I will - Genesis 24:50-67

[0:00] Lord, we thank you as we end that chapter on a word of comfort. Lord, I think as we've been looking at this unnamed servant representing the Holy Spirit, Lord, how you said, I will not leave you comfortless, but I will send the comforter who will abide with you forever. And Lord, we have the hope of that promise that we will make it. We will get there. We will meet the Son of Promise face to face. And Lord, we don't walk this journey alone. We thank you for your Holy Spirit. We pray now that you would speak to us by your Holy Spirit. Lord, that you would give us ears to hear and eyes to see, that the gifts of the Spirit would be at work, Lord, that you would speak forth your word in truth. We love you and we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. So if you remember, we had a bunch of characteristics we looked at last week with the bride. We're not going to go through all of them.

[0:46] There's like 25, so we won't rehearse all of them. But this week, there's a good chunk of those. We're going to see in the text how the bride must be given. The bride must be sent. The bride, she speaks with one voice to the world. The bride is under blessing. The bride must choose. The bride is brought to the Son, met by the Son, received by the Son, transformed by the Son, and loved by the Son.

[1:14] So we'll see all that as we go through the text today. But we ended last week kind of on a cliffhanger. I'm sure all of you all week were waking up every morning thinking, what's going to happen next in Genesis 24? Will they turn to the left? Will they turn to the right? Will they let Rebecca go?

[1:30] Where in verse 49, the unnamed servant, Abraham's oldest servant, he says, look, now if you will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me. And if not, tell me, that I may turn to the right hand or to the left. You know, either this is going to work or it's not, right? And we said there's no middle ground in God's kingdom. There's no middle ground. It's either to the right or to the left or straight on, but you got to tell me what I'm going to do here.

[1:55] That there's a choice that is always required. And then in verse 50, we have their response. We have Laban and Bethuel. Then Laban and Bethuel answered. If you remember, Bethuel is the son of Nahor, who is Abraham's brother, Nahor. And then Bethuel is obviously then the father of Rebecca.

[2:12] This is the only time that we hear anything about this guy other than in the genealogy. And if you remember what his name meant, remember his name meant, man of God. And so here, Nahor's kids, one of them means man of God, which is appropriate. The bride, her father is man of God. But if you notice whose name is mentioned first, Laban. And Laban's the one who's kind of doing all the interacting in this, in this chapter. Laban's name means white. Yeah, I mean, that's all white.

[2:41] What's wrong with that, right? He's an okay guy. Well, I kind of look at that and think of like how Jesus, when he said to the Pharisees, he said, listen, on the outside, you're like whitewashed tombs. And on the inside, you're dead man's bones. I mean, you look okay on the outside.

[2:56] And that, that seems to me to speak to me of like Laban. He seems okay. You know, he looks good, but it's just, it's just a show. It's just a picture. And here, unfortunately, you have a man, Bethuel, whose name means man of God, but he's letting someone else run his home. And how sad that is when a man of God lets his kids or anyone dictate in his home how they're going to, to operate. But they both kind of answer now, and this is the only time we hear anything from Bethuel. And they answered together. And they said, the thing proceeds from the Lord. Well, that's good.

[3:31] We cannot speak unto you bad or good. So Laban and Bethuel, they see clearly what God has done, but they won't commit themselves. Instead, they're distancing themselves. It's like, well, that's the Lord, but well, I mean, I'm not going to get involved. I can't decide, right? Or left.

[3:49] Jesus warns us in Matthew chapter 12, verse 30 and 31. He says this, he that is not with me is against me. And he that gathers not with me scatters abroad. Therefore, I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven unto men. So Jesus puts these two things together and he says, hey, if you're, if you're not with me, you're against me. And then he says, I say to you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven. So, but here now we have the unpardonable sin, the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. What is it? Well, it's the witness of the Spirit. The witness of the Spirit is sufficient, completely sufficient. These guys knew in our typology here, the unnamed servant, they knew it was the Lord. They're actually going to say in the end of verse 51, the Lord has spoken.

