Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #10 of Genesis, chapter 24, and I am going to read Genesis 24: 9-24:

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. And it came to pass, before he had done speaking, that, behold, Rebekah came out, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, with her pitcher upon her shoulder. And the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin, neither had any man known her: and she went down to the well, and filled her pitcher, and came up. And the servant ran to meet her, and said, Let me, I pray thee, drink a little water of thy pitcher.  And she said, Drink, my lord: and she hasted, and let down her pitcher upon her hand, and gave him drink. And when she had done giving him drink, she said, I will draw water for thy camels also, until they have done drinking. And she hasted, and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran again unto the well to draw water, and drew for all his camels. And the man wondering at her held his peace, to wit whether JEHOVAH had made his journey prosperous or not. And it came to pass, as the camels had done drinking, that the man took a golden earring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold; And said, Whose daughter art thou? tell me, I pray thee: is there room in thy father's house for us to lodge in? And she said unto him, I am the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, which she bare unto Nahor.

I will stop reading there.  In our last study, we began to talk about the camels that this servant, who was more than likely Eliezer, had taken on this trip to Mesopotamia unto the city of Nahor.

I just want to back up to Genesis 24:9 where the it says, “And the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and sware to him concerning that matter.”  We talked about the “thigh” relating to “loins,” and it is out the loins that seed comes, so it is pointing to Christ, the promised “seed” (singular), and putting his hand under the thigh has to do with his “will” and it being tied to the Lord Jesus Christ.

But I did not mention the word “matter,” where it said, “…and sware to him concerning that matter.”  The “matter” had to do with Abraham’s instruction: “Here is what you will do.  Go to my family in Mesopotamia, and you find a woman there.  Do not go to the land of Canaan and take a wife of the Canaanites.”  So that is the “matter,” and the Hebrew word translated as “matter” is the word “daw-bawr,” which is #1697 in Strong’s Concordance, and it is the word for “word.”  “Thy word have I hid in my heart.”  So, he swore to him concerning that “word,” and that has everything to do with the Word of God, the Bible.  Sometimes the word “daw-bawr” is translated as “matter,” if you recall, in Proverbs 25:2:

It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.

Both the words “thing” and “matter” in Proverbs 25:2 are translations of the word “daw-bawr,” so it is really more helpful to our understanding if we read this verse: “It is the glory of God to conceal a word: but the honour of kings is to search out a word.”  Here, the “kings” would identify with God’s elects who are spiritually prophets, priests and kings.  I just wanted to mention that this has everything to do with the Word of God, as we have been discussing, and it, too, points to the sending forth of the Gospel as Abraham sent his servant to find a wife for his son.  It is a beautiful picture of God sending His people, the elect children of God, into the world for the very same purpose – to find a wife for His Son; that is, as the Gospel went forth and people heard and became saved, they were added to the body of Christ, the bride of Christ.  It is a beautiful picture of that.

Again, 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.

Last time we looked at one of the Gospel accounts concerning camels.  Let us go to Luke 18, and it has to do with a certain young rich man that came to the Lord, and it says in Luke 18:18-27:

And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?  And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God. Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother. And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up. Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me. And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich. And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. And they that heard it said, Who then can be saved? And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.

The rich man wanted to go into the kingdom of God, and he wanted to receive eternal life: “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?”  Jesus told him one option: “You know the commandments.  Keep the commandments.”  And He listed several commandments.  And as far as the rich man understood, he had kept the commandments and, yet, he did not fully understand the depths of the commandments in their spiritual meanings, or he would not have answered him this way: “All these have I kept from my youth up.”  So what Jesus did was to give more Laws, and that is what God has done with the giving of the Bible – He has multiplied Laws.  It is for the purpose of showing mankind their sinfulness.  And that is not just my idea.  That is what the Bible says in Romans 3:20:

Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

So that is one important point.  The Law brings the knowledge of sin.  Then it says in Romans 5:20:

Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:

So we see that the Law entered that the offence might abound.  In the beginning, God told Adam not to eat of the fruit of a certain tree.  That was the only Law.  Man broke that Law and death entered in because the wages of sin is death.  But then God began to give more and more Laws, multiplying Laws through the process of compiling the Bible, the Law Book of God.  And one big reason for so many Laws was to teach man about his sinful nature.  It is just like with the rich young ruler.  If there are a few Laws, people think they can keep them.  “Yes, I can keep those Laws.  I have kept them from my youth up.”  But when God multiplies Law and when the Law of God touches upon the mind of man (as the Lord Jesus Christ gave a Law concerning that if a man looks on a woman with lust in his heart, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart),  He was giving depth of meaning to the Law wherein God is regulating not only outward behavior but the thoughts of the heart in the inner being of man.  And man cannot keep that Law.  If he keeps the Law and offends in one point, he is guilty of all.  This is why Jesus said to the rich young ruler, “You think you have kept the Law as far as these commandments, now I am going to give you a new Law.”  And God can do that because He is God, and Jesus is God.  He is Lord.  So Jesus said in Luke 18:22-23:

Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me. And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich.

