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Genesis 24:1-9
Thank you, Alex. Thank you for leading us this morning. Thank you for the preparation. Thank each of you for singing this morning. June 11, 2016 was one of the hottest days I can remember. It was humid.
It wasn't just hot. It was humid. It was humid. People were nearly passing out. It was so hot in the afternoon that day. But June 11, 2016 was one of the greatest days of my life. There was a ceremony that day.
There was a ceremony. There was a gathering of all the people at that time that I really knew and loved. Now there's so many that I know and love that I didn't know then. There were people there. It was happy.
It was wonderful. But the crowd is not what made that day great for me. The ceremony that day, as far as who performed it, things like that, and as far as my friends and family being there, is not what made that day stand out in my life.
That was the day that I married my beautiful wife. That was the day of my marriage. The union that I have with this lady sitting right here, the union and marriage to my best friend, was the greatest part of that day.
Marriage that we have celebrated for the past going on seven years? Going on eight years. Going on eight years. Quick math. I'm not good at it. But going on eight years, we have celebrated, and it's one decision in my life that I have not one time regretted, and that is my marriage to my wife.
I want to speak to you this morning on a couple examples of marriage from Scripture. As monumental as my marriage has been to me, and to my boys, and maybe I hope others, I want to talk to you of a couple of marriages that had and have great ramifications on mankind as a whole.
Turning your Bibles this morning to Genesis chapter 24. Genesis chapter 24, and we're going to begin in verse number one. Genesis chapter 24, beginning in verse one. When you find Genesis 24, one, if you would please stand this morning as we reverence the reading of God's holy word, if you're able.
Genesis 24, beginning in verse one. Now Abraham was old and well advanced in years, and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. 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 that I may make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven, the God of the earth, that you will not take a wife from my son, from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell, but you will go to my country and to my kindred and take a wife from my son Isaac, the servant, my son Isaac.
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? Abraham said to him, see to it that you do not take my son back there.
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 from my son from there.
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. So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham, his master, and swore to him concerning this matter.
Father God, as we gather today, we want to thank you for the opportunity that we have together, that we can come, that we can gather freely. We live in a very imperfect world, we live in a fallen culture, fallen world, fallen country, but Father God, we are still able to come and freely gather, and may we not take that for granted.
Lord, I'm thankful for the opportunity to preach your word this morning. Lord, I pray that you would be with me, that you would guide me, Father God, for I cannot do it without you. I pray, Father God, that through the preaching of your word and the reading of your word, that your son, your wonderful son, would shine forth, that Christ would be exalted, that he would be magnified, that we would see Christ, through this text, that we would see Christ, Lord, throughout the entire sermon as we go throughout different places of your word.
Lord God, that no man would be uplifted, but only Christ. That you would be glorified, that you would be pleased with our efforts this morning. Lord God, we miss those that can't be with us this morning.
We miss Quatro and Gunnar and Braden. We're thankful for what you're doing with them in Mexico. Thankful for this church family, Father God. I just pray that there be any here, Father God, that haven't been saved, that haven't trusted in you, that haven't repented of their sins.
I pray, Lord God, through the working of your spirit, that they would repent and trust in you. We ask all these things in Christ's name. Amen. So if we were to read all 67 verses of this text, we would find that there is so much detail in the story.
This is probably one of, if not the most detailed story in the book of Genesis. And we don't have time to cover each verse today, but we're going to break this text up into two parts. Part one this morning, and then part two this afternoon.
And both of these messages will come from Genesis 24. And so I'm not saying like, come back tonight or we're going to hunt you down, but I will say that to get a complete view of the entire text of Genesis 24, and we won't have time to cover each verse even tonight, but to see it in its fullness, part two is tonight.
So I encourage you to come back tonight, but I also beg you don't tune out the introduction this morning. There'll be a lot of scripture reading this morning, but I see no way around it. I can tell you this, every scripture that we will read this morning, I believe to be important to understanding our text and the message that is preached.
It's important this morning that we understand that the entire Old Testament was written to point to Christ, the cross, and in many ways, the church. Christ is central throughout the word. He is central from the Old Testament to the new, and that includes these really old recordings, really early recordings and books.
And it's important that we note this importance when, and this truth, when we read the Old Testament. When we read the Old Testament, it is not just trying to get through all of this old stuff until we get to the new and the relevant, the good stuff.
Like if we can just get through Deuteronomy, or we can just get through Job, or get to the Psalms and the major prophets, then we get to the good stuff. Or let's just skip the Old Testament altogether and only read the new.
You would be surprised how many of professing Christians believe this way, that we unhitch the Old Testament from the new. But the truth is, that is, that is not, that is not the truth. The truth is that it is all good, and it is all relevant stuff from Genesis 1 -1 all the way to Revelation 22 -21.