[4:38] Nowhere in this chapter does God speak with an audible voice, but they know that the Lord has spoken. That's God's word. The witness of the Spirit is sufficient. It's undeniable. The witness of the Spirit is undeniable. They can't say, well, no, that's a coincidence. I mean, so you prayed that and then she watered like 14 camels or whatever, you know, that's just a coincidence, you know, it's undeniable. The witness of the Spirit cannot be ignored. They can't just choose to pretend none of this ever happened. It's now upon them. They have to make a decision and it must be acted upon. And so Jesus says the same thing. He says, if you're not with me, you're against me because there's no other alternative. We said there's no middle ground, right? Now he's going to say in another place when James and John are like, Lord, we saw men casting out demons in your name and we stopped them. He's like, guys, look it, you're either for me or against me. So if you're for me, you're not against me. Okay. So if they're for me, they can't be against me. But if they're not, so there's no, but you can't say, well, I, I can't say yes or no to

[5:44] Jesus. I don't know. You know, I'll decide later. Well, then you're against him because you're not for him. And so these guys, unfortunately decide to take that middle ground. We see the same thing in Acts with Gamaliel when Peter and John have just gone up to the temple to pray. The lame man's healed. They bring all the men in and they're like, we want to, we don't know what to do with these apostles. And then Gamaliel says, hey, look, just leave them alone. Because if it's of God, you don't want to fight against God. If it's not, it'll come to nothing. Well, that sounds good, except a great miracle is just performed, right? Who did that? It was in Jesus name. You have to make a decision. But these guys, they don't want to make a decision. So they say, well, behold, Rebecca's before you take her and go. Let her be your master's son's wife as the Lord has spoken.

[6:33] Here we see the bride must be given. She must be given. We as the bride of Christ have that same choice that must be made. We must give ourselves to the Lord. He doesn't take.

[6:47] But it's interesting, like we said at the end of verse 51, it says there, the Lord has spoken. Where do you speak in 24? There's nowhere where God's voice is heard. But what did the, what have we seen over and over with this unnamed servant? What's he bring up? He says, well, I was in the way God led me. And then we see in verse 48, he said that he led me in a right way. And this, that word is going to come up again a few times. But in God's way, God's word is clearly seen.

[7:10] It's always clearly seen in God's way. And God's word does something very specific here for the bride. If you look in verse 51, God's word revealed the bride. They say, Rebecca is before you. Okay.

[7:23] We clearly see this is the one who's been revealed to be the bride for the son of promise and God's word, which has spoken, has done this. God's word prepared the bride. Okay. Take her, take her and go. She's prepared. Here she is. Take her and go. And God's word presented the bride.

[7:45] God's word will present the bride. Take her to your master's son to be his wife. And so God's word is very much all over what's happening here. These men recognize God's word, but they're not willing to surrender to it and to be a part of that.

[8:01] And so now we see the servant's response. He says, I need an answer. They give him an answer. They say, take the bride and go. And it came to pass that when Abraham's servant heard their words, he'd worship the Lord, bowing himself to the earth. A servant of the father has a heart of worship.

[8:18] This is the second time he's worshiped. The first time he worships in response to God revealing Rebecca to him at the well. He then rehearses to Laban's whole family and Bethuel's whole family, how he worshiped. And that's in verse 48. And now in verse 52, we see him again, worshiping. And this is where we could spend all day looking at characteristics of worship.

[8:40] You know, worship is a response. Worship is about is to bow. Worship is to put yourself in a place of vulnerability. Worship is, is performed to the Lord immaterial of who you're around and who you're with and what the situation is. And so he worships the Lord. There's another time that the, there'll be a great rejoicing when the bride is presented. Revelation 19 verse six and seven says, and I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude and as the voice of many waters and as the voice of mighty thundering saying, hallelujah for the Lord God omnipotent reigns.

[9:14] Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him for the marriage of the lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready. We are the bride of Christ. But on that day, when we are there within the wife, we are now the wife. It has been, it is done.

[9:34] It's soon guys, soon we're going to be there and we're going to be rejoicing. And so he rejoices in this moment that the bride is being released for the son.

[9:44] And so then the servant brings forth jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment and gave them to Rebecca. And he gave also to her brother and to her mother, precious things. God is a God of order. It tells us in second, in first Corinthians chapter 14, for God is not the author of confusion, but of peace as in all churches of the saints, that all things be done decently and in order. In the new Testament, Paul's going to explain in Corinthians and then the pastoral epistles. He's going to kind of give us this idea of like the order of the ordering of the service. It's not concrete, but he talks about gifts and how they're to be used. And then this was the mind blowing thing to me this week that when I saw this, like God puts a picture of that right here in this. What came first? The first thing that came was the word in verse 51, didn't it? Only after the word, then there was a response of worship in verse 52. Only after the word and worship were their gifts. Who brought them forth? The unnamed servant representing the Holy Spirit. And then what comes next in verse 54, they did eat and drink, fellowship, communion. And you just see God, his stamp, obviously all over his word. But to see this just tucked right here in this picture of the servant and the bride, it was, to me, it was like, wow, Lord, that's, that's just seems like it's jumping off the page and how he orders his service.

[11:17] But if you look in verse 53 at the end there, there's a word there. And he gave to her, her brother and her mother, precious things, precious gifts. Well, that makes me think of in second Peter chapter one, verse four, Peter says, wherefore given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these, you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption, corruption that is in the world through lust. The precious gifts of God are meant to have an intended effect, right?

[11:48] Laban is going to look at the precious gifts and think, yes, all right, this is going to my 401k. This is buying the new car. You know, he's like, yes. But what does the Bible say these precious things are for? Right, right? Having escaped the corruption that's in the world. Second Corinthians chapter seven, verse one, having therefore these promises, those exceeding great and precious promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. So the gifts God gives us are specifically to separate us from the world, to cause us to, to be holy, which just means to be separate. They're to draw us to the son, right? They're to, to awaken our minds to the son of promise and all that he has for us.

[12:34] They're never meant to be consumed upon ourselves. They're never meant for our own gain, right? The unnamed servant, the Holy Spirit can never be used for personal gain. And they did eat and they drank. He and his men, they tarried all night and they rose up in the morning. He said, all right, let's go. I've done what I came to do. I don't need to be hanging out here any longer. We need to go. There's no cell phones, right? No email. There's no pagers.

[13:04] Anybody used to have a pager? I didn't. My dad did. Right? There's no way to, they didn't have carrier pigeons. You know, send them, go back to Abraham and let them know I found a bride. He's like, I need to get back. We're talking two to three weeks, four possibly with Rebecca and all her ladies. That might've been a long trip. It's like, I got to get back. He says, let me go. Send me away.

[13:29] The bride must be sent. Bride must be sent. Bride must be given and the bride must be sent. We must be sent. Jesus says in John 20 verse 21, he said, my peace, uh, I leave unto you as the father has sent me. And so those send I you. So we also must be sent. When was the bride sent?

[13:54] In the morning after she rose. Another beautiful picture. The bride can only be sent after the morning of rising. We are only sent after that morning of rising, the morning of resurrection.

[14:07] After that, the bride is sent. And her brother and her mother said, well, hold your horses, hold your camels, bro. Uh, let the damsel abide with us a few days at least 10. After that, she shall go. What happened between verse 51 and here verse 55? Bling, right? It's like, well, there's Rebecca. She's before you. This is the Lord. Take her and go. This unnamed servant brings out all the jewels and all the gifts. And all of a sudden it's like, well, it don't go too fast.

