The Potter's House of Camdenton
Beginnings Part 22 The Beginning of THE REST OF THE STORY Genesis 23-24
This morning, as you might have guessed, we're going to continue our study in the book of Genesis in this series entitled Beginnings, and this is part 22, and this morning's title is the beginning of the rest of the story. If you were here last week, then you know that last week was the beginning of the story, and this week is the beginning of the rest of the story. We'll be looking at Genesis chapters 23 to 24. Last week, we looked at Genesis chapter 22, and we saw several parallels between the sacrifice of Isaac and the sacrifice of Jesus almost 2,000 years later. Remember, God spoke to Abraham and told him to take his one and only son to the future side of the city of Jerusalem and offer him as a burnt sacrifice on one of the mountains there. We talked about the mountain where all that happened and discovered that the mountain that God led Abraham to was the future side of the city of Jerusalem. We then wondered whether the place to which Abraham took Isaac could possibly have been the exact place where Jesus was crucified, that one day would be called Calvary, though it wasn't at the time. As we unpack the passage, we uncovered parallel after parallel between the sacrifice of Isaac and the sacrifice of Jesus, and we realized that God was telling Abraham a story or more properly, perhaps, was asking Abraham to play a role in a play. In that play, Isaac, the one and only son who was beloved by the Father, willingly allowed himself to be sacrificed in the same place where Jesus would one day willingly yield to the Father. You remember his prayer right before he went to the cross, "Not my will, but yours be done." And he would lay down his life there in that place. We saw that Isaac was spared and that Jesus was not spared. He did not spare his own son according to Romans chapter 8, and we can't review all the similarities because we'd run out of time to finish today's passage, so you might find it worthwhile sometime this afternoon in light of today's. To read Genesis 22, 23, and 24, maybe in one sitting, that wouldn't take you very long, and if you missed our time together last week, you might consider watching the podcast just to catch up in light of what we're going to be looking at today. And I have to say this about our time together last week, in the midst of all the theological wonder, in the midst of all the doctrinal gymnastics we did last week, I hope you didn't miss the awesome beauty of Genesis chapter 22. On one level, we see God the Father sharing some very painful moments with Abraham, moments that would have been painful to God himself as he saw that unfold. I know that most of us lead fairly private lives, and that means that there are agonies in our past that what we share with no one. Sometimes we decide not to share our pain because we don't trust others, but more often than not, I think we don't share the hurts of the past because it causes too much pain to relive those moments, even with somebody who is sympathetically listening. Yet in Genesis 22, we see God the Father rehearsing a play, a play that would come to life 2,000 years later as he sacrificed his one and only son for us on Calvary. I'm still amazed that God shared such a deeply painful experience with his friend Abraham, but that's the very essence of what it means to fellowship with God. We share our hurts with him. He shares his hurts with us, and yes, God is real. He's a person. He's a personality. He feels that pain. I hope you don't, and on another level, I hope that you didn't miss the power that was built into the moment when Abraham raised that knife above his head to plunge it into his son. Diling back from that, we were able to listen in when God told Abraham what he wanted him to do. You remember God revealed to Abraham everything that he had in mind. We were able to listen in, and we tried to imagine what it would have been like to receive instructions like that from God. Abraham no doubt wrestled with what to do, but the next morning, a morning when I would have been very slow to get going, Abraham got up early. He cut the wood, saddled his donkey, called his two servants and his son, and then traveled three days to get to the place where God had told him to go. Abraham then placed the wood on his son's back, climbed the mountain, built an altar, and then arranged the wood on the altar. Isaac, who was a man in his mid-30s, then allowed his elderly father to tie him up and lay him on the altar that his father had built, and you see the parallels there. Abraham then took the knife and raised it above his head to plunge it into his son before he would have let the fire that would consume the sacrifice. It's clear from the very beginning of the story that Abraham and Isaac, parenthetically, had to go through with God's instructions, and with each step they took, they got closer to that moment when Abraham the father would end the life of his son Isaac, each step they took is another indication of the strength of Abraham's faith and the depth of his commitment to God. And each step told us powerful things about Isaac as well. Abraham trusted God with such intensity that he knew that Isaac would walk back down that hill with him one way or the other. He had God's word for that, and while that sounds like an outlandish thing to believe, it helps us to understand that Abraham was paying attention to God's