The Well That Changed the World — Abraham’s Final Charge (Genesis 24)

Jerry praise the Lord we're gonna be reading and going through Genesis chapter 24 Today and it's the longest chapter in the book of Genesis So it'll take a little bit of it'll take a little bit of time just to read the story itself So normally I read the story once and then we started the beginning and go through verse by verse But since we have 67 verses for this one chapter I think what we'll do is we'll just go I'm gonna give a quick summary of the of the Stories contents and then we'll go verse by verse Okay, but first let's pray Do you just help me to teach faithfully this Bible study from Genesis 24? I pray that it may be handled with the with the reverence that it deserves and Listen to and heard for any clue of your voice any whisper at your voice in Jesus name the great all right the subject of the story of this Chapter is

the the servant of Abraham fighting a life of Isaac We're at the very end of Abraham's life and he's going to make his servant swear to go to outside of the land of Canaan Back to where Abraham came from or at least back to where many of his relatives lived and find a wife there and Then bring her back Okay All of the world rests upon what happens here the outcome of this of this trip that the servant takes The whole world depends upon Finding him finding the right one course both the Lord is in charge of the whole process His hand is it is evident everywhere But still the servant is required to be faithful and loyal and to do the right thing All right, so the Lord can be deeply involved. He can in fact he can be ordering of the events but still he requires faithfulness and the servant faithfully conducts himself he finds a girl and she she's going

to go through a There's one criterion that the the servant prays for and she fulfills that criteria And so then he goes back to meet the family and all these stages have to be successful the family has to agree first the girl has to agree then the family has to agree and Then the servant has to be faithful throughout and then of course Isaac has to agree in the end All right So that's the that's the basic outline of the story month scope from verse by verse chapter 24 verse 1 Now Abraham was all well advanced in years and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things All right He's he's more than a hundred and thirty seven years old. He might be a hundred and forty or Maybe a little bit older. There's some question as to it It's a little bit difficult to divine exactly how they run how old Abraham is But he's this old he's on his death bed

And so this is a conversation that he's having as a last will and testament and these are of course It you may know from life from your own experience of life that these are the most memorable moments of your life When you're with a dying loved one and any last words that they have Yeah, and in my mother's case, it was just that squeezing our hand, you know meant everything And Abraham has one last will and testament. He has finally had the son that he's longed for He's seen the son through through his adolescence He'd seen him through his young adulthood and he's still on there. He's 37 years old Isaac is It's a really strange story that we're telling about a man who's promised to be the father of many nations and Yet it took him to be a hundred years old before he ever had a child and then a child that he did have is Nearing 40 and still has

no wife no children of his own. So he's Getting up there also so Abraham is on his death bed and he's got to make sure this happens right what happens now happens correctly and Otherwise if this doesn't go correctly all of his life is for naught everything that he's done everything that he's hoped for It's for naught because the promises of God the blessing through the the line of Abraham It's not going to happen has to happen All right, there's also this there's this it's a really so human tradition The the tradition is is that the last thing that somebody says is the most important thing they ever said this is a Probably a tradition everywhere. There was a whole genre of leadership built around this Tradition a couple thousand years ago. We don't know who it was, but somebody produced 12 or 13 documents Called the testament of and that it would be one of the 12 tribes of Israel so one

of the heads of the tribes of Israel so we have the the Testament of Judah the Testament of Simeon the Testament of Joseph Etc. Etc. One of those is the testament of Moses who wasn't one of these wealth But it's there in the testament of Moses That's how we we were told that Moses died on Mount Evo or around Mount Evo and there was a fight or a battle between Michael the Archangel and Satan for the body of Moses and Jude references that story and it comes from the last what's called the last testament of Moses Okay, but anyway the last thing that somebody says is usually regarded as prophetic utterance Okay, you say something as your last wall in testament and it is binding So that's where Abraham is he's on his deathbed First to Abraham said to his servant the oldest of his household who had charge of all that he had And I'll pause right there because we need to

