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The Sovereign Appointment: Providence, Prayer, and the Bride (Genesis 24:10-14) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome back to Reformed Thinking.
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  I'm your host, and as always, we're here to dig into Scripture
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  and theology from the perspective of the Westminster
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  Standards. And today we're hitting a topic
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  that I think for a lot of Christians is just a source of
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  constant low grade anxiety. Oh, absolutely.
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  We're talking about guidance, finding God's will.
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  It's the question behind everything, isn't it?
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  Who am I supposed to marry? Should I take this job?
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  Which city should I move to? I mean, we live in this age of
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  just paralyzing decision fatigue.
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  Right. And for believers, there's that
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  extra layer, this fear of missing it, you know, as if
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  God's will is some tiny little target in the dark, and if you
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  step one inch to the left, you've ruined.
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  Out failed the cosmic test. Exactly.
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  So to really get at the heart of this, we're not starting with a
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  systematic theology text today. We're actually going to a story.
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  We're going to Genesis 24 and we'll be focusing on verses 10
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  through 14. Now, if you grew up in the
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  church, you know this story. It's Abraham's servant going to
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  find a wife for Isaac. Usually gets the flannel graft
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  treatment as you know this quaint little romance.
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  And that's the first thing we have to just throw out.
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  If you come to Genesis 24 looking for a Hallmark movie,
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  yeah, you are going to miss the entire point.
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  I mean the gravity of what's happened.
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  It's not a romance. It's so much more.
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  This is, and I don't think this is an overstatement.
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  This is a theological emergency A.
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  Theological emergency? OK, that sounds a little
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  dramatic for what is basically an arranged marriage.
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  Well, think about the context. I mean, where are we in the
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  story of Genesis? Sarah has just died.
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  The text tells us Abraham is well advanced in years.
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  He's an old man and the entire promise of God.
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  Everything from Genesis 3, Genesis 12, Genesis 15, it is
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  all hanging by a single very fragile thread.
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  And that thread is Isaac. That thread is Isaac.
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  He is the seed. He's the miracle child.
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  He is the one through whom all the nations of the earth are
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  supposed to be blessed. If Isaac doesn't have a son, and
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  if that line dies out, the promise fails.
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  So the whole plan of salvation is at risk.
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  On the line right here. So the crisis isn't just, you
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  know, Isaac is 40 and single. The crisis is that if he marries
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  A Canaanite woman, someone from the Pagan culture surrounding
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  them, that's it. The holy, distinct messianic
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  line just gets absorbed into idolatry.
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  It's over. Abraham is basically fighting
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  for the future of the gospel. He is, and that's why he makes
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  his servants swear this incredibly serious oath.
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  I mean putting his hand under his thigh.
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  It's a way of invoking the covenant of circumcision.
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  It's as serious as it gets. Do not get a wife from the
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  Canaanites. So that's sets the stage.
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  A crisis of cosmic proportions. And how does God solve it?
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  And this is really the hook for our whole deep dive today,
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  right? There's no burning Bush, no
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  Thunder from heaven. He doesn't part the sea.
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  Nope. God solves this crisis with a
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  servant who doesn't even get a name in this chapter, 10 camels,
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  a journey of about 500 miles, and a prayer at a well.
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  And that gets us to our main point, our thesis for today,
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  This passage, if we read it carefully, it just completely
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  destroys our modern, fuzzy, mystical ideas about finding
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  God's will. It really does.
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  It teaches us the doctrine of Providence, specifically what
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  the Westminster's confession calls God's use of secondary
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  causes. Ordinary means.
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  Exactly. Ordinary means God governs the
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  world through things like human planning, travel, thirst, and
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  even the schedule of chores in an ancient village.
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  OK, let's unpack that then. Our first section in the outline
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  is the covenant context and what the notes called the myth of
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  neutrality. That phrase really stands out.
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  What do we mean by that? We'll just think about how we
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  approach a big decision today. We tend to see ourselves, as,
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  you know, totally autonomous. We're standing in front of a
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  blank canvas and the question is, what do I feel like
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  painting? What's best for me?
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  What's going to advance my career?
