Latest / Reformed Thinking / “Before He Had Finished Speaking”: Covenant Providence, Costly Hospitality, and Faithful Discernment (Genesis 24:15–21)

Transcript

“Before He Had Finished Speaking”: Covenant Providence, Costly Hospitality, and Faithful Discernment (Genesis 24:15–21) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome back to the studio. You are listening to another
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  session of Reformed Thinking. We are really glad to have you
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  with us for this deep dive into the Scriptures.
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  Good to be back. As always, we're your guides.
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  We're two Protestant Christians, and we plant our flag firmly on
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  the Westminster Confession of Faith.
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  We are well. We're always eager to open the
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  text, but especially today because we love seeing how the
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  sovereignty of God plays out in real history.
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  That's right. Not just in some abstract theory
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  exactly. You know, there's something so
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  ground about opening the text and seeing that our theology, it
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  isn't just for the classroom, it's not for the seminary
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  library. It belongs out there at the
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  well, on the road, in, you know, a marriage proposal, in the real
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  decisions that shape generations.
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  Spot on. It's where the rubber meets the
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  road. And today we're looking at
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  Genesis chapter 24. We're going to be focusing in on
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  verses 15 through 21. A fantastic passage.
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  It is now, for anyone who grew up in the church, or if you're
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  at all familiar with Sunday school stories, you probably
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  know this one. This is the moment Abraham's
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  servant meets Rebecca, and it's often painted as this.
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  You know, this sweet ancient romance boy meets.
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  Or I guess servant meets girl on behalf of the boy and the camels
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  get some water. Everyone lives happily ever
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  after. It's it's very picturesque.
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  It is picturesque for sure, but if we stop there, we're missing
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  the tectonic plates shifting right beneath the narrative.
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  And that is what we want to get at today.
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  We want to crack this open and see the much, much bigger
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  picture. We certainly do.
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  To see this is just a simple romance is to miss the
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  earthquake that's happening under the text.
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  This is a critical, critical moment in redemptive history, so
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  we have to set the stage properly.
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  OK, let's do it. Abraham has sent his servant and
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  it's most likely Eliezer, though you know the text in this
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  chapter leaves him unnamed. Right, which is interesting in
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  itself. It is, and he's on a mission
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  with incredibly high stakes. The goal is to find a wife for
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  Isaac. And it's not just about finding
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  Isaac a companion or, you know, Abraham wanting grandkids.
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  This is about the covenant. Precisely, this is the pivot
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  point. If Isaac marries A Canaanite
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  woman, the holy line, it gets corrupted.
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  The promise God made to Abraham that through his offspring all
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  the nations of the earth will be blessed?
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  That would, for all intents and purposes, fail.
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  We're talking about the lineage that leads directly to the seed
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  of the woman promised way back in Genesis 3.15.
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  We're talking about Jesus Christ.
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  We're talking about Jesus Christ.
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  So when that servant is standing by that well in Mesopotamia, the
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  future of the church in a very real sense is hanging in the
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  balance. Yeah, that puts a completely
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  different weight on the story. You realize this isn't just
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  matchmaking? No, it's Messiah making in a
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  way. The whole mission is to secure
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  that covenant line, and it's happening against the backdrop
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  of a hostile culture. It is.
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  And so the thesis we're working with today, the lens we're using
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  to read this, is that this passage is a master class in the
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  sovereignty of God. We're going to see Providence
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  with a capital P. That's the main theme.
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  We're going to see the meticulous sovereignty of God
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  intercepting with human responsibility.
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  And as Reformed thinkers, you know, this is our bread and
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  butter. It is, we hold that God is not
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  some distant observer. He isn't watching history unfold
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  on a screen, you know, eating popcorn and hoping it all turns
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  out OK. He's the primary actor ensuring
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  the salvation of his people. OK, so let's get right into the
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  text section one of our discussion.
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  Let's call the theology of timing.
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  We're looking at verse 15. The servant has just finished
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  praying, asking God to show him the right woman, and then boom.
