My Bible reading for today contained this wonderful story of faith and worship. It contains lessons we can apply today and making it personal, the lessons are for me to apply to my own current circumstances! That’s the way God works. He knows the paths we take, the things we are going through and as we seek His will and His face we find direction in His Word and through prayer and the events He brings into our lives if we are sensitive to His leading.

In our story Abraham was following God with all his heart. He had sojourned in the land of Caanan for many years and saw God work in many ways. He saw Him intervene when his nephew Lot was taken captive and provided a great rescue and victory. His wife Sarah became pregnant long after her child bearing years. He saw God’s hand in the testing of his faith when asked to offer up his son Isaac as a sacrifice. In all these things Abraham was faithful and worshipped his Creator. The Bible text of Genesis chapter 24 picks up the story….

Now Abraham was old, well advanced in age; and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. So Abraham said to the oldest servant of his house, who ruled over all that he had, “Please, put your hand under my thigh, and I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell; but you shall go to my country and to my family, and take a wife for my son Isaac.”

Lobo: So the servant obeys his master, prepares a caravan loaded with supplies and gifts and heads back to the land of Abraham’s family. Arriving, they stop at a well to drink….

And he made his camels kneel down outside the city by a well of water at evening time, the time when women go out to draw water. Then he said, “O Lord God of my master Abraham, please give me success this day, and show kindness to my master Abraham. Behold, here 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 your camels a drink’—let her be the one You have appointed for Your servant Isaac. And by this I will know that You have shown kindness to my master.”

Lobo: The servant employs a familiar method to find the Lord’s will in a matter and he puts out a “fleece” of sorts like Gideon did. He prays that God would confirm his steps by answering in a certain way. Even today we can pray as he did and God may choose to align our circumstances as well. So what happened? Read on!

And it happened, before he had finished speaking, that behold, Rebekah, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, came out with her pitcher on her shoulder. Now the young woman was very beautiful to behold, a virgin; no man had known her. And she went down to the well, filled her pitcher, and came up. And the servant ran to meet her and said, “Please let me drink a little water from your pitcher.” So she said, “Drink, my lord.” Then she quickly let her pitcher down to her hand, and gave him a drink. ¹⁹ And when she had finished giving him a drink, she said, “I will draw water for your camels also, until they have finished drinking.”

Lobo: Praise God! The servant received the answer just as he had requested! But there was one more piece to confirm. Was she a member of Abraham’s family? The story continues….

And the man, wondering at her, remained silent so as to know whether the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not. 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 tenshekels of gold, and said, “Whose daughter are you? Tell me, please, is there room in your father’s house for us to lodge?” So she said to him, “I am the daughter of Bethuel, Milcah’s son, whom she bore to Nahor.” Then the man bowed down his head and worshiped the Lord. And he said, “Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His mercy and His truth toward my master. As for me, being on the way, the Lord led me to the house of my master’s brethren.”

Lobo: This story comes to a hearwarming end. God confirms that Rebecca is the bride of His choice for Isaac. The servant takes her home and the scene of their meeting is one made for a movie that would surely win an Oscar trophy. The caravan approaches while Isaac is out meditating in a field…. 

And Isaac went out to meditate in the field in the evening; and he lifted his eyes and looked, and there, the camels were coming. Then Rebekah lifted her eyes, and when she saw Isaac she dismounted from her camel; for she had said to the servant, “Who is this man walking in the field to meet us?” The servant said, “It is my master.” So she took a veil and covered herself. And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. Then Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent; and he took Rebekah and she became his wife, and he loved her.

Lobo: The servant said that “Being on the way the Lord led me” which is a lesson in following the Lord. We must be about His business and His work in our world. We must be busy seeking His will and not just waiting for it to happen. We must listen for His voice in His Word, keenly listening for His whispers through prayer and meditation and we must move out, and while living for Him He will make our path clear.

“O rejoice in the Lord, He makes no mistakes. He knoweth the end of each path that I take. For when I am tried and purified, I shall come forth as gold.”

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