Latest / Reformed Thinking / Providence and Praise: The Sweet Confluence of Duty and Decree in the Betrothal of Isaac (Genesis 24:22-27)

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Providence and Praise: The Sweet Confluence of Duty and Decree in the Betrothal of Isaac (Genesis 24:22-27) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome back to Reformed Thinking.
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  I am glad you are here. We are going back to the book of
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  Genesis today and I have to admit when I first look at the
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  schedule and saw Genesis 24, specifically verses 22 through
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  27, I thought OK, the Camel chapter.
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  The Camel chapter. That is what everyone calls it.
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  Right. It feels like one of those nice
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  pastoral stories you see illustrated in a children's
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  Bible. You have a servant, some camels,
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  Well, a girl offering water. It seems quaint, but as I
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  started digging into the notes and the commentaries you sent
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  over, I realized I was completely wrong.
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  This isn't just a travel log. It definitely isn't.
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  It feels more like a high stakes theological thriller.
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  That is a much better way to frame it.
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  We are looking at a moment that sits on a knife's edge.
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  If things go wrong here, the entire biblical narrative
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  collapses. And good to be with you by the
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  way. Good to have you.
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  And just so our listeners know where we are coming from,
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  because this matters for how we read the text, we are
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  approaching this as Protestant Christians.
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  We love the Westminster Confession of Faith.
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  We believe that looking at Scripture through the lens of
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  Reformed theology isn't about putting God in a box.
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  It is about seeing the massive scale of what he is doing.
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  We want to see the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of
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  man not as enemies, but as friends.
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  And this text, Genesis 24.2227, might be the single best case
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  study in the entire Bible for how those two things work
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  together. So let's set the stage.
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  Before we get to verse 22, we have Abraham's servant.
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  The text doesn't name him here, but most scholars think it is
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  Eliezer of Damascus. Likely yes.
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  He has traveled 500 miles from Hebron to Aram Naharam.
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  That is not a weekend trip, that is a serious trek.
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  And he is there to find a wife for Isaac.
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  But why is this so intense? Why not just find a nice girl
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  next door in Canaan? Because of the promise, you have
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  to go back to Genesis 3.15. God promised that the seed of
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  the woman would crush the head of the serpent.
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  That is the first announcement of the gospel.
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  That seed, the Messiah, has to come through a specific line.
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  It has to come through Abraham and then through Isaac.
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  But Isaac is single and they are living in Canaan, surrounded by
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  a culture that is spiritually toxic.
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  If Isaac marries A Canaanite, the holy line mixes with the
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  serpent's seed. The covenant is corrupted.
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  So the servant is standing at that well 500 miles from home,
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  carrying the weight of the future Messiah on his shoulders.
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  If he fails, or if he picks the wrong girl, the promise is in
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  jeopardy. That raises the stakes
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  significantly. It is not just about Isaac
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  getting a date. It is about the survival of the
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  Gospel. So the servant praised this very
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  specific prayer. He asked God to identify the
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  woman by having her offer water to his camels.
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  And then Rebecca shows up, She does it.
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  She runs back and forth to the well.
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  And that brings us to verse 22. And it came to pass, as the
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  camels had done, drinking. I want to pause right there when
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  the Camels had finished drinking.
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  We need to talk about the discipline of patience because I
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  think we read that and assume it took 5 minutes.
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  Yeah, she poured a bucket. The camel sipped it.
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  Done. Not even close.
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  A camel that has just crossed a desert is thirsty.
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  A single camel can drink 20, maybe 30 gallons of water. 30
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  gallons easily. And he has 10 camels.
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  So do the math. We are talking about maybe 300
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  gallons of water. And she's drawing this by hand.
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  By hand from a well, pouring it into a through running back,
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  drawing. Again, this is heavy manual
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  labor. This isn't a moment, This is an
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  event. It would take hours.
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  And the servant just. And that is the key.
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  Verse 21 says the man wondering at her held his peace, to wit,
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  whether the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not.
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  He doesn't help her. He doesn't interrupt her.
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  He stands there in silence and watches the entire process
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  finish. That is agonizing.
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  I mean, in our culture, we are obsessed with instant certainty.
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  We want the vibe check to clear immediately.
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  If I were him, the second she poured the first bucket, I would
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  have jumped in and said, OK, that's it, you're the one.
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  Here is the ring. And that would have been a
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  mistake. Why?
