Latest / Reformed Thinking / Providence at the Well: Prayer, Guidance, and Covenant Faithfulness (Genesis 24:42–44)

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Providence at the Well: Prayer, Guidance, and Covenant Faithfulness (Genesis 24:42–44) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reformed Thinking. We are taking a look today at a
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  subject that I think keeps a massive number of people, you
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  know, just staring at the ceiling at 3 OAM.
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  It's the crisis of decision making.
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  It's that that paralyzing feeling that you are the captain
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  of your own fate, and if you blink at the wrong second, you
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  might just crash the ship. It's the heavy burden of total
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  autonomy, isn't it? If you operate under the belief
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  that you are the only variable in the equation of your life,
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  the pressure is well, it's crushing.
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  Today we are going to try and dismantle some of that pressure.
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  We're looking at the doctor to Providence, but not in some
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  abstract, dusty, academic way. We're looking at it through the
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  lens of a specific historical event found in Genesis chapter
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  24. We have a servant well, a
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  desperate prayer and a very specific test involving, well, a
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  lot of livestock. And to set the baseline for
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  everyone listening, we are not treating this text as just a
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  nice fable about ancient matchmaking or some kind of, you
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  know, guide on how to get a date.
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  We are looking at this through the lens of the Westminster
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  Standards. This is the authoritative
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  history of redemption. This happened.
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  So the thesis on the table today is this.
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  Genesis 24 is not a romantic fairy tale about finding a
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  soulmate. It is a covenantal rescue
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  mission to secure the lineage of Jesus Christ.
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  That is the headline. If you view this as boy meets
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  girl, you miss the cosmic stakes.
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  You really do. This is about the survival of
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  the seed of the woman promised all the way back in Genesis 3.5.
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  Let's set the context then, because the first segment of our
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  analysis is really about the danger the promise was in.
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  We're calling this the covenant stakes.
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  You can't just parachute into verse 42 without understanding
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  the tension. You really can't.
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  You have to look at where Abraham is in his life.
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  He's old. The text opens right up with
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  that Abraham was old, well advanced in years, but the
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  darker context is found in the chapter right before Genesis 23.
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  Sarah is dead. Sarah is dead.
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  The matriarch is gone. She's buried in The Cave of
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  Makapila, so there's this heavy shadow of mortality hanging over
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  the entire camp. Abraham realizes he is running
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  out of time. And God made these massive
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  promises. Massive promises back in Genesis
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  12 that through his offspring, all the nations of the Earth
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  would be blessed. That entire globe spanning
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  promise is currently funneled down to a single individual,
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  Isaac. And Isaac is unmarried.
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  Unmarried and childless. So think about that.
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  If Isaac dies without an heir, the promise fails.
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  It's over. The serpent wins.
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  But there's another danger, isn't there?
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  It's not just about him dying. No, there's a more subtle danger
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  than just Isaac dying. It's the danger of Isaac
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  marrying the wrong person. This explains the intensity of
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  the oath Abraham demands from his servant.
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  He makes his servant. It's likely ILY is, or though
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  the text it leaves him unnamed here.
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  Swear by putting his hand under Abraham's thigh.
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  Yeah, that is not a casual handshake.
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  No, it's the most solemn covenantal gesture in the
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  ancient Near East. It invokes the source of life,
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  of posterity. The command that comes with it
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  is totally binary. There are two parts. 1, you must
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  not take a wife from my son, from the daughters of the
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  Canaanites. And two, you must not take Isaac
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  back to the land of Ur, back to Mesopotamia.
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  Right, let's parse that first one.
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  Why not the Canaanites? Logically, I mean from a worldly
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  perspective, a political alliance with the neighbors
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  makes a lot of sense. Pragmatically, sure, it's the
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  smart move. But theologically it is poison.
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  Poison. Absolute poison.
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  The Canaanites are under a curse.
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  They are idolaters. If you mix the holy seed with
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  the profane Pagan culture of Canaan, you compromise the line
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  of the Messiah with idolatry. It's the antithesis of the
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  covenant. It pollutes the stream right at
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  the source. That's a great way to put it,
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  yes. And then the second part, the
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  prohibition against going back to Earth.
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  That's where they came from, it seems like going home to family.
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  But God called them out of there.
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  To return is to reverse the calling.
