Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #55 of Genesis, chapter 24, and we are reading Genesis 24:60-67:

And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them. And Rebekah arose, and her damsels, and they rode upon the camels, and followed the man: and the servant took Rebekah, and went his way. And Isaac came from the way of the well Lahairoi; for he dwelt in the south country.  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 Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off the camel. For she had said unto the servant, What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And the servant had said, It is my master: therefore she took a vail, and covered herself. 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.

I will stop reading there.  This brings us to the end of the chapter.  I just want to mention one more thing about verse 60, where they wished their sister well and said, “…be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them.”  This is a true statement regarding the seed, who is Christ (who is the gate or door) and all those counted for the seed in Christ, all the elect.  We possess the gate in Him; that is, the door to heaven belongs to God.  God owns the portal or the gate of His enemies.  He owns the gate of hell and death, and He owns the gate that would lead unto life.  So God’s children are given duties as doorkeepers or gate keepers, as it says in Psalm 84:10:

For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

It is said in a rather passing kind of way, but it is a true statement – God’s people are doorkeepers.  The way that we keep the door is how we share the Bible as God grants us understanding of the truths of His Word and also understanding of the “times and seasons,” and we share these truths with others.  As we did so, we ministered entrance to the kingdom of God in the day of salvation.  If there was no entrance in an area, God would send forth His people through His command to go into all the world and preach the Gospel.  They would walk into a city, town or village and they would bring the Word of God.  They were in possession of the “gate.”  The “door” would come with them, and they would share Bible tracts and Bible truths with the people and, here and there were God’s elect, and God would bring that person through the doorway.  We had the great privilege and pleasure in sharing these things with the unsaved people of the world, and we participated in God’s salvation program.  He allowed us to do this.  We were doorkeepers.  And we had an even bigger pleasure during the last 6,100 days of the Great Tribulation at the time of the Latter Rain when we told people, “God is saving a great multitude – more than at any previous time in history.  So have hope and be encouraged, and go to the Lord and cry out that He might have mercy on you, because the end of the Great Tribulation is May 21, 2011, the last day of the Latter Rain and the last day of God’s salvation program, and then it is Judgment Day.  So we beseech you to seek the Lord while He may be found!”  And those that were God’s elect did become saved.  The great multitude did enter in through the gate.  Again, we had that privilege and we experienced the blessing of being a part of that. 

But our role as doorkeepers has not ended.  A doorkeeper can point to the door and say, “There is a great and effectual open door, so beseech the Lord that you might come in.”  But on May 21, 2011, God shut the door, and now we are just lowly doorkeepers as we are left on the earth to go through the judgment.  We have been granted understanding of the spiritual condition of the door when it was open during the little season when the Latter Rain was falling, and we have also been granted understanding of when the door shut, and we must share that truth, too.  And that is what we have been sharing: “The door is shut.”  So there are all kinds of people that say to us, “Well, what about this person or that person?  Or, what about someone that is born now?”   And all we can say is what the Bible will permit us to say.  It is not our desire or our will.  It is the will of God.  It is His program, and He has revealed to us through His Word that the door is shut.  “I am sorry, but the door is shut.”  We have to be a faithful doorkeeper and realize that God is the one that possesses the gate of those that hate Him, and He has shut the door according to His timetable of times and seasons.  It is now the time for the final judgment of the world.

We will move on to Genesis 24:61:

And Rebekah arose, and her damsels, and they rode upon the camels, and followed the man: and the servant took Rebekah, and went his way.

So Rebekah is going.  She is going.  She arose with some of her damsels, and they rode upon the camels and followed the man.  The man is Eliezer, the servant, but he is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, so they are following Christ.  It is as though the Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, has come and gathered His bride, and she has been made willing in the day of His power, so she followed.  She is not leading the way.  She is not setting the course.  She really does not know the way.  She does not know where this marriage is going to take place or what the future holds.  She may have some ideas and some hopes and good expectations, but she cannot know until she experiences it, and she has not experienced it yet.  But she trusts God.  She trusted this man who was a faithful servant of Abraham, but she is also trusting that God will take care of her future and it will work out for the best.  So she is really casting her care upon God.  She is trusting in JEHOVAH with all her heart,  not leaning upon her own understanding. 

You know, there were probably a lot of reasons she could have thought of to not follow this man.  It is often easier just to stay where one is at.  But it was time to go.  She arose and rode upon a camel and followed the man, and it is a spiritual picture of God’s people who follow the Lord Jesus Christ.  “Take up the cross, and follow me,” as Jesus commanded.

Riding on a camel in the land of that time would not be the easiest journey.  There would be some difficulties and discomforts along the way.  So, too, we know that “the narrow way” is not the easiest and, yet, we trust the one who called us.  We trust the one who came as a servant, just as Eliezer.  We trust that as we follow Him, it will all work out for the best.  God’s way is the best way.  We know what the Bible says.  We know the Bible tells us about a glorious future, so we have that hope and expectation and, yet, we know there is still a little way to go before we reach that glorious future, and the way will be difficult.  Yet we trust in JEHOVAH with all our heart, and we do not lean on our own understanding.  So, by God’s grace as He moves in us to will and to do, we “pack up everything,” in a sense, and we do not follow the way of the world anymore.  We are not going to put our hopes in the things of the world, but our desire is in Christ.

