The passage we come to this morning is a love story. People like love stories. Many of the films and television programmes we watch are love stories. In fact there is a tendency now to take almost any story and when they make the film version to turn it into a love story. Even the sinking of the Titanic becomes a love story when Hollywood gets to work. A recent novel called the Da Vinci Code has even turned the life of Jesus into a love story, portraying Jesus as married and a father of children.

The ironic thing is that the book has become a multi-million best seller. It is rather depressing that so many people pursue make believe and fantasies. One tragic feature of our modern world is that so many people get their ideas about love from the cinema or the novel. Tragically a lot of those ideas are not grounded in reality, but are just fantasy and when people pursue fantasies they so often end up disappointed.

The bible is not fantasy it is God’s truth. The story we are looking at this morning has got quite a bit to teach us about human love, but above all it has a lot to teach us about God’s love and faithfulness. So let’s look at Genesis chapter 24.

Abraham is coming to the end of his life. The Lord has blessed him in everyway. But Abraham knows that God’s covenant with him is an ongoing matter, it must be fulfilled through his descendants. In the main this must be through his son Isaac and his descendants. God has specifically promised this. But for this to happen Isaac needs a wife. This whole chapter is about the way that God leads and guides Isaac and Rebecca to become husband and wife. As we look at the characters in the story, we will see something of the way that people of faith should live.

Abraham is at the point of passing on to others his life’s work and mission. He is giving final instructions. He does it in accordance with God’s covenant. God’s call to his family is to do with a promised land. Abraham had come to Canaan at God’s call. God had promised to give his descendants the land, although to that point all he owned was a field he had bought with a cave in it to use as a burial ground.

Abraham is quite specific that his family has come to stay. His servant must find a wife for Isaac and bring her to the Promised Land, and even if he cannot do that, and Abraham does not impose an impossible burden on his servant; Isaac must be true to the covenant. There must be no going back to where the family came from.

Yet Abraham’s past experience of God’s faithfulness to his promises, gives him an assurance and a confidence. ‘God will send his angel before you.’ he tells his servant. As we walk in God’s ways, we have no need to fear. God prepares the way for you and me. Abraham has proved the reality of that, he is an example of faith to his servant and to all people who aspire to be people of faith.

Notice though that when it comes to the choice of a wife for Isaac, Abraham is very specific as to where his servant must look. The servant must not take one of the local girls for Isaac. He must travel back to Abraham’s family home. Although we are not given an explicit reason, it would seem that Abraham was concerned that Isaac and his wife should share the same faith.

Although other members of his family had not come to Canaan with Abraham apart from Lot, they would most probably have been part been part of the group who had set out from Ur with Abraham’s father at God’s call and come to Haran. They would have shared something of Abraham’s understanding of God. The reality of life is that people’s upbringing shapes the way they look at life. That is something that is not easily changed. The local girls would have bought up in the pagan religions, and would have been less likely to be willing or able to support Isaac in his commitment to God’s covenant.

One of the naïve illusions that many people are under today is that if you fall in love with someone, it doesn’t matter that you come from different backgrounds, all will be fine. The reality is that people fall out of love in due course. Then unless they are willing to work at understanding each other, and find common aims and values then the relationship breaks down. In relationships it is so important that people have the same aims and want their lives to go in the same direction.

Let’s look at Abraham’s old servant now. He gives us a good example to follow. He was obviously a man of faith. He is also a man of prayer. He arrives at his destination and he prays. That is always a good start. He prays not for blessing on himself, but for blessing on his master. That is a good basis for prayer, not for our personal selfish ends, but for God’s blessing on others.

Notice too that he looks for an answer from God. He wants to know which is the right girl to proposition. He is also very wise in the criteria he sets out in his prayer. He will ask a girl for a drink of water, and if the girl offers not only to give him a drink, but also offers to draw water for his camels the she will be the one. He was looking for a girl who was kind and generous. They are still good qualities to look for in a husband or a wife.

I don’t know how much a camel drinks, several gallons I’m sure. This man has ten camels. He must have had fairly high hopes if he thought that a woman who was a complete stranger would draw enough water for all of them. But God was at work in the situation. The way had been prepared.

Rebecca, a beautiful young woman comes to the well. He asks for a drink. She offers to draw water for the camels as well, and keep drawing until they have all had enough to drink. She was a person who was not afraid of hard work. As she drew the water, the servant watched her closely to learn whether of not the Lord had made his journey successful. You see the servant there, his eyes were open but he was in prayer, seeking to know God’s will. There is a sort of prayer that’s called watching, discerning God’s will in what is going on around us. It is one of the ways that God guides us all, Jesus tells all his followers to watch and pray. Perhaps the most important part of prayer is not our speaking or our asking. The most important part is listening to God’s answer to us.

The servant gives Rebecca precious gifts, and then he asks who she is and discovers that she is the daughter of one of Isaac’s cousins. The servant bows and worships God in praise and thankfulness. God has led him to the right girl and to the right family.

Servants and camels are welcomed at the home of Rebecca’s father. The servant tells news of Abraham, and then he tells them that Abraham has sent him to find a wife for Isaac from his father’s family. He goes on and tells the whole story of his arrival and his prayer for God to guide him to the right woman.

As the story unfolds, Rebecca’s father Bethuel and her brother Laban recognise God’s guiding hand in it all, and give their agreement for Rebecca to marry Isaac. But of course there is the question of is Rebecca willing to travel off into the unknown to marry the man she has never met? Abraham certainly would have respected her free will if she had decided she did not want to come.

Rebecca is a woman of faith. She senses God’s guiding hand in her life, and she is willing to go straight away. Rebecca is sent on her way with her maid and her family’s blessing. As they reach their destination, she sees Isaac. He has gone into the fields to meditate and sees the camels coming and goes to meet Rebecca. He hears the story, and he takes Rebecca to be his wife.

We have looked at some of the episodes in the Abraham saga when the way has been beset by fears and difficulties, and even tests of faith. But it’s good this morning to look at an episode where people act in faith and prayer, and God guides and blesses. In our lives, we will go through difficulties. But God wants to lead us on and guide and bless us too.

The important thing to remember though, is that God guides and blesses when we are not working to a personal, selfish agenda, but are walking in his ways, seeking to serve his purposes. The first and foremost thing in the events of this chapter, is the continuation of the covenant between God and Abraham’s descendants.

For us there is a new covenant. A covenant established when out of his great love Christ died on the cross for you and me. In the new covenant he calls us to put our love for him first. He calls us to let him be our reward. As we do that, God will go before us and work out his plans and purposes in our lives.

As we trust and obey, we know the reality of his blessing and his love.
 

Amen.

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