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again to Genesis chapter 24,
and now we'll read verses 29 through 67. I invite you to stand
as you're able out of respect for the reading of God's word. Rebekah had a brother whose name
was Laban. Laban ran out toward the man to the spring. As soon
as he saw the ring and the bracelets on his sister's arm and he 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. 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. 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. 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. So he said, I am Abraham's servant.
The Lord has greatly blessed my master and he has become great.
And he has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male
servants and female servants, camels and donkeys. 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. 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, but you shall go to
my father's house and to my clan and take a wife for my son. I
said to my master, perhaps the woman will not follow me, 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, then you will
be free from my oath. when you have come to my clan,
and if they will not give her to you, you will be free from
my oath. 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, 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, 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.
Before I had finished speaking in my heart, behold, Rebecca
came out with her water jar on her shoulder, and she went down
to the spring and drew water. And I said to her, Please let
me drink. 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 camel's drink also. Then I asked her,
whose daughter are you? She said, the daughter of Bethuel,
Nahor's son, who Milcah bore to him. So I put the ring on
her nose and the bracelets on her arms. 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 way, the right way, to take the
daughter of my master's kinsman for his son. 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. Then Laban and Bethel answered
and said, The thing that has come from the Lord. We cannot
speak to you bad or good. 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. When Abraham's servant heard
their words, he bowed himself to the earth before the Lord.
And the servant brought out jewelry of silver and of gold, of garments,
and gave them to Rebekah. He also gave to her brother and
to her mother costly ornaments. 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. Her brother
and her mother said, let the young woman remain with us a
while, at least 10 days after that she may go. 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. They said, let us
call the young woman and ask her. And they called Rebecca
and said to her, will you go with this man? She said, I will
go. So they sent away Rebekah and
her sister and her nurse and Abraham's servant and his men.
And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, oh sister, may you
become thousands and ten thousands and may your offspring possess
the gate of those who hate him. Then Rebekah and her young woman
arose and rode on the camels and followed the man. Thus the
servant took Rebekah and went his way. Now Isaac had returned
from Beerlehi-Roy and was dwelling in the Negev. And Isaac went
out to meditate in the field toward the evening. He lifted
up his eyes and saw, behold, there were camels coming. And
Rebekah lifted up her eyes. And when she saw Isaac, she dismounted
from the camel 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. And the servant told
Isaac all the things that he had done. 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. The grass withers, the flower
fades, but the word of our God abides forever. Amen. You may
be seated. The longest chapter in the book
of Genesis is not covering creation. It's not about man's fall to
sin either in Genesis chapter three. It's a romance. It's a love story
right here in Genesis chapter four, 24. The longest chapter
in the book of Genesis. Genesis chapter 24 gives us,
in the best possible way, a sappy boy meets girl, happily ever
after romance. Isaac and Rebecca's wedding is
here to teach us that the story of the Bible is a love story,
a love story that by God's grace, you and I get to be a part of. And it doesn't begin, does it,
with the couple's love. It begins with the loving concern
of a father and his desire to find a bride
for his son. You can imagine how important
this was for Abraham. God's promise was to Abraham
through his offspring, through Isaac, shall your descendants
be named. But here's the problem. Isaac is 40 years old. He's still
a bachelor. If Isaac died without any kids, well, then all hope for this sinful
world would die with him. The hope of the head crusher,
the hope of Abraham's offspring through Isaac and through Isaac's
descendants who would possess the gates of his enemies and
destroy sin and crush Satan, all of that would be lost. So much depends upon Isaac finding
a wife. So much depends upon him having
godly offspring with his future spouse. And so, as a good father does,
Abraham looks for a wife for his son. And no ordinary bride
would do. I mean, it's true, Abraham could
have found any woman among the Canaanites and said, here, here's
a, here's a good looking woman. Why don't you take her as your
wife, Isaac? But he can't do that. That's not an option. Why? Because those girls worshiped
false gods. And so what, Abraham says is,
I'm going to send my servant, and he's going to go all the
way to the place of my ancestors. And there, from amongst God's
chosen people, I'm going to seek a wife for my son. So that my
son, after the death of his mother, might have someone to love, someone
to know, someone to have, someone to hold. And yes, someone to
have godly offspring with in hopes that God will be true to
his promises even after I'm dead. Abraham's concern was for Isaac
to find a godly bride. So Abraham sends his servants
on this matchmaking mission to find a wife for his son from
God's chosen people. Let me just pause here. We already
have rich applications for us, for today, for our own relationships.
