In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith explores the narrative of finding a bride for Isaac in Genesis 24. He highlights the parallels between this love story and the Holy Spirit wooing the bride. The servant of Abraham is sent on a mission to find a suitable bride for Isaac, and he sets up a test to determine God's chosen one. Rebekah, a young and energetic girl, passes the test by showing kindness and generosity towards the servant and his camels. The servant then goes to Rebekah's family to seek their permission for her to marry Isaac, and they agree. The sermon emphasizes the importance of stepping out in faith and being led by God in our lives.

Oh, let the Son of God enfold you With His Spirit and His love Let Him fill your heart and satisfy your soul Oh, let Him have the things that hold you And His Spirit like a dove Will descend upon your life And make you whole Welcome to The Word for Today Featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor Chuck Smith Of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California Pastor Chuck is currently leading us on a verse-by-verse study Through the entire Bible And on today's edition of The Word for Today We'll be looking at a beautiful love story That symbolizes the Holy Spirit wooing the bride As we pick up in Genesis, chapter 24, verse 1 So let's follow along As Pastor Chuck begins by sharing with us This narrative of finding a bride for Isaac Now Sarah set aside As Israel was set aside after the crucifixion of Jesus And now Abraham was old, well advanced in age And the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things About three years later, Isaac was 40 When he married Rebekah And so about three years between chapters 23 and 24 When Abraham said to the oldest servant of his house Who ruled over all that he had Please put your hand under my thigh Now this oldest servant was probably Eliezer He is named for us in chapter 15 When God promised that he would be to Abraham His exceeding great reward and bring to him great riches Abraham said, what's the value of all of the wealth When I don't have any descendants to leave it to My heir is this Eliezer of Damascus A servant born in my house I don't have any of my own children to leave it all to And God said, the servant will not be the heir But one that is born of thee will be the heir And the promise again of God multiplying the seed of Abraham As the stars of heaven So Eliezer, the name in Hebrew means God my help, Eliezer He is a type of the Holy Spirit As he goes to get a bride for his master's son To woo and to win that bride To bring him back That the master's son might be married to this bride As a type of the Holy Spirit, his name is significant For Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the Comforter Which in Greek is Paracletus And it means literally one who comes alongside to help And so the name is the helper As Eliezer is God my helper The name of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, the Paracletus Is the one who comes alongside to help Now, Eliezer is not named in chapter 24 And I believe that is not a slight or an omission Carelessly I believe that it is a deliberate omission by the Holy Spirit who inspired the text For Jesus said concerning the Holy Spirit When he comes he is not going to testify of himself He is going to testify of me He has not come to bring glory to himself But he's come to bring glory to Christ And the witness and the work of the Holy Spirit in the world today Is not to magnify himself But is to magnify Jesus Christ But so important Is his magnifying of the Son That even as he inspires the text he leaves out the name In chapter 24 And just is called the oldest servant of Abraham This servant ruled over all that he had And Abraham said please put your hand under my thigh And I will make you swear by the Lord the God of heaven And the God of the earth Abraham had a very broad concept of God Not only of the heaven but also of the earth That you will not take a wife for my son From the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell But you will go to my country And to my family And take a wife for my son Isaac And the servant said unto him Perhaps the woman will not be willing to follow me to this land Must I take your son back to the land from which you came Now the servant realized that what Abraham was asking of him was no easy task He has to go back to Mesopotamia Which is actually 500 miles away And there he has to coax a young girl To get on a camel And ride 500 miles across the desert area To meet and to marry a man that she has never seen before Only knows of him because of the witness of the servant She'll never see her parents, her home again And the servant could see the difficulty of talking a pretty young girl into such an adventure And so the servant said what if she's not willing, shall I then take Isaac to the land No, definitely not Isaac is not to leave this land and it is interesting Isaac never did leave the land of promise Later Jacob did, he went down to Egypt But Isaac never did leave the land of promise And so he said No, you're not to take him there Beware That you do not take my son back there Abraham realized that if Isaac went there it was quite possible that In marrying her that she would then object to the long journey And maybe Isaac would remain back in Mesopotamia And the purposes of God would then be thwarted So Abraham is very firm in you're not to take him back there He then declares his faith The Lord God of heaven who took me from my father's house And from the land of my family And who spoke to me and swore to me saying To your descendants I give this land He will send his angel before you And you shall take a wife for my son from there I mean Abraham is very firm about this And he's confident that God is going to take care of this also The angel will go before you And you're to take a wife for my son from there And if the woman is not willing to follow you Then you will be released from this oath Only do not take my son back there So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master And swore to him concerning this matter And then the servant took ten of his master's camels and departed For all of his master's goods were in his hand And he arose and went to Mesopotamia To the city of Nahor Nahor was the brother of Abraham It does not mean that that was the name of the city It could be that it was But it was just the city of Nahor That's where Abraham's brother lived And he made his camels kneel down outside the city By a well of water at evening time The time when the women go out to draw water And then he said Oh Lord God of my master Abraham Please give me success this day And show kindness to my master Abraham Behold I stand here by the well of water And the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water That was the time when they usually went out to draw water in the evening And so he prays Oh Lord Please give me success As these girls come to draw water Now let it be that the young woman to whom I say Please let down your pitcher that I may drink And she says drink And I will also give your camels a drink Let her be the one Whom you have appointed for your servant Isaac And by this I will know That you have shown kindness to my master And so he sets up a condition, a stipulation here Sort of a fleece of sorts Let that be the one that you have appointed Now The scripture speaks in the New Testament concerning the church Of Jesus Christ That we have been chosen in Christ before the foundations of the world God had already appointed And the servant realized that the bride That was to be Found for Isaac Was already appointed by God The angel of the Lord will direct you, he'll lead you to the one God already had appointed