Genesis’ First Love Story: Rebekah’s Answer at the Well
by Jeremy Painter
June 24, 2026 · Abundant Hope Fellowship, Bremerton, Washington
Kind: Bible study
Scripture: Genesis 24:29-67

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/jeremy-painter--genesis-first-love-story
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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Praise the Lord everybody. Happy Wednesday evening. It's a holiday for me. It's a blessing to come church on Wednesday night and share in this meal of the Word of God. I want to pick up where I left off last week in Genesis chapter 24 and I'm gonna go as I did last week verse by verse Through the rest of Genesis 24 and then whoa if we have time left, and I'm hoping we will we'll dole into Chapter 25 Okay, so as you will recall from last last week LeAzar the servant of Abraham has found a bright and his master son Isaac she has Gone above and beyond the call of duty and with her Generosity has shown in willingness to be hospitable to a stranger, which is an Abrahamic quality and furthermore She is of the correct Group of people that Abraham is looking in hoping for a bright forges is his son She is a fellow believer of sorts So there is

a good match here and best of all she's shown the Abrahamic willingness To leave her country behind and go where God is calling her So that's where we left off and we're in Genesis chapter 24 now and verse 29 This is the by this first love story. All right that we're about to read here It's a bromance in synchro nance. It's it's quite lovely. So let's go through starting with 29 Rebecca is the name of the young lady that LeAzar has Identified as the one for his master son Isaac Rebecca had a brother whose name was Laban Laban's going to be famous or infamous as we proceed through the story in Genesis Layden ran out toward the man to the spring All right, so Rebecca has gone home and She's told her family. I found this This gentleman who has all of these camels and he asked for water and I gave him water and then he said that he he's the servant

of our Uncle my great-uncle Abraham the famous Abraham from the land far away Can you believe it and then I found out that he's here to find a wife for his son And he's interested in me being that wife so she's she's brought that news back to her home and Dating rituals being what they were back then quite different from today I don't know how I feel about my daughter bursting into my house and saying I just met this guy He's from another country and he says he's a rich relative I Have all the red flags are going up already for me, but things were different back then a little different and By the way, a little authenticity has been brought to the report by actually mentioning the name of the rich relative Abraham, which is not a name, you know Maybe she wouldn't have invented this. All right, so Layden Layden we're gonna find out is kind of a money-grubbing sort of

guy he's very greedy he has dollar signs prize and He hears about all the camels. He has like ten camels, which is as I mentioned last week is something like Ten Rolls Royce's in your garage in the Middle East in the ancient years So he hears about this and he ran out toward the man Ran he didn't walk he ran. I don't want this guy to change his mind No delay you ran to the spring verse 30 as soon as he saw the ring and The bracelets on this. Oh by the way, Rebecca mentioned He gave me all this gold and silver all this jewelry and she's got bracelets on her arm So she she didn't leave home with those and she's come back with this was genuine So I can imagine they even put this stuff in his teeth He's holding it up to a light and this is the real deal and he runs out As soon as he saw the

ring and the bracelets on his sister's arms and heard the words of Rebecca's sister Thus the man spoke to me He went to the man and behold he was standing by the camels at the spring Layden sees him indeed. Here are the camels. He there in the spring Layden said come in. Oh blessed of the Lord Why do you stand outside? I have prepared the house in a place for the camels So the man came to the house and unharnessed the camels And gave straw and fodder to the camels and there was water to wash His feet and the feet of the men who were with him. So Eleazar brought an entourage with him verse 33 then food was set before him to eat Food is set before Eleazar the servant of Abraham Remember he's on a mission to find a life for his master son Layden brings food for Eleazar and his men to eat, but he said I will not eat

