20250223_IWillNotLeaveThee

[0:00] Where did we leave? We took a break last week, so we'll have to really churn up a little bit to remember. Where did we leave two weeks ago? What was going on?

[0:24] Okay, Sherry, you go ahead and answer. His servant had arrived at the well. He had asked a young woman for a drink of water.

[0:37] She offered to water his camel to the well. This is what he had asked for as a sign from God. Okay, so God gave him the sign. So she's drawing water.

[0:52] Okay, that's where we're beginning. The next questions are going to involve especially verses 21 through 27. We'll take a moment to read that.

[1:07] Okay. Okay, so Rebecca is watering the camels now.

[1:36] Now, what's the, what's Abraham's steward doing? Well, in a moment, what's he do first?

[1:55] It says, Well, do you see how it begins? Read. Yeah, David, read verse 21, would you please?

[2:10] That word, wondering at her.

[2:22] He's gazing. He's staring at her. Well, not in a, not in a creepish way. He's thinking, because what's he thinking about?

[2:33] Is this really the woman? That's what he's thinking about. And, so, now we get to the jewelry.

[2:50] Who spoke about the jewelry? Okay, yes. What's he do then? He's made up his mind. This is the woman. Right?

[3:00] Now, what's he do? He gives her some rings and bracelets.

[3:15] So, and it, well, at the time of this writing, at the time, well, not of this writing, of this writing.

[3:28] In October. In October, the spot price of gold. So, approximately, he, the earring was half a shekel, 5.7 grams roughly, about 490 bucks.

[3:50] For the earring. And the bracelets for her hands were about $9,800. That's a pretty nice gift.

[4:08] Or at least in my thinking, that's a pretty nice gift. And then, he says what? Yeah, he asked her two questions.

[4:20] He said, who's your dad? And? Is there room for us to stay? Okay.

[4:31] Good. Now, what does Rebecca answer? Rebecca answer. Okay.

[4:54] Okay. So, she gives both, she answers both his questions. She said, I'm the daughter of Bethuel. Nahor's son.

[5:06] Well, the steward knows who Nahor is, because he's been with Abraham for a long time. He's the steward of Abraham's estate.

[5:19] So, he knows the name. And then she said, not only that, but yeah, we have room for you. And we have feed for the camels.

[5:32] And you can stay with us. Now, what does she do? Well, before that, I want to get back to what the servant does when she says that.

[5:49] This will be in verses 26 and 27 especially. What does the servant say? He worshiped the Lord.

[6:02] He worshiped God. And he said, Thank you for leaving, thank you for blessing Abraham, my master, and for leading me to exactly the same place.

[6:22] Now, let me, let's kind of rehearse this a little bit. Did God lead him? Where's this happenstance? Is this fortuitous?

[6:36] Or is it providential? What's the difference? If I say it's fortuitous, I mean it's good fortune.

[6:49] It's, I'm glad this happened. If it's providential, I'm saying God made this happen. There's, there's, there's a difference.

[7:03] Now, for the Christian, in this day, and I think of your grandma right now and what your family's going through or what other families are going through.

[7:29] What do we want to happen? I'm sorry? Well, what's the best? Well, what God wants is the best.

[7:43] What do I want to happen? I want recovery. Right. And are we to pray for that? Yes.

[7:55] What's he say? He says, Make all your requests be made known unto God. Now, does God know what I'm thinking? So I don't really need to tell him, do I?

[8:08] However, he gives me that privilege. He, he gives me the privilege if I'm in Christ. I don't know about the people who are not in Christ if they can approach the throne of grace.

[8:23] Because I don't think they can until they approach it through the beloved. But, if I am in Christ, he gives me the privilege to talk to the creator of the universe.

[8:37] The sustainer of the universe. So he says, Make all your requests be made known unto God and God will give me what I want.

[8:51] What? A whole bunch of you said no. What's up? I thought if I had enough faith, I'd get everything.

