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[0:00] 24 and we're going to pick up with verse 49 24 verse 49 okay chapter 20 I'm not going to announce it yeah let's continue to pray for Hope's family and all of them that are involved in this tough time for mom and now

[1:14] Marvis is improving so we're oh I thought so she just walks in a circle Dave would you open us our time in prayer please ask God's blessing on our time Amen Amen okay now we left we left last week we left the

[2:24] Abraham's servant with Bethuel and his family the servant has given him the whole story everything this is this is what I came to do this is what I prayed for this is what God did I believe your daughter is the wife or to be the wife of my master son is that a fair rendition so far okay so now we're we're ready for verses 49 through 54 if you look at those now in this the servant is going to state his proposal what's he say well he says verse 49 someone read that one okay tell me this are you going to deal kindly with my master are you going to take my proposal basically are you going to take this proposal and tell me now that way I know what if I should go this way or that way

[4:11] King James put to turn to the right or to the left okay now what had the servant attributed his decision about Rebecca to what had the servant attributed that God's provision right he attributed this woman to God's provision but he still he still expects them to make a decision doesn't he now the same thing goes in our lives does it not we we trust the Lord for guidance for his provision we know well what does the apostle Paul say give thanks in all things you can finish that for this is the will of

[5:29] God concerning you now whether I interpret that to mean that whatever happens is God's will or whether I interpret that to mean no matter what happens Roger it's God's will that you give thanks in it either way it works so it doesn't mean that everything I do is according to God's will well everything I do is but not you but what he's saying is look you're in God's hands you're in God's hands if you're if you trust in Christ today you belong to the Lord now what can take you out of that there are some that are going to say this morning that you're in

[6:29] God's hands as long as you do this or don't do that now when I teach that of course I'm always making sure that it's something that I'm okay with right I'm never taking myself out now I don't mean to oversimplify it however is that what Romans 8 is about what is what is the what did God through the apostle Paul tell us if we belong to Christ how secure are we there is therefore now no condemnation for them that are in Christ Jesus what about my circumstances of life all things work together for good not for my pleasure necessarily but for good all things and and this is the one that gives the

[7:42] Christian comfort or should and that is well we have the Holy Spirit who prays always within God's will the Holy Spirit indwells us he always prays according to the will of God because Roger you don't really know how to pray sometimes sometimes usually I think I do I think I know what God ought to do but he said trust me and then he says that I'm convinced of this neither height nor depth nor principalities nor powers things present things to come what can separate you from the love of God nothing ever not even the powerful angels that's confidence that's confidence okay so nevertheless here we are the servant has stated his case he's made the proposal he says give me an answer and he expects them to respond now they do respond what do they say okay they say this is from the

[9:28] Lord take her as your servant's or your master's wife okay in fact they say we can't say anything bad or good about it you know we don't we don't have a choice now I have often wondered there's there's nothing scripturally that tells me that Laban and Bethuel are God worshipers that is the true God however they recognize this and they say so and they took it I'm assuming now I make an assumption because it doesn't explicitly say why they said this but I'm assuming that they took the rendition of I prayed this way and this happened okay this is

[10:35] God's will so the answer is yes now what did the servant do in response to their answer we're about verse 52 I think okay he worshiped God what else now remember when he was leaving he this is the general manager of all of Abraham's operations he had complete control over all the assets so when he got ready to go he loaded up a bunch of stuff now he's already dished to Rebecca herself about ten thousand dollars so in bracelets in jewelry so now what does he do he brings out more and he gives jewels silver and gold and clothing and he gives those to

[11:54] Rebecca and he gives them also to Laban and to Rebecca's mother and I don't know what he it doesn't say that he gave anything to Bethuel I don't know so he's pouring out all these things and they have a party right they eat and drink they have a supper at least alright so they did and all those that were with him the men that came with him and they did what then they spent the night and got up in the morning to leave right now let's go on this will be after verses 55 verse 55 through 60 keep looking in there and he gets up planning to go home now so he's been there he came to the well he's had a long travel

[13:16] I mean this is a few hundred miles walking so he's had long long travel I get in the car and drive a few hundred miles and I'm tired these men walked so he goes he sees Rebecca they have their interchange here I assume it's in a day but I don't know that and they spend the night he gets up he's ready to leave he wants to get back so Milca who is okay that's the mother of Rebecca and

[14:17] Laban her brother have another idea what's their idea yeah hey let's let's have a goodbye party at least ten days at least ten days if you get in your time machine and run a little ahead you're going to know Laban's good with this kind of thing anyhow back to back to where we are let her stay for ten more days before you leave what's the servant say don't hinder me don't hinder me he said the lord prospered my way right so god sent me this far and done this much let me let me go let me go to my master what's their response okay

