The Fulfilling of Passover, Pt. 2

Ronald Weinland

March 19, 2022

I think obviously here, what we’re going through in this series here, to me is awesome. I love this series. It’s amazing to me sometimes what we go through and what God gives us to focus on, and this one here I found awesomely inspiring. I find all of them inspiring, but this one here exceptionally so because it’s leading up to Passover. It’s probably going to go past Passover, which to me is exciting, because I was going to cut out different parts of the story of this process of how God worked with those of the Old Testament and it became obvious, no, it needs to be included in there.

So, it’s going to take more time to go through this, but I feel that you’re going to be moved by it as well as we see these things. Because it helps us to see in a more profound way the meticulous manner in which God works with us, has worked with those He’s been preparing for nearly 6,000 years. It is incredibly awesome, truly is, when you see it in that light with that kind of a focus of what we’re doing here.

So again, this is that continuing series The Fulfilling of Passover, and this is Part 2.

As mentioned in the beginning of Part 1 this has to do with everything that begins as far as God’s plan is concerning how He has been working to create Elohim. That’s what this is all about. It’s what first begins with Passover and how Christ is the foundation of it all, the cornerstone of it all, of what God is building, and building upon that.

It reminds me of going over blueprints. I was on a project before I ever became a minister where we were given all kinds of blueprints to do material take-off and then bid projects and so forth, and it’s awesome when you go through this process of someone has to set down and plan every detail of a building, of a plant or whatever it might be that’s being constructed, everything that goes into it, especially if it’s a plant, a manufacturing plant of some sort or a refinery or something of that nature.

Everything, every detail, everything to make it work and function besides the buildings, and you look at these things and then you go through the process of beginning to bring in the materials and contractors and people start building.

You think of what God has done. When you go through this story and see some of these things, all these things were planned out for everything to fit into place when it came it’s time, and so, He’s done this. This is what’s incredible. When we think of construction or building something a few years maybe to do a large project from beginning to end, ten years maybe on some projects from the beginning of the time you start with the work of the architecture work and the drawings and everything else it takes out, and it can take several years on some projects.

And you think God is doing this over 6,000 years, fitting everything into place over 6,000 years. Meaning, as well, that this is fitting everything into it’s place, that it was planned long, long ago. The details of what we’re going through in this story, they didn’t just happen by coincidence. They weren’t an accident. God worked with people and molded and fashioned circumstances and situations to fulfill this plan that is all mapped out. When you begin to see it in that context even more so we should become in greater awe to realize as well that we’re a part of that plan. We’re still a part in this time toward the end of 6,000 years of what God is filling into that plan.

So again, we think in short terms about things because our lives are short, in that respect, as far as time is concerned, but God’s? 7,100 years to create what He’s creating, and a lot has gone into it, and it’s exceedingly inspiring.

We’ve been looking, again, at how God has built upon this matter of offerings and sacrifice in order to reveal and teach the incredible importance of how Christ became our Passover and how God then continues to work to fulfill it’s greater meaning in our lives. Because he fulfilled it, but it’s still working and it’s working right now in us. That’s an awesome thing to understand.

We began by looking at how God introduced the subject of this offering and sacrifice and so forth first to Abel and then to Abraham. This is where we’re breaking back into the story again.

But before proceeding, I want to review the last section that we covered, the last section of scripture in Genesis 22 regarding Abraham’s willingness to offer up Isaac. Because this is an incredible story. Again, remember this is by design, planned long before Adam and Eve were ever created, that this would take place exactly like this in the exact place that it was to take place and so forth. It wasn’t an accident that God said, “Take him up to the area of Moriah, Mount Moriah.”

When you start looking at Jerusalem and see that God had already intended and planned that there would be that location on this earth of a place that He would call, that He would inspire to be called Jerusalem. Didn’t just happen. It didn’t just happen that someone thought of this themselves and came up with this idea and then we learn later on what the meaning of it is and God’s plan and what He’s creating. God made it come to pass. He did the building. He did the working to bring it to pass, just like this, and it’s incredible. All in its time over 6,000 years.