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  It's a physical retreat to the land of moon worship, to
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  paganism. So the servant is threading an
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  incredibly fine needle. He has to go all the way to her
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  and to the extended family who aren't Canaanites, find a woman
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  willing to leave everything she's ever known and bring her
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  all the way back. And he can't take the groom to
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  her. He cannot marry a local and he
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  cannot move the groom. The bride must come to the land
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  of promise. It really is a rescue operation.
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  That's exactly what it is. I mean, think of it like this.
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  This is a pipeline for the Messiah.
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  If this mission fails, the genealogy in Matthew chapter 1
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  breaks. Wow.
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  No Rebecca means no Jacob, no Jacob means no Judah, no Judah
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  means no David, and no David means no Jesus.
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  That reframes the entire narrative, doesn't it?
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  It takes it from this, you know, point story and makes it about
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  everything. It's about everything.
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  Now, looking at the structure of the text itself, our sources
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  point out something really interesting about the length of
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  this chapter. This is one of the longest
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  chapters in Genesis, and it's incredibly repetitive.
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  It is. I've noticed that you get the
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  narrator telling you the whole story and then almost
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  immediately you get the servant retelling the entire story
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  almost word for word to Rebecca's family.
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  Yes. Why the double billing?
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  The Bible is usually so ruthless with this word count.
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  It's so efficient. It is.
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  It's a deliberate narrative strategy.
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  In a text that is usually so lean.
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  Repetition is a giant neon sign telling you to pay attention to
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  this. OK, the servant is acting as a
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  witness. He's giving testimony in what is
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  essentially A covenantal court setting.
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  He's building a case for Laban and Bethel, her brother and
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  father. He's building an airtight case.
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  He recounts the oath, the prayer and the immediate miraculous
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  answer to strip away any plausible deniability.
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  Plausible deniability. I like that.
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  He does not want the family to be able to say, wow, what a
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  lucky coincidence or this is a great business merger for our
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  family. No, he wants them to see the
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  divine element. He frames the entire narrative
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  so that they have to acknowledge that Yahweh, the God of Abraham,
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  is the architect of this whole thing.
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  He backs them into a theological corner.
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  He does and it works. Their response later on is the
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  thing comes from the Lord. We cannot speak to you, bad or
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  good. He forces them to see the hidden
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  hand of God at work. Speaking of that hidden hand,
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  let's move to the second segment.
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  This is really the heart of it, the theology of Providence.
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  We're zooming in now on verse 42.
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  The servant arrives at the well in Haran, and he prays yes.
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  And the prayer begins, O Lord God of my master Abraham.
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  Notice the address that is so specific.
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  He's not throwing a penny in a wishing well.
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  He's not praying to some generic deity in the sky, Right?
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  He addresses Yahweh, the covenant God.
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  Yeah, and he anchors his prayer in history.
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  God of my master Abraham. He's leaning on the resume of
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  God, in a sense. He is pleading the covenant.
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  He's saying you are the God who made promises to this man,
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  Abraham. I am here on his business, which
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  is your business. He knows God promised a seed.
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  He knows this mission is necessary for that promise to
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  come to fruition. So he essentially praised the
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  Bible back to God. He's saying, Lord, be who you
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  said you are. Then he asked for something
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  specific. He says, please grant me success
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  today. The Hebrew word our notes
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  highlight there is salak. Salak.
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  It's a very pertinent word. And here it's in the Hipfil stem
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  now without, you know, getting too bogged down in Hebrew
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  grammar. Go.
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  For it, our listeners can handle it.
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  OK, the hipophil stem indicates causative action.
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  It means to cause something to happen.
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  So he's not asking God to just observe the trip and maybe give
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  it a thumbs up. Not at all.
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  He's asking God to cause the trip to succeed, to push it
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  forward, to make it break out into success.
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  It implies that God is the active agent behind the scenes.
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  Prime Mover. Exactly.
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  The servant is doing The Walking, the planning, the
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  talking, but he is asking God to do the prospering.
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  This brings us right to that classic Reform tension, doesn't
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  it? God's sovereignty versus man's
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  responsibility. The doctrine of concurrence.
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  It's a perfect illustration of it.
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  OK, so let's unpack that for the listener who might be new to
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  that term. What is concurrence?
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  Concurrence, Simply put, teaches that God's sovereign will and
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  human agency function at the same time.