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  The text says before he had finished speaking, behold,
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  Rebecca came out. I love that phrasing before you
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  finished speaking. It feels cinematic.
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  Is the Thunder clap of Providence.
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  Yeah. The Hebrew syntax here is very
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  specific and it's very telling. It uses the word term which
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  means not yet, and it combines it with hyena which means
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  behold. Behold, pay attention.
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  Yes, the narrator is forcing us to pay attention to the timing.
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  The servant had not even finished articulating his
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  prayer. The request was, you know, maybe
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  still on his lips, perhaps not even fully formed and sound.
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  And the answer, The answer physically appeared on the
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  horizon. It reminds me of that verse in
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  Isaiah Isaiah 65. Isaiah 65.24 Before they call, I
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  will answer. While they are yet speaking, I
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  will hear. Genesis 24 is the historical
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  validation of that very promise. It shows us that God isn't
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  reacting to us. He is way way ahead of.
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  Us. This really pushes back hard
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  against some rival theologies that are, well, pretty popular
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  today, doesn't it? It does.
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  You hear people talk about God as if he's, you know, waiting on
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  us to make a move so he can figure out what to do next.
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  You're talking about open theism, and that is a
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  significant theological error. It suggests that God discovers
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  the future right alongside us, right?
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  The idea is that God's like a grand chess player.
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  He's smarter than us, Sure, he can anticipate our moves, but he
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  doesn't actually know the future because it hasn't happened yet.
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  He's reacting. And if that were true, this
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  scene at the well plays out very differently.
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  Oh, completely differently. If God were an open theist, God
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  the servant might have waited at that well for hours.
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  Or days. Or days.
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  Or maybe the wrong girl would have shown up first and God
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  would have to scramble to come up with a Plan B.
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  Or, you know, influence the servant to ignore her.
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  But the text says she came out before he finished.
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  Which implies the gears were already turning.
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  Long before the servant started praying.
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  It implies that Rebecca left her house before the servant even
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  arrived at the well. You have to think about the
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  logistics of it. You do.
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  She had to walk from the city. The servant had to arrive with
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  this caravan. The timing of their intersection
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  was orchestrated before the servant even opened his mouth.
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  And you know, this also refutes deism.
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  The clockmaker God. The distant clockmaker who winds
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  up the universe and just walks away.
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  No, this affirms what we confess in the Westminster Confession,
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  Chapter 5, Section 1. God, the Great Creator of all
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  things, doth uphold, direct, dispose and govern all
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  creatures, actions and things, from the greatest even to the
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  least. From the greatest to the least.
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  Correct. And the least here includes The
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  Walking speed of a young woman, the Thirsk of 10 camels, and the
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  precise timing of a prayer. All of these things converge.
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  This is what we call concurrence.
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  OK, let's unpack concurrence for a second, because this is a
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  heavy theological term, but it's so vital for understanding how
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  we live our lives. It is, someone listening might
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  think, well, if God orchestrated at all.
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  Was Rebecca just a robot? Did God force her to walk to the
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  well against her will? Not at all.
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  And that's the beauty of reformed theology.
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  It upholds the mystery without destroying the humanity.
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  Rebecca went to the well freely. She was driven by, you know, the
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  mundane necessity of household chores.
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  She needed water. The jar was empty.
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  The jar was empty. She wasn't in a tranche.
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  She wasn't a puppet on a string. She acted according to her own
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  will and her own desires, and yet God's decree was such that
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  she arrived at the exact second necessary to meet the servant.
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  So God's will and her will are. God's sovereign will cooperates
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  with secondary causes, in this case Rebecca's agency, to bring
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  about His purpose. It really changes how we view
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  prayer, doesn't it? If the answer was literally
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  walking toward him before he finished asking the question it
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  does, then the servant's prayer wasn't a way to change God's
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  mind. No, prayer is never about
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  overcoming God's reluctance. It is about laying hold of His
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  willingness. The servant's prayer, you see,
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  was inspired by the Spirit to align with what God had already
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  prepared. The answer was walking toward
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  Him while the question was still being asked.