You see, the Lord knew him intimately and personally, and He knew he was too attached to his riches and covetous.  He lusted after what his wealth could do for him, so God personalized His commandment to that rich young ruler.  “This is what I want you to do.”  And God can do that to any one of us in our lives because He knows us better than we know ourselves, and He is able to direct the course of our lives, and if we are too attached to something and we are clinging to it in a sinful way, God will put His finger on it: “You have to give this up.  You have to stop doing this and turn from this.”  He put His finger on the main sin that this man was involved with, and it says in Luke 18:23-25:

And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich. And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

We talked about the impossibility of a camel to go through an eye of a needle and, yet, it is easier than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.  And from man’s perspective, a rich man is the most qualified, as he is blessed of God (apparently), and he is usually someone that is well-known and a person of renown and respected in the community, and people look up to him.  In all likelihood, he has also done some good deeds.  When people have tremendous wealth, they just take a “little bit” of it and make it appear as if they are extremely generous.  Of course, the Lord Jesus, who is eternal God, looks upon the heart and He is able to see the deceitfulness behind that action, just as the Lord recognized that the poor widow woman had cast in all her living, just as Jesus asked this rich man to do: “Sell all that thou hast.”  You see, He was not asking him to do any more than the poor widow woman.  But she, having little, gave all that she had to the work of God, and that is what God wants from each one of us.  He wants all that we have – everything we have.  That is why Jesus said this to the rich young ruler. 

God wants our very life.  He wants everything we possess to be offered up to Him.  Not that God would not allow us to continue living and paying our bills and enjoying certain things from time to time, but God does not want someone to hold back from Him, like Ananias and Sapphira his wife did, in Acts 5, when they sold a piece of land.  And they were asked if they sold the land for so much, and they said, “Yes, so much,” but it was not true because they had held back part of the price.  That was so grievous because they were lying to the Holy Spirit.  It is just like those that say, “Lord, you are God.  I am your servant.  You are the Creator, and I am just a lowly creature, here to do your bidding.  What would you have me to do?”  Then they give some “crumbs.”  They do not give all their living.  They do not serve God with all their heart.  They hold back from doing so, although they make a show of it, and so forth.

Well, that is the reason why we might think that it is too much that Christ is asking of him and, yet, it is typical of what Christ asks of all His people, as it says in Romans 12:1:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Does it say that it is a great service and huge thing that you do?  No – when it says to offer our bodies “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, it is our “reasonable service.”  That is, it is our duty and responsibility.  It is what we should be doing because the truth is that if we are truly an elect child of God, we have been bought with a price and we are not our own.  We do not belong to ourselves. 

Actually, no human being is a free agent.  We never were and we never will be.  We are either a servant to sin and Satan or we are a servant to Christ and righteousness.  There is no other option.  Either way, we are a servant.  Either way, we are subservient to one thing or the other, and we will use our lives, our resources and our time in service to one of these things.  And, yet, God is God – He is the Saviour.  He is the one that paid for all the sins of His people, and He is the one who gave His very life and died in payment for those sins at the foundation of the world.  Then He died a second time on the cross in 33 A. D. to demonstrate the things He had done earlier.  And it is that God who speaks to us and commands us in other places to, “Take up your cross.”  What does it mean to take up your cross?  It is to present your body a living sacrifice and do the will of God.  Keep His commandments.  Serve God with everything you have and all that you possess and with all your livelihood, and with all your heart, mind and soul.  This is what we are commanded to do.

Of course, it is impossible for man to do of his own to respond to God in this way.  It takes God working in that individual and giving him a new heart and changing his mind; and over the course of time, showing him what is really important – what is of real value and meaning in this life.  And it is not getting a big bank account and getting as many things as you possibly can, and accumulating wealth of one kind or another.  It is not anything in this world.  True riches, true value and purpose, and the true meaning of life comes when we are broken before God and humbled before Him, and we do His will.  So we say, “O, Lord, today I seek to serve you.  May you guide me.  May you lead me.  May you direct me.  And all that I have, may it be at your disposal.”