[14:43] Let's think about this first. You see any relationship that withholds the bride from the son is an unfruitful relationship. And Jesus clearly points that out in Luke 14, verse 26.

[14:55] If any man come to me and hate not his father, his mother, his wife and children and brethren, his sisters, yay, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. I have two sisters and the Bible tells me to hate them. I did a good job of that as a kid. No, no, this is not the doctrine of hate.

[15:09] This is just in proportion to nothing can be a rival to the relationship we have with Jesus, with the son. And any relationship that would withhold the bride of Christ from the son is unfruitful, right? I was going to put, um, it's unhealthy. I was like, well, no, it's unfruitful.

[15:29] You know, it's not like you need to cut that relationship off, but you need to recognize what it is. You know, if it's, if it is bringing any type of, um, what's the word? Competition with the relationship with the son, well, it's unfruitful. You need to recognize that then. And in essence, treat it like a relationship, um, that you would recognize is harming your life.

[15:51] So they say, Hey, let them stay. And the wording there where he says, um, let them abide a few days, at least 10. Now that literally could mean a few days, maybe 10 days, but it's possible. It also means a year and at least 10 months. He's saying, you know what? You go home. We'll do a long distance relationship. Okay. You send jewels, you send money, you send treasure, and she'll send a letter with a lock of her hair every once in a while. Right. You know, let's, let's have this long distance relationship. Um, we don't need to do anything too quick. And he said unto them, hinder me not seeing the Lord has prospered my way. The word hindered literally means to cause, to delay or to be left behind. Don't do anything that would cause any part of the bride to be left behind. Don't do anything that's going to hinder the bride getting to the son. You think of that scripture where it's Peter that says, um, where that those that are mock saying, where is his coming? Where is it? For the

[16:56] Lord does delay. Where is it? I think where Jesus gives a parable. He says, my master delays his coming and the servants begin to beat one another. Speaking of the church, my Lord delays his coming. His servants begin then this like infighting. Delay is never good in the church. Let me say that again.

[17:16] The attitude of delay is never healthy for the bride of Christ ever. You'll never see a place where it's considered so. And so the world will seek to delay the bride. Why? For the sake of gain.

[17:30] They want to gain, but the unnamed servant can never be used for personal gain. So they're like, Hey, you hang out a bit. Um, and he said, no, no, hinder me not. The Lord has prospered my way.

[17:43] Send me away that I may go to my master. And we're not going to go back into, you know, we talked about true prosperity last time is only found in God's way, but there is that which looks prosperous. The Holy Spirit does bring prosperity just as he brings gifts and blessing. But like we just looked at, what are they for? They're not for material gain. They're not to like, um, prosper my life here. They're to speak of what I have in the sun, right? They're to remind me of what is mine that I have in Christ. But the world looks at that and says, Hey, you know what? Let's keep the bride around. Let's keep the church around a little bit. I think we can gain some stuff here from this.

[18:23] So he says, send me away that I may go to my master. And they said to her, and they said, we will call the damsel and inquire at her mouth. Romans 10, 10 says, for with the heart, man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Rebecca, what's in your heart. Come and tell us what's in your heart. What's in the heart of the bride?

[18:44] What do you want to do? Job 42, five says, and I've heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. The desire that's in the heart. What is it? Is it to see the sun? Is it to be with him? What are you looking for? Rebecca, do you just want some gifts? She saw all these gifts and she's like, okay, yeah, whatever. If that's what those gifts are, man, what must he be like?

[19:13] What must he be like? Today we try and through social media and we try to present ourselves as something we're not, right? Try and make ourselves look an image. She doesn't know what this guy looks like at all.

[19:28] She doesn't have a clue. You know, she'd be like, well, maybe all these, maybe this is just to convince me to go back and the guy's going to be as ugly as, you know, whatever. She doesn't know. She doesn't know. That's not what it's about. God looks on the heart, right? Rebecca, where's your heart in this?