until I have said what I have to say All right, that's an important note. He's been on a long journey. No doubt. He's hungry But he's on a mission He has business to take care of and he didn't come here to be entertained He didn't come here to try out new dishes He's not here really for the hospitality. He already knows he's already been he's had an answer to prayer that rebecca is the one And it's time for me to get home. I need to go straight to the business So he's even willing to push the plane back and risk a little bit of um Of a pool reception to one hospitality Because he's loyal to his master Abraham. You'll see the loyalty all throughout this Okay, so he says he pushes it away. I won't eat Until I have to say what I need to say and layden said speak on I should mention meals are highly Ritualized in the ancient world

you have to be careful about Procedure you don't want to eat out of turn You don't speak out of turn around them around the table in sacred. They're all it's still today you in some in some places You can really show A lack of good upbringing I suppose by the way you Would the way you conduct yourself the table so for instance I This is one of my favorite memories from my childhood One time a lady by the name of sister english who watched me and my sister when we were little One time I kicked up a bowl of cereal that she had made for me and the milk was there Honey combs were all gone. So don't get sweet. This is my favorite part And this is what I do back home I picked up the bowl and I put it up and I drink out of the bowl And she slammed her hand on the table when she saw me do

that and she asked me if I was an animal Well animals can't do that was what I was thinking I was being very human with what I was just doing but she was being thinking of a monkey or something I don't know but Are you an animal? You're a human being Use your spoon. She said so I had to spoon The milk out of this. Oh, all right. So I found out that you had to be very careful when you sat as sister english is Table the the knife in the fork was on a certain side You had to put the napkin over your lap Wait for grace to be said do not eat until everyone at the table is seated and ready to eat Don't allow there to be a situation where the mother is still in the kitchen Making food and getting things ready and you're already we Now my my parents were they were careful about Manners but not that

careful So sometimes we got the meal and we just started eating But it's sister english's house that was offensive So she said you need to wait wait until everybody seated we say grace together and then we dig in So she had all kinds of rules and I I think we keep those rules today I mean I'm 49 years old. This was back when I was eight so 41 years ago And we lived by sister english's rules at the table. We don't eat until everybody's seated You know, I I I do like to pick up the cereal bowl though. This yeah But in the ancient world, it's even more ritualized and than all of that There were things that you weren't supposed to say At the dinner table for instance one thing you were never supposed to ask at a dinner table was If it's a stranger somebody who's looking for a place to stay Don't ask them at the table what their name

is or who they want where they come from Don't ask any questions about their identity Until you have fed them and then after you fed them after they have eaten in their side Then you ask away, which you're supposed to give the hospitality first And and that was in order to Allow hospitality about be conditional on who the person was But rather you gave the hospitality unconditionally as grace and mercy And then you ask them who they are and then if you don't like their answer then kick them out And feed them first Okay, but all kinds of all kinds of all kinds of rules for instance at the ancient table When typically women were not allowed to sit around the ancient cave So if you picked up Plato's His dialogue called the symposium The symposium goes through some of these rituals that this is ancient Greece, but it's about you know Still we're we're a lot closer to abraham's time when we're

looking at Plato in the art of our time and Women were not supposed to sit with the men they sat at their own So men and women were usually saturated not the last supper for instance It's it's going to be all of jesus's disciples male disciples presumably Women and men typically did meet yeah All right, but anyway All that being said By pushing this plate away He's risking offense But he is willing to risk that fence in order to get down to this is so that this family knows I'm loyal to abraham. I have a mission I'm not here for any other reason than to fulfill this in what's of divine calling Okay, so laban says speak on okay in other words you have permission to be rude You have my permission to be rude Interesting that laban's the one speaking not the father of rebeck. He's alive. He's at the meal All right Uh laban is laban seems to be the one

taking the um All right that thing know what it all right He takes the lead Verse 34 Oh, that's kind of like an indication of things to come laban's going to be largely in charge here And oh, I should mention older brothers Are guardians are the assigned guardians? of younger sister Right, so oftentimes the brother has to sign off on a marriage of wages not just the father but also the brother Older brother. Okay, it's It's gonna come up later on in jesus when remember when there's a little sister involved And she has been wrongfully used by this other tribe And then they come back and they ask for her hand in marriage And and they pretend the older brothers pretend that everything's nice and okay We agree to this But then but here's the condition you have to give yourselves your adult all the adults in your village have to be Circumcised before we'll allow our sister to be married to you

