Abraham’s Wise Servant (Genesis Pt. 40)
Text: Genesis 24:1 – 33
By: Ken McKinley
(Read Text)
There’s an old saying from Scotland that says, “It takes two to make a marriage… a single daughter and an anxious mother.” The reality is, it takes one, and that’s God. Now this passage is more than just Abraham wanting someone specific for his son, but that is included. The main point of this passage is about the continuation of the line of promise. We’ve been looking at that theme since we began Genesis. The seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. And this passage shows us God’s continued providence and faithfulness in fulfilling that promise that He made to Adam and Eve.
Now this is actually one of the longest chapters in the Bible, so we’re going to break it up into two parts. Verse 1 – 27, that we just read, is our text today, and then we’ll finish up the chapter next Sunday, Lord willing.
In verses 1 – 9 we see Abraham giving orders to his servant. Abraham was around 140 years old here. He can’t make the trip himself. And what we see here, is that even though Abraham has grown greatly in his faith, he’s still having to trust in the Lord. We never get to a point in life where we can say, “I have arrived in my walk with the Lord. I’m so spiritual now that I really don’t need to rely upon or trust God. I can make my own way.” That never happens. So Abraham’s trusting God and he’s trusting his servant. It’s good to have people you can trust.
And Abraham trusted this servant. Verse 10 tells us that all that Abraham had was in his hand. He was a faithful steward of Abraham’s goods. Now we don’t know who this servant was. It might have been Eliezer of Damascus, who we read about in Genesis 15… He was the servant that Abraham said was the heir of his house before Isaac came along. It might be some other servant. It really doesn’t matter. What matters is that this man was trustworthy, and faithful to Abraham.
And Abraham tells him, “Go back and find a son for my wife, from my own people.” And this is interesting to me for two reasons. First of all, if Abraham had Isaac marry one of the Canaanites, it would’ve meant that he was no longer a foreigner. It could’ve (politically and worldly speaking) consolidated his power, and given him allies in the land of Canaan. But back in chapter 15, God had already told Abraham that He was taking the land away from the Canaanites, and other peoples, and giving it to Abraham. So he didn’t want that intermingling of blood lines. It’s also interesting, because Abraham doesn’t tell his servant to go find his nephew Lot and have Isaac marry someone from Lot’s family. That tells me that either Abraham didn’t know that Lot had survived the destruction of Sodom, or he didn’t know that Lot’s daughters had children, OR… that Abraham considered them just as corrupted as the Canaanites by this time.
So Abraham is trusting his servant, and he’s trusting that God will provide a wife for Isaac. You remember last week, how I told you I was praying for the future husbands of my girls? Well this is what I base that on.
So the servant heads out, and in verses 10 – 27, we see what theologians call “The Two Sides of Faith.”
Faith has a passive side and an active side. In other words, faith is resting in God’s promises and provision, and providence, but it’s also acting on what God has told us.
If you believe what God tells you, you’ll do what God tells you. And so we see Abraham’s faith in sending his servant out. We also see that this servant is wise, and that he has faith as well.
We know he’s a wise servant because of how he goes about fulfilling Abraham’s command. He takes 10 camels. Not history tells us that camels weren’t used on a wide scale until about 800 years after the time of Abraham. If you had camels, you had money. And this servant takes 10 with him. So anyone who meets him is going to be thinking… if the servant has 10, how many must the master have? He also stops at the well. That’s wisdom, because back in those days, you would send your single daughters out to the well to fetch water. I’m not sure why this was the case, maybe so they could meet an eligible bachelor. We see the same sort of thing happen later on with Moses. He meets his future wife at a well.
So this servant is wise, he is also a man of faith. Now some people say that he wasn’t a believer because of the way he phrases his prayer. He says, “Oh Lord, God of my master Abraham.” They say if he was a believer, he would’ve said, “My God,” instead of, “God of my master…” But I don’t think that argument flies. First of all, if he wasn’t a believer, he probably wouldn’t have even prayed. Secondly, the way he phrases his prayer is just an expression… its semantics. It’s the way they talked. Thirdly; he directs his prayer to the LORD, that’s Adonai. He’s praying to God, and appealing to His sovereignty, saying “Please God, make this happen.” And by saying “The God of Abraham my master…” He’s referencing the covenant promise of God. See; I told you he was a wise and faithful servant. This guy knows how to pray!
