Genesis 24

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.” ³⁴ So he said, “I am Abraham’s servant. ³⁵ The Lord has greatly blessed my master, and he has become great. He has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male servants and female servants, camels and donkeys. ³⁶ And Sarah my master’s wife bore a son to my master when she was old, and to him he has given all that he has. ³⁷ My master made me swear, saying, ‘You shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I dwell, ³⁸ but you shall go to my father’s house and to my clan and take a wife for my son.’ ³⁹ I said to my master, ‘Perhaps the woman will not follow me.’ ⁴⁰ But he said to me, ‘The Lord, before whom I have walked, will send his angel with you and prosper your way. You shall take a wife for my son from my clan and from my father’s house. ⁴¹ Then you will be free from my oath, when you come to my clan. And if they will not give her to you, you will be free from my oath.’ ⁴² “I came today to the spring and said, ‘O Lord, the God of my master Abraham, if now you are prospering the way that I go, ⁴³ behold, I am standing by the spring of water. Let the virgin who comes out to draw water, to whom I shall say, “Please give me a little water from your jar to drink,” ⁴⁴ and who will say to me, “Drink, and I will draw for your camels also,” let her be the woman whom the Lord has appointed for my master’s son.’ ⁴⁵ “Before I had finished speaking in my heart, behold, Rebekah came out with her water jar on her shoulder, and she went down to the spring and drew water. I said to her, ‘Please let me drink.’ ⁴⁶ She quickly let down her jar from her shoulder and said, ‘Drink, and I will give your camels drink also.’ So I drank, and she gave the camels drink also. ⁴⁷ Then I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ She said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor’s son, whom Milcah bore to him.’ So I put the ring on her nose and the bracelets on her arms. ⁴⁸ Then I bowed my head and worshiped the Lord and blessed the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me by the right way to take the daughter of my master’s kinsman for his son. 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. 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. ⁶⁶ And 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.

I believe that one of the saddest interviews I ever read was with John Derbyshire of National Review. It began with this interesting answer:

1. Are you a Christian?
2. No. I take the minimal definition of a Christian to be a person who is sure that Jesus of Nazareth was divine, or part-divine, and that the Resurrection was a real event. I don’t believe either of those things.

Later in the interview, we read:

1. Did you raise your kids as Christians?
2. Sort of. My wife’s not a Christian, and never had any inclination to become one, so there was never much question of us attending church as a family. I could have just taken the kids, I suppose, but it didn’t seem right, especially as I wasn’t a regular churchgoer myself. I did little things to jumpstart the religious modules in their infant brains. We read the picture Bible, we said grace before meals, I tried to teach them the Lord’s Prayer, and so on. I made sure they know that Christmas is not just “Winter Holiday.” …We still say Grace before meals, incidentally. I see no reason to confuse the kids by imposing my own loss of faith on them. And heck, someone might be listening…[1]

What strikes me as pitiful about this is Derbyshire’s failure to give himself wholly either to faith or unbelief. At least at the time of this interview he seems to be unable to believe yet is also bound to some sort of “just in case” belief that effectively hedges his bets.

I very much hope that he has moved into true faith since this interview but this much is sure: what is expressed in this interview is not “faith” in any biblical sense. In fact, the Bible gives us a very clear definition of faith in Hebrews 11:

¹ Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Those two nouns are very important: assurance and conviction. They are important and they are also likely not what many people both within the church and outside of it think of when they think of faith. For many, faith is the blind leap into the dark, a crossing of one’s spiritual fingers, a wager (to invoke the image of Pascal).

But biblical faith is an assurance and a conviction. Yes, it is an assurance “of things hoped for” and a conviction “of things not seen,” but it is assurance and conviction nonetheless. Such faith is what fueled the early church. It is also what drove the great men and women of the Old Testament. Faith is on brilliant display in Genesis 24, and I am tempted to argue that it should be placed alongside Hebrews 11 as the Old Testament “Hall of Faith”! I say this because faith is demonstrated by so many people in this chapter: Abraham, Abraham’s servant, Rebekah, Rebekah’s brother, and Rebekah’s father.

