Saturday, December 28, 2019

2019.12.28 Hopewell @Home ▫ Genesis 24:29-58

Questions from the Scripture text: Who comes to the well at what speed in Genesis 24:29? What does he see that makes him go to the man (Genesis 24:30)? What does he hear? So how does he greet Abraham’s servant in Genesis 24:31? When the servant has accepted the invitation, and food is set in front of him, why won’t he eat (Genesis 24:33)? How does he identify himself (Genesis 24:34)? How does he summarize Abraham’s life so far (Genesis 24:35)? What particular event does he especially highlight in Genesis 24:36? What has Isaac been given? What verses and event does the servant summarize in Genesis 24:37-41? What verses and event does the servant summarize in Genesis 24:42-48? What is the big question that he puts to them in Genesis 24:49? Who answer in Genesis 24:50? From where do they say that the thing comes? What do they say that they cannot do? What official answer do they give in Genesis 24:51? How AND TO WHOM does the servant respond in Genesis 24:52? What does the servant bring out now in Genesis 24:53? For whom? To whom does he also send gifts? What does he say in the morning (Genesis 24:54)? What request is made by whom in Genesis 24:55? How does the servant respond in Genesis 24:56? Whom do they propose asking in Genesis 24:57? How does she answer (Genesis 24:58)?
This is a match made in heaven. That’s the main point of Abraham’s servant’s message. That’s the main point of Rebekah’s family’s response. That’s the main point of the narrator: God is graciously, powerfully taking care of the covenant line out of which will come Jesus, the One in whom all the nations of the earth will be blessed. And to do that, God Himself has been at work for generations, in two families, to produce a marriage made in heaven.

We have seen from the beginning of Genesis that it’s in marriage and family that God especially glorifies His image in man. It’s in the context of marriage that Satan attacks for the fall. It’s through marriage and family that God plans to bring the Redeemer. And it has often been upon marriage and family that the wellbeing of the covenant line has risen and fallen.

This passage again highlights how important an issue this is.  In Genesis 24:33, we find that it’s more important than food.  There we find the servant saying that he will not eat, and indeed there’s no eating until Genesis 24:54!  It’s also more important than politeness, for this refusal to eat would have been terribly rude.  It’s actually very gracious that the response at the end of verse 33 is “speak on.”  What we would expect is “eat first, speak later,” just as we saw in Genesis 18.

And there is a lesson here for us.  We can be very concerned with earthly needs.  We can be very concerned with “fitting in” socially and culturally.  And it is possible to let those concerns be more important than such spiritual issues with such eternal implications as the spiritual wellbeing of our marriage and family. 
What is there, that Scripture says is God’s way of promoting your and your family’s spiritual health, that you should be giving a higher priority? Why aren’t you?
Suggested songs: ARP128 “How Blessed Are All Who Fear” or TPH128B “How Blest Are They That Fear the Lord”

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