Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction & Review

Before Christmas in our chronological Bible Storying series, we were studying the life of Abraham.

You may recall God called him to leave his father’s house in Haran at the age of 75.

God promised to give him a land for himself and his family, that he’d multiply Abraham’s descendents as much as the dust of the earth and the stars in the sky.

The problem was, Abraham didn’t have any children, but he believed and obeyed God immediately, not having any idea where he was going but he followed God by faith.

God reaffirmed His promise to Abraham multiple times over the course of Abraham’s life even though Abraham made a number of mistakes and wasn’t perfect, God was gracious to Abraham.

After 25 years of waiting, Abraham & his wife Sarah had a son - named “laughter” - well that’s what “Isaac” means in the Hebrew language.

What made it laughable was that Abraham was 100 years old and his wife Sarah was 90!

Last time in our story series, Isaac was about 12 or so when God tested Abraham by commanding Abraham to offer his only son to God as a love offering.

It was a test to see if Abraham loved God more than he loved Isaac.

Again, we saw Abraham obey God, immediately without hesitation or question.

Summarize the sacrifice, Abraham’s faith God would provide a lamb for the sacrifice.

God did provide a ram caught in the thicket by it’s horns for Abraham to offer in place of his son.

Abraham even named the place a special name: Jehovah Jireh, “The Lord will Provide”.

Today’s story comes from Genesis 23-25 and we’ll begin to see God’s dealings with Isaac and his family.

As always, focus on listening to the details of the story so you can retell the story to someone else along the way and we’ll make some applications of how this story applies to our lives today at the beginning of 2023.

1. Tell the story

Setting

The next thing we’re told is that Sarah, Abraham’s beautiful wife, died at the ripe old age of 127.

This means she lived 37 years after Isaac was born and she lived long enough to see God fulfill His promise to her that she would have a son in her old age.

She went to her grave knowing that Jehovah God, God of Abraham is a God who keeps His promises!

Abraham purchased a field that had a cave called Machpelah, in the place he had settled in Hebron for 400 shekels of silver.

This was an enormous fortune in Abraham’s day that roughly equates to about $2,500 in our economy today.

What’s significant about this is that now Abraham is officially a land owner in the Promised Land, not in an obscure corner of the PL, but in Hebron, the heart of where the Lord told Abraham to go when God called Abraham to obey Him and follow Him by faith 52 years earlier!

Abraham buried Sarah in the cave at Machpelah after she got her promotion to Heaven.

Abraham is now 137 years old, he’s buried his wife and he’s looking at his 37 year old son Isaac.

The Bible says that Abraham was now old, well advanced in age and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things.

While this most certainly included physical blessings, it also included every spiritual blessing as well, one of those is the gift of wisdom and understanding from the Lord.

While we don’t have a record of it, it is clear Abraham’s walk with the Lord, his first hand witness of the evil in places like Sodom & Gomorrah and God’s destruction of those places, Abraham realized he needed to be proactive in securing a wife for his son Isaac to prevent him from marrying one of the Canaanite women.

God had promised Him lots of children, so Isaac needed a wife, but not just any wife, a wife who would live the life of faith in God.

So Abraham enlisted his most trusted and faithful servant with a most important task.

It was a task that would require faithfulness to follow instructions and faith that God would provide.

Of course Abraham had already witnessed God’s faithfulness to provide in many ways, including providing a ram for the sacrificial offering.

And according to God’s promise, Isaac was going to have children so a bride for Isaac becomes the primary mission for this trustworthy servant.

He was so trustworthy, the Bible says “all his master’s goods where in his hands.”

We aren’t given his name, but Abraham makes this servant take an oath that he will not allow Isaac to get a bride from the Canaanite women, rather it must be a woman from the relatives of Abraham’s family back in Haran.

The servant realized the gravity of this assignment and recognized the potential problem; what if she doesn’t want to come with me, should I take Isaac along to meet her? Abraham was resolute: Absolutely not!

God promised He’d give us this land to my family.

This is Isaac’s home and the Lord will send His angel before you.

If she won’t come with you, you are released from your oath, but don’t take Isaac back there!

So the servant took 10 camels & supplies for a long journey that belonged to Abraham and set out on his important mission.

He traveled back to the place Abraham’s father was buried in Haran, roughly 600 miles away as the crow flies.

A camel can travel about 20 miles in a day, so even in the best case scenario, this journey is a minimum of 30 days at full speed & in reality, probably double this time.

