Faithfulness in the Ordinary
SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus
Introduction: In our study of Genesis, we come today to the longest single episode in the life of Abraham—the search for a wife for his son Isaac—but as a preacher I had to really wrestle with what to do with this text. I’m not into telling stories for the sake of stories, even wonderful love stories like this one. And I’m unwilling to allegorize the story looking for some super-spiritual meaning, as some have done, taking the search for a wife for Isaac as an illustration of Christ’s pursuit of His own bride, the Church.
It struck me that we have seen several quite extraordinary events in Abraham’s life which demanded quite extraordinary faith. It started with his original call from God to leave his home in Ur and travel hundreds of miles to a place he knew not. It continued with God’s promise that He would give Abraham a son even though he was a very old man and his wife was completely past child-bearing age. And, of course, the greatest challenge to his faith came when Abraham was asked by God to offer that son, his only son, the son of promise, as a sacrifice on the altar. Abraham demonstrated remarkable faith regarding each of these challenges, stumbling once in a while, but ultimately trusting God in a way that gave him the longest resume in the Great Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11.
But there is a danger for us as we study great heroes of the faith like Abraham. They can sometimes appear larger than life. They can come off as super-heroes, the kind who grab our fancy and provide wonderful entertainment, but the fact is we don’t ever expect to face the challenges they faced or exercise their level of faith.
I think the biblical author was aware of this danger, so he goes out of his way to avoid the super-hero syndrome. How? He does so first by being brutally honest about the faults and frailties of biblical characters. That is why King David’s tragic sin with Bathsheba is given such a prominent place in the biography of the man after God’s own heart. That is why before Elijah is used as an example of fervent prayer in James 5, we are told that “Elijah was a man just like us.” It is why Paul, when highlighting the grace of God in saving sinners, identifies himself as the worst of the lot. And I think that it is why in the middle of Abraham’s journey of faith, we are told that he twice lied about his wife being his sister, placing her in a morally compromising position, and then he slept with his wife’s servant instead of waiting for God’s promise of a son to be fulfilled. Yes, Abraham was a hero, but by no means was he a super-hero.
A friend and former classmate of mine, Gary Inrig, wrote a book on biblical heroes, appropriately entitling it, Hearts of Iron, Feet of Clay. That’s who they were. Still, their monumental acts of faith tend to overshadow their failures, and if we’re not careful we can construct in our minds a gallery of trophy saints from whom we gain little practical encouragement.
That is why the biblical author takes a second step to help us avoid the super-hero syndrome. He shows us how these heroes lived out their faith in the ordinary aspects of life. David was the hero of the battle with the Philistine Goliath, but before that he served faithfully for years as a shepherd for his father’s sheep. Daniel survived the lion’s den, and his three Hebrew friends survived Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace, but first they all refused the king’s wine and fine foods, yet they kept themselves fit and studied hard. Paul was a miracle-worker and martyr for his faith, but he also built tents to support himself rather than expecting others to support him. Jesus’ exhortation to the effect that “he who is faithful in little will be faithful in much” is clearly seen lived out in the lives of most biblical heroes, OT and NT.
As we come today to Genesis 24, I think “faithfulness in the ordinary” is one of the principal lessons of this period of Abraham’s life. We saw it last week when his spouse Sarah preceded him in death—a common experience that almost half of us will one day share. And today we are going to see how Abraham’s faith impacted another challenge most of us either have had or will have—the giving of our children in marriage.
This story is so long that I fear I might lose some of you if I were to read it straight through, especially if I asked you to stand as we read, which we are accustomed to doing. So, I am going to read only portions of the story, the longest being the first 33 verses. I encourage you to follow along in your Bible.
Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years. And the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. 2 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, 3 that I may make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell, 4 but will go to my country and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son Isaac.” 5 The servant said to him, “Perhaps the woman may not be willing to follow me to this land. Must I then take your son back to the land from which you came?” 6 Abraham said to him “See to it that you do not take my son back there. 7 The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my kindred, and who spoke to me and swore to me, ‘To your offspring I will give this land,’ he will send his angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there. 8 But if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be free from this oath of mine; only you must not take my son back there.” 9 So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master and swore to him concerning this matter.