[9:06] Some people do. I had, I heard, I'll call him a preacher. I heard a preacher one time say, the Lord, God doesn't want the Christian, the Holy Spirit indwells you and he doesn't want, he does, the Holy Spirit doesn't want to indwell a temple with dirty windows.

[9:30] You ought to have faith enough, your eyes will be healed. That's exactly what he said. Now, is that true? Why not?

[9:50] And now we come back to the will of God thing, right? Let me ask you this. When you hear something like that, you often hear about Jesus healing, right?

[10:09] When Jesus came to Israel, he healed the sick, he raised the dead, lame walked the blind saw. Did that really happen?

[10:21] Yes. Why? Why? I'm sorry? Well, yeah, because he wanted to, but very, well, it's a verification.

[10:43] In fact, Jesus himself used that as a statement. Remember when the Pharisees accused him of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub by the power of Satan.

[11:02] By the way, a little social reference here. Beelzebub, what's that name mean? Lord of the flies.

[11:14] Does that ring a book? I mean a bell. How many have read it? Actually, it's not bad for understanding human nature, is it?

[11:28] But, anyhow, back to the real point. The Pharisees accused him of casting out demons by the power of Satan. Now, Jesus said a couple of things.

[11:41] One of them, a house divided and that kind of thing. But, specifically, what he said was, if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then know this, this is God's witness.

[12:02] And then he says one of the most powerful things, and don't, don't let anybody misread you on this. He said, those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven.

[12:21] Now, that was to a specific group at a specific time for a very specific reason. What Jesus is saying here is, look, these miracles are attestations of who I am and my authority.

[12:40] Now, did calming the sea heal anyone? But it displayed his authority over creation.

[12:57] He, he displayed his authority over creation, the natural elements. He displayed his authority over diseases, and he displayed his authority over death.

[13:12] That's specifically why he did it. Now, can he, well, let me ask you another question. Did Jesus, when he walked upon the earth, in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and John, when he walked upon the earth, did he have the authority to heal anyone?

[13:33] one? Yes. Now, there is no, it's not definite that Jesus ever actually addressed a Gentile, but he healed two Gentiles.

[13:54] Only two, and for a very specific point. the one woman, the first, was a woman, and she begged for healing for her daughter.

[14:09] And he said, it is not fit that the bread be taken from the children and given to the dogs. Now, he's not calling Gentiles dogs. Don't misunderstand that.

[14:22] That's a proverb, because he also talked about you don't cast pearls before swine. He's not calling people swine. He's just saying, look, there's a proverb you don't, in the case of the pearls before swine, you don't waste time.

[14:41] Proverbs kind of, Proverbs kind of puts it this way, if you answer a fool in his folly, don't. Right?

[14:52] Anyway, back to the real point. So, he said, the woman said, that's true.

[15:09] He's saying, don't take the kingdom and give it to the Gentiles, it's not ready. He didn't say the it's not ready, but that's really what he's saying. Don't take the kingdom and give it to the Gentiles.

[15:22] And she said, that's true. And then she said a very telling thing. But even the children get, even the dogs eat the crumbs. Now, that is a statement from the Old Testament that says that all of the world is going to be blessed through the believing Israel.

[15:41] And those who do not bless Israel in that time are going to what? They're going to suffer. They're going to be destroyed. those who do will be blessed.

[15:55] And he said, because of that faith, I'm going to heal her. The other one was a centurion and he made another one. He asked for the healing of a servant, right?

[16:08] and he's a Gentile. Now, it doesn't say that he addressed him. He sent emissaries.

[16:20] So, nevertheless, he wants Jesus to heal him. But he says, you don't really need to come. Why?

[16:31] Why? Believe what? He said, you have the authority to do this anywhere at a distance.

[16:45] He said, I'm a man that has authority. I have people under me. I tell one to do something and he does it. He recognized Jesus' authority.

[16:58] And because of that, Jesus healed his servant. Now, back to the point. When Jesus walked on the earth, did he have authority to heal anyone?