Genesis 22:13. So again here, it says, Abraham lifted up his eyes, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns, so Abraham went and took the ram and offered it. So, this is in place of Isaac, as we read last Sabbath. All the way up to that point in time where he took the knife he was ready to do what he was told to do, to obey God.

He’s going to offer it as a whole burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-Jireh, “the Eternal will provide.” And so, yes, it fits this occasion here, but it’s about God, and in our lives and everything that is accomplished God provides what is needed whenever it’s needed. That’s the way our lives are. God will provide. He’ll take care of it. Our lives are in His hands.

If something worked or was to be worked out in the time of Abraham, God’s going to provide what needs to be provided at a time to make everything according to His purpose and plan. Because His purpose and plan wasn’t to kill Isaac. It never was. It was about putting Abraham to the test to see where he was, to bring him to a point, and God worked with Abraham to bring him to that point that he would do what he did.

God knew what he would do. He wasn’t rolling the dice, “I wonder if this is going to work now. We got up to this point and I wonder if Abraham is really going to do this.” There wasn’t anything like that whatsoever. God molded and fashioned Abraham’s life to bring him to that moment to do what he was intended to do. He didn’t force him to do it, but led him and molded and fashioned him.

And so as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Eternal it shall be provided. Now, that has incredible meaning, “In the mount of the Eternal it shall be…” That’s where they were. So, it wasn’t just a physical thing, it’s a spiritual thing. The government in God, it’s a mountain. Mountains in scripture prophetically are about government. It’s about God’s government.

“The mount of the Eternal, it shall be provided.” This is what it’s all about, becoming a part of Elohim, being a part of what God is creating.

Then the angel of the Eternal called to Abraham a second time out of heaven saying, By Myself I have sworn, says the Eternal, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only... So again here, knowing what this means, and sometimes things aren’t translated really well anyway, but the point being is here is the one son. He knew what this was about. It was the son that was to come through him and Sarah that God had already promised him. That is the only son that could receive the inheritance. That’s what it’s about. This is what this is in context about.

In blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and as the land which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. On and on it goes, beginning portions of that which was prophetic in the meaning of that which was taking place here that would grow and grow and grow and God would build upon it and teach more and more about it as time went on. But not everything yet, but portions of it to show how far back, and to help us to come to understand when all this was planned. Long before! To see how God brought it to pass and kept building upon it because it includes, it’s about God’s Family again. It includes everything until it’s complete.

In your seed, speaking of Passover, the Messiah (this is what this is about), all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. They didn’t have to come out of Abraham, though what would come out of Abraham and the name that would come in time would be what everyone would be able to become spiritually, Israel.

In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice. It’s driving a point home here. God had molded and fashioned him and brought him to this point. Knew Abraham. Knew what Abraham was like and knew what Abraham would do here at this point. But even though He said, “Now I know,” nevertheless, God still brought him to that point.

Just like for many as they come to that point in time God knows us. He knows where He’s leading us, guiding us, and directing us. It’s in His hands. Our lives are in His hands. We have to make choices along the way, and if we make the wrong choices then God will find others, indeed, because God has allowed for that in the Church especially, that if some, knowing full well because it wasn’t a mystery, God knew what would happen in time, that many would be called, and few would end up being chosen. Because the many would turn against Him, would turn from Him.

All that to teach us things that we need to learn. That you need to fight for this. That if you want it, it’s a matter of learning to love it with all of your being, to love God. Because what He reveals, the truth He gives to us, it reveals God, the mind of God, and we love that. That’s God! It’s an awesome thing.

