908 Biblical Characters - Rebekah
Exploring Biblical Characters • Sermon • Submitted
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- The Scripture says...
17 The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.
- In Jesus’ model prayer, He says, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”
- God obviously has a will & it is incumbent upon His people to be seeking to follow in the will of God
Q. The question is, how is this done?
Q. How can we pursue the will of God & know with certainty that we are within the will of God?
- Because there are questions we have in relation to God’s will
→ What job to seek
→ What school to attend
→ What girl or guy to love
→ What decision to make in any given circumstance
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- If you survey the church, there have been 2 approaches to ascertaining God’s will
- The first way is through subjective experience
- The second way is via an objective criteria
- Now I’m going to have to explain this somewhat as the definitions of this will be important for our understanding of what is happening here in this passage of Scripture
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- The subjective experience is bound up in the subject & who is the subject? You
- Now to a large extent, subjective experiences have started to dominate the church over the last 120 years
- Notably, with the rise of the Pentecostal & Charismatic influences in the church, God’s will has become internalised
- In other words, God’s will & His activity is understood through personal feelings & experience
- We have been taught to "think" with our feelings - e.g. "I feel it would not be safe to jump off a high cliff into cloudy water" – you mean, “I think it would not be safe to jump off a high cliff into cloudy water”
- This can be a real problem
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- However, I don’t want to completely dismiss this out of hand because God does interact with us, subjectively – you being the subject!
- In prayer, we pray to Him as a person & express the desires of our heart for His glory as we converse with our Lord
- That can’t be done without personal experience
- Furthermore, the Holy Spirit gives us – what the Bible calls – illumination
- This has to do with understanding – accepting & receiving the word of the cross – that is a divine miracle
- God has opened your eyes & moved you to receive the things of God
- God turned the lights on in your life & gives you understanding of how the Gospel applies to your life & its purpose in the world
- That is not something that can happen without the subjective engaged
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- The objective is different from this, however
- The objective is true whether you feel it or experience it at all
- I remember hearing reports on the LSD drug “epidemic” in San Francisco from the 1970’s
- Some people high on LSD were made to feel like they could fly – really & truly fly – that is how they felt subjectively
- Sadly, a number were killed after they decided to “fly off” high rise buildings
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Q. Do you understand what’s happened there?
- Your feelings or experiences count for naught if they contradict the objective reality - in this case, gravity
- If you think that is an extreme example & that being high on LSD is irrelevant, I can also speak of experiences of airline pilots
- They will tell you, as they have told me (as I have known 2 of them) one a commercial airline pilot that flew Jumbo jets at night
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- They both said that in severe turbulence, you can feel/experience like the plane is upright when it could be upside down, because your senses are not in tune with the forces at work outside the plane
- This is why, they say, that the instrument panel is of paramount importance when flying a plane, especially, at night
- The instrument panel gives an objective picture of what is happening with the plane – so if it says your upside down, you have to obey what that instrument panel says, rather than your subjective feelings
- This is jolly hard to do – but in the long run, it is the safest route
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- The word of God does not teach us to think with our feelings – check yourself whenever you say “I feel that such & such is…”
- I think this sort of talk is actually detrimental to a sound walk with the Lord
- You don’t feel such & such, of course – at best, you have a conviction about such & such
- So the words should be - & we do need to train ourselves and our children to say - “I think that such & such...”
1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
- The will of God will never be ascertained by your hunches & feelings that have been accustomed to the thinking of the world – it will be ascertained by the transformation of your mind
- Now this will be a hard thing to do, because – to be honest – we all believe that we are not conformed to the thinking of this world
- Look, if that were true & I wish it were, the church throughout history would not have ebbed & flowed into & out of heresy & worldly idolatry
- We can’t claim to be any better than past generations that were impacted by the ways & thoughts of their culture
- That is why it disturbs me at how cavalierly a person can condemn past generations for what they now consider abhorrent
- Yet, generations to come will cast their aspersions on our generation because it did not conform to the political & philosophical ideals of their generation
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- I think it is very important for Christians to apply these principles to the way we perceive the will of God
- In this passage of Scripture where Abraham is seeking a wife for his son, Isaac, we learn some very helpful features of what it means to follow & to do the will of God
1. The Placement of the Servant’s Hand
1. The Placement of the Servant’s Hand
- You may think that this is insignificant to the story here, but it is not
- Abraham made his servant take an oath so that he would swear that he would carry out Abraham’s wishes
- The hand of the servant had to be placed on or near Abraham’s groin ESV or under his thigh NASB
- Now the significance of this is embarrassing to talk about but you know that a sperm enters an egg in the uterus & a new child grows as a result
- You know where sperm comes from! Well, the servant has to place his hand on or near that place
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- The reason for this, I hope, will be obvious to you
- The promise – the line of Abraham’s descendants – the blessing to the whole world is contingent upon the success of every future generation
- Isaac was to carry the promise on to future generations
- The choice of a wife was absolutely crucial in that endeavour
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3 and I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I live,
- The Canaanites were great sinners in the sight of the Lord
- Remember that they are descendants of Ham who was cursed
- Way in the future, God declared to Abraham that the Canaanite would be judged by the Lord
13 God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. 14 “But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions. 15 “As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age. 16 “Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.”
