Genesis 24: The Lord is Faithful to His People

"The man bowed his head and worshiped the LORD and said, 'Blessed be the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his steadfast love and his faithfulness toward my master. As for me, the LORD has led me in the way to the house of my master's kinsmen.'" Genesis 24:27

In our reading of Genesis 23-26, we continue to see the faithful hand of God providing grace for his people. Although each and every one of these so-called "patriarchs" has failed greatly, God continues in his faithfulness by fulfilling the covenant that was made with Abraham, even to his sinful and wretched descendants. From the book of Genesis, we have surely found many things, but I would love to argue that the main thing that we have found is how the Lord provides grace to an undeserving people.

In Genesis 24, which we will highlight today, we see the Lord's faithfulness being played out in the finding of Isaac's wife, Rebekah. The story starts out with Abraham's desire for his son Isaac to have a wife from his kindred rather than the people of Canaan (Note: this was not incestuous, but rather faithfulness to God, as a Canaanite woman would most likely have had a negative influence on Isaac.). Thus, he sends one of his servants to go to find a wife for Isaac in the land where Abraham's family lives. Thus this obedient servant (whom we don't get a name for) does so and waits patiently by a well as he awaits for Isaac's wife to come by. While he is there, he prays to God by asking that he provide a wife for Isaac, thus blessing the servant's journey, and to make it very clear to him which girl it ought to be. With divine accuracy (you should read the story for youself--my summary does not do it justice), the Lord provides, and the servant finds Isaac's wife. The servant next asks to lodge in the woman's (Rebekah's) father's house for the evening (a common custom in those days), and he does so, all while explaining why he is on his journey. Hearing the story, her father concurs to let his daughter marry Isaac, and all is well. The Lord, once again, has been faithful in providing what was needed for his covenant promise to Abraham to be fulfilled.

Yet amidst this great story, we find the unnamed servant crying out to God a song of praise: "Blessed be the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his steadfast love and his faithfulness toward my master." This verse really struck me this morning, as it convicted me of how faithless I often am to the Lord's faithfulness. In other words, it showed me how ungrateful I can be for the Lord's grace and provision in my life. This servant, after his prayers had been answered, cried out greatly to God because of his faithfulness to his master. The servant made a request of the Lord, and the Lord answered it without delay. How many times have I forgotten to praise the Lord for his faithfulness to my requests? How many times have I failed to worship the Lord for his grace? Surely we ought to be more like this humble and obedient servant!

Surely through the life of this unnamed servant, we see a great picture of what it looks like to live by faith. However, scripture is not primarily about the people, it's about the God who gives grace to the people. In this story, we certainly find a servant whose faith we ought to imitate, but above all of that, we see a God who is sovereignly more gracious, loving, and kind than we could ever imagine. He had promised Abraham a great number of offspring, and in case you didn't know, a great number of offspring cannot happen unless your children have spouses. Yet in this story, we find God providing that very thing. Furthermore, we find God sovereigntly blessing the womb of Rebekah, even though it was barren (Gen. 25:21), just like Sarah's. The Lord is faithful to his promises, and we surely ought to be in awe and wonder of this today as we seek his face. Amen!