“Because you have obeyed My voice.” So driving the point home that’s our choice, will we or won’t we? Abraham did, his life was already in that vein, and God knew that. He’s reiterating all this in the sense of teaching us. Because that’s what it’s about, it’s about teaching those who would come in time. “Because you obey My voice these things will come to pass. You’ll be a part of that, that same thing, the inheritance.” It’s the inheritance, to be in the Kingdom of God, to be in Elohim. That’s why God made us, created us.

So Abraham returned to his young men, those who were behind, and they arose and went together to Beer-sheva; and Abraham dwelt at Beer-sheva.

Well, let’s continue on from there now in the story, again, of how God continued to work with a family, the descendants of Abraham. In times past, and it takes time to build upon various things, things were seen more physically. Things about Israel were seen more physically. Being a descendant of Judah or whatever, seen to be an important thing to many in the Church. And it’s not. It’s not better than anyone who is a descendant of anyone else in time. But being physical and physically oriented that’s how we tended to think at one point, or it was thought of within the Church until we grew more spiritually. You come to understand that’s not what it’s about.

It’s for everyone. Everyone has the opportunity or would have or will have depending on how they use their life and what they do with the life that God gave them physically anyway to be offered to become a part of Elohim.

Again here, it’s about this process, the descendants of Abraham physically and spiritually, how we become a part through an inheritance in order to establish the foundation, again, upon which God’s Family is being constructed, Elohim.

As the story continues here, Sarah was up at 127 at this point; 127 years old when she died. Long life. We think about time today. Which made Isaac right around the age of 37 at this time. So again, just some pointers along the way of what’s taking place in the story flow here.

Then we come to Genesis 24:1. It says, Now, Abraham was old, well advanced in age, and the Eternal had blessed Abraham in all things. He was exceedingly wealthy, very prosperous. God had blessed him, awesomely so.

So Abraham said to the servant of his house, who ruled over all that he had, Put your hand on my hip. So, this was a process, whatever, of taking an oath, making an oath, of a promise. People have done different things through different times. I think of some of those you see on, what was it, back in the old west, they’d spit and shake. Not today. Covid and other things. But anyway, people have done all kinds of things to seal something, to make an oath or come to an agreement about a matter that was to be fulfilled.

So, he said, Put your hand on my hip and I will have you give oath before the Eternal, the God of heaven and earth, that you will take… Now, this word “take” means “to accept or receive,” in essence, “take; accept; receive” it all works together, for a wife to my son not from the daughters, in this sense here, that you will not take of a wife for my son of the Canaanites. It was not to be the Canaanites. But anyway, he wasn’t to take them of the Canaanites, obviously, as it says, among whom I dwell. So in other words, he definitely didn’t want that because he wanted something else.

It’s not about, as much about the people in the sense of where they came from or what lineage they had, but it’s about things that they believed. So didn’t want to take a wife from those who had all kinds of gods and so forth. That’s what’s behind all this. Because these have been misread in times past as well by some to say that “Well, see, it’s because of this mixture of people,” or whatever. It’s nothing about that whatsoever.

It’s about what they believed. It’s about what was inside them in the sense of something that could be worked with better, in a better environment. Most assuredly if it’s steeped in all kinds of worship of all kinds of gods that’s going to affect family life and where one might tend to go. Because the whole history of so much of Israel is they went after other gods because of the wives they chose of other nations. God warned them against that. It wasn’t about the nationality, the race, or anything else, it was about the different beliefs.

He said, But instead, but you shall go to my country, and to my family, because he knew of that lineage, he knew how they thought. They had come out of an area that held on to various principles still concerning their lineage. From Noah on and the things that they passed down and tended to pass down as a people generation to generation. All the others who came out of that and the different families, they went away from that, and they went to beliefs and other gods and so forth. But this lineage here had that tendency to hold on to, in that respect (not perfectly so) but to knowledge they had about where they came from and what had happened. They knew where they came from.

So he says, But you shall go to my country and to my family and shall take (receive) a wife for my son Isaac. Then the servant said to him, Perhaps the woman will not be willing to follow me to this land.