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  Because true discernment requires observing the fruit,
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  not just the flower. He needed to know if this was a
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  fluke. He needed to know if she had the
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  character to finish what she started.
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  He was testing her faithfulness by simply letting her work.
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  He respected the process of revelation.
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  He didn't try to force God's hand.
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  He waited to see God's hand revealed in the completion of
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  the task. That is a hard lesson for us.
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  We want answers now. We treat prayer like a vending
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  machine, but he treats it like a crop.
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  He waits for it to ripen so the last camel finishes drinking.
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  The test is over. Now he moves.
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  Verse 22 says the man took a golden earring, or more
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  accurately a nose ring, a nesim, and two bracelets.
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  And here is where we need to slow down, because the details
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  here are incredible and most people skim right over them.
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  Moses, who wrote this, gives us the specific weight of the gold.
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  It says the ring was half a Shekel weight.
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  Right now, why does that matter? Is Moses just keeping a Ledger?
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  Is this just a receipt? I assumed it was just to show
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  that the ring was valuable. You know, look, Abraham has
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  money. It proves he is solvent, sure,
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  but the Hebrew word used here for hash shekel is Becca.
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  Becca. Yes, and Becca isn't just a
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  random weight. It becomes a technical
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  theological term in the Torah. If you flip over to Exodus
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  chapter 30, verses 13 through 15, God establishes A census tax
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  for the people of Israel. Every person, rich or poor, had
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  to pay exactly 1 Becca of silver.
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  Oh, Becca. OK.
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  And what was that money? For it is called the ransom for
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  the soul. It was the atonement money used
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  for the service of the Tabernacle.
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  In Exodus 38 we see that the silver from these Becca's was
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  melted down to make the sockets the bases for the sanctuary.
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  Wait, so you were saying that when the servant puts a Becca
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  weight on Rebecca, he is using the specific weight associated
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  with atonement and the sanctuary?
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  Precisely. This is theological shorthand to
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  a Jewish reader. The word Becca triggers a
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  connection to the Tabernacle. The servant isn't just giving
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  her jewelry to make her look pretty.
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  He is marking her out. It is almost as if she's being
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  weighed and secured according to the standard of the sanctuary.
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  That completely changes how I see this scene.
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  It is not just a transaction, it is almost liturgical.
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  She's being claimed for a holy purpose.
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  She is, she is being bought with a price in a sense to be part of
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  the covenant people. And then he gives her bracelets
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  weighing 10 shekels. 10 is often a number of completeness or
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  testing in Scripture. Think the 10 commandments, the
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  10 plagues. But the function of this gold is
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  what we call an earnest. Like a down payment.
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  Exactly. In the New Testament, Paul talks
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  about the Holy Spirit as the earnest of our inheritance.
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  It is the guarantee that the full amount is coming.
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  This gold binds the woman to the master's house.
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  It is a pledge. Now I have to play devil's
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  advocate here because I know some people listening might be
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  thinking about the prosperity gospel.
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  You hear Preacher say. Look at Abraham's servant.
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  He gave gold. If you have enough faith, God
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  will give you a Rolex. God want you to be rich.
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  Yeah, that is a very common distortion.
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  We have to reject that entirely. Why?
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  I mean, he did give her gold. He did, but we have to look at
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  the function, not just the material.
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  This wealth wasn't a reward for Rebecca to go hoard in a vault,
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  and it certainly isn't a promise that every believer gets a
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  luxury car. In the ancient Near East,
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  marriage was a legal contract between families to secure a
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  bride, especially from a distance.
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  You had to pay the mohar the bride price.
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  You had to prove that the grooms father was solvent.
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  So it is about security, not luxury.
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  It is about survival. It is about proving that if she
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  leaves her family and moves 500 miles away, she isn't going to
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  starve. It is ensuring the lineage can
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  be established legally. This gold was serving the seed,
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  not the self. It was functional capital for
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  the preservation of the messianic line.
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  That is a huge distinction. It is the difference between
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  winning the lottery and being given a budget to build a
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  hospital. 1 is for you, the other is for the mission.
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  That is a great analogy. It is mission capital.
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  Now there's a weird little quirk in the text here regarding the
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  timeline. I noticed in verse 22 the
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  narrator says he gave the gifts before he asked her name.
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  But later in the chapter in verse 47, when the servant is
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  retelling the story to her brother Laden, he says, I asked
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  her name and then I gave her the ring.