word. Abraham knew that God had promised that the nation of Israel would descend through Isaac, and by the time that story unfolded, that unfolded there on that mountain, Isaac had not yet had a child. He did not have a single descendant, so no other descendants could come from, well, if he died there on that mountain, then God's promise would come to nothing. Abraham had such confidence that God would keep his promise that he was willing to put the life of his son on the line, but let's be clear, Abraham was not not not not gambling. He was living by faith. That's what it looks like to live by faith. What Abraham did was not a gamble because he knew that God would keep his promise to give him a multitude of descendants. He knew that God had promised that innumerable descendants would come from Isaac, but at the moment when Abraham was ready to sacrifice Isaac, at the moment that he raised the knife, were ready to pierce Isaac with it, Isaac had not had a child. I hope you're understanding this connection here. Abraham is a righteous man who's going to obey God, but Abraham knows that Isaac will survive because of God's promises regarding Isaac. The Apostle Paul called Abraham the father of faith. And in the second chapter of the book that bears his name, and in James, in the second chapter of the book that bears his name, James used Abraham's sacrifice of his son as an example of what it looks like when we believe God with truly living faith. I hope you took that home with you last week along with everything else. I hope it wasn't just a clever doctrinal exercise for you. I hope you saw in the people that were involved in an intense desire to obey God and to live by faith. This week we need to look at the rest of the story because the parallels with the church age really have only begun. And before we get started on that, let's take a moment to read the passage. That's how we always get started that we'll be unpacking this morning. If you would, please stand with me as we read aloud together from Genesis chapter 24 verses 1 through 11. Abraham was now very old, and the Lord had blessed him in every way. He said to the senior servant of his household, the one in charge of all that he had, put your hand under my thigh, I want you to swear by the Lord, the God of heaven, and the God of earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I am living. But we'll go to my country and to my own relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac. The servant asked him, "What if the woman is unwilling to come back with me to this land? Shall I then take your son back to the country you came from? Make sure that you do not take my son back there," Abraham said, "the Lord, the God of heaven who brought me out of my father's household and my native land, and who spoke to me and promised me on oath saying to your offspring, I will give this land. He will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there. If the woman is unwilling to come back with you, then you will be released from this oath of mine. Only do not take my son back there." So the servant put his hand under the thigh of his master Abraham and swore an oath to him concerning the matter. Then the servant left, taking with him ten of his master's camels, loaded with all kinds of good things from his master. He set out for Aram Naharem and made his way to the town of Nahor. He had the camels kneeled down near the well outside the town. It was toward evening, the time when the women go out to draw water. Thank you for your help with that. Before you sit down, take a moment to ask God to speak to you through this passage this morning. Father, we've come hungry. We've come longing to see Jesus. So we pray that you'd open our eyes and help us to see Jesus. And as we look at him today, God challenge us to be ever more faithful to his cause. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Thank you. You can take your seats. I suggested to you last week, as we were beginning, that we were going to experience three remarkable chapters as we took on Genesis 22 to 24. And I think you'll see this week why I said that last week. The story from God's Word this morning is not really a continuation of the story from last week. I wouldn't think of it as that. But I think you'll see that God is going to continue to draw out principles that will help us to understand his plan in this thing that we've been calling a play. The play isn't over. We've only seen Act I. There'll be some new characters added and God's going to go so far as to hide the name of one of them from us, but you'll see that God is going to do that intentionally as he draws out another truth for us and makes another significant point. So we need to get to the story. And I'll pick up the story where we left off reading, if that's okay. But before I do that, we'll need a little background, as always. By the time the story begins, Sarah has breathed her last. She lived to be 127 years old. And since we met Abraham and Sarah so abruptly back in chapter 11, we really don't know how long they were married. Though by my calculations, I suspect that they were married for more than 100 years. After Sarah died, Abraham bought a piece of ground and buried his wife in a cave on that property, and he took the time to mourn her loss. And as you read earlier, Abraham was by now very old and very wealthy. And with Isaac's mom gone, Abraham began to make plans to find a wife for his son. As