Now, I want to stop here and make a comment too before I forget it. I prefer that people don’t read ahead in the story. Okay? Let’s just take it Sabbath by Sabbath and discuss what we come to. Because that might be a tendency of “Well, I want to find this out,” “I want to find this out,” Just wait, because there are reasons for that, because how God leads and guides and directs us and what He wants us to receive at a moment in time and so forth. So, that’s important.

…must I take your son back to the land from which you came? So, he’s saying this, “What happens if the woman is not willing to come with me? Must I take your son back to the land from which you came?” In other words, “Do we have to go through this?”

But Abraham said to him, Beware that you do not take my son back there. So, no, you’re not going to come and take him back there if the woman isn’t willing to come down here. And so, he’s not going to be living up there because God had already shown them where they were to dwell. Until God tells otherwise, this is the way it’s going to be because there is a purpose in what God is working out. He’s taken him through a region. And just as He told Abraham, the land you’re on, this is yours and to your descendants. Farther down, this is your land to your descendants, and on and on it goes. So it starts with a very physical thing that God is doing.

The Eternal God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my family, and who spoke to me, and swore to me, saying, To your descendants I give this land; He will send His angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there. But if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be released from this oath. So, “You did your part. And if they don’t respond, you’ve done your part.” That’s what he’s telling him. “You’ll be released from your oath,” only do not take my son back there. So in essence, if something happened to Abraham he’s saying this is what you’re to do.

Verse 9—So the servant put his hand on the hip of Abraham his master and gave oath to him concerning this matter. Then the servant took ten of his master’s camels and departed; for all his master’s goods were in his hand. So, it was up to him to determine how much it was going to take to go on this trip and so forth, and who would go with him, and on and on it goes.

Then he arose and went to Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor. Now Nahor and Haran were Abraham’s brothers, so at some point here those areas, those were the names given to them. Whether they really had the name at that point in time? But he said, “Go to this area here, to the dwellings,” if you will, “of Nahor, to his family.” And again, we talked about where that was. Because they came up from Ur of the Chaldees, and up past the regions where Babylon was and a little farther to the west and in an area that’s really quite far north of Damascus even if you were looking on a map. It’s quite a ways north, but it’s kind of north of Damascus on up toward the region of Turkey.

So this is where Abraham had gone when his father Terah, he left first, and he took Abraham and others with him, under his family in essence, and this is the area they went to and settled there. It wasn’t just Abraham that was up there and so that’s why Abraham is saying they’re still there, they stayed behind, and you’re go to back up there where they’re dwelling because that’s the same area that we had been, up around the area of Haran.

So, this is the area of Nahor now, and going on to verse 11 then it says, There he had his camels to kneel down outside the city by a well of watering at even time, the time when women go out to draw water.

Then here is what he says. He prays to God, speaks to God. He’s looking to God. He’s been around Abraham for a long, long time, he’s been given the responsibility over everything that Abraham has in that respect, to this point in time, as a servant, and it was in his mind then this thinking toward God. There were things that he believed that Abraham had given to him. This was his life.

Then he said, O Eternal God of my master Abraham… So, quite a prayer, quite an awesome thing. …please give me success this day. So, he was acquainted with Abraham, obviously, close to Abraham, knew his habits and the kind of prayers that he had, things that stories and so forth that he had been given and told, and so this was his practice too.

…and show kindness to my master Abraham. What an awesome prayer. Behold, I will stand by the well of water as the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. Now, let it be that the young woman of whom I say, Please let down your pitcher that I may drink; and says, Drink, and I will also give your camels to drink. So that it be she You have appointed for Your servant Isaac. Quite a mouthful. Did God have part in that? Obviously, He did.

There are things God can inspire people in that they don’t fully comprehend what’s taking place because they haven’t, they don’t know those things yet, how God has worked with people through time. That’s why I think how blessed we are to see and grasp so much of that kind of thing, that God can communicate certain things, ideas into the minds of people.

