Faith’s Journeys

This transcript was generated automatically. Its accuracy may vary

Short Summary
The discourse explores the biblical love story of Abraham, Isaac, and Rebekah as a profound illustration of faith, obedience, and spiritual journeying toward union with God. It emphasizes that true love and faith arise from freedom and grace, highlighting how each character’s faith journey parallels the Christian’s path toward sanctification and spiritual marriage with Christ. The narrative underscores the importance of trusting God’s promises despite challenges and portrays the church’s collective and individual journeys as ongoing processes of growth, culminating in ultimate unity with the heavenly bridegroom.

Long Summary
Detailed Summary of the Discourse on the Biblical Love Story of Abraham’s Family and the Christian Faith Journey

Introduction to the Love Story and Its Spiritual Significance
– The discourse centers on a divine love story found in the family of Abraham, illustrating true love born from grace and freedom of choice, without compulsion or selfishness.
– This love story involves Abraham, his son Isaac, and Isaac’s wife Rebekah, serving as biblical types for God’s relationship with His people.
– The story emphasizes that the main characters’ faith journeys brought them closer to God, paralleling the Christian spiritual journey.

The Christian Faith Journey: Foundations and Progression
– Christians reserve their greatest love and faith for God the Father and Jesus Christ, trusting in their unwavering love and promises.
– Faith initiates the Christian journey, motivating obedience and trust in God’s promises without compulsion from law; rather, Christians are under the law of agape love, which is learned progressively through experience.
– The journey is communal, with believers helping each other along the “narrow way,” sustaining faith through challenges to gain the “crown of life” (Revelation 2:10).
– Daily overcoming and mutual support among brethren are cause for rejoicing and praise to God.

The Faith Journeys of Abraham, Isaac, and Rebekah
– Their journeys are analogies for the Christian life, despite a separation of 4,000 years.
– Hebrews 11:1–3 (Phillips) defines faith as confidence in unseen, eternal spiritual things over temporary earthly things.
– Abraham obeyed God’s call from Ur of the Chaldees (a pagan, idolatrous city), journeying first to Haran, then to Canaan, trusting God’s promises despite uncertainty (Genesis 12:1–3).
– The journey from Ur to Haran symbolizes moving from sinfulness to tentative justification; from Haran to Canaan symbolizes full consecration and sanctification.
– Abraham did not receive the full earthly promise in his lifetime—it requires resurrection (Matthew 22:32; Hebrews 11:13).

God’s Promise to Abraham and His Faith
– Genesis 15:1–6 recounts God’s reassurance to Abraham concerning an heir, promising descendants as numerous as the stars.
– Abraham’s faith was “counted to him for righteousness,” making him God’s friend.
– Despite obstacles like Sarah’s barrenness and Canaan’s occupation by others, Abraham trusted God’s ability to fulfill His promises (Hebrews 11:9–10).
– Sarah conceived Isaac in her old age by faith (Hebrews 11:11–12).

Isaac’s Life and Typology of Christ
– Isaac, born in the promised land, did not need to journey to it but had his own faith journey.
– The account of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac (Genesis 22) typifies God’s sacrifice of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 11:17–19).
– Isaac’s submission parallels Christ’s submission; both carried their own “wood” (Isaac carried the wood for the burnt offering; Jesus carried the cross).

Rebekah’s Role and Faith Journey
– Rebekah, granddaughter of Nahor (Abraham’s brother), was from Abraham’s extended family, symbolizing the household of faith.
– She had to accept God’s call and make her own faith journey to join Isaac’s immediate family.
– The story of their union in Genesis 24 symbolizes Christ’s relationship with His Church, the Bride of Christ.

Genesis 24 Broken into Three Parts: The Call, The Acceptance, The Union
1. Sending the Call (Genesis 24:1–10)
– Abraham (a type for God the Father) commands his servant (identified as Eleazar, a type for the Holy Spirit) to find a wife for Isaac, not from Canaanite women but from Abraham’s kin in Mesopotamia.
– The servant takes ten camels (symbolizing the word of God) and departs with all of Abraham’s goods, fully trusting God’s guidance.

2. Acceptance of the Call (Genesis 24:11–58)
– At a well, Rebekah meets the servant; her willingness to serve (offering water to him and his camels) demonstrates zeal and obedience.
– This is likened to Isaiah 12:3 (“joyfully draw water from the wells of salvation”) and 2 Corinthians 8:12 (the necessity of a willing mind).
– Rebekah receives gifts of gold and silver (symbolizing divine blessings and truth) and hospitality is offered by her family.
– The family consents to her leaving with the servant to marry Isaac.
– Rebekah’s prompt decision to leave, despite never having met Isaac, reflects faith and trust in God’s promises (Psalm 45:10–11 encourages forgetting one’s family to follow the Lord).