10 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. 11 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. 12 And he said, “O Lord, God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today and show steadfast love to my master Abraham. 13 Behold, I am standing by the spring of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. 14 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.”
15 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. 16 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. 17 Then the servant ran to meet her and said, “Please give me a little water to drink from your jar.” 18 She said, “Drink, my lord.” And she quickly let down her jar upon her hand and gave him a drink. 19 When she had finished giving him a drink, she said, “I will draw water for your camels also, until they have finished drinking.” 20 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. 21 The man gazed at her in silence to learn whether the Lord had prospered his journey or not.
22 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, 23 and said, “Please tell me whose daughter you are. Is there room in your father’s house for us to spend the night?” 24 She said to him, “I am the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor.” 25 She added, “We have plenty of both straw and fodder, and room to spend the night.” 26 The man bowed his head and worshiped the Lord 27 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.” 28 Then the young woman ran and told her mother’s household about these things.
29 Rebekah had a brother whose name was Laban. Laban ran out toward the man, to the spring. 30 As soon as he saw the ring and the bracelets on his sister’s arms, and heard the words of Rebekah his sister, “Thus the man spoke to me,” he went to the man. And behold, he was standing by the camels at the spring. 31 He said, “Come in, O blessed of the Lord. Why do you stand outside? For I have prepared the house and a place for the camels.” 32 So the man came to the house and unharnessed the camels, and gave straw and fodder to the camels, and there was water to wash his feet and the feet of the men who were with him. 33 Then food was set before him to eat. But he said, “I will not eat until I have said what I have to say.” He said, “Speak on.”
Abraham is old and widowed. He has experienced incredible blessing from the Lord, but one issue weighs heavily on his mind. God has made two amazing promises to him—the promise of a land that will be his forever and the promise of a seed, a progeny that will be like the sand on the seashore and through whom the whole world would be blessed. Last week we saw that he finally received a down payment on the land promise as he purchased the cave of Macpelah as a burial site for his dear wife Sarah. But the promise of a progeny seems to be at risk, for his son Isaac is now at least 37 years old (25:20) and is still unmarried. Isaac needs a wife.
Our story unfolds in four scenes. First…,
Abraham commissions his trusted servant to find a wife for Isaac. (24:2-9)
Arranged marriages seem strange to the western individualistic mind-set, but they are not as strange as they first appear. As a matter of fact, most civilizations in the history of mankind have managed quite well under that system. We seem to think that two people must have some unique spark or connection before they can fall in love, but the fact is people can learn to love one another. The notion that a person needs total freedom in choosing a spouse in order to find one who is totally compatible is belied by the fact that divorce is more prevalent where that freedom is greatest.
I do not advocate a return to arranged marriages, but I do believe parents should exercise a lot more influence than they typically do on the dating lives of their teens, and young people would do themselves an enormous favor by consulting more with their parents on this most important decision in life. In Abraham’s and Isaac’s culture there was no alternative—it was the father’s responsibility to find a wife for his son.
How Abraham goes about fulfilling that common duty demonstrates incredible faithfulness. First, he chooses the right person to achieve his end—a trusted servant—and makes him take an oath that he will follow Abraham’s requirements. There are two of them. First, his son’s wife must come from among his relatives back in Mesopotamia, not from among the Canaanites among whom he lived. His concern is not racial but spiritual. The reason he will not tolerate a Canaanite woman is that the Canaanites were deeply involved in idolatry and immorality, and he feared that any Canaanite woman would negatively influence his son. Furthermore, the land God had promised to Abraham and his progeny was currently inhabited by the Canaanites, so intermarriage with them would create an inherent conflict.
A second requirement is that Isaac himself must not be allowed to return to Abraham’s homeland. The woman must be found there and brought to Isaac. If Isaac returns to Abraham’s roots, he may find things more comfortable there and be unwilling to step out in faith to seize his inheritance.