It's just like what’s given to people who don’t know it, technology. It was withheld for nearly 5,800 years, at least the greater portion of technology that came and has come in the last nearly 200 years, had a growing process, a burst forward.

It makes me sick inside when I hear people or read of accounts where people are basically taking credit to themselves. Mankind believes that he has done these things. And you think, no, you did not. There were people that you’re still trying to figure out how they built the pyramids. You can’t even figure it out how they built the pyramids. Because that knowledge has been lost. Because it’s not just a matter of putting a bunch of blocks on top of each other. How they did it in a line like they did, those pyramids as they are, and you look at them and you think they didn’t have the kind of equipment we have today to put something in a line like that. How did they do that? Well, anyway, they did it.

But the point being is that through time here mankind has gone through many things, but it’s only been in the last couple of hundred years that people have learned awesome things. The reality is God put it in their minds. Scientists, people of great minds, they weren’t allowed to have that knowledge in their minds until God gave it to them.

Just as much as what is spiritual when it comes to the Church and the truth that God puts into our minds, the ability to see things that we could not otherwise see! It’s not just because these individuals, Einstein, was more intellectual than anyone else on earth that was able to see that. God had to give that to him! There are some things he wasn’t so smart in, but that he was able to see that’s been proven to be true, that science, that part of science.

And on and on it goes. Human beings tend to take that credit to themselves, and people are in awe of different ones. No, God gave you that ability, that gift and the insight to see things that you otherwise couldn’t have learned. I hope we understand that. God had to give it. He didn’t allow mankind to have it before until it was His time, and then God gave it, the right things. Mankind has misused the things and that becomes a problem.

So going on here in this portion here. So he’s talking here in his prayer. God gave him this. He prayed it; he was inspired to pray that. That’s what we need to grasp. He was inspired to do this, to respond to God in this manner. He was able to be worked with in that manner, that if God helped him to see certain things and to think about certain things, that it came to mind, and he did it.

There are going to be some other stories that we’re going to read in here that are dumbfounding.

So, the inspiration comes from God. The individual, it’s up to them to do it, and he did it because of his practice. He had a practice of praying to God about various things, and here is one that’s exceedingly important.

The reason these things are so important is because this had to take place. God was working this out to happen in a certain way. This had to take place. God was working this out to happen in a certain way to be inspiring to others in time who could read this story. It’s written here for a purpose. It’s not just a nice story!

That’s what makes me so highly irritated sometimes when I’ve heard different people out here in religion and supposedly those who are intellectual when it comes to studying various things of the Bible and they talk about these stories. They don’t even believe it, they don’t even believe a bunch of them that are in there. It’s like these are nice stories.

Anyway, it’s something God molded and fashioned to teach, to lead, to guide, to direct, to build upon, primarily then, as we see, for the Church through time, for all whose minds are opened through time, most in the Great White Throne. Then they’ll come to see these things we’re talking about, and it won’t be just a story of something they read, “Oh, that’s a nice story.” Because to them it is a story; to us it goes far beyond that. God is the one who’s designed, was the architect of the stories, and has the power to bring them to pass. He gives us part in it.

We can’t by ourselves do the things that God has given us to do. He gives us portions; He inspires us to see certain things. That’s why pride has no place in God’s Church. It’s a matter of realizing we have an opportunity to participate in something far greater than we are that is so awesome and beautiful, and just a matter of saying yes, “Yes, God,” and then doing it. Then we get to share in that which God has done. That’s the greatest thing of all, to be able to share in what God has done and what God is doing. That’s the fullness of life, the richness of life.

So again, Now, let it be that the young woman to whom I say, Please let down your pitcher so that I may drink, and that she says, Drink, and I will also give of your camels to drink. Let this be the one, basically, that you have appointed to be the one for Isaac.