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  They aren't mutually exclusive. They work together.
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  God works through our actions. So it's not one or the other.
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  It's both. Anne, the servant did not sit in
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  his tent back in Hebron and say, well, if God wants Isaac to have
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  a wife, a woman will just appear at the door.
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  That's not faith, that's fatalism.
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  But on the other hand, he also didn't say I'm the best
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  negotiator in the Levant. I've got this, handled my
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  skills, we'll get this done. Right.
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  That would be autonomy, or what we might call practical deism,
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  where God just winds up the clock and lets it run.
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  The servant embodies the balance perfectly.
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  He prepares meticulously. He takes 10 camels, expensive
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  jewelry, all the provisions for a long trek.
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  That's human responsibility. He does the work.
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  He does the work, but he prays with total dependence.
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  He knows his effort is the means, but God's blessing is the
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  ultimate cause of success. There's a small word in that
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  prayer that I think usually trips people up.
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  If he says if now you will prosper my way.
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  To our modern ears, that sounds like doubt.
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  Is he doubting God? Yeah, it's a great question.
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  And no, it's not doubt in the sense of skepticism.
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  The Hebrew particle in here functions more as an expression
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  of submission. Submission.
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  Yes, think of Jesus in Gethsemane.
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  Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.
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  It's not doubt, it's deference. It's the servant checking his
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  will against God's hidden counsel.
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  So he's saying something like I'm on this path.
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  Lord, I believe it's your will. If this is indeed the path you
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  have ordained, make it clear. That's it exactly.
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  It's the syntax of dependence, as one writer put.
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  It. I like that phrasing.
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  He frames his entire mission as dependent on God's history, his
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  steadfast, loyal covenant love. He's asking God to show loyalty
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  to Abraham by finding a woman who herself embodies that same
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  kind of loyalty. Which brings us perfectly to the
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  Well Segment 3, the test. The Servant is standing there by
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  the spring outside the city, and he devises a very specific
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  scenario. First off, why a well?
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  Is there something mystical or special about this location?
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  Not at all. It's just common sense.
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  It's simply where the women are. In the ancient Near East,
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  drawing water was the evening chore for the young, unmarried
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  women of the village. So he's using ordinary wisdom.
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  He's using God-given wisdom. He positions himself in the
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  ordinary path of Providence, expecting God to work through
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  the normal patterns of life. It's a biblical pattern too,
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  isn't it? Wells are often sites of these
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  kinds of meetings. Jacob and Rachel, Moses and
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  Zipporah. That's right, it's a recurring
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  motif. But the test itself that this is
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  the famous part, this is the camel factor, he prays, Let the
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  young woman to whom I shall say please let down your jar, that I
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  may drink, say drink, and I will draw for your camels also.
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  To a modern year, that sounds like simple politeness.
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  Here's a cup of water for you, and here's a little bowl for
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  your dog. Ray, it sounds trivial, but we
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  have to stop and actually run the numbers on this.
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  We have to consider the physics and the biology of the
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  situation. OK, let's do it.
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  A camel that has just crossed the desert is seriously
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  dehydrated. A thirsty camel can drink on the
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  low end 20 gallons of water. Some can drink up to 30. 20 to
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  30 gallons and he has 10 camels with him. 10 camels.
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  So let's be conservative and say 20 gallons each.
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  We're looking at a potential water requirement of 200 gallons
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  of water. 200 gallons and she does have a garden hose.
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  She has a ceramic jar and most of these wells were not like a
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  bucket on a rope situation. They were often cisterns or
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  spring fed pools where you have to walk down a flight of steps
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  to reach the water level. So it's not just lifting, it's
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  carrying. She has to descend the steps,
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  fill a jar that when full weighs roughly 40 lbs, walk back up the
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  steps, pour it into the through for the camels, and then repeat
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  that process. If she's carrying say 3 to 5
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  gallons per trip. You do the math, that's anywhere
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  from 40 to maybe 70 or 80 trips up and down, up and down.
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  It's hours of back breaking cardio.
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  It is a monumental physical task.
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  So when the servant asks for a drink for himself, he's asking
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  for a sip. A very minor kindness.
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  A small act of hospitality. Her response, I will water your
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  camels too is an offer of monumental service.
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  It's outrageous generosity, it's extravagant kindness.
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  And that is precisely why it's such a brilliant test.