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  And that's why we pray. That's why we pray not to inform
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  God of things He doesn't know, but to participate in the
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  unfolding of His perfect will. That is a very comforting
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  thought. We're not just shouting into a
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  void hoping to wake God up. He's already there.
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  He's already working. OK, so let's move to the second
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  movement of this text. We've talked about the timing.
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  Now let's talk about the person. Section 2, the theology of
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  lineage and preparation. We're looking at the second-half
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  of verse 15 and into verse. 16 And the narrator hits us with a
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  heavy genealogical description right away.
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  It doesn't just say a girl came out, it says Rebecca, who was
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  born to Bethel, the son of Milka, the wife of Nahor,
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  Abraham's brother. I think for modern readers, our
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  eyes tend to glaze over when we see names like Milka and Nahor.
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  We think, OK, family tree, got it.
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  But why does the text drop this big name tag on us right here,
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  right now? It is the answer to the why of
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  the whole mission. Remember, Abraham gave the
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  servant a negative command first.
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  Right. Do not take a wife for my son
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  from the daughters of the Canaanites.
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  Exactly. So this genealogy serves as the
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  immediate confirmation that this girl, she's from the Terra
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  height line, she's Abraham's kindred, she is not a Canaanite.
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  And we need to remind everyone why that matters so much.
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  This isn't just, you know, tribalism or some kind of
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  ancient racism. Oh.
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  No, it's theological. It's theological war.
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  You have to go all the way back to Genesis 9.25.
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  Canaan was cursed. The Canaanites represent the
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  seed of the serpent. They stand in open hostility to
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  the seed of the woman. The two lines.
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  The two lines. If the holy line mixes with the
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  cursed line, the distinction is lost.
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  God is jealously guarding the biological line that leads to
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  Christ. If Isaac marries A Canaanite,
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  the Messiah does not come. Or, you know, the promise of the
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  Messiah through Abraham's line is voided.
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  So when we see these names, Bethel, Milka, Nahor, we should
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  be seeing God protecting the very DNA of the Messiah.
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  That is a good way to put it, and it shows us that Providence
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  isn't just about timing, it's also about preparation.
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  God shaped Rebecca's life, her family, her location, all of
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  that long before the servant. Ever arrived, he prepared the
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  vessel. The text also gets quite
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  descriptive about her personally.
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  Verse 16 says she was very attractive in appearance.
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  The Hebrew is tovat maremiad, very good of appearance, and it
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  acknowledges that God is the author of beauty.
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  There's nothing wrong with acknowledging physical
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  attraction. They're part of God's good
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  creation. But notice what the text does
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  immediately after that. It pivots.
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  It pivots right to character. It calls her a Batula, a virgin,
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  but then it adds A clarifier who no man had known.
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  And it seems redundant, doesn't it?
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  If she's a virgin, then by definition no man has known her.
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  So why say it twice? It feels like the Holy Spirit is
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  making absolutely sure there's no ambiguity, no wiggle room.
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  You are correct. The Holy Spirit is removing any
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  possible doubt about the integrity of the line.
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  This vessel chosen to carry the covenant promise could not be
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  compromised in any way, and it's also a polemic against the
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  culture she was living near. The Canaanite culture.
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  Which was sexually degraded. We know from historical records
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  and you know, later biblical texts that the Canaanites were
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  notorious for things like temple prostitution and all manner of
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  immorality. God demanded separation for the
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  covenant people. In the world, but not of it.
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  In the world, but not of it, Rebecca stands as a Lily among
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  thorns here. That's a message that, well, it
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  rings pretty loud today. We live in what you could call a
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  neo Canaanite culture when it comes to sexuality.
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  We absolutely do. Our culture views virginity as a
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  defect or at best a temporary inconvenience that you should
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  shed as quickly as possible. Purity is seen as repression,
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  But the Reformed stance, the biblical stance is that purity
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  is not legalism, it is preparation.
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  Preparation for something greater.
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  Just as Rebecca was being kept for a bridegroom she had not yet
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  met, the believer is kept for Christ.
