Genesis 24-Marriage of Rebekah and Isaac Typifies Marriage of Christ and the Church
Sunday April 30, 2006
Genesis: Genesis 24-The Marriage of Rebekah and Isaac Typifies the Marriage of Christ and the Church
Lesson # 136
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 24:62.
On Thursday evening, we completed a study of Genesis 24, which records Abraham’s servant Eliezer securing a bride for his son Isaac among his relatives in northern Mesopotamia.
As we have noted, God providentially guided Eliezer in finding and identifying Rebekah whose father was Bethuel and whose grandfather was Abraham’s brother, Nahor.
On Wednesday we saw the consummation of this marriage recorded in Genesis 24:62-67.
Genesis 24:62, “Now Isaac had come from going to Beer-lahai-roi; for he was living in the Negev.”
Genesis 24:63, “Isaac went out to meditate in the field toward evening; and he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, camels were coming.”
Genesis 24:64, “Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac she dismounted from the camel.”
Genesis 24:65, “She said to the servant, ‘Who is that man walking in the field to meet us?’ And the servant said, ‘He is my master.’ Then she took her veil and covered herself.”
Genesis 24:66, “The servant told Isaac all the things that he had done.”
Genesis 24:67, “Then Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and he took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her; thus Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.”
This morning I am going to demonstrate to you that the marriage of Isaac and Rebekah typifies or foreshadows the marriage of Christ and the Church.
A type is designed to teach us a lesson about the Lord Jesus Christ.
Biblical typology involves an analogical correspondence in which earlier events, persons, and places in salvation history become patterns by which later events and the like are interpreted.
A type is a specific parallel between two historical entities.
Therefore, we see that the historical events of the securing of a bride for Isaac and his marriage to Rebekah “parallels” the historical events of the Holy Spirit securing a bride for Jesus Christ, which is the Church and His marriage to the Church.
As we have studied in Genesis 21, the miraculous birth of Isaac parallels and foreshadows the miraculous birth of Jesus Christ.
In Genesis 22, we studied that Isaac was uniquely born meaning born to parents who were advanced in age, which typifies the fact that Jesus Christ was uniquely born since He was born of a virgin.
We also studied in Genesis 22 that Abraham sacrificing his son Isaac on Mount Moriah typified or portrayed God the Father, who “spared not his own Son, but delivered Him up for us all” (Romans 8:32).
By willingly laying himself upon the altar in obedience to his father Abraham, Isaac typified or portrayed the Lord Jesus Christ who was “obedient unto death” (Philippians 2:8).
The altar portrayed or foreshadowed the Cross of Calvary and the burnt offering portrays Jesus Christ’s death on the Cross as propitiating the Father (1 John 2:2; 4:10).
In Genesis 22, we also studied that God’s intervention in preventing Abraham from sacrificing Isaac and thus sparing the life of Isaac was a type of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In Genesis 24, Abraham portrays God the Father, his servant Eliezer portrays God the Holy Spirit, Isaac portrays the Lord Jesus Christ and Rebekah portrays the Church.
The fact that Abraham sent his servant Eliezer to secure a bride for his son Isaac in far away northern Mesopotamia portrays God the Father sending the Holy Spirit from heaven to planet earth to secure a bride for His Son Jesus Christ and which bride is composed of born again believers in the church age.
The Greek term translated “church” in your English Bibles is the noun ekklesia (e)kklhsiva), which literally means, “called out ones” since it is composed of the preposition ek (e)k), “out from” and the verb kaleo (kalevw), “to call.”
This ministry of the Holy Spirit of calling out a bride for Jesus Christ is called “the Baptism of the Spirit.”
At the moment of salvation the omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit takes the believer out of the domain of the kingdom of darkness and sin and Satan’s power and places them in union with Jesus Christ.
This union with Christ makes the believer a member of the body of Christ and future bride of Christ since this union permanently identifies them with Christ in His crucifixion (Rom. 6:6; Gal. 6:14), death (Rom. 6:8), burial (Rom. 6:4; Col. 2:12), resurrection (Eph. 2:6; Col. 3:1) and session (Eph. 2:6).