I see Abraham here walking a fine line that all of us must walk at times. It’s the line between protectionism and caving to the culture. The biblical philosophy on this continuum is expressed well by the phrase “in the world but not of the world.” We must live in the world into which we are called. We cannot and must not isolate ourselves or our children completely from society, as godless as it is at times, for our Gospel is the only hope for that society. Yet at the same time we must not capitulate to the culture, buying into its values and adopting its behaviors. Abraham seemed to understand that. He will not allow his son to retreat to the comfortable confines of his homeland, but neither will he allow compromise with the Canaanites.
This same tension constantly faces the church. About two weeks ago I read an editorial in an out-of-state newspaper whose theme was that the mainline churches have won the cultural battle, but in the process, they have lost the war. That is, they have taken positions that are now majority positions in our culture—on the sexual revolution, on abortion, on gay marriage, on divorce, etc.—but while apparently winning those battles, every one of those denominations is in serious decline. The culture views them as right but irrelevant. They have lost their prophetic voice.
At the same time there are countless churches stuck in the mud of fundamentalist tradition, losing an entire generation of young people because they, too, are viewed as irrelevant. Frankly, I think one of the most critical issues facing evangelicalism today is how to maintain our prophetic voice in a culture that is fast approaching that of the Canaanites without retreating into our holy huddles.
Abraham’s servant asks a wise question in verse 5. “What if I find a wife for Isaac but she is unwilling to leave her homeland?” Abraham expresses faith that God will send an angel to help with the process. This angel would not be a substitute for human effort but an aid to it. Yes, the woman might conceivably be unwilling—because God does not force the human will—but Abraham will still not compromise his convictions. Even if the search is unsuccessful, Isaac is not to return to Abraham’s homeland.
In the second scene of our love story…,
Abraham’s servant takes his commission seriously and faithfully. (10-27)
Abraham is not the only character of faith in our story; his trusted servant is one as well. In fact, this servant turns out to be one of the great unnamed saints in the Bible. He demonstrates a unique combination of loyalty, responsibility and faith as he sets out with a large retinue on a journey of hundreds of miles. Arriving at his destination of Nahor (the town was apparently named after Abraham’s brother), he immediately goes to the well outside of town, not only because his camels need a drink, but also because that’s where the women will be—industrious women of the kind he is looking for.
But please notice that though he has a plan, he knows it must be bathed in prayer. Look at verse 12: “O Lord, God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today and show steadfast love to my master Abraham.” He then asks God to identify the one who should become Isaac’s wife. In fact, he is quite specific; he asks God to allow the girl from whom he requests a drink to not only give him a drink but to offer to water his camels as well. That way he will know she is the one.
And “before he had finished praying” here comes Rebekah with her water jar on her shoulder, she agrees to give him a drink, and she offers to water his camels as well! I know what some of you are thinking: “I could be more a person of faith if my prayers were answered that fast and that specifically!”
Prayer, it must be acknowledged, is a theological enigma to a lot of Christians. They know they should pray more, but so often their prayers seem to bounce off the ceiling. But I want us to note a couple of things about how this servant prays. First, his prayer is God-centered; he begins by acknowledging the character and power of God. So often we skip this element and go straight to our laundry lists. Prayer is more about connecting with the Giver than it is about asking for gifts.
Second, the servant’s prayer is specific; he tells God exactly what he needs. Someone has said that general prayers yield general answers. When we pray, “Lord, guide us and lead us,” how will we ever know if such a prayer is answered? It’s like shooting an arrow at a barn and then drawing a target around the arrow.
Third, the servant prays in faith, i.e., he expects God to answer. But fourth, and this is very important—he is not presumptive. Even after Rebekah meets his specific request he continues to act wisely and responsibly. While she is drawing water for his camels he watches closely, without saying a word, “to learn whether or not the Lord had made his journey successful.”
