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Now, let's get started with today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzig. Originally, on St. Patrick's Day in Ireland, all the pubs were closed by law. They weren't open. It wasn't about drinking a Guinness or turning the river green.
The pubs were closed. People went to church, not to the pub. They spent the day with their family and their friends.
Like Thanksgiving, their family and friends had a meal together in one of the relatives' homes. As they celebrated together, Patrick, who in the fifth century was a missionary from Britain to the druids in what is today called Ireland. A missionary.
A missionary who, according to the stories, would teach people the gospel and biblical doctrine through very simple means like taking a clover, the three leaves of the clover, and pointing out the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, yet being one, three distinct parts. Well, over time, St. Patrick's Day became secularized like Valentine's Day and Christmas and every other holiday. The world got a hold of it and the world ruined it. Spiritual roots changed to a secular meaning.
Everything sort of does that, you notice. It is that way when it comes to dating. We'll find out in Genesis 24, though it's a long chapter, it's all about finding a wife for Isaac. And we find out that in those days, 4,000 years ago, the dating process was not left up to the individual. It was a family exercise.
It was a spiritual exercise. Now, I'll warn you about something in Genesis 24. As we read through it, it seems strange to us. 4,000 years have passed and the way Americans find husbands and wives is a far cry from how the ancient peoples in the patriarchal era found husbands and wives. And we're going to read through this and it's so different from what we're used to. We don't quite get it.
It's hard to wrap our brains around it. The idea of marriages being arranged, first of all. That the parents chose the mate for the child.
And then that one of the servants goes out and he is responsible for fulfilling the father's wish and bringing the bride back. The whole concept that commitment came before love or the feeling, the emotion of love. That there was, first of all, the commitment, the will came before the romance.
It's reversed today. Today, it's you feel feelings of romance. You're interested. You take the gal out for a few times and then you, after the awkward stage, start communicating about, I'd like to hang out with you a little bit more than we have been. Trying to get a read on does that girl or does that guy like me like I like him or I really don't like him.
How do I let him know that he's just really an idiot and I don't want to be with him at all without hurting his feelings. All of that stuff was bypassed in ancient times. However, it's foreign to us.
So I'm just warning you of that in advance. Also, there was the payment of a dowry. Now a dowry in those days was sort of like alimony in advance. It was paid by the groom's family to the bride's family. The father of the bride received the mohar, the dowry, and he could only collect the interest on the dowry and use that for himself. But the dowry itself was kept intact. Just in case that man, that husband, divorced that woman and she would then have to go back home, she would have something to live on. Or if her husband died, she would have something to live on. Also, the dowry was in part a payment to the family because they lost a good worker, a laborer. And you'll see something in this text that girls in those days did the bulk of the physical labor.
So when you remove a good work hand from the ranch, one who could pull in the necessary income, when you remove that income, you have to supplement that income with something. We see that as well, something that is not done today. Now if you think about it, Adam had it made. Because the Bible says God made the woman and brought the woman to the man.
Wouldn't that be nice? If it were only that simple today, God just fashions out of one part of you someone who's perfect for you and then brings that woman to the man. Knock on the door, there's your wife. Special order from God. But today it's far different. We're involved in the process. And even here we find that Isaac and the servant is involved in the process. Now that process, we call it dating or courtship, whatever term you want to spin on it, we're involved at a human level in the process.
But of course, God should always be involved and we're the ones that should include him. One of the biggest challenges in life is to find the right person that is suitable for another right person. And I found a little article in Psychology Today about a dating experience. It probably would be filed under the world's worst dates.
Here's the article I found. Mike Driggs picked up Pam Sears for what he thought would be an enjoyable dinner date. After getting completely lost for the out of town restaurant as they were looking for it, Mike's car ran out of gas, not on purpose. Walking almost two miles to a service station, the couple borrowed a gas can and hitched a ride back down the road with a tow truck driver. Upon returning to the spot where they left the car, they discovered it had been stolen.
Back at the service station, they waited 45 minutes for the police to arrive and another two hours for the completion of the police report. A $20 cab ride got the couple to an airport car rental agency. Seemingly undaunted, Mike insisted on taking her out to dinner. When they came out of the restaurant, Mike was informed that the parking valet had backed the rental car into a guardrail. To make matters worse, on the way to Pam's house, they got ticketed for not having brake lights. Once they arrived at Pam's house, Pam invited Mike to come inside. Mike opened the front door only to be greeted by a bite on the arm from Pam's German shepherd. The bite required eight stitches, which he received in the emergency room at one o'clock in the morning. That's a bad date.
Now the outcome of this fiasco is that Pam started dating the intern in the hospital. When I was in India several years ago and I met with ministry leaders in India, I was shocked. I was amazed to discover that in many parts of that country still, in Christian homes, marriages are arranged by parents. Much like we read it here with Abraham and his son Isaac.