So, what, goes on here… By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master. So it’s in his mind to think this way and he responds to that thinking.

It’s just like in sermons, I don’t care what it is, or things we come to see in scripture, it’s always been there, we just can’t see it until it’s God’s time. Then when it comes time for perhaps something new that God reveals that we haven’t seen before and we come to understand Christ has not eternally existed, and then it’s like, “Well, that’s been the truth.” But now we get to share in that. But He has to put it in the mind to see it. Then we can all see it. Because that’s how God works.

We didn’t figure it out. We don’t do these things on our own. God designs it all. He has a time and a place for everything to be given. That is what we should be in awe of, God, in ways that sometimes we just aren’t or haven’t been.

Now, it’s interesting here in this story here he said, “By this I will know that You have showed kindness to my master,” to Abraham. That’s what his desire was, was to please Abraham, his master. Now, this servant wasn’t presumptuous. It’s a good thing to notice here. He was given a job to do, he included God in this, he wanted God to lead and guide and direct him. Because he could have, he was the head, if you will, of everything over Abraham’s. He could have gone up there and just decided, if he took it upon himself who. He could have looked upon the different ones there, had meals with them and so forth, and then decided out of his own thinking, his own carnal mind, “Well, I think she would be nice, a good one for Isaac.”

It didn’t go like that because God had a purpose for exactly who it was supposed to be and why. Because He’s creating more. There are those who are going to come out of them, and He wanted two specific people who would give birth, whom God could work with and knew exactly what was in their genes, if you will.

So a lot of things don’t happen by accident like that. This is one of them, in that respect. It was determined it was going to be Rebekah. God was going to work it out that it was Rebekah, and it became Rebekah all by design.

He was working with Rebekah long before that moment to prepare her to be Isaac’s wife. That is awesome to understand and a good lesson to learn here. That sometimes we may have something to do, and we have to be careful to make sure, what? That God’s first and foremost in it. What does that mean then in our lives? Well, that’s what we’re responsible for determining.

Verse 15—Then it happened, before he had finished speaking… Some of these stories are incredible as we go through them. Then, behold, Rebekah, who was born to Bethuel, the son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother came out. So, here she is making it very clear the lineage there of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, from Bethuel. Again, the lineage of those who had come down through time here of the different generations and come down to this then and here is Rebekah.

It says, came out with her pitcher on her shoulder. Just happened to happen in this way, that it wasn’t some other woman that he came across first and he maybe came across a dozen women before it came to Rebekah? No, it happened immediately. Shows incredible power and might that God has to perform His work and His plan. That’s what He did. He did it for a purpose exactly this way.

So, it was immediately. Didn’t make it last for a long time and didn’t have to be a dozen women who came by and finally one did what he’d prayed about. It happened right away just before he’d finished speaking. Here she’s coming and he’s still speaking, and she’s coming; here she is. Timing? God Almighty.

When she was moved to go do it, the time he got there to do what he was going to do, perfect timing. Coincidental? Hope we understand it wasn’t. That’s the power of Almighty God, the God we serve, because this is a story that runs through time of the power, the meticulousness of God Almighty to perform His work. When He says, “I’m going to do it,” He does it in ways that we’re ever learning about. This is one of those areas where we’re able to grow in that more than what we’ve understood in the past.

Now, the young woman was very beautiful to behold, a virgin whom no man had known. She had gone down to the well, filled her pitcher, and was coming back up. Then the servant ran to meet her, and said, Please let me drink a little water from your pitcher. So she said, Drink, my lord. So, here is the first part. Then she quickly let her pitcher down to her hand and gave him a drink. Then when she had finished giving him drink, she said, I will give drink to your camels also.

Now, this had to be awesomely moving to him. Isn’t that amazing? Here this was in his mind. He didn’t understand that, but he prayed to God this thing. He was inspired to and so it’s recorded in this manner and God fulfilled it exactly this way.