- The Amorite was part of the tribes of the Canaanites
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- So Abraham knew that these were an ungodly bunch & that for his son to marry a woman of the Canaanites & into the family of the Canaanites absolutely threatened the promise of God
- Down the track, Isaac’s wife, Rebekah we see was disgusted by the practises of the Canaanites
46 Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am tired of living because of the daughters of Heth; if Jacob takes a wife from the daughters of Heth, like these, from the daughters of the land, what good will my life be to me?”
- She’s a bit of a drama queen but she’s right – a marriage to one of them would ruin the line of promise
- Heth was a son of Canaan who was cursed
- The sons of Heth became the Hittites
34 When Esau was forty years old he married Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite; 35 and they brought grief to Isaac and Rebekah.
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- There were clear guidelines that the Lord gave to Abraham concerning how he & his people should live
Q. Did it matter whether they emulated the Canaanites?
Q. Wouldn’t it be better to get on well with the inhabitants of the land as we think we should do in our situation?
- Well to the extent to which that is possible, we do
- Even Abraham got on well with the Hethites & they showed respect to him – but of course, when you’re dealing with the most powerful man in the land, then you going to watch your P’s & Q’s
- But Abraham was cordial & congenial to the people of the land to the degree - & here’s the key - that they didn’t impinge upon Abraham's obedience to the Lord
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- Abraham was given the way to live & the thoughts to have, which governed those ways
1 Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; Walk before Me, and be blameless.
- I am the all powerful one – do not fear anyone else – walk before Me & be blameless
- Encouraging him to stay true & steadfast to the Lord, He says
Genesis 15:1 (NASB95)
1 .... “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great.”
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- Again, the Lord reiterates the importance of Abraham’s moral & ethical lifestyle
19 “For I have chosen him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him.” 20 And the Lord said, “The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave.
- Here we see a dramatic contrast between what God is calling Abraham to & showing what this really means through contrast with Sodom & Gomorrah
- So we find that it was not enough just for Abraham to live his life in a certain way
- He had to ensure that he commanded his children to also live in that way
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- That is quite difficult when you find your culture is so different from the moral & ethical standards of the Lord
- But also, the big challenges your children face when going out into a culture that is antithetical to what they are being taught at home
- This is why it is so important that your children know why the family believes in God so they have a foundation that is able to answer any question or dissenting opinion from their peers – or even their school teachers
- Which, of course, means that there is quite a specific investment of time needed for that to happen
2. Principles for Discovery of God’s Will
2. Principles for Discovery of God’s Will
- As Paul said in Rom. 12, the criteria for discovering God’s will is two-fold
1. Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy & pleasing to God
- You have to be in a right place with God
- Unless you are willing to surrender your will to His, there is no way that you can know or approve of what is His will
2. Do Not Be Conformed, but be Transformed
A dignified old pastor owned a parrot of which he was exceedingly fond, but the bird had picked up an appalling vocabulary of cuss words from a previous owner and, after a series of particularly embarrassing episodes, the pastor decided he would have to put the parrot down.
But a lady in his congregation suggested a last ditch remedy. She said, “I have a female parrot. She’s an absolute saint. She sits quietly on the perch and prays constantly. Why don’t you bring your parrot over and see if my own bird’s good influence doesn’t reform him”? The pastor said it was worth a try & the next night he arrived with his pet.
His bird took one look at the lady parrot and chirped, “Hi, toots, how about a big kiss”? The lady parrot all of a sudden responded joyfully, “At last, my prayers have been answered”! [Illustrations Unlimited p. 306]
- This world wants your conformity to its ways
- God troubles the unbeliever & they take comfort in group think – where everyone is saying & approving of their ways
- But to discern God’s will the mind has to be purged of this corruption
- A corrupt mind will never be able to discern the things God approves
- You can’t expect to be embroiled in the thinking of the world & all of sudden, think like God, or know what He thinks about any given situation
- That can only be remedied by not being conformed to the thinking of the world but to be transformed in your thinking by the renewing of your mind – by reading & learning God’s word – by walking in His ways
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- Abraham’s servant, in honouring his master’s wishes, laid down some criteria by which he would use to determine God’s pick for Isaac
- Firstly, he heard from his master Abraham that he was not to find a wife from just anywhere
- She has to have the character that would be consistent with the promise & demand of God that Abraham be blameless
- There is nothing in this which the servant just threw his hands up in the air or put a dice in a cup & rolled it to see what would happen
- He had to use his mind & he had to use wisdom & sound judgement based on what God’s word & promise was all about
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- However, the element of faith is involved
5 The servant said to him, “Suppose the woman is not willing to follow me to this land; should I take your son back to the land from where you came?” 6 Then Abraham said to him, “Beware that you do not take my son back there! 7 “The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my birth, and who spoke to me and who swore to me, saying, ‘To your descendants I will give this land,’ He will send His angel before you, and you will take a wife for my son from there.