[17:12] Yeah. And he displayed it, by the way. Did he have authority to heal everyone? Yeah. But did he?

[17:24] Because it really wasn't in the plan yet. See, he didn't just heal to heal people. he healed because it was an attestation of the holy of God.

[17:41] This is my beloved son. Do this. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. So, back to us.

[17:54] We pray for healing and I sincerely want it. It's easy for me to quote from Corinthians and say God's grace is sufficient when I'm not in the middle of it.

[18:12] But very frankly, when I pray, I'm really praying for the healing. I'm not necessarily praying for the grace. grace. I do want the grace.

[18:24] I remember a friend of mine who was diagnosed with cancer. He was in the waning days of his life. And he said, pray for me that I don't waste this disease.

[18:48] Because he trusted God and he didn't want the end of his life to be messy. As far as I've lived well, I want to die well.

[19:06] By the way, very few of us are going to die well if we don't practice living well. I suspect. So my obedience to the Lord is pretty important now.

[19:22] I'd better learn it now while it's easy. Because days will be dark sometimes. Okay. So, did God guide the servant to Rebecca?

[19:37] And did he choose Rebecca for Isaac? Isaac? The servant said so, didn't he? Now, was the servant right?

[19:52] Yes. Think about did Abraham have any other children besides Isaac?

[20:05] Yeah. What did God tell him? It is through Isaac that your seed will be named. Later on, I'm going to get in the time machine and move ahead a little bit.

[20:23] We're not too far from there. Isaac and Rebecca are going to have twins, aren't they? Well, Rebecca's going to do all the work, but, okay.

[20:38] What, who are they? Jacob and Esau. Who did God choose to carry it?

[20:52] Jacob. Paul is going to refer to that in Romans to say, look, it's God who does this work.

[21:07] Okay. So, he leads Rebecca and he answers the prayer. The servant gives her gifts and she runs home.

[21:21] What is, this will be verses 28 through 33. she runs home and does what?

[21:40] She tells the household about what went on. All right? Now, what does it, now, just imagine what she is saying.

[21:56] I was coming to water the sheep or fetch water. I don't know that she was watering sheep. She was fetching water. I went to the well to fetch water.

[22:08] Here was this stranger. He's sitting there with ten camels and a bunch of men and he asked me for a drink.

[22:25] Oh, help me out here. And I gave him a drink. And I watered his camels. And then look what he did. And what's more, he wants me to marry his master's son.

[22:47] Well, he hasn't said that, but she told him everything. So, well, we don't know.

[22:58] I may be jumping. You're right. I may be jumping it. I may be jumping it. So, what did Laban, now, who's Laban?

[23:14] Her brother. Okay. What does Laban do when he sees the jewelry and hears her story?

[23:31] Yeah. He heads over to the well and says what? Yeah.

[23:43] He says, you're blessed. and come to our house. We have everything. We've made room.

[23:53] We're ready for you. All right? Now, what did Abraham's servant do then?

[24:10] He came. Now, he took care of the stock first. Well, it just says he, I don't know.

[24:26] But nevertheless, the stock was cared for, the camels were unloaded, everything cared for, and then water was brought so they could wash up.

[24:41] and then what? Food was set before him. Now, I imagine he was pretty hungry, but what's he say?

[24:59] Right. I'm not going to eat until I've told you everything. And yeah, this is why I have come. see, it's not just I'm traveling through and you've been nice to me.

[25:16] He said, I've come here for a reason. Okay. Now, we'll be here, where are we? About verse 34 now, aren't we?

[25:27] All right. Look at those next verses, those next seven or eight verses, 34 through 41 especially. if we're listening, we can have a Bible before us, but okay, I'll read them.

[26:06] So he said, I'm Abraham's servant, and the Lord has greatly blessed my master so that he has become rich, and he has given him flocks and herds and silver and gold and servants and maids and camels and donkeys.

