Finding a Bride for Isaac Part 1 — Chuck Smith

Welcome to The Word for Today, featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California. Pastor Chuck is currently leading us on a verse-by-verse study through the entire Bible.

And on today's edition of The Word for Today, we'll be looking at a beautiful love story that symbolizes the Holy Spirit wooing the bride, as we pick up in Genesis, chapter 24, verse 1. So let's follow along, as Pastor Chuck begins by sharing with us this narrative of finding a bride for Isaac.

Isaac, Rebekah, and the Holy Spirit’s Mission

Now Sarah set aside, as Israel was set aside after the crucifixion of Jesus. And now Abraham was old, well advanced in age, and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. About three years later, Isaac was 40 when he married Rebecca.

And so about three years between chapters 23 and 24, when Abraham said to the oldest servant of his house, who ruled over all that he had, please put your hand under my thigh. Now this oldest servant was probably Eliezer.

He is named for us in chapter 15. When God promised that he would be to Abraham his exceeding great reward and bring to him great riches, Abraham said, what's the value of all of the wealth when I don't have any descendants to leave it to?

My heir is this Eliezer of Damascus, a servant born in my house. I don't have any of my own children to leave it all to. And God said, the servant will not be the heir, but one that is born of thee will be the heir.

And the promise again of God multiplying the seed of Abraham as the stars of heaven. So Eliezer, the name in Hebrew means God my help, Eliezer. He is a type of the Holy Spirit as he goes to get a bride for his master's son to woo and to win that bride, to bring him back that the master's son might be married to this bride.

As a type of the Holy Spirit, his name is significant for Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the comforter, which in Greek is parakletos. And it means literally one who comes alongside to help. And so the name is the helper as Eliezer is God, my helper, the name of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, the parakletos is the one who comes alongside to help.

Now, Eliezer is not named in chapter 24. And I believe that that is not a slight or an omission carelessly. I believe that it is a deliberate omission by the Holy Spirit who inspired the text. For Jesus said concerning the Holy Spirit, when he comes, he is not going to testify of himself.

He is going to testify of me. He has not come to bring glory to himself, but he's come to bring glory to Christ. And the witness and the work of the Holy Spirit in the world today is not to magnify himself, but is to magnify Jesus Christ.

But so important is his magnifying of the son that even as he inspires the text, he leaves out the name in chapter 24 and just is called the oldest servant of Abraham. This servant ruled over all that he had.

Abraham’s Charge and the Land of Promise

And Abraham said, please put your hand under my thigh and I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth. Abraham had a very broad concept of God, not only of the heaven, but of also of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell, but you will go to my country and to my family and take a wife for my son, Isaac.

And the servant said unto him, perhaps the woman will not be willing to follow me to this land. Must I take your son back to the land from which you came? Now the servant realized that what Abraham was asking of him was no easy task.

He has to go back to Mesopotamia, which is actually 500 miles away. And there he has to coax a young girl to get on a camel and ride 500 miles across the desert area to meet and to marry a man that she has never seen before.

Only knows of him because of the witness of the servant. She'll never see her parents, her home again. And the servant could see the difficulty of talking a pretty young girl into such an adventure. And so the servant said, what if she's not willing?

Shall I then take Isaac to the land? No, definitely not. Isaac is not to leave this land. And it is interesting. Isaac never did leave the land of promise. Later Jacob did. He went down to Egypt, but Isaac never did leave the land of promise.

And so he said, no, you're not to take him there. Beware that you do not take my son back there. Abraham realized that if Isaac went there, it was quite possible that in marrying her that she would then object to the long journey and maybe Isaac would remain back in Mesopotamia and the purposes of God would then be thwarted.

So Abraham is very firm in you're not to take him back there. He then declares his faith. The Lord God of heaven who took me from my father's house and from the land of my family and who spoke to me and swore to me saying to your descendants, I give this land.

He will send his angel before you and you shall take a wife for my son from there. I mean, Abraham is very firm about this and he's confident that God is going to take care of this also. The angel will go before you and you're to take a son from a wife for my son from there.

And if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be released from this oath. Only do not take my son back there. So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham, his master, and swore to him concerning this matter.

The Servant’s Prayer at the Well

And then the servant took 10 of his master's camels and departed for all of his master's goods were in his hand. And he arose and went to Mesopotamia to the city of Nahor. Nahor was the brother of Abraham.

It does not mean that that was the name of the city. It could be that it was, but it was just the city of Nahor. That's where Abraham's brother lived. And he made his camels kneel down outside the city by a well of water at evening time, the time when the women go out to draw water.

And then he said, O Lord God of my master Abraham, please give me success this day and show kindness to my master Abraham. Behold, I stand here by the well of water and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water.

That was the time where they usually went out to draw water in the evening. And so he prays, O Lord, please give me success as these girls come to draw water. Now let it be that the young woman to whom I say, please let down your pitcher that I may drink.

And she says, drink, and I will also give your camels a drink. Let her be the one whom you have appointed for your servant Isaac. And by this, I will know that you have shown kindness to my master. And so he sets up a condition, a stipulation here, sort of a fleece of sorts.

God’s Choice of the Bride

Let that be the one that you have appointed. Now, the scripture speaks in the New Testament concerning the church of Jesus Christ that we have been chosen in Christ before the foundations of the world.

God had already appointed, and the servant realized that the bride that was to be found for Isaac was already appointed by God. The angel of the Lord will direct you. He'll lead you to the one. God already had appointed Rebecca to be the bride.