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  Because it wasn't random. It was not a random sign.
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  He wasn't flipping a coin or asking God to make a leaf fall
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  in a certain direction. He was looking for character.
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  He needed a woman who possessed his head.
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  That covenant loyalty, that industriousness, that
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  willingness to serve beyond all expectation.
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  He wasn't looking for a supermodel.
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  He wasn't checking her social status.
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  He was looking for a worker. The woman who would replace
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  Sarah, the woman who would mother the covenant line had to
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  be made of stern stuff. She had to be willing to go the
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  extra mile and then 10 more when no one was forcing her to.
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  And the text makes a point of noting her energy.
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  It says she hastened. She ran back and forth to the
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  well. She didn't do it grudgingly.
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  She didn't sigh and roll her eyes.
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  She attacked the task with vigor.
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  Meanwhile, the servant just stands there, the text says.
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  He gazed at her in silence. Which is a kind of awkward
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  image, isn't it? He's watching this young woman
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  sweat and work herself to exhaustion, and he doesn't lift
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  a finger to help. He can't.
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  He has to know if she will finish the task she offered to
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  do. He's waiting for the
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  confirmation of the sign. He needs to know in his own
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  words whether the Lord had prospered his way or not.
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  It must have been an intense few hours.
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  I can only imagine. And then when she finally
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  finishes, the verdict drops. Verse 44 in the servants
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  retelling uses a very specific Hebrew word, yaka.
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  This is the woman whom the Lord has appointed for my master's
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  son. Appointed.
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  What's the weight of that word? Yaka.
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  Yaka is a forensic term. It's a legal word.
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  It's often used in contexts for a judge rendering A verdict or
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  determining a case. So it's not just this is the one
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  who happened to show up. No, the servant realizes This
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  isn't luck. This isn't coincidence.
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  God had adjudicated this matter. He had rendered his verdict
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  before the servant ever left Canaan.
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  This is the doctrine of election showing up right in the
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  narrative. It is.
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  God chooses the instrument for His purpose.
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  Before the instrument ever acts, the servant realizes in that
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  moment that he has just walked onto a stage where the script
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  was already written by God himself.
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  Now this of course leads to a massive question for the
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  listener today, which is our 4th segment, because people read
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  this and they think, OK, great, I need to make a big decision
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  about a job or who to marry. I'll put out a fleece.
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  The Gideon's fleece methodology. Lord, if the phone rings at
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  exactly ten, 7:05 AM, I'll take the job.
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  If she's wearing a blue sweater when I see her, she's the one.
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  Is that what this text is teaching us to do?
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  No, absolutely not. And this is where we have to be
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  very precise about our theology and our understanding of
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  redemptive history. OK, We as Reformed believers
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  hold to a cessationist viewpoint.
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  Can you define that in this specific context?
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  Sure. It means we believe that the era
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  of direct, open, extraordinary revelation, like audible voices
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  from God, prophetic dreams, miraculous signs like this, has
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  ceased with the completion of the Apostolic age and the
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  closing of the Canon of Scripture.
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  So the servant's time was different from our time.
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  Radically different. The servant lived in the
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  patriarchal age. They did not have the book of
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  Romans, they didn't have the Psalms, they didn't have the
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  Bible. God communicated more directly
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  through dreams, through theophanies, and yes, through
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  specific providential signs. So asking for a sign like that
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  today is what would you call it? It is arguably a lack of faith
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  in this efficiency of scripture. You have 66 books of God's
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  revealed will. Why are you asking for a sign?
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  It's treating God like a Magic 8 ball.
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  I shake the prayer. I get a.
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  Sign. Exactly.
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  It's mysticism, and it bypasses the hard work of applying
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  biblical wisdom. So if we don't get the canal
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  test, how are we supposed to make big decisions?
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  We get something far better. We have the completed Word of
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  God. We have the analogy of faith,
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  which means we use Scripture to interpret scripture.
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  We have the full counsel of God to guide us.
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  So for marriage you don't ask Lord, make her wear a blue
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  sweater. No.
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  You look at the principles in the text.
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  Is she a believer? That's the first question.
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  From 2nd Corinthians 6 does she display the fruit of the Spirit?
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  From Galatians 5 Is she industrious?
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  Is she kind? Is her character aligned with
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  what Proverbs 31 describes? So it's a moral test, not a
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  magical one. That's the key distinction.