So up and back, this is a trip of 4 or 5 months.

To give up your chief servant for 4 or 5 months, with difficult travel conditions and no communication, reveals how serious an issue this was for Abraham!

So the servant arrives in northern Mesopotamia, near the city of Nahor, both Abraham’s brother and grandfather were named Nahor.

So the servant made the camels kneel down and rest outside the city at a water well.

The servant had been with Abraham a long time, he had undergone the right of circumcision as God had commanded; and it seems in our text this faithful, yet unnamed servant was a man of faith too; because prayed a simple prayer: “Oh Lord God - (Yahweh-Elohim), of my master Abraham, please give me success this day, and show kindness to my master Abraham.”

(Gen.

24:12).

Now I know the servant prayed to the God of Abraham, he didn’t say “My Father who are in Heaven...” and some might say this doesn’t show faith.

But the next part of this humble servant’s prayer reveals he was a man of deep faith.

You see a faith tested is a faith trusted.

This servant knew the impossible nature of this task given to him by his master Abraham.

He knew how much Abraham loved his son, he may have even been one of the 3 servants Abraham took with him to Mount Moriah to offer up Isaac to God; but in any case, He knew the story of God’s miraculous provision.

Surely if God is able to provide a ram in place of Isaac, then God is able to provide a bride for this son named Isaac.

By putting his faith to the test, he would have 100% confidence he had found God’s will for a bride for Isaac.

A faith tested is a faith trusted.

How would you go about choosing if you were in his shoes?

Is it a beauty pageant?

What about the talent competition?

Would there be an audible voice from the Lord as he’d heard his master Abraham speak of before?

Nope!

None of that.

This faithful servant leaned on Yahweh-Elohim.

The Lord God of Abraham, the God who was able to give a 100 year old man a kid!

If you want a specific answer from God, you pray specific prayers!

So his prayer was very specific!

Lord I’m standing here watching these young women come out to draw water.

Let it be the one I ask for water says, here, you drink and I’m going to water your camels too!

You might think, oh that’s no big deal.

Well a thirsty camel might drink 5 gallons of water, 50 gallons, all drawn from a well by hand in the desert sand that could reach as deep nearly 200 feet!

Such a gal would be considered a generous, hard working girl!

“What’s your talent in the beauty contest?” “Why I can draw 50 gallons of water for 10 thirsty camels!”

She’s a keeper!

Well the Lord heard the servant’s specific prayer request and answered it exactly how the servant prayed - before he had finished speaking!

(24:15).

The Lord God, Yahweh-Elohim, doesn’t do random!

Here comes a girl named Rebekah, who does exactly as the servant prayed.

He stood there and watched in stunned silence as she hurriedly drew water and watered all of his camels!

“But wait there’s more!” as the commercials tell us.

The servant gave her several gifts of gold rings and bracelets and asked her about her family.

Guess who’s family she is from?

She is the daughter of Abraham’s youngest nephew Bethuel, who was born to Nahor & Milcah; Abraham’s brother & sister in-law.

(22:20-23).

This would make Rebekah Abraham’s great niece!

He asked if they had room for him to lodge with the camels and she affirmed they had plenty of room, straw & food for the camels!

This is way better than Motel 6 with old Tom Bodet leaving the light on for ya.

Well the servant had a hallelujah celebration!

Gen. 24:26-27 “Then the man bowed down his head and worshiped the Lord.

27 And he said, “Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His mercy and His truth toward my master.

As for me, being on the way, the Lord led me to the house of my master’s brethren.”

The servant went to meet her family and they had a big feast for him because Rebekah told them the story about meeting this man, his gifts and all that happened.

Rebekah’s brother, Laban, got all excited when he saw the gifts given to his sister.

We’ll learn more about the kind of man Laban was later in our story series.

After much feasting and after learning the nature of this servant’s mission, to secure a wife for Abraham’s son Isaac, Rebekah’s father & brother affirmed this had to be the work of God and agreed Rebekah should marry Isaac.

But her family wanted to say goodbye over the course of 10 days time.

This faithful servant was on an urgent mission for his master & needed to get back to his beloved & aged master Abraham.

He wanted to leave the next day.

What a bold request!

Meet you one day, leave with your baby girl the next!

This servant knew what he was asking, but he also knew it was God who was orchestrating all of this.

So they called for Rebekah and asked her what she wanted to do.