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  We're warned against that evangelical drift that tries to
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  accommodate the world's sexual ethics.
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  We have to maintain that high view of the body and of
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  holiness. Rebecca's purity wasn't just
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  about her, it was about the holy seed she would carry.
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  It was about being set apart. OK, so this moves us naturally
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  into the action of the story. And we've established the
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  timing, we've established the lineage.
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  Now we get to the character test, Section 3, the test of
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  service, verses 17 through 20. The servant has seen her.
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  She's from the right family, she's pure.
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  But now comes the test of her character.
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  The servant runs to meet her and he makes a request.
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  Please let me drink a little water from your jar.
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  And you have to note the request carefully.
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  He asks for a sip. Just a little bit.
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  The Hebrew is mayhem, a little water.
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  He isn't asking for a banquet. He's asking for a tiny, tiny
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  favor. It's a test.
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  He wants to see if she possesses hospitality and industriousness.
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  He isn't just looking for a model.
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  He's looking for a matriarch. He needs a woman who can
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  shoulder the weight of the covenant family.
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  He needs to know if she has a servant's heart.
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  And her response is immediate. Verse 18 says she said drink my
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  Lord. And she lowered the jar quickly.
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  The Hebrew word is mahar. It indicates eagerness.
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  She didn't sigh. She didn't roll her eyes.
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  No hesitation. No negotiation.
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  She acted with respect and with speed.
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  But then comes the big moment, the moment the servant was
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  secretly praying for, verse 19. I will draw water for your
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  camels also until they have finished drinking that.
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  Phrase until they have finished. That is the key.
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  And this is where we have to do what I like to call the exegesis
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  of sweat. We have to do the camel math.
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  I love the camel math. Let's break this down, because I
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  think we really underestimate what happened here.
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  We read it in two seconds, but it took much, much longer to
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  actually happen. We do.
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  We often picture a girl giving a little tupper water to a cute
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  animal. But you have to consider the
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  Physiology. A thirsty camel after a desert
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  trek and they could come all the way from Beersheba to
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  Mesopotamia. That's a long distance.
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  Very long way. A thirsty camel can drink
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  between 20 and 25 gallons of water in a single session. 25
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  gallons and the servant had 10 of them. 10 camels, so 10 * 20
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  or 25 gallons. We're talking about 200 to 250
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  gallons of water. That is a massive amount of
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  liquid. A huge amount.
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  Now think about her equipment. An ancient jar, probably
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  earthenware, that she carried on her shoulder.
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  What did that hold? Maybe 3 gallons?
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  3 gallons, yes, maybe 4 if it was a particularly large one,
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  but then it becomes incredibly heavy to.
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  So let's be safe and say 3 gallons.
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  Now do the division 250 / 3. That is what, roughly 80 trips?
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  Somewhere between 70 and 80 trips, and she's not just
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  dipping a cup into a bucket on level ground.
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  The text uses the word yard. She went down.
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  She has to go down the steps to the spring.
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  And then come back up. And come up Allah, down and up,
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  down and up with a 30 LB jar of water on her shoulder 70 or 80
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  times. This isn't a 5 minute favor,
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  this is CrossFit. It is one to two hours of
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  intense athletic labor. And look at the verbs in verse
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  20. She emptied, she ran, she drew,
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  She ran. She did not walk.
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  She ran. She kept going until they were
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  finished. It just destroys the idea of her
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  being some delicate flower who just sits around looking pretty.
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  She was a powerhouse. It does, and it brings up
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  significant theological implications regarding works.
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  Now, we need to be careful here. We're not saying her works
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  earned her salvation or her election.
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  No unconditional election. That's a bedrock truth.
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  Absolutely. God chose her before she did a
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  single thing, but this relates to what we call the third use of
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  the law or the evidence of faith.
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  Her works did not 'cause her election, but they sure did
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  evidence it. Her actions expose a heart that
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  was ready for the covenant calling.
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  It's gratitude and character just flowing out of her.
