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. 

  

"I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.  But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth.  He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.  He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.  All that belongs to the Father is mine.  That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you."  John 16:12-15

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.     

Scripture: Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.  I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.  ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.  But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.” Revelation 21:1-8