Listen to the Sermon
July 6:
Call: Matthew 11: 28-30
Text: Genesis 24: 34-38, 42-49, 58-67
Reading: W&S #180
Psalm: Psalm 72
Closing: Communion
In-Dependence
I love God.
And one of the things that I love about God
Is the fact that so often we encounter Godly irony.
This morning, we find that irony in the fact that this is
Independence Day weekend
When day we celebrate freedom
And the great document that proclaimed it
When we remember
The twin victories
at Gettysburg and Vicksburg
which marked the turning point
in freedom for slaves.
As we know, our Bible also talks a lot about freedom
A check of my concordance reveals
25 instances of the use of "freedom" or some form of it:
Three times in the OT
twice in the Exodus, Once in Psalms
22 times in the New
Twice in Acts, Three times in 1 Peter
Once each in Hebrews and Revelation
And sixteen times in Paul's letters
One might say that Paul wrote so much about freedom
That he was the Thomas Jefferson of his day.
And yet on the weekend we most often think of in dependence
The scripture is the story of Rebekah becoming Isaac's wife.
On Independence Day weekend
We hear the story of an arranged marriage
Of a woman to a man whom she had not met
On Independence Day weekend
We hear a story not of independence
But of dependence.
But we hear it because
Despite the less than free human aspects
The dependence in the story is about
Our dependence on God.
And this completes the intertwined trio of concepts in Abraham's faith
Obedience to God:
which we looked at in Abraham's exclusion of Ishmael from the household
Trust in God:
Which we looked at in Abraham taking Isaac up the mountain prepared to sacrifice him.
And now dependence on God:
Which we observe this morning with Isaac & Rebekah
And while I picture God sitting in a heavenly easy chair,
Smiling, smirking, and thinking
"Have fun with the timing of this one, Jim."
I think it is a reminder
That while we prize and seek independence as a country
And often as individuals
Our relationship with God needs to be one
where we know we are not independent of God
but rather that we are in dependence on God
and where our lives and our thinking
reflect that dependence.
And for those of us in 21st century America
That is not easy.
You and I are always trying to lead our own lives.
When we have problems
We often seek our own solutions
And just as often we seek to assign the blame to someone else.
The beauty of this story about our dependence on God
Is that it is not about a conflict
And there is not anything to blame on someone else.
It is simply a story of relying on God.
Before we pick up the specifically identified text,
Let's set the stage.
Abraham's wife Sarah has died
Abraham decides that it's time for their son Isaac to marry
Not only to help him recover from his mother's death
But also to make sure that Isaac has offspring
After all, God had promised Abraham numerous descendents.
And so he called his servant and made him swear by God
That he would get Isaac a wife
Not from the daughters of the Canaanites
But from Abraham's home country
And from Abraham's kindred
Initially, the servant was apprehensive
As to whether a woman would follow him back
But Abraham assured him that God would be with him
And so confident was Abraham
That he added that if the woman failed to follow
The servant was released from his promise.
The servant then took ten of Abraham's camels
As well as all kinds of choice gifts
He went to the city of Nahor
[Nahor was Abraham's brother]
Just outside the city he stopped by a well,
Fully aware that it was just about the time
When the women would come to draw water.
Rebekah came to the well.
Now, so that no one gets lost or distracted
by trying to figure out the relationships
The facts are these
Rebekah was the daughter of Betheul and his wife Milcah
Bethuel was Nahor's son
Abraham's nephew
Isaac's first cousin
Thus Rebekah was Abraham's great niece
and Isaac's second cousin.
That is not, however, what matters.
What does matter
is that Rebekah satisfied all the criteria the servant had listed in his prayer for discernment.
The servant was convinced that Rebekah was the one chosen by God to be Isaac's wife.
When he announced that he needed a place to stay
the girl ran to tell her mother's household
Her brother, Laban, went to the well, invited him to the house, gave him straw and fodder for the camels as well as food to eat.
But the servant explained
that he would not eat until he had told of his errand.
It is with that telling of his errand that we pick up our text:
[24: 34-38]
So in just a few sentences
The servant has stated his purpose:
get Isaac a wife
The servant has offered assurances to her family:
Abraham is wealthy and Isaac is receiving all of it
The servant has brought God into the discussion:
"The Lord has greatly blessed Abraham"
And then he admits his own doubts, and Abraham assurances
That God would be with him
And would make him successful. [24: 39-41]
And then he shares how he came
Depending on God's involvement and guidance
And describes how God had
Directed him to the correct family - Nahor's;
And given him what he had asked - in Rebekah and in her response.
[24: 42-49]
The servant knew that he had not located Rebekah by himself
He had not depended on a map or a GPS
He had chosen to depend on God
And, as Abraham had indicated, God made it a successful trip.
Betheul and Laban were impressed
They responded: [24: 50-61]
But there is still one more character in the story
Isaac, the guy who was getting a wife he had not met.
In some ways, his situation was even more anxiety producing than Rebekah's
She at least got silver and gold jewelry and fine garments
Isaac was getting a total unknown.
And so, the story concludes with their meeting. [24: 62-67]
A good ending
A positive ending
A satisfying ending to a story
That had its uncomfortable elements
For the idea of an arranged marriage is discomforting.
But it is a story that teaches us something important.
For it is a story in which, everyone depended on God
Abraham depended on God to pick a wife for his son
The servant depended on God to make his journey successful
Rebekah and her family depended on God
To accept and believe that she should become Isaac's wife
And finally,
Isaac depended on God to accept that Rebekah should be his wife.
They all used their human gifts in the process.
They did not sit around and wait for something to happen.
They expended energy
They gave thought and used reasoning
But ultimately they depended on God.
Walter Bruggeman in his commentary on Genesis
in the "Interpretation" series summarized the story.
"The faith offered here
is for those who are willing to be led."
The people in this story were willing to be led.
And so, this week, instead of focusing on the little questions
Like arranged marriages
Which I cannot fathom
nose rings
which confound me
or why Rebekah's mother was mentioned more than her father
which intrigues me
you and I need to ask whether we - individually and collectively -
are willing to dependent on and led by God.
Do you think we are?