introduce him this servant is It's we're not given a name, but we know from earlier chapters that it would be Eleazar the man from Damascus Eleazar was supposed to be if Isaac if there was never an Isaac in the picture He would have been the one who inherited everything All right, so Isaac in Worldly terms and fleshly terms very secular terms Isaac is kind of a rival for Eleazar Eleazar can inherit if there's no Isaac, but there's an Isaac but Isaac has to see everything through everything has to go successfully and Otherwise Eleazar ends up inheriting everything so you can see that there would be a possible conflict of interest If Eleazar is put in charge of the future of Isaac and yet watch how Eleazar condoms himself Abraham absolutely trusts him with the most important task of his entire life Right here. I'm on my deathbed and I need you to do this for me He said put your hand under my

thigh Dad verse 3 that I may make you swear by the Lord the God of heaven and God of the earth That you will not take a wife for my son or the daughters of the Canaanites Mahun I dwell But we'll go to my country and to my kindred and take a wife for my son Isaac All right, so there's a little bit to unpack right there put your hand under my thigh This is so strange to us We have no equivalent to this this kind of ritual In our in our culture, so it's extremely alien to us But again, we're trying not to use our cultures Traditions in order to judge another cultures traditions ancient culture especially so let me explain Putting your hand under the thigh is in the region of the reproductive area and that's on purpose Remember when God made it covenant with Abraham. What do you require from him? Circumcision also reproductive region Okay, so this seems to

be the area of Covenants this is this is at where oaths are made because life comes from The reproduction. All right, so this is where the binding oath happens for what a reason God regards this as a Place to create a binding covenant and also Abraham follows suit, so place your hand under my thigh. Okay. I'm about to die I only got a few breaths left Listen to me. You have to do everything. I say exactly as I tell you how to do it Don't deviate at all. And if you do God is my witness. You have broken your covenant You think that's what's going on here? Okay? I want you to swear by the Lord the God of heaven and the earth You will not take a wife or my son from the daughters of the Canaanites I'm not like well. Okay, so Abraham lives amongst the Canaanites But he does not want his child to marry one. He knows the Canaanites

He knows there's there's no knowledge of of God and maybe no reverence for God if you read the books of Leviticus the book of Durami Numbers you'll find the practices of the Canaanites were quite dark Okay, child sacrifice was routine amongst other things brother and sister marriage was was routine Lots of idolatrous practices Abraham knew these people very very well and he said absolutely not Isaac must not marry one of these You have to go to my country verse 4 to my kind and take away from my son Isaac Okay, so not a brother sister relationship, but cousin Arrangements were acceptable in that time. This is called endogamy marrying within the tribe So I want you to go to the only group of people I know Who have this knowledge of God and have a the same or similar beliefs systems? Okay, and This is a practice that it's instituted here It's uttered by Abraham But it follows all the way to the

New Testament in first Corinthians and second Corinthians He also Paul warns the believer not to be unequally yelled fellowship There's no fellowship between light and darkness. So it has been it has been the the the practice of the church Going back to Abraham and following through in the apostle Paul to ensure that your children very believers my my maternal grandmother and my maternal grandfather were unequally yelled and To this day To this very day It affects us You know, it's didn't we have at the funeral at my mouse funeral There was one very important person missing It was my uncle like my mother's only servant uncle Wes Wasn't there and this is all oh and they they were They they were not contentious like my mother and her brother. They loved each other but No fellowship and no great affection, unfortunately, I don't know my first cousins Zach been in Caleb. I've met them one time our families have been estranged Even in

the most dire of circumstances would not attend and it has everything to do with Coming here into a church service Okay, and that goes back to my grandfather my grandfather was atheist agnostic and his wife my grandmother was a devout Apostolic and that marriage Did not produce a happy marriage or the different beliefs did not produce a happy marriage in fact a very unhappy marriage and Not just an unhappy marriage, but a problem that ended up persisting into future generations Even to this very day. Okay, so 40 years almost 35 years after my grandfather died We're still dealing with that Separation the unequal yoke Okay, so the the idea though the phrase unequally yoke if you don't if you're not familiar with that expression It simply is a reference to a metaphor for Agriculture where two locks and are teamed up and put underneath one post called it yoke this could be made out of leather and wood and The oxen have to