And sure enough God answers the prayer. Rebekah shows up, and not only gives him a drink, but waters his camels. Now I’m not sure how much water it takes to quench the thirst of 10 camels, but I know that 10 cows can drink gallons and gallons of water. One commentary that I read said it was about 250 gallons. And here’s Rebekah, drawing water from a well, filling her bucket up, and pouring it in a trough, so that the servants camels can drink. And after she’s done, he pulls out a nose ring and bracelets. And the text tells us that their weight was 10 and ½ shekels of gold… that would be equivalent to about fifteen-thousand dollars’ worth of jewelry today. This guys making an impression. 10 camels, $15,000 worth of jewelry. He’s done everything he could do to make sure Rebekah is willing to return home with him and marry Isaac. He’s shown her that he is the servant of a wealthy family. That they are a family of means, and that she would be well taken care of. The last thing he has to do is make sure she’s from Abraham’s family. And he finds out in verse24.
Now I want you to notice what he does when she tells him who her father is. Look at verse 26 (Read). He worships God.
Success inflates the ego of the worldly man, but it humbles the man of God.
This servant falls on his face and thanks God, and acknowledges that none of this would’ve been possible without God. And I don’t know, but I’d be willing to bet that this man’s prayer had an impact upon Rebekah. The camels and the jewelry no doubt had an impact, but the servant’s prayer most likely did as well.
This guy has traveled 450 miles; which would’ve taken about a month in those days. He manages to go to the exact place he needed to. He finds the perfect girl for Isaac, and he’s done everything his master has asked him. And what does he do?
First of all, he thanks God. Most guys would’ve probably done a fist pump and said, “Yes! I did it! Am I the man or what?” But this guy doesn’t beat his chest, or even take any credit. He falls on his face and thanks God. You know he could’ve said, “It was all because of my wisdom and planning and foresight.” But there’s none of that here.
And I think, that probably had an impact on Rebekah. In-fact, if we read verses 28 and 30, we see that she tells her brother and the rest of her family what he said.
Now I want you to just think about this for a minute, in the time that we have left. Abraham had left this area many years ago. And Rebekah’s family probably talked about him at family get togethers and bar-b-ques. “You remember uncle Abraham? Remember how he just took off and left. Said something about following God or something like that? I wonder what ever happened to him?” I mean; for all we know, they may have used Abraham as a deterrent to their kids, “Stay close to home. You don’t want to end up like old uncle Abraham. You’ll wander off and never come back!”
But now this servant shows up, and he’s Abraham’s servant. And he’s got 10 camels, and $15,000 dollars worth of jewelry. Maybe Abraham knew what he was talking about? Maybe he wasn’t crazy after all.
Verses 31 and 32 wrap it up for us. Abraham’s servant is invited in, and we’ll see what happens next Sunday. But here’s what I want you to take away from this, this morning. All that we’re seeing here is providence. God has had a plan since the beginning and He’s going to see that His plan and purposes are fulfilled. God made a promise to Eve, way back in the Garden of Eden, and He intends to keep it. He promised her that the Seed of the woman would crush the head of the seed of the serpent.
And of course that theme that we’re moving into here – is that the Seed of the woman is also the Seed of Abraham. It’s Christ Jesus our Lord.
And so when we see that God’s plans and purposes cannot be thwarted by time, or circumstance, or even the foolishness of men. It should cause us as Christians to rejoice, and be bold in our walk with Him. It should cause us to be thankful and celebrate the fact that God is in control and He will bring about good. Romans 8:28 says, “All things work together for good to those who love God and are the called according to His purposes.” And God can say that because He’s the One who is going to make it work for good to those who are the called according to His purposes. God is sovereign, and He’s still on the throne. And we know that He loves us, and that He cares for us, because He has ensured that His plans of sending our Savior would come to pass. And they did come to pass. And if God was willing and able to go to that extent… not only sending Jesus to die for our sins, but orchestrating all of human history to that point where Jesus was sent. We can rest assured that He’s going to continue to work things together for good.
God isn’t sitting in heaven, wringing His hands worrying about what the devil is doing. God is the sovereign King of the universe!
And that should give us who belong to Him, great comfort and peace in our hearts, even when the world seems crazy. God can make a way.
LET’S PRAY
