Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #16 of Genesis, chapter 24, and I am going to read Genesis 24:13-18:

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.

I will stop reading there.  We have been moving along in Genesis 24, looking at the spiritual meaning of this historical account of Abraham’s servant being sent to find a wife for Abraham’s son Isaac.  We readily see how it pictures the sending forth of the Gospel into the world to find the spiritual bride of the Lord Jesus Christ.  We have also seen that the well identifies with salvation.  The pitcher is mentioned several times.  The daughters of the men of the city brought pitchers when they would go to draw water, and Rebecca was carrying a pitcher.  The servant had a scenario in his mind as he was praying to the Lord and he said, “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.”

We were looking at the word “pitcher” in our last study, and we saw how it identifies with a container that holds the Gospel or the (water of) the Word of God.  It is also translated as “barrel” in 1Kings 17, a barrel of meal that would not fail, and the barrel typified the Gospel, just as the water can typify the Gospel.

So the servant is also a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ who was looking at the churches and congregations during the church age to see who was faithful in bringing the Word of God, as far as ministering the truth of the Word of God to others.  This is what is in view with letting down the pitcher that the servant may drink, just as the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 25:40: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” 

So the servant was watching.  He was taking in the whole scene.  Then it goes on to say in Genesis 24:14:

… 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…

When we see the word “appointed,” it makes us think of God’s predestination program and His plan to choose a people for Himself before the foundation of the world.  The whole selection of certain individuals that the Bible calls His elect had been appointed by God to be the true “bride of Christ.”  So this English word used here fits very well with our understanding of what is taking place spiritually, as this search for a bride identifies with the search for God’s elect that have, indeed, been appointed to be the wife or bride of the Lord Jesus Christ.  That is in view here, but the Hebrew word that was translated as “appointed” is Strong’s #3198, and it actually conveys a different idea and, yet, the same idea, and we will have to go to some verses to see this.  Strong’s #3198 is translated as “reprove,” “rebuke,” “chasten,” or “correct.”  So it is not a word that we would identify with predestination or the choosing of someone in advance.  It does not seem to be that kind of word, but it is a word that relates to those God has saved, and we know that those God has saved are predestinated. 

So let us go to three verses where this word is used.  We will start in Job 5:17:

Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty:

The word “correcteth” is the word that was translated as “appointed.”

It says in Proverbs 3:12:

For whom JEHOVAH loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.

Also, it says in Habakkuk 1:12:

Art thou not from everlasting, O JEHOVAH my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O JEHOVAH, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction.

So we can see the problem the translators had in Genesis 24 when they came to this word in verse 14: “…let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac…”  It does not seem to fit to use the word “corrected” or the word “rebuked” or the word “reproved.”  This is actually the same word that was translated as “reproved” concerning Sarah, back in Genesis 20:16:

And unto Sarah he said, Behold, I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver: behold, he is to thee a covering of the eyes, unto all that are with thee, and with all other: thus she was reproved.

It just does not seem to fit in on a literal or historical level as we are reading of this young girl who will go down and fill her pitcher with water and bring drink.  Actually, it has not even happened yet; this is Abraham’s servant Eliezer communicating with God in prayer and making this statement: “Let the same be she which thou has corrected for my servant Isaac.”  Once we understand that Isaac is a type of Christ (and he is), and once we understand that the bride is a type of the elect, then it gives the idea, “Let the same be that elect bride which thou has corrected for thy servant, the Lord Jesus Christ,” and God corrects every son that He receives.  Therefore, on the spiritual level, it makes perfect sense.

You know, we come across these things pretty regularly in the Bible wherein the word God has used in the sentence He has designed makes excellent sense in the spiritual realm, but it is difficult or awkward on the historical, literal level.  And that is why the King James translators were struggling to translate it and to express it, and they decided to use the word “appointed.”  That is not a terrible translation because it expresses a similar idea in that God chastens every son He chooses, and the elect are “appointed.”

Let us go on to the end of the verse in Genesis 24:14:

… and thereby shall I know that thou hast shewed kindness unto my master.

That refers back to verse 12: “…I pray thee, send me good speed this day, and shew kindness unto my master Abraham.”  I mentioned that kindness is shown by God to all those He saves.  Again, we can take the language of Matthew 25 that says if you (spiritually) clothe the naked, feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty, Jesus said that you have not only done it to them, but to Him.  If you show kindness to the sinner, you have shown kindness to the Master, the Lord Himself.  I think that is the idea.

Again, it says, … “and thereby shall I know that thou hast shewed kindness unto my master.”  Then it goes on to say in Genesis 24:15:

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.

She had her pitcher ready.  It would have been empty at that point.  You would not go down to the well with a full pitcher or a half-full pitcher of water.  You would wait until it was empty, so you can carry it back full of fresh water. 

By the way, when your pitcher is empty, it is much easier to carry.  You have a lesser burden.  But when you fill the pitcher with water, you have to carry it back, and it is much heavier, and your burden is greater.  Of course, this sort of image would also identify with the idea that the well pictures the “well of salvation,” and when the sinner is on his way to that well and has not drank of it or filled his pitcher, it is teaching us that the burden will increase when we have received salvation and we begin to minister by sharing the Word of God. 