[19:45] And so then she speaks, the bride speaks four times in this chapter. She speaks in verse 24 in response to the unnamed servant. He says, hey, is there room for me and your master in your father's house?

[19:56] She speaks good news to her family. She goes home in verse 28 and speaks good news to them. And then here in verse 58, she speaks of her destination. She says, I will go. And the bride speaks with one voice to the world. The only voice the world hears is the voice of destination.

[20:16] In Mark 16, 15, Jesus tells us, he says to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Go and speak with one voice to the world. What do we, what is that gospel? What is the voice we're speaking? Well, first John tells us, and we have seen and do testify that the father sent the son to be the savior of the world. That's the voice we testify with one voice to the world. Rebecca, what do you want to do? I go, I go to the son. I'm going to the son. We are supposed to be ready to give every man an answer for the hope that we have within us. They say, what's, what's up with you?

[20:51] What about all the treasure that you could get here? No, no, I go to the son. I'm going, I will go. And that is her response here as well. And then we're going to see in verse 65, and there's her, the times that the bride speaks in this chapter, we're going to see that she speaks to the unnamed servant to inquire about the son. So the four times she speaks, they're either to the unnamed servant in response to him, or they're a word of good news to her family, or that destination of where she's going. And it's the same with us being sent by Christ into the world.

[21:27] And so she desires to go and to see the son. And as we said, she's not seen him. And John chapter 20, verse 29, Jesus says to Thomas, he says, Thomas, because you've seen me, you believe, but blessed are those that have not seen and have yet believed. Are you afraid that when you see Jesus face to face, you're going to be disappointed? You know, Lord, I thought you were blonde with blue eyes.

[21:49] Just where's the muscles? You know, are you going to be disappointed by how he looks? No way. Eyes like fire, you know, hair like wool, feet like bronze. We're going to fall at his feet.

[22:01] And we're going to say, hallelujah, the Lord God of omnipotent reigns because he has redeemed us back to God. I don't care what he looks like. He's a lamb slain before the foundation of the world. He's going to have scars. The only person in heaven with any scars for all of eternity is going to be Jesus. And every time we look at him, we're going to love him more and more. And so Rebecca, she says, I will go. I'm out of here. Thanks, dad. Thanks, bro. I'm happy to go.

[22:33] Verse 59, they sent Rebecca away, their sister and her nurse and Abraham's servants and his men. There's no turning back. Everybody's going. Okay. Here's your nurse. Here's your damsels. Here's everything. There is no turning back. This decision has been made.

[22:46] They blessed Rebecca and said unto her, thou art our sister. Be thou the mother of thousands of millions and let your seed possess the gate of those which hate them. Hey, don't forget you're our sister. Send us a good Christmas present, you know, from Isaac. But the bride is under blessing.

[23:02] Here we see the bride is under blessing. Romans 8, 28 tells us that we also as the bride are under blessing. We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to his purpose. We live under blessing. And there's very interesting too, that it's singular and let thy seed possess the gate of those that hate him. Psalm 110, speaking of that seed, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool.

[23:34] The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. Very applicable, especially considering what's going on right now among God's people in Israel, that God, his Messiah, that king will sit and rule in the midst of his enemies. He does so now.

[23:54] But like it says in Hebrews, that yet not all things have been put under his feet in actuality, like in practice. And so they bless her, they send her on their way, and Rebecca arose in her damsels, and they rode upon the camels and followed the man. And the servant took Rebecca and went his way.

[24:11] And here we see the bride's choice. The bride must choose. It's one thing to say, I want to go. It's one thing to be chosen as the bride, to meet all the qualifications of the bride, to desire the son, to receive his gifts. But honey, you got to get up and go. You know, you can't say, I do, and then stay home. How long have you been engaged? Well, you have to go. You have to arise and go. So she makes her choice. And then we see there's only one way to the son, because it says the servant took Rebecca and went his way. This is the only way she's going to get there. She could have said, you know what, unnamed servant, I'm going, and hopped on, you know, maybe like the fast track to Isaac and leave the servant behind. If she shows up without him, what does that mean? She has no authority to be there.