walk together if one gets an idea to walk over here with the other one gets a little idea to walk over here You can't till or plow the fields. You can't harvest the crop. You can't do any kinds anything Agriculturally with these two oxen if they're not equally yoke, so you don't put a very powerful ox with a Teenage ox so because they're not equally yoke You're gonna have a problem of balance. So you're gonna end up plowing in circles Instead of straight lines So you need to get to oxen who have the same heart You have the same purpose the same responsiveness to their master and also of equal size and strength and Let them walk together and then you can successfully cloud fields So that's the that's that's the expression unequally yoke Refers to oxen that can't be paired together to successfully plow a field and now transfer that over to a marriage and it works perfectly It's a perfect metaphor

and this is what my mother saw growing up. She saw On the unequally yoke. So my grandmother's getting ready to Get the kids ready for church and she wants to get out the door and then my my my grandfather wants nothing to do with This it doesn't want her to have anything to do with this is shouting at her screening yelling or cursing her and It's it's this constant contention now grandpa He mellowed out in his later years And if you knew him if you happen to know him in the 80s and 90s He was nothing like that, but in my mother's childhood it was constant contention and My mother went my grandmother's way and my uncle went like grandfather's thing and It's a big deal. All right, Abraham foresaw this I'm not going to allow a scenario in which my son has no options Only to marry canites. They would not be equally yoked. They could not carry this promise into the

future They could not they could not carry forward this this knowledge of the Lord God If we have an unequally yoked marriage for my son So I've got to find make sure he finds the right one. In fact, let me back up He it's it's very clearly not Abraham finding or Isaac's finding a wife This is an arranged marriage situation Okay, that's important get back to that maybe in a little bit. All right, so the servant said in verse 5 Perhaps the woman may not be willing to follow me to this land Must I then take your son back to the land from which you came? Okay, so in this hypothetical what happens if she accepts But she and her family want to stay there Should I go and bring Isaac back to her? He'll be gone So you all be here to be able to make that decision I want you to invest me with that power right now to know what

you want me to do Do you want me to take Isaac back to the land of of his bride? Or or go and find somebody else who's willing to come back to the land of Canaan and listen to what? Abraham says Abraham said verse 6 see to it that you do not take my son back there The Lord the God of heaven who took me from my father's house and from the land of my kindred who spoke to me It swore to me to your offspring I will give this land He will send his angel before you and you shall take a wife for my son from there But if the woman is not willing to follow you then you will be free from this oath of mine only you must not take my son back there I Wondered before you know I wondered well I wonder why why Abraham was so adamant if he finds the right one What could be wrong

with? With him starting a family out there in his bride's country is it possibly? He's Abraham is afraid that the the country that he goes to will influence Isaac and change him and change who he is That doesn't seem to be it though It has everything to do with the land of God promised this land to us and we have to stay here for Us to continue to trust in this promise and and so I don't I don't want my son to go back there number one But number two the most important thing is look what he said in verse 7 The Lord the God of heaven who took me from my father's house and from the land of my kindred That's it right there He's making a test for any wife of Isaac She has to be willing to do What I did Abraham is saying when God called me I left my kindred and I went and followed that promise and

I went to the land that he promised and Live there dwelt there if she's going to be a wife of my of my son Who's gonna carry forward this promise she too has to share the same exact? Spirit that I'm willing to leave my kindred and my country and follow and go into a land I don't know anything about in order to possess that land in other words Rebecca is going to be the next generations Abraham Whoever what Isaac's wife is she needs to follow the call of Abraham. Okay, so these are these are important principles Not only do I want to make sure my son marry somebody who has the same Christian or That Christian beliefs an ancient Hebrew beliefs But I also want to make sure she has the same spirit the same heart She's willing to do the same kinds of things because again Everything's depending upon this promise and we don't want them to be unequally out I don't

