God's Design to Reveal His Church

This week's lesson is titled, God's Design to Reveal His Church, and I think if I had been writing titles now rather than back in December, I probably would have called this, God's Design to Pursue His Bride. I think I like that a little bit better, but I did put church in the title, and you might be wondering if we're a little bit too early in the Bible to be talking about the church, because the church is a mystery in the Old Testament and revealed in the New Testament, but if you did your lesson, you know what we're talking about, and if you didn't do your lesson, you're in for a treat, because we're in Genesis Chapter 24, and it's probably one of my favorite hands-down chapters of the Bible. I say that a lot, don't I? Every time I get something, I say it's my favorite. My favorite is whatever we're doing, but what I want to do this morning is split our time between the search and find for Isaac's bride, and then we'll spend the rest of our time on the children of Rebekah and Isaac, who are Jacob and Esau. You have your Bibles open to Genesis 24, and the beginning of it just begins to tell us that Abraham now was old, well-advanced in years, and Sarah now has been dead for about three years, and so Abraham asks his servant to help him get a wife for Isaac, and he tells his servant, he said, go back to my home, go to Nahor, and go to my clan, my family, and find a wife. Do not take a bride from these Canaanite women around here. I don't want that. Go back there, and the servant says, well, that's a long journey. If I'm going to ask a woman to come here and be his wife, she's going to disconnect from her family probably forever. This is an Oregon Trail kind of thing, and he said, I might not be able to find a girl who's willing to do that, and Abraham said, OK, I will discharge you from your oath if you can't find someone, but just go and look, but don't take my son there. Do not take Isaac to go live there, and so the servant puts his hand under Abraham's thigh, which is strange, and swears an oath concerning the matter, and of course, we don't swear oaths that way today, but what I want to do now is start reading in verse 10, so we'll read 17 verses here. It says,

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this narrative, and we thank you for the words that you have recorded that show us your heart, show us your character, show us our place in your plan, and Lord, would you open up our spiritual eyes this morning as we hear the word taught and as we discuss the word, and then as we pray the word, Lord, would you enable us by your spirit in Jesus' name? Amen. Well, amazing success for the servant's trip just right off the bat. He must have been so excited, and before we get too far in this, I just want to mention that the story of Rebecca is not so much to be read for us to take a woman out of the Bible and admire her and say, oh, let's look at her character qualities and let's emulate that and let's look at her industry and all that kind of stuff. OK, that's there, but the story is much deeper than that. The next character that we're going to meet here now in the narrative is her brother Laban, and Laban's an interesting guy because he enjoys the finer things of life and he can smell gold a mile away. And we read in verse 29 that Laban ran out toward the man to the spring, and as soon as he saw the ring and the bracelets on his sister's arms and he heard the words of Rebecca, his sister, he says, oh, come in. Oh, bless to the Lord. Why are you standing outside? For I have prepared the house and a place for the camels. And so Abraham's servant came into their home and he told them the whole reason I'll summarize here. He said that his master Abraham and his wife Sarah had had a son in their old age, and to this son, his master Abraham had given his whole estate. He had given everything that he has and sent him to go and find a wife. And he got to the spring that day and the servant told him that I prayed. I got there and I prayed and look at the success God gave me before I even finished speaking. He says, speaking in my heart, behold, Rebecca came out with the water jar. And so I've already thanked the Lord for this great success. And now in verse 49, he says, now then, if you're going to show steadfast love and faithfulness to my master, then tell me. And if not, tell me that I may turn and go to the right hand or to the left. Well, then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, well, this thing has come from the Lord. We cannot speak to you good or bad. Behold, Rebecca is before you. Take her and go and let her be the wife of your master's son as the Lord has spoken. And so the servant is thrilled and then he brought out even more gifts. I kind of think those first two gifts at the well were sort of payment. Like you did me a kind, you watered my camels and I'll give you this jewelry. But now he brings out more jewelry, silver and gold and garments, and gave them to Rebecca and even to her mother and her brother. And they all ate and drank and went to bed that night. And the story is going along really well. And then we have a plot twist in the morning. In verse 55, in the morning, her brother and her mother said, now, let's let the young woman remain for us a little while, at least 10 days. And after that, she may go. But he said to them, do not delay me since the Lord has prospered my way. Send me away that I may go to my master. And they said, well, let us call the young woman and ask her. And they called Rebecca and said to her, will you go with this man? And she said, I will go. And so with those words, Rebecca accepts the invitation that has been extended to become the wife of Isaac. And the bride agrees to be united with the groom. So what I want to do at this point is return to our study