Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #30 of Genesis, chapter 24, and we are going to read Genesis 24:36-41:

And Sarah my master's wife bare a son to my master when she was old: and unto him hath he given all that he hath. And my master made me swear, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife to my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I dwell: But thou shalt go unto my father's house, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son. And I said unto my master, Peradventure the woman will not follow me. And he said unto me, JEHOVAH, before whom I walk, will send his angel with thee, and prosper thy way; and thou shalt take a wife for my son of my kindred, and of my father's house: Then shalt thou be clear from this my oath, when thou comest to my kindred; and if they give not thee one, thou shalt be clear from my oath.

I will stop reading there.  In all probability, Eliezer was this servant, and he is telling his errand – he is telling his “word,” and this is pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ who would finish the work that He was sent forth to do by His Father, and that work was accomplished through the sending forth of the Word of God.  That was the “errand.” 

We saw in verse 35 that the servant said that God has blessed his master Abraham greatly, and blessed him: “…and he is become great: and he hath given him flocks, and herds, and silver, and gold, and menservants, and maidservants, and camels, and asses.”  That all identifies with the riches of God’s kingdom, especially as it relates to His purchasing a people for Himself to become His elect and the inhabitants of that eternal kingdom of heaven.

Then it says in Genesis 24:36:

And Sarah my master's wife bare a son to my master when she was old: and unto him hath he given all that he hath.

Sarah was 90 years old when she gave birth to Isaac.  Abraham was ten years older – he was 100.  The servant did not mention that Sarah had died, but we know that was the situation.  Actually, that was what prompted Abraham to send his servant; it was the death of Sarah.  If we go back, it says in Genesis 23:1-2:

And Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old: these were the years of the life of Sarah. And Sarah died in Kirjatharba; the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her.

Then at the end of the chapter, it says in Genesis 23:19-20:

And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre: the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan. And the field, and the cave that is therein, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession of a buryingplace by the sons of Heth.

Chapter 23 closes with the burial of Sarah.  Then we find in the opening of Genesis, chapter 24, it says in Genesis 24:1:

And Abraham was old, and well stricken in age…

Since Sarah died at age 127 and Abraham was ten years older, he would have been 137.  We are given no statement that any significant amount of time had passed from Sarah’s burial at the end of chapter 23 to the beginning of chapter 24.  Abraham was 137, and well stricken in age.  Then it says in Genesis 24:1:

… and JEHOVAH had blessed Abraham in all things.

This was just as the servant was recounting: “And JEHOVAH hath blessed my master greatly.”  Then it says in Genesis 24:2-4:

And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had, Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh: And I will make thee swear by JEHOVAH, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell: But thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac.

So it appears that as soon as Sarah had died, Abraham got ahold of his most trusted servant, and we can see why.  He was very diligent about performing the duties he was assigned, and Abraham sent him to find a wife for Isaac.  We can understand why this is so when we go the last verses of Genesis, chapter 24.  It says in Genesis 24:66:

And the servant told Isaac all things that he had done.

By the way, that would be another recounting of his errand, although the details are not restated, about what he told Laban and Rebekah’s family.  Then when he returned, he told it another time.  Again, it says in Genesis 24:66-67:

And the servant told Isaac all things that he had done. And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.

So we can see the connection.  His mother had died.  He was despondent.  Of course, he was very sad, and Abraham saw this and Abraham wanted to comfort his son.  He believed that he needed the comfort of a woman, a wife, so he sent his trusted servant who returned with the wife, and Isaac was comforted.  We can see how this worked out.

One other thing I did not mention was that Sarah had Isaac when she was 90 and she died at age 127, which is 37 years later.  In the Bible, the number “37” identifies with judgment, so it was upon the death of Sarah when Isaac was 37.  His mother lived 37 years while he was alive, and when Isaac was 37 the servant Eliezer was sent out to find him a wife.  We also know how old Isaac was when the servant brought Rebekah to him and they were married.  It says in Genesis 25:20:

And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.

So Isaac was 40 when the servant finally returned with Rebekah.  I do not know how long the journey was to Haran or how long the return journey was, or even how long the servant stayed there, although from what we read, it does not appear it was very long that he stayed there.  But just going on this information, it would appear that when Isaac was 37, the servant was sent out.  That was when Abraham commissioned him to go find the wife.  But remember that he had to gather the fellow servants that would be under him, and he had to get together the supplies and the treasures they would take.  They had to load the camels.  Maybe they had to map out their journey for the best route to take, and so forth.  I am sure they did things very carefully and very deliberately. 

That is the nature of God’s people; we make preparation.  Just think of when we go on a tract trip.  You know, it is far easier for us to travel anywhere today, but we need advance notice.  We have to get prepared.  We have to make reservations for planes and hotels and where we will go within that city, and so forth.  There is a lot of planning involved, and especially for a long journey, which is even more dangerous, and when  they were traveling by camel, instead of plane.  They would have taken some time in preparation, and the mode of travel was much slower.  Let go back and reread a little bit in Genesis 24:10-11:

And the servant took ten camels of the camels of his master, and departed; for all the goods of his master were in his hand: and he arose, and went to Mesopotamia, unto the city of Nahor. And he made his camels to kneel down without the city by a well of water at the time of the evening…

So God did not give us the details of the trip itself.  He left, and the next thing we read is he is outside that city by a well.  We do not know the previous cities he may have stopped in.  We do not know how many weeks or months it took.  We are not told any of that.  I am just saying this so we can see how it would be possible for the servant to have left when Isaac was 37 and to have not returned until Isaac was 40.