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  Good catch. Did he forget what happened or
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  is he lying to Laban? Neither.
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  This is a literary device. Scholars call it prolepsis.
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  Unpack that for us. Prolepsis is when you represent
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  a future act as if it is already done, or you rearrange events to
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  emphasize a point. In verse 22, the narrator is
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  showing us the servant's internal state.
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  His certainty was so high that effectively the giving of the
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  ring happened the moment he saw her character.
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  So he was so sure she was the one just based on the water
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  test. He was operating on assurance of
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  things hoped for the sign of her character, her.
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  His seeded that loyal love and hospitality and watering the
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  camels was so convincing that in his heart the deal was done.
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  He was ready to endow her with the master's wealth before the
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  legal formalities were even finished.
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  That is a bold faith. He trusted that if God provided
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  the character, God would provide the right family.
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  He did, but he still had to check.
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  Which leads us to the next section.
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  Right Section 2, the genealogy. He gives the gold, but there is
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  still one massive hurdle. She has to be from the right
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  bloodline, he asks, as in verse 23.
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  Whose daughter are you? I call this the narrow gate.
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  You see, character is essential. She had to be a worker.
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  She had to be kind. But character alone wasn't
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  enough. Why not?
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  I mean, let's push on this. If she had said I am the
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  daughter of Efron the Hittite, but she was still a wonderful
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  person who watered camels, why couldn't she be the wife?
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  Why is God so obsessed with genetics here?
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  It is not about genetics in the modern sense of race or
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  ethnicity. It is about covenant.
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  The Canaanites and Hittites were under a specific judicial curse.
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  Their culture was steeped in idolatry that was antithetical
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  to the worship of Yahweh. Abraham's command was very
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  specific. Go to my country and to my
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  kindred. So it is about spiritual
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  distinctiveness. Yes, it is the doctrine of
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  election playing out in history. God separates a people for
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  himself. We live in a world that loves
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  inclusivism, the idea that all paths lead to God or that
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  distinctions don't matter. But biblical religion is
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  particular. The elect line is distinct.
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  It is separated from the world. If she was a Canaanite, no
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  matter how nice she was, she would have brought the leaven of
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  idolatry into the House of the promise.
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  So the tension in this moment is incredibly high.
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  He asks the question, and then in verse 24 she answers, I am
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  the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Milka, which she bare unto
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  Nahor. To us, that is just a list of
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  names. To the servant, that is a
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  theological Thunder clap. Because Nahor is Abraham's
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  brother. Exactly, Abraham said.
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  Go to my kindred and here she is.
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  She is the granddaughter of Abraham's brother.
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  She is from the clan of Terra. She fits the legal and spiritual
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  requirements perfectly. It really hits you when you
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  think about the odds, when you do the math.
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  He travels weeks to a foreign land.
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  He picks one city, he goes to one.
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  Well, he arrives at 1:00, one specific time of day, and out of
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  all the women in the city, the one girl who walks up just
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  happens to be his master's grandniece.
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  Statistically it is zero. It is impossible.
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  But here she is. This is Providence over
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  probability, and there is a beautiful detail here regarding
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  her grandmother Milka. If you go back to Genesis 22,
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  right after the intense story of Abraham almost sacrificing
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  Isaac, the narrative suddenly stops.
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  Yeah, it had that weird genealogy list at the end of the
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  chapter. Milka bore these children.
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  Most of us skim that we think, why is this here?
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  But the Holy Spirit put it there to prepare the reader for this
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  exact moment. It shows us that while Abraham
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  was on Mount Moriah offering up his son, God was already miles
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  away preparing the bride for that son.
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  God is weaving the tapestry long before we see the threads.
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  He is. It is a reminder that God's plan
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  is comprehensive. He isn't reacting to problems.
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  He is interior to them. He is ahead of them.
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  And she offers more than just her name.
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  In verse 25 she says we have both straw and prisoner enough
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  and room to lodge in. That is the test of hospitality.
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  It confirms the family resemblance.
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  Think about Genesis 18. Three strangers come to
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  Abraham's tent. What does he do?
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  He runs. He bows, he gets water, he kills
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  the calf. He is frantic to serve them.
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  And here, hundreds of miles away, his kinswoman Rebecca
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  shows the exact same spirit. She doesn't just give water.