that we had two weeks ago of types in the Bible. Remember, in the terminology of typewriters, the type is that image that strikes through the ink and leaves an impression upon the paper and goes back away. And we're left with an impression. And in biblical terms, a type is something that leaves an impression upon us of something that's more true yet to come. But the impression is left with us. And so we already identified two weeks ago that Isaac is a type of Jesus Christ. So now this story kind of thrills us a little bit to see that in this, we also have a type of the bride of Christ, the reaching out for a wife. And so what I want to do is go back through the narrative and look at all of the things that show us that, all the things that lead us to that conclusion. So first of all, it's the servant himself, the servant of Abraham, who is unnamed in chapter 24. But back in chapter 15, Abraham's servant was named as Eleazar. Now, it may or may not be the same servant. I am just going to assume that it is, because I kind of like how this unfolds for us. But in chapter 15, his servant, Eleazar, was named Eleazar. If you take apart his name, you read it in your study guide, El, meaning God, and Azar, where did we hear that? Back in Genesis chapter two, when God said, I will make an Azar suitable for him, a helper suitable for Adam. And so the word means helper. So we have God's helper, or helper of God is the name. And I'm probably going to continue for the rest of this study just saying Eleazar. And so, and of course, we know from New Testament, since we're New Testament Christians, we know that the Holy Spirit is named as our helper. He is the helper of God to us. He is God the helper. John recorded Jesus saying this in chapter 15. Jesus said, when the helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the spirit of truth who precedes the Father, he will bear witness about me. So when the helper, when the Holy Spirit comes from the Father, he's going to talk about me. In the same way that Eleazar came from Abraham and talked to them about Isaac, who was the heir sent from the Father. And we also know John recorded two times Jesus saying in chapter six, no one can come to me. This is what Jesus said. Nobody can come to me unless the Father draws him. And this is a Bible truth for us. Every one of you in here has been drawn by the Holy Spirit or you would not be interested in the things of the Lord. You would have no interest in pursuing God at all. He first pursued you and drew you and gave you the opportunity to know him in the same way that Eleazar was sent from Abraham so that they would even know of the existence of Isaac. This is an interesting one and I'm giving you my personal opinion here. Eleazar left with 10 camels. And just because we see a number in the Bible, we can't just jump to a conclusion that it's a type or a symbol of something else. But I personally rather like it, so I'm giving you my personal opinion that I just sort of think because there was such a big deal made out of these 10 camels over and over again that it is symbolic to us of the 10 commandments because Rebecca not only satisfied the thirst of the servant but quickly satisfied the needs of the camels itself. And Jesus has taught us that he who loves me will obey me, right? We know that we are not saved by satisfying the commandments. That is not what saves us at all, clearly. But yet I think it's a little more than coincidental that there is this satisfaction, this love, this care, this attention to not only the servant but his camels as well. You can take that for what it is. Isaac, we know as a type of Christ, has been made heir of everything in this story. Clearly that's what the servant said in verse 36. He's telling this family, Sarah bore a son to my master when she was old, and to him he has given all that he has. We know Jesus Christ is the heir of all things. The writer of Hebrews in the very opening words said in these last days God has spoken to us by his son whom he appointed heir of all things. And then we see that Eliezer gave gifts. He came giving gifts to this family. It tells us that he left Abraham with all sorts of choice gifts. And as soon as the bride was selected, even before the bride got to the groom, as soon as she was selected, he gave gifts. And does the Holy Spirit not give us gifts while we wait to be in eternity with Christ? He comes bearing gifts for us, all sorts of choice gifts. It tells us that we who believe have received the promised Holy Spirit who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance. And that word deposit is like a engagement ring, like a wedding ring. It's like a word for like jewelry. And so, and then Hebrews tells us that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are distributed according to his will. So I suppose we could go on and on and find more symbols. Maybe you'll find more as you discuss. But I wanna go back to that last phrase. They called Rebecca in and they said, will you go with this man? And she said, I will go. Rebecca had to say yes. She had to agree. And Eleazar, as a representative of Abraham, went out and chose her and she had to choose Isaac back. Do we not say that all the time in women's ministry? God has chosen you, but you have to choose him back. Rebecca could have said, no, I'm gonna hold out for somebody else. I kind of had my mind set on one of the neighbors around here, could have been her choice. And we would not have had this union. And so the Bible truth is that the Holy Spirit reaches out to us, gives us an opportunity, but we have to say those words. I will go, I will choose, I will choose Jesus Christ. So they all go back to the land where Abraham and Isaac are dwelling and verse 63 starts five of the most romantic verses in the Bible. So let's read all five of them.

