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Bob Davis: Turns out she's the daughter of Bethuel, son of Milcah, the son of Abraham. Nahor is Abraham's brother. This is not a coincidence. This is God-ordained. I don't think coincidences happen. Some people call—the term is a "God wink." When God wishes to remain anonymous, He'll let you do that little coincidence they call a "God wink." There are no coincidences.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Apply Within, a verse-by-verse study of the Word of God with Pastor Bob Davis of North Country Chapel. We invite you to join with us as we, by the power of God's Holy Spirit, apply His Word within our own hearts as we study line upon line, precept upon precept, verse by verse through the Bible. As our study of Genesis continues in chapter 24, Abraham arranges to get a bride for his son, Isaac. Here's Pastor Bob.

Bob Davis: Genesis chapter 24. And Abraham was old and well-stricken in age. And the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. And in the Hebrew there, God blessed him in everything. Just like God blesses you and me. We just don't recognize it because we're whining quite a bit. But He has blessed us, and Abraham as well, in all things.

And Abraham said to his oldest, his eldest servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had, "Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh. And I will ask you, I'll make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you shall not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell. But that you shall go unto my country, Mesopotamia way over there, remember, and to my family, and take a wife for my son Isaac."

And the servant said to him, "Peradventure"—now, that's King James for "what if" or "let's just say"—"the woman is not willing to come back here to this land. Must I needs then bring Isaac, your son, to the land from whence you came? Should I take him back there if she won't come out here?" Abraham said unto him, "Beware thou that thou bring not my son there again. He's never to go back."

The Lord God of heaven, which took me—this is verse 7—from my father's house and from the land of my kindred, of my family, of my birth, which spoke unto me and that swore unto me, saying, "Unto thy seed will I give this land," not the one back there, the one he's living in now, this land. And He shall send His angel before thee, and thou shalt take a wife unto my son from thence. And if the woman will not be willing to follow you, come back here in other words, then you shall be clear from this my oath. Only do not take my son back there again.

And the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham, his master, and he swore before the Lord, of course, to him concerning the matter. In the last chapter, Sarah died. She was 127 years old. Isaac was then 37 years old. Now we're told that in chapter 24, Abraham is old and well-stricken in years. You mean past 137? Yeah. Genesis 25:20, and Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rebekah to be his wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padan-aram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.

So Abraham would have been right here, when it says Abraham is old and well-stricken, 140 years old. I'd say he's old and well-stricken. Children in their day, this is how they looked at it. Children are said to issue from the loins. And so they would say the thigh. So placing your hand under the thigh is basically you're taking an oath. If the oath is violated or broken, then the children that come from Abraham would seek or avenge that act of disloyalty. You're swearing before the Lord, and you're saying that if I don't keep my promise, your kids can come after me.

Now he asks him to—he said promise these three things: that you would not select a wife for Isaac from among the Canaanite women. You can't take just any girl, and not from this land at all. Don't pick any of them. They worship false gods. They're practicing bizarre rituals, etc. We don't want that. We can't be a part of that any longer. So number one: promise you would not select a woman for Isaac, my son, from among the Canaanite ladies. You have to travel about 500 miles, in other words.

Number two: you would choose her from Abraham's family. We're born again by grace through faith. And we're told, "Don't be unequally yoked." Don't go looking outside of the faith to marry a guy or a girl. And number three: you will not take Isaac back to Mesopotamia. God gave us this land. Abraham, now Isaac, even though they don't own it, it is the promise. And in faith, we believe God, take Him at His word. So we're staying here. So you don't ever let him go there. He stays here. You bring her.

Well, what if she doesn't want to come out? If she doesn't want to come out, she's free to make that choice. She doesn't have to. Then you're free from the oath because you're not going to let him marry anybody here, so he'll just be footloose and fancy-free. He'll just be single. God hasn't changed. God never changes. 2 Corinthians 6. And I'm telling you, Christians ignore this to your own sorrow. 2 Corinthians 6:14-16.

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. This is written to Christians. For what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? The answer is none. And what communion has light with darkness? The answer is none. Verse 15, and what concord hath Christ with Belial? What does God have to do with the devil? Nothing. Or what part hath he that believes with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God, as God hath said, "I will dwell in them and walk in them, I will be their God and they shall be my people."