want my son who has this promise in this inheritance of this land to do it to somebody Who doesn't want anything to do with this night or doesn't value it like I value it It doesn't value the promises of the Lord like I value them So he's again making sure they're of equally guilt Not only see logically but also in practice in the way they they they apply the promise Okay, they've gone Abraham goes on to say God is gonna don't worry about this. I'm not worried about this I know you're worried about this and I know the reason why you're worried about this on the user But I don't want you to worry about this really. I'll tell you what to do in case But I'm only telling you what to do in case Just so you understand how important this is to me But I just want you to know God's angels gonna go with you and it's gonna arrange everything.

So don't worry about it All right, so verse 9 So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master and Swear to him concerning this matter All right travel in the ancient world is very dangerous. It's a life-or-death situation most days on the road and so You're you're not getting in the car and guiding to Portland Organically see you're not doing that. You you you're you're taking on anything an adventure in which you may not come back But also you're when you come back. I won't be alive. Okay, so you have to take care of this So swear Then the servant burst and took ten of his master's camels and departed Taking all sorts of choice gifts from his master and he arose and went to Mesopotamia to the city of Maycore and he made the camels. Oh that I should mention That's a journey of about 500 miles 500 miles and he he has ten camels One camel's a

sign of wealth in the ancient mirror. He's one cam. That's a sign of wealth He's got ten. He's got like ten Bentley's in the garage All right, but it's 500 miles which today is like it's like taking five trips to Japan It's a big huge undertaking All right, he made the camel verse 11 He made the camels kneel down outside the city by the well of water the title of the evening The time when women this is a really important note the time when women go out to draw water This also happens to be about the time that Adam would walk with God in the pool of the day in the Garden of Eden. All right We're told Wind Approximately Eleazar arrives at the well. It's an evening. Yes, it candles kneel down The verb meal. I don't know if this is significant or not But it's the word the verb kneel has the three continents in Hebrew BRK Which is the root

for all the noun in Hebrew also of The root of Brock which means to bless. Okay, so there's there might be something happening here Some play on words whatever the case the camels kneel down outside the city of Nahor By the well of water at the time of the evening when women go out to draw the water Okay, so what's what's happening at the at this particular time? why at this particular time because It's cooler. You're in that you're in desert regions All right, so in women are carrying heavy loads of water and it's difficult in heat to do this It's less much less pleasant. You don't want to go in noon Why go towards the evening and it's a very social thing. It's like the water cooler at the office It's where people maybe they need to have a conversation catch up the things All right, so this is a really a social event at the certain time of night All the

women go and gather there and if I have time I'll get into why that's really significant and we're we're running short on time on these so I'm not confident so we'll get there But let's keep going first 12 and he said oh Lord God of my master Abraham Please grant me success today show steadfast love to my master Abraham Okay, so he's he's praying to God. It's it's informal All the prayers of the patriarchs and all the prayers of the people in the book of Genesis there are no formality to it It's very personable Lord God of my master Abraham grant me success today Showed show me steadfast love That's the Hebrew word. Yes, it's very sacred in Hebrew. Yes, it It's the deepest kind of love that you can possibly imagine It's kind of like what Agape is in in Greek or dope. However, it's it's a lot of fight there But it's this unconditional never dying love Show me this love

or show me your steadfast love for my master Abraham. Okay? Behold I'm standing by the spring of water the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water Let the young women a woman to whom I shall say Please let down your jar that I may drink and who shall say drink and I will water your camels Like her be the one who you've appointed for your servanizing by this shall I know that you have shown He said to my master That's very specific It's not gonna be unusual for the for maybe for a woman to come out and say would you like a drink? But for her to say I'll water your camels, too That's the one All right, so that's his prayer and he's basically he's praying this so you know dog make this happen So I know give me confidence All right. This is a big thing. I swore to my master So make this happen

