Study 4 with Notes

THE PATRIARCHS Farmer Wants A Wife Genesis 24

OPEN------Have you ever feared for the future of the Church? This study is about the mission of Abraham’ servant to ind a wife for Isaac. At irst glance the mission appears impossible, but over the course of the “I am the God of your father, the God of chapter we see God intimately working at Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of every turn to bring about his purposes. Jacob” Exodus 3:6 Against all odds the line of his chosen people will continue, and nothing will stop him fulilling his promises to them. STUDY------Scene 1: Read Genesis 23:1-2 and 24:1-9 1. In order for the servant’s mission to be a success by the end of the chapter, what are all the things that have to happen? 1. He needs to travel back to Abraham’s home town (about 400 miles) 2. Find Abraham’s relatives 3. Find a female relative who is willing to come back and marry a stranger 4. Convince the family to let her go with a stranger 5. Make it back alive, and 6. Isaac needs to approve and marry her

2. How do you think the Servant felt about this mission? Verse 5 shows us that he is rightfully a little dubious about his prospects! That’s one tough mission! What are the chances of all 6 of these things working out in his favour?

3. What does Abraham do to reassure his servant? In verse 7 Abraham reassures his servant by explaining that God will send his angel ahead of him to prepare the way and make his journey a success.

Scene 2: Read Genesis 24:10-27 and 22:20-24 1. How does the servant show us that he took Abraham’s words in v.7 seriously? As soon as he arrives at Nahor, he prays “O LORD, God of my master Abraham, give me success today” (v.12). Abraham said that his God would pave the way, and now the servant is appealing to Abraham’s God to do what Abraham promised he would do.

2. What do you think it actually involved for someone to “water your camels”? Apparently a thirsty camel can drink around 95 Liters of water. Unfortunately for Rebekah the average water jar only held about 10 Litres. This means if she was going to completely satisfy the thirst of 10 camels, she would need to do something like 90 trips to and from the water trough. She’s one tough cookie!

© Tim Clemens 2010 3. What still needs to happen for the servant’s mission to be a success? 3. Figure out if Rebekah is willing to come back and marry a stranger 4. Convince the family to let her go with a stranger 5. Make it back alive, and 6. Isaac needs to approve and marry her

Scene 3: Read Genesis 24:28-61 1. How does the servant try to persuade Rebekah’s family that it is God’s plan for Rebekah to marry Isaac? At every turn he points to God’s intervention. “The LORD has blessed my master abundantly” (v.35). “The Lord will... make your journey a success” (v.40). “God, please grant success” (v.42). “I praised the LORD... who had led me on the right road” (v.48). They beliebe him and say, “This is from the LORD” (v.50).

2. How do you think Rebekah would have been feeling as she said, “I will go”? Scared? She’s gotta go with some random to a foreign land to marry a stranger.

3. Notice anything about the blessing? “May your offspring possess the gates of their enemies” (v. 60) is similar to God’s blessing to Abraham in 22:17, “Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies”. They are united in the promise.

4. What’s the last thing left to happen before the servant’s mission is a success? 5. Make it back alive, and 6. Isaac needs to approve and marry her

Scene 4: Read Genesis 24:62-67 1. Success! What do you think Abraham’s servant would have learnt from this journey? That Abraham’s God was not just a God of Canaan, but of the whole world. He would have learnt that he could be trusted, relied upon, and was worthy of worship.

2. What do you think Israel would have learnt as they read the account of this journey? God is able to preserve a people for himself against all the odds. They need not fear the Canaanites, or the Babylonians or whoever they feared. God was in control!

APPLICATION------1. What does this story say to those of us who fear for the future of the church? There is no need. No external or internal pressures will get in his way. God is mighty to save and if he wants his people to endure they will.

2. Finish by meditating on some of God’s promises and rest assured that he will bring them to fulillment. Our God is a promise keeping God. He makes promises and keeps promises, and nothing, not even the gates of Hades will prevail against the building of his church (Matt. 16:17-18).