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  She offers lodging. She offers straw for the camels.
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  She is eager. So she isn't just genetically
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  linked, she shares the ethos of the Covenant family.
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  She has the culture of the Kingdom, you could say.
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  So the servant has the gifts given, the name confirmed, the
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  lodging secured, the checklist is complete.
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  And this brings us to verse 26. The man bow down his head and
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  worship the Lord. The physical posture here is so
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  important. The Hebrew words are kata, which
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  means to bow the head, and shaka, which means to prostate
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  oneself to get low on the ground.
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  We don't really do that anymore. Maybe we would close our eyes or
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  lift a hand, but he hits the dirt.
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  He makes himself small. He acknowledges that he is a
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  creature and God is the creator. But look at the timing.
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  That is what grabs me. He worships before he goes to
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  meet the family. Right.
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  He hasn't met Bethewel yet. He hasn't met Laban.
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  He hasn't negotiated the bride prize.
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  He doesn't have a signed contract.
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  A pragmatist would wait. A pragmatist would say, OK, Step
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  1 is good, but I need to close the deal, then I'll celebrate.
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  Exactly. But the servant is not a
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  pragmatist. He is a worshipper.
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  He sees the hand of God so clearly in the meeting that he
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  interprets the success immediately as divine action.
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  He pauses the mission to give thanks for the mercy.
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  It is the. First, fruits of gratitude.
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  He doesn't wait for the harvest to be in the barn.
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  And this is a total rejection of the idea of chance.
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  The text is training us to be anti secular.
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  The servant doesn't say wow, what a lucky coincidence.
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  He doesn't say, man, I'm really good at picking wells.
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  He sees the heavy hand of Yahweh and.
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  Then he speaks in verse 27 and he says, Blessed be the Lord God
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  of my master Abraham, who has not left destitute, my Master of
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  his mercy and his truth. Those two words, mercy and truth
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  are massive in Hebrew. They are has said and Emet.
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  Let's untack those, he said. Is a word we hear a lot in
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  church circles. It is often translated as loving
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  kindness or steadfast love, but it is more specific than that,
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  He said is covenant loyalty. It is love that is bound by an
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  oath. When God shows, he said he isn't
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  just being nice, He is being faithful to a promise he made.
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  In Amen. Amen is truth, reliability,
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  firmness. So the servant is praising God
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  for acting according to his sworn oath to Abraham.
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  He realizes that finding Rebecca isn't just a happy event, it is
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  God keeping His word. And then he drops this phrase
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  that I think is the anchor for the whole episode.
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  He says. I being in the way the Lord led
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  me. I being in the way the Lord led
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  me. That is the doctrine of
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  concurrence in a nutshell. OK, that is a $5 theological
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  word. Break that down for us.
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  What does the Westminster Confession say about that?
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  Concurrence is the teaching that God's sovereign decree
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  cooperates with human agency without violating it.
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  God works through the will of the creature.
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  Think of it this way, the servant says.
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  I being in the way, that is human responsibility.
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  He had to saddle the camels, he had to walk the 500 miles.
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  He had to stand by the well. He had to open his mouth and
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  pray he was active. He wasn't a robot and he wasn't
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  passive. He wasn't sitting in a hammock
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  in Hebron waiting for God to drop a wife out of the sky.
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  Exactly. But the second-half of the
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  sentence is the Lord led me. That is divine sovereignty.
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  So how do those two fit together?
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  I like to use the analogy of steering a ship.
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  Imagine a captain at the wheel of a massive vessel.
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  For the rudder to work for the ship to be steered, the ship has
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  to be moving and needs forward momentum.
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  If the engines are off and the ship is dead in the water, the
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  captain can turn the wheel all day, but the ship won't turn.
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  So the servant provides the motion.
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  The servant provides the motion, the obedience, The Walking, the
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  being in the way, and because he is in motion, God, the captain,
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  steers him. God directs the moving vessel.
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  That is really helpful. It avoids the two ditches we
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  always fall into. One ditch is fatalism.
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  God controls everything, so I'll just sit here and do nothing.
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  That's the ship with no engine. And the other ditch is deism.
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  God wound up the clock and left. So it is all up to me.
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  That's the ship with no captain. But the biblical view is
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  concurrence. We act, and in our acting God is
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  directing. This also seems to shut down the
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  idea of open theism. It absolutely does.