This is speculation, but it is my guess that the roundtrip to Haran and back home with Rebekah was probably three and a half years, because the Bible uses that figure in a few different places.  We know that the Lord Jesus Christ’s ministry was three and a half years.  We know that God likens the church age in a similar way.  Remember that Revelation 12 tells us that the “woman” bore a man child, and then she had to flee into the wilderness where she was taken care of by God for 1,260 days or three and a half years.  So we can see this figure, and these figures have everything to do with Christ obtaining His bride.  The church age was all about finding the bride of Christ, as people would come into the churches and be saved.

So if it were three and a half years that the servant was gone, let us say that Sarah delivered Isaac in February. (I am not saying that is the month.)  She died at age 127 and in February of that year when she was 127, Isaac would be 37.  Then the following February in the next year, Isaac would be 38, after one full year.  Then the February after that, Isaac would be 39, and it was two full years.  Then in February of the third year, he would be 40 and it would be three full years.  Let us say that the servant did not return until six months later in the year that Isaac turned 40, so it would be three and a half years from the point of his mother’s death, and Isaac is still 40.  That is one way it could fit in.  Then it could tie in with various things. 

There is also the possibility of the “three and a half days” that is mentioned in Revelation 11 where the two witness are lying dead in the street, in Revelation 11:3-4:

And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.

By the way, the “thousand two hundred and three score days” is three and a half years.  Then it says in Revelation 11:7-9:

And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.

This is another figure of “three and a half,” and this figure identifies with the first part of the Great Tribulation or the 2,300 evening mornings. 

So one of the more difficult things in understanding the Bible is finding the right period of time to associate an account with and to understand what God is doing and what period of time it identifies with.  We know the servant had come for the bride for Isaac (the bride of Christ), and we know the servant is going to take the bride away from the land of Haran and back to Isaac.  And then Isaac will be comforted after his mother’s death.

We also know from this account that his mother had died, and Sarah is likened to “the mother of us all” in Galatians 4.  The Bible uses the figure of a mother and the mother identifies at times with the Word of God itself.  As we are born again, how are we born?  It is through the hearing of the Word of God.  Then the milk of the Word feeds us when we are newborn spiritual babes, and we feed upon that milk of the Word.  So, without question, there the Word of God is likened to a woman giving suck to her infant.  So someone that became saved and created anew in his soul, then feeds spiritually upon the Word of God and drinks of the milk of the Word, and growing thereby until they are able to digest the “meat” or the strong doctrine. 

That is the figure of the prophetess Deborah.  Barak would not go to the battle that typified Judgment Day unless Deborah the prophetess went with him.  Why?  It is because the word “Deborah” is the feminine version of the Hebrew word “daw-bawr,” the word translated as “word.”  So, basically, it is as if the Lord Jesus is saying, “I will not go to this battle without the Word of God accompanying me.” 

And Sarah does at times picture the Word that gives birth, so her death can be identified with the two witnesses because the “two witnesses” (Moses and Elijah) were the Law and the prophets.  The two witnesses also identify with the Word of God, the Bible.  The “two witnesses” were lying dead in the streets of the city that is spiritually called “Sodom and Egypt.”  That is where our Lord was crucified,   Jerusalem identifies with the corporate church and has become apostate, corrupt and dead.  Even though they still have the Bible in their pulpits and the Bible in their pews, it is a lifeless thing because the Holy Spirit has departed out of the midst of the congregations.  Therefore, it is as though the two witnesses, the Law and the prophets, or the Bible is lying dead in the street of Jerusalem of the apostate churches of the world today, as God has ended the church age, and the Word of God had no power to save members of the congregations during that 2,300 evening mornings or after that, throughout the rest of the Great Tribulation during the time the Latter Rain was falling outside the churches upon the nations of the world.  So no one has been saved inside any of the churches since May 21, 1988.  It has been that long now.  God did raise up the “two witnesses” and they rose upon their feet after “three and a half days,” which was language indicating that they were prophesying.  And many feared who saw them; that is, there was a great multitude saved outside of the churches and congregations.

We can, perhaps, identify Sarah’s death with this and, again, this is based on some “guess work,” and I am just kind of running this by you.  I do not think we can teach this dogmatically because we have to estimate that three and a half year-period from the time of Sarah’s death until the servant returned with Rebekah.  But using this information, it could be considered an “educated guess” based on what we know in the Bible and based on God’s use of this figure “three and a half,” that from the point of Sarah’s death to the point when the servant returned with Rebekah, it is as though God is bringing the bride out of the (corporate) church.  And this would identify with the Jubilee year of 1994 and the deliverance of the captives and setting the captives free, and so forth. 

This is just something to think about and consider.  I do not think we should “minister questions,” and I never appreciated that when I was in the church and a pastor would present a verse and say, “Now this is the take of theologian A, theologian B, and theologian C, and then here is my take on this verse.”  We would just walk away, confused.  Normally, I do not do that, but in Bible study, a lot of times you do set up possibilities.  And, again, normally we want to declare the possibility, but I do not see how we can be sure about it, and I did not want to leave this account without mentioning it.

We will stop here and, Lord willing, we will continue the study of Genesis 24 in our next Bible study.