It goes on to say in Genesis 24:61:

… and the servant took Rebekah, and went his way.

I mentioned this before, but “servant” is another name for the Lord Jesus Christ, if we go to Isaiah 42:1:

Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.

Notice that Jesus is also called “mine elect.”  He is the elect, singular.  We are the elect, plural.  That is not a plural word, but as far as the elect of God, we know it is a great multitude.  But Jesus Himself was chosen of God and, therefore, elect.  We know that the servant in Isaiah 42 is Jesus because it is referring to one individual: “I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.”

In Isaiah 53, we also read that Jesus is that servant.  It says in Isaiah 53:11:

He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.

Eliezer was a servant of Abraham, and who does Abraham typify?  He is often typified as father Abraham, and Eliezer was a servant to father Abraham, just as the Lord Jesus Christ was servant to the Father.  The Father sent the Son, and the Son obeyed.  He did service.  He ministered by serving and acting in obedience to the Father’s command.

So Rebekah followed the man, and the servant took Rebekah and went his way.  The word “took” or “take” is used a few times in this chapter.  Remember when the servant asked the family to let him know, one way or another, if his way had been prosperous, and then they said in Genesis 24:51:

Behold, Rebekah is before thee, take her, and go, and let her be thy master's son's wife, as JEHOVAH hath spoken.

To “take” a woman in the Bible in this type of situation identifies with marriage.  Notice what it says in the last verse in Genesis 24:67:

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.

It is fairly common for this word “take” or “took” to be used in connection with marriage.  If we go back to Genesis 11, it says in Genesis 11:29:

And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah.

So they “took” wives. 

Or, we see this word in Genesis 25:1:

Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah.

Sarah had died, so he was qualified to marry again, and he did.  He “took” a wife.

Or, we can go to Esther 2:16:

So Esther was taken unto king Ahasuerus into his house royal in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.

Remember that a lot of virgins were gathered, and they all became the king’s brides, but Esther became the special one who would be queen.  She was the favored bride.  She was “taken” as all the other women were taken.  I do not know if they would have had any say in it,  if one of the king’s servants had seen an attractive young virgin.  They could have just taken her off the streets in a very forceful way.  And this word “take” does sort of convey that idea, but, of course, we know Rebekah was willing when they asked if she would go with the men, and she said, “I will go.”  That points to God making His people willing as He drew them to Himself with irresistible grace in the day of salvation.  But it paints an accurate picture that when Christ came to take a “bride” for Himself out of the human race, if left to themselves, none would be qualified, and none would be able to enter into the marriage with Him.  It was necessary that Christ had died for their sins to free them from their “first marriage” to the Law of God.  Then once they were dead to the Law, they were free to marry another, who is Christ.

The churches have the wrong idea.  They think, “Let us send forth the Gospel and talk to people and convince them to accept Christ and exercise their will and enter into the marriage.”  But, no, that is not how it is.  It is the “man,” the Lord Jesus Christ, who must “take” the woman or bride.  He had already chosen that bride, as He had decided to take this one and that one.  Of course, this is a spiritual marriage, and the body of the bride is comprised of all those that are saved, perhaps as many as 200 million.  And they come together to form the spiritual bride of the bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ.

We will look at just one other verse in Genesis 2:23:

And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

We have already gone over this chapter and these verses.  We saw that it was a true, historical event.  This is how God formed the woman.  He caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam.  While he slept, God took a rib, healed up his side, and made a woman.  But we also know this is the Bible, and God uses everything in the Bible to teach spiritual truth.  So Adam is a figure of Christ that was to come, and the “deep sleep” was a picture of the death that came upon Christ, and in Christ’s death, God formed the woman.  Christ died for the whole company of the elect whose sins were laid upon Him, and in dying for those sins, in essence He formed the “woman,” His own bride.  In their lives the Gospel would reach their ears and be applied to them as they lived on the earth.  They would become saved, and when the last of the elect was saved, then the bride had “made herself ready,” as it says in Revelation 19.  Now we have entered into the “marriage supper” of the Lamb, which is being carried out over the course of this prolonged Judgment Day.  The completing of the marriage supper will be the consummation of that marriage as Christ, as it were, will take His “bride” and they will forever be one in eternity to come.

We will stop here.  Lord willing, in our next Bible study we will continue.  God does not give us any details regarding the return trip to meet Isaac, except that they rode on camels.  But we do have a very interesting picture of what happened thousands of years ago when the faithful servant was coming with his men and Rebekah and her damsels, riding on camels.  As she was approaching, Isaac was in the field meditating, and then he saw them and began to move toward them.  Then Rebekah asked who he was, and the servant said, “It is my master,” and Rebekah covered her face.  Then there was the meeting and the consummation of the marriage as Isaac took her.  We will look at this, as much as we are able, to see what other spiritual truth the Lord is presenting to us.  Then we will move on to the next chapter.