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  The idea that all options are on the table.
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  Right, that's the miss of neutrality, that our choices are
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  just these big open fields for self-expression.
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  But the. Servant.
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  In this story, he doesn't have a blank canvas, does he?
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  Not even close. His canvas already has borders
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  painted on it. His mission is bounded by an
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  oath. He is explicitly forbidden from
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  one course of action. The Canaanites and commanded
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  toward another Abraham's kin in Mesopotamia.
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  His decision making is already hemmed in by God's revealed
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  will, spoken through His Master. Yes, and that is a huge
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  theological point for us. For the Christian, guidance
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  isn't about standing in an open field and asking what's my
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  preference. It's about standing on a path
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  and asking what has God already commanded regarding his
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  covenant? We're not our own right?
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  We were bought with a price. Our decisions aren't neutral.
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  They are acts of allegiance or or acts of rebellion.
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  That's it. The servant isn't going to
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  Mesopotamia because the food is better or the scenery is nicer.
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  He's going because that's the only way to preserve the
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  covenant line from being swallowed by idolatry.
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  It is an act of theological separation.
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  It's like a train on a track. You might feel like the rails
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  are restricting you, but actually they're the only thing
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  that allows you to get where you're going.
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  Without them, you're just a wreck.
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  The covenant commands or the rails?
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  That's a great analogy. It really is true.
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  Freedom isn't the absence of boundaries, it's finding the
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  right boundaries that lead to flourishing.
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  So let's talk about the servant himself.
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  He's anonymous here. Yeah, totally anonymous.
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  Most traditions says it's probably a laser of Damascus who
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  Abraham mentions way back in Genesis 15 as his heir before
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  Isaac was born, but the text just calls him the servant.
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  Which seems significant. It is.
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  His identity is swallowed up in his mission.
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  He's a steward. He's not on a personal quest.
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  He carries Abraham's authority. His will is submitted to his
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  master's will. OK, that brings us to verse 10.
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  This is what our notes call the anatomy of faithful Action.
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  And I love this because it gets so practical, so logistical.
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  It starts then the servant took ten of his master's camels.
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  All right, let's just pause there. 10 camels.
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  We hear camels and we think, I don't know, a picture from a zoo
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  or something. Or nativity scene, right?
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  But in the Middle Bronze Age, 10 camels is not a small detail.
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  This is an enormous statement. What kind of statement is this?
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  Like rolling up in a fleet of 10 brand new Mercedes SUV's.
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  It's even more than that. I think this is a logistical
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  Armada. Camels were the peak of long
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  distance transport technology. They were incredibly valuable.
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  Taking ten of them is a projection of power and wealth.
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  It says my master Abraham is a Prince.
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  He is a man of incredible substance.
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  It's a display of Abraham's glory.
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  And he doesn't just take the camels, the text says he took
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  all sorts of choice gifts from his master.
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  Yeah. The phrase there implies he had
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  access to all of Abraham's wealth.
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  It's what one of our sources called a blank check.
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  He's going to negotiate a bride price, the Mohar, right?
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  He's not going to show up and just hope to charm his way into
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  this arrangement. He's prepared.
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  He has the resources to pay whatever is required.
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  But this is the theological meat of it, isn't it?
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  The servant prepares. He plans.
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  He doesn't just sit in his tent and pray.
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  Lord teleport a wife for Isaac into the camp.
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  That's it. This is pure, practical, applied
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  Reformed doctrine of Providence. It's Westminster Confession,
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  Chapter 5, Section 3IN action, God, in his ordinary Providence,
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  maketh use of means. The servant uses means.
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  He packs the bags, he preps the animals.
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  He figures out the route. And it's a heck of a route.
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  Oh, it's a monster of a journey. From Hebron, where they were up
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  to Aram Naharim, you're looking at 450, maybe 500 miles.
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  On foot with camels. On foot with a caravan, you're
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  talking about a month of travel one way.
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  A month of walking a. Month of dust and heat and the
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  danger of bandits. And this is such a powerful
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  counter narrative to a certain kind of hyper spirituality you
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  see today, this quietism. You mean the let go and let God
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  philosophy that sees planning as a lack of faith?