[26:23] Now, Sarah, my master's wife, bore a son in her old age, and he has given him all that he has. And my master made me swear, saying, you shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites in whose land I live, but you shall go to my father's house and to my relatives and take a wife for my son.

[26:49] And I said to my master, suppose the woman does not follow me. And he said to me, the Lord before whom I have walked will send his angel with you to make your journey successful.

[27:03] And you will take a wife from my son from my relatives and from my father's house. Then you will be free from my oath when you come to my relatives.

[27:15] And if they do not give her to you, you will be free from my oath. Okay. So, he's pretty explicit in the way, you know, I imagine I would have tried to have truncated it a bit, but he gave it all out.

[27:35] Even the part, you can tell he's not trying to manipulate this. How can you tell? Very transparent.

[27:47] Look at the end of it. He said, if you won't agree, I'm free from the oath. every salesman who's ever approached you has dealt with you exactly that way, right?

[28:09] If you don't buy this, my son's going to be crippled. Okay. But, he's very plain.

[28:22] He's very plain and very open about exactly why he's here. Now, what else do you notice?

[28:50] Yeah. this is why I came to you. All right. Well, we'll move on.

[29:05] Verses 42 through 48. This one I'm going to read from King James. and I came to the well and said, well, by the way, in these verses, the servant recounts his mission completely.

[29:30] And in this passage, in this passage, 42 through 48, he's going to recount something, and you're going to tell me what he recounts.

[29:45] And I came this day into the well and said, O Lord God of my master Abraham, if thou will prosper my way, which I go, behold, I stand at the well of water, and it shall come to pass that when the virgin comes forth to draw water, and I say to her, give me, I pray, thee, a little water from thy pitcher to drink, and she say to me, both drink thou, and I will draw for thy camels, let the same be the, help me out here, be the woman whom the Lord hath appointed out for my master's son.

[30:27] 45, and before I had done speaking in mine heart, behold, Rebecca came forth with her pitcher on her shoulder, and she went down under the well and drew water, her, and I said to her, let me drink, and I will give, and she made haste, and let down her pitcher from her shoulder and said, drink, and I will give thy camels drink also, so I drank, and she made the camels drink also, and I asked her, and said, whose daughter art thou, and she said, the daughter of Bethuel, Nahor's son, whom Milca bear unto him, and I put the earring on her face, and the bracelets upon her hands, and I bowed down my head and worshipped the Lord, and blessed the Lord God of my master Abraham, which had led me in the right way, and I'm going to stop there, I'm going to stop at that, in the middle of that verse, so, what does he recount here, see, in the previous verses, he recounted what his mission was, what's he recount here, he recounts very explicitly exactly what happened, didn't he, now, now, you notice that he said, that this is the woman, he says, this is the woman that

[32:00] God has appointed for my master's son, so, he's made that decision, now, did God appoint Rebecca, as a servant says, I know it's a rehearsal, yes, okay, now, the servant did make a minor revision, as it compares to verses, see, the occurrences in 21 through 27, he made a minor revision, do you catch it, it's at the end of verse 48, to take my master's brother, or, to take my master's brother's daughter unto his son, so, now, he knows, this

[33:13] Rebecca, Rebecca is Abraham's niece, is that right, okay, and so, she's going to marry her cousin, now, later on, in the law, near relatives are going to be prevented, but right now, it's ordained, but now, there are several but nows, whether it says it explicitly or not, are there not, okay,!

[34:04] okay, I'm going to stop there, anything, any other comment, I find great comfort in reading the scripture to see how God is going to develop this, and realizing then, when I look at what he says in the letters to the churches, and what he says about my hope in Christ, that I can see he's faithful, this is going to happen, we are going to go to glory, when we're absent from this body, we will be present with the Lord, there is a resurrection, a physical resurrection, we won't have the same kind of body, it will be likened to the

[35:14] Lord's resurrected body, we read, but these promises are sure, and the Lord can be trusted, have a great week, God bless you.