It's pretty sweet, isn't it? I love that passage. And so now with Rebecca safely in the nest with Isaac, now we're gonna turn to the second half of our study, which is not nearly as romantic and sweet. It's gonna be filled with more problems, but Genesis 25, 20 tells us that now Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebecca to be his wife and he prayed to the Lord for his wife because she was barren. And the Lord granted his prayer and Rebecca, his wife, conceived. Now we're gonna move on in a minute, but I just wanna stop and exhort us a little bit here about really this beautiful passage. This is the first time in scripture that someone has interceded for someone else and then specifically a husband interceding for his wife, which is really precious. But I believe that there's a great deal of weight in husbands and wives praying with and for one another. So I wanna speak to those of you who are married in the room right now. Pastor's wife called me a few years ago, maybe four, five years ago from out of this state, and they were having some really quite serious problems. That happens in pastor's families too. And she called me and I was listening to her and the words that came out of my mouth, I started saying to her, I said, honey, you need to be interceding for your husband. I said, your prayers are more effective for him because of this one flesh union that you have. They're more effective than anybody else's prayers for him. This is your job right now. You need to be praying for him. And I got off the phone and I thought, is that true? I thought, you know, because I just, these words came out of my mouth and I thought, I think that was prophetic. I think that was the Lord saying, hey, there is something I really honor about this agreement that you are in. And do we not know that Jesus himself is interceding for us? Our husband is interceding all the time for his bride. So I just wanna exhort those of you. And in a group like this, we have husbands and wives at all different levels. Some of you are widowed. Some of you are not married. Some of you are divorced. Some of you have an unbelieving husband. Some of you have an underbelieving husband. Some of you have a strong Christian husband. It's all kinds of things. And yet the Lord can meet us and give us wisdom for where we're at. Wisdom in approaching a husband and saying, will you pray for me? Even an unbeliever, even a husband who is not a believer, you can walk out the door and say, honey, I'm going to that doctor's appointment. You know how worried I am. Would you pray for me? And don't even expect words in front of you. Do you know what I'm saying? We can find, the Lord can enable us to find a way to encourage our husbands to pray for us without nagging them to pray for us. And I know God will do that, but we better get back to this. Verse 22, she wanted to have babies. And then once she got pregnant, it's like, ah, I didn't know it was gonna be like this. She goes, these children struggled together. And she goes to the Lord, she goes, if it is thus, why is this happening to me? And so she inquires of the Lord and the Lord said to her, these are important words, God revealed to her, two nations are in your womb and will come to know them as Israel and Edom. And two peoples from within you shall be divided. The one shall be stronger than the other and the older shall serve the younger. Wow, that was a big revelation for her. And, you know, the Lord told her. And so right here we learn something that God has determined. God had chosen for the younger son to carry forth the seed of the Messiah. He had chosen for the younger son to be preeminent and to be served by the older son. And we continue the rhythm that we talked about with the natural comes first and then the spiritual, that which comes first is often of the flesh of the natural. And so we ask, is this unfair of God? Is this unfair for him to just randomly decide between the two of them, to elect one over the other? And I guess we could say that God knew everything that would happen. He knew the entire course of human history and he knew how things would play out. We also could say that when we're talking about the Almighty God of the universe, we just leave room for mystery, and we don't expect to understand everything. But we know that he's good and we know that he's right. And so as the story goes, we find out that Esau is this man of, he's a man's man. He's a man of the field, he's a hunter, he loves to be out doing man things. And Isaac loves that about him, and Isaac loves Esau. And Jacob is a thinker, he's contemplative, he loves to dwell in the tents. And he's a little bit more subdued, and Rebecca loves Jacob. And so we have a perfect storm brewing in the family. And now we're gonna go to verse 29 and read the first of the two episodes of the birthright and the blessing. So once Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field and was exhausted. And Esau said to Jacob, let me eat some of that red stew, for I'm