It all has meaning, and it is all good, and it is all the perfect and infallible Word of God. And it is applicable, and it is important to every believer. You know, I'm guilty of not spending the time needed in the Old Testament, but we need to meditate upon the Old Testament more often.
And that is very much includes Genesis, and these early writings. These early writings were preparing the world and the readers for the coming of Christ. We see this through various texts. One is 1 Peter chapter 1, concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours, searched and inquired carefully, inquiring that what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.
It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you, and the things that have now been announced to you through these who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which the angels long to look.
1 Corinthians 10, for I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that your fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate of the same spiritual food, and all drank of the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.
Nevertheless, most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were.
As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and 23 ,000 fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer.
Now these things happened to them as an example, as they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of ages has come. And lastly, Galatians 3, 9 and 8, in the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, In you shall all nations be blessed.
So then those who are of the faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. We must understand that there is so much in the Old Testament, that in the Old Testament there was a foreshadowing of Christ and the new covenant that was to come.
There is so much represented in so much of this that we can't miss it. We can't miss it. Too often we read the Old Testament and we miss it. We miss what it's saying. We miss it. Galatians 4, 21 through 27, there's something I want to point out about this text.
It says, Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do not listen to the law, for it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and one by the free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise.
That's important. We're going to talk about that promise this morning. Now this may be interpreted allegorically. These women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery. She is Hagar.
Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia. She corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written, Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear.
Break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor, for the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband. It says in verse 24, interpreted allegorically. What does that mean?
Well, an allegory in this sense is hidden meaning behind this scripture and text, or the scripture was alluding to more than just what was said. Now I will caution us this morning that this can be taken to extremes where we put things and meanings into things that aren't there.
We see this in our culture today. We see this all the time, and we must guard against this extreme of putting our own hidden meanings and our own interpretations in scripture that aren't there. And I pray and hope we don't step into this extreme.
And we will be careful this morning not to create our own hidden meaning, but the meaning that is shown throughout the entire Bible, the foreshadowing of Christ and his bride, the church. Listen to this parallel between Genesis 22 and Romans 8.
Genesis 22, and said by myself, I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sands on the seashore.
That was God speaking. This was the instance of Abraham and Isaac. In Romans 8, what should we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for all of us, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
See the similarities there. Abraham and Isaac, God and Christ. Another similarity is found here in our text chapter, in chapter 24, a bride being sent forth to come and marry her bridegroom. This can be seen as a foreshadowing of Christ and his church.
Just as in the New Testament, husbands and wives are designed to be a representation of Christ and his church. We find this in Ephesians. Ephesians 5, wives submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its savior.
Now the church submits to Christ as also wives should submit and everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that he might, she might be holy and without blemish.
If you go down to verse 32, this mystery is profound and I am saying that it refers to Christ and his church. We will come back to this in Ephesians, but every marriage between a man and a woman, which is the only true marriage, is supposed to be a representation of Christ and his church.
And that includes these marriages that happened before Christ came. And I believe that these truths, when we look at this, changes the way we read our text and the Old Testament in general. So let's look at our text.
So look at our text, viewing the Old Testament through the lens of the New Testament. Reading verses, I'm going to read verses one through four again. Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years, and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things.
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, that I might make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and God of earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom land I dwell, but you will go to my country and to my kindred and take a wife for my son Isaac.
Our text this morning starts out, it starts with ascending out to fulfill a promise of God. And this morning, we will focus on God's promise. This evening, we're going to focus on God's providence, which is the sovereign fulfillment of his promise.
So what promise? What promise is he fulfilling here in Genesis 24? Well, the promise is found throughout Genesis, Genesis 12. Now the Lord said to Abraham, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great.
Genesis 15. And Abraham said, behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him and said, this man shall not be your heir, your very own son shall be your heir.
And he brought him outside and said, look towards the heaven and number the stars. If you're able to number them, then he said, so shall your offspring be. Genesis 17. God said to Abraham, for your wife, you shall call her name Sarah.
You shall not call her name Sarah, but Sarah shall be your name, and I will bless her. Moreover, I will give you a son by her, and I will bless her, and she will become nations. Kings of the people shall come from her.
Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said, shall a child be born to a man who's 100 years old? Shall Sarah, who is 90 years old, bear a child? Abraham said to God, oh, that Ishmael might live before you.
And God said, no, Sarah, your wife, shall bear you a son. You shall call his name Isaac, and I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after. Genesis 22. An angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time for heaven and said, by myself I've sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and not withheld your son, your only son, I shall surely bless you.
I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and the sand that is on the seashore. The promise that is being fulfilled in Genesis 24 is a promise that, as we have read, is repeated several times throughout Genesis, is an important promise.
It has great ramifications to the future of the world and mankind. The promise of God to Abraham that he would be the father of many nations. And we need to remind ourselves this morning that the promises of God are not like the promises of man.
