Take a Wife For My Son Isaac: Genesis 24:1-28

Genesis 24:1-28: "1 Now Abraham was old, well advanced in age; and the LORD had blessed Abraham in all things. 2 So Abraham said to the oldest servant of his house, who ruled over all that he had, 'Please, put your hand under my thigh, 3 and I will make you swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell; 4 but you shall go to my country and to my family, and take a wife for my son Isaac.' 5 And the servant said to him, 'Perhaps the woman will not be willing to follow me to this land. Must I take your son back to the land from which you came?' 6 But Abraham said to him, 'Beware that you do not take my son back there. 7 The LORD God of heaven, who took me from my father's house and from the land of my family, and who spoke to me and swore to me, saying, "To your descendants I give this land," He will send His angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there. 8 And if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be released from this oath; only do not take my son back there.' 9 So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and swore to him concerning this matter. 10 Then the servant took ten of his master's camels and departed, for all his master's goods were in his hand. And he arose and went to Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor. 11 And he made his camels kneel down outside the city by a well of water at evening time, the time when women go out to draw water. 12 Then he said, 'O LORD God of my master Abraham, please give me success this day, and show kindness to my master Abraham. 13 Behold, here I stand by the well of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. 14 Now let it be that the young woman to whom I say, "Please let down your pitcher that I may drink," and she says, "Drink, and I will also give your camels a drink"--let her be the one You have appointed for Your servant Isaac. And by this I will know that You have shown kindness to my master.' 15 And it happened, before he had finished speaking, that behold, Rebekah, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, came out with her pitcher on her shoulder. 16 Now the young woman was very beautiful to behold, a virgin; no man had known her. And she went down to the well, filled her pitcher, and came up. 17 And the servant ran to meet her and said, 'Please let me drink a little water from your pitcher.' 18 So she said, 'Drink, my lord.' Then she quickly let her pitcher down to her hand, and gave him a drink. 19 And when she had finished giving him a drink, she said, 'I will draw water for your camels also, until they have finished drinking.' 20 Then she quickly emptied her pitcher into the trough, ran back to the well to draw water, and drew for all his camels. 21 And the man, wondering at her, remained silent so as to know whether the LORD had made his journey prosperous or not. 22 So it was, when the camels had finished drinking, that the man took a golden nose ring weighing half a shekel, and two bracelets for her wrists weighing ten shekels of gold, 23 and said, 'Whose daughter are you? Tell me, please, is there room in your father's house for us to lodge?' 24 So she said to him, 'I am the daughter of Bethuel, Milcah's son, whom she bore to Nahor.' 25 Moreover she said to him, 'We have both straw and feed enough, and room to lodge.' 26 Then the man bowed down his head and worshiped the LORD. 27 And he said, 'Blessed be the LORD God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His mercy and His truth toward my master. As for me, being on the way, the LORD led me to the house of my master's brethren.' 28 So the young woman ran and told her mother's household these things."

This evening we get to meet Rebekah, Isaac's future wife for the first time. The servant of Abraham takes an oath to find for Abraham's son a wife from his own people, and not from among the Canaanites. One might wonder, "why not?" This is most likely due to the Canaanites worshipping false gods and idols. However, the hometown of Abraham, would likely have a woman who was raised to believe and worship the One True God.

This is seen in the young maiden Rebekah. Not only does she willing help a stranger, but also was willing, and even offered without any prompting to water the strangers camels until they had had enough to drink. Keep in mind, that this servant of Abraham could have easily drawn water for himself, and his camels. But the actions of Rebekah show a self-less heart, a heart eager for helping others. Rebekah embodies the fulfillment of the second table of the Law. Love thy neighbor as thyself.

If one loves themselves, they are going to care of themselves. Case in point, we feed ourselves, we clothe ourselves, we put shelter over our heads, we find companionship for ourselves, in other words, we do good things for ourselves, because we care about ourselves. Our Lord God, commands us to love our neighbors, that is, our fellowman, in the same way that we do ourselves. We are required to treat everybody else, in the same way that we treat ourselves.

Clearly, none of us live up to this standard. Most of us our self-serving, and not selfless. Think about it, would we have acted in the same way that Rebekah acts, if some stranger asked us to take time out of our busy day to give them some of the water that we drew for ourselves, and we can assume her family? If we are honest, the answer is probably no. But Rebekah even goes a step further, in that she offers to give water to this strangers camels, without him asking. Would we do likewise? More than likely not.

We can see in this narrative an example of our Lord's words when He says that if someone asks for our tunic, we should give him our cloak as well, or when someone asks us to walk a mile with him, to go two miles with him. In other words, a heart that is truly full of love and grace, will not just do the minimum asked of it, but will gladly and willing do more than asked. How many of us can say the same is true of us?

In Rebekah's actions, we see a picture of the Good Samaritan, who not only helps someone who is a stranger, but by all accounts an enemy. The Good Samaritan is a picture of our Lord, who bandages our wounds that we received through sin, and gives us to the innkeeper, that is, the minister, to take care of us until He returns.

Rebekah is the perfect woman, for she is the picture of our Lord Jesus. In her selfless acts, she prefigures our Lord whose selfless acts of suffering and death freed us from the bondage of sin and death, so that we might enjoy forgiveness of our sins. Our Lord's death, burial, and resurrection is the living water for our souls, for it nourishes and comforts us, it relieves us from the hard journey through the desert and wilderness of this earthly life. Therefore, we come to the Church to hear this good message, in order that we might be given this refreshing water, to relieve us of our thirsty sin-parched lives.