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  Exactly that. The idea that if God wants me to
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  get married, the right person will just knock on my door, or
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  if God wants me to have a job, the CEO will call me while I'm
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  on the couch. But that's not faith, that's
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  fatalism. True faith acts.
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  True faith packs the camels. The servant trusts the God who
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  ordains the end of finding the wife, but he participates in the
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  means God is ordained, which includes the travel, the gifts,
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  the whole plan. So using your brain, using your
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  resources, planning ahead, that's not unspiritual.
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  No, it's the very anatomy of faithful action.
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  It's how we show we're good stewards of what God has given
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  us. We plan because we trust that
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  God is sovereign over our planning.
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  I like that it redeems the mundane, doesn't it?
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  The scheduling, the budgeting, the packing, it's all part of
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  our walk with God. It is absolutely spiritual work.
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  Every step of that 500 mile journey was an act of worship.
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  So after a month of this, he finally arrives.
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  He gets to the city of Nahor, and this brings us to Section 3,
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  Sanctified common sense. We're in verse 11 now, and he
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  made his camels kneel down outside the city by a well of
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  water at evening time, the time when women go out to draw water.
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  OK, notice the strategic brilliance here.
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  This isn't random. He doesn't just wander into the
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  city center hoping to bump into some.
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  No, he goes straight to the well.
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  He goes to the one place he knows he'll find the specific
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  demographic he's looking for. It's the village water cooler.
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  And the timing is key. The timing is everything.
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  At evening time. You don't haul water in the
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  blistering heat of the midday sun in the Near East.
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  It's foolish. It's dangerous.
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  You go in the cool of the evening when the work day is
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  done. And there's a social dynamic
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  too, right? He doesn't go to the city gate.
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  Correct. The city gate was the
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  courthouse, the Stock Exchange, the men's clubs.
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  It's where the elder sat and made deals.
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  If he went there, he'd be dealing with fathers and
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  brothers immediately. But he needs to see the
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  potential brides themselves. So he goes to the sphere of
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  domestic work, he goes to the well, he's a brilliant
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  strategist. He's thinking, OK, where are the
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  young unmarried women of the town likely to be, and when will
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  they be there? It's just logic.
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  It's sanctified common sense. That's the perfect term for.
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  It it is, we so often want God's Providence to look like some
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  kind of supernatural magic trick.
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  A lightning bolt, a voice from a cloud.
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  But most of the time, Providence just looks like good sense.
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  God governs his world through its created regularities.
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  People get thirsty. The sunsets.
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  Chores have to be done. The servant isn't fighting
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  against those realities. He's aligning himself with them
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  to meet his goal. He didn't wait for some mystical
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  feeling or a supernatural pull to lead him down a certain St.
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  He used the brain and God gave him.
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  And that's a massive lesson for us, using your intellect, doing
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  your research, positioning yourself wisely, that that is
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  not a sign of weak faith. It's how you partner with God in
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  His providential working. So he's there, he's at the well,
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  the sun is going down, the camels are settled, and only now
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  after all this planning and travel, does he pray.
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  Verse 12 And he said, Oh Lord God of my master Abraham, please
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  grant me success today. This prayer is just packed with
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  theology. Let's break it down.
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  First, the address. Oh Lord, that's Yahweh, the
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  personal covenant name of God, God of my master Abraham.
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  He's not just praying to the universe or some generic higher
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  power. No, he's being incredibly
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  specific. He is anchoring his entire
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  request in redemptive history. He's appealing to the God who
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  called Abraham out of this very region, the God who made
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  specific, unbreakable promises to him.
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  He knows exactly who he's talking to.
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  He does, and then the request itself.
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  Please grant me success today. Now in English that sounds
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  fairly simple, but the Hebrew word here is doing some very
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  heavy theological work. OK, what's the keyword we need
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  to know? The verb is hocker.
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  It comes from the root Cara, which means something like to
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  encounter or to happen upon. But here it's in what's called
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  the Hifil stem, which is causative.