always, as I tell the story, feel free to open your Bible, in fact, check me as we go. And with that background, this is the story from God's word from Genesis, chapters 23 and 24. Abraham called the senior servant of his household into his tent and asked him to swear an oath to him. That's what the under the thigh thing was. It was a way of swearing an oath. They didn't shake hands on it back in those days. That's what that was for. To swear an oath to him that had to do with finding a bride for Isaac. Abraham didn't want his son Isaac to marry one of the Canaanite women where he was living. But rather, he told his servant to go to Nahor, a place where Abraham himself had stayed at the time when he journeyed from Ur around 65 years before. Nahor was also a place where some of his family was still living. Part of the family had remained behind. It was near Padanoram, almost 600 miles in northwestern Mesopotamia. Abraham's servant, of course, wanted to do as Abraham had asked. But Abraham's request brought up an important question for him. What if I find a woman to marry Isaac and she's somehow unwilling to come back here with me, the servant asked, "Should I take your son back there to talk with the woman himself?" Abraham vehemently said, "If she's unwilling to come back here with you, you're released from the promise that you've just made to me but under no circumstances. Are you to ask my son to go back to that place?" Abraham continued. I say that because this place, this place where we're now living is the place that God has promised to give to me and my descendants. It's important that my son Isaac live here. With that Abraham's servant swore an oath to Abraham that he would look for a bride for Isaac and under no circumstances would he take Isaac back to that place. The next morning the servant left and traveled north-northeast until he reached the city of Nahor, very where Abraham had lived with his brother for a time before moving to Canaan. He traveled with several other servants aboard ten camels that belonged to Abraham and he also carried a vast array of gifts and treasures that Abraham had sent with him. He arrived at Nahor about ten days later in the evening when women went out to draw water. He had his camels kneeled down by the well and he started to pray. "Lord," he said, "please give me success in finding a bride for Isaac. I'm standing here beside the well and the young ladies have begun to come down to the well to draw water for their families. I'll approach some of them and say, and this is my plan, I'll approach some of them and say, 'please let me have a drink from your water jar.'" And God, here's my request. Please show me the woman that you have chosen as a bride for Isaac by prompting her to say of her own accord that she will water my ten camels after I've had a drink. Abraham's servant then added, "when one of the ladies does that, I'll know that she's the woman that you've chosen for Isaac." While he was still praying, and I think maybe he was praying with his eyes open while he was standing there by the well, but while he was still praying, a young woman named Rebecca came to the well with a large, empty water jar on her shoulder. She was beautiful and she was a very eligible bachelorette. So they unnamed servant hurried over to her and said, "please give me a little water from your jar." She lowered her jar and said, "drink all you want." So he did, and he waited. After he'd had a drink, she said, "wait here, and I'll draw water for your camels as well." And she went back to the well and began drawing water and emptying her jar into the trough. And here's the thing, as an aside, a single camel can drink up to ten gallons of water after a ten-day journey across the desert. Abraham's servant had ten camels with him, but Rebecca kept drawing water until the camels had had enough to drink. Oh, while this was going on, Abraham's servant watched Rebecca as she returned to the well time and time again. When the camels had finished drinking, Abraham's servant gave some gifts to Rebecca, and then he asked her, "who's daughter are you anyway, and might there be room in your home for me and for some of my servants to spend the night?" She replied that she had come from Nihor's family, and Abraham's servant knew right away that she was from the right family to be a bride for Isaac. Rebecca then added that there was plenty of room in her house for them to stay overnight if they wanted to, and Abraham's servant at that moment bowed down before God in her hearing. He worshipped God because God had led him to the very woman that he was seeking. Rebecca ran home and found her brother, Laban, and told him what had happened. Laban then went and met Abraham's servant and asked him to join them for supper that night. And when Abraham's servant arrived at Laban's house, the family prepared a meal for him, but he was quick to say that he wouldn't eat anything at all until he had told his story about what he had come to do. Laban and his family, of course, were anxious to hear the story, so they settled in to listen. Abraham's servant told the whole story from the time Isaac was born as the son of Abraham and Sarah to the moment when Abraham sent him to find Isaac a bride. He then told him about his journey to Nihor up until the moment when he stood out by the well, praying that God would reveal his choice for Isaac's bride. And when Abraham's servant finished the story, he said, "And now I