- Confidence coming from the faith of Abraham
- We saw that last week in that passage where Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac & Isaac said to him, “Father where is the lamb for the burnt offering”
- Abraham, not knowing what God was going to do, displayed absolute confidence in the provision of God in that testing time
- If God promised me this, then He will provide – only obey Him & be consistent with life that is tied up with the promise
- So going back to where Abraham comes from to find a wife contradicts the word of God’s promise & the fact that God told him to leave that land to go to the land that He has promised
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- The servant, then goes to Abraham's relatives because there the servant will find kindred spirits who worship the Lord & reject the paganism of the world
- The servant, however, devises a test to determine if the Lord does go before him & provide
- This test is of his own making – Abraham did not instruct his servant to use this test
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Q, Was this test some random throw of a dice type of test?
- Like, “Lord, if a young lady comes along & trips over & falls flat on her face, then let her be the one” – or like the advice of this little poem?
Slippery ice – very thin
Pretty girl – tumbled in
Saw a fellow on the bank;
Gave a shriek – then she sank
Boy on hand – heard her shout;
Jumped right in – pulled her out
Now he’s hers – very nice;
It’s that easy – just break the ice
- No, it was nothing like that
- This test involved character – the character of the woman Abraham’s servant was seeking for Isaac
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- Hospitality was a cherished practice in the ancient world
- Whether you were or weren’t hospitable made the difference between whether you were of good or bad character
- They were hardly hospitable in Sodom – Lot showed the strangers (the angels) kindness & gave them shelter & protection
- The people of Sodom were more than inhospitable – they were wanting to immorally abuse them!
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- The test was whether the young woman would go the extra mile if the servant asked her for a drink & she responded by taking further care of him by giving water to his camels
- I want you to notice 2 things here:
1. Rebekah showed her true character by showing hospitality to the servant of Abraham in real time & space
- The only way he could tell that she was a young woman of godly quality was by how she treated him
- It’s all well & good to say that God knows your heart, but as we saw last week, there is no meaning when something doesn’t happen in God’s created world – for it to have meaning, it must happen in time & space for that is the sphere of creation
- God lives where time does not exist & where space (material) does not exist
- Our world is unique in that God created it a material world where matter exists & time also exists moving from one moment to the next
- As we live in this world, meaning is derived from what we do in it
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- Yes, it is true that God knows your heart, but God wants that heart to show itself in the realm He has created for us
- If we don’t, then we may well be deceiving ourselves as to what is in our hearts
- We may think our heart is in the right place but what do we make of this text of Scripture?
9 “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it? 10 “I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the results of his deeds.
- So, trust the heart? I don’t think so!
- Make sure that in real life, you are living out what’s in your heart & if you’d be ashamed to reveal what’s in your heart, then deal with it before God
Q. Why do you think He sent Jesus here in the first place?
- Because we are incapable of helping ourselves – of changing our heart - we need help from God to become someone of character
- He has provided grace & mercy to us:
Grace is giving to someone what they don’t deserve
Mercy is not giving to someone what they do deserve
- Our Lord Jesus Christ, in offering Himself as an atoning sacrifice to God, in real time & space, brought about true meaning in His death & resurrection
- That God will forgive & restore all who come to Him through Jesus Christ & will not hold their sins against them
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- That is such really good news – who could knock that back
- That we can truly know perfect reconciliation with our Creator & not have Him condemn us – that is grace & mercy
- It is from this springboard of grace & mercy that we can become a people of real character – a people who will reflect the life of Jesus Christ our Lord
2. If you want to have someone of character like this, then you too, to be attractive, godly wise, & have that character yourself
- It’s no good having aspirations of a good character in a future spouse if you aren’t working on having a good character yourself
- If you desire a life partner that would be faithful, honourable & caring, then you need to be that person yourself so that the one you desire might be attracted to you too – of course, we are talking here about godliness & faithfulness to the Lord (attractive in that way)
- I’m not talking about looking hot or attractive – although, you don’t want to be a slob because that will speak of your character too
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- The NT focus’ much on the aspect of inner beauty
- The beauty that is first & foremost beautiful is this…
1 In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, 2 as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior. 3 Your adornment must not be merely external—braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses; 4 but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God. 5 For in this way in former times the holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, being submissive to their own husbands; 6 just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, and you have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by any fear.
- Character is more valuable that outward appearance
- The servant found such character in Rebekah & she became Isaac wife
- The Lord did go before, but the servant used the criteria of God’s word of promise to find the right woman for Isaac
- When we are seeking the will of God for the various decisions we make in life, remember, that God’s word reveals objective truth about His will
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Q. Now, what if you have several options before you?
- Let’s say the servant found 2 young women of like character
Q. How would you know which to pick as to God’s will for you?
- We could go on further with this message in talking about that but I’ve run out of time this morning
- In answering this question, I might add a little bit for you when I post the message & questions of this sermon up on Telegram - that might encourage a few more to use that ministry tool through the week
- But to conclude today, let’s remember what our Lord Jesus Christ said about the importance of the will of God
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.