Rebekah went to the well with an empty pitcher, but once it was filled, she began to give drink to the servant and the others and to the camels.  And that is exactly how it is when we are brought to the point of salvation by the grace of God by coming under the hearing of the Word of God.  Afterwards, we were tasked with the mission to bring the Gospel in the day of salvation to give drink to others.  But at this time, we are tasked with the mission to feed the sheep.  It is the same activity, but the goal has changed, as God has changed His program from being a “search and deliver” mission to a program of going to those that have already been found to share the Bible’s truths with them.

So Rebekah came with her pitcher on her shoulder.  The word “shoulder” is translated in an interesting way in Zephaniah 3:9, which I think will help us to understand the spiritual meaning of the word “shoulder.”  It says in Zephaniah 3:9:

For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of JEHOVAH, to serve him with one consent.

The word “consent” is the same word translated as “shoulder.”  It would say, “…to serve him with one shoulder.”  And that is exactly what is in view.  Rebekah has the pitcher on one shoulder, not both shoulders.  The whole spiritual illustration we are seeing here has to do with ministering the Gospel: to serve JEHOVAH with our shoulder.  In this case, it does point to doing service or ministering.

In the next verse, it says in Genesis 24:16:

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.

The damsel was very fair to look upon, and the word “fair” is translated as “beautiful,” and it is most often translated as “good.”  It is the Hebrew word “tobe,” and it is commonly used in the Old Testament translated as “good.”  For example, it says in Psalm 14:1:

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.

Then it says in Psalm 14:3:

They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

So that is the word that is translated as “fair.”  She was beautiful or “good” to look upon, and we know it was referring to her outward appearance.  Her outward appearance was good.  She was a beautiful young girl, so that would relate to the fact that God makes His bride “beautiful” or “good,” and He does so through His saving work.

You know, women buy beauty products, like cleansers.  They clean the pores of their face, and they apply makeup that beautifies them.  That is what God’s salvation plan has done for the sinners when we keep in mind the language that the Bible uses to describe the sinner: “desperately wicked” or “filthy,” or like it says in Revelation 22:12: “…and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still.”  It speaks of “hearts of stone” or being “vile” and “corrupt,” and all kinds of negative and ugly language.  Sin is ugly.  The sinner in God’s sight is dirty, rotten, filthy and ugly.  And then comes the “washing” of the bride by the Word, the water of the Word of God, which cleanses away all spiritual filth and spiritual ugliness, and it beautifies the bride, the ones that have been chosen to be the bride of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.  And they are all “beautiful” and all “good.”  There is no blemish.  There is perfect beauty in God’s eyes.  Remember that expression: “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”   And God looks upon His bride that consists, perhaps, of as many as 200 million that He has saved out of the whole of mankind, and He sees a most beautiful woman. 

She was also a virgin, and neither had any man known her.  There is a doubling of that idea.  The fact that no man has known her has to do with the fact that she is a virgin, so it is expressing tremendous purity that all the elect have.  I know that when we look at ourselves, we do not see ourselves “as pure as the driven snow” or “as white as snow.”  We know ourselves too well, and we are familiar with all the misdeeds of our past and even things that happen in the present; we see the blemish of our flesh because we are still in our physical bodies.  But God looks at us through the Lord Jesus Christ.  Also, He has already cleaned up our souls by giving us a perfect, spotless soul.  And He knows what He will do on that last day when He translates and changes our corrupt physical bodies into new spiritual bodies, so He sees holiness, purity and beauty when He looks at His people.  He does not see sin.  He does not see what we see as we look at ourselves.  God is not viewing that.  Consider the Biblical language that says our sins are as far as the East is from the West.  They have all been cast into the depths of the seas.  And there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.  The Bible goes on and on with beautiful truths that reveal that God does not look at the sins of His people when He sees us, but He sees the perfection that Christ has wrought.  He sees that beauty.

So let us finish here in verse 16, where it says,“…and she went down to the well, and filled her pitcher, and came up.”  This is very curious because of the word the Hebrew word translated as “well.”  (And, again, please check these words out in your concordance.)  The word “well” is Strong’s #5869, and it is a word that is used back in Genesis 21:12:

And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad…

The word “sight” is this same word.

Or, we can go to Genesis 22:4:

Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.

The word “eyes” is our word translated as “well.”  So we wonder, “What is going on here?”

Also, let us go to Genesis 24:63:

And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide: and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, the camels were coming.

And, again, the word “eyes” is the word for “well.”  What is going on? 

You know, the more we study the Bible, the more we have some sympathy for the translators, and realize what an excellent job they did with such difficult Scriptures.  Of course, God worked through it all to hide truth.

But, again, it literally says, “and she went down to the eyes, and filled her pitcher, and came up.”  Historically, it is very awkward and difficult.  She had a pitcher and she was going to give the men drink and she was going to get water for her household, so obviously she was going down to the well, so the translators translated it that way.  But, you see, on a deeper level in the spiritual arena, it makes perfect sense.  She went down to the well, and the well has to do with salvation; and in salvation, what happens to the spiritual eyes of the sinner?  They are opened.  The eyes of a man or a woman that God has saved are opened and they are given sight.  So it is as though Rebekah, typifying the elect, goes to the place of salvation and was given spiritual sight.  And once she was able to see, then she comes as a proper messenger of the Gospel.

Well, we have run out of time in this study.  We will continue to look at this when we get together in our next Bible study.