need to know right now whether Rebecca will return to Canaan with me or choose to just stay here." Laban and the rest of Rebecca's family recognized that God had led Abraham's servant right to them, and after talking about it, they all agreed that she should become Isaac's bride, Abraham's servant, and bow down and worship the Lord again, and then tired from his long journey, he went to bed. The next morning he got up early when he was already in a hurry when he woke up. He said, "Well, it's time for me to return to my master, Abraham." And that's when Rebecca's brother, Laban, requested that she be allowed to stay another ten days before they sent her off to Abraham's house, but the servant wouldn't hear of it. God has made my journey successful so far, he said, "So please don't delay me in leaving." They decided to call Rebecca into the conversation, finally, to ask her what she wanted to do. Will you go with this man on short notice like this? When I asked, "Indeed, I will," she replied. So they prayed with her and blessed her, and she left her Canaan with Abraham's servant. And together they traveled the ten days back to where Abraham and Isaac were living. Before arriving at Abraham's house, they passed through a field, and it happened that Isaac was there meditating as the camels were approaching. Isaac began to walk toward the camels, knowing that they belonged to his father and expecting that Abraham's servant would have some news for him. Rebecca saw the man approaching them and decided to get off her camel. As she did, Abraham's servant, she asked Abraham's servant who the man was. Who is that man? It's my master Isaac, Abraham's servant said. So Rebecca put on her veil and walked to meet Isaac. Her servant told Isaac the whole story, beginning from beginning to end, and Isaac met Rebecca, and Isaac and Rebecca then began the beautiful process of falling in love. Not long after that, there's a wedding feast, and Isaac and Rebecca were married, and that's the story from God's Word. It's a little difficult to know exactly where to begin as we drill down into this story this week. There's a story within a story, a play within the play, and in these three chapters, and as I've been telling you, God has laid out his plan for the church age for us in living color right here in these three remarkable chapters. Perhaps the best place to begin would be with Abraham's servant himself. After all, he's the main character in the story, so it would make sense that we start with him. You probably got tired of me calling him Abraham's servant. Why did I keep doing that, and especially so, if you know that we know this guy's name. I kept calling him Abraham's servant, and if you know the story, and then you know that this guy's name is Eliezer, because we met him way back in Genesis chapter 15. Eliezer is a Hebrew name that means God is help. Hebrew names always mean something. It means God is help, and that's the first clue of what God's up to here. But before we look at that from a New Testament perspective, there's another piece of this that we need to see. You remember that Abraham is a picture of God the Father. And Isaac is a picture of God the Son. And you know from the story here that Abraham sent Eliezer to a far country on a mission. He commissioned him to do something on behalf of his son. Keep those two thoughts in mind. Eliezer's name means God is help, and he sent to a country, a far country that's very far from the home where the son is living. And then look at what Jesus said to his followers in John 14, 15 to 17, if you love me, keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and to be with you forever. The Spirit of truth. Don't miss that. The Spirit of God is our helper now in the church age, and Eliezer's name means God is help, coincidence? I don't think so. Besides that, just as Abraham sent his servant to look for a bride for his son, God the Father has sent the spirit to planet earth to look for a bride for his son. We could all dismiss all of that as a coincidence if it weren't for the rest of the chapter. Think about this, Abraham's servant is the main character in the story in chapter 24. Wouldn't you agree? I mean, Rebecca plays an important role, but it's all about the servant as he goes. But as I mentioned a moment ago, we have to go to chapter 15 to find his name. That's because something really odd happens in chapter 24 here, something that I'm not sure happened anywhere else in God's Word. And that's this. Even though Eliezer is the main character in the story, his name is not mentioned once in chapter 24. He is called simply the unnamed servant or Abraham's servant. During the entire story, he's called Abraham's servant, the name I kept referring to and by. And there's no mention of his name anywhere in the chapter. Well, so what? Well, that's remarkably similar to how things work in the church age. Here in the church age, the spirit of God is the main character in the story. He's in us. He lives within us. He's closer than hands and feet. He's teaching us things every single day. We study him and we study about him and we know so much about what he does in us and what he does through us. But there's one thing that we don't know about the spirit of God. We don't know his name. We don't know his name. He's only ever spoken of as the spirit of God. We don't know his name because the spirit of God is unnamed in the Scripture. We refer to him simply as the spirit of