3. Receiving the Bride (Genesis 24:59–67)
– Rebekah departs with her attendants, guided by the servant (Holy Spirit) on the journey to Isaac.
– Isaac, meditating at eventide in the field of “Lehi Roi” (meaning “well of the Living One who sees me”), sees the approaching camels and is filled with anticipation.
– Rebekah veils herself upon meeting Isaac, symbolizing the bride’s transition into the spirit-born condition “beyond the veil” (figurative death to the flesh).
– Isaac takes her into his mother Sarah’s tent, symbolizing the bride’s full acceptance into the covenant family.
– Sarah’s prior death symbolizes that Jesus alone is the direct heir of the Abrahamic covenant (Galatians 3:16).
– The “anatypical” Rebekah shares in the blessings as a joint heir through marriage to Isaac, analogous to believers sharing in Christ’s promises (Galatians 3:29; 4:28).

The Spiritual Lessons and Application to the Church and Individual Believers
– The narrative is applied to the church as a community of believers journeying in faith amid a world of unbelievers.
– The faith journey can be viewed as a series of distinct journeys, each teaching spiritual graces such as mercy, forgiveness, love, obedience, submission, and self-control.
– Progress is measured not by works alone but by character development and increased closeness to Christ.
– Jesus’ own faith journey, from heavenly glory to sacrifice on Calvary, sets the perfect example of trust and obedience (Hebrews 10:35–36).
– Believers are already betrothed to Christ, having received spiritual gifts (like the gifts given to Rebekah) that equip them for the journey.
– The ultimate goal is union with Christ in the spirit-born condition beyond death.
– Faith must be sustained amid trials as described in 1 Peter 1:3–8, rejoicing even without having seen Christ physically.

Key Bible Verses Cited:
– Hebrews 11:1–3, 8–10, 11–12, 13, 17–19
– Genesis 12:1–3; 15:1–6; 22; 24; 26:34–35; 25:5
– Matthew 22:32; 28:18
– Romans 9:8–9
– Galatians 3:16, 3:26, 3:29; 4:28
– Isaiah 12:3
– 2 Corinthians 8:12
– Psalm 45:10–11
– Revelation 2:10 (implied)
– Hebrews 10:35–36
– 1 Peter 1:3–8

Conclusion and Encouragement
– The love story of Abraham’s family typifies the spiritual journey of believers toward union with Christ.
– Faith, obedience, and trust in God’s promises are essential.
– The bride’s faith journey, exemplified by Rebekah, encourages believers to respond promptly and faithfully to God’s call.
– The ultimate blessing is participation in God’s plan to redeem humanity through Christ’s mediatorial kingdom.
– The discourse closes with a blessing and encouragement to remain faithful and hopeful.

—

This summary captures the detailed theological exposition and typological interpretation provided in the discourse, including scriptural references and spiritual applications.

Transcript

Well, we’re going to talk about a wonderful love story illustrated in the family of Abraham. It’s the type of love story that can only be found in the Bible, in the lives of God’s true people. It’s a story of true love that begins and grows because there’s no compulsion in it, no selfishness in it. There’s only grace from God and freedom of choice from us. But it’s also a story that wouldn’t have happened if the main characters had not been motivated as God’s people to go in the respective faith journeys that led them closer to God.

We reserve our greatest love for our Heavenly Father and our Lord Jesus because they’re worthy of our greatest love, our greatest faith, trust and obedience. We have complete confidence that they will be constant in their love for us if we remain faithful to them. There are many examples of blessings received from a loving relationship with our Heavenly Father and our Savior, and this morning we’ll focus on the biblical stories of Abraham, his son Isaac and daughter in law, Rebekah. In my Bible studies, I found myself particularly drawn to the Old Testament stories of the biblical patriarchs.

Because these simple pastoral narratives contains such profound and essential truths for God’s people to understand. We should consider within these Bible narratives the analogy that the Christian’s journey through life is a journey of faith and obedience that leads to the fullness of agape love.