Perhaps if our prayers were more like his, our answers might be more like his. But please understand I am not advocating the name-it-and-claim-it attitude we see in certain circles today. For one thing the focus of that movement is usually on health or wealth—two concerns which are almost absent from biblical prayers. Nor am I advocating laying fleeces before the Lord. You perhaps recall that when Gideon was promised victory over the Midianites, he asked God to prove it by having a fleece be soaked with dew while the ground around it was dry. And even though God met his request, he asked for another sign—this time that the fleece be dry while the ground was wet with dew. Gideon wasn’t praying; he was testing God and expressing doubt, not faith. Abraham’s servant was praying and praying specifically.
As we return to our story, we discover that Rebekah is Abraham’s niece, therefore Isaac’s cousin. She is very beautiful and a virgin. She is also industrious, as indicated by her offer to water the servant’s camels. Camels drink up to 25 gallons a day, and there are ten of them, but she runs back to the well and draws enough water for all ten camels—well over a thousand pounds of water altogether!
The servant has seen enough to take another step, so he takes out some gifts of jewelry he has brought and presumably offers them to Rebekah. He also asks her who her father is and whether there might be room to spend the night in her father’s house. She responds by identifying herself and offering hospitality for the servant’s entourage.
The response of Abraham’s servant to this encouraging development is telling. It says in verse 26, “Then the man bowed down and worshiped the Lord.” That is the only appropriate response when God answers prayer. The servant doesn’t thank his lucky stars; he doesn’t pat himself on the back; he doesn’t even thank Rebekah at this point, because he recognizes that every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father.
In verse 28 the focus of our story shifts to the third scene.
Rebekah and her family consider the servant’s offer. (28-61)
In verse 29 we are introduced to Rebekah’s brother, Laban. In that culture a woman’s brother is the one who gave her away, so that is why he plays a prominent role. A hint about Laban’s character is offered in verse 30, “As soon as he saw the ring and the bracelets on his sister’s arms…,” he invites Abraham’s servant to come and stay at their home, not, I suspect, because he is so hospitable but because he is greedy. I suggest this because Laban’s greed will play a major role in the life of Jacob in chapter 29. Here he lays out the red carpet and puts on a royal spread for his apparently well-heeled guest.
Abraham’s servant, however, refuses to eat until he has the opportunity to share why he has come and what he is looking for. (This is where we stopped our earlier reading, because the next 16 verses are a scene-by-scene rehearsal by the servant of all that has happened so far). The servant places God in the prominent place all through the story, recounting how God has blessed Abraham, including giving him a son in his old age, how Abraham has walked with God, and how Abraham demonstrated confidence that an angel from God would enable the search. The servant also mentions his own prayer by the well, God’s immediate answer, and even his response of bowing down and worshiping the Lord when Rebekah seemed to be the answer to his prayer.
He concludes in verse 49, not with any demands but rather with a humble request. Let’s read that verse; in fact, let’s read from verses 49- 61:
49 Now then, if you are going to show steadfast love and faithfulness to my master, tell me; and if not, tell me, that I may turn to the right hand or to the left.”
50 Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, “The thing has come from the Lord; we cannot speak to you bad or good. 51 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.”
52 When Abraham’s servant heard their words, he bowed himself to the earth before the Lord. 53 And the servant brought out jewelry of silver and of gold, and garments, and gave them to Rebekah. He also gave to her brother and to her mother costly ornaments. 54 And he and the men who were with him ate and drank, and they spent the night there. When they arose in the morning, he said, “Send me away to my master.” 55 Her brother and her mother said, “Let the young woman remain with us a while, at least ten days; after that she may go.” 56 But he said to them, “Do not delay me, since the Lord has prospered my way. Send me away that I may go to my master.” 57 They said, “Let us call the young woman and ask her.” 58 And they called Rebekah and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” She said, “I will go.” 59 So they sent away Rebekah their sister and her nurse, and Abraham’s servant and his men. 60 And they blessed Rebekah and said to her,
“Our sister, may you become
thousands of ten thousands,
and may your offspring possess
the gate of those who hate him!”
61 Then Rebekah and her young women arose and rode on the camels and followed the man. Thus the servant took Rebekah and went his way.