[15:36] I'll tell you what we'll ask the girl so they call Rebecca in what's she say I'll go now now that's no small statement this is a young this is a young woman they didn't wait around to marry late this this is a young woman and she's going with strange men she's going several hundred miles to marry a man she's never seen no pictures no no photographs the word of the of the servant and and the permission of her family and she says

[16:38] I'll go now okay so they sent her away did they send her away just her okay who they send with her okay her nurse now she's not being nursed anymore of course but her nurse and they sent her some girls with her for servants right her damsels right is that right or not that's not right okay I'm getting down to verse 61 I know I'm sorry I had yes yes yes anyone that's it it is a blessing on their sister

[17:53] I believe I don't think it's necessarily not intentionally prophetic that is I would think so I would think so however God is going to honor that isn't he and not just because of that but way back with Abraham God said I'm going to bless you and I'm going to bless those who bless you and I'm going to curse those who curse you and then he goes on and he says no not Ishmael send her away it is through Isaac that your descendants will be named and if you get in your time machine we're going to see pretty soon that he's going to make another decision about who's going to be the lineage so

[19:00] I do think it's a general blessing but nevertheless it fits right in with God's plan anyway so in in they they the family bless Rebecca and we're we're at verse 61 now 61 through 67 especially now they head out from Mesopotamia now it's going to get real quick because we're not going to get a lot of the travel instance so verse 61 there was more than just her nurse that's where I got it jumped ahead in my so she and those servant girls all of them they rode the camels the men

[20:06] I assume walked and off they went so they're heading back now they come to Isaac where Isaac is living where is this the well of the one who sees what do you remember about this well we've seen that we've been here before you didn't know there was a pop quiz did you see I had the time since I asked the questions I had the time to go back and actually find the answers that's it Hagar named this well this is the well where

[21:11] God met Hagar and said go back to Sarah Hagar was on her way to she was heading back to Egypt I'm getting out of here can't stand Sarah and Sarah couldn't stand her so I'm getting out of here and God said no you're going back I have other plans submit yourself to your mistress this is where God met Hagar and this is where Isaac is now living okay now that was by the way in Genesis 16 where he met her now in verse 55 no I'm I'm wrong Isaac is out walking around now do you what does your translation say about

[22:21] Isaac in the evening yours says meditate what's yours say meditate think meditate and think one suggests pray I forget which one that is one says stroll or possibly stroll and the point of it is that that particular word only appears in this verse it doesn't appear anywhere else so there's no way to really compare it so it's a sermonization that he's meditating but it's probably a safe one I mean what did they do they didn't listen to the podcast they didn't watch

[23:23] TV one of the reasons they they knew so much about the sky is that's what they looked at and pondered it so but meditate's not a bad that's not a bad thing now it is not an orchestrated medication or meditation medication meditation that medicates your brain it's not an orchestrated thing where you go through a mantra and have all these poses that's not what it means it means to consider to mull it over okay okay okay in any case he's out in the evening he looks up what's he see he sees the caravan coming he's got a pretty good idea about what's going on now now he sees the caravan someone else sees him what's your scripture say okay that's a common lifted up her eyes is a common expression that you'll see regularly in Old Testament just noticing okay she notices a man walking up so what does she say she asks the servant who is this man that's coming out here and he's walking toward us he's walking to meet us if it whether his he's walking in the same area or not

[25:52] I don't know if if it appears that he's walking to meet the caravan and the servant answers and what's he say yeah now he could tell that from a long way away don't worry about it I'm I'm reminded you know who Harold Steele was he was your principal when you were in school I went out I went out one day to work for Phil to work some ground and he said go out to the feed lot and dad's out there and you can relieve dad kind of thing so I'm walking I'm a half mile away walking toward the tractor and Harold said I knew who it was now he couldn't see my face how did he know

[26:53] Roger said it the way you walk so this isn't unusual that the servant would say I know who that is because they they've been around one another he knew by the way he walked by the way he carried himself he knew who it was so that's not an unusual thing so what does Rebecca do well she okay this is a cultural thing with which we're not or at least I'm not familiar but all this time she's been traveling with all with these men she hasn't been veiled but when she sees that her husband to come is coming she covers now

[27:54] I have no notion as to why that is everything's speculative that I've ever heard about it so I don't really know nevertheless she covers herself now take take us to the end here what we're at 66 okay the servant does what he tells Isaac everything he reiterates the whole thing to Isaac and this is very perfunctory in verse 67 isn't it let's talk about the wedding this this is a man's type of wedding isn't it okay they may have truncated the story there may have been more ceremony than but but but but basically you know it says