exhausted. That's why his name is called Edom, because of the red stew. And Jacob said, well, sell me your birthright now. Esau said, well, I'm about to die of what use is a birthright to me. And Jacob said, swear it to me. So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. And Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way, thus, it's important, Esau despised his birthright. Now, we get a glimpse here into Esau's character. We find out that he is a natural man. He is a man of the flesh. It was more important to him how things affected him, how he felt, his appetites, his immediate effect of the situation. And so he despised, and what I wanna do for this purpose is I want to hold the word despised as being not cherished, okay? So you can cherish something, and we'll, for today, say not cherishing something means despised, okay? We'll use those as opposites there. So he despised his heritage, his birthright, in favor of the natural, more immediate satisfaction. The stew, he was hungry, he was tired, he was hungry. And he did not stretch out after, he did not cherish God's plan in their family, this birthright thing. Now, do we give Jacob a free pass for this situation, for tricking his brother? But I don't think it was a trick. I think it was a contract. When you're kids, have you not ever traded something? I'll give you this, you give me that. There was no trickery involved at this point. This was just pretty much a straight up contract. And we know, because God revealed it to his mother, that Jacob had been chosen to be the spiritual heir anyway. But yet, God did not need his help for that to come about. Jacob is helping things along, and God didn't need his help. But in his defense, Jacob is stretching out after the things that God wants to do through their family. He is saying, I want that. I want to be in that place. These are just some of my personal thoughts here. But I think if you're going to stretch out after anything in life, stretching out after God's kingdom, stretching out after what he's doing is a pretty good thing. Not with his methods, okay? Well, let's use different methods, but stretching out after God's kingdom. Well, let's jump to Genesis 27 and read the second account that's vaguely, strangely familiar to this first one about the blessing itself. And we find out that Isaac is old now. He's just about blind. He probably thinks at this point he's going to die, but he's going to live 50 more years. Which to me sounds, I feel very bad for him. You're going to live 50 more years in this state? But he reaches out to Esau and he says, hey, listen, go out. Go out and hunt and bring me, fix me some of that stew, that delicious food that you make, such as I love. And Rebecca's listening at the door, kind of like Sarah was listening at the tent flap, and so we learn again what eavesdropping looks like. Because we've never done it, and so it's a good thing we can see it in the Bible and know what it looks like. But she's listening and she's kind of going, no, I don't want it to happen this way, because this, first of all, she has a favorite and God told her. But anyway, so she goes to Jacob and she goes, okay, here's what we're going to do. You bring me two young goats. I will prepare the delicious food. You will take it into your dad and he will give you the blessing. That's how it's going to work. And Jacob goes, yeah, but you know what? What about my skin? Remember, he's hairy. And she goes, I'll take care of it. It's not a problem. I will, you know, let the curse be on me. You just obey my voice and go do it. And so Rebecca went and prepared the delicious food and Jacob put Esau's garments on that smelled like outdoors. I smelled like outdoors yesterday. I know that smell. I was trimming things and I thought, do I need to change before I go to the Bible study? But he put on his clothes and put goat skin on his arms and on his neck and she gave him the food and he goes into Isaac. And I'm just going to kind of summarize this a little bit here for us in drama fashion and he goes into his father and he says, he says, my father. And Isaac says, are you my son? And he says, yeah, I'm Esau. I'm your firstborn. I've done as you told me. Now sit up and eat my game that your soul may bless me. And Isaac says, well, how is it that you found it so quickly? And Jacob says, well, you know, I just started leaving past the corrals and it's almost as if that had just been in the corral right there and I could know. He says, hey, it's because your God had, you know, granted me success. And Isaac says, well, come near me so I can feel you to know whether you are really my son Esau or not. The voice is Jacob's, but the hands are Esau's. Are you really Esau? Jacob says, I am. Bring it near me that I may eat of my son's game and bless you. And so Isaac ate and he drank. And Isaac says, one last time, he goes, come near me and kiss me, my son. And so Jacob came near and it says, Isaac smelled the smell of his garments and blessed him. And here's what he said.