Why would she say that? God put it in her mind. It was supposed to happen. It was going to happen exactly how God had designed it, and furthermore, in order to be written forever for mankind. Mankind would always have this written. God’s plan.

I will draw water for your camels also, until they have finished drinking. Then she quickly emptied her pitcher into the trough, ran back to the well to draw, and drew for all the camels. So the man, gazing at her… It’s kind of like looking at what she’s doing. After praying like that and this happening immediately, if you are in that position you have to be a little dumbfounded. “This is happening exactly the way I’d prayed. What an awesome thing!”

…gazing at her, because that’s what this is even more about, remained silent, so as to know whether the Eternal had made his journey prosperous or not. So he kind of watched it in awe. That’s what this is about.

So it was when the camels had finished drinking, that the man took a golden nose ring of weighing half a shekel (about 1/5 of an ounce), and two bracelets for her wrists weighing ten shekels of gold (which is about 4 ounces), and he said… So, this was given to her and he said, Whose daughter are you? Because he already knew is was from God. This was God’s doing. He didn’t have to worry anymore, this is her. Now, whether she comes, he didn’t know yet, but God’s in this.

He then said, Whose daughter are you, tell me, please, is there room in your father’s house for us to lodge? So she said to him, I am the daughter of Bethuel, Milcah’s son whom she bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother. Now, this had to be moving to him again, because you see, he knew the lineage. He didn’t know her, but he knew of Nahor. This is exactly where Abraham had sent him, and he said, “God will go before you.”

Moreover she said to him, We have both straw and feed enough, and room to lodge. Then the man bowed down his head and worshipped the Eternal. He was exceedingly moved. When you see things like this happen sometimes, there are times in our lives where we’re so inspired and moved by something that you can’t help but do that. That’s the moment, no waiting, this is the time to thank God, to praise God for what He’s done. Very moving times, certain things that take place in our lives from time to time.

So going on, Saying, Blessed be the Eternal God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His mercy and His truth toward my master. As for me, being on the way, the Eternal led me to the house of my master’s brother. He was exceedingly moved by that. We can only imagine.

So the young woman ran and told her mother’s household these things. Now, Rebekah had a brother who’s name was Laban, and Laban ran out to the man by the well. So it came to pass, when he saw the nose ring and the bracelets on his sister’s wrists, and when he heard the words of his sister Rebekah saying, Thus the man spoke to me. So, he spoke to her and told her of these things and now she’s telling these things and God’s giving them excitement for what’s taking place here.

Thus the man spoke to me. And he went to the man; and there he stood by the camels at the well. And he said, Come on, oh blessed of the Eternal. So again, they had this knowledge and they had this belief amongst themselves, and this is why he was sent up there to find a wife for his son.

Oh blessed of the Eternal. So he says, Why do you stand outside? For I have prepared the house and a place for the camels.

Verse 32—Then the man came to the house: and he unloaded his camels, and provided straw and feed for the camels, and water to wash his feet, and the feet of the men who were with him. Food was set before him to eat, but he said, I will not eat until I have told about my errand. So, now he’s going to tell them why he’s there. Not messing around. “This is the most important thing. Not to eat, but to tell you the story of why I am here.”

Then he (Laban) said, Speak on. So he said, I am Abraham’s servant. The Eternal has blessed my master greatly, and he has become great. Now, this had to be exciting just for them, for relatives sake, of being separated for so long and then all of a sudden hearing the beginning of the story about Abraham. Because Abraham left long before and now here is the story that he’s telling them, and it was exciting to them to hear this. They were moved by this, especially as the story goes on.

…and he has become great, and He has given him flocks, and herds, silver and gold, male and female servants, and camels, and donkeys. And Sarah, my master’s wife, gave birth of a son to my master when she was old. What an incredible story to hear along, to hear about the story about how this took place, of how old they were when this took place. And to him, Isaac, he, Abraham, has given all that he has.