As we consider the second half of this amazing chapter, let us see biblical faith in action.

Faith means being willing to let go of what is most precious to you if God asks you to.

Recall that Abraham’s servant had come to Rebekah’s land and encountered her at the well. In answer to his prayers she demonstrated all of the qualities and traits that he was looking for in the woman who would become Isaac’s wife. He rejoiced and thanked God that God had led him to this amazing woman of character. Now, beginning in verse 29, Rebekah takes Abraham’s servant to her home to speak to her family. Here we see faith demonstrated in her brother’s and father’s willingness to let her go in obedience to God’s will.

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.” ³⁴ So he said, “I am Abraham’s servant. ³⁵ The Lord has greatly blessed my master, and he has become great. He has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male servants and female servants, camels and donkeys. ³⁶ And Sarah my master’s wife bore a son to my master when she was old, and to him he has given all that he has. ³⁷ My master made me swear, saying, ‘You shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I dwell, ³⁸ but you shall go to my father’s house and to my clan and take a wife for my son.’ ³⁹ I said to my master, ‘Perhaps the woman will not follow me.’ ⁴⁰ But he said to me, ‘The Lord, before whom I have walked, will send his angel with you and prosper your way. You shall take a wife for my son from my clan and from my father’s house. ⁴¹ Then you will be free from my oath, when you come to my clan. And if they will not give her to you, you will be free from my oath.’ ⁴² “I came today to the spring and said, ‘O Lord, the God of my master Abraham, if now you are prospering the way that I go, ⁴³ behold, I am standing by the spring of water. Let the virgin who comes out to draw water, to whom I shall say, “Please give me a little water from your jar to drink,” ⁴⁴ and who will say to me, “Drink, and I will draw for your camels also,” let her be the woman whom the Lord has appointed for my master’s son.’ ⁴⁵ “Before I had finished speaking in my heart, behold, Rebekah came out with her water jar on her shoulder, and she went down to the spring and drew water. I said to her, ‘Please let me drink.’ ⁴⁶ She quickly let down her jar from her shoulder and said, ‘Drink, and I will give your camels drink also.’ So I drank, and she gave the camels drink also. ⁴⁷ Then I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ She said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor’s son, whom Milcah bore to him.’ So I put the ring on her nose and the bracelets on her arms. ⁴⁸ Then I bowed my head and worshiped the Lord and blessed the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me by the right way to take the daughter of my master’s kinsman for his son.

Rebekah brings Abraham’s servant to her home where he is met by her brother, Laban. Here too he is shown amazing hospitality. Note also Laban’s acknowledgement of the Lord in verse 31: “Come in, O blessed of the Lord. Why do you stand outside?” Abraham’s family appears to know the Lord.

What follows is a long and meticulously constructed recounting of the servant’s journey up to that point. This testimony is important. The servant is aware that what he will ask of the family concerning Rebekah will be a difficult request. He needed them to know that it truly was the one true God who had sent him and brought him to them. This is why the servant’s speech makes numerous references to Yahweh God and His faithfulness.

At the conclusion of his story, the servant makes a bold move:

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.”

Surely this sense of urgency and demand for an immediate response strikes our ears as too brusque. Could he not give this family time to deliberate and prepare themselves? But it is oftentimes in the nature of faith to require an immediate decision, to decide whether one will follow or not. We can see this in the call of the first disciples in Matthew 4:

¹⁸ While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.¹⁹ And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” ²⁰ Immediately they left their nets and followed him.