Well, you know what happens next in the text. Jacob leaves and in comes Esau and both Esau and Isaac have a major meltdown over what they realize has just happened. And Esau, you know, asks, begs. He says, bless me, even also me, my father. Don't you have another blessing? That cheater, he took it. It's not my fault. Can you bless me too? And we see that Esau still, I think, is more concerned about receiving the blessing. What can I get? You remember that God told Abraham, I'm going to bless you so that you can be a blessing. We are saved to serve. But yet, Esau is just wanting. He's like, I just want that blessing. We see that he is a natural man. And so, Isaac says to him, and I think this is prophetic here. Isaac says in verse 39, behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be and away from the dew of heaven on high. By your sword, you shall live and you shall serve your brother. But when you grow restless, you shall break his yoke from your neck. And so, these sons are divided just like the Lord told Rebekah when they were still in the womb. And of course, on this side of history, we can see Jacob has been blessed. The nation of Israel has been blessed tremendously. And Esau, who turned into the nation of the Edomites, named after that red stew, the Edomites don't even exist. The Edomites were enemies of Israel. In fact, when Israel left and went out of Egypt to go into the promised land, they would not meet them with food and water. And in Numbers 20, we just covered it on Wednesday night, that displeased the Lord that they would not support them. And the Edomites don't exist today. There are no Edomites. But do you know who some of the very last Edomites were? It was the Herod family, King Herod, and how much damage they did to the nation of Israel. Israel. But we know that through the seed of Jacob, our Messiah has been born. And so we'll pick up the story of Jacob next week. But what I want to do is just close. I want to just wrap this up by doing a little bit of application and saying, what can we learn? What can we learn today from this story of brokenness? We had romance in the first half and brokenness in the second half. And what can we learn from this? So I want to go through the characters from Rebecca. What can we learn from Rebecca? I think we learn that God does not need our help as much as we think he does. Rebecca knew God's design for Jacob's life from beginning, from the birth. But God didn't need her interference, her manipulation, and her help. It would have happened. It was God's design. In fact, her interference played a large role in this acceleration of the sibling rivalry between the boys. Her interference played a large role in the separation of the family and the fact that she never saw Jacob again. And so we ask, is it possible in my life that God doesn't need as much help to unfold the plan of my life as I think that he does? And perhaps I need to be careful about things that I might want to accelerate, or manipulate, or get the show on the road like Sarah did, and that sort of thing. Because there's a good possibility we might end up hurting people when we start doing that type of manipulation, when we start helping God out. I think a good life rule is if we ever have to apply lies or deception, something like that. Maybe it's best to just back off and let God's plan unfold the way he desires for it to do. Well, from Esau, what can we learn from Esau? That it is possible to focus so much on our own selves, our comforts, our conveniences, that we can overlook, waste, and despise what God has intended for us. Is there something? And remember, when I said despise, the opposite is cherish. You can cherish something. Because despise sounds too harsh. We would say to ourselves immediately, we would push that off, and we'd say, oh, I don't despise that. All I'm doing is saying, if you don't cherish, for today's lesson, we're saying you're despising, OK? So is there something in my life right now that I am not cherishing? Part of God's plan for me that I do not cherish? A person, a family member, a ministry, a spiritual gift. And because I'm not cherishing it and saying, look what God has given to me, therefore I am despising it. And so it's interesting in our lives, days come and go, one right after the other. And sometimes the ordinary thing that God puts in our lives, we can begin to despise it in terms of we're not cherishing it and seeing the plan of the Lord in that. So there's a danger for us to turn into that natural man like Esau and be more concerned with our comforts and our conveniences. And I think we can all relate to that. From Jacob, I think we learn here that God chooses to bless you not because of what you do, but in spite of what you do. Your God chooses to bless you not because of what you do, but sometimes even in spite of what you do. And that's the story of Jacob's life. You go through the scriptures and you find for me places where God just rails on Jacob. He doesn't. God chose to love Jacob. And he has loved him and his descendants throughout history in spite of the things they do. And I want to qualify this in saying I'm not advocating disobedience. But what I'm saying is this, that God yearns to bless us because he has chosen to rather than because we're so darn blessable. God chose to love you because he chose to, not because you're so lovable. And I want to prove it. I'm just going to close with this. I'm going to read you a passage from Isaiah 41, which relates to Jacob and his descendants. And then I'm going to read a passage from Ephesians 1, which relates to us. And it proves this point, that this is God's election. This is God's choice. And he said,

And from Ephesians, it tells us that

But this Bible truth holds. You were chosen. But like Rebecca, you have to say, I will go. You have to say yes to the dress. Is that movie, is that show even on TV anymore? I don't know. But we have to say yes. So let's just pray. Father, I just thank you this morning, Lord God, that you've chosen us. Lord, that your grace chooses to love, chooses to bless, often in spite of who we are, in spite of what we do, Lord God. And I thank you for that. And Lord, I just pray that each one of us would sift through this story and make sure that we have chosen you back. Make sure that we have said, yes, I will go. I will be part of the kingdom of God. I will accept Jesus Christ as my Savior and live my life headed that direction, headed to eternity with Christ. Lord, thank you for this beautiful story about your pursuit, how you pursue us. You love us and you reveal who you are to us. And help us, Lord, enable us in our days and our weeks to come, Lord God, to be part of your plan as you are pursuing others and revealing yourself to them. Lord, help us to just be part of that and to do whatever you put before us to do. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.