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  The Servants test, at its core, was a test of moral character
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  that aligned with God's character.
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  We are called to do the same using the far clearer lens of
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  the whole Bible. It's about looking at Providence
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  through the lens of wisdom. You see the circumstances of
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  your life, the open and closed doors, and you interpret them
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  through what you know to be true from Scripture.
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  That's it. If a door slams shut and trying
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  to open it would require you to sin or compromise, you don't
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  kick it down in Jesus name. You acknowledge God's sovereign
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  redirection. If a path opens that aligns with
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  God's commands and seems wise, you walk it with prayerful
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  dependence, just like the servant did.
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  Let's pivot now to the bigger picture.
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  This is segment 5. We are reformed.
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  We preach Christ from all of Scripture.
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  So how is Genesis 24 about Jesus?
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  Oh, it's Christological through and through.
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  The whole chapter is just built on typology.
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  These are historical realities, people and events that God
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  designed to function as shadows that point forward to the
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  greater substance, which is always Christ.
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  OK, walk us through the cast of characters here as types.
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  Let's start with Isaac. He is the beloved son, the son
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  of the promise. Remember Genesis 22?
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  He was the son who was essentially sacrificed on Mount
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  Moriah and then figuratively received back from the dead.
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  A type of the resurrection. Absolutely.
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  And notice where he is in this chapter.
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  He's almost completely absent from the action.
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  He's waiting back in the land of promise for the bride to be
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  brought to him. So he is a type of Christ.
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  Who has accomplished salvation, has ascended into heaven, and is
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  now waiting for Bride the Church to be gathered and brought to
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  Him which. Of course, makes Rebecca.
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  The Church. She is found in a far country, a
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  gentile land, a picture of the world.
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  She's called out of her Pagan homeland by a messenger.
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  And she has never seen the groom.
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  She has never laid eyes on Isaac, yet based on the
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  testimony of the messenger, she agrees to leave everything and
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  go to him. And the servant, the messenger
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  himself. The servant is nameless in the
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  story, which is significant. His entire mission is to serve
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  the father Abraham, to secure a bride for the son Isaac.
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  He is a beautiful type of the Holy Spirit.
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  How so? The Spirit does not speak of
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  himself. He glorifies the Father and the
• 18:48
  Son. The servant constantly says my
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  master Abraham, and he's there to find a bride from my master's
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  son. He gives gifts the golden
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  jewelry, just as the Spirit gives spiritual gifts to the
• 18:59
  church. And he's the one who escorts her
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  home. He brings the bride to the
• 19:02
  groom. He brings her safely on the
• 19:04
  journey and look at Rebecca's response when her family asks
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  her, will you go with this man? Her answer is immediate.
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  I will go. That is the response of saving
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  faith. It reminds you of what the
• 19:15
  Apostle Peter says of the Church.
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  Though you have not seen him, you love him.
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  Exactly. It's the gospel story, the whole
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  plan of salvation, told in a beautiful historical narrative.
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  The Father sends the Spirit into the world to gather the bride
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  for this Son who was the sacrifice.
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  That's the story of the Bible in one sentence.
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  There's also a law and gospel application for us personally
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  here, isn't there? It's not just about the big
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  picture. Yes, the law always functions as
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  a mirror. When we read the story honestly,
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  it exposes our own hearts. It exposes our deep seated
• 19:46
  autonomy. We realize we do not pray with
• 19:49
  the dependence of the servant. We act like practical atheists,
• 19:53
  trusting our own plans, our networking, our dating apps.
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  And it exposes our superficiality.
• 19:58
  We value charm over character looks over labor.
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  So the law condemns us. It shows us how far short we
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  fall. But the gospel is the cure.
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  And here's the beautiful twist in the application.
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  In this story, we are not the faithful servant.
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  We are Rebecca. We are the ones being found.
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  We are the bride and we have to ask the question, why was
• 20:17
  Rebecca chosen? Was it because she was the best
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  water drawer in all of Mesopotamia?
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  Does she earn her spot? No.
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  The text is clear. The text is clear.
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  Verse 44 says she was appointed. She was chosen by God before she
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  did a single thing. That's the indicative, the
• 20:32
  statement of what is true. You are chosen by grace.
