Vision (12.20.24): We have found water (Genesis 24:32)

 

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 26.

Genesis 26:25 An he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac’s servants digged a well.

 

Genesis 26:32 And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac’s servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had digged, and said unto him, We have found water.

 

Genesis 26 is focused on events in the life of the Patriarch Isaac. As he sojourned in Gerar, Isaac resolved to dig up the old wells that the Philistines had stopped up and filled with earth (v. 15b), and then to give them their old names (v. 18b: “and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them.”). This led to tension with the herdsmen of Gerar. Isaac abandoned one well calling it Esek (contention) and then another calling it Sitnah (hatred (vv. 20-21). He moved to another place called Rehoboth (Room) (v. 22), and then he arrived at Beersheba (the well of the oath) where his servants set to dig again (v. 23).

 

This account indicates that for God’s people there will be times when the old wells of the fathers must be dug again. There will always be a process of revival, reformation, and retrieval. This is what happened at the time of the Protestant Reformation. The old wells had been filled with earth by the medieval Roman church. Rather than teaching the doctrine of justification by faith, they were teaching justification by works. Rather than pure and simply evangelical worship, they had added the traditions of men.

We must constantly go back to the old wells that supplied the needs of our godly spiritual fathers and call them by the names that those same fathers used.

We might also consider how this passage, with all its descriptions of digging wells and its climactic description of finding water, points us to Christ. A parallel passage that comes to mind is John 4, when Christ encounters the Samaritan woman at the well. This was “Jacob’s well” at Sychar (John 4:5-6).

 

Christ asks the woman to give him a drink and then tells her that he can give to her “living water” (4:7, 10). She takes his words literally and tells him he has no means to draw this living water. Then John says:

John 4:13  Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: 14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

The woman later leaves her waterpot to go to her city and tell her neighbors of this man she met at the well, saying:

John 4:29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?

A Christian is simply one who says, after finding the Lord Jesus (or, better, being found by him), “We have found water.”

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision: Two Nations, Two Manner of People

 

Image: Esau selling his birthright to Isaac, drawing by Rembrandt, c. 1640, British Museum, London.

Note: Devotional based on last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 25.

“And the LORD said unto her, two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels….” (Genesis 25:23).

Genesis 25 is a hinge point in this first book of our Christian canon. The baton is literally passed from Abraham to Isaac. Just as godly Sarah died and was buried (Genesis 23), so godly Abraham also goes the way of all flesh (Genesis 25). Abraham too had his death day.

The focus then shifts from Abraham and Sarah to Isaac and Rebekah to carry forward the covenant promise (Genesis 12:1-3). Just as there was the barrenness with Sarah threatening to stifle God’s promise, so there was the barrenness of Rebekah (“she was barren” v. 21).

Just as Sarah bore Isaac, ending her barrenness, Rebekah will give birth to two sons, who will “struggle” in her womb (25:22).  The two sons will be the father of “two nations,” who will be “two manner of people” (25:23). One, Jacob, will be chosen of God, loved, and blessed, the other, Esau, estranged from the LORD by his own short-sighted hard-heartedness.

If I had to identify the greatest theme of Genesis 25 it would be “Election.” This is not a political term, but it refers to God’s sovereign choosing.

The infallible interpreter of this passage is not Matthew Henry or Matthew Poole, or any other merely human exegete, but the apostle Paul who wrote under the guidance of the Holy Spirit in Romans 9 :

Romans 9: ¹⁰ And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac;

¹¹ (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)

¹² It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.

¹³ As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

God chose to work his plan through Jacob and not Esau, before the brothers were even born. His choice was not conditioned on what they did or did not do. God’s choice of Jacob came about, “that the purpose of God according to election might stand” (Romans 9:11).

Paul used this record to illustrate God’s sovereign election in salvation. Who then is saved? Those whom God chooses. Neither of these two nations deserved God’s love. Neither earned it. Both deserved rejection. Yet God, in his mercy, chose to pour out his affections upon one.

There are two nations, two manner of people. They are the elect and the reprobate. The roots of this go back to Genesis 3:15 when the Lord told the serpent, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed.”

There was a high Calvinistic Baptist movement in the South back in the 19^th century known as “Two Seed in the Spirit Predestinarian Baptists” who articulated this doctrine. I can’t say I affirm all their beliefs, but they did rightly say there are two nations, two manner of people. There are those who are born again and made sons of God. And there are those who deny and reject Christ. Our Lord said to the latter in John 8:44, “Ye are of your father the devil.”

The final question is this: Where do you stand today? Where is your citizenship? To which nation do you belong? Has God made himself known to you in Christ, not because of any standing in you, but only because of his mercy? Or do you still stand distant and reprobate?

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (12.6.24): The Thing Proceedeth from the LORD

 

Image: Valentin Serov, Abraham's Servant Finds Isaac A Bride, Rebekah (1894)

Note: Devotional taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 24.

“And the man bowed his head, and worshipped the LORD” (Genesis 24:26).

“The thing proceedeth from the LORD” (Genesis 24:50).

Genesis 24 is a rather long chapter (67 verses). The old AV translators divided it into seven sections (vv. 1-6, 7-9, 10-14, 15-28, 29-31, 32-60, 61-67). In the fashion of Hebrew narrative, there is a good bit of repetition in it.

The focus of the chapter is an inspired account of Abraham, in his old age and after the death of Sarah, sending out the godly “eldest servant of his house” back to the country he had left to seek “a wife unto my son Isaac” (vv. 1, 4).

There are various spiritual lessons within this chapter. It has lessons on prayer and worship. This summer the youth of our church looked at a chapter from Peter Masters’ book Steps for Guidance in the Journey of Life which draws lessons from Genesis 24 on courtship and marriage. The overarching lesson of this chapter, however, is upon the providence of the LORD.

The Bible teaches us that there is a sovereign LORD, and he is directing the course of history on both the macro-level (Cf. Romans 13, no civil authority is in place but by his will) and the micro-level (Cf. Proverbs 16:33 “The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.” And: Proverbs 16:9 “A man's heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps.”).

The God of the Bible is Jehovah-Jireh (the LORD provides) (Genesis 22:14). In Genesis 24 the LORD, in his good providence, brings about the union of Isaac and Rebekah, and the keeping of his covenant with Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3). This theme is perhaps best stated in v. 50 when Laban and Bethuel (not exactly theologians!) declare, “The thing proceedeth from the LORD.” It is God’s will.

It is also noteworthy, that the godly servant of Abraham constantly prays to and worships the LORD as he seeks the fulfillment God’s providential plans. Before he sets off on his journey he prays (24:12: “O LORD God of my master Abraham, I pray thee…send me good speed”). In the midst of seeking a bride for Isaac, he worships (24:26: “And the man bowed down his head, and worshipped the LORD”). Having secured the agreement with Rebekah and her family, he worshipped (24:52: “when Abraham’s servant heard their words, he worshipped the LORD, bowing himself to the earth”). He worshipped before (v. 12), during (v. 26), and after (v. 52) the providential works of the LORD.

Let us be like that godly servant. Let us trust that the LORD is working all things for his glory and for the good of them that love him. And let us pray to and worship him, before, during, and after his accomplishment of all things.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle