Abrahams Unnamed Servant (Part C)

You better understand, you have entered into a covenant with God.

And if you dare to dare Him and His answer doesn't come up the way you wanted to, then you have to live with it. So it's best not to do it. I think we're too carnal to do it. There may be some that are spiritual enough to pull it off. I don't know of them, except the characters in Scripture. So be very careful on how you approach the Lord and speak to Him, especially when you want something very much. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Genesis.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Now, here's Pastor Rick with his study called Abraham's Unnamed Servant in Genesis chapter 24. God has made His will clear when He has spoken to us.

I want you to do this and we hesitate. There's no hesitation in this oldest servant of Abraham. I said now he got that from Abraham and I'm going to show you from the Scripture how Abraham treated moments of urgency.

And there's great urgency about all of this. Before I read that from Abraham, just look with me at verse 17 of Genesis 24. The servant ran to meet her. And then verse 28. So the young woman ran and told her mother's household.

And then we read it again, verse 29. Now Rebecca had a brother whose name was Laban and Laban ran out to meet the man by the well. The servant ran to meet Rebecca. Rebecca ran home to tell everybody.

Laban heard it, ran out to meet the man. So this is all of this activity going on. And God knows precisely what He's doing and so does the servant. And now he won't be held back from his run home with the prize. The prize. That's what we are to Jesus. We are a prize to Him.

Not in a cheap sense but something that is wonderful, something to be desired, something to be spent upon to get. Genesis 17. This is Abraham acting when God said get Ishmael out the house.

Watch how quickly Abraham responds. It tells us in verse 23 of Genesis 17. So Abraham took Ishmael his son.

All who were born in his house and all who were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house. Pardon me, I said this was when he was putting Ishmael out. This was when he was circumcised. And circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very same day as God had said to him. And so God says I want you to circumcise the men of your house, the ones you've bought, the ones who were born in your house, every male. And he does it that day.

No delay. And then in 19, Genesis 19 verse 27, this is when Sodom and Gomorrah was being judged and Abraham arose the next day and it says and Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord. He had prayed for Sodom and Gomorrah.

He had interceded on its behalf. Incidentally, with the exception of that prayer for Sodom and Gomorrah, the prayers of this servant is the second time in the book of Genesis that prayers are recorded. And I think that alone is significant to this unnamed servant that if you are going to be such a child of God, prayer has got to be part of your faith. What makes us not want to pray? Doubt. Why bother? God's not going to do it. Because do what he's going to do anyway. Yeah, but no matter what he does, you won't be part of it unless you pray. It's not win columns.

You know, while I got 20 wins and three losses, my earned run average is pretty, it's not statistical. It's faith. It's an act of obedience. It's an act of I care about what you care about and as Samuel said, I shall not sin against the Lord by not praying for you.

Can't escape it. No Christian has to depend on another person to pray for them, but we want them to because we can pray directly. Chapter 21 of Genesis verse 14, we read again about Abraham complying and this time it is about putting Ishmael out. So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and putting it on her shoulder, that is Hagar, he gave it and the boy to Hagar and sent her away.

That's tough. That's what God told him to do. Abraham created that mess as we do. Whenever you want to bring about a victory for God and it's in your own strength, you're creating a Hagar and it will come back and enslave you.

It will put you in a situation that you will regret. There is reality, there are realities in this life that are inescapable and we must sober up and approach life in the presence of God realizing that we are more dependent than we imagine. Genesis 22 verse 3, another illustration. So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son and he split the wood, the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

God said I want you to sacrifice your son. Abraham got up early in the morning and attacked that. We read about this in life of Joshua too and I'm of the mind that Joshua knew these stories.

I'm of the mind that Abraham was a hero to any Jewish man, any Jewish woman who wanted to please Jehovah. They learned from him. Prayer is no substitute for action. That is part of the lesson. That is part of the urgency that belongs to the life of Abraham. Once he was sure of God's will and God's commandment in his life, he moved on it and if in the midst he should find out that it was his own will then he was to abandon his plan and seek the Lord yet again. This servant in chapter 24 never owns anything more than the title servant as I mentioned 14 times in 15 statements or it is applied to him. No name, no possessions, just the oldest, the servant, the servant of Abraham.

That's the only way he's referred to throughout this whole chapter. The oldest servant, the servant, the servant of Abraham. His identity was absorbed in his master's identity. It sounds like Christianity, what it's supposed to be. We Christians are supposed to be being absorbed into the identity of Christ. Matthew's Gospel chapter 20 verses 27 and 28, Jesus speaking, and whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave. Just as the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life ransom for many.

Jesus is telling us this is why I came here, this is what I want from you. You see but I, you know, I never seem to, I hear these things, I never seem to get there. How far behind would you be if you gave up? Okay, you never hit the bullseye. How close to the target would you be if you never even aimed?

You didn't even point at the direction of the target. That's the idea behind overcoming the temptation to abandon the ideals. Well that's the standard that's too high, I'll never make it, so quit.