So that's New Testament. That's in 2 Corinthians, and we are to be—if we're going to marry, and you're free to marry if you're single, that is—but not out of the faith. If you do, well, marriage is hard on its best day. But if an unbeliever and a believer marry, they're going to have trouble. You've got it built in.

So look at verse 10. The servant took—remember, he took the oath, "I swear before the Lord." He took the oath and he took 10 camels, servant did, of the camels of his master, and he departed. No waiting around. Took 10 camels. And of course, there are some servants that went along with him. And he departed, for all the goods of his master were in his hand. And he arose and he went to Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor. Notice that 500-mile trip took not a full sentence in verse number 10.

Now, how was it like to go 500 miles with camels? Some believe that camels would, unless you're really driving hard, they might make 20 miles a day. And so if you're going 500 miles, you could sort of do the math. And they could push them and go 25, but then you'd have to get a late start the following day, etc. So you get the point. This is not going to happen in three days.

Now they're in Mesopotamia, the city of Nahor. And he made his camels to kneel down outside the city of Nahor by a well of water at the time of the evening. It happened to be coincidentally—I don't believe in coincidence, neither do you, right—it happened to be the time that the women go out to draw water for the evening. There was no running water in town. You come out, and that was a woman's work, and that was some hard work.

You know some of those women would carry the larger jugs, and some of those large jugs would carry five gallons. You ever lift five gallons of water? In Africa, they put it on their heads and they walk. I tried it. It hurts. I couldn't do it. My head comes to a point; it's not flat. You try that, though. You just go out and just grab yourself a five-gallon bucket of water and just carry it for a mile and tell me how you feel at the other end.

So he made his camels to kneel outside the city by the well of water at the time of evening, even the time when the women go out to draw. And he prayed. He said, "Oh, Lord God of my master Abraham, I pray you, send me good speed this day and show kindness to my master Abraham. He sent me to do this, I want to do the best I can do, I need your help. Behold, I stand here by the well of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water."

"This is a perfect time. So let it come to pass that the damsel to whom I shall say, 'Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink,' in American, 'Could I have a drink of water, please?' And she say, 'Drink, sure,' and, 'I will give your camels drink also.' That I will just believe that that is the one that you have appointed for thy servant Isaac. And thereby I shall know that you have shown kindness to my master." Is that faith? That is faith.

Yeah, look at verse 15. Came to pass before he had done speaking, before he was finished praying, behold, a girl named Rebekah, she came out and she was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother. What a coincidence. There are no such things as coincidences. And she's out there. She's got the pitcher on her shoulder. It's empty. And the damsel—that means young lady—was very fair to look upon. She was a virgin, neither had she known men. She's never been married.

And she went down to the well, and she filled her pitcher and she brought it back up. And the servant ran to meet her and he said—I'm going to paraphrase—"Excuse me, let me, I pray thee, drink a little water. May I have, I've had a kind of long trip and could I have some water, please?" And she said, "Drink, sure, of course you can." And she gave him water. She let down her pitcher in her hand and she gave him the drink.

And when she had finished giving him the drink, she said—get ready, nobody, we're not making this up—"I will draw water for your camels also until they have been drinking all that they need." Okay, we're going to be here for a couple hours. And she hasted—that means she hurried—and emptied her pitcher into the trough and she ran again to the well, draw water, and drew for all 10 camels. And the man, wondering at her—now, the language means amazed at this.

I mean, he is shocked and stunned. You ever ask God for something and God did it, and you're going, "Not in a million years did I ever think he was going to do it. I was just asking." And he does it. I know, I've seen it on your faces sometimes. I asked the Lord and He answered. Well, the psalmist writes that. Go back and look through the psalms a couple times. David goes, "The Lord answered me." And you go, "Of course, he promised answer." No, you're not hearing me. He answered me.

Haven't you ever felt that way? God actually answered me. I'm not telling you God doesn't answer prayers. I'm just saying he doesn't answer mine. And he answered me. And it's a shock. You know, look at this guy. He's in wonder, wondering at her, and he held his peace, to wit whether the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not. He's just staring in amazement. This is nuts. Thank you, God. I think anyway. Am I seeing what I'm seeing?