Faith starts us on the Christian journey, motivates our actions, improves our obedience to God and our trust in his biblical promises to us. We’re not obeying any law when we start out because there’s no law that compels us to take even one step on the journey. It’s true that the Christian is under the law of agape love, but that’s a law that we can only fully learn from the lessons we receive while we’re on the journey. It’s a law that we can only learn as a result of our obedient faith, stepping forward with confidence in God and His promises and continuing with every step that we take on the Christian journey.

So we’re now walking together on the spiritual journey of faith. With each step of the journey, we’re getting to know the Father and the Son better. We’re drawing closer to them and to one another in fellowship as we see our progress and help each other along the narrow way. Faith sustains us when going gets rough, and faithful is what we must be to win the great reward.

Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life. By continuing to make progress and coming nearer to God. In our daily faith journeys, we’re demonstrating our faithfulness to Him. It’s the little day to day overcoming experiences in the present life that we can rejoice in and give praise to our Heavenly Father. It’s these experiences and overrulings that we’ll look back upon in glory and recall how our brethren helped us and perhaps we were able to help them in some small way.

Let’s keep these thoughts in mind as we consider these biblical journeys of faith and our own faith journeys as well. As we walk alongside the patriarchs, we should see that our faith journeys path parallel their faith journeys, even though our journeys are separated from theirs by 4,000 years of history.

The Apostle Paul tells us this in Hebrews 11:1 3 Phillips faith means putting our full confidence in the things we hope for. It means being certain of things we cannot see. It was this kind of faith that won the reputation for the saints of old, and it is after all only by faith that our minds accept as fact that the whole scheme of time and space was created by God’s command that the world which we can see has come into being through principles which are invisible.

In these verses, Brother Paul is defining faith as that principle which enables us to prefer the future invisible, eternal spiritual good things to the present visible, temporary earthly good things. Continuing with verses 8 through 10, it was by faith that Abraham obeyed the summons to go out to a place which he would eventually possess, and he set out in complete ignorance of his destination. Sort of sounds like us. It was faith that kept him journeying like a foreigner through the land of Promise, with no more home than the tents which he shared with Isaac and Jacob coheirs with him of the promise.

For Abraham’s eyes were looking forward to that city with solid foundations of which God himself is both architect and builder. Abraham’s birthplace was an Ur of the Chaldees, 120 miles to the north of the Persian Gulf. It was here, in a land where idol worship prevailed that God called Abraham.

The original statement of the Abrahamic promise is from Genesis 12:1 3. Now Jehovah said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father’s house unto a land that I will show thee and will make thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing, and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee, and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

Abraham obeyed this call and From Ur, he and his family migrated to Haran, about 500 miles northwest.

Now we remember from Genesis that Abraham had two brothers, Haran and Nahor. Haran had died in Ur, and perhaps Terah, Abraham and Nahor honored him by establishing his name as the town of Haran in northern Mesopotamia. Just as towns and cities in this country have been named in honor of prominent founders, this also seems to have been a common practice in ancient times. Close to Haran, there was another city named Nahor, which which was most likely named after Abraham’s older brother, and this became the dwelling place of Nahor’s granddaughter Rebekah.

It’s significant that these place names are associated with Abraham’s family. These places give us just a picture, not making a type out of it, of a transitional condition of faith and obedience, out of which Isaac’s wife Rebekah and then Jacob’s wife Rachel were called. Rebekah and Rachel did not come from idolatrous Canaanite stock, but from Abraham’s extended family. In Genesis 26:34,35, we’re told that when Esau married Hittite wives, it was a grief of mine. To Isaac and Rebekah.

We know that full compliance with the call of new creation is a process. Stepping out of a sinful condition to repentance and tentative justification, and then stepping from tentative justification to full consecration. God’s acceptance, the imputation of Christ’s merit, full justification and separation or sanctification to God’s service. That’s quite a journey.

The whole idolatersthe worldly idolaters of Ur worshiped the moon God whose name was sin. Thus, Abraham first journeyed from Ur of the Chaldees, which was in Babylon, picturing the sinful condition of worldly people and worldly beliefs. He journeyed to Haran where he established a household settlement for a period of time until Terah died. Terah’s death permitted Abraham’s final separation from the worldly influence of idolatry, the sinful condition he was born into. Then Abraham was free to make a complete break from his father’s house, Satan’s house of death, bondage, to pursue the promise God had already given him to me.

