done Introduc)on: How would you define a successful life? What are the metrics that first pop into your mind? Maybe your ideas have come from Hollywood and the media establishment. They certainly push a picture of success that sells movie Nckets, that gains views, and capNvates us! The world’s definiNon of success is usually some play on gaining riches, celebraNng beauty, sex outside of the covenant of marriage, adventures, endless intrigue, mystery, and freedom from commitment. What is this really? A celebraNon of the ability to go and do as one pleases. Does that sound at all like what God has been revealing in our study of Genesis? Not at all! Rather, I would say steadfast love and faithfulness conNnue to stand out from the pages of Scripture as validaNon of a successful life in the eyes of the LORD. Since he is the judge of all the earth it would be well worth our Nme considering how these character traits of God (Ex 34:6) work their way out in those of us who are called to be followers of the One True God. I believe when we take in the background of where we are today in Genesis, we are provided with a wonderful place to explore this. Bear in mind Abraham has just lost his beloved Sarah. He is a sojourner in a land – the only piece of which he owns is a burial plot, and his Ntle, “the father of a mulNtude of naNons” (Gen 17:5) has resulted in Isaac as his one legiNmate heir. Do these sound-like setbacks to you? We all face setbacks and hardships – the circumstances of life that don’t fit what you think should be ideal. When this happens do you give up on trusNng in the promises of God? That is most certainly the temptaNon we are each faced with. When the pain of life cuts deep, we, as fickle people can struggle to maintain our faith in God, his promises, and his plan. In the Scripture reading – the story captured in Gen 24 – what you likely tuned into was the stellar manner in which everyone conducted themselves. In light of the setbacks that faced Abraham, and that we are all too familiar with, setbacks that face us, I want you to hear the Scriptural truth, the take away from Genesis 24 is that you are to: Prove your faith and watch the LORD’s will be done. Before we get into our primary text turn to Proverbs 3:1-6. These verses succinctly summarize what we witness in the narraNve of Abraham, his faithful servant, Rebekah, and Isaac. READ Proverbs 3:1–6 Focused on the Promise (vv1-9) 1. As we look at the first 9 verses of this chapter, I want you to think about all the promises that God has made to Abraham. Calling him from the land of his kinsmen (Gen 12:1) and promising to make him a great naNon (Gen 12:2) and to bless all the families of the earth through him (Gen 12:3). Through these what we have witnessed is a steady progression of Abraham’s focus upon the promises of God. Not a perfect obedience, but steady progression. God is faithful and Abraham grows in his response to God’s steadfast love and faithfulness. The Scriptures claim it is counted to him as righteousness (Gen 15:6, James 2:23, Rom 4:3). 2 a. vv1-4 Even though Abraham is old, advanced in years, seemingly close to his end (at least it is on his mind as he just recently buried Sarah) he is in no way wanNng to rush along the marriage of his son Isaac to facilitate children – children whom God promised through Isaac (Gen 21:12). i. He commissions his servant, his servant who is unnamed here. 1. This is, I believe, is on purpose to draw adenNon to the ideal conduct and to the faithfulness of the servant. 2. We will spend a great deal of Nme on him in the next point. ii. Here, Abraham commissions his servant to find a wife suitable for Isaac from his father’s household. Not wanNng his son to be married to one of the Canaanite women. 1. In many ways this foreshadows the law given to Israel that they should not give their sons or daughters in marriage to the inhabitants of the land when they return in the conquest (Ex 34:16, Josh 23:13, Deut 7:3-4). 2. We will be looking at applicaNons for marriage specifically a lidle bit later when Rebekah and Isaac consummate their marriage in the last point. b. Abraham is preeminently focused upon the promises of God. Now as the text says he is advanced in years he has a singular aim before him – the promises of God. He is a covenant partner with God and is seeking a proper wife for Isaac and wants to keep and direct his family according to God’s calling on his life. ApplicaNon heads of house, husbands and fathers. i. He is adamant that Isaac is not to go back to the land from which Abraham came. It comes out in the dialog with the servant. The servant is to go back to Abraham’s country and to take a wife from there for Isaac – but Isaac is not to go back. Abraham is very explicit v6, “See to it that you do not take my son back there” and again in v8 “only you must not take my son back there…” 1. Why is this such a big deal? READ Hebrews 11:13-16 ii. Abraham and his descendants were seeking a beder land and it was formaNve on their acNons. Do you have this same tenacious ahtude believer? The one exhibited by Abraham? He was emphaNc that Isaac was not to go back. 1. Pondering the promises of God, he recognized that it was God who called him out of that land and away from that people and therefore he was not to go back and neither was his son. EmphaNcally, Abraham tells his servant you must not take him back there. So convinced was Abraham in the working of God in this endeavor that he said, v7 “…[God] will send his angel before the servant…” boldly