[24:57] She has no verification. She has nobody to vouch for her. She can show up and say, I'm Rebecca. And Isaac goes, who? Yeah, the unnamed servant he sent me. No, that doesn't make sense. He went to get you. He's going to bring you. He's not going to send you without himself. So you can't be the bride. There's only one way to the son. And we looked at that verse in Matthew chapter 12. All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven unto men. There's no way but by the spirit. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes unto me. No man comes unto the father but by me. Well, no man's getting to Jesus but by the Holy Spirit. There's only one way to the son. And so Rebecca hops on her camels with all her ladies, with all her stuff, with unnamed servant.

[25:46] And we're talking three to four weeks, especially with all of them. I'm sure they're traveling at a slower pace. And then we scene change, fade to black, fade back in, and now we're with Isaac. And it says this about Isaac. It says, and Isaac came from the way of the well, for he dwelt in the south country.

[26:08] We have not seen Isaac. We've talked about Isaac. Back in the beginning of chapter 24, you know, Abraham's talking about his son. The servant talks about the son. We've not seen Isaac since his resurrection on Moriah, since he's came off the altar and the ram was put in his place.

[26:27] It then says, Abraham returned to his servants and they all went home. Well, where's Isaac? Where's Isaac? Well, it's taken for granted. He's with the father, but we don't actually see or hear from him again until he is coming to receive his bride. And it's the same. Where's Jesus? He's with the father, right? And this world's not going to see him again. He's going to come and receive his bride. The world's going to wake up to the fact that, oh, wow, this thing's real. And for seven years, they're going to duke it out. And at the end of that, they're going to see the son. But he comes from this well, though Hebrew actually says, and Isaac came from the way of Lahorai three different times.

[27:05] Lahorai, Lahorai, Lahorai. And that means the well of the living one seeing me. Remember, that's when Hagar flees from Sarah the first time when she's pregnant with Ishmael and the Lord shows up to her and he says, you know, go back to your mistress. And she names the well. She says, the well of the living one seeing me. And so we've just been told that Isaac came from there three different times. So when Hebrew does that, you know, at the mouth of two or three things, three witnesses shall be established. Like this is really, it wants us to know this is where he, this is his favorite place. This is where he lives.

[27:39] This is where he settled down. He's coming back from there. The son was coming forth from the place of the all seeing living one. In John 16 verse 28, Jesus says, I came forth from the father and I'm coming to the world. Again, I leave the world and go to my father. The son comes from the place of the all seeing living one. And it says, for he dwelt in the South country. And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at evening time. And he lifted up his eyes and saw and behold, the camels were coming.

[28:11] Isaac went out in the evening time to meditate. Isaac went out to pray. Isaac was being prepared for his bride by prayer. That was step one. Jesus did the same thing when he was in the garden.

[28:22] In Luke 22, verse 42 to 44, he says, Father, if you be willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly. And his sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And so before the son could receive the bride, he was prepared in prayer. So he lifts up his eyes though, and he sees the camels coming. She made it.

[28:52] She made it. Rebecca has just traveled, like we said, maybe a month worth of traveling possibly. The bride's journey may not have been the most comfortable, right? She's on a camel. You ever ridden a camel? I've ridden a camel. It's not very fun. Well, it's kind of fun because I rode it with Sue before we were married and she thought she was going to fall off. And that was kind of funny, but it was. He felt like you're going to fall off and it didn't move very comfortably.

[29:17] You know, I've ridden horses. I don't really like it. I don't like having to constantly move to the, like the, you know, to post, to move to the movement of the horse. I don't really enjoy that. Some people really like that. Camels, I didn't really like. They kind of sway.

