Abraham’s
Servant
God is God. Because He is God, He is worthy
of my trust and obedience. I will find rest nowhere but in His holy will, a
will that is unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what He is up to. Elisabeth Elliot
I was reading in Genesis about Abraham and
his senior servant Eliezer. Abraham sent
this servant to find a wife for his son Isaac.
I found it interesting that in the story he doesn’t call Eliezer by
name. If you read John 16:12-15 Jesus
tells the disciples about the Holy Spirit that he will send to guide them in
truth.
So if we parallel this story to the stories
of Jesus we can conclude that Abraham signified God the Father, Isaac signified
Jesus the Son and Eliezer signified the Holy Spirit because isn’t that what
Eliezer did with Rebecca. He prayed to
God prior to approaching Rebekah at the well.
He also followed God’s instructions.
The purpose of the Holy Spirit is to bring the bride of Christ, (the
church), to the Groom, (God’s Son).
Eliezer asked the question that any of us
would. “What happens if she won’t come
with me?” Can you imagine going to a
well with ten camels who drink up to 30 gallons of water a day, and expecting
her to volunteer to draw enough water from the well for ten camels. Abraham’s response was interesting too. He stated that God would send an angel ahead
to arrange it so she will come back with you.
Then he added that if she wouldn’t come then the servant was released
from his agreement with Abraham. This is
an example of how God wants us to come to Him.
He doesn’t force us or coerce us.
He offers salvation as a choice of our free will. We can choose to be saved or not, but it is
up to us to choose.
I believe that Rebekah was filled with the Holy
Spirit. Why? Because she made herself a servant as Jesus
did throughout his life. She served
Abraham’s servant water from her jar and then watered his camels. Here was a guy that she didn’t know asking
for water and waiting for her to water his camels. Then this same guy asks her to go with him to
a foreign land where she knows no one to marry someone she’s never met. Then the stranger gives her gifts. If we look at this from a Holy Spirit
perspective, we receive gifts of a different sort. The gifts the Holy Spirit gives are serving,
teaching, showing mercy, wisdom and knowledge to name a few.
Isn’t this a picture of what God asks us to
do today? Give up what you know and are
comfortable with to follow Me to a place you have only heard about and have
never seen..
The final part of the story is that Laban and
Bethuel try to convince the servant to leave Rebekah with them for ten
days. The servant responds by saying that
the Lord gave him success in his journey and now he needs to be about his
Father’s business.
Prayer for the Day:
Heavenly Father, this story amazes me. I
don’t often have the faith that Rebekah had to walk away from everything she
knew and from what was familiar to pursue a land that is unknown, to become the
bride of Christ and live with the Father. There are too many times in my life
when I decide to wait instead of following the Holy Spirit’s prompting. How many blessings have I missed by doing
just that and believing that I have all the time in the world to be about my
Father’s business? Please keep my eyes
focused on You and help me to follow the Holy Spirit’s promptings.
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