1 Corinthians 12:13, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.”
The apostle Paul teaches that the church is engaged to Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 11:2, “For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin.”
The apostle Paul teaches that it is a “mystery” that the church is the bride of Christ meaning it was unknown to the Old Testament prophets of Israel.
Ephesians 5:22, “Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.”
Ephesians 5:23, “For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.”
Ephesians 5:24, “But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.”
Ephesians 5:25, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her.”
Ephesians 5:26, “so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.”
Ephesians 5:27, “that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.”
Ephesians 5:28, “So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself.”
Ephesians 5:29, “for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church.”
Ephesians 5:30, “because we are members of His body.”
Ephesians 5:31, “FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.”
Ephesians 5:32, “This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.”
The servant’s “testimony” to Rebekah concerning Abraham and his son Isaac illustrates for us the Holy Spirit’s ministry in calling out the Bride of Christ (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:10).
The second bestowment of gifts by Abraham’s servant Eliezer to her family portrays the Spirit bestowing upon church age believers spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12:1-27).
Abraham’s servant taking Rebekah back with him for Isaac illustrates the “rapture of the church,” which is a technical theological term for the resurrection of the church, which is imminent, invisible to the world, terminating the church age dispensation and securing the church as the bride of Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ was the first one to teach of the rapture, instructing His disciples in His Upper Room Discourse that He would receive them to Himself, which Paul confirms in 2 Thessalonians 2:1 where he teaches that we will be “gathering together to Him.”
John 14:2, “In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.”
John 14:3, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, {there} you may be also.”
2 Thessalonians 2:1, “Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him.”
Therefore, since Jesus Christ was the first one to ever teach the doctrine of the rapture or resurrection of the church and was not known to Old Testament saints, the rapture is called a “mystery.”
1 Corinthians 15:51, “Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed.”
1 Corinthians 15:52, “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”
The “rapture” will take place in the earth’s atmosphere when the Lord Jesus Christ will suddenly and forcefully remove the church from planet earth in order to deliver her from the Tribulation period.
1 Thessalonians 4:13, “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.”
1 Thessalonians 4:14, “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.”
1 Thessalonians 4:15, “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.”
1 Thessalonians 4:16, “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of {the} archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.”
1 Thessalonians 4:17, “Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.”
1 Thessalonians 4:18, “Therefore comfort one another with these words.”
The “Rapture” or “Resurrection” of the church is the next prophetic event to take place in history.
The rapture of the church is “immanent” meaning it could take place at any time.
1 Thessalonians 5:1-2, “Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.”
“The day of the Lord” is an extended period of time beginning with God’s dealing with Israel after the rapture at the beginning of the tribulation period and extending through the 2nd Advent of Christ and His millennial reign unto the creation of the new heavens and the new earth after the millennium.
The only way that the Day of the Lord could come as a “thief in the night,” unexpected, and unheralded, is if the rapture is imminent.
Immanency denotes that Christ could come at any moment, and the uncertainty of the time of that arrival, and that no prophesied event stands between the believer and that hour.
The purpose of such immanency is that the Church may be in a constant state of expectancy, always looking for and waiting for the coming of her Lord from heaven.
Titus 2:13, “looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 3:20, “For our citizenship exists from eternity past in the realm of the heavens, out from which also we ourselves at the present time are eagerly anticipating as Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Philippians 3:21, “Who will cause our humiliating body to be outwardly transformed to be identical in essence with His glorious body because of the power that will enable Him to marshal all things created to Himself.”
The immanency of the rapture of the church is designed to motivate the church to perform good works that are divine in quality and to do the Father’s will.
1 John 3:2, “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.”
1 John 3:3, “And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”
The marriage of the church to Jesus Christ will take place in heaven while simultaneously the Tribulation period is taking place on planet earth.
Revelation 19:7, “Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.”
Revelation 19:8, “It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”
Revelation 19:9, “Then he said to me, ‘Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’ And he said to me, ‘These are true words of God.’”