claiming the Lord’s blessing upon the whole venture. iii. I am so encouraged by this: Abraham will Prove his faith and will watch expectantly for the LORD’s will to be done. I know that this is exactly where some of you are being challenged. WanNng to be like Abraham but struggling with unbelief. If God 3 has directed a certain aspect of your life you are well situated to – Prove your faith and watch for the LORD’s will to be done. Transi)on: As we now shik our adenNon to the faithful servant, I want you to think about what kind of influence Abraham must have had on the servant over all the years they had been together. For what we see is the outworking of life-on-life discipleship. Abraham was the one clearly called by God and yet even as God promised he would be a blessing to all the families of the earth we have in front of us today a first-hand look of what this blessing was – the gik of faith. Faithful Servant (vv10-57) 1. The unnamed servant was clearly set on carrying out the oath he made to Abraham. NoNce what this faithful servant does. v10 “Then the servant took ten of his master’s camels and departed, taking all sorts of choice gi<s from his master; and he arose and went to Mesopotamia to the city of Nahor.” a. He takes the pracNcal steps required to make such a journey. He prepares for success by bringing along the bride price fully expecNng the Lord’s favor to be upon his journey even as Abraham proclaimed. i. AnyNme we are charged with a task involving faith it nearly always manifests itself in real life acNon. If you are hired to do a job, your actually have to do the job and to do it well, working hearNly as for the Lord (Col 3:23). ApplicaNon pray and do. b. Not wanNng to dismiss that in anyway but rather I want to add to it what we see in terms of the servant’s expressed faith by looking at his prayer. i. vv12-14 “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.”” ii. Do you see how the servant began?, “O LORD, God of my master Abraham…” This is not holding onto the shirdails of Abraham’s faith, this is a hearnelt and fully embraced prayer of one who is honoring the LORD as well as the one who took the Nme to share with him all that he knew about the LORD. iii. The promises were made to Abraham, the servant was witness to Abraham’s walking according to these promises and I have no doubt was explained manifold Nmes throughout their life-on-life involvement as to why Abraham was doing some of the things he was doing. iv. To the point where the servant had no other choice but to believe in the God of his master Abraham. The tesNmony was clear and the faithfulness of God could not be disputed. 4 v. So here he is praying a wonderful prayer that is appealing to the very character of God – that God would show him his steadfast love. Specifically in the task of selecNng a wife for Isaac from this foreign land he was now standing in. vi. Don’t overlook what is Included in the prayer. For in it we see the wise criteria desirable for a wife, echoes of Proverbs 31. A woman who would be diligent and about her work while compassionate and caring for a traveler and his beasts of burden. The prayer ends with another appeal to the character of God – his steadfast love. 2. I am impressed by the outworking of this servant’s faith and I desire this type of discipleship to be abounding here in the church. Working itself out in the families of the church and when we are so blessed by the Lord to have relaNonships in the workplace or in school to disciple in such a manner as we surmise must have taken place between Abraham and his servant. a. READ Romans 1:8-12 b. This servant was faithful. He was wise and he was seeking the Lord’s blessing upon his trip. He took an oath, he made a promise, and now it was Nme to see if God’s providence would show forth. i. I love it absolutely love it and I know that in order to have more moments like this in life one has to follow this padern. Carefully commit to those things that require an oath, state your promises in such a way as to be able to fulfill them, and beseech the LORD in prayer that he will provide according to his providence. ii. The result – well the result is like what we see in our text. It came to pass as it was prayed. The servant worshiped the Lord, v27 “Blessed be the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his steadfast love and his faithfulness toward my master.” and then he gives tesNmony to the young maiden, Rebekah, and he witnesses to her about the LORD’s working. 3. The faithfulness of the servant leads to his faithful witness of God Almighty being at work. This whole story is repeated before Rebekah’s brother Laban (vv34-48) and I don’t want you to miss the significance of this answered prayer in the way it stands as a witness. a. Just look at Laban’s response in v51, hearing all that had happened, he said “Behold, Rebekah is before you; take her and go, and let her be the wife of your master’s son, as the LORD has spoken.” i. Did you catch that! The answered payer is given as tesNmony to these people and the response is one of do “as the LORD has spoken.” ii. The answered prayer stands as witness to the LORD’s working in this mader and there is no refuNng it. So, be of good cheer believers and pray, seek God’s answers, and share the way God is working. 