And it came to pass, as the camels had gotten done drinking, he took a golden earring, half a shekel. When they call it an earring, it was what the girls would wear in their noses. It would be a nose ring to us. And two bracelets of gold. Remember, Abraham is rich. She just earned three days' wages. But he gives her precious gifts and said, "Whose daughter are you? Tell me, I pray thee. Is there room in your father's house for me to stay?"

He doesn't know who this person is, but he needs a place to stay. She said to him, "I'm the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Milcah, which she bore unto Nahor." Now the servant knows it's my master's brother. Nahor is Abraham's brother. Remember we met him when Abraham was still in Mesopotamia and God called him away. And she said moreover, "We have plenty of straw and provender enough and room for you to stay and bring the camels. You stay at our house." You sure you don't want to ask anybody's permission here, dude?

And the man bowed down his head and did what? Worshiped the Lord. He just bowed down and worshiped right there. He said, "Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, who had not left destitute my master of his mercy and his truth. I being in the way, the Lord led me to the house of my master's brother." And the damsel, Rebekah, she ran home and she told her mother's house. She went home, gave them the news.

"I invited a stranger." You know, you did that in those days. They come from somewhere, you give them a place to stay. "I invited him and his camels and some of the people there with him to stay with us." Rebekah, the Bible says—now, this offends people—the Bible says that she was very fair. The language means very beautiful and very desirable. Now, a lot of people, especially Christians, seem to think that's bad.

And God says it's good. Esther was beautiful for a reason. She needed to win a beauty contest and become queen. You know the Puritans, remember those as they came across to the new land? The Puritans taught that beauty was of the devil. As a matter of fact, there are still around, some of them, and they still do. Because the Bible describes the devil as the most beautiful angel. And because the devil sinned and fell, beauty is bad.

So in other words, two and two equals seven. And a lot of churches still believe it. You look around, it's interesting. So they, along with many different churches right now, there are some in this area, will not allow women to fix their hair, to color it in any way. They won't allow them to cut it or anything or shape it, right? They're not allowed to do any of that. They won't allow them to wear makeup. They won't allow any kind of clothing at all that brings attention to the girl.

So like, just put a bag over her head and a sack, kind of like the Muslims. If you're beautiful, don't let it go to your head, but God did that to you. God Himself created beauty, and Rebekah was beautiful. And she is the one that the Lord chose to be the wife of Isaac. You understand here, Abraham is the type—is a type, is a picture—of God Almighty. Abraham is the Father.

Isaac is a type, the picture, of Jesus Christ our Lord. Eliezer, or the servant, whichever who the servant was, is a picture or type of the Holy Spirit. And Rebekah is a type or picture of the church, the bride of Jesus Christ. You learn a ton from that if you start to look at it at that angle. You just learn all kinds of things. It was God's idea all along. After she watered the camels, the servant of Abraham gave her gifts for kindness and faithfulness.

She's a type of the church, right? The body of Christ. Is Jesus going to give us gifts? He has already, right? He gave her some gifts right there. Gold, right? Nice. How pretty. Just for the kindness that she served the servant, which was serving his master. What you do for Jesus Christ, you're doing for God Almighty too, right? God the Father, God the Son, right? And we serve our Lord, and He's given us some gifts right here and now.

Remember the servant represents the Spirit. He goes out to get the bride, to call the bride, right, for Isaac, the Son, a type of Jesus Christ our Lord for the Father is getting the bride for the Son. Abraham, get it? You see the gospel played out here, you can't miss it. You can miss it if you want to, but it's hard to miss. The Holy Spirit gives us gifts. 1 Corinthians, there are the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Just read through 1 Corinthians chapter 12.

Read through Romans chapter 12. Read through Ephesians chapter 4. And you know all these things. God has done that. The Holy Spirit is working in our heart right now. Turns out she's the daughter of Bethuel, son of Milcah, the son of Abraham. Nahor is Abraham's brother. This is not a coincidence. This is God-ordained. I don't think coincidences happen. Some people call—some people call it a "God wink," you know, when God wishes to remain anonymous, He'll let you do that little coincidence they call a "God wink."