[29:12] Isaac took her to wife okay and what well he loved her and he was there he was comforted with his mother's from his mother's death because now he has a wife incidentally this isn't really pertinent directly but it is interesting isn't it especially to the men there's almost there there are amazing things that a man can withstand when he has a wife that holds him up it's amazing and by the way in general women tend to survive widowhood better than men do men aren't really cut out of the same kind of thankfully out of the same kind of cloth

[30:26] I for some reason some people demand that there's no difference but they demand that you believe many things that you know not to be true don't they so that clears up yes yeah there's a there's a wedding a comfort that that really packed a lot right in there okay we have time let's look at chapter 25 now we're going to get back for a bit and this chapter is going to run pretty quickly because there are a lot of names involved in it but we're going to get back to whom initially

[31:40] Abraham okay we're going to get to Abraham initially verse 25 or chapter 25 Abraham's a widower but now he's not he has taken another wife whose name was Keturah that's in verse one and now we see the descendants that she had right all right and we see we see a lot lineage given out there now with your leave we'll jump down we'll keep going to verse five five and six what did Abraham do for these children he gave them stuff and he sent them away who's that remind you of or does it who else did he do that with

[33:05] Ishmael Ishmael Genesis chapter 21 verse 10 this is Sarah speaking and she says what it begins in verse 10 it actually runs through 12 drive her out with her son for she shall not be an heir with my son Isaac and what does God say does God say wait a minute Sarah that's not right what does God say he said don't let this be grievous in your sight because of the lad and because of your bond woman you listen to

[34:11] Sarah for in Isaac shall your seed be called now let's take just a little side trip if you will bear with me to Galatians chapter 4 and I think we'll start with verse 21 what do you know while you're turning there what do you remember about the Galatian church everything was going well right no there were Judaizers that came in told them they had to follow the law take the sign of the law in order to at least in order to be a real

[35:12] Christian and this led to a lot of things but we're going to we're just going to stay here with the apostles revelation as he uses an argument from allegory here remember in Romans chapter 4 Paul reminded the church look but now apart from the law has the righteousness been made known and he said Abraham received the promise before the sign and he uses that as a symbol that it is not the law that you worry about it is

[36:12] God's grace it is salvation by grace through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works why not because no one can boast God is the just and God is the justifier God saves for his glory and no man's going to share that it is only what Christ has done so here in Galatians he uses this Hagar and Ishmael and Abraham and Isaac as an allegory to our salvation and what does he say there you who want to be under the law don't you listen to the law for it's written that

[37:14] Abraham had two sons one by the keep let's keep rolling one by the bond woman and one by the free woman and the son by the bond woman verse 23 was born according to the and that is the law the son of the free woman through the promise that is by grace and he's going to go on through that look at verse 24 this is an allegory for these women are two covenants one proceeding from Mount Sinai bearing children who are to be slaves and this is represented by

[38:17] Hagar Hagar represents the law given at Sinai Sinai now was the law good yes and righteous was it given for the removal of sin no it was given for the exposure of sin it's good and it's righteous if it's used righteously or if it's used well so the law is good for the church if we use it carefully but if we try to insert that into salvation we're not using it rightly that's what he's saying so Hagar represents the law Mount Sinai born to be slaves verse 25 now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to what the present

[39:20] Jerusalem the Judaism she represents Judaism for she is in slavery with her children now keep going he doesn't stop there but the Jerusalem above heavenly Jerusalem is what free and she is our mother right for it is written rejoice break forth and shout you are not in labor or you who are not in labor for more are the children of the desolate than the one who has a husband verse 28 and you brethren like whom like Isaac are children of thee okay so Israel is our children of this is the allegory

[40:21] Hagar the Christian are Christians are the children of allegorically Isaac right of of of Sarah children who are born free so verse 29 at this time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was according to the spirit so it is now also verse 30 what's the scripture say and now he quotes Sarah from chapter 16 of Genesis and what does the scripture say cast out the bond woman and her son who's the bond woman Hagar who represents the law what does he tell the church cast it because you're not part of that that's not the inheritance the children of the law will not be inheritors with the children of the promise so then brethren we are not children of a bond woman but of a free woman and chapter five is really a continuation there's no real break there it was for freedom that

[42:03] Christ set us free therefore stand firm do not be subject again to the yoke of don't go back don't go back it is not by works it is by grace don't go back that's what he's saying so when we read in Genesis here we see that God is through the apostle Paul going to use this to display to us what we should see about what Christ did on that cross it is it is the the allegory of the gospel of grace as Paul will use it later on have a great week God bless you Thank you.