Even as God has already chosen the bride for Christ, and you who have received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you are a chosen generation, chosen before the foundations of the world, that you should bring forth glory and praise unto God as the bride of his Son, Jesus Christ.

Let me know, Lord, the one that you've appointed. Show her to me. Let this be the condition. And it happened before he had even finished speaking that Rebecca, who was born to Bethuel, the son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, came out with her pitcher on her shoulder.

So while he was still praying, before he had even finished the prayer, Rebecca had arrived at the well with her pitcher on her shoulder and had gone down to draw water from the well. Now, the young woman was very beautiful to behold.

And the Scripture doesn't say that about very many people, but it is interesting concerning the bride. The Scripture declares she is very beautiful to behold. And in the Psalms 45, prophetic, concerning the bride of Christ, it says the king desires her beauty.

And the Lord looks upon you, and he sees you as very beautiful. The king desires her beauty. She was very beautiful. She was a virgin. No man had known her. And she went down to the well and filled her pitcher and came up.

Rebekah’s Generosity and the Test of Service

Now, some of you have been to the Holy Land. If you remember the city of Maggeto, the well of water that was at Maggeto, you remember all the way down you had to go to get to where you could draw the water from the well?

And this was true of a lot of the wells in those days. They would actually have these steps going down into this large hole. And then at the bottom, you would let the pitcher down into the well, but you had to go down.

And evidently, that was the case here at the city of Nahor. It says she went down to the well and then came up from the well, which means that her volunteering to draw the water for those 10 camels was all the more significant, because a camel can drink between 20 and 50 gallons of water each.

And to have to make this trip down the steps to the well, let down the pitcher, pull it up, and come up and fill up the trough until those 10 thirsty camels had finished drinking, it said. I mean, that was really quite a task indeed.

And so when the servant had made this stipulation, he had put a pretty good sign, an indication for which one God had chosen to be the bride. And so the servant ran to meet her and said, please, let me drink a little water from your pitcher.

So she said, drink, my Lord. And she hastened and let her pitcher down to her hand and gave him a drink. And when she had finished giving him a drink, she said, I will draw water for your camels also until they have finished drinking.

Quite a young gal. Then she hastened and emptied her pitcher into the trough, ran back to the well to draw water, ran back to the well and drew for all his camels. And the man wondering at her, and I imagine he did at this point, what a beauty and so energetic, strong, pleasant, gracious.

Who could it be? Wondering at her remained silent so as to know whether the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not. He didn't tell her yet. He wanted to see if she was going to finish getting water for all those camels.

Rebekah’s Family and God’s Providential Guidance

So it was that when the camels had finished drinking, that he took a golden nose ring weighing a half a shekel. And it says earrings in King James, but literally it's a nose ring. And man, I don't know who would want to wear a nose ring that weighed a half of a shekel.

And two bracelets for her wrist weighing 10 shekels of gold. And he said, whose daughter are you? The big question now, because there were two things actually that the bride had to be from Abraham's family.

Go to my land and to my family and get a bride. Whose family are you? I mean, he had set up this condition, you know, and here this beautiful gal, she waters the camels. Now, whose family are you? And can you imagine what was going on in his emotions and all when she answered him, I am the daughter of Bethuel, Milcah's son, whom she bore to Nahor.

Nahor, the brother of Abraham. It's Nahor's granddaughter. Wow. You know. And moreover, she said to him, we have both straw and feed enough and room to lodge. So here she is declaring who she is. And at home we have enough straw and food and a place for you to lodge.

We've got enough room for you to stay. So the man bowed down his head and he worshiped the Lord. This was too much. He just had to worship God. He had just prayed that God would make his journey prosperous and excited.

He just bows down and he worships God at this point. And he said, blessed be the Lord God of my master, Abraham. And at that, her ears must have perked up. Abraham. I've heard of him. That's my grandfather's brother.

Blessed be the Lord God of my master, Abraham, who has not forsaken his mercy and his truth toward my master. And as for me, being on the way, the Lord led me to the house of my master's brother. Thank you.

Now, notice being on the way the Lord led me. One of the important steps of being led of the Lord is to get moving. It's hard to guide a stationary object. God leads us as we're moving. We have to step out in faith.

And as we step out in faith, then the Lord is able to lead us. But if you're just sitting around saying, well, I'm just waiting on God to lead me. I just want God to show me, you know, what to do and all.

And I'm just sitting here waiting for the Lord. You'll probably sit the rest of your life. You'll probably never get any direction. Stand up. Start walking. And then the Lord will lead you and say, no, no, turn left now.

And he'll start leading you when you start going. But you have to step out in faith to be led of the Lord. Being on the way, the Lord led me. And that is so true in being led by God. So the young woman ran home and she told those of her mother's house these things.

There is an indication in the text here that her father Bethuel was probably pretty much of an invalid at this point. Her brother Laban takes a more active role in the greeting of the guest and the arrangements and all.

Bethuel seems to have a very passive role and it could be because he was pretty much in an invalid state at this point. So she ran home and told those of her mother's house, not her father's house, but of her mother's house these things.

Now it of course was no doubt likely that Bethuel also had concubines beside Milka, his wife. It was very common in those days to have concubines. And so the children were actually closer to their mother than they were their father because their father could have children from several wives.

And so there would be the tendency for the family unit to be centered around the mother of the children rather than around the father himself. So she went to her.

Mother's house, told these things. We'll return with more of our verse-by-verse study through the book of Genesis in our next lesson as we continue this love story of finding a bride for Isaac. And we do hope you'll make plans to join us.

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That's right here on the next edition of The Word for Today. Here's Pastor Chuck Smith. May the Lord bless you and cause you to grow in grace.

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