Genesis 24.15-20-Rebekah Appears-Description of Her Appearance and Actions
Thursday April 6, 2006
Genesis: Genesis 24:15-20-Rebekah Appears-Description of Her Appearance and Actions
Lesson # 128
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 24:1.
This evening we will study Genesis 24:15-20, which records Rebekah appearing to Abraham’s servant and identifying herself as Isaac’s bride by her actions.
As we noted on Tuesday evening, Genesis 24 is divided into five sections.
Thus far, we have studied the first two sections and a portion of the third section.
(1) Genesis 24:1 presents an introductory statement regarding Abraham’s age to begin the chapter and demonstrates the urgent need to secure a bride for his son.
Genesis 24:1, “Now Abraham was old, advanced in age; and the LORD had blessed Abraham in every way.”
(2) Genesis 24:2-9 records Abraham commissioning his servant in his household to go back to Paddan Aram and secure a bride for Isaac among Abraham’s relatives.
Genesis 24:2-4, “Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who had charge of all that he owned, ‘Please place your hand under my thigh, 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, but you will go to my country and to my relatives, and take a wife for my son Isaac.’”
Genesis 24:5, “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?’”
Genesis 24:6, “Then Abraham said to him, ‘Beware that you do not take my son back there!’”
Genesis 24:7, “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.”
Genesis 24:8, “But if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be free from this my oath; only do not take my son back there.”
Genesis 24:9, “So the servant placed his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and swore to him concerning this matter.”
(3) Genesis 24:10-27 presents Abraham’s servant providentially meeting Rebekah at a well in Nahor in Aram Naharaim.
Thus far, we have only completed up to Genesis 24:14.
Genesis 24:10, “Then the servant took ten camels from the camels of his master, and set out with a variety of good things of his master's in his hand; and he arose and went to Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor.”
Genesis 24:11, “He made the camels kneel down outside the city by the well of water at evening time, the time when women go out to draw water.”
Genesis 24:12, “He said, ‘O LORD, the God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today, and show lovingkindness to my master Abraham.’”
Genesis 24:13, “Behold, I am standing by the spring, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water.”
Genesis 24:14, “now may it be that the girl to whom I say, ‘Please let down your jar so that I may drink,’ and who answers, ‘Drink, and I will water your camels also’ -- may she be the one whom You have appointed for Your servant Isaac; and by this I will know that You have shown lovingkindness to my master.”
Genesis 24:15, “Before he had finished speaking, behold, Rebekah who was born to Bethuel the son of Milcah, the wife of Abraham's brother Nahor, came out with her jar on her shoulder.”
What appears to take place by chance from the human perspective is from the divine perspective a part of an orchestrated plan by God from eternity past.
This answer to the servant’s prayer is the outworking of the divine decree.
The divine decree took place in eternity past before anything was ever created and is God’s eternal and immutable will regarding the bride of Isaac.
This outworking of the divine decree is called the “providence of God.”
God’s sovereignty is expressed in the comprehensive plan or decree for world history.
The decree of God is the chosen and adopted plan of all God’s works.
This encounter between Rebekah and Abraham’s servant was part of God’s chosen and adopted plan for man’s salvation, Isaac and Rebekah.
The decree of God is His eternal purpose according to the counsels of His own will, whereby for His own glory He has foreordained whatever comes to pass.
This encounter between Abraham’s servant and Rebekah was part of God’s eternal purpose according to the counsels of His own will for His own glory, which He foreordained to come to pass.
The decree of God is the sovereign choice of the divine will (His attribute of sovereignty) and mentality (His omniscience) by which all things are brought into being and controlled, made subject to His pleasure, and producing His glorification (Isa. 46:10; Eph. 1:9).
This encounter between Abraham’s servant and Rebekah was the result of God’s sovereign will and omniscience by which this encounter was brought into being and was controlled and made subject to His pleasure and glorified Him.
The “decree of God” is His eternal, holy, wise and sovereign purpose, comprehending at once all things that ever were or will be in their causes, courses, conditions, successions, and relations and determining their certain futurition (i.e., that they will certainly take place).
When I say “comprehending” I mean that the omniscience of God is the source of the divine decrees by “determining” I mean that the sovereignty of God chose before anything existed which things would actually become historical events.
The omniscience of God comprehended at once in eternity past this encounter between Abraham’s servant and Rebekah and the course it would take and its conditions and relations and determined that this encounter with Rebekah would take place.
All history was yet future at the time of the decrees.
Therefore, this encounter between Rebekah and Abraham’s servant was known by God in eternity past before anything was created and was sovereignly determined by God to take place at the time it did.
The decree of God is His eternal and immutable will regarding the future existence of events, which will happen in time and regarding the precise order and manner of their occurrence.
It was God’s eternal and immutable will that this encounter between Abraham’s servant and Rebekah would take place in time and the precise order of events leading up to it and the manner in which the events would transpire.
The will of God in common usage refers to what God desires of an individual or group in a particular situation.
The will of God in relation to the divine decrees refers to the decision God made in eternity past, from His attribute of sovereignty, which established that certain things would actually come into being while other things would not.
The will of God is His sovereign choice as to what will take place in time.
God from His sovereignty decided in eternity past that this encounter with Rebekah and Abraham’s servant would take place in the exact time that it did.
Human beings and angels have a volition that is truly free.