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  OK. For those of us whose Hebrew is
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  a bit rusty, what does a causative stem do?
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  It means he's not just asking for something to happen, he's
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  asking God to cause it to happen.
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  The literal translation is something like cause it to
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  happen before me today or make an appointment for me.
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  Make an appointment that is, that's incredibly specific and
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  confident language. It's.
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  Stunningly confident, and this prayer, this one word, just
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  obliterates the idea of open theism.
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  The idea that God doesn't know or control the future choices of
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  free individuals. Exactly.
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  I mean, think about what this servant is asking for.
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  For this prayer to be answered, God has to sovereignly
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  orchestrate 1000 tiny details. He has to control the exact
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  moment a specific young woman decides to leave her house.
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  Right. Her walking speed, whether she
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  stops to talk to a friend on the way, which path she takes, her
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  decision to come to this well and not another at this exact
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  minute. If she left her house 2 minutes
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  later, she would have missed him entirely.
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  He's asking God to be the divine micromanager of the universe for
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  the sake of this covenant mission.
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  Yes, He's asking God to make her seemingly chance movements
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  intersect perfectly with His prepared presence.
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  He believes that what looks like coincidence to us is in reality
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  a divine appointment. As RC Scroll used to say, there
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  are no maverick molecules. Not a single one.
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  This servant has a robust, sovereign view of God.
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  And then look at his motivation, the basis of his appeal, he
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  says. And show steadfast love to my
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  master Abraham. Steadfast love.
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  That's cheesed, isn't it? That's cheesed.
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  One of the absolute pillar words of the Old Testament.
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  It doesn't just mean affection. It means loyal love, covenant
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  faithfulness, mercy that is rooted in a sworn promise.
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  So he's not arguing his own case.
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  He's not saying, God, please do this for me because I'm such a
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  good servant and I walked 500 miles.
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  Not at all. He doesn't plead his own merit.
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  He doesn't even really plead Abraham's merit.
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  He pleads God's character. He pleads God's faithfulness to
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  his own promises. The argument is essentially God.
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  You promised to Abraham a seed. You promise to bless the nations
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  through him. This marriage is necessary for
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  that promise to continue, so be faithful to your own word.
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  Precisely. And that just revolutionizes how
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  we should think about prayer. Prayer is not about trying to
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  bend God's arm to get Him to do something He doesn't want to do.
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  It's about aligning our request with His revealed promises and
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  asking him to act consistently with his own character.
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  Lord, be who you said you would be.
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  That's a powerful way to pray. It's the most powerful way.
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  OK, so he prays this incredibly specific, theologically rich
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  prayer, but then he does something that I think makes a
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  lot of modern Christians a bit nervous.
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  He proposes a test, a sign, verses 13 and 14.
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  He says basically, let it be that the young woman to whom I
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  say please let down your jar that I may drink.
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  And she says drink, and I will also give your camels a drink.
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  Let her be the one. Right.
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  And the immediate question is, is this like Gideon putting out
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  the fleece? Is he just, you know, looking
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  for a random sign? Like flipping a coin or that
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  thing people do where they just open their Bible and point to a
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  verse and say that's God's will. And we have to be very, very
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  clear, this is not a Pagan omen. In the ancient world, divination
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  was common. You look at how birds fly, or
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  you'd inspect the liver of a sacrificed animal to try and
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  discern the will of the gods. Arbitrary sign.
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  Totally arbitrary. There's no moral content.
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  If the next person I see is wearing blue, I'll know is God's
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  will. That's not faith, it's
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  superstition. The servant's test is completely
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  different because it is ethically meaningful.
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  OK, how so? What makes it meaningful?
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  It's designed to reveal character, not just to identify
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  a random person. And to see that, we have to do
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  what our outline calls the mathematics of the test.
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  This is where those 10 camels become more than just a status
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  symbol. They're not just for show
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  anymore. They're thirsty.
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  They are extremely thirsty. A camel, after a long journey
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  across the desert, can drink an astonishing amount of water.
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  We're talking 20, maybe 25 gallons. 25 gallons for one
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  camel. Per cow and he has 10 of them.