And so they all go out and get themselves circumcised that night, which means They're very vulnerable for a midnight raid So the brothers come in and they slaughter all of it. Okay. Well, they they Rage their sister So this is this was their response But anyway, it's felt to the older brothers oftentimes the oldest brother to take care of the younger sister So leavens in charge is not just the father of redacted, but also the older brother Is uh, uh, he's gonna have to refus. All right verse 34 So the servant that is Abraham servant said I am Abraham servant The lord has greatly blessed my master. He has become great He has given him flocks and her silver and gold male servants female servants candles and donkeys and Sarah My master's wife bore a son to my master when she was old and to him He has given all that he has Oh, that's a that's an important piece of information. Isn't

it? Why would that be important for this particular gathering to know That is it has received the entire inheritance Or did that be important because He's asking for a baby to marry him, right? Okay. It's it's obvious, but keep it in mind um Oh Where are we? He's given all that he has verse 37 my master made me swear saying you shall not take a life from my son From the daughters of the canonites in whose land I dwell But you shall go to my father's house and to my clan and take a life for my son I said to my master Perhaps the woman will not follow me now. He's recounting what had been said earlier But he said to me That is Abraham said to me He's recounting this story the Lord before whom I walked will send his angel with you and prosper your way You shall take away from my son from my clan and from my father's house

Then you will be free from my oath when you come to my clan if they will not give her to you You will be free from my oath. Oh what does he left out? yes Abraham they there's actually a piece of that conversation that's been left out strategically of this retailer remember the conversation that Eleazar actually had with his master of Abraham was What if she won't come back? Shall I bring Isaac? What if the condition for their marriage that this family agrees to is that Isaac has to come and live with them? What shall I do? And what was Abraham's response? Under no condition is Isaac to leave the peninsula cannot go Then the the arrangement itself will find somebody else. That's not the one She has to be willing to leave or see on Okay, he's less that Eleazar has less that piece of information out. He skipped right over He even brought up the hypothetical. What if she won't come

back and he Said Abraham said then you're free from the oath Okay, why would he leave that piece out? it's strategic because He's already gotten a sense probably from Getting to know this family that that's probably what they're going to ask if I lay that out there as a possibility Then they're probably going to take me up on that hypothetical. So he doesn't even mention the hypothetical why all right More sporty too. I came today to the spring And now he's recounting what just happened. I said, oh lord the god of my master, Abraham Is now you are prospering the way that I go Behold I'm standing by the spring of water Let the virgin who comes to draw water to gloom shall I shall say Please give me a little water from your jar to drink and who will say to me drink and I will draw water for your camels Also, let her be the woman whom the lord is appointed

for my master's son Before I had finished speaking in my heart. In other words, he was praying to god. I was asked a few weeks ago Is it acceptable to pray to god? silently The lia is active before I had finished speaking in my heart Behold where dr. Team out with her water jar on her shoulder. All right. So he had made that prayer in his heart She went down to the spring and drew water. I said to her Please let me drink She quickly let down her jars on her shoulder and said Drink and I will give your camel's drink also. So I drank and she gave the camel's drink also Now that turned out to be a whole big rigmarole, didn't it? Remember she had to go downstairs and upstairs to get down to the well And she was feeding 10 camels approximately 20 gallons of water each Which would work out somewhere around 1600 Pounds of water. She carted up

and down those stairs. So this is quite quite the undertaking and First 47 then I asked her whose daughter are you? She said the daughter of bethewell naehor's son who melt the board to milk aboard to him That is naehor is abraham's brother So I put the ring on her nose and the bracelets on her arms Then I balled my head and worshiped the lord and blessed the lord the god of my master abraham Who had led me by the right way to take the daughter of my master's kinsman for a son Now then if you are going to show steadfast love and faithfulness to my master, tell me And if not tell me that I may turn to the right hand or to the left Okay, so the proposal is now laid before them If you are going to show steadfast love and faithfulness to my master That is if you're going to accede to my master's request If I have faithfully