God. If they're calling with a question, tell them I'll get to that later. I love watching people die for this at this moment. In the same way, even though we do know the name of Abraham's servant, his name is not mentioned in chapter 24. Hello? There we go. In the same way, even though we do know the name of Abraham's servant, his name is not mentioned in chapter 24. We know him only as Abraham's servant. In the story, also, besides that, Abraham sent the unnamed servant from Isaac's home to a far country to find a bride for the son, but Abraham's servant asked a question of Abraham about the bride. Do you remember what question he asked? What if she's not willing to come back? Will I then take your son back to that place? What if the woman is not, and Abraham is adamant and determined that his son will not go back to that country? He tells his servant that if the woman is unwilling to come with you, then you are released from this oath, but under no circumstances are you to bring my son back there. And I want to remind you that that conversation happened after Genesis chapter 22 where we see the crucifixion so powerfully portrayed. Abraham's refusal to allow his son to return to that place is a picture of God's determination that he will never again send his son to earth to die. Even if there are those who don't believe that he's died, even if there are those who don't want to accept it, even if there are those that don't want to recognize his finished work, Jesus will never come back here to die. In Genesis chapter 22, we also see the resurrection portrayed as Isaac returns to the servants who are waiting. We know he did because Abraham said that he would, but when we read about it, it actually says Abraham returned to his servants and Isaac just kind of disappears from the narrative. We don't see his name again until chapter 24. And by the way, when he does actually come back into the story, make sure that you pay attention to when and where he comes in. In the meantime, John 16, 7, Jesus says, "But very truly, I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away, unless I go away, the advocate, the helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you." Jesus said the Holy Spirit would not come back to earth if he doesn't leave earth. And I'm not going to pretend that I fully understand how the Trinity works. But I think that Jesus has made it very clear that while he is here on earth, the spirit is in heaven. He's also made it clear that the spirit won't come to earth to permanently indwell us until Jesus is no longer here. It's good for you that I go away," he said to his followers. I think at least in part that that's what's been foreshadowed when Abraham insists that Isaac will not return to Nahor if the woman is not willing to follow Eliezer back to where Isaac is living. I think about it this way. Jesus came to earth and he died a brutal death on the cross. And today we speak of his work as being finished, the finished work of Christ. And the scripture's clear, Jesus will come back to earth someday, right? We'll look at that passage in a minute. Jesus will come back to earth someday, although according to scripture, will he put his foot on planet earth this next time he returns? No. No. Look at what it says in 1 Thessalonians 4, "For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever." When Jesus returns in the rapture, he will not set foot on the earth, but will instead come as far as the clouds, will meet him in the air, and from there he will take us back to his home. That's what that says to the place that he's prepared for us. So Jesus will come back as far as the clouds, and the Spirit of God will lead us to the clouds to meet Jesus there, and then Jesus will lead us home. You've got the rhythm of that down to the clouds. We go to the clouds. We meet him there, and then we go home. Hold on to that thought. We have some more unpacking to do, and then we'll come back to it. But right now, just remember how insistent Abraham is that his servant go to that far country to find a bride for the son and how equally insistent he is that Isaac was not be forced to return to that place. Let's get back to Abraham's servant. You may remember from the story how focused he is. Did you pick up on that? He didn't even want to eat. He's just been on a 10-day journey. He doesn't even want to eat until he tells his story. He travels 10 days by camel and goes immediately to the village square. And when he arrives there, he immediately begins to look for a bride without stopping to water his camels or get a drink for himself. When he finally finds Rebecca, he immediately tells her why he's there, and his whole story is about Abraham and Isaac, the father and the son. Laban hurries out and invites him to their home, and they set out a meal for him, but he won't eat, he says, until I've told my story. When they agree to listen to the story, Abraham's servant begins by saying, "I am Abraham's servant." He doesn't tell them his name. And everything he says that after that is about Abraham and Isaac, he never speaks of himself. Everything that he says is about Abraham, the father and Isaac, the son, John 16, 13, Jesus says. But when he, the spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own or of himself. He will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is to come. Abraham's servant does only what Abraham sent him to do, even though we know from Genesis chapter 15 that