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  That's 250 gallons of water. About that, yeah, 250 gallons.
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  To put that in perspective, a standard bathtub holds about 40
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  gallons, so this is like filling 6 bathtubs with water.
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  And how is she supposed to get this water?
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  She has a jar. A clay jar.
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  A typical jar from that period might hold, let's be generous
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  and say 3 gallons. So 250 gallons, 3 gallons at a
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  time. My math isn't great, but.
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  You're looking at over 80 trips. 80. 80 times she has to lower
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  that jar into the well or spring, which takes strength,
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  hoist up 25 lbs of water, carry it over the through, pour it in
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  and then go back and do it all over again.
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  This isn't just a small favor, this is an afternoon of hard
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  physical labor. It's hours of back breaking work
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  and remember, she volunteers for this.
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  That's the test. He only asks her sip for
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  himself. Please let me drink a little
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  water. And any decent person would do
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  that. That's basic hospitality.
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  That's the baseline. Giving a drink to a thirsty
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  traveler is expected. It's the principle we see later
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  in Leviticus 19. But for her to say drink and I
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  will water your camels also, that is something else entirely
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  that is extraordinary. It's proactive, radical
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  hospitality. It is a virtue discovery
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  mission. He is designed a test that will
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  reveal very clearly three specific character traits, 1
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  hospitality, 2 Industry, a willingness to work hard, and
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  three, initiative. She does more than she is asked.
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  She sees a need and meets it without prompting.
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  She goes the extra 80 trips to the well.
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  She does, and the servant knows that the woman who will be the
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  next matriarch of the covenant family, the new Sarah, needs to
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  be exactly this kind of person. It's not about beauty or status.
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  It's about having the heart of a servant.
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  It requires grit. So the sign isn't magical, it's
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  a character audit. That is the perfect way to put
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  it. He is looking for the visible
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  evidence of an invisible quality.
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  The visible fruit of virtue reveals the invisible root of
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  God's choice. And that connects to another
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  Hebrew word in our notes for verse 14, he asks, Let her be
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  the one whom you have appointed. Yes, the verb there is yakka.
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  It's a legal term. It means to prove, to decide a
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  case, to adjudicate. Adjudicate so he sees this as a
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  verdict. He does.
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  He's not asking God to make a choice in that moment.
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  He believes God has already made the choice in His eternal
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  decree. He is asking for the evidence to
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  be presented in court, so to speak.
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  He's asking for the verdict to be made public through her
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  actions. God, show me the woman you
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  already chosen. Not God.
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  Please choose this woman. That is a critical distinction,
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  and it tells you everything about his understanding of
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  Providence. Providence is simply God's
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  eternal decree being executed in time and space.
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  The servant is just asking to see that day's page of the
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  script. OK, this is amazing.
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  We have the covenant context, the faithful action, the
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  specific prayer, the character test.
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  Let's zoom out a bit Now as this is Reformed thinking.
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  We always have to ask, where is the gospel in this?
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  How does this connect to Christ? This brings us to typology.
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  And we want to be careful here, right?
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  We're not looking for a secret code where the camels represent
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  the 10 commandments or something silly like that.
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  Right, no over allegorizing. But there is what we'd call a
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  clear canonical trajectory. The patterns in this story are
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  preparing us for a greater reality.
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  So let's look at the main figures first.
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  Isaac. He's weirdly passive in this
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  whole story. He's totally absent from the
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  action, isn't he? He's the beloved son, the son of
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  the promise. He had a miraculous birth.
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  He was symbolically offered up and received back from the dead
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  on Mount Moriah in Genesis 22. And now he just waits.
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  He waits in the promised land while a bride is sought for him
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  and brought to him. That pattern should sound very
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  familiar to us. It should.
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  It's a shadow of Christ the Son, who, having completed his work
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  and ascended into heaven, now waits for his bride, the Church,
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  to be gathered from the nations and brought to him.
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  OK, so Isaac is a type of Christ.
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  What about the servant? Well, think about him.
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  He's nameless in the story. His entire purpose, his whole
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  mission is to glorify his master Abraham, and to secure a bride
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  for the son Isaac. He speaks of the son's
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  inheritance. He brings gifts like a deposit
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  or a down payment to secure the bride.