I need to start by addressing our parents. Parents, do you
have this godly concern, this concern of Abraham's? Is this
a burden on your heart, a prayer upon your heart? Teach your kids from an early
age about the goodness of marriage, but also make sure they understand
the purpose of marriage, to carry forward the promise of God in
a wicked world. Marriage isn't just about finding
that person who makes you happy and makes you feel warm and fuzzy
inside. No, it is about finding someone who can join you in advancing
God's kingdom. And so it's very important to
teach your children, make sure they understand that they are
to marry a fellow believer. I'm not making this up. We see
it here, we also see it in 1 Corinthians 7.39, that the single person
is free to marry, but only in the Lord. And there's more. Parents, you
can give your kids an example to follow. Show them through
your own life, through your own interactions with your spouse,
that it is so important for them to be looking for someone to
marry who loves the Lord. Young men and women, you're not
off the hook. Yes, this story begins with a
godly concern of a father, of a parent, but it also has something
instructive for our children, especially in today's day and
age. We tend to think that who we decide to marry is a completely
private matter. It's like there's a sign hanging
over our bedrooms, no parents allowed. And no parents allowed
in the area of matchmaking, stay away. Now I'm not suggesting we go
back to arranged marriages. But the Christian family has
an invested interest in seeing godly marriages take shape. Isaac was 40 years old when his
dad helped him find a spouse. Why is it today that 18, 19,
20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 year old say, mom and dad, you
don't have any say over this. You don't have any place to tell
me to weigh in on the decision of who I marry. We have an example
here in the scriptures. of what it would look like for
godly children, godly young men and women to say, you know what?
I'm gonna sacrifice my pride and I'm gonna listen to what
my Christian parents have to say about a potential spouse.
I am willing to allow people older and wiser than me to advise
me on one of the most important decisions of my life. Young men and women. Let the
godly concerns of those older and wiser than you, especially
your parents, guide your relationship decisions. Because matchmaking, because
love here in Genesis chapter four, the great love story of
Isaac and Rebecca begins with the prayers, with the hopes,
with the desires, with the matchmaking of a godly father. But who is the real matchmaker
here? Is it Abraham? Is it Abraham's wise servant?
No. Behind the scenes, working with
this beautiful providential control is the true matchmaker who is
God. God. God's providence is written
all over the pages of this love story. Never does the passage say, and
God did this, but everywhere we see God working to bring together this match
made in heaven. It starts at the well where the
young women come to draw water. Now, Abraham's servant is there.
He's been commissioned with this precious duty to find a wife
for Isaac from amongst the people of God. And he's there and what is he
doing? He's praying. He's saying, God, I'm seeing the young women
come out to the well to draw water. Help me make this match. I can't do this, Lord. And notice what happens before
he even finishes praying while he's still speaking to God in
his heart, a beautiful But this is a wise servant. He
knows that outward beauty can deceive. And so the servant puts
this young woman to the test. He says, would you please serve
me some water? Now, the servant has set up a
little test with God's help. And we know about this test.
What is the test? That the woman who will marry Isaac will not
only offer him a drink, but she'll also offer a drink to his camels. She'll say, and I'll feed your
camels as well. Why? Is this some random test,
just, you know, the guy hoping that somehow God will make abundantly
clear exactly who it is? Here's what this is. The woman
who does these things, the woman who not only offers to serve
this traveler a drink, but also to feed his camels, is not only
beautiful, but also kind, generous, and industrious. It was hard
work feeding camels. To feed 10 camels was probably
25 buckets of water that you draw up and put before them and
watch them drink the water and then give them more. It's a lot
of work. This is a woman whose arms are
strong to the task. This is a woman who opens her
hands and helps the poor. This is a woman who is ready.
This is the woman who fits the Proverbs 31 checklist. And this is the true beauty of
woman. Not outward adornment only, but the beauty of her Christian
character. Hint, hint, young man. What are you looking for? Look for this. So it must have
been music to the servant's ears when beautiful Rebecca said,
let me pour you some water and let me, let me feed your camels
too. It's all coming into place, isn't
it? A beautiful woman, a noble woman,
but there's something that Abraham above all emphasized that's so
important. Is she from the people of God? And so he dares to ask the question,
who are you and what does Rebecca say? I am. the daughter of Bethuel, Nahor's relative, which means
what? We have a match. She's from the
people of God. She's from that land. She's Abraham's
distant relative. She fits all the criteria. Here's the point. Nothing about this scene was
a coincidence, nothing. The Lord will provide. Isn't that what Abraham said
on top of the mountain to Isaac when he spared Isaac from the
knife and put in his place a lamb? God provided a lamb for Isaac,
now he's provided a wife for Isaac. What do you need that the Lord
will not provide? There's a lesson for us here.
We can do all the planning and matchmaking we like. We can labor
and toil over relationships, but there comes a point where
we must learn that God is in control. He's in control of our
relationships and we are not. And it is his providence that
brings together two people in marriage. And sometimes it's
just so unexpected. You say, I would never have put
those two together, but it kind of works, doesn't it? I would
never would have thought of it, but I guess God did. The uncanny and unexpected ways,
maybe some of you who are married, have been married for a long
time, can think back to all the surprising ways that he brought
you to the one who now shares the rest of your life with you. Sometimes God brings a guy or
a gal into our lives in a way we didn't expect. He or she is
not who we expected for ourselves, for our children. And there are
times where we must sacrifice the fairy tale story in our minds
to embrace the love which God is forming right in front of
us. Letting go of control is hard. It's like letting go of
an idol. It is letting go of an idol.
Saying God, May I trust you in what you're
doing. If true love, if Christian love
before me. Other times we struggle because
God hasn't yet provided us with a godly spouse. Hello? What about me? Where's my Isaac? Where's my
Rebecca? Some of you are thinking that this morning. Why am I still waiting? Why do
I have to read about love stories in the Bible and God's perfect
matchmaking and I've been waiting here for years and years and
years and years? I don't have an easy answer for
this. I don't have an answer that will take away the suffering
that one experiences where they're single and desire deeply to be
married. But I do know this, that God
doesn't make mistakes in his choices for his loved ones, for
his children. He will provide precisely what
you truly need in exactly the timing you need it. In the meantime, let me counsel
you. Don't turn to shortcuts. Don't
take the quick routes. Don't turn to the Canaanites.
Don't seek relationship with those who do not love the Lord,
who do not walk according to his ways. That is off limits. Instead, look for a spouse amongst
the people of God. And don't forget to commit the
entire matter of your relationships to prayer. Because it was before
the servant had finished praying, while prayer was still on his
heart. that God was bringing together
this match, imperceptibly but behind the scenes. A father's concern and God's
control have found a bride for Isaac. And now, isn't it beautiful
how she leaves everything behind to begin a new life with her
groom? Will you go? Her family says,
and she says, I will go. I will go right now. She doesn't
even know that. She doesn't know what he looks
like. She doesn't know what he acts
like. But on the testimony of this servant and with great,
amazing faith in God, the same faith that guided Sarah to follow
her husband to the promised land, that same faith guides Rebecca
to this daring adventure to say, I'll go. I'll go to marry him. I'll do it today. And then comes the moment where
she finally meets her groom. Isn't it beautiful? Isn't it
romantic? Like something out of a scene from the Princess
Bride. Isaac is out in the field praying,
and suddenly there are camels on the horizon. He sees his servants, but then
there's someone else with him. She's pretty. Could it be? Could this be the
woman? Could this be the one that his father has sought for
him? Yes. And when his eyes meet her, her
eyes meet him, and she gets off of the camel she's riding, and
she looks, and she asks the servant, is this my groom? Could this
be him? Yes, and they both realize at the same time, this is my
bride and this is my groom. And Rebecca veils her face to
signify to Isaac from a distance, yes, it's me, I'm your bride.
Yes, I'm ready to take your hand in marriage, for better or for
worse, for richer or for poorer, from this day forward till death
do us part. The marriage happened right away.