carried out My math might my message and my mission and if you're going to act we ask to this request Tell me And still the foods out there has not taken the food And if not Tell me That I may turn to the right hand to the left in other words. This is a This is a Take it or leave it situation he doesn't want No, don't decide later If you say later I'm going to take that as no and then I'm going to leave. I'm going to get up from this table. I'm going to leave Now you have to think about this also from laban and bethio Laban and burbeth his father bethio's point of view They've heard this narrative being told their daughter is the the story is flattering to her Okay, their daughter his daughter has she's done well and He likely also wants to make sure his daughter is married to somebody Who's believes in the same has the

same Relig basic religion or basic same basic faith and also He's wealthy She's going to be taken care of so We've heard everything Everything sounds good Laban and bethio answered and said the thing has come from the Lord We cannot speak to you bad or good another worse We're not saying that this is We're not saying that this is something that would delight us or something that would make us sorrow God's in it and it doesn't matter what we think That's basically what they're saying Oh Oh Laban might not be The ideal man, but that's an incredible sentiment right there Like it doesn't really matter whether I approve or disapprove if it came from the Lord 51 behold Rebecca is before you Take her and go and like her be the wife of your master's son As the Lord has spoken All right, and they lived happily ever after No, no, no, we're dealing with laban here. Yeah, there are strings attached So

verse 52 when Abraham's servant heard their words He bowed himself to the earth before the Lord And the servant brought out jewelry of silver and gold and garments and gave them to Rebecca He also gave to her brother and to her mother costly ornaments And he and the men who were with him ate and drank and they spent the night there When they arose in the morning, he said send me away to my master Okay doesn't there's here here here's a Here's a second highly ritualized occasion for Yeah, nice at the table and when you say goodbye. I say you could buy the right way You don't just leave make sure everybody's good. This is the last time I remember going to see you I don't want to leave any questions I don't want to leave anything Not above table above board. Okay, so You ask for permission your guest in somebody's house. You ask permission May I go it's like the kid's

asking to get up from the dinner table. May I be dismissed and So he asks may I go send me away to my master? In other words, let me have your blessing me down her brother and her Oh, I think I mentioned this a few weeks ago Let me bring up one more time of these until we get to the book of judges It'll become important again that there's the the concept of the perilous host You remember the host that asked you to stay too long Okay And there are a couple of stories in the bible in which a host asks a guest to stay too long even Beyond what god wants them to this how long gone wants to this day and it ends up becoming a bad thing But it's not just in the bible. There are lots of lots of stories and ancient literature of the perilous host Yeah, so there are oftentimes in charge of how long you get

to stay Or or or or or leave so he asks And watch this verse 55 her brother and her mother They even and Rebecca's mother said this first time we're hearing from the mother But she had just received all of these gifts They said Let the young woman remain with us a while At least 10 days after that she made up. Here's here's the the the perilous host He's supposed to go right back Abraham is on his deathbed Oh, he's very very old and his support is Paradox that he is back to Abraham and my goodness Isaac is 40 years old 40 years old Abraham had been promised all kinds of nations were gonna come from young and he's a hundred years old before And as Isaac and then he sold a sacrifice Isaac that you know turned out to be just a test But then these 40 years old still hasn't found There's no match for him And then finally we find

this one and and they say She can go with you. This is good. Oh Wait 10 days. Oh, all right I'll watch the loyalty of the servant here le asa. Why this is I think adamant lord is LDA is ours. He's he's going to be treated like loyalty This is he's gonna have to travel 500 miles to get back home Through eric lands It's gonna be a backbreaking journey and he's finally found a place that's cool and comforting and kind hospitable plenty of food and plenty of people And it would be tempting just to say I don't know take 10 days That sounds like a good a good great before at least and they ask I didn't ask to say 10 days. They asked me to stay 10 days. So I'll do it But or 56 he said to them Do not delay me Since the lord has prospered my way Send me away that I may go to my master 57 That