Abraham’s faith journey from Haran to Canaan pictures a step from tentative justification, crossing the River Jordan into the fully consecrated condition, the sanctified land of promise. Even though Abraham drew closer to God with each faith journey, all of his life, he was surrounded by ungodly idolaters. It’s the same with us who are of the high calling we move from the sinful condition to justification and sanctification, all the time surrounded by worldly people who are pilgrims and strangers in the world, but not of it.

But did Abraham receive the full benefit of the earthly promise? No. It will require that Abraham be resurrected from the dead to fulfill that promise. That’s another proof of the resurrection. For as Jesus said, God is not the God of the dead, but of the living in Matthew 22:32.

Just so, for us to receive the fullness of our spiritual promises requires that we be resurrected from death. Otherwise it would mean that the Lord is not faithful, and we know from 2 Thessalonians 3:3 and from our own life experiences that the Lord is faithful. Hebrews 11:13. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims the earth.

After Abraham had journeyed to Canaan, God repeated his promise to him in Genesis 15:1 6. After these things, the word of Jehovah came unto Abram in a vision, saying, fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward.

And Abram said, lord Jehovah, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus, and Abram said, behold, to me thou hast given no seed, and lo, one born into my house is mine heir, and behold, the word of Jehovah came unto him, saying, this shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own mouth, of thine own bowels, shall be thine heir, and he brought him forth abroad. I love this picture, this beautiful picture.

And said, look now toward heaven and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them, and he said unto him, so shall thy seed be, and he believed in Jehovah, and he counted to him for righteousness, and this last verse is really wonderful. We can rephrase it by saying Abraham had faith in Jehovah.

And Jehovah reckoned unto Abraham a justifying faith. He was justified to be God’s friend.

But our justifying faith to sonship means that we continue to seek our heavenly Father’s will, and that’s what Abraham was doing by questioning how God’s promise to him could be fulfilled when he was confronted with seemingly impossible obstacles to the fulfillment of that promise. Do we ever feel like that?

First of all, Abraham’s wife Sarah was barren, and it did not seem possible that Abraham would be able to produce an heir through her.

Secondly, the Promised land was not in Abraham’s possession, nor was it clear how it ever would be. The Canaanite was in the land, and Abraham was a wandering pilgrim. Hebrews 11, 9, 10. By faith, Abraham sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

The city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God, is God’s kingdom when fully established in heaven and earth. This is a great lesson to us, and it will be a great lesson to Abraham when he is resurrected and sees with his eyes, and not just the eyes of faith, God’s kingdom ruling over the earth. God is able to overcome all of our obstacles to faith, even those that seem impossible to overcome based on the experience of our natural senses.

Sarah was temporarily incredulous when told she would deliver Abraham’s heir at a time in her life when it seemed impossible. But God is all powerful, and that’s one of the great lessons here. In the resurrection, Abraham and Sarah will be able to look back into history and trace all the way in which God was able to bring forth Isaac, the natural heir, and Christ the spiritual heir of the Abrahamic promise. They’ll be able to see and experience the reality of the promise that they could accept only by faith during the patriarchal age.

But we’re experiencing the anitype now, in the outworking of the spiritual promises given to us in Christ.

Galatians 3:26. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

Romans 9, 8, 9. That is, they which are the children of the flesh. These are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. For this is the word of promise. At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son.

Hebrews 11, 11, 12. Through faith also, Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age because she judged him faithful who had promised. Abraham was born. Excuse me. Isaac was born in Abraham’s 100th year.

He married Rebekah when he was 40 and became the father of Esau and Jacob when he was 60.

He died at Hebron in his 180th year and was buried in the cave of Machpelah alongside Rebekah, Abraham, Sarah, now Isaac, was born in the promised land. He did not have to journey to it. Just as Jesus was born into the perfect human condition without having to journey to perfection. But Isaac and Jesus both had faith journeys to complete to prove their faithfulness or worthiness of the great blessings that God had in store for them.

We’re all familiar with the record in Genesis 22, which tells of the faith journey that occurred when Isaac was 25 years old and Abraham was 125. Abraham, typifying Jehovah, journeyed with Isaac typifying Christ to Mount Moriah, where he offered Isaac as a sacrificial offering and received him back in a figurative typical resurrection from the dead, just as Christ was literally anatypically offered and resurrected. An important thing to bear in mind is that Isaac was old enough and strong enough to have resisted his Father’s will, just as Jesus could have chosen to resist his heavenly Father’s will.

Abraham and Isaac shared a deep faith while on this journey. Abraham trusted that God knew what he was doing and that Isaac would be perfectly submissive to Abraham’s will. Isaac placed all of his trust upon the justice, wisdom, love and power of his Father.

