Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #12 of Genesis, chapter 24, and I am going to read Genesis 24:11-14:

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.

We have been looking at this chapter in a typical way for us, which is to look for the deeper spiritual meaning.  Actually, that is the way God would have any reader of the Bible to search for truth.  We have to look for the deeper spiritual meaning.  It is fine to spend some time looking at the historical context.  It is fine to look at grammar, when necessary, or even a moral teaching, when appropriate.  But the main importance and chief concern of the Bible is the deeper spiritual meaning.  So, normally, we at EBible Fellowship just gets right at it when we are doing our Bible studies.  Sometimes, we will spend a few moments on other matters, but for the most part, we are concerned with the deeper spiritual meaning.

This is especially import given that the fact that the majority of other Bible teachers, theologians and pastors that handle the Bible and teach the Bible do not deal very much at all with the deeper spiritual meaning and that which has the greatest significance and importance.  They diminish that and raise up the other (nonspiritual) teachings, so we are highlighting and spending most of our time on that which is most important.  That is reasonable and makes sense.

We have been looking at Eliezer, a servant of Abraham, as Abraham sent him forth to find a bride for his son Isaac, and we saw how that fits, spiritually, with what God has done in sending forth the Word of God into the world to find the elect.  And as the elect of God were found, they formed the bride of Christ.  This is one way we could look at the whole history of the world.  It is a “love story,” where the bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ, seeks His bride.  It is an exciting and adventurous love story where Christ finally finds His bride and “they live happily ever after.”  The phrase “live happily ever after” is often used in fanciful tales that are not true, because people in this world never live happily ever after – it is not true of rebel man.  But it is true when it comes to God and His people and their intimate relationship that will go on for evermore.  In order to “live happily ever after,” you would need to live eternally, and it is only God’s people that have eternal life.

We see that the servant has begun his journey.  He got right to it.  When God commands, we are to jump.  We are to get about the business of doing what our master would have us to do, like this servant.  He has already loaded the camels and traveled to Mesopotamia unto the city of Nahor.  He wasted no time.  He took his journey and he successfully made it there, and then he had his camels to kneel down by a well of water at the time of evening at the time when the women go out to draw water.  Then he was praying to God, and it says in Genesis 24:12-14:

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.

He laid out this scenario, and it was a good scenario because it worked, and God did use it.  He was going to wait there at the time that the daughters of the city came out to draw water.  He had come for a wife for his master Isaac.  It was probably traditional at that time for the young daughters, the virgins, which would have been unmarried, to carry the pitchers for water to the well at the time of the evening.  It was their chore to do, and it was customary.  It was known.  So the servant waited.  He was a thirsty traveler, and his camels were thirsty, and he had other men with him, so he was waiting to see if there was a young lady among the young ladies that came to the well who would have consideration toward him.  It would be someone that tended to have a feeling of mercy upon an individual who was thirsty, and she would show kindness.  There were a lot of good reasons for him to position himself by the well to wait, since he was after a woman of good character for his master’s son.  And he did so, and we know the young woman Rebekah did come and she did do the things he had spoken to God about.  So this did encourage him, and we will read about that later.

But, first, we have to think about some other spiritual pictures.  We already saw that the camels identify with riches and wealth, and they were carrying loads of riches that will be lavished upon Rebekah and her family, and that points to the spiritual riches in Christ Jesus for all those God has saved to become part of that bride of Christ.  We are given abundant riches – more abundant than we can ever know – in the spiritual realm.  They are just tremendous.  We are exceedingly blessed by God when it comes to the spiritual attributes and characteristics of His mercy and grace and goodness, and so forth.  God showers them down upon the bride of Christ.

We saw that the camels are unclean animals.  We also saw that Eliezer is a type of Christ, as well as all the elect, as Christ goes forth with the Gospel (“How beautiful…are the feet of him…”); and as the elect go forth with the Gospel (“How beautiful are the feet of them…”)  So, really, we have spiritual pictures coming at us from all angles.  We have Eliezer, a type of Christ, keeping an eye out for the daughters of the men of the city to see how they will react to thirsty travelers that have positioned themselves at the well.  And we have Eliezer, a type of Christ, that has led the caravan of camels and other men to the well.  The unclean animals (the camels) would point to men that are unclean, and men are unclean when they are still in their sins. 

So Christ has positioned sinners by bringing them to the point of hearing the Gospel, and God has done this throughout history.  This is past tense now, since the evangelization program of God for the purpose of salvation has ended.  He has completed it and finished it in a glorious way.  But in the day of salvation, God did orchestrate events.  He did control all circumstances of people.  He did manipulate, move and position men to be where the Gospel would come to them, and God put it in the heart of those that were within the churches during the church age to evangelize.  And evangelization was simply reaching out with a tract, or reaching out with the Word, or offering someone hospitality: “Would you like to visit my church this Sunday?”  So as Eliezer is looking for a bride for his master’s son, it typifies the bride of Christ and we know this would only be the elect, and he has traveled to his master’s family’s home, and they are familiar with God.  They are familiar with JEHOVAH.  We can see this, for example in Genesis 24:50-51:

Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, The thing proceedeth from JEHOVAH: we cannot speak unto thee bad or good. Behold, Rebekah is before thee, take her, and go, and let her be thy master's son's wife, as JEHOVAH hath spoken.