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  Open theism is the idea that the future is unsettled, that God is
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  waiting to see what humans do and then reacts.
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  But look at the text. The verb nahani, he led me
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  indicates A factual, completed action.
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  God didn't wait to see who came to the well.
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  He didn't look down and say, oh nice, Rebecca showed up, I can
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  work with that. God led him to the House of his
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  master's brethren. The destination was fixed in the
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  divine decree before the servant ever left home.
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  God constitutes the end as well as the means.
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  That is incredibly comforting. That means God isn't up there
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  biting his nails hoping I make the right choice.
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  He is leading, but this brings up a practical question about
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  guidance. We hear people today talk about
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  seeking a word from the Lord. I'm waiting for a sign.
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  Yeah, if the barista spells my name right, I'll take the job.
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  Yeah, people treat guidance like divination, but how does the
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  servant do it? This text gives us the true
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  biblical model. Notice what the servant didn't
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  do. Did he hear a voice from heaven?
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  No. Did he see writing in the sky?
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  Yeah. Did he cast lots?
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  He used prayer plus prudence. He prayed for success, that his
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  dependence. But then he used prudence,
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  wisdom, he said a moral test. He decided I'm going to look for
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  a woman who shows hospitality because that is the character
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  that fits Abraham's house. That is just wisdom.
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  It is. And then he verified it with
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  facts, her lineage. He didn't just go off a feeling
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  or a burning in his bosom. He used his brain.
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  He applied the word he had Abraham's command to the
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  situation in front of him. So true guidance for us isn't
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  about waiting for new special revelations, it is about
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  applying scripture and wisdom to our choices.
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  Exactly as those who hold to cessationism the belief that the
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  Canon of Scripture is closed and the sign gifts have ceased, we
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  believe God guides us primarily through His Word, His Spirit
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  illuminating that Word and His Providence.
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  We don't need new whispers. We need to do what the servant
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  did, Know the command, use wisdom and watch God work.
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  That is so freeing. I don't need to be a Mystic to
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  follow Jesus. I just need to be obedient and
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  wise. Prayer plus prudence.
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  It is a great formula. I want to pivot now to Section 5
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  typology because if we just read this as a history lesson, we
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  miss the Jesus connection. The Reformers love to see Christ
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  in the Old Testament. How does this story point to the
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  Gospel? It is rich with typology, but we
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  have to be careful. We don't want to allegorize
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  every detail. The camels aren't the 10
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  commandments or something silly like that, but we look for the
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  broad patterns, look at the cast of characters.
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  OK, you have Abraham the father. He is the one who originates the
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  plan. He sends the servant to secure a
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  bride for his Son. This mirrors God the Father
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  planning redemption. And then you have Isaac, the
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  son. Isaac is a fascinating figure
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  here. Remember, he's the beloved Son.
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  He was the one laid on the altar in Genesis 22.
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  He was figuratively received back from the dead.
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  And where is he in this chapter? He is absent, He is not on the
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  journey. The servant goes alone.
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  Isaac is above. He is back in the land waiting.
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  This mirrors Christ perfectly. Jesus died, rose and ascended to
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  the right hand of the Father. He is physically absent from the
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  world right now. We love him whom having not seen
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  as Peter says. So the servant represents the
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  Holy Spirit. In a very strong sense.
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  Notice that the servant is never named in this chapter.
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  He never speaks of himself. He doesn't say, hey, look how
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  great of a traveler I am. He only speaks of the father
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  Abraham and the son Isaac. He is entirely consumed with
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  glorifying the Master and securing the bride.
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  That sounds exactly like Jesus describing the Spirit in John
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  16. He shall not speak of himself.
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  He shall glorify me. Precisely.
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  And what does the servant do? He finds the bride in a foreign
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  land, a land of idolatry. He calls her out and he adorns
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  her with gifts, the gold and silver, before she meets the
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  groom. That's the earnest again.
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  Yes, just as the Spirit gives the church spiritual gifts and
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  graces. Now, we haven't seen Christ yet,
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  but we have the jewelry, so to speak.
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  We have the down payment of the Spirit marking us as His.
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  And Rebecca is the church. She is called out of her old
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  life, she has to leave her father's house and she accepts
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  the proposal. I will go based solely on the
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  testimony. Testimony of the servant.
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  She believes the word He brings about the Son.
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  It is the gospel in narrative form.