Jesus calls upon these men to leave their very livelihoods and follow him. Their response is telling: “Immediately they left their nets and followed him.” Abraham’s servant felt the need to issue an immediate call. This is undoubtedly due to his recognition of the fact that Yahweh God was truly in this, that the Lord was truly orchestrating these events. Perhaps, in an earthly sense, Abraham’s advanced age was also in his mind. But it was his awareness of God moving that drove him forward with such a sense of urgency. Derek Kidner notes “the point of interest that [the servant] had stood, watchful for the answer, to make his request (12, 13a…); it was the answers that progressively prostrated him (26, ‘his head’; 52, ‘to the earth’).”[2] Yes, his head was bowed by a sense of the divine presence and he was driven by a sense of the divine plan.

And then we see the beautiful response of Rebekah’s brother and father:

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.”

Unbelievable! This is faith, the faith that is willing to let go of what is most precious: “take her and go.”

I ask you: what is it that God is asking you to relinquish? What is He asking you to let go of? What are you clutching that the call of faith is ask you to set loose?

Are you waiting? Lingering? Delaying? Why? Why will you not let it go? Because it hurts to do so? Because it is so valuable to you? But do you not worship a God who gave His only begotten Son? Do you not follow a King who carried a cross?

Faith—true, biblical faith—is willing to let go right now of that which God tells you to relinquish.

Faith means being willing to follow immediately.

And what of Rebekah? Does she show faith? Heretofore she has not had a voice in the matter. In keeping with the mores of that society, her decisions were made by her brother and her father. But now, in an interesting turn, they actually ask her what she would like to do.

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.

It would appear that Rebekah’s mother most likely was behind this call for a minimum ten-day delay. I say this without judgment, of course. Which of us would not ask for the same? And it is not as if her mother and brother are plotting a way out, unless one reads this request in the most uncharitable way possible. Rather, surely they simply wanted time to say goodbye properly. Even so, the servant is still driven and the sense of the immediate remains.

So they ask Rebekah. They ask her and her answer surely shines as one of the great and sterling examples of faith in all of scripture: “Will you go with this man?” “I will go.”

“I…will…go.”

My goodness! What faith! What courage! What an example and challenge to us all! R.R. Reno writes:

            It is not Isaac but Rebekah who recapitulates the pattern of Abraham…There are differences…Rebekah’s story includes an explicit scene of temptation. After promising Rebekah to Abraham’s servant…Rebekah’s brother Laban and her mother wish to delay Rebekah’s departure…[This] reflects a basic fact about human life: the gravitational force of our past is powerful. We are not only bound by guilt and transgression. The rightful claims of familial love and duty encircle us. However, like Abraham, Rebekah hearkens to her call. When consulted about her future, she simply says, “I will go.”[3]

Yes, Rebekah truly “recapitulates the pattern of Abraham.” She shows Abrahamic faith in her willingness to go! In a moving commentary on this scene, B.H. Carroll writes:

…[W]hat a singular thing it is that a girl raised in a loving family, sheltered by parental care from even a cold breath of air, the pride and light of the house, all at once, on one night’s notice, pulls up stakes and leaves the old home, saying to a man pretty much what Ruth said to Naomi, “Where thou goest I will go. Where thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy God shall by my God, and thy people shall be my people, and God do so to me, if I ever cease from following after thee.”[4]

It is another good parallel: Rebekah is like Ruth. Deep in her heart, she felt the call of God. She knew that Abraham’s servant spoke truth. She heard in his words the voice of God saying, “Come! Follow me!”

“I will go.”

How about you? Where is God calling you to go? Will you go? Will you embrace the faith that Rebekah had, a faith willing to walk away from everything and everybody that you know and go where God is calling you to go. This is what faith looks like.

Faith means trusting that God will provide what you need.

This Old Testament “Hall of Faith” chapter ends with God blessing and providing for Isaac. Faith also means trusting that God will provide what you need.

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. ⁶⁶ And 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.

This is a beautiful text. Notice that Isaac is “meditating in the field.” Isaac knows what it is to spend time with the Lord. Isaac too is a man of faith.