They're arranged by the parents. My jaw dropped. And I went, because it was so archaic to me in this modern culture, this computer culture. And so as we started having the conversation, the ministry leader said, however you argue the point, I will tell you that our divorce rate is very, very small.
How about yours? And as he explained it to me, certain things began to make sense. What made sense is you have a culture where relationships are based upon decision, will, and commitment before emotions and romance enter the picture. So that societally the stability of that relationship is far better than otherwise. They just are raised and go into it understanding, I'm going to make a commitment. I'm going to exercise my will regardless of who that person is. And in the Christian home, trusting that the Lord is behind it all. Again, I know that sounds really wild and foreign to us.
And you're thinking, note to self, never moved to India. But let's get into our study and see some of these elements tonight. It says Abraham was old and well advanced in age. So we're told the same thing twice. And he was probably 137 to 140.
That would fit that description. And the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. So Abraham said to the oldest servant of the house, who ruled over all that he had, please put your hand under my thigh. Again, now we go, now that's weird. That's something I wasn't expecting to read.
Come here, dude, put your hand right here under my thigh. We think, ah, not going to happen. See, in those days, when oaths were made, when promises were made, they didn't have a Bible. So they couldn't say, place your hand on the Bible and do you swear to tell the truth. They didn't have Bibles. And by the way, I don't know that putting your hand on a Bible and swearing to tell the whole truth is necessarily the best idea, because if you're a liar, you'll lie whether you put your hand on the Bible or not.
It really is irrelevant. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we get back to Skip's teaching, it's more important than ever for Christians to stand for truth in our broken culture. And in the God Speaks biblical answers for today's issues collection of booklets from Skip Heitzig, you'll get equipped to speak God's timeless truth into the big issues of our time. God Speaks biblical answers for today's issues is our thanks for your gift of at least $50 today to help share biblical teaching with more people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your resources when you give $50 or more today to help reach people around the world with the good news of Jesus through Connect with Skip Heitzig.
Let's continue with today's teaching with Pastor Skip. In those days to make an oath, the idea of the thigh was this is the strongest muscle. And you are swearing with my strength. You and I are making a covenant together.
You and I are entering into a covenant. And since a child was said to come from the thigh or the loins, both of those were interchangeable terms. And this was a servant being dispatched to find a wife for the son so that more children could be born.
This was a very common practice. The hand on the thigh, the muscle of great strength. And I will make you swear verse three, by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell. If you have a son or a daughter of marital age, pray that they won't take a wife or a husband from among the Canaanites. Unbelievers.
Those who don't know the Lord. That was Abraham's huge issue here. He did not want his son intermarrying with the population of the land in which he was a stranger in the land of promise because they did not have the same world view and value system that he had come to have since he left Ur of the Chaldees and God revealed himself to him.
He wanted to make sure that they were members of his own family. Even though he had left Ur, his servant was to go back there and get someone that was closer, not from the Canaanites. But you shall go to my country and my family and take a wife for my son Isaac. The servant in this passage, you'll read about the servant, the servant, the servant, the servant all the way through, but he's not named at all. He's the unnamed servant of this chapter.
However, he does have a name. We find his name a few chapters before in Genesis chapter 15 verse 2, the servant's name is Eliezer. It's interesting to note that the term Eliezer means my God, the helper, or it means comforter. So don't you find it interesting that a father in finding a wife for his son dispatches the unnamed servant named helper or comforter.
And you're going to find a typology here in this chapter, a type of the Holy Spirit who Jesus said is our helper, our comforter, who was sent into the world to draw people to the need of Christ, to draw out of the world a people for himself, a bride for the bridegroom, Jesus Christ, a Gentile bride is sought for. And so he is dispatched. The servant said to him, perhaps the woman, verse 5, will not be willing to follow me to this land must I take your son back from the land which you came.
Now I've got a question. Here is the servant, the son isn't even involved. Isaac isn't consulted, Abraham doesn't go, son come in here. Let me tell you what's up. Now is this okay with you?
He's not even in the picture. Here's dad talking to the eldest servant, Eliezer, head of the household, guy in charge, say look my son needs a wife, you're going to find him, you're going to be the matchmaker. Would you entrust your marital future to someone else? Be careful how you answer that because it's leading somewhere.
Here's the answer I would give you. It depends who that other person is. In fact I would submit to you that the real key to a strong enduring eternal marital relationship is to entrust your marital future to a third party. And even as Isaac had to trust the servant and ultimately trust his father for this decision, so we too should be willing to trust God as our heavenly father in finding the right one. There's a beautiful passage of scripture in Ecclesiastes, I like to read it at weddings, it's about friendship. Ecclesiastes chapter 4 right around verses 9 through 12, it says this, Solomon says, two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall one will help up his companion, but woe to him who is alone when he falls, he has no one to help him up. Again if two lie down together they will stay warm, but how can one be warm alone? Though one may be overpowered by another, yet two can withstand him, and this is how it ends, but a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
Here's the meaning essentially, he's speaking of friendship. Two is better than one, you've got strength, you've got accountability, you've got warmth, you've got encouragement. If you fall down you've got somebody to pick the other person up. Two is better than one. Every couple getting married believes that two is better than one, otherwise they'd stay single. They'd say one is better than two, but the fact that they're getting married shows that they believe that two is better than one.