Just as on their journey in Genesis 22:6, Abraham laid upon Isaac the wood of the burnt offering to offer himself as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah. So our Heavenly Father permitted our Lord Jesus to carry his wooden cross to offer himself on Calvary’s Mountain. Hebrews 11:17, 19. By faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac, and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten Son, of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called accounting, that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure. So we must remember that in the subsequent Genesis chapter 24 narrative which we will be covering, Isaac had already been typically sacrificed and raised from the dead.

He was then fully empowered to be the heir of all the promises God gave to Abraham. Genesis 25:5 confirms this, and Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac, and atypically, when Jesus had completed his sacrifice, our Heavenly Father delegated all of his power to Jesus for the regeneration of the human race. As stated in Matthew 28:18, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

That’s a really important verse.

And as Isaac had already typically laid down his life at sacrifice before his bride was called to him, just so our Lord Jesus had anatypically given his human life for us at sacrifice before his spiritual bride was called to the heavenly calling.

I want to give a brief profile of Rebekah, the third main character of our lesson today. Rebekah was the granddaughter of Nahor Abraham’s brother. As we mentioned, she was therefore a member of the extended family of faithful Abraham prior to her marriage to Isaac. We can think of her as a member of the household of faith related to God through her relation to Abraham, but still not a part of his immediate family. She needed to be called first and to choose to make a faith journey before she could be fully accepted into Abraham and Isaac’s immediate family in the promised land of Canaan.

We also needed to be called and to consecrate ourselves to come into the family of our Heavenly Father and our bridegroom, our Lord Jesus.

In the 24th chapter of Genesis is the beautiful Bible account of the union of Isaac and Rebekah, which we all realize to be such a wonderful type and picture of the union of Christ and his Church. The Bride of Christ Isaac types our Lord Jesus in his present spiritual condition and Rebekah types his bride under the call within this continuing age of sacrifice. The story is told in plain but powerful words of profound meaning to all of us that have been called and are journeying under the guidance of God’s Spirit to enter into our marriage with Christ in a spirit born condition. Beyond the Veil for purposes of analysis and discussion, I have broken down Genesis 24 into three parts.

Part 1, verses 1 to 10 the sending of the call to the Prospective Bride Part 2 11:58 the acceptance of the call by the prospective Bride in Part 35967 the receiving of the bride by the bridegroom beyond the veil so part one sending the call to the prospective bride in Genesis 24:1 and Abraham was old and well stricken in age and Jehovah had blessed Abraham in all things. In this picture Abraham types our heavenly Father. We all know Abraham at This time was 140 years old, and Sarah had been dead three years. Sarah, we recall, was a type of the grace feature of the Abrahamic covenant.

And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house that ruled over all that he had put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and although this servant is not named in Genesis 24, Brother Russell identifies him as Eleazar, a type of God’s Holy Spirit, and I will make thee swear by Jehovah, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto thy son of the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell now the Canaanites were heathen, worldly people bereft of any share in God’s promises. It would not be proper for Isaac to cede a promise to carry to Mary and father a child by a worldly Canaanite woman.

Verse 4 But thou shalt go unto my country and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac. The my country that Abraham was referring to was the area of Abraham’s kindred in Haran and Nahor in northern Mesopotamia. This shows that God only calls the bride for his son from those that are already related to him as members of the household of faith, those that are already in a tentative justified faith condition. Verses 5 to 8 and the servant said unto him, peradventure, the woman will not be willing to follow me unto this land.

Must I needs bring thy son again unto the land from whence thou camest, and Abraham said unto him, beware that thou bring not my son thither again.

Jehovah, the God of heaven, which took me from my father’s house and from the land of my kindred, and which spake unto me, and that sware unto me, saying, unto thy seed will I give this land. He shall send his angel before thee, and thou shalt take a wife unto thy son from thence, and if the woman will not be willing to follow thee, then thou shalt be clear from this thy oath only bring not my son there again. So why was God so insistent that Isaac should not go back to Nahor?

It could picture that after his resurrection, Jesus would never return to the human condition, but that his bride would be taken out of the human condition, and so it was necessary for this to be shown on a type.

Now, since the servant Eleazar was a type of the Holy Spirit, what were the chances that he would go all that way and find the right bride for Isaac? The chances were 100%.

