The Calling of the Bride.
Genesis 24:1-9...
Genesis 24:12-24...
...The servant explains why he has been sent and what has happened to Laban, Rebekahs brother...
Genesis 24:54-59...
Genesis 24:66-67.
This is the account of Abraham sending out his servant to find a bride for his son, Isaac. Abraham had been promised by God, that his descendants would become a great nation, as numerous as the stars, and so it was important to ensure that his son married a suitable person. We know that this promise was fulfilled and Abraham’s grandson Jacob, who had is name changed to Israel, became the start of that great nation.
Abraham knew that Isaac’s wife would be a part of that promise. Abraham therefore sends his most faithful servant to fulfil the task. The servant who isn’t named is faithful to his mission, praying continually that God may grant him success and show kindness to his master. We read that the servant is successful, and brings back Rebekah to marry Isaac. Rebekah is described as much loved, and brings comfort to her husband.
When we look at the account, it is also a picture of God sending out His servant to find a bride for His son Jesus. God the father, like Abraham, will only accept the best for His son. Jesus, like Isaac, is the groom in waiting for his bride. The Holy Spirit is like the faithful servant who carries out His masters work. The bible tells us in Revelation ch21, that the church is the bride of Christ, along with those from the tribes of Israel who God calls unto himself. Therefore we are like Rebekah in this story.
I want to look at why Rebekah was chosen to be a part of Gods promise. She could have easily missed out, as the servant could have chosen someone else, or been released from his oath if she had not been willing to come. I want to look at what Rebekah did that caused her to become the bride of Isaac, and show what we need to do in order to ensure that we are the bride of Christ.
(1) Rebekah was family, (2) she was pure and kept beautiful, (3) she was willing to serve and refresh, (4) and she was ready to go immediately, not being constrained by the world.
Rebekah was family.
Abraham sent his servant back to his own country for the bride. He wouldn’t allow his son to marry a Cannanite woman. They had different Gods and lived by different laws. They were a people that lived by their fleshly desires and would have been a poor match for his son. They would have contaminated the promise. Instead the bride would have to come from amongst his own relatives.
In the same way the Holy Spirit is sent to search for a bride amongst His own relatives. The Bible states that when we put our faith in God we are born again into His family. We become the same blood line as the son. We are therefore eligible to be His bride. The first condition for being picked to become the Bride of Christ is to be born again. We can never enter Gods promises except through the blood of Jesus.
Rebekah was pure and had been kept beautiful.
In verse 16 Rebekah is described as being a beautiful virgin. There is no way that the servant would have chosen her if she had been a loose woman or already in a relationship with another man. She also had to be beautiful. The servant wanted to make sure that Isaac would be pleased with what he saw. Even when carrying out the mundane chores, Rebekah had ensured that she still looked beautiful.
I once heard of a dissatisfied married woman. She was sitting on the sofa with the husband. She had her hair in curlers and her face covered with a mud pack. She had let her figure, which was once slim and trim, slip a little and she was wearing the old baggy clothes that she used for decorating the house in. She then turned to her husband and moaned..."Where’s all the romance gone?" Rebekah on the other hand, even when doing the household chores, ensured that she still looked beautiful.
If we want to be the Bride of Christ, we also need to keep ourselves pure and looking beautiful. We see impurity the world, but often, in the church, and in lives of Christians, purity is compromised. We can often agree that pornography is wrong and demeaning, but then not sensor ourselves properly from things that we see on the television. We can agree that theft is wrong, but then break Copyright and have no problems copying a tape or a video. We can even find ourselves gossiping about how wrong somebody is for gossiping. I am not on about things that happen in the world, but things that we can find in the church. We seem to try and justify our actions. Unless we search ourselves and ensure that we are kept pure, we can never please God, and we can never expect to become Jesus’ bride.
What about keeping ourselves beautiful? Am I referring to physical beauty? Certainly not, because lets face it, some of us would make some ugly looking brides, especially us men. (At this point I have put up an acetate of my wife on our wedding day, with a picture of my head superimposed over hers. It demonstrates the point quite well.) So what makes us beautiful to God?
1 Peter 3:3
Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewellery and fine clothes.
4:Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.
5:For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful. They were submissive to their own husbands,
The Bible makes it clear that what makes us beautiful before God, is the ability to live our lives with a gentle and quiet spirit, and in obedience. God does not look on the outside, He looks at inward beauty. We need to ask ourselves this question, are we fully submissive to God in every area of our lives? If there are areas of our lives that aren’t fully given over to him, then those areas are ugly and offensive for God to look at. Would you find somebody physically attractive, if they were perfectly formed, apart from a great big five inch boil on the end of the nose. The answer is probably no. It would be difficult to overlook. Spiritually speaking, it is the same when we say to God, ’Lord you can have every area of my life... apart from that bit, I want to keep that bit for myself. I want to keep control of that area’.