You see now that's not a thought I'm comfortable with. If all I need do is follow the Lord and stick to him it's better than following the world and sticking to my flesh. This man is a shameless servant and he's letting everybody know as he tells the story that he is a servant and he has no inhibitions about it. Never do we hear of him speaking on his own behalf outside of the context of obeying Abraham. He is the finest type appearing as the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. We're going to take these New Testament verses, if you've been attending this church for any length of time you know we've read these often but we need to go over them yet again. John's Gospel chapter 14 verse 26.

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. You know that hand under the thigh thing was to bring remembrance. It was to bring the contract.

It was to seal the contract but it was to keep it before them. The Holy Spirit is faithful. He does not forget what he is supposed to do. He does not forget his role.

He understands and we, we are not supposed to forget ours either. John's Gospel chapter 15 verse 26. But the Helper, that is the Paraclete in the Greek. It is the Holy Spirit.

That's who it is referring to. It is Jesus. Jesus is giving, each illustration I'm giving you from John is Jesus leaving the upper room, heading towards Gethsemane. He's going to be crucified that night. He is investing in the day of Pentecost which is about 50 days away, a little bit more from, from this time that he's teaching them. He is teaching them about the Holy Spirit, the servant of God within the Trinity that will come for them and, and minister to them.

Not come for them like take them home but come on their behalf. But when the Helper comes whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify of me. Well that's the servant. That's the servant here in Genesis 24.

And then John's Gospel chapter 16 verses 17, 13 through 17. However, when he, now notice the personal pronouns, all referring to the Holy Spirit, eliminating any notion that he is an it or a thing, he is a person, he is a third person of the Trinity, a member of the Godhead, Father, Son, Holy Spirit and no more. However, when he, the Spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all truth for he will not speak on his own authority. Ergo, the servant in Genesis 24, not speaking about himself but about Isaac and Abraham. He continues, but whatever he is he will speak and he will tell you things to come. He will glorify me for he will take of what is mine and declare it to you. The servant took what was of Abraham and declared it to Rebekah.

Genesis chapter 24, I think verse 10. The servant, this is when he is leaving the camp of Abraham and says the servant took 10 of his master's camels and departed for all his master's goods were in his hands and he arose and went to Mesopotamia to the city of Nahor. He's in possession of his master's possessions on behalf of his master. He could have, he could have gone off to Damascus or some other place. He could have stolen the goods. He had other men with him. I believe those 10 camels were the gifts. He had other camels for the transportation. It's not clearly stated but we know that he gave some of these camels to the house of Laban but he also had to have a camel for Rebekah and her maids to make the trip back to Isaac and so we come back to John's gospel again and there we read, he will glorify me for he will take of what is mine and declare it to you. All things that the father has are mine therefore I said that he will take of mine and declare it to you. Well I think that that makes the point sufficiently and I'm not going to stay in John any further to develop that thought but in this we are again seeing this servant as also a type of the Holy Spirit and this success that he enjoyed was because of his devotion, yes to his master but more importantly his dependency on God.

It is inescapable in the story. Look at Genesis 24 verse 12. After he arrives and he has the camels kneeled down outside the city by the well, verse 12 it says, he said oh Lord God of my master Abraham. Now he is not disowning God. He knows his place.

He knows his role. Moses has recorded this as it was handed to him so that no one could interject into this story that this man served some other God. It will come out personally later on. We're not there yet but there it is and nonetheless oh Lord God of my master Abraham please give me success this day and show kindness to my master Abraham. Behold I stand by the well of water and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. Now let it be that the young woman to whom I say please let down your pitcher that I may drink and she says drink and I will also give you your camels a drink. Let her be the one you have appointed for your servant Isaac.

That's the 15th. I told you there were 15 times the word servant appeared in this in reference to this unnamed servant 14 times but the one other time it is to Isaac who is a type of Jesus Christ. The perfect servant from Isaiah's prophecies. The servant of the New Testament and he says you have appointed for your servant Isaac and by this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master. Now I mentioned that he embraces the angel of the Lord being with him.

I mentioned to you that Abraham's God was his God. Verse 48 he says and I bowed my head and worshipped Jehovah and blessed Jehovah God for my master Abraham who had led me in the way of truth to take the daughter of my master's brother for his son. And so there we see him owning the Lord as his Lord and there I mentioned to you that he also mentions the angel of the Lord being his and that is in verse 40 but he said the Lord before whom I walk will send his angel with you and prosper you on the way. He's quoting what Abraham said to him to the house of Laban and he's claiming it as his own. He's telling him the story how God is a part of all of this how he expressed doubts to his master. His master refuted the doubt and told him that the angel of the Lord would be with him and prosper his way and then he worshipped God for answering his prayer as the story developed.