Rebecca to be the bride Even as God has already chosen the bride for Christ And you who have received Jesus as your Lord and Savior You are a chosen generation Chosen before the foundations of the world That you should bring forth glory and praise unto God As the bride of his son Jesus Christ Let me know Lord the one that you have appointed Show her to me, let this be the condition And it happened before he had even finished speaking That Rebecca Who was born to Bethuel, the son of Milca The wife of Nahor Abraham's brother Came out with her picture on her shoulder So while he was still praying Before he had even finished the prayer Rebecca had arrived at the well With her picture on her shoulder And had gone down to draw water from the well Now the young woman was very beautiful to behold And the scripture doesn't say that about very many people But it is interesting concerning the bride The scripture declares she is very beautiful to behold And in the Psalms 45 Prophetic Concerning the bride of Christ It says the king desires her beauty And the Lord looks upon you And he sees you as very beautiful The king desires her beauty She was very beautiful She was a virgin No man had known her And she went down to the well and filled her picture and came up Now Some of you have been to the Holy Land If you remember the city of Megiddo The well of water that was at Megiddo Remember all the way down you had to go to get to Where you could draw the water from the well And this was true of a lot of the wells in those days They would actually have these steps going down Into this large hole And then at the bottom You would let the picture down into the well But you had to go down And evidently that was the case here at the city of Nahor It says she went down to the well And then came up from the well Which means That her volunteering To draw the water for those 10 camels Was all the more significant Because a camel can drink between 20 and 50 gallons of water each And to have to make this trip down the steps to the well Let down the picture, pull it up and come up and fill up the trough Until those 10 thirsty camels had finished drinking it said I mean that was really quite a task indeed And so when the servant had made this stipulation He had put a pretty good sign An indication for which one God had chosen to be the bride And so the servant ran to meet her and said Please let me drink a little water from your picture So she said drink my lord And she hastened and let her picture down to her hand And gave him a drink And when she had finished giving him a drink she said I will draw water for your camels also Until they have finished drinking Quite a young gal Then she hastened and emptied her picture into the trough Ran back to the well to draw water Ran back to the well And drew for all his camels And the man wondering at her And I imagine he did at this point Wow What a beauty And so energetic Strong Pleasant Gracious Who could it be Wondering at her remained silent So as to know whether the lord had made his journey prosperous or not He didn't tell her yet he wanted to see if she was going to finish Getting water for all those camels So it was that when the camels had finished drinking That he took a golden nose ring Weighing a half a shekel And it says earrings in King James But literally it's a nose ring And man I don't know who would want to wear a nose ring That weighed a half of a shekel And two bracelets for her wrist Weighing ten shekels of gold And he said Whose daughter are you The big question now Because there were two things actually that The bride had to be from Abraham's family Go to my land and to my family and get a bride Whose family are you I mean he had set up this condition you know And here this beautiful gal She waters the camels Now whose family are you And can you imagine What was going on in his emotions and all When she answered him I am the daughter of Bethuel, Milca's son Whom she bore to Nahor Nahor, the brother of Abraham It's Nahor's granddaughter Wow And moreover she said to him We have both straw and feed enough And room to lodge So here she is declaring who she is And at home we have enough straw and food And a place for you to lodge We've got enough room for you to stay So the man bowed down his head And he worshipped the Lord This was too much He just had to worship God He had just prayed that God would make his journey prosperous And excited he just bows down And he worships God at this point And he said Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham And at that her ears must have perked up Abraham? I've heard of him That's my grandfather's brother Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham Who has not forsaken his mercy And his truth toward my master And as for me Being on the way The Lord led me to the house of my master's brother Wow God Thank you Now Notice being on the way the Lord led me One of the important steps of being led of the Lord Is to get moving It's hard to guide a stationary object God leads us as we're moving We have to step out in faith And as we step out in faith Then the Lord is able to lead us But if you're just sitting around saying Well I'm just waiting on God to lead me I just want God to show me What to do and all And I'm just sitting here waiting for the Lord You'll probably sit the rest of your life You'll probably never get any direction Stand up Start walking And then the Lord will lead you He'll say no no turn left now And he'll start leading you when you start going But you have to step out in faith To be led of the Lord Being on the way the Lord led me And that is so true In being led by God So the young woman ran home And she told those of her mother's house these things There is an indication in the text here That her father Bethuel was probably Pretty much of an invalid at this point Her brother Laban takes a more active role In the greeting of the guest and the arrangements and all Bethuel seems to have a very passive role And it could be because he was Pretty much in an invalid state at this point So she ran home and told those of her mother's house Not her father's house but of her mother's house These things Now it of course was no doubt Likely that Bethuel also had concubines Beside Milka his wife It was very common in those days to have concubines And so the children Were actually closer to their mother than they were their father Because their father could have Children from several wives And so there would be the tendency For the family unit to be centered around The mother of the children Rather than around the father himself So she went to her mother's house Told these things We'll return with more of our verse-by-verse study Through the book of Genesis In our next lesson As we continue this love story of Finding a Bride for Isaac And we do hope you'll make plans to join us But right now I'd like to remind you That if you missed any part of today's message Or perhaps you'd like to order a copy For that special friend or loved one You can do so by simply contacting One of our customer service representatives And they'd be more than happy to assist you With the ordering details Simply call 1-800-272-WORD And phone orders can be taken Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time Once again, our toll-free number Is 1-800-272-9673 And for your added convenience You can order online, anytime When you go to TheWordForToday.org And while you're there Be sure to browse through the additional resources That include Bible studies, commentaries, CDs, DVDs And so much more Once again, that's The Word for Today Online at TheWordForToday.org And for those of you who still prefer to write You can use our mailing address Which is The Word for Today P.O. 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