God’s Holy Spirit is 100% efficient. So even though the servant had to go 800 miles without much indication of who he was looking for, there was no possibility that he would not be successful. God’s power and influence directed him, just as God’s power and influence invites all of the potential members of the antipical bride class that have the capacity for faith and obedience during the age of sacrifice.

And the servant took 10 camels of the camels of his master and departed. For all the goods of his master were in his hands, and he arose and went to Mesopotamia, unto the city of Nahor.

Why did the servant take so many camels? He knew that the journey was long and he needed to take ample provisions of food and water, and brother Russell explains that these camels symbolize the word of God. The camels bore the servant and gifts to Rebekah. The word of God bears God’s Holy Spirit to us, along with spiritual gifts of truth that we receive when we’re obedient to the invitation.

But the camels also bore Rebekah to Isaac. We can see that in God’s word there are ample spiritual provisions for us not only to receive the Holy Spirit, but to get us through the whole journey to our destination of being united with Christ. Beyond the veil.

Part 2 the acceptance of the Invitation by the prospective Bride Arriving at a well at the eventide outside of the house of the city of Nahor, Eleazar addresses God in verses 13:16 behold, I stand here by the well of water, and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water, and let it come to pass that the damsel to whom I shall say, shall let down thy pitcher, I pray thee that I may drink, and she shall say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also. Let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac and thereby shall I know that thou hast showed kindness unto my master, and it came to pass before he had done speaking, that behold, Rebekah came out, who was born to Bethuel, the son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, with her pitcher upon her shoulder in Genesis 24:16 ASV and the damsel was very fair to look upon a virgin neither had any man known her and she went down to the fountain, filled her pitcher, and came up. This corresponds to those who are in a tentatively justified condition in this age.

They are attractive to God because of their wholesome characters, and are thus eligible to be invited to be the bride of Christ.

Verses 17 to 20 and the servant ran to meet her and said, let me, I pray thee, drink a little water of thy pitcher, and she said, drink, my Lord, and she hasted and let down her pitcher upon her hand, and gave him drink, and when she had done giving him drink, she said, I will draw water for thy camels also, until they have done drinking, and she hasted and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran again unto the well to draw water and draw for all his camels.

In this account of Rebekah’s zeal and willingness to serve and dispense the water of truth through a stranger, we have a worthy pattern for the church to follow. This reminds me of one of my favorite Scriptures, Isaiah 12:3 Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. Paul tells us of the first requirement of a willing Christian service in 2 Corinthians 8:12. For if there first be a willing mind, then and only then can we be acceptable to our Heavenly Father. There were many other damsels in waiting in Nahor, but only Rebekah manifested the zeal, faith, and obedience to be worthy of being invited to begin the faith journey to be Isaac’s bride, just as the church by her zealous service is worthy to begin the journey to be the bride of Christ.

And it came to pass, as the camels had done drinking, that the man took a golden earring of half a shekel weight and and two bracelets for her hands of 10 shekels weight of gold. We know that gold symbolizes divine things, so the golden earring symbolizes the divine blessings we receive by being able to hear of the high calling in Christ. The golden bracelets represent the blessed effect of the divine call upon our actions. After hearing the call in verses 23:52, Rebekah explains who she is and offers the hospitality of her father’s home to Eleazar. Eleazar explains his mission and the circumstances of his meeting Rebekah at the well to Rebekah’s father Bethuel and her brother Laban.

Bethuel and Laban then give permission to Eleazar to take Rebekah back to Canaan so she can marry Isaac. Verse 53 and the servant brought forth jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment absolutely love that and raiment, and gave them to Rebekah. He gave also to her brother and to her mother precious things.

These jewels of silver symbolize truth, and the additional jewels of gold symbolize additional divine blessings and graces. These, along with the new raiment received after Rebekah had accepted the call to become Isaac’s wife, represent the blessings of the Holy Spirit which come upon the Lord’s consecrated, including the robe of Christ’s righteousness provided for the narrow way journey to life.

Verses 54:57 and they did eat and drink, and he and the men that were with him and tarried all night, and they rose in the morning, and he said, send me away unto my master, and her brother and her mother said, Let the damsel abide with us a few days at least 10 after that she shall go.

And he said unto them, hinder me not, seeing Jehovah hath prospered my way, send me away, and I pray that I may go to my master, and they said, we will call the damsel and inquire at her mouth.

So the final choice of Prompt obedience was given to Rebekah, just as is given to each one of us. It was likely Rebekah would never see her family again because the decision to go to Isaac would put a great physical distance between her and and our natural family.

Our consecration may not separate us physically from our natural family and friends, but it will put a spiritual distance between us. If we are faithful to our calling, will we tarry with the world, or will we be prompt to obey what we know is the right thing to do, to abide with Christ? That’s the choice.

Verse 58 and they called Rebekah and said unto her, wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go now. When Rebekah consented to leave the family that she had inherited from Adam, she had never seen Isaac, the man she was to marry. This was a spiritual attraction based on the belief that God’s promises come true. It was a spiritual trust shared by Isaac and Rebekah that God would provide to them the proper marriage.

They believed that their coming together in marriage was God’s will for them, and that was all they needed to know to be contented and happy. This choice by Rebecca, a type of the fully consecrated class, calls to mind Psalm 45:10 11. Hearken, O daughter, and consider and incline thine ear. Forget also thine own people and thy father’s house. So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty, for he is thy Lord, and worship thou himself.

Part 3 Receiving the Bride by the Bridegroom beyond the veil verse 60 and they blessed Rebekah and said unto her, thou art our sister. Be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those that hate them. This type of Rebekah’s motherhood and Isaac’s fatherhood typifies that the glorified Christ will give life to all of mankind that will ever receive life from the Abrahamic promise During the Mediatorial kingdom and Rebekah arose and her damsels and they rode upon the camels and followed the man and the servant took Rebekah and went his way. Rebekah and her damsels riding upon the camels with Eleazar represents the experiences of the little flock and the great company while following the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Scriptures during the age of sacrifice.

Now on the journey back to Canaan, Rebekah had plenty of opportunities to ask Eleazar about Isaac, and by the time she arrived, she knew all about his character and disposition. Her love for him grew with every step of her journey.

Just as our faith journeyed to the heavenly Canaan, we learned to supremely love our bridegroom through the guidance of the Holy Spirit of God.

And Isaac came from the way of the well Lehi Roi, for he dwelleth in the south country. Now Lehi Roi is where Hagar talked to God without seeing him.

This is a picture of Christ’s second presence, which is invisible to the natural eye. We know the Lord is present, though the world knows it not.

Verse 63 and Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide, and he lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, the camels were coming.

We can imagine Isaac’s excitement waiting for the servant to bring his bride to him.

Since 1874 our bridegroom has been meditating in the field in eventide.

We know that the field is the world. He is spiritually present in this world, but unseen by the world. He has drawn nearer to his bride spiritually since his second presence. He has been seeing his bride start to arrive since 1878, and he is waiting for her to arrive in her completeness, sometime not too far off.

Verses 64 and 65 and Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off the camel. For she had said unto the servant, what man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And the servant had said, it is my master. Therefore she took a veil and covered herself.

The Hebrew word for lighted and Rebekah lighted off her camel is the Strong’s 5307. It literally means fell and figuratively means to die. This along with Rebecca covering herself with a veil, pictures the bride of Christ passing into the spirit born condition beyond the veil of death to be with her Lord. This is a picture of the completion of the church.

These verses complete the beautiful picture of the church being guided by the Holy Spirit and the word of God to understand the presence of our Lord and to be united with him in the Spirit born condition beyond the veil.

Verses 66 and 67 and the servant told Isaac all the things he had done.

And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent and took Rebekah and she became his wife, and he loved her, and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.

We might logically ask the question, if Sarah was dead before the call of Rebekah to be Isaac’s wife, how is the church’s share in the Sarah covenant shown? This verse beautifully explains the answer. Sarah’s death before the bride of Isaac was called shows that the promised seed mentioned in the Abrahamic covenant was fulfilled in the person of our Lord Jesus, the heir and the only direct heir under that covenant. This the apostle clearly expresses saying in Galatians 3:16. He saith, not unto seeds as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ.

The context shows that he is speaking of our Lord Jesus alone in this verse. So then, how does the anatypical Rebecca share in the blessings of the serial feature of the Abrahamic covenant?

Galatians 3:29 and if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise in Galatians 4:28 now we brethren as Isaac was, are the children of promise. The promise Brother Paul is talking about is a spiritual promise of which Christ is the direct heir and we are the joint heirs. Through him we will become joint heirs of the Sarah covenant blessings by being united in marriage with Christ, just as Rebekah became joint heir of all that Isaac received from Father Abraham. This is clearly confirmed in the typical picture of Isaac receiving Rebekah in marriage into his mother’s tent. This is a picture of the entire Christian the bridegroom united with the bride at the end of the journey, illustrating how our heavenly bridegroom will bring us into the enjoyment of all things promised in the Sarah feature of the Abrahamic covenant.