Eleazar has real authority in Abraham's household. He's the chief servant in his house. That prompts me to think that the similarities between Abraham and God the father, and between Isaac and God the son, and between Abraham's servant and God the Holy Spirit are uncanny. In fact, the similarities are too uncanny for them to be a coincidence. They are instead a God-incidence, and that makes it clear that this plan of the triune God stretches all the way back into eternity past, or times running out. There's a couple more things I have to show you before we're done. Abraham's servant has told his story and given gifts to the bride to make her even more beautiful than she was, just as the spirit of God gives gifts to every single person who becomes a follower of Jesus, that not only make you more beautiful, but make you more useful in the body of Christ as part of the bride of Christ. In case you've missed it somewhere else, the church is called the bride of Christ. It's one of the names the church goes by, and that's a choice that Jesus made. Jesus called the church that as he was telling stories. When he was describing the relationship that would exist between himself and the church, Paul used the same illustration, and I hope you won't get stuck on the gender thing there, but realize that both Jesus and Paul use the image of the bride in the bridegroom, because that relationship alone is the closest to the wild beauty of the relationship that exists between Jesus and his church. Coming back to our story, now that the bride's been chosen, she's been given gifts, it's time to go. It's time for Abraham's servant to lead the bride to the bridegroom so that she can see him face to face. He's come there at Abraham's behest to bring the bride back to Abraham's home. The servant tells Rebecca's family that it's time to leave and take Rebecca to Isaac. Her family wants her to stay, but Abraham's servant insists, and Rebecca's family says, "Well, we're just going to have to ask her if she's willing to go with you." They turn to Rebecca, and they say, "Will you go with this man to marry a man that you have never met or seen? Will you go with him?" That reminds us of Jesus' words to doubting Thomas in John 2029 when he says, "Then Jesus told them, 'Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.'" You've never seen this man before. Are you willing to go with him? And I trust that that's a decision that you've made as well, that you personally, individually, have made as well to believe that Jesus died for you and rose again even though you have not yet seen him face to face. Now, as we've been saying, it's time for Rebecca to leave and follow Abraham's servant. So we don't want to draw this out any longer than we have to, and he's going to lead her to the home of Abraham, right? And that's the plan. Everybody understand? The plan? She's going to marry Isaac, a man that she's never met, and this is the part where I need some help from you ladies. Would you be willing to help me with something here? Put yourself in Rebecca's sandals. Imagine that you're on a journey to a faraway place where you're going to marry a man that you've never met, but you know that the servant that you're traveling with has known him since he was a little baby. So do you suppose you might have a question or two for that servant? You suppose there'd be some things that you'd be curious about? What time does he go to bed? What time does he get up? What's his favorite dessert? What does he like to eat on a Sunday? It's hard to say what you might ask, but you'd have questions. I think you'd probably have a question or two. In fact, considering that it's a 10-day journey, I think you might have a thousand questions to ask. In John 1526, Jesus says, "When the advocate comes whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me." Someone else that has known Jesus since he was a little baby. We know from the story that Rebecca was on her own camel and could have found a place for herself anywhere in the caravan, but she chose to ride right next to Abraham's servant. I don't know if you picked up on that, and I want to encourage all of us this morning as you travel with the Spirit of God, listen to Him. Listen to Him because if you do, you could be learning new things about Jesus every single day in the same way that Rebecca learned new things about Isaac all along their journey together. Well, we're almost there, and I hope that as we've studied these three remarkable chapters, you've been as breathless as I've been since I first discovered these truths back when I was first a teenager. And I want you to pause for a moment and ask yourself, what would have happened if when God called Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, Abraham had just decided to disobey? What would have happened if Abraham had simply decided that God was asking too much or that God was unworthy of what it would cost Abraham to follow through? Even if Isaac is coming back to life, think about what it would have cost Abraham to follow through. My heart tells me that this story and all its power and all its beauty would not have been lost to us because God would have found another way to communicate it. We know that about God. And that means that if Abraham had been unwilling to obey, the loss would have been his. He would have lost the privilege of being used by God to communicate this kind of truth, the kind of truth that turns the world upside