Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #9 of Genesis, chapter 24, and I am going to read Genesis 24: 9-14:

And the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and sware to him concerning that matter. 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, even the time that women go out to draw water. And he said, O JEHOVAH God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day, and shew kindness unto my master Abraham. Behold, I stand here by the well of water; and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water: And let it come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink; and she shall say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also: let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac; and thereby shall I know that thou hast shewed kindness unto my master.

I will stop reading there.  I wanted to read verse 9 because I want to mention that the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham.  We discussed this regarding verse 2 when Abraham asked him to do that, in Genesis 24:2:

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:

We saw that the word “thigh” was also translated as “loins” in Exodus 1:5:

And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already.

So the word “thigh” is translated as “loin.”  So Abraham’s servant put his hand under the loin of Abraham, and from the loins comes descendants or children, and the spiritual emphasis is that Christ would come forth from the line of Abraham.  God had just set up an elaborate historical parable concerning the birth of his son Isaac who was the promised seed.  The New Testament tells us of the “seed” (singular), and that seed was Christ.  So Isaac came forth from Abraham’s loins and, yet, it was really pointing to Christ who would come forth over two thousand years later from the loins of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and so forth.

The servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham, and in the Bible the hand represents the will, so this has to do with the servant’s will.  It is tied to the one who will come forth, the seed, who is Christ.  And he swore to him concerning that matter, so this has everything to do with the Lord Jesus Christ enlisting His people as His servants to go forth, as we have discussed, to find the bride of Christ.

So let us go on to the next verse, where it says in Genesis 24:10:

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.

He got started and he got busy right away.  Again. Let me turn to John 1 and the parable the Lord Jesus set up, as it says in John 1:51:

And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.

The “angels” can also be translated as “messengers.”  Remember that when someone goes up through salvation to be seated in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, they are immediately dispatched back as messengers.  There is no “messing around” and no delay.  In the day of salvation, we are to go forth.  Of course, it may take some time for that newly saved person to be aware of what has happened to them and what their new task is, and it may take some time for God to reveal it to them and open their eyes to understanding it.  But as far as God is concerned, the command is issued immediately: “You are to go forth.”

Another example would be the Apostle Paul in Acts 9 when Christ came to him on the road to Damascus and blinded him, as Saul saw that glorious sight and was blinded.  Then the Lord sent Ananias to Saul of Tarsus, and Ananias went, and it says in Acts 9:17-20:

And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized. And when he had received meat, he was strengthened. Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus. And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.

There was no delay.  Straightway he got busy.  It was the job the Lord had for him to do: “Go forth.”  There was to be no idleness or loitering about; he got right to the task at hand.

So it appears that this is what is going on here in Genesis 24.  The faithful, longstanding servant of Abraham was a good servant because he did the will of his master.  Again, there is that idea of the hand under the thigh.  It had to do with his will, just as God makes His people willing in the day of His power.  At the point of salvation, when God gives us a new heart and new spirit and indwells each one of His elect, God is going to move in us to will and to do of His good pleasure.  He is going to stir us up to get to work in carrying out the mission that God has set for us.

So it says in Genesis 24:10:

And the servant took ten camels of the camels of his master, and departed…

We know the number “ten” has to do with completeness, so the servant took the completeness of “camels,” whatever that would have in view, and he departed. 

Then it goes on to say in Genesis 24:10:

… for all the goods of his master were in his hand…

Now we know why he took the camels.  It was because they were laden with goods and riches.  In not too long he will encounter Rebekah and give her some of these riches.  Then he went to her family’s house and gave more riches, so there were a great amount of riches that were loaded upon ten camels.  So we can understand two things: 1) the number “ten” points to the completeness of camels; and 2) the goods on the camels point to the completeness of goods.  We are also directed to that understanding by what it says in the middle of Genesis 24:10:

…. for all the goods of his master were in his hand…

Of course, Abraham still had plenty of riches in his dwellings, but as far as the Biblical language is concerned, the point that God is underlining here is that these camels contain all the goods or all the riches of his master, without exception.  There are no riches that are not being brought, according to the language, as he is bringing the fulness of riches.

Before we think more about that, let us go back to the word “camels” and try to understand what is in view concerning camels.  What do these animals represent?  I do not know if we can understand it fully, but we can know some things.  If we go to Leviticus 11, we see that camels were “unclean” animals.  It says in Leviticus 11:2-4:

Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, These are the beasts which ye shall eat among all the beasts that are on the earth. Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat. Nevertheless these shall ye not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the hoof: as the camel, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you.

The camel was an unclean animal.  We are probably most familiar with the reference to a camel in the Bible with what we read in Matthew 19:22-26:

But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. hen his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved? But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.