The initial reaction of Rebekah’s family is encouraging. They have heard the account of the servant’s journey first-hand, and there seems to be only one possible response: they concur that Rebekah should become Isaac’s wife.
Abraham’s servant, not surprisingly, immediately bows down before the Lord to give thanks. Then he presents additional gifts he has brought—jewelry and articles of clothing for Rebekah herself, and costly gifts as a dowry for her brother and mother. Only then does the servant agree to sit down and eat and to accept their hospitality for the night.
When he arises the next morning, the servant asks that the family of Rebekah send him on his way back to Abraham. But Laban’s pillow is soaked; he has been drooling all night. He has been showered with gifts, but he sees the potential for more. I suspect he has pulled on his mother’s heart strings, with the result that the two of them suggest a delay—Rebekah should remain at home another ten days or so. This is undoubtedly a negotiating tactic. But Abraham’s servant will have none of it; he insists that he must return to Abraham as soon as possible.
They decide to call Rebekah and ask what her desire is; she says she will go. This is, of course, a significant act of faith on her part—traveling sight-unseen to a foreign land to be introduced to a husband she has never met. Laban has met his match, so the family sends her with her nurse and offers her a blessing.
There is only one scene left in our story, and the way it is related is strangely almost anticlimactic.
Isaac meets his new wife (62-67)
Let’s read beginning in verse 62:
62 Now Isaac had returned from Beer-lahai-roi and was dwelling in the Negeb. 63 And Isaac went out to meditate in the field toward evening. And he lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, there were camels coming. 64 And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she dismounted from the camel 65 and said to the servant, “Who is that man, walking in the field to meet us?” The servant said, “It is my master.” So she took her veil and covered herself. 66And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. 67 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.
While Abraham’s servant is conducting his search, Isaac is back in Canaan, no doubt wondering how his father’s effort to arrange a marriage for him will end. One day he is out in a field meditating when he sees a caravan approaching. Rebekah sees him and asks who the man is who is coming to meet them. When he is identified as her future husband she puts on her veil. A little mystery is always appropriate when it comes to a wedding, you know.
The actual wedding is apparently a simple affair. All we are told is that Isaac loved Rebekah and was comforted after his mother’s death.
Conclusion: So let me return where I started. Why is this story here? Yes, it shows faith in the ordinary events of life—on the part of Abraham, Abraham’s servant, and Rebekah herself. But there is also a larger theme. In this love story God is fulfilling His promise to Abraham that He would bless him and that all peoples on earth would be blessed through him. Isaac is the son of promise, but he is not the ultimate Son of Promise. When we come to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, we discover from the genealogies at the beginning of both books that Jesus is a descendant of Abraham through Isaac, and He is the One through whom the whole world would ultimately be blessed. He is the One who will “possess the gates” of those who hate him, as prophesied unwittingly in the blessing on Rebekah in verse 60.
God did not just drop a Messiah from the sky; rather the Savior came out of the warp and woof of humanity. He did not descend from super-heroes but from ordinary people of faith, people like Abraham, and David, people who are broken and sinful, but who put their trust in God when push comes to shove.
I want to challenge you this morning—not to climb every mountain, to ford every stream, to perform extraordinary feats of faith, though on rare occasion God may ask you to do that. Rather I want to urge you to trust Him on a day-to-day basis, to live out your faith in the ordinary humdrum of daily life. Trust God with your grief when a loved one dies, trust Him to provide a godly spouse for your child, trust Him to answer prayer. But most of all trust Him with your brokenness, your sin. Jesus, the ultimate Son of Abraham, came to die for you on the cross so that your sins might be forgiven and you might have eternal life with the Father.
Prayer: Father, thank you for Your faithful providence over our lives. In this story we have studied You do not speak audibly; there are no miracles; yet You are clearly behind the scenes, working to bring about your perfect purposes. Help us, Father, to trust You, to live obediently and faithfully, and to look forward to that ultimate Son of Promise who has forgiven our sin and will someday come again to make all things right.
DATE: April 14, 2013
Tags:
Arranged marriage
Faithfulness