Many things occur as a result of angelic and human free will acting contrary to God’s desires.
God in eternity past decreed that angels and human beings would have volition and would be allowed to make decisions contrary to the sovereign will of God and without compromising the justice of God.
The divine decrees are the eternal plan by which God has rendered certain all the events of the universe, including both angelic and human history-past, present and future.
God’s decree rendered all things as certain to occur; He decided that they would exist.
In doing so, He did not interfere with angelic or human freedom of choice.
In fact, He decreed that we would have freedom of choice.
In giving us volition, He also decreed that our decisions, whatever they might be, would certainly take place-even those that are contrary to His desires.
Therefore, God decreed that the decisions of Abraham, his servant, Rebekah and her family would all take place in time and even those by Rebekah’s family, which were contrary to His desires.
Being omniscient, God had the good sense to know ahead of time what we would decide, and He not only decreed that those decisions would exist but He also decreed the exact manner, consistent with His integrity, in which He would handle our decisions.
Since God is omniscient He knew ahead of time Abraham’s decisions, his servant’s, Rebekah’s and those her family would make and decreed that those decisions would exist and He also decreed the exact manner in which He would handle their decisions.
This answered prayer is simply a manifestation of God’s sovereign will that is based upon His omniscient knowledge of all the facts concerning what will take place in the future.
The Lord knows perfectly, eternally and simultaneously all that is knowable, both the actual and the possible and thus has all knowledge of every event in human and angelic history.
Therefore, the Lord looked down the corridors of time and decreed for this encounter between Abraham’s servant and Rebekah.
Genesis 24:15, “Before he had finished speaking, behold, Rebekah who was born to Bethuel the son of Milcah, the wife of Abraham's brother Nahor, came out with her jar on her shoulder.”
The answer to the servant’s prayer was already on the way with the angel preparing the situation.
Isaiah 65:24, “It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear.”
The name “Rebekah” (hq*b+r!) (Hebrew: rivqah pronounced: riv-kaw) whose name is related to the Akkadian rabaku, “to be soft or springy,” thus her name means, “soft, supple.”
“Rebekah” was a sister to Laban and a second cousin to Isaac whose father of course is Abraham.
“Bethuel” (la@WjB+) (Hebrew: bethu’el pronounced: beth-oo-ale) whose name means, “dweller in God” was the eighth and final son of Nahor and Milcah according to Genesis 22:20-24 and was the father of Rebekah.
The name of Nahor’s wife is “Milcah” (hK*l=m!) (Hebrew: milkah pronounced mil-kaw), which means, “queen” and she was Lot’s sister according to Genesis 11:27-29 and therefore, we see that “Milcah” was both wife and niece to “Nahor.”
“Nahor” was named after his grandfather (see Genesis 11:25) and this is the only instance in all the genealogies of Genesis 5, 10 and 11 that we see someone being named after an ancestor indicating that Abraham and Nahor’s family were a close knit one.
Genesis 11:31-32 records that Terah left Ur of the Chaldeans with Abraham and did not take Nahor indicating that they remained in Ur of the Chaldeans but later it appears that Nahor came to the region of Haran as indicated by Genesis 22:20-24 and 24.
Haran died at a young age in Ur of the Chaldeans in the presence of his father Terah according to Genesis 11:28.
Nahor founded a city, which is mentioned in Genesis 24:10 and is known in cuneiform sources as “Nakhur” and this city was situated in the upper Euphrates region in the Balikh Valley, near the city of Haran.
Genesis 24:16, “The girl was very beautiful, a virgin, and no man had had relations with her; and she went down to the spring and filled her jar and came up.”
“Girl” is the noun na`arah (hr*u&n^) (nah-ar-aw), which refers to a “young girl of marriageable age.”
Genesis 24:17, “Then the servant ran to meet her, and said, ‘Please let me drink a little water from your jar.’”
The servant does not walk to meet Rebekah but rather runs to meet her expressing his eager anticipation to the answer of his prayer and faith that the prayer would answered.
Genesis 24:18, “She said, ‘Drink, my lord’; and she quickly lowered her jar to her hand, and gave him a drink.”
The servant deliberately refrains from asking Rebekah to water his camels in order to test her.
Genesis 24:19, “Now when she had finished giving him a drink, she said, ‘I will draw also for your camels until they have finished drinking.’”
In Genesis 24:14, Abraham’s servant prayed that the woman would not only give him a drink but also draw water for his camels but we see that she does more than what the servant prayed for in that she offers to give the camels water to drink “until they have finished drinking.”
Now, remember a camel can drink twenty-five gallons of water and so she would be there a while and would take up a lot of her time and would be a sacrifice for her.
Rebekah demonstrates her spiritual character in that she goes the extra mile for Abraham’s servant, which was taught by our Lord to His disciples.
Matthew 5:41, “Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two.”
Genesis 24:20, “So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough, and ran back to the well to draw, and she drew for all his camels.”
Notice that Rebekah does not walk but she runs back to the well to draw water for the camels demonstrating that her hospitality is enthusiastic.
Rebekah has exceeded the servant’s expectations in that she does more than he asked God for her to do.
She has demonstrated nobility of character and that she is an ideal wife.
Notice that she is hospitable to strangers, kind to animals, generous with her time, considerate of others and willing to give of herself to others.