[29:30] And so she, she made it though. Was it a comfortable journey? Was it hot? Was it cold at that time of year? Was it stinky? Was it long? Was she tired? I don't know, but she made it. She made it. The servant brought her there. And guys, we're going to make it. First Thessalonians chapter five, verse 23, Paul writes, and the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. And I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless under the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's not on you and I to do. You don't have to preserve yourself blameless. He's praying that the God of peace sanctify you wholly. God will bring you there. We are going to make it.

[30:06] And Rebecca made it. Was it worth it? I think it was. I think when she got off that camel and she saw him coming, I think that was gone from her mind that whole trip. It was worth it. But where does he meet her? And Rebecca lifted up her eyes. And when she saw Isaac, she lighted off the camel. The one characteristic here again of the bride, the bride is brought to the son. She's brought. It doesn't come on her own power. For she said unto the servant, what man is this that walks in the field to meet us? Walking in the field. The son of promise met the bride in the field, didn't he?

[30:38] Jesus gives a parable of the sower, 2.0. Not the one where the seed falls on the wayside and the thorns and the rocks and the good soil. But the other one where the farmer goes out and he sows in his field. And then at night, his enemy comes and sows tares. And Jesus giving the interpretation of that parable, saying to his disciples, he said unto them, he that sows the good seed is the son of man. The field is the world. The good seed are the children of the kingdom. And Jesus came and walked in this world and found and met each one of us as he walked in this world. And the bride, her response to seeing the son in verse 65 says, therefore, she took a veil and covered herself. The bride is veiled. We are veiled.

[31:22] First Corinthians 13, 12 says, for now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know, even as I am known. There's a veil, the veil of this flesh, of being in this body. There is a separation. We have all of God. We have all the fullness of Christ, nothing withheld, but we don't yet experience all of that in its fullest, right?

[31:45] We're not going to get to heaven and be like, Lord, why did you withhold so much from me? He withheld nothing. He gave everything. And it's ours fully, but not all of it can yet be fully experienced till we know as we are known.

[31:56] And then the bride is brought into a new home, isn't she? In 67, verse 67, it says, and Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent. We have a new home. 2 Corinthians 5, verses 1 through 4, for we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

[32:22] For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house, which is from heaven. If so be that being clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened, not for that we would be unclothed, but to be clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Our new tabernacle, our new body, that new home that we have, the desire to be there.

[32:46] In verse 66, it says that the servant told Isaac all that he had done. He said, hey, here's how it all went down. The servant verified who the bride was. Without the servant speaking on behalf of the bride, there's no one, there's no verification for the bride. There's no bride without the servant. And what did the servant do? Well, John 16, Jesus tells us what the servant's going to do. He says, how be it when he, the spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth.

[33:17] He will not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, he shall speak and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me for he will, he will receive of mine and show it unto you.

[33:28] Well, it was a perfect picture of what this servant of Abraham just did with Rebecca, that he spoke of the son. So the servant comes and tells Isaac all these that he's done. Hey, here's what I told her about you. Did you tell her about how I snore? I didn't tell her about how you snored, but I showed her, you know, that one painting you did, remember? Oh, that was a good one. I took that and showed her.

[33:46] Oh, good, good, good. So he shows her all these things. And Isaac, what's Isaac's response to this? In verse 67, and Isaac brought her into his mother's tent and took Rebecca. She became his wife.

[34:02] He loved her. And Isaac was comforted after his mother's death. The bride is received by the son. The bride is transformed by the son. The bride is loved by the son.