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  Precisely. And it stands as a strong rebuke
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  to entitlement. The servant found the bride
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  while she was working, not idling.
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  She was in the midst of her duty.
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  There is a lesson there for us today, for sure.
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  We live in an age of entitlement.
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  We want the blessing without the sweat we do.
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  We want the spouse of our dreams without becoming the person our
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  dream spouse would actually want to marry.
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  That's a great point. The definition of goodness we
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  see here is costly. True goodness isn't just a
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  polite intention, it's the willingness to seriously
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  inconvenience yourself for the sake of another.
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  Rebecca didn't know who this man was.
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  She just saw a stranger and thirsty animals and she went the
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  extra mile. Or the extra 80 trips.
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  The extra 80 tricks to minister to them.
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  So we have the timing, the lineage, and now the service.
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  Which brings us to verse 21, the silence of discernment.
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  This is one of the most fascinating verses in the whole
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  passage to me because of the servants reaction.
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  It is, the text says. The man gazed at her in silence
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  to learn whether the Lord had prospered his journey or not.
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  The scene is chaotic with activity, right?
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  Rebecca is running back and forth, water is splashing,
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  camels are gulping it down, but the camera focuses on the
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  servant and he is absolutely still.
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  And the word for gazed is interesting Shah.
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  Yes, Shaha, It implies an intense, scrutinizing look.
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  It's a mixture of astonishment and analysis.
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  He's watching her every move. But he is also mocker ish.
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  He is keeping silent. He is deliberately restraining
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  his speech. Why the silence though?
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  I mean, if I saw the answer to my prayer unfolding right in
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  front of me, I'd probably be shouting Hallelujah, you're the
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  one. Get in the van.
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  We're going to Canaan. And that is the difference
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  between impulse and discernment. He is testing the spirits.
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  He requested a very specific sign that she would water the
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  camels until they were fetched if she stops at the 9th camel
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  because she gets tired. He's just the one.
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  She isn't the one he has to wait for the completion.
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  He has to see all the way through.
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  He does, and this refutes a kind of mysticism that we see so much
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  of today. The whole God told me culture.
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  People get a shiver or a vague impression and they declare it's
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  the voice of God. I saw a blue car and I was
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  praying for a sign about a blue car, so this must be it.
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  Right. But the servant here, he
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  provides A reformed model of guidance.
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  He looks outward. He looks at the objective facts
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  of Providence. He compares the external events
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  with the objective standard he set in his prayer.
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  He's not looking inward for a burning in the bosom.
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  No, he's looking at reality and he's asking, does the reality
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  match the prayer? He's engaging his mind.
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  He's thinking, does this match what I asked for?
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  Is this the Lord's doing, or is it just a coincidence?
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  And notice the definition of success in his mind.
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  He wants to know if Yahweh, the covenant name, has prospered his
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  way. The word for prospered is Salah.
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  And prosper usually makes us think of money or, you know,
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  material gain. But here it's teleological.
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  It means reaching the goal appointed by God.
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  The stakes are just too high to get this wrong.
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  Selecting the wrong bride endangers the Messiah's lineage.
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  He can't afford to be wrong. So he waits.
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  He watches. There's a huge application on
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  patience here for us. We are so quick to interpret
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  things. We want the answer now.
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  We want to know what it means right away.
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  We have to allow God to finish His sentence before we try to
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  interpret the meaning. The discipline of the gays is
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  lost on us today. We need to learn to watch the
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  Sovereign Lord work and not jump ahead of Him.
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  Faith isn't impulsive, it is a steady confidence.
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  Steady confidence. I like that.
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  It's trusting that the invisible hand is moving, even when all we
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  can do is stand there and watch. No, we can't read the Old
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  Testament as Reformed Christians without putting on our gospel
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  glasses. We have to talk about typology.
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  Here. Oh, we must.
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  The whole Scripture speaks of Christ Jesus himself said it on
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  the road to Emmaus, right? The Law, the prophets, the
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  Psalms, they're about Him. And this chapter is dense with
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  shadows of the gospel. So let's cast the roles for a
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  minute. We have Isaac.