There are no coincidences. I didn't get to Idaho accidentally. He wanted me to do this for some reason, suffer and freeze, right? There's a plan for His glory in this. You know it. Abraham's servant bowed down and he worshiped the Lord, and he praised the Lord. And he prayed, and he thanked the Lord for directing him to Abraham's family. Meanwhile, Rebekah's running home to make a place. "Let's get a place ready. I like this guy."

Verse 29 says, Rebekah had a brother, and his name was Laban. And Laban ran out to the man and to the well. Laban went out, you know, one of the men of the family needs to come out and—and it came to pass, verse 30, when he saw the earrings and the bracelet upon his sister's hand, when he heard the words of Rebekah, his sister, saying, "Thus spoke the man unto me," that he came to the man and behold, he stood by the camels at the well.

And in verse 31, he said, "Come in, thou blessed of the Lord. Wherefore standest thou outside? Come in, you're welcome at our home. Come in, for I prepared the house and room for the camels." And the man came to the house and ungirded his camels and gave straw and provender, all the preparation they need and all for the camels. And water to wash his feet and the men's feet that were with him, some of the servants that came along to help.

And there was set food before him to eat. They set them right down, and they're treating them like royalty. They don't even know who this guy is yet. He said, "I can't eat right now. In other words, I'm tired and I'm hungry, but I am so excited, I gotta tell you, I gotta tell you something, and then we'll eat. I gotta tell you why I'm here." And they said, "Speak on," or in our language, "Tell it."

He said, "I am Abraham's servant." Now you could have probably heard a pin drop. "And the Lord hath blessed my master greatly," verse 35, "and he is become great. And He hath given him flocks and herds and silver and gold and men servants and maidservants and 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."

If you're a Bible underliner, underline that. He has given Isaac everything he owns. All right, Abraham is the type of who? The Father. Isaac is the type of Jesus Christ. The Father has given to Jesus, the Bible says, everything, all. He's put everything under His feet, right? And we're joint-heirs with Him. Remember all that? He says, "My master made me swear, saying, 'You shall not take a wife to my son of the daughters of the Canaanites in whom the land I dwell.'"

"'But you shall go to my father's house, to my family, and take a wife unto my son.' And I said to my master, 'Peradventure, what if the woman won't follow me?' He said to me, 'The Lord before whom I walk will send His angel with you and prosper your way, and you shall take a wife for my son of my kindred and my father.' Abraham says, 'What if she doesn't come back?' Abraham says, 'God will take care of that. She'll come back.'"

"Then," he says, "if she doesn't, of course, then you'll be clear of your oath, of this my oath, when they come to my kindred. If they give not thee one, thou shalt be clear of the oath. I think God's going to go before you and do it, but if she won't do it, then you're free from the oath. It's all right. Isaac will just live as a bachelor to the rapture."

And verse 42 says, "I came this day to the well and said, 'Oh Lord God, my master Abraham, if now you do prosper my way which I go. Behold, I stand by the well of water. And it shall come to pass when the virgin cometh forth to draw water, and I say, "Give me, I pray, a little water from thy pitcher to drink." And she say to me, "Both you drink and I will also draw water for your camels." Let that woman be the one that you've appointed for my master's son.'"

"And before I had done speaking," he says, "in my heart, behold, Rebekah came forth with her pitcher on her shoulder. She went down to the well, she drew water. And I said to her, 'May I have a drink, please?' And she made haste, she hurried, 'Sure,' and she let down her pitcher. She gave me to drink, and she said, 'I'll give your camels drink also.' And I need to know what your answer is. I mean, I'm hungry and I want to eat your food, but I had to get all this out. And I just want to know what I'm doing. When am I doing?"

Guest (Male): Thank you for listening to Apply Within with Pastor Bob Davis. Apply Within is a radio outreach ministry of North Country Chapel. Our Sunday morning Bible studies are at 9:00 and 11:00 AM. We also have a Friday evening Bible study at 7:00 PM and a Monday evening Bible study at 7:00 PM. You can download today's message in its entirety at northcountrychapel.com/studies. That's northcountrychapel.com/studies.

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