that was a little bit of a test right there They said let us call the young woman and ask her Okay. All right. You won't stay 10 days Let's uh, let's ask the young woman what she wants to do They called rebecca and said to her Will you go with this man? She said I will go So they sent away rebecca their sister and her nurse and abraham's servant and his men and they blessed rebecca And said to her our sister May you become and this is in verse. It's in poetry. So it's a song Our sister may become thousands of 10 thousands and may your offspring possess the gait of those who hate him So may you have many many offspring? and may May they be victorious or may the offspring be victorious over their enemies Okay, the servant didn't want a risk and changing their mind There was one other risk. It's a little bit hidden and As we read through

the story and we get a little bit of a glimpse in the next generation into the character of laban We're going to see the risk that elias are was taking here Exposed the hidden risk in asking Elias are a state 10 more days Was that they didn't intend to turn their daughter loose? at all but rather They wanted to keep on getting the gifts And squeeze as much of the gifts out of him and In order to 10 days comes And they say I think we're kind of backing out of this and then he has to unload Whatever other riches he happens happens to have with him So they might be trying to squeeze more from him And and he's this is a wise kgo servant here And they they do indeed they uh said we're back to free and then there's a blessing Verse 61 Oh, by the way, if you're looking for somebody in the story of jennison's any human being

to be just this 100% noble person Or for bad people to be 100 bad people you're reading the long boat. You're just reading it off. I mean, we can't even hate kane God puts a mark on you Why so that no one will hurt him After he just killed his brother Is that brother able? Can't hate him. God didn't hate him Episode after episode you you think okay Here's the hero and you expect all the good things to happen and him to be good in every situation And he's going to be the hero. He's they fail they fail they fail but fail and god loves them or bad person Somebody who's supposed is on the wrong side of history. He's on the wrong side of the of the salvation history story and Good things they they do good things and say good things maybe even just beautifully blessed His sister with that guy beautifully and yet the whole time. He's probably holding out

for more money Jacob and he saw You know who's the dirty low-down scoundrel and that too. It's jaco And we're gonna get into that. We're gonna see you're gonna hate jaco He's gonna be like the worst God All of genesis for a while then there's this redemption army So it just again and again and again. We're taught from little children There's the good guy. There's the bad guy But that reading is not gonna work if you read jasses There's one good guy. That's god And then everyone else is a mixture and we'll see who wins of the act For 61 Then Rebecca and her young women arose and rode on the camels and followed Man Thus the servant took Rebecca and went on suede 100 miles. Oh, that's a song. Is it that? That's even 500 miles 500 miles. Is it that a song? Yes. Yeah, it's peter paul and marion They got way more romantic right there. That's ruining. Well, anyway, they

they wrote a lot of way to get home All right, what is is it? Doing back home now He knows about these plans his father sent out his his servant his chief servant And who knows may never see him again That's dying or he's gone Where do we find is it? This is beautiful. Look at 62 There is that now is it have returned From yer lehigh rely and was running in the big jet Okay, this is where hagar went with ishmael and left ishpal There's dying she does she was going to die as you and the deserts and then an angel king and said Your son is going to be the father of many nations Get up lift up your eyes and look there's a well right there and right then and there hagar named this well The well where god sees me and hears me. That's where isek is it's where isek is now. Why was hagar there? because of isek

Hagar they cast out with her son because sun had made fun of isek So now at this place where isek's rival almost died An angel came and rescued and then she just lifted up her eyes and she saw there's a well And then she made that well the well where god sees me That's where isek is look verse 63 Isek went out to meditate in the field toward evening and it meditated something like think and pray And he lifted up his eyes and saw I wonder if isek went there because He felt like he was in a similarly desperate situation. He's not going to die But maybe the promise is going to die with it Here's I We know this place where there's a special well and an angel who lord came And blessed i'm going to go there. So that's where he is verse 63 And isek went out to meditate in the field toward evening lifted up his eyes and saw