[34:17] The bride is received by the son. And Isaac brought her into his mother's tent. John 14, 3. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I'll come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also. The bride is transformed by the son. Rebecca becomes his wife. She's transformed. No longer Rebecca, the daughter of Bethuel, but now Rebecca, the wife of Isaac. 1 Corinthians 15, 52. In a moment, in the twinkling of the eye at the last trump, for the trump shall sound and the dead shall be raised and we shall be changed. We have been transformed. We've been born again and then we shall receive a greater transformation at his coming. And last, the bride is loved by the son. And he loved her. 1 John 4, 9 through 11. And this was manifested, the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him here in his love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. And lastly, Isaac was comforted after his mother's death. What was his comfort? Was it that like, no, I'm married. Yes, this is not my comfort. No, the comfort was as he got to know the bride, as he grew in love with Rebecca, as they became one, as they lived life together. It was a comfort. They grew together. And I think of the more secure we, the bride, as we grow in love of the son, the more assured we are of our place with the son and in the body. You think of Rebecca, she never met

[35:54] Isaac. And now she's married to him. And yet the more they grew in love, the more that they spent time together, the more secure she became, the more she became, I am Isaac's bride. This is my place.

[36:05] This is where I'm meant to be. So for us, I guess the question today is the same put to Rebecca in verse 58.

[36:15] Wait. Wilt thou go? Will you go? And hopefully our response will be the same as the bride's. I will go. Because you see, the servant went into the world, was sent into the world by the father, and he will find a bride for the son. And the son will receive her. Those are givens.

[36:33] However, she who is called and chosen, many are called, but few are chosen, must still make the choice for herself if she will go. Right? So you can be called. You can be chosen. But will you go?

[36:45] Will you go? And hopefully, like Rebecca, we can answer and say, we will go. Isaiah 6, verse 8. Isaiah speaking, or overhearing the Lord speak, he says, I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us?

[37:04] Then said Isaiah, here am I. Send me. Right? So we've heard. There's no denying the voice of the Lord. There's no denying what his spirit has done. Now what's our response going to be? I will go.

[37:16] Because there's a day coming. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory for the wedding of the lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. I guess the question is, are you ready? Are you ready? Have you made yourself ready? If you're not ready, get ready. Are you ready? I mean, I'm ready.

[37:35] I'm ready to go. But I wonder, am I ready to be the bride now? Am I willing to be the bride now? Or is it, well, when I get there? Right? At that time. Rebecca was asked, long before she had met Isaac, or had ever seen him or met him, she was asked, still in the world, laboring a type of the world, still at home, she was asked, will you go and be the bride? And she had to live out that part of being the bride long before she ever met the son. So Father, thank you that you have again put before us this beautiful picture, Lord, of your love for us, the lengths you will go to, to find us, to get us. And Lord, I think of that word we heard over and over through this chapter, the way.

[38:28] I being in the way, the Lord led me. The Lord led me in the right way. And then where it says Isaac, in the way that led from the well of the living one seeing him. And Lord, it seems like so many paths and ways, but they're all one. There's only one way. You, Lord, are the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by you. And all of these ways, all of these paths, they led in one direction. They led to the son. They brought the bride to the son. And so Lord, whatever part we're at, maybe the Holy Spirit's speaking to our lives and just saying, hey, it's time, it's time to come away. It's time to leave the family home. It's time to leave what's comfortable, time to leave the world, and to come away. Or maybe like when Rebecca first meets him, it's like, I don't understand.

[39:15] There's so much about what's going on, I don't quite grasp. But all of those ways lead to one. One way. They look different, but it's one path that led the bride to the son. And Lord, I thank you so much for opening up a way for us. It was through the cross. It was through your death and your resurrection that you opened a way for us. And what a promise we now have, that we can live in this world, not alone. We have the Comforter with us. And we're going to the son, not alone. He's going to get us there. And the son is going to receive us because the son loves us. Lord, may we live worthy.

[39:53] May we be able to say, like in Revelation 19, we've made ourselves ready. Lord, we're ready as a bride adorned. And Lord, as we worship you now, may that be the response to the word, the word of God, Lord, that is spoken, and the worship. May we bow before you now, wherever we're at, doesn't matter who's around, and just worship our God. We love you. In Jesus' name, amen.

[40:22] Amen.