4. I urge you to take a look again this week at the faithful servant’s prayer, appealing to God’s character, laying out a wise set of criteria that should be met in the circumstance he found himself in as one looking for a wife for his master’s son, and closing the prayer in once again an appeal to God’s 5 character – his steadfast love. Church, pray like this. Prove your faith and watch the LORD’s will be done. Transi)on: This faithful servant, embodied the faith of his master who has discipled him in life-on-life living, he is competent and strong while maintaining respect and care as he goes about his assignment and the result is God honoring. SubstanNally, the result is that he helps bring about the forming of a new covenant between Rebekah and Isaac, a marriage covenant and the onward movement in the book of Genesis as we track along with God’s plan of redempNon. Forming a New Covenant (vv58-67) 1. The whole reason this story is here in the Bible is because in order for the LORD’s plan to conNnue the son of the promise, that is Isaac, children are to be produced and the covenant is to conNnue (Gen 17:19). God’s intenNon from the beginning of creaNon, since before the fall was for a man to leave his father and mother and to hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh (Gen 2:24) for them to form a new relaNonship one seen as even stronger than a blood relaNonship. a. One author wrote, “marriage is the most profound bond that exists between two human beings; within it nothing can be withheld.” b. And later he stated, “All other relaNonal claims are subordinate to those of marriage. One flesh entails a life-long, exclusive clinging of one man to one woman in one life fully shared. Marriage puts a barrier around a husband and his wife and destroys all barriers between them; they belong fully to one another, and to one another only.” 2. So, consider with me here what we see in Genesis 24. Abraham is adempNng to be faithful to the promises of God and commissions his servant to go to his homeland to find a wife for his son Isaac. The faithful servant takes an oath, makes a promise, and waits upon the providence of God to prosper his journey. Now in the household of Rebekah the quesNon is posed to her. v58 “Will you go with this man?” a. In light of all the informaNon I just read about marriage, in light of what we know of marriage from our own experience, in thinking of other passages on marriage how would you advice Rebekah to answer this quesNon? i. Seriously, what are you holding up as the ideals that are necessary for marriage to be sought? b. What we see repeatedly from Scripture here and elsewhere is that the commitment to marriage is just that – it is a commitment, it is a decision – for sure a decision that is to be entered into wisely but once made without reservaNon. c. This is punctuated in our chapter here, we know that Rebekah does make the choice to return with the servant and to be the wife of Isaac, sight unseen, and within apparently 24hrs of learning of his existence. The decision is made. i. She departs from the protecNon of the house she was brought up in and goes on a journey to a far-off land, echoing in a way that we are to take noNce of Abraham’s departure from his homeland when he was called by God to go to a new land. 6 ii. Rebekah goes, she commits herself to marriage. iii. Isaac, when he receives the tesNmony of what the faithful servant was off doing, with nothing further stated in the text, accepts Rebekah as his wife, takes here and consummates the marriage, and the text says, v67 “and she became his wife, and he loved her.” 3. The story is a beauNful descripNon of faithfulness and obedience. In this whole chapter everyone is at their absolute best. It doesn’t escape me that this is a high ideal that is put on display for us. I’m not going to stand up here and say, “so this is how we do it – just be like Abraham, pray like his servant, commit to marriage sight unseen, and live happily ever aker.” Prove your faith and watch the LORD’s will be done Transi)on: But I have to ask how do we make use of the ideal pictures given to us in Scripture when they are presented? For although the ideal is presented here in other porNons of Scripture God’s people are called to be obedient. Like Deut 5:32-33 “You shall be careful therefore to do as the LORD your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the le<. You shall walk in all the way that the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess.” Conclusion: So, the real quesNon facing us is are we looking for this “land” to be present here and now or are we content with the “ideal land” which is being prepared for us by our Savior? For each one of us are facing the realiNes of living in a sinful world. We are constantly dealing with the brokenness inevitably experienced by the inhabitants of a sinful world. For those of us who are followers of Christ we are tempted to say, “Lord why delay – hasten the day of your return!” But dear friends, who are we to tell the Lord how much is too much? We are to be like the faithful servant prayerfully considering our steps, seeking the Lord’s blessing upon our efforts, and being wise in the steps we take. For we serve at the pleasure of the king, King Jesus, who says, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going…Jesus said, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (Jn 14:1-6) I’ll say in closing that in order to Prove your faith and watch the LORD’s will be done, you must treasure in your heart his steadfast love and faithfulness, have it wriden on the tablet of your heart, and trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths (Prov 3:5-6).
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