And behold there were camels got in Oh close my eyes. I can see that in my mind's eye I can see I can see Looking off into the desert into the dunes And the heat waves coming back off the dunes And then there's this almost ghostly appearance of all of these camels Materializing before his eyes and getting larger and larger and then he knows there's only one Folk around here with that kind of wealth Helly eggs are But what's he going to return that? Nothing Or is there a bride? And Rebecca lifted up her eyes She's on the camels And when she saw isek She dismounted from the camera um Right there is an innovation. It's subtle, but there's an indication on somebody who acts She didn't wait until she knew This is the man She saw him Thought it might be him And got down off the camel first and asked questions later Did I say horse? Didn't you say camel? Okay

All right, she dismounted from the camel And said to the servant Okay Again I I know this is subtle and Maybe you could blame me for being of reading a little too much over interpreting I don't think I am I think some of these are so very subtle hints That give us insight and glimpses into the character of um The character of these people She This stops the camel first and then it asks And we're going to find out That she's the exact opposite of isek's personality isek Isek asks first and then that's He doesn't he's not a real active person isek is the only of abraham isek and The cover for the crawl space fellow Oh All right Insert a joke here. I don't know All right, let's say Isek was not able to do oh abraham Abraham isek and jakef abraham spends most of his life outside of the promise land Jacob is going to spend half of his life outside

the promise land Joseph's going to spend more than half of his life outside of the promise land isek never leaves the promise land He Is taken by his father To be sacrificed He gets tricked by his youngest son out of The inheritance out of the blessing that he's supposed to bestow upon his favorite son isek Isek is always having things done to him And most of the time it's rebecca who's active she asks So you have this very passive isek doesn't mean he's a bad man It's just that's his personality and then you have rebecca. She's this very active person And so you see it right here. He lifts up his eyes, but she's the one that initiates She jumps down off of the camel And then she asks, okay Am I reading too much into that? I don't think I am but anyways We're 65 and she said to the servant. Who is that man walking in the fields and eat us

The servant said And this this might be the indication that abraham's dead Because now lea czar says it's my master. It's one of the isek Oh, I love this. I love this verse right here so much So she took her veil and covered herself He took a wedding right there about to happen She she knows that this is you know, this is her groom to be Right room to be and she covers herself because she wants to introduce herself in the right way You might be wondering why How did in the next generation Jake could get tricked into marrying the wrong woman as we're going to see in a couple chapters Because that was the custom cover yourself before the before you're married So he never laid eyes on the woman's anymarries until later. It's too late So she took her veil and covered herself And isn't jenesis Full of crazy stories. Yes Yeah, what a book we have I picked up the

book of Mormon a couple of years ago I I'm gonna read this thing I was in solid city And I thought I I gotta do this. I gotta read through this and look at this beautiful city and and always like Mormon people always kind And went to high school with like Mormons and they were some of my best friends in school And I I gotta read this Now I'm not easy to bore I'm really not with literature That was my whole life for like 20 years Man Oh It is a slog. Yeah, they threw There's not one unexpected thing that happens And you get these either really good people or really bad people and there's that there's just not Read through the Quran It's the same kind of thing. It's the same kind of thing And you pick up Genesis The Incredible self-confidence of the men who wrote this under the inspiration of the spirit They didn't whitewash anything They told some Strange

stories Some great men And we get men and sometimes they wrote both But above all A great god Who is the one steady consistent force through the whole entire book Never changes faithful well She took her veil and cover herself And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done Then Isaac brought her into the tent of sarah his mother And took Rebecca And she became his wife in this the first time this has been she The wife And he loved her So Isaac was comforted after his mother's death. She didn't die a while three years Took him three years and then Rebecca. So Isaac