I might be moving a little quickly here but I'm trying to capture as many major points from this as I can and it is quite a bit and I hope I'm not losing you with this. Verse 52 this is once he finally knows that Rebekah is going with him and it came to pass when Abraham's servant heard their words that he worshipped Jehovah bowing himself to the earth. He had already said to the Lord Lord Abraham did not tell him this this is his insight Lord the woman that comes out with the women the one to whom I say may I have a drink and she brings the jar down to pour me a drink and then she voluntarily offers to water the camels.

That's a big deal. Camel holds 20 to 25 gallons of water. He had at least 10 of them. Her jug probably held a gallon gallon and a half. She pours the water into the trough several times until all the camels had a chance to drink and weren't thirsty and so this was remarkable.

He sort of set out a fleece. You better understand you have entered into a covenant with God and if you dare to dare him and his answer doesn't come up the way you wanted to then you have to live with it so it's best not to do it. I think we're too carnal to do it. There may be some that are spiritual enough to pull it off I don't know of them except the characters in scripture. So be very careful on how you approach the Lord and speak to him especially when you want something very much. I think the scripture answers these things Paul three times in three paramount writings of the New Testament saying the just shall live by faith.

Remember the apostles they abandoned the casting of lots in the book of Acts when the Holy Spirit came. And so the proverbs that we all like to quote the proverb that we like to quote Proverbs 3 6th in all your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths. That is precisely the story of this servant and he was good with it. He was prepared to fail.

He knew that was a possibility. Wisdom had given him that. He was not going to simply abandon it but Abraham introduced another concept.

The concept of trust. The concept of believing what God had said to him personally and working in the strength of the promises of God and he was now living the life of a man of faith far away from his master. He could not dial up Abraham and say now what I do he was on his own and so the tithes were briefly cover them and then were closed. Just to remind you this servant heard no voices dream no dream saw no lights yet the Lord led him as we read in verse 48. I'm going to take that section again. And I bowed my head and worshiped Jehovah and blessed Jehovah God of my master Abraham who had led me in the way of truth.

That is the ideal. Now as to this type he brings these gifts that he first introduces to her in verse 22. After she waters the camels and he knows that this is her and incidentally the Bible happens to insert that the servant felt she was beautiful.

I think that you know this is a heavy responsibility. He goes to find another man's wife and he is applying his standard of beauty on behalf of another one. I think I have to say that because I don't want you to think when the scripture says that she was beautiful that that therefore means that this satisfies some public imagination or standard of beauty. It is still in the confines of faith.

All of it. That Isaac would be attracted to her but I'm kind of getting off course here. Verse 22 after she watered the camels so it was when the camels had finished drinking that the man took a golden nose ring weighing half a shekel and two bracelets for her wrists weighing ten shekels of gold.

I think if the nose ring was ten shekels instead of half a shekel she would have tipped over but that's why we don't advise you to wear nose rings. But anyway he gives her gifts and so what we're seeing is he's saying listen I come from a place of resource. I'm showing you a little something about your husband to be. This is what God does with the church. He shows the church things about himself so that we're not just taking it sight unseen. Ephesians chapter 5 verse 27 that he might present her to himself a glorious church having not spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that she should be holy and without blemish.

Well she has arrived at such a place because she has trusted the Lord and the riches of his glory. Ephesians 1 7. In him we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. And this is a theme that is made clear to us throughout the Ephesian letter and it is part of what is taking place in this relationship when he takes out the gifts and he's beginning to give her proofs that her future is secure as does God. Whether he gives us the riches of Bible exposition or he does something in our life certainly is a combination of these things as we go through our Christian life. God is saying I have all the riches of glory. I am real.

There are proofs to my existence. I give you gifts so of insight and gifts in life that you may know that I indeed am God. Also in this chapter we read 23 times the pronoun for she. The pronoun she appears in reference to Rebecca who is a type of the church. She is the object. She is the prize of the father and the son. She is the prize of the father and the son and the unnamed servant also. All three of them are focused on Rebecca the father the son and the Holy Spirit.

All three of them are focused on us. We are the prize the church. This is part of the type that comes out. Revelation 2 17 he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches to him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat and I will give him a white stone and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it unnamed among men not with God. This white stone that means you've not been blackballed. That means that when you leave this life you've not been blackballed out of heaven.

You get the white stone you're voted in based on your decision to receive Jesus Christ and his finished work. Revelation 3 12 he who overcomes I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God and he shall go out no more I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God the new Jerusalem which comes down out of heaven from my God and I will write on him my new name. And so God is particular about names and I close with this verse verse 61. Incidentally verse 67 says that Isaac loved her. The first time we read of the word love in the Bible is in the context of the father's love for his son.

The second time we read of love in the Bible is in the context of a husband's love for his bride and this is this is of course a type of the love of Jesus for us all of us and of course if you've got problems with legalism you think it's just you but verse 61 look at the last part of that verse so the servant took Rebecca and departed that's what will happen to each believer the servant will take us and we will say I will go. You've been listening to Cross Reference Radio the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville, Virginia. Pastor Rick is teaching from God's word each time you tune in.

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