and make you happen in this way Condescend to my little framework. I don't understand all things. I can't read Subliminal messages. I need to know I'm on a mission It's eternal and it's important and it's for my master and you love him if you love him You're gonna show me exactly in this way Sometimes you need God to make things clear for you all right, so Here's it. Here's what it's gonna be that she's not offer me a drink and then offered water to canvas now You're gonna see how big of a deal that is the part about the camels here in just a second Before he had finished speaking verse 15. I love that The Lord the psalmist said knows my thoughts from afar He knows my prayers Jesus said before I ever asked him And he wanted he wanted to serve him to see I already knew your prayer in advance In fact, I'm guiding your prayer Right now before he

finished speaking the old Rebecca Who was born to Bessie will the son of Milka the wife of Nehor Abraham's brother? Which means I don't have time to go into the family tree right here Because it's a little bit complicated that this means then brodeca is the granddaughter of Abraham's First brother and his second brother Don't have time again to go into all that don't make me go into that with your quizzical looks, but I promise you she's really close Relative okay, but it she's she's she's a generation younger than Isaac because she's a granddaughter of Abraham's brothers okay, so Rebecca She came out with her water jar on her shoulder The young woman was very attractive in appearance a maiden whom no man had known She went down to the spring and filled her jar and came up look at that look look look She went down to the spring Filled her jar and came up So in other words for her to

get down to the well She has to go down a flight of stairs or multiple flights of stairs She has to go down and then she has to bring the water up That's really significant watch this here's why Then servant verse 17 ran to be heard said, please give me a little water to drink from your jar a little a little She said drink my lord Criterion one and she quickly let watch this and she quickly let down her jar Upon her hand and gave him a drink. Hey, she didn't hand the vessel over to him here. Take a drink she held the vessel and poured it for him and This is giving you an idea of Rebecca's care for the this stranger And who does that remind you of? Remember Remember Abraham was hospitable to the three strangers and he's running all over the place and taking all these extra steps in order to Care for these complete strangers She's like Abraham

She goes even further than this servant had required and Remember son of Gomorrah one of their problems was the the inhospitality Rebecca's the opposite of all of this, but we're not done. She she she does this very tenderly very caringly and When verse 19 she had finished giving him a drink. She said I will draw water for your canvassals Until they finished drinking What do we say when we say somebody can drink it whole a lot of water a Drink like a camel because camels apparently adult camels male or female Can carry up to 20 25 gallons of water. They could drink it at one sitting 25 gallons of water She gave them after their long journey Until they finished drinking how many camels is he up? Yeah, that's 10. She's she's running down She's carrying it back up He needs 20 gallons. How many how many gallons do you suppose that vessel? She's holding carries probably a couple of gallons. How much

does one gallon of water weigh eight pounds? So she's probably carrying 16 pounds of water in a vessel up and down flights of stairs For each camel in each camel takes 20 gallons So she's making like 10 to 12 trips up and down for each camel Which means she's carrying all told she ends up carrying about 16 to 1800 pounds worth of water Now Elea's are the sermon to notice what he hasn't said yet. He just said can I have some water? Can I have something a little something to turn that's all he asked for all she had to give him to fulfill his request Was a little bit of water and then go on about her day But she gave him until he was finished drinking and poured it for him And then she went and took care of camel one came to and free the four five six seven eight nine ten And the camels all sail law full of water

completely satisfied and Eleazar has not yet said who he is She has no idea that all of heaven is watching her right now And lord, I just had I have requests. I request as a prayer right now and maybe pray this too Let me be doing the right thing When you come back it let me be doing the right thing with them when it's time So in order for that to happen more I have to be doing the right thing all the time This is your defining moment in the history of the world. It's a girl Sway Carrie Gallons and gallons and gallons and gallons of water It's beautiful. This is absolutely beautiful. She doesn't know who she's doing it for just a complete strategy who asked her a little bit of water She quickly emptied her jar into the truck and ran again to the well to draw water She drew for all his camels and the man that we is are