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  That sounds a lot like the work of the Holy Spirit.
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  It's a beautiful parallel. The Holy Spirit is sent from the
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  Father and the Son. He doesn't speak on his own
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  authority. His mission is to gather the
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  Church from the far country of the world, to convict her, to
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  seal her with the earnest or the down payment of her inheritance,
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  and to bring her safely to Christ.
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  And that leaves Rebecca. Rebecca is a type of the church.
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  She's found among a Pagan people, even if they are related
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  to Abraham. She's called to leave her
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  country and her father's house, and this is key.
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  She has to make a choice. Later in the chapter, her family
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  asks her will you go with this man?
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  And she gives her own consent. I will go.
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  She agrees to go and marry a man she's never even seen.
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  Exactly just like the Church. First Peter 1.8 Though you have
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  not seen him, you love him. And her defining characteristic,
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  that radical servant hearted act of giving water.
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  It anticipates the Church's calling.
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  We are saved by grace, to be sure, but we are saved unto good
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  works called to give a cup of cold water to the least of
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  these. Wow.
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  When you see it like that, the whole story just opens up.
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  It's not just an ancient anecdote, it's a portrait of the
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  Gospel in miniature. God was writing this story, this
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  pattern of redemption, long before Christ came.
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  The incredible lengths God goes to in this chapter to secure a
• 21:15
  bride for the Son of the promise are just a faint echo of the
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  lengths he would go to at the cross to secure a bride for his
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  own son. So.
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  Let's bring it home. Let's talk application.
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  We've got people listening right now, facing huge decisions,
• 21:28
  feeling that anxiety we talked about at the beginning.
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  What does Genesis 24 say to them?
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  Well, the first thing it does is it corrects our errors first.
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  It's a powerful correction against mysticism.
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  Stop. Waiting to hear an audible voice
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  from heaven. Stop waiting for voices, says.
• 21:42
  Stop looking for signs in the sky.
• 21:44
  Stop trying to interpret your dreams.
• 21:47
  God has given you His revealed will in His word.
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  Start there and use the wisdom He's giving you.
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  Second, it corrects the error of pragmatism.
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  Right. Don't just do what seems to work
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  or what will bring the most worldly success.
• 22:00
  The servant could have found a much easier match among the
• 22:03
  Canaanites, probably. But he wasn't looking for what
• 22:05
  was easy. He was looking for covenant
• 22:07
  faithfulness and virtue. And my favorite, it corrects the
• 22:10
  error of luck. We have to just remove that word
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  from our Christian vocabulary. It doesn't exist.
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  There is no luck. There is no chance.
• 22:18
  There is only the meticulous sovereign Providence of God.
• 22:21
  Every single drop of water that went into that through was
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  ordained for the foundation of the world.
• 22:26
  OK, so with those errors corrected, what's the positive
• 22:30
  model? If I'm facing a decision, a new
• 22:33
  job let's say, what's the step by step process this chapter
• 22:37
  gives me? Step one.
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  Obey God's revealed moral will. This is the train track.
• 22:43
  Is the job itself sinful? Does it require you to lie or
• 22:46
  cheat? Does it prevent you from
• 22:48
  gathering with the Saints for worship?
• 22:50
  If the answer to any of those is yes, but then the answer is no,
• 22:54
  you don't even need to pray about it.
• 22:55
  It's off the table the. Boundaries of the canvas.
• 22:57
  OK, Step 2. Use means do the work, update
• 23:01
  your resume, network, research the company, do the interview
• 23:04
  prep. Position yourself faithfully
• 23:06
  just like the servant positioned himself at the well.
• 23:08
  Don't just sit back and wait for a call.
• 23:10
  Be active, not passive. Step 3.
• 23:12
  Pray and pray. Specifically, pray for Hack for
• 23:15
  a divine appointment. Ask God to cause His will to
• 23:18
  happen before you, to open the right doors and close the wrong
• 23:21
  ones, and base that prayer on His.
• 23:23
  She's on His covenant love and faithfulness to you in Christ.