Then Isaac brought her into the tent of Sarah, his mother, and
he took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her. Isaac is the only one of the
patriarchs who gets one thing incredibly right. He only has
one wife. The others took others, but Isaac was so full of love
for Rebekah. She's it for a life. And isn't this, everything we're
seeing here, isn't the beautiful ideal for marriage that scripture
gives to us? One woman, one man, leaving their
father and mother with blessing, and they're joined in intimate
companionship for life. A wife is man's best friend and
his partner in life. She's not just one who gives
the camel something to drink. She is treasured and loved to
be by his side, to be his best counselor, to be his friend,
his helper. Therefore, what God has joined
together, let no man separate. And as we think here of the honor
of marriage, as we seek in our own marriages to dignify this
by tending to the garden of marriage, by dignifying it, by keeping
it pure and holy, by loving our spouse as well, by sacrificing
ourselves for them. As this all comes to our mind's
eye and we see Isaac and Rebecca walking together into the sunset, There's one more thing that ought
to come to our mind here. And that is the remarkable way
in which Isaac and Rebecca are a beautiful picture of Christ
and his church. Like any good marriage, what marriage points to, Ephesians
5 tells us this, it's Christ and his church. It's Christ and
his bride. And I want you to notice the
remarkable way in which the pictures come together. Our betrothal
to Christ, his church's betrothal to its bridegroom began with the sovereign choice of God the
Father to choose a bride for his beloved son. He won this
bride with costly gifts. The gifts of his grace, the gift
of his son's life for our sins. Isaac's servant wooed Rebecca
with gold and jewels, but God's helper, the Holy Spirit, wooed
us with the irresistible sweet gifts of the gospel. And we, like Rebecca, have been
called to leave everything behind, to persevere through the journey
of this life, all the way to our wedding day, that day when
we will see the bridegroom face-to-face. We will stand before him as a
beautiful bride, adorned with good works. Revelation 19.7 says
that on that final day, the day in which we see Jesus face-to-face,
all of us, his church, will be what? Clothed with fine white
linen, like a wedding dress. And that fine white linen will
be what? The righteous deeds of the saints. The character
that Christ has formed in us from afar. Yes, like any good marriage,
Isaac and Rebecca are a picture for us of Christ and his church. Rebecca said, I will go. What do you say to your bridegroom,
your savior? Christ says to his church, will
you leave this world behind to follow me? Will you leave behind
everything you hold dear? And come to a place that I've
prepared for you. And come to me, to the marriage
supper of the lamb. By faith we will say with Rebecca, Heavenly Father, we thank you
for what a rich picture of the gospel you have embedded in marriage
and in the marriage of this text. We pray that we would dignify
marriage so that we speak of it well, so that we teach our
children well about it, so that we model it before our children
with great grace and dignity. But Lord, we know we live in
a sinful world where our marriages are often broken. Lord, you are powerful to overcome
even these obstacles, so that even through these things, we
might be an example and a witness to you. Give us the grace we
need. Help us to persevere, for we
fix our eyes not on worldly things, but on our bridegroom in heaven,
on Christ, and on the place he has prepared for us there. We
pray all this in Christ's name, amen. We do come to the time of the
Lord's Supper, and I invite our two pastors here to come and
help serve. Well, I'm complicating things. Mr. Jones and Mr. Pepa,
thank you. The Lord's Supper is a picture
and a pledge of our fellowship with Christ at the marriage supper
of the lamb. The scriptures tell us that there
will be a day where we sit with Christ and we feast with him. Face to face, church will behold
him and he will behold his church as he has made her to be. That day will be like a great
wedding feast. But notice how along the way
he gives us this picture and pledge that that's where we're
going. And he gives it to us in such a way that we never forget
the costly gifts that purchased that place, that purchased that
wedding. It was Christ's very life, his
body broken, his blood poured out. This is what he had to do
to win his bride. And now he invites us to his
feast saying, Will you go? Will you come to be with me? And by faith, will you be drawn
closer to me by meditating on my death, my resurrection? I invite you to take of this.
meal, which is a picture and pledge of God's grace towards
sinners, how he sought them out from afar. You are a believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ, you've been baptized and you profess
that you have professed Christ before men, you've been joined
and accountable to a church that preaches the gospel. Then this
meal which Christ has given to his church is for you. But if
this does not yet describe you or further, if you are walking
presently in unrepentant sin, not willing to turn from your
sin, to go to the Savior, then I caution you to not take of
the meal, but instead to come and talk to the leaders of the
church so that you might see the clear route to go to the
Savior. And partake of Him, my faith. For this meal is for sinners,
but it's sinners who are seeking the Savior. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, teach us this very hour to love
you all the more, and to be caught up in the great love story of
the scripture, love of Christ for his church and his people,
his church for him. I pray all this in Jesus' name,
amen. On the night in which Christ
was betrayed, he took the bread, and when he had given thanks,
he broke it, and he said, this is my body, which is for you.
Do this in remembrance of me. I love you Oh.
A Match Made in Heaven
Series The Book of Genesis
| Sermon ID | 6625153373059 |
| Duration | 33:29 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Genesis 24 |
| Language | English |
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