Remember the young rich man who spoke to Jesus. Jesus recognised that this young man had given everything over to God except for control of his finances. The man was unwilling to let go of this area of his life and so left in a sad state.
If we are to be picked as His bride, then we must be pure and look beautiful before Him.
Rebekah was willing to serve and refresh.
Rebekah came to the well outside the town at the time when all of the women would have come to draw water. Rebekah was willing not only to share what she had in order to refresh a stranger. But she was also willing to go further and feed all of the mans camels as well. She had a heart that was willing and ready to serve. She wasn’t just coming to the well to meet her own needs, but she was also willing to meet the needs of those around her also.
The Holy Spirit is also looking for the same qualities in the church. Do we come to the church just to refresh ourselves, or are we willing to refresh the lives of those around us? God is looking for a people with a servants heart. Jesus states that he is the source of living water, and that those who come to him will not thirst, but will always be satisfied. (John 4:14) Jesus didn’t just seek Gods refreshing for himself, instead he sought to refresh others with it.
Why did you come to church this morning? Was it so that you could enjoy the worship? Was it so that you could receive the Word of God? Was it so that you could be refreshed and receive from God? All of these are good things, but if we truly want to be the kind of bride that Christ wants, then we need to be willing to give out too. We need to be have that desire to bless others and to go that extra mile to see that they are refreshed also. Are we really meeting the needs of those around us? If we aren’t then we will never be the bride of Christ, and we will miss out on the heavenly wedding feast.
Jesus said some frightening words when he spoke of his return. He will accuse many of not feeding him when he was hungry, and not giving him a drink when he was thirsty.
Matthew 25:44
"They also will answer, `Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45:"He will reply, `I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
If we don’t come to God with a servants heart then we can never be Christ’s bride. How are we meeting the needs of the needy amongst us? How are we meeting the needs of this town? Are we refreshing the both family and strangers? I am not implying that we are not doing these things, but stressing the importance of asking ourselves these questions regularly, as individuals, and as a church. If we are found wanting then the consequences are serious.
Lets ensure that when the Spirit comes looking, we are found to have a servants heart.
Rebekah was ready to go.
Until the stranger had come to town, Rebekah would have been living her life without any expectation of what was about to happen to her. She would have just been going about her everyday business. Suddenly a man walks into town, and he tells her that he has been sent to ask her to be the bride of the son of the one who sent him. The man had only been in town for one night when he states that he wants to take her to his master. Her family want her to stay with them for a little while longer, and so she is asked to make the decision.
She has been put in quite a position. If she was going to go with the man she would have to leave all her family behind at a moments notice. Without trains, cars or aeroplanes, it is not as if she could just pop back to see them with a moments notice. Yet we don’t read of any hesitation. She simply gets herself ready, gets her maids ready, jumps on a camel, and off she goes. The servant might not have waited if she had hesitated. That is something that we will never know.
God requires the church to be ready in much the same way. The problem is that many in the church are constrained with the worlds pleasures and aren’t willing to let go. If we are to be the bride of Christ and enter into his promises then we need to be ready to leave behind everything that this world offers. Rebekah was willing to leave all, including her own family. If God suddenly called you to be a missionary in a third world country and to leave everything, would you be willing to do it? Willing to sell homes and put the money into the missions, to give up our pensions and the security that living here has to offer. Have we put our trust in the comforts of this world, or are we looking forward to Gods promises.
In the account of the man who puts his hand to the plough and then looks back, and in the parable of the ten virgins, we find that God is looking for a bride who is willing to let go of worldly comforts and a bride who is ready and waiting for Him.
Conclusion.
Rebekah entered into the promises of God because she was family, because she was pure and kept herself beautiful, because she was willing to serve and refresh, and because she was ready and willing to go. Because she did these things she became the mother of a great nation. She even finds herself in the genealogy of Christ.
The return of Christ is the ultimate promise that we have and can enter. Unless we are like Rebekah then we will never partake in the wedding feast described in Revelation. God also has other promises for us as individuals and as a church. The Holy Spirit is searching for those who are willing to enter in.
God has got promises for your life. The servant however would have been released from his oath if Rebekah hadn’t have been willing. She would have missed out on the promises of God. Likewise, we often miss out on the promises of God because we are not willing. I want to encourage you, to trust Him, enter in, and see what He has in store for you.