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  The Father sends the Spirit to rescue a bride from the domain
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  of darkness, adorns her with grace, and brings her home to
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  the marriage supper. It.
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  Elevates the story so much. It is not just about a wedding
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  in Mesopotamia, it is about the wedding of the lamb.
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  Man, that is good. But we do need to land the
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  plane. Section 6 application.
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  We want to be doers of the word. Yeah.
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  How does this apply to the listener right now?
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  Let's start with a single since this is a marriage text.
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  The primary application for a single believer is to look at
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  the criteria. The servant was uncompromising.
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  He sought a spouse from the household of faith.
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  He didn't go to the Canaanites. So missionary dating is out.
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  Completely out. I know the temptation.
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  Oh, I can change him or she has a good heart.
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  But the biblical mandate is only in the Lord.
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  Do not look for a partner in the Canaan of the world.
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  Look for family resemblance, faith, covenant values.
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  And looking at Rebecca, he looked for a worker.
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  Yes, he didn't find her at a gala.
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  He found her at a well doing hard labor.
• 21:44
  If you are looking for a spouse, look for character that reveals
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  itself in service. Look for someone who is already
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  serving others. Rebecca was in the way of her
• 21:51
  duty when Providence found her. That is a word for our
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  generation. Yeah, we want to be found, but
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  are we doing the work? Are we serving?
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  Exactly, and let's widen that to decision making in general.
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  I talked to so many people who are paralyzed by the fear of
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  missing God's will. What if I take the wrong job?
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  What if I moved to the wrong city?
• 22:08
  Will I ruin God's plan? This text cures that anxiety.
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  The servant teaches us. Be in the way of obedience.
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  Do your daily work. Pursue holiness.
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  Keep the commandments. God guides those who are in
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  motion. You don't need to freeze until
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  you get a divine spotlight. Just start walking.
• 22:25
  Just start walking, use the wisdom you have and trust that
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  God is steering the ship. If you are seeking Him.
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  You can trust that He is leading you even if you don't feel it in
• 22:33
  the moment. Interpret the open doors and the
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  chance meetings, as God has said, pursuing you.
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  And finally, the discipline of gratitude.
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  This is the third use of the law, using the narrative to
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  guide our life. We need to cultivate the reflex
• 22:47
  of the servant when the contract is signed or the diagnosis this
• 22:50
  comes back clear or the baby is born safe.
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  What is your first reaction? Usually if you glad that's over
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  or I handled that well. Right, we take credit or we just
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  feel relief. But the servant bowed his head
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  and worshipped. We need to be quick to identify
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  God's hand and quick to give him the glory.
• 23:07
  Blessed be the Lord who has not forsaken his mercy.
• 23:09
  It changes how you view your entire week.
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  If you are looking for God's hand, you will see it.
• 23:15
  If you are looking for your own cleverness, you will just see
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  yourself. Well said.
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  So let's wrap this up. We have seen this sweet
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  confluence, the servant's rigorous activity, the camel's,
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  the journey, the test perfectly meshed with God's sovereign
• 23:29
  decree. The preservation of the
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  messianic seed wasn't an accident.
• 23:33
  It wasn't luck. It was the faithfulness of the
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  covenant God working through the faithful obedience of a servant.
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  And I want to leave our listeners with one final
• 23:42
  thought, something to chew on this week.
• 23:44
  The servant blessed God for not forsaking His steadfast love.
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  Which is an interesting phrasing.
• 23:50
  It implies that deep down, we often expect God to forsake us.
• 23:53
  We do. We think he is too busy or too
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  distant, or that we have messed up too many times.
• 23:59
  We think our little problems, our job search, our dating life,
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  our bills don't matter to the King of the Universe.
• 24:05
  But this text screams the opposite.
• 24:07
  It does. It tells us that God is
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  intimately involved in the details.
• 24:11
  So here is the challenge. What if the very mundane details
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  of your week? The emails, the errands, the
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  chance meetings at the coffee shop?
• 24:21
  What if those aren't distractions?
• 24:22
  What if those are the camels? Exactly what if those are the
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  camels God is using to carry His covenant promises to your
• 24:29
  doorstep? That puts a glory on the
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  ordinary. It really does.
• 24:32
  Look for the has said and he met the mercy and truth in the
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  ordinary this week. Thanks for diving deep with us
• 24:37
  today on Reformed thinking. It's been a pleasure.
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  We will catch you next time, keep thinking.