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  Isaac is the son of promise, and you have to remember Genesis 22.
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  He's the one who was sacrificed, figuratively speaking, on Mount
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  Moriah and received back from the dead.
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  He's now waiting in the Father's house.
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  He is a clear, clear type of Christ, the Son who has
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  completed his work and is waiting for his bride.
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  And then there's the servant. We don't even know his name in
• 19:28
  this chapter. Well, tradition says it was
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  Eliezer, which means God is my help, but the text intentionally
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  leaves him unnamed, and that is significant.
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  Why is that? Because he is devoted entirely
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  to the masters will he goes into a far country to get a bride.
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  He speaks not of himself, but of the Master and of the Son.
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  This is a beautiful picture of the Holy Spirit.
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  It's the Spirit who calls the church.
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  Yes, the Spirit who was sent by the Father to gather a people
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  for the Son. And that, of course, makes
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  Rebecca the bride. She's a type of the church.
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  She's called to leave her father's house for old life to
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  go and unite with a groan she has never seen.
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  That connection to First Peter 1.8 is so powerful.
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  Though you have not seen him, you love him.
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  It is. And think about Paul's words in
• 20:11
  2nd Corinthians 11.2 where he talks about betrothing the
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  church as a pure virgin to Christ.
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  You see, that creates a demand on us.
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  If we are the bride and we're foreshadowed by Rebecca, then we
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  are called to sanctification. We are made pure through the
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  Word and the blood of Christ. And we're called to service.
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  Exactly. The church does not just sit
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  idle. We don't just wait around for
• 20:34
  the wedding bus to show up. We run to the well.
• 20:37
  We serve the masters interests. We show that second mile zeal
• 20:40
  that Rebecca showed not to earn the wedding.
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  But because we are the betrothed.
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  Because we are the betrothed. It brings the story alive in a
• 20:48
  totally new way. It's not just history, it's our
• 20:51
  story. It's the story of Our Calling.
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  It is the story of how God gathers His people from the far
• 20:57
  corners of the earth, from every tribe and tongue and nation.
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  So just to recap what we've covered in this deep dive, we've
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  seen 4 distinct movements of Providence in this short section
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  of Scripture. First, there was Providence in
• 21:09
  timing God answering before the prayer is even finished.
• 21:13
  Proving that he is the architect of history, not just some
• 21:16
  reactive player. 2nd, we saw Providence in preparation, the
• 21:20
  lineage, the purity, the specific family connection, all
• 21:24
  of it prepared in advance. God guarding the promise and the
• 21:27
  seed. 3rd Providence confirmed in hospitality the camel test,
• 21:31
  the sweat, and the labor that proved her character.
• 21:33
  Showing that character and works are the evidence of the calling.
• 21:36
  And 4th Faithful discernment, the Servant's silence.
• 21:41
  Waiting on the Lord to confirm his work objectively, not just
• 21:44
  on a feeling. It is just so compelling to see
• 21:46
  that none of this is about luck. It's not about chance.
• 21:50
  It is the invisible hand of God at work in every detail.
• 21:54
  It is. And as we close, there's a
• 21:56
  question that comes a little later in the text when Rebecca's
• 21:59
  family asks her a question. They turn to her and they ask,
• 22:02
  will you go with this man? That's the question for the
• 22:05
  listener, isn't it? It is the question.
• 22:07
  The call of the gospel is the call to leave, To leave sin, to
• 22:11
  leave self-reliance, to leave the Father's House of this
• 22:14
  world, and to be united with the Savior you have not yet seen.
• 22:18
  Will you go? Is a question the Holy Spirit
• 22:21
  asks each of us every day. And we hope that, like Rebecca,
• 22:24
  your answer is an immediate and a resounding I.
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  Will and as you go, be encouraged.
• 22:29
  You trust a God who answers before you call.
• 22:31
  You trust the God who is working in the details you can't even
• 22:34
  see yet. That is the God we serve.
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  Thanks for diving deep with us today on Reformed Thinking.
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  Until next time.