When Jesus said it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God, there is no question He was pointing to something that is a literal impossibility.  Of course, people in that time were very familiar with camels.  Today we are familiar with them, too, as we see them at the zoo or on the internet.  We know what a camel looks like, but those people would have had very close dealings with those animals, and they would have seen how huge they are as compared to a needle – and not just the needle – but the eye of the needle.  I know I have had trouble the couple of times I have tried to thread a needle.  You have to wet the thread, and it helps to have very good eye sight, and then it is still not easy, but eventually you can get that little thread through.  Now try to take a large animal like a camel and put it through the eye of a needle.  There is no way.  You have people that ridiculously say things that are foolish, like to kill the camel and chop it up and make camel soup.  It is just ridiculous.  They are being foolish with what Christ is saying.  He meant, “See that camel over there.  Take that camel and if you can get it through the eye of a needle, that would be easier than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” 

To begin with, the example is an impossibility.  There is absolutely no way of getting a camel through the eye of a needle.  And if it is absolutely impossible to do that, then how much more impossible is it for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God?  And the Jews were exceedingly amazed, because they had the Genesis account of Abraham who was a rich man.  Isaac was a rich man.  Jacob was a rich man, as were all the patriarchs.  Joseph rose to second in command in Egypt, and he was a rich man.  The kings of Israel, like David and Solomon, were rich men.  How could there be a problem for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God?  No wonder they were amazed.  Some of the most notable people in the Bible were rich, as I just mentioned.  “Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the good kings had great wealth, and you are saying it is more impossible for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven than a camel to go through the eye of a needle?”  No wonder they asked this question with exceeding amazement: “Who then can be saved?” 

Certainly, it would have been taught by the Pharisees and chief priests and Jewish tradition that if you are rich, it is because God has blessed you.  It is similar to the teaching that many pastors teach today with their “health and welfare” gospel and their “name-it-and-claim-it” gospel, as they preach, “If you do things God’s way, God will bless you with riches.  He has ultimate power and control, does He not?  Does He not own the cattle upon a thousand hills?  Does He not own everything in the world and can give it to you?”  So you have people in the world that are lusting after riches and things, as they try to use God and His power to bring riches to themselves.  There is a long history of erroneous doctrine going all the way back to the nation of Israel and down through the church age teaching that if you are rich, God has favored you and blessed you. 

Remember that Job had great wealth and riches, and he had very good friends while he had great wealth and great riches.  Then he lost it all.  When his camels and livestock were stolen or slain and the house fell upon his children and all kinds of catastrophes happened to him, his friends thought he had sinned.  “Obviously, he had blessings prior to this, so whatever he has done, he has offended God, so God has made him poor.  God has made him sickly.  God’s hand is upon him for evil.” 

Beggars were viewed by the society of the Jews as though they had done something wrong.  They thought that those that were in ill health or those that were blind had done something wrong.  “Your parents must have sinned,” as they said to the blind man who Christ healed: “Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us?”  You see, this was the mindset of the Jews.  If you were sickly, in ill health, lame on your feet or blind or a poor beggar like Bartimaeus, then you were not blessed of God.  But those that had riches and good health, like the rich man in the parable in Luke 16, were blessed of God, and all would have looked up to them and spoken highly of them like people do today.  Things have not changed.  And, yet, Christ was setting things straight, as He did from time to time, as He did with the poor widow woman who cast in her two mites, and He said, “This poor widow hath cast in more than they all.”  It was all her living. 

And God is not fooled.  He is not deceived by the deceitfulness of men as they try to present themselves with their physical riches.  So as far as the question about who can be saved, Christ answered them, “With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.”  All things are possible with God, and it is basically saying that man cannot get himself saved, but God will save whom He will save.  It goes along with Romans 9, John 1:13, and it goes along with the whole Bible, like the Lord Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead: “Lazarus, come forth!”   Prior to Christ calling him forth and giving him life and ears to hear and respond, could Lazarus have come forth?  Could he have lived?  No – he was dead.  That is the teaching of the Bible.  Salvation is impossible with man.  You cannot “accept Christ” and become saved.  You are dead in sin.  It is impossible.  You cannot say “the sinner’s prayer” and get saved.  You cannot “walk down the aisle” and get saved.  You cannot be water baptized, no matter what mode of physical baptism it is, and you cannot respond in any way to the Gospel because you are dead in trespasses and sins.  It is only God that could have saved you in the day of salvation, which is now past.  Only God could save.  It has always been impossible with man, but possible with God.  That is the salvation program of the holy Bible – salvation is of the Lord.  It is not of man or the will of man, but of God.  That is how God saved. 

So, here, the camel is used as a picture, and the camel was used in the parallel Gospel account in Mark 10:23-25 and in Luke 18:25.  The camel, the unclean animal, cannot go through the eye of a needle, and going through the eye of a needle is likened to a rich man entering into the kingdom of heaven.  So there is a connection with the little eye of a needle, and remember what the Bible says about the “way” to heaven.   Is it a broad way?  Is it a wide and easy path?  No.  It says in Matthew 7:13-14:

Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

The “few” would be the elect.  So the little “eye of a needle” is like that strait gate.  Lord willing, we will discuss camels further when we get together in our next Bible study.