down. And that makes me want to ask, what's God doing in your life these days? What uncertainties are you facing? What ways are you being called upon to trust God and how is that working out? Would you be willing to share that with the rest of us? What story is he telling to you? What story is he telling through you these days? Share that with us. Whatever your answers to those questions might be as an old man let me encourage you. Don't miss out. Do what God's asking you to do so that God can tell his awesome story through you. And as we draw this to close to a close, I'm going to ask you to take off your thinking caps. I can see you had your thinking caps on and God can see that because they're pushing down your forehead like that. But I can see that you've had your thinking caps on and I want you to imagine with something with me, take off the thinking caps and I want you to imagine that moment that happened at the end of Rebecca's 10-day journey. Servant Rebecca have been traveling together and just imagine that moment when she would have asked that first question and then continued to ask questions about Isaac. And now they're at the point where they're nearing the end of their journey together but remarkably they don't make it all the way back to Abraham's house. Did you catch that in the story? They don't make it all the way back to Abraham's house. Isaac, it turns out, is staying in the Negev near Berla Hyroi and you may remember that name from earlier in Genesis, the well of the living one who sees me. It's evening and Isaac is out in the fields meditating. When he looks up, he sees the camel's approaching and he stands up and begins to walk toward Rebecca. So the servant led Rebecca all along the way but it is not the servant who leads Rebecca home instead as Isaac himself comes out to meet her and it is he who leads Rebecca back to be with him. And that's exactly what the Scripture teaches about the rapture of the church. As we read earlier, Jesus himself will descend from heaven with a shout. The trumpet will sound. We'll hear the voice of the archangel and the spirit of God. So pull us away from earth's gravity to meet the Lord in the clouds. Part way there. Jesus won't come all the way back to earth to get us and the spirit of God won't take us all the way back to heaven and God built that right into a story 2,000 years, now looking a lot more like 4,000 years before it happened. We'll meet Jesus in the clouds. He'll escort us home to the place that he's prepared for us. And Abraham's servant and Isaac and Rebecca have just played that out in living color. And in case you've been waiting and hoping to hear these words, look at what Jesus said in John chapter 14, do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God. Believe also in me. My father's house has many rooms. If that were not so, what I have told you that I'm going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me so that you also may be where I am. You know the place. You know the way to the place where I'm going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you're going. So how can we know the way? Jesus answered. I am the way, the truth in the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. In closing, I want you to think about that moment when Rebecca riding next to the Abraham servant saw a man walking across the field toward them. She turned to the servant and she said, who is that man that's walking toward us in the servant replied, it's him. That's Isaac. The man I've been telling you about on this whole journey. And as you ponder that, let your heart wander to that moment still in the future. When we're caught up into the clouds by the Spirit of God and for the very first time, we see Jesus face to face. We might turn to the Spirit of God who's been our constant and trusted companion and we might ask, who is that man and he'll say, that's him. That's Jesus, the one that I've been telling you about. Will you stand with me in the presence? Our Father and our God, we thank you that in the midst of the turmoil of our lives these days that we still have this precious hope, this precious certainty within us that just as you kept your promises to Abraham, you will keep your promise to us. The day is going to come when we hear the voice of the archangel, of the trumpet of God. And we're going to slip away from earth's gravity with the help of the Spirit of God. And find our way at home with the Lord forever as He leads us to you, Father. God, that's more than we could have possibly imagined and we just want to thank you for it today. Thank you, Father, for your goodness. Send us out of here with new desire in our hearts to share what we know with other people so that in the midst of the turmoil they're facing, they can have the same hope that we have. God send us out, we pray, in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen. Let me leave you with these words from the last chapter of the book of Revelation. Look, I am coming soon. This is Jesus speaking, and my reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the root in the offspring of David and the bride and morning star, the spirit and the bride say, "Come," and let the one who hears say, "Come," let the one who is thirsty, "Come," the one who wishes to take the free gift of the water of life. He who testifies these things says, "Yes, I am coming soon," and we reply, "Amen, even so come, Lord Jesus." We'll make disciples. [BLANK_AUDIO]