Monday 4 July 2011

Christ and his bride part 2

Rebekah and Isaac

Rebekah and Isaac are another wonderful picture of Christ and the church, actually , the whole trinity is pictured in Genesis 24. Abraham is a picture of the Father, and the servant is a picture of the Holy Spirit. Because the story is fairly long, I have kept only a few verses below to illustrate some points, but you can go and read the whole story in Genesis 24 in your own time.


Gen 24

And Abraham said to his chief servant, … take an oath by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you will not get a wife for my son Isaac from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I am living; But that you will go into my country and to my relations and get a wife there for my son Isaac.
And if the woman will not come with you, then you are free from this oath; only do not take my son back there.
And the servant took ten of his master's camels, and all sorts of good things of his master's, and went to Mesopotamia, to the town of Nahor.
And he made the camels take their rest outside the town by the water-spring in the evening, at the time when the women came to get water.

(Later)Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Milcah, who was the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, came out with her water-vessel on her arm.
She was a very beautiful girl, a virgin, who had never been touched by a man: and she went down to the spring to get water in her vessel.
And the servant came running to her and said, Give me a little water from your vessel.
And she said, Take a drink, my lord: and quickly letting down her vessel onto her hand, she gave him a drink.
And when the camels had had enough, the man took a gold nose-ring, half a shekel in weight, and two ornaments for her arms of ten shekels weight of gold;
And said to her, Whose daughter are you? is there room in your father's house for us?
And she said to him, I am the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Milcah, Nahor's wife.
And she said, We have a great store of dry grass and cattle-food, and there is room for you.
And with bent head the man gave worship to the Lord;

The Lord has given my master every blessing, and he has become great: he has given him flocks and herds and silver and gold, and men-servants and women-servants and camels and asses.
And when Sarah, my master's wife, was old, she gave birth to a son, to whom he has given all he has…
And now, say if you will do what is good and right for my master or not, in order that it may be clear to me what I have to do.
Then Laban and Bethuel said in answer, This is the Lord's doing: it is not for us to say Yes or No to you.
See, here is Rebekah: take her and go, and let her be your master's son's wife, as the Lord has said.
And at these words, Abraham's servant went down on his face and gave praise to the Lord.

Then he took jewels of silver and jewels of gold and fair robes and gave them to Rebekah: and he gave things of value to her mother and her brother.
Then he and the men who were with him had food and drink, and took their rest there that night; and in the morning he got up, and said, Let me now go back to my master.
But her brother and her mother said, Let the girl be with us a week or ten days, and then she may go.
And he said, Do not keep me; the Lord has given a good outcome to my journey; let me now go back to my master.
And they said, We will send for the girl, and let her make the decision.
And they sent for Rebekah and said to her, Are you ready to go with this man? And she said, I am ready.

So they sent their sister Rebekah and her servant with Abraham's servant and his men.
Now Isaac had come through the waste land to Beer-lahai-roi; for he was living in the South.
And when the evening was near, he went wandering out into the fields, and lifting up his eyes he saw camels coming.
And when Rebekah, looking up, saw Isaac, she got down from her camel,
And said to the servant, Who is that man coming to us through the field? And the servant said, It is my master: then she took her veil, covering her face with it.
Then the servant gave Isaac the story of all he had done.
And Isaac took Rebekah into his tent and she became his wife; and in his love for her, Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.

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