Numbers 23, 19, God is not man that he should lie, or a son of man that he should change his mind. Has he said and will not do it? Has he spoken and will not fulfill it? Promises in this world are broken all the time.
They're broken all the time. Politicians break promises. Husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, all break promises. Teachers, even preachers, break promises. I would love to think that I will never and have never broken a promise, but that's not true.
I would hope that you could trust me if I make a promise to you and that you would have 100 certainty in me fulfilling my promise, but the truth is you don't have 100 certainty because I am fallible and capable of failing.
I am capable of breaking a promise, but there is one who is not fallible. There is one who will not fail. There is one who is not capable of breaking a promise. There is one who will never break a promise.
2 Peter 3 says he's not slow to fulfill his promise. Hebrews 10, 23, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without favoring, without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. He cannot lie. He always speaks complete and full truth.
So when he made these promises to Abraham, he meant them and they would be fulfilled. There was never any doubt about it. Abraham believed what God had sworn him. Verse 7 of our text, the Lord, the God of heaven who took me from my father's house and from the land of my kindred, who spoke to me and swore to me to this, to your offspring, I will give this land.
He will send his angel before you and you shall not take a wife from my son. From there he had sworn to him and Abraham believed that what God had sworn to him would come to fruition. It would happen.
This is not the only place in scripture where we find promises. They are throughout the word of God. We find promises throughout his word and in the new testament there are promises that that we find as well and they're no different.
God will fulfill those promises and this should drive us to a greater respect for scripture. This should drive us to more time spent in scripture. But we should also be careful here. We should not confuse promise with principle and we don't have time to go into all of that but you can study the difference between the two.
It's important to know the difference. Principles offer guidance and are not absolute in every situation. Promises of God are absolute. We have to be careful though. We can ignore context if we are not careful but rest assured when God makes a promise it will be kept.
What examples do we have in the new testament of those promises? We find one in Luke chapter 1 verse 32. He will be great. He will be called the son of the most high and the Lord will give him give to him the throne of his father David.
He will reign over the house of Jacob forever in his kingdom. There will be no end. We can trust that. We can trust in that. When he says he should send the Holy Spirit in his place, John 14, he says if you love me keep my commandments and I will ask the father and he will give you another helper to be with you forever even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him.
You know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. When he promised the Holy Spirit they could count on that. The Holy Spirit that regenerates, that dwells within the believer, that sanctifies the believer.
That's a promise that they could rely on, that we can rely on. When he said that those who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, we can have faith in that. Romans 1 16 and 17, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel for is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.
We can trust in that. If you truly repent and trust in Christ you will be saved. These are wonderful promises but even greater in the New Testament is the divine fulfillment of the greatest promise of eternity.
One of the most quoted scriptures for this promise is Isaiah 53. We can look and we can stay in Genesis. Genesis 3 15, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring.
He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. The greatest promise of all of eternity. The promise of a son. The promise of Christ. We see when we go back to our text, we go back to Genesis 24, we see the fulfillment of the promise that God made to Abraham.
Abraham, a father who sends his servant out to choose a bride for his son. We will spend the rest of this morning focusing on the son for whom a bride will be chosen. That son, who is that son? That son is Isaac.
Isaac is that son. Let's look at some truths about Isaac. The promised son of Abraham. The first truth that we will look at about Isaac is that he was a promised son. He was a promised son. From him much life will come.
The Bible says nations would come from this son. Many nations would come forth from this son. We read that in the scriptures earlier. From Isaac's son Jacob came the 12 tribes of Israel. Jesus came from the tribe of Judah, one of the 12 tribes.
Revelation 5, 4 -5 says, I begin to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. One of the elders said to me, weep no more. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.
Isaac was a promised son. Isaac was an only son. He said, what about Ishmael? Abraham had two sons. What about Ishmael? Ishmael is important. Ishmael is the evidence of the sinfulness of man. Isaac, though, is referred to twice as the only promised son.
We find that in Genesis 22 and in Hebrews 11. The only son that mattered in the sense of the promise and the covenant of God with Abraham. He was the only one that was promised. He was the promised son, the only son.
He was born in a miraculous way. He was born to a mother of 90. This is a medical marvel. Only through God's divine intervention could such a thing happen. Sarah, when she found out that she was going to have a child at 90, what did she do?
She laughed. Somebody said it. Good job. She laughed. Sarah laughed when the Lord said she would bear a son. She was well past childbearing age. He was born in a miraculous way. He was a miracle from God.
He was offered as a sacrifice. We all know the account of Abraham taking Isaac up on Mount Moriah in Genesis 22 to sacrifice him to God. He was offered as a sacrifice. Not only was he offered as a sacrifice, he inherited all that was his father's.
Genesis 26, and the Lord appeared to him and said, Do not go down to Egypt. Dwell in the land which I shall tell you. Sojourn in this land. He's talking to Isaac here. And I will be with you and I will bless you.
For to you and your offspring, I will give these lands and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham, your father. And I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give you offspring of all these lands.
And in your offspring, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes and my laws. Everything that God had promised to his father Abraham, Isaac would have.
It would be his. He would inherit all that was his father's. And he would be granted a choice bride. But the father went through, if you were to read, and we're going to, we'll dive more into this tonight.
If you were to read all 67 verses of Genesis chapter 24 and to see that all this father went through for a bride for his son, it would not just be any bride. As we discussed earlier, wouldn't just be any bride.
This bride wouldn't be from the Canaanites. This bride, this groom would be granted a choice bride. The son would be granted a choice bride. And this son was loved by his father. Genesis 22 too, when God's telling him to take his son up on Mount Moriah, he said, take your son, your only son, whom you love.
Abraham had longed for this son for years, for this promised son. He longed for him for years. Chapter 24 details how he wanted to provide a choice bride for this son. He was particular, as we mentioned earlier, about who his son should be married to.
This whole detailed story speaks to the fact of a father who had a great love for his son. But why so much detail in this story? Why so much detail? What is being represented here by Isaac? What is being represented in the details of this story, don't miss this, is a representation of Christ, of Christ.
Let us look at these same truths in regards to the truths about Christ. Isaac being a type in a picture of Christ, in no way, don't confuse this, in no way an equal to Christ. He's a lesser than Christ.
We find examples of this throughout scripture. Christ is the greater and perfect Isaac. He is the greater and perfect Adam. He is the greater and perfect Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, and so on. Each of these all failed in many ways where Christ did not fail.
Each of these failed, but Christ never did. Christ was the promised son. We looked at two scriptures earlier of the promise of the coming of Christ. I'm going to give us one more of many in Micah 5, 2 through 4.
But you, O Bethlehem, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth from me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is of old, from ancient days. Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth.
Then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel, and he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth.
The mighty Savior, the great and true shepherd. Isaac was a promised son. Christ was the promised son, and he was the only son. John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son. Whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
He was the promised son. He was the only son. He was born in a miraculous way. Isaiah 7, 14 prophesies this. Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a son. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
The word virgin in this text is so important. Bodhi Backham talked about the virgin birth like this. He said God sent forth his son who was not born of ordinary generation, but was born of a virgin. Yes, the virgin birth matters.
Why? Because if he is born of ordinary generation, he is born in sin. But because he is not born of ordinary generation, he is not born in sin. He is clean of sin. His record is clean, and he keeps his record clean.
He was not born of ordinary generation. He was born of a virgin. It's even more of a medical marvel than Sarah and Isaac. Mary had knew no man. This cannot be explained by the science and philosophies of man.
He was born in a miraculous way. He was loved by his father. Matthew 17, 5. He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased.
Listen to him. He is loved by his father. He inherits all that is his father's. Hebrews 1. Long ago, at many times, in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
John 6, 37. All that the father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. This son inherits all that is his father's, and this son will be granted a choice bride. 2 Corinthians 11.
For I feel divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. He inherits all that is his father's. He will be granted a choice bride, and he was offered as a sacrifice.
The difference here between Isaac and Christ is that Christ was the chosen son and the provided substitutionary lamb all in one. There didn't have to be another lamb provided in the place of Christ. He was the lamb.
He was the atonement. He was the sacrifice. He did what Isaac could not do. He did what we cannot do. He did what Moses could not do, what Abraham could not do, what Isaac could not do. Isaac was not the perfect sacrifice.
Christ was the perfect sacrifice. Hebrews 10, 4 through 10. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me.
And burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book. When he said above, you have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings.
These are offered according to the law. But he added, Behold, I have come to do your will. He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.
That promised son was offered as a sacrifice. He lived the perfect life that we could not live. And he died the substitutionary death we could not die. And from this perfect sacrifice, much life came.
And from him, much life will come. John 6, 57,. As the living father sent me, and I live because of the father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. Romans 6, 23,. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8, 10,. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. This promised son, this one who inherits all that is his father's, this one who is loved by his father, this one who is greater than Isaac and Abraham and Moses and David, anyone else.
Through him and him alone, life is given. Life is not given through other means. Life is not given based on your morality or your efforts to keep a law or your efforts to do more good deeds than bad deeds or your efforts or whatever it may be.
Life is not given through your pastor. Life is not given through the members of this church. Life is given through Christ alone. He alone gives life. And without this Savior, you have no life. It's not your best life now.
Without this Savior, without Christ, you have no life, but you must repent and you must trust in him. He is the giver of life. He is the chosen son. He is the groom which forth a bride is being sent for.
That's not all. There's going to be a wedding. There's going to be a wedding between this promised son and the bride that our father has sent for. Let us pray.