They were familiar with JEHOVAH.  This is where Abram had his beginning, and Abram’s family was that line of believers down through the genealogies from that beginning.  So it is really like Eliezer is searching for a bride, and he has gone to the church, we could say.  He has gone to the place where the Gospel and God were known.  And this was the case over the church age during the 1,955 years of the church age.  Oftentimes, those that became saved and added to the body or bride of Christ are also pictured as “living stones” being added to the house of God.  So the place to be was in the churches and congregations during the church age.  It was there that God would bless people. 

Now I think that initially when Eliezer went forth with camels, we kind of pictured him as a missionary, looking for the unsaved, and then saving them, and then going home with a bride for his master’s son.  But it is not just that.  (Actually, the camels are a picture of the unsaved.)  But Eliezer is going, as it were, to where God was known, and for almost two millenniums God was known in the churches and congregations.  However, not all people that professed to be Christians within the churches and congregations were the “bride” of Christ, so he could not just go there and take any woman.  He first wanted to observe: “How do these daughters of the men of the city respond to a thirsty traveler?  How do they respond to thirsty camels or thirsty unclean animals?”  This is pointing to the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ had His eye on the congregations, and I guess we could extend this to the time after the end of the church age (during the Latter Rain) to anyone handling the Word of God, the Bible.  What would their response be whenever they came into contact with the unsaved?  Would they do what God commanded them to do and minister the Gospel? 

But not only that, but would they minister the true Gospel?  That is really when you give a man a drink, according to the Bible.  To quench the thirst of a thirsty traveler, the Bible typifies the truthful, holy Word of God, rightly divided, as that which can satisfy the thirst of a sinner for righteousness that God causes to occur within the lives of those He is drawing.  He draws them to desire to satisfy their thirst for righteousness, and it is only the true Gospel that can satisfy that thirst in a legitimate and proper way. 

We can also see that Eliezer is a type of Christ, as He Himself is going to receive drink from the young girl.  It says in Matthew 25:34-38:

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

His answer is in Matthew 25:40:

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

You see, that is the picture with Eliezer who has wisely positioned Himself and his caravan at a well of water at the time when the young daughters come out to draw water in their pitchers.  And he is waiting: “Who is going to give me drink?  Who is going to give drink to my camels and the men with me?”  You see, this is an excellent way of testing someone and deciding who is worthy to be the wife of his master’s son. 

And, really, God did this throughout the church age and in the period of the Latter Rain when He caused the Gospel to go forth into all the world to save His elect.  So we can see that God was operating on “both sides of the fence,” as it were.  He was looking upon the camels to receive drink, and He had a keen eye on the daughters of the men of the city.  Would they give drink?  So we see this spiritual picture that the Lord is laying out.

Before we move on to when Rebekah comes and fulfills these things, let us read Genesis 24:11:

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.

We want to take a closer look at the word translated as “kneel down.”  It is one Hebrew word, and it is translated as “kneel” or “kneel down” just a few times, but it is the same word used at least a couple hundred times in the Bible where it is normally translated as “blessed” or “bless.”  For example, it is the word we find in Genesis 12:3:

And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

The word “blessed” is this particular word that was translated as “kneel down.”  Again, this is not a rare occurrence.  We can also go to Numbers 22, where there are four or five verses, but there are dozens of verses like this.  It says in Numbers 22:6:

Come now therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people; for they are too mighty for me: peradventure I shall prevail, that we may smite them, and that I may drive them out of the land: for I wot that he whom thou blessest is blessed, and he whom thou cursest is cursed.

Or, we find it in Psalm 113:2:

Blessed be the name of JEHOVAH from this time forth and for evermore.

It says in Psalm 115:12:

JEHOVAH hath been mindful of us: he will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron.

Let us look at one last place, in Jeremiah 31:23:

Thus saith JEHOVAH of hosts, the God of Israel; As yet they shall use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again their captivity; JEHOVAH bless thee, O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness.

It is the word translated as “blessing.”  And you can see the problem that the King James translators had when it had to do with “camels.”  What does “blessing” have to do with camels? 

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.

Just picture yourself living a few hundred years ago before God opened the Scriptures to reveal so many truths as He has revealed in our time.  And you are a translator and you are trying to do a good translation.  Even if you knew there was a deeper spiritual meaning, your task was to translate the words faithfully.  And there are a couple of other instances like when Daniel the prophet kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and we know he was praying.  I will read another one in Psalm  95:6:

O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before JEHOVAH our maker.

Again, it would have been a little awkward to translate it, “…let us bless before JEHOVAH our maker,” but it is the word “bless.”

It is a good thing that we do not have to provide the translation of the Bible, but all we have to do is to find the deeper spiritual meaning.  That is sufficiently difficult.  We will leave the translation to the translators, and they did an excellent job, for the most part.  And God has used some “trouble spots” in the way they translated certain things as a way to hide truth.  Here, the truth that God was hiding can be understood when we see Eliezer as a picture of Christ (in the first instance) and the camels as a picture of the unsaved that are brought to where the Gospel could be found, and the well of water that points to salvation.  Let me substitute the spiritual picture: “Christ made unsaved men to be blessed without the city in a place where salvation was possible via the Word of God, the Scriptures.”  We definitely know that to hear the Word of God is to be blessed, as it says in Revelation 1:3:

Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

Of course, it does not fit the historical context, although for the animals to be given drink is a type of blessing, but spiritually, it makes much more sense that Christ blessed the unsaved (typified by the camels) without the city by the well of water (salvation) at a time when salvation was available (typified by the time when the women went out to draw water from the well).  So we see the beautiful spiritual picture that is in view.