gazed at her in silence To learn by the Lord have prospered his journey or not. I think we have a winner She's a keeper That's she's a keeper and when the camel said finish drinking and now It it it's it's so it's so beautiful I Can't imagine how long this took her 45 minutes an hour of continuous work there may be more I don't know but she doesn't know who he is and he's withheld that information on purpose to see who she you know what she she's really made up and So here's how the story continues verse 22 when the camels had finished drinking The man took a gold ring weighing a half a shekel in two bracelets for her arms weighing ten gold shekels and Said please tell me whose daughter you are Is there a room in your father's house for us to spend the night? She said to him I am the daughter of death. You owe the son of

milk off who? She was naked She added now mind you le asar doesn't know didn't know yet until this moment This she's already checked one or two of the boxes and that was she she and she was an answer to the prayer But now also remember Abraham inquired did it be? From the kinsman and now he finds out she's she's from the right tribe She added we have plenty of both strong fodder and room to spend the night The man bowed his head and worshiped the Lord and said Let's be the Lord the God of my master Abraham who is not forsaken his steadfast love and his faithfulness toward my master as for me The Lord has led me in the way to the house of my master's kinsman. That's his that's his prayer That's his thanks Then the young woman ran and told her mother's household about these things in other words He heard about he heard about our Migrate uncle Abraham

hadn't met him but heard heard about it in Chaitan, and this is his son And so she runs back Okay, I'm gonna have to pause there with the story and just some of What what we have so far? Okay, so we have seen it the well and and this is Sometimes within sometimes a difficult scholarship is referred to as a type scene because you see repetition of this kind of thing happening in Scripture special of Genesis exes you have man goes to Well and young woman comes to the well too and then there ends up being a marriage Okay, that happens three times in Genesis exes There's seems to be a suggestion of one in Ruth also Okay, and then there's one in John's gospel, right? The Samaritan woman comes to love. Yeah, I want you to watch this. This is where we'll end for tonight Okay, the well is where you go to get water but it's also it seems where you

go to get married and Eleazar is down with Becca after praying for her and I want you to I want you to look at her her traits She's hospitable like Abraham offering to give him a drink and then taking care of his canvas Okay, that's that's one two. She's of the right tribe Three she's a desirable woman. Those texts says she's beautiful For she's a virgin. She's kept herself pure and part of the true religion In other words, she's part of her her family's belief system She's pure in theology or at least pure in theology the mechanites and she is a maiden shoes a virgin Okay, so that's four Five she's socially attractive to and that she's able to come to the well at a time The cool evening when all the other women of village came to the well That means she gets along with the other women right and That's that's really important because when you get to the story of

Jesus going to the well in Samaria I want you to look at the encounter between Jesus and Samaritan woman one With Jacob or with Isaac Rebecca with Rebecca. She's hospitable She offers to give him a drink and his camels, but in the Samaritan woman. She's not hospitable She does not offer a drink. She only questions. Why a Jew would ask her for one? Okay, she's the anti-rebecca to Rebecca is of the right tribe In this case of Samaritan woman. She's of the wrong tribe Jesus came to his own the Jews the Israelites, but she's a Samaritan, which means she's pagan Three Rebecca is a desirable woman. She's beautiful The Samaritan woman. She's an undesirable woman not attractive in her speech or in her manners Four Rebecca was a virgin who kept herself pure and a part of the true religion For for the Samaritan woman. She's an often married woman Married five times and she's currently living with a man who isn't her

husband and She's part of a false religion and that she's a part of the Samaritan people Five Rebecca was socially attractive She's able to come to the well at a time when all the other women come to the well But we're told that the Samaritan woman is socially unattractive in that she has to come to the well When no other women of the village could come she came in the heat of the day So, you know what you know what's happening there in John's gospel Isaac had the perfect woman Jesus was given the most imperfect woman imaginable But although Rebecca and the Samaritan woman are complete contrast at the beginning of the story They end the same Both run back to their homes and end up lowing about their rooms. See that's the thing You and I are the Samaritan woman shrub the wrong tribe. We were not a people We were in darkness Following false idols false gods, but Jesus came anyway

And he calls us his brother He married the opposite of all the desirable things. Thanks be to God. Amen And such all said which some of you Amen