May this water of life, comfort and refresh you, as you come to the Lord's house to hear His holy Word, and receive His Blessed Sacraments.

God be with you!

Deacon Dulas

Only Noah And Those Who Were With Him in the Ark Remained Alive: Genesis 7:1-24

Genesis 7: 1-24: "1 Then the LORD said to Noah, 'Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation. 2 You shall take with you seven each of every clean animal, a male and his female; two each of animals that are unclean, a male and his female; 3 also seven each of birds of the air, male and female, to keep the species alive on the face of all the earth. 4 For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made.' 5 And Noah did according to all that the LORD commanded him. 6 Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters were on the earth. 7 So Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives, went into the ark because of the waters of the flood. 8 Of clean animals, of animals that are unclean, of birds, and of everything that creeps on the earth, 9 two by two they went into the ark to Noah, male and female, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth. 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. 12 And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights. 13 On the very same day Noah and Noah's sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark--14 they and every beast after its kind, all cattle after their kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort. 15 And they went into the ark to Noah, two by two, of all flesh in which is the breath of life. 16 So those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the LORD shut him in. 17 Now the flood was on the earth forty days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 18 The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters. 19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered. 20 The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered. 21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth: birds and cattle and beasts and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man. 22 All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land, died. 23 So He destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground: both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the air. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive. 24 And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days."

The narrative of the Flood shows God's judgment and mercy. God judges the whole earth to be worthy of destruction, and so He sends a flood. This should serve as a stark warning to us! "All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land, died." We learn from Dr. Martin Luther's Small Catechism that, "God threatens to punish all that transgress these Commandments. Therefore we should dread His wrath and not act contrary to these Commandments." * This is a commentary on Exodus 20:5, "I, the Lord, thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me." * What that means, is that God takes His Law seriously. He does not want people neglecting or breaking His commandments. What that also means, is that He will punish those who transgress against His Law.

What does that mean for us? It means we should take God's commandments seriously too. Especially those of us who claim to love Him and want to do His will. We should study His Law, so that we know what to do, and not to do, and live by them. We should teach them to our children, and place them on our hearts, on our walls, and keep them ever before us. However, we should never think that we are saved by our keeping of the Law. Only One Man was perfect, and that was our dear Lord Jesus, only He kept the Law perfectly. We fail often, daily. And when we do we should confess our sins, to God, or our minister. When we repent of our sins, and confess them, and promise to amend our sinful ways, we receive absolution, that is, forgiveness of sins, from our minister, just as if it came from God Himself.

I am quite sure that at the time of Noah, there were many people, like today, who did not believe that they were all that evil. After all, everybody else was probably doing the same things, and unfortunately, we have this bad tendency to judge our works according to our neighbors works, that is, by our fellow man's works. This leads to one of two things, pride or despair. Pride comes when we look at our neighbors works, and think, "Well, at least I'm not as bad as that guy." Despair comes upon those who look at their neighbors works, and think that they will never be a good person. They say to themselves, "I wish I was as good as so and so." But we should not be comparing our works to any other man's works. Instead, we should trust in Christ's works on our behalf. Our dear Lord Jesus, fulfilled the Law perfectly for us. And better yet, our Father in heaven, took out our punishment upon our dear Lord Jesus. And so, our keeping of the Law, really stems from our love for what our Lord did for us. We desire to keep the Law because of what He did. And when we fail, we have an intercessor before the throne of heaven, who pleads on our behalf for us--our dear Lord Jesus, who sits at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us.

This is why Noah is saved. It wasn't because of his righteousness, but because of his faith in God to redeem him, inspite of his sinfulness. And this faith was reckoned to him as righteousness. This is why the world is destroyed in a flood, because they lacked faith in God, they trusted in themselves and their works. They thought they were not all that bad, that they were acting just like everybody else. This is why Christians don't act like everybody else, why they obey God, because they believe that He is their Lord and Savior, and that He will keep His promise to punish those who remain in their sins, even as He punished those at the time of the Flood.

But God shows His mercy in this pericope as well. He saves Noah and his family. We see from the text that God even closed the door for Noah, shutting him up into the Ark. We see that He protected Noah, and all of His creation, by saving two of each kind of living thing. Again Noah is a figure of the promised Christ. Noah is shut up in the tomb of the Ark, just like our Lord Jesus is shut up in the tomb. Both our dear Lord Jesus and Noah are carried through death, one real, one seeming, to life again on the other side. This also is a picture of baptism. In baptism, God saves us, we are placed into the Ark of Christendom, and He carries us through the Flood of this life to our eternal home. He counts us as righteous, because we believe that He has called us by baptism, and enlightened us with His gifts of forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation, and sanctifies and keeps us in the one true faith. That faith is that our dear Lord Jesus fulfilled the Law perfectly for us, and suffered and died for us, so that we might have eternal life with Him.

This evening we rejoice in this gift. We rejoice that God has shut us up through the water of baptism, into the Ark of Christendom, and guides and protects us through this valley of tears, until we come home to live with Him in heaven.

May God be with you!

Deacon Dulas

* Translation from Doctor Martin Luther Small Catechism and An Explanation of Christian Doctrine based on Doctor Luther's Small Catechism, Edited by Markku Sarela, Published by The Confessional Lutheran Church of Finland, 1999. Scripture quotations from the King James Version, 1611.