Let’s recall what the primary blessing will be so that it will inspire us to be faithful. It’s the blessing of being united with our heavenly Lord and carrying out all of the remainder of our Heavenly Father’s plan for the salvation of the remainder of the human race. We know that the Rebekah class is a very small portion salvaged from Satan’s empire of death because only this small portion have been able to exercise the faith of Abraham. It will be our privilege, if faithful, to salvage as many as will be faithful to the call to human salvation under the mediatorial reign of Christ. What a blessing that will be, and what a stimulus for us to be faithful that we may share in that great work.

I’ve been applying these biblical narratives to the experiences of the church as a class because we are a community of believers like Abraham, Isaac and Rebekah within a larger community of nonbelievers. But now I’d like to focus on how this faith journey analogy can apply to the individual experiences of our lives as we travel under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, looking forward to the time when we shall meet our bridegroom in one sense our whole life. Since hearing the invitation is a faith journey, I Find it helpful, though, to see our faith journey in another way as well. It helps me to divide my lifelong faith journey into separate and distinct journeys so that the lessons can be learned more easily. This is the purpose of our journeys to learn, to progress, to draw closer in mind and character to our Lord.

Each faith journey is a collection of experiences that encompass at least one main lesson that helps us to move closer to perfecting one or more of the spiritual graces, such as mercy, forgiveness. That’s a big one. Love, obedience, submission to the divine will, self control, and so on. At the end of each journey, we should be able to look back and see that we have put more distance between our new creature and our fleshly weaknesses. When we’re on a faith journey, our characters should progress, gain capacity, become wiser, and grow stronger because of the journey.

Then, when we begin the next journey, we’ll be better able to cope because of what we’ve learned. So the faith journey doesn’t consist of the experiences alone, but more importantly, of the character lessons that we learn from the experiences. Our Lord permits and shapes the experiences within the journey, and we make the choices to follow his will wherever it takes us. If we allow the old mind to choose, we’ll never make it to the marriage.

But if, as new creatures, we continue to choose to go in the way of our consecration, then we will be united with our Savior at the end of our journey. We can be sure that Abraham, Isaac and Rebekah understood God better at the end of their faith journeys than at the beginning. They trusted him more. They loved him more. They understood the spiritual benefit of obedience, sacrifice, gratitude, and the peace of mind derived from faith.

The essence of the journey is not the distance we’ve traveled measured by works we’ve accomplished in God’s service. The real measure is a spiritual measure. Are we improving our character so that we’ll be progressing toward the great goal, the great journey of our life, which is to be united with Christ? And in considering our respective journeys, we know that by any measure, the most difficult faith journey was completed by our Lord Jesus. He left the heavenly glory and was transferred by His Father to the earthly realm to be a sacrifice for all mankind.

As pictured by Isaac, he has completed his faith journey, but we’re still journeying to him. We’re being escorted to him by God’s Holy Spirit and by the Word of God. We’ve already been betrothed to him and we’ve been given the spiritual gifts of betrothal, symbolized by the gifts from Eliezer to Rebecca these gifts include the divine invitation to joint heirship with our Lord, the ability to hear and understand the invitation, the robe of Christ’s righteousness, full justification by which we can be faithful to the invitation, all of the divine truth necessary to make our calling and election sure. Our Heavenly Father and our heavenly Bridegroom have provided everything necessary for our spiritual journey. Jesus learned in his life on earth to trust his Heavenly Father in all situations, continuously, 100%, all the way up until his final journey from Pilate’s Judgment hall to Calvary’s cross.

When he died on the cross, he proved he had given up everything human, just as he had committed to do at the Jordan river three and a half years before.

He was able to do this because, just like Isaac, he had complete confidence in his Heavenly father’s promises. Hebrews 10:35:36 Cast not away, therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward for ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. Jesus wanted to set an example for us and to show us the way for his bride to follow. So he gave for us this perfect example of quietly suffering unto death. But he was not willing that we should suffer nearly as much as he suffered.

So while we are still absent from the one we love, our beloved bridegroom, it remains for us to be faithful to him to whom we have already been betrothed, he of whom the apostle Peter spoke in 1 Peter 1:3 8 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Lord, which according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again into a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time, wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen ye love in whom though ye see him not yet, but believing ye, rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, and may the Lord add his blessing.

Click Here for the PDF transcript.