These two together are better than either of us on our own. Two is better than one, but essentially Solomon says three is better than two. Now how does that apply to marriage? Well, as you are committing yourself to another person in a marriage relationship, if you had the strength of God that would wind himself around the commitment that you take, your strength is infinite. A threefold cord or a rope of three strands is not quickly broken.
It's a beautiful analogy. If you took a single string and you hung a weight from it, and then you put a little more weight on it, a little more weight on it, eventually it's going to have a breaking point. It's going to snap. If you double the weight and you take two pieces of string and wrap them together and you hang a weight on it, and then more weight and more weight, it's going to withstand more.
But if you add another strand exponentially, the strength of that strand goes up. So if it's a husband and a wife and they look dreamy-eyed and they say, I love you, I'll always love you, you can count on me, well, till death do us part. Often it's not till death do us part. It's like till death do us part, but I'm going to kill you by the end of the week. Or it's till death do us part. Or it's till you get ugly and I get ugly and we find somebody better luck and do us part. But imagine if a young man and a young woman had the strength of God himself wrapped around that relationship and entrusted their future to the God who would bring them together, how different it would be. So here's the father finding a wife for his son, Isaac, entrusting the unnamed servant to go get one. And you'll see it's the perfect one. She's beautiful. She wants to go.
And it's a marriage that will last. So look at verse five again. The servant said to him, perhaps the woman will not be willing to follow me to this land. Must I bring your son back to the land from which you came? But Abraham said to him, beware that you do not take my son back there. He didn't want his son going back. His son had been here in Canaan. This is the land God wanted him to remain in. He had already left a couple times, remember.
He learned the lesson. I don't want my son leaving this land. He's staying here.
He might just decide to hang back at home. Oh, this is kind of a cool place. I didn't know about this place. I'm just going to be here. Don't even bring him back. You know, there are certain places God just doesn't want you or I to go. Don't bring him back.
Just go on this mission, but don't bring him back. Verse seven, the Lord God of heaven who took me from my father's house and from the land of my family and who spoke to me and swore to me saying to your descendants I give this land, he will send his angel before you and you shall take a wife from my son from there. Now there's a principle I want you to notice before we go on in this story, and that is another principle of a long lasting relationship. It's the principle of separation.
Abraham does not want his son marrying a pagan Canaanite without the same worldview and belief in God that he has. Now there's a principle in the New Testament that goes beautifully with this. You know it well and probably some of you knew I would be going there. I'm going to read it to you. It's out of 2 Corinthians chapter six. Let me read it to you. Oh Corinthians, we have spoken openly to you. Our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections. Now in return for the same I speak to you children, you also be open. Just so you know in context Paul is going to say, you guys need to be very careful the relationships you have because some of the people around you are false prophets, false teachers, and they're ruining the fabric of truth within the church.
Listen to what he says and the way he puts it. Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers for what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?
And what agreement has the temple of God with idols for you are the temple of the living God? It's a very powerful analogy. It's a farming analogy. A farmer would be wise when he wants to work a field to pick two animals that will be yoked together with the same size, the same temperament, not a clean and an unclean animal, not an ox and a goat. He wants to get two animals, same species, same size, same temperament because they need to plow in the same direction. They need to go in the same direction. The unequal yoke. Another translation puts it this way. Don't be mismated with unbelievers. So now put it in a relational context, a marriage context. If you're a believer and if in your heart you truly want to go God's way and do God's work and fulfill God's will for your life, that's the direction you're going in. Do you really think an unbeliever wants to serve the Lord and work for the Lord and go in God's direction? No. So when you get married, essentially you and her or you and he, if you're a girl and I'm speaking to both men and women, if you go under the yoke because you're going to be tied together in marriage, you'll be going in opposite directions. Can you imagine two animals trying to plow a field that are trying to work in opposite directions?
No work will get done. So don't be mismated or don't be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We hope you've been strengthened in your walk with Jesus by today's program. Before we let you go, we want to remind you about this month's resources that will help you confidently speak God's timeless truth into our culture. Pastor Skip's God Speaks biblical answers for today's issues collection of booklets is our thanks for your support of Connect with Skip Heitzig today. Request your copy when you give $50 or more. Call 800-922-1888. That's 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. And did you know that you can get a weekly devotional and other resources from Pastor Skip sent right to your email inbox? Simply visit connectwithskip.com and sign up for emails from Skip. Come back next time for more verse by verse teaching of God's Word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you with the changing truth in ever-changing times.