• 23:26
  And finally, Step 4. Look for confirmation in virtue.
• 23:30
  Does this opportunity align with who God has called me to be?
• 23:34
  Will it allow me to serve others?
• 23:36
  Will it grow me in godliness? The servant looked for the fruit
• 23:40
  of godly character as the sign that he was on the right path.
• 23:44
  I think we have to spend a minute on relationships in
• 23:46
  marriage because the camel test might be the single best piece
• 23:50
  of dating advice in the entire Bible.
• 23:52
  It really is incredible. We live in a culture that is
• 23:55
  obsessed with vibes and chemistry.
• 23:57
  We're looking for a spark, you know?
• 23:59
  Do they like the same music I like?
• 24:01
  Do they make me laugh? Do we have that connection?
• 24:03
  Right, and the servant could not have cared less about a spark.
• 24:06
  He was looking for sweat. That's a great line.
• 24:08
  He didn't care about a spark, he cared about sweat.
• 24:11
  He was looking for the person who serves when it's
• 24:13
  inconvenient, the person who works hard when nobody's
• 24:16
  watching, the person who gives generously without being asked.
• 24:20
  That is the camel test. And it is such a powerful rebuke
• 24:24
  to our modern self-care. Set your boundaries, culture.
• 24:28
  Now, boundaries can be good, but our default posture is so often
• 24:31
  about self preservation. Rebecca's default was self
• 24:34
  giving. She saw a need and ran toward
• 24:37
  it, even at great personal cost. That's the economy of the
• 24:39
  Kingdom of God, isn't it? Whoever would be greatest among
• 24:42
  you must be your servant. So if you're single and looking
• 24:45
  for a spouse, stop looking for the most attractive person or
• 24:48
  the funniest person. Look for the person who
• 24:51
  figuratively is always watering the camels.
• 24:54
  And even more, if you want to be a godly spouse, start looking
• 24:57
  for camels to water. That is deeply convicting.
• 25:00
  It should be for all of us. We have covered so much ground
• 25:03
  here, from a 500 mile journey to the doctrine of open theism.
• 25:07
  As we start to wrap up, what's the single big take away from
• 25:10
  Genesis 24? The summary is this.
• 25:13
  Abraham's servant found the right bride for the son of the
• 25:15
  promise, not by luck or by magic, but by a dependent,
• 25:19
  active, working faith in the sovereign God of Abraham.
• 25:22
  He combined high octane theology with rolling up his sleeves and
• 25:25
  doing the hard work. And what's a final thought you
• 25:27
  want to leave our listeners with?
• 25:29
  I just can't get away from the image of the well.
• 25:32
  The servant, a man stands by a well and asks a woman for a
• 25:36
  drink of water so that the line of promise can continue.
• 25:39
  Centuries later, Jesus, the ultimate son of promise, sits
• 25:43
  down by a well in Samaria. John, Chapter 4.
• 25:45
  Exactly. But he turns the whole story on
• 25:48
  its head. He doesn't just ask for water,
• 25:50
  he offers living water. The servant called a bride to
• 25:53
  Isaac to preserve a physical lineage.
• 25:56
  Jesus calls a bride to himself to give her eternal life.
• 25:59
  That's a powerful. Connection.
• 26:00
  And so the challenge for every one of us is the same one that
• 26:03
  was put to Rebecca. The question came to her will
• 26:06
  you go? She could have said no.
• 26:09
  She could have stayed in the familiar comfort of her father's
• 26:11
  house. But she said I will go.
• 26:13
  And the question for us is, are we like the citizens of Nahor
• 26:16
  who stayed behind, or are we like Rebecca, who heard the call
• 26:18
  and said I will go to a bridegroom she had never seen?
• 26:21
  That is the question. Well, thank you for listening to
• 26:24
  this deep dive on reformed thinking.
• 26:26
  We hope this look at Genesis 24 helps you see your decisions,
• 26:30
  your work, and maybe even your own camels in a whole new light.
• 26:34
  Indeed, trust the God of the appointment.
• 26:36
  He is faithful. We'll see you next time.