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  But then comes the imperative, the command, the way we are to
• 20:38
  live because we are chosen. We now labor and serve with the
• 20:42
  energy and joy of Rebecca. So we don't water camels to get
• 20:45
  chosen. We water camels because we are
• 20:47
  chosen. That's the heartbeat of reformed
• 20:49
  ethics, isn't it? Our work flows from a position
• 20:52
  of security and gratitude, not from a desperate attempt to earn
• 20:55
  favor. Exactly.
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  Rebecca ran to the well because she had a generous, willing
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  heart. That is how a Christian is meant
• 21:02
  to live, overflowing with service because of the grace
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  we've received. Let's bring this all in for a
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  landing with our final segment application.
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  So let's break it down into head, heart and hands.
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  Starting with the head, What should we think differently
• 21:16
  after this? First and foremost, you need to
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  embrace the doctrine of meticulous Providence.
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  There is no luck, there are no accidents, there is no oops in
• 21:25
  God's universe. If you really get a grip on the
• 21:27
  concept of yakka, that things are divinely appointed, it gives
• 21:31
  you an incredible intellectual stability in a chaotic world.
• 21:34
  It kills the anxiety of what if. It kills it, which leads
• 21:38
  directly to the heart application for the listener who
• 21:42
  is paralyzed by fear, the fear of making the wrong choice.
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  Look at the details in this text.
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  The God of Abraham manages the travel time, the thirst level of
• 21:51
  the camels, the exact moment of the meeting at the well.
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  He's in the weeds. He's in the weeds if he cares
• 21:57
  about those details to secure the line of the Messiah.
• 21:59
  He cares about the details of your life as one of His chosen
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  children. It's an enormous comfort.
• 22:05
  It should also realign our affections, our loves, to value
• 22:09
  what God values, holiness, service, character over what the
• 22:13
  world values. And for the hands, how we
• 22:15
  actually live, let's go back to relationships and marriage.
• 22:17
  The practical advice is clear. Stop looking for the flashy
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  exterior. Look for the camel watering
• 22:22
  spirit. Look for the person who serves
• 22:24
  when no one is watching, who goes the extra mile without
• 22:27
  being asked. And the warning from the text is
• 22:29
  just as real. Do not be unequally yoked.
• 22:31
  The Canaanite versus kin distinction is vital for us
• 22:34
  today. Do not marry someone who does
• 22:37
  not share your covenant Lord. The text shows that's not a
• 22:40
  secondary issue. It's a primary line in the sand
• 22:43
  issue. It's a recipe for spiritual
• 22:45
  disaster. And in our vocation, our daily
• 22:48
  work. Practice that syntax of
• 22:50
  dependence we talked about. Work hard, be excellent at your
• 22:54
  job. Plan diligently, but do it all
• 22:57
  while praying. Lord, prosper the way.
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  Do not assume your hard work is the sole cause of the result.
• 23:03
  God gives the increase. And finally, this text gives us
• 23:06
  an evangelistic call. It absolutely does.
• 23:09
  The servant went out on a mission to get the bride.
• 23:11
  We are the servants now, in a sense the Church must go to the
• 23:14
  nations, to the far country, and tell people, come, there is a
• 23:18
  son who loves you. Come to the marriage supper of
• 23:21
  the Lamb. We are the ones carrying the
• 23:23
  imitation. It's a beautiful symmetry.
• 23:24
  We who are called like Rebecca are now sent like the servant.
• 23:28
  We have covered a lot of ground today, from camel Physiology and
• 23:31
  Hebrew grammar all the way to the eternal marriage of Christ
• 23:34
  in His church. It's amazing how the small,
• 23:37
  mundane details in scripture always point to the grandest
• 23:41
  designs of God. So here's the final thought for
• 23:44
  you listening. We like to call it the hidden
• 23:46
  hand. Think about this for a moment.
• 23:48
  The God who sovereignly moved a young woman to draw water from a
• 23:52
  well 4000 years ago specifically to ensure that the lineage of
• 23:56
  Jesus would be preserved. That same God is the one
• 23:59
  superintending every detail of your life right now.
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  You might feel like your life is just a mess of random events, a
• 24:05
  series of coincidences. But if you are in Christ, there
• 24:09
  is no random, there is only the appointed way.
• 24:11
  Trust the appointment. Thanks for diving deep with us
• 24:14
  on reformed thinking. Until next time.