In verses 63 and 64 we see a repeated phrase: “he lifted up his eyes and saw…Rebekah lifted up her eyes…and…saw…” This is a powerful moment. Isaac and Rebekah see each other.

Rebekah becomes Isaac’s wife. They are wed. The chapter ends with another moving statement: “So Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.”

That is, God provided. Faith means trusting that God will provide what you need!

No, faith is not a leap in the dark. It is indeed assurance and conviction. It is the kind of conviction that causes Abraham and Sarah to go to a land that has been promised, leaving all they knew behind. It is the kind of faith that led Abraham and Sarah to dare to believe that God would give them a family and a name and a future. It is the kind of faith that led Rebekah to step out in a radical display of bold trust.

And it is the kind of faith that would lead a person to take the hand of Jesus! In Ephesians 2, Paul wrote:

⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Faith, then, is the open doorway through which we receive saving grace! We are saved by grace through faith. And, yes, while this faith may be the size of a mustard seed, it is the kind of faith that dares to trust in Jesus and His finished work on the cross and in the empty tomb.

Yes, indeed, the gospel is in Genesis 24, for in this chapter the master sends a servant to call a bride to his son! For this reason, many preachers of yesteryear saw themselves as occupying the role of the servant in this passage. In other words, many preachers saw themselves as going into a far land to call a bride to her groom, to call, that is, people to Jesus Christ. The church is the bride. It is called to come to the groom. B.H. Carroll, writing in 1913, gives us a beautiful example of this.

            In the King James Version, Eliezer’s speech has a translation that used to be very famous as a text. He says, “I have come to seek a bride for my lord.” A Methodist preacher in Edward Eggleston’s Circuit Rider, preaching from that text before an immense congregation, says, “My theme is suggest by the twenty-fourth chapter of Genesis,” and gave a little of the history. “Now,” he says, “I am here to seek a bride for my Lord, to espouse a soul to God. And like old Eliezer, I am under an oath of God. Like him I am not willing to eat until I have stated my case. And like him I have come by divine appointment. And like him I have tokens of his spirit that somewhere in this congregation is the bride of God. And like him I commence wooing for my Lord by stating whose son he is. He is the Son of God. He is very rich. He is the heir of all things in the world.” Edward Eggleston, in telling that story, relates that Patsy, a beautiful girl, who had despised religion and circuit riders, was wonderfully impressed by the sermon. It was the custom in the early days of Methodism to demand that women should eschew jewels, basing it on a New Testament expression about bad worldly ornaments. So while the preacher was exhorting and pleading for a bride for his master, Patsy commenced taking off her earrings, loosening her bracelets, and putting them all on the table. Then she said, “I seek to be ornamented by the One to whom you pr0pose to espouse me, even the Lord Jesus Christ. I lay aside the trappings of external wealth and splendor, and look for that quality of spirit that best ornaments a woman.” Paul says, showing that the Methodist preacher was not going out of the record, “I have espoused you to Christ.”[5]

I ask you: is there anybody here who needs to be wed to Christ, who needs to leave all that they know and come to Jesus? Is there anybody here who needs to take their place in the body and bride of Christ, the church, by being born again by grace through faith?

Do you hear the Spirit calling you? Do you feel the pull of grace? Do you feel yourself being drawn to Jesus? Do you? Then, like Rebekah, say “I will go! I will go! Yes, I will go!”

Then run into the arms of Jesus, the church’s groom, and find their salvation and life and peace.

 

[1] http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZDBmYzcyZTgzNzNkYWM0MzY3YjE1ZThhZGJiMDRiZWE=

[2] Derek Kidner, Genesis. Tyndale Old Testament Commentary. Vol.1 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2008), p.159.

[3] R.R. Reno, Genesis. Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible. (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2010), p.91-215.

[4] B.H. Carroll, Genesis. An Interpretation of the English Bible. (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1942), p.305.

[5] B.H. Carroll, p.303-304.