So in essence here, “I am Abraham’s servant, but Abraham given all.” In other words, it’s Isaacs to inherit; it’s the inheritance. It’s about the inheritance.

Now, my master made me give an oath, saying, You shall not take a wife for my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I dwell. But you shall go to my father’s house, and to my family, and take (receive; accept) a wife for my son. Yet I said to my master, Perhaps the woman will not follow me. But he said to me, The Eternal, before whom I walk, will send His angel with you and prosper your way; and you shall take a wife for my son from my family, and from my father’s house.

What incredible confidence and boldness because he knew. God had been working with him, molding and fashioning him in his life, and by this time he knew how God worked with him and so he was exceeding confident, “This is what’s to take place and this is how it’s going to happen.”

Verse 41—You will be clear from this oath when you arrive among my family; for if they will not give her to you, then you will be released from my oath. Now, this day I came to the well and said, O Eternal, God of my master Abraham, if you will now prosper the way in which I go behold, I will stand by the well of water and it shall come to pass that when the virgin comes out to draw water and I say to her, Please give me a little water from your pitcher to drink,” and she says to me, Drink and I will draw for your camels also, in other words, offered from her, then that be the woman whom the Eternal has appointed for my master’s son.

But before I had finished speaking in my heart… So again here, showing here that even in prayer it doesn’t have to be something that’s broadcast out for people to hear, for everybody to hear and to know what’s being said, but it can be that which we’re speaking to God because God hears what’s inside. You can pray to God directly from the mind. That’s the way most of our prayers should be.

But when I had finished speaking in my heart, there was Rebekah coming out with her pitcher on her shoulder. And she went down to the well and drew water. So, I said to her, Please, let me drink. Then she made haste and let her pitcher down from her shoulder and said, Drink, and I will draw water also for your camels also to drink. So I drank, and she gave the camels to drink also.

Then I asked her and said, Whose daughter are you? And she said, The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor’s son, whom Milcah bore to him. So, I put the nose ring on her nose and the bracelets on her wrists. Then I bowed my head and worshipped the Eternal, and blessed be the Eternal God of my master, Abraham, who had led me in the way of truth to take the daughter of my master’s brother for his son. “So now, that’s the story. That’s why I’m here. This is what’s taken place.” They were moved, obviously, by the things said there.

So again here, Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, Nahor’s son, and Laban being her brother, in the story here. It goes on then in verse 49—Now, if you will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me. But if not, tell me, that I may turn to the right hand, or to the left. In other words, so I can know what to do now. What is your decision, what is your choice on this matter?

Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, This thing comes from the Eternal. So, look at how they were thinking. That’s why, again, this was the area to pick them from, because of their thinking toward the Eternal God. There were things that they kept in their history that so many other peoples who came from the time of Noah left and had forsaken and had chosen other gods. Incredible.

We cannot speak to you either bad or good. Here is Rebekah before you to take and go to have her be your master’s son’s wife, as the Eternal has spoken. So it came to pass when Abraham’s servant heard these words that he worshipped the Eternal, bowing himself to the earth. Then the servant brought out jewelry of silver, and jewelry of gold, and clothing, and gave them to Rebekah. He also gave precious things to her brother and to her mother. So pretty smart. Certain customs and so forth of what they did there and what all this meant.

So he and the men who were with him ate and drank and stayed all night. Then they arose in the morning, and he said, Let me now go away to my master. But her brother and her mother said, Let the young woman stay with us a few days, at least ten; and after that she may go. So, this was going to be a hard thing because they knew it was far away; probably never see her again. And being family and so forth, this is a hard thing so they’re having some of the thoughts about all this process and what’s taking place.

But he said to them, Do not hinder me, since the Eternal has prospered my way; let me go away so that I may return to my master. So they said, We will call the young woman and ask her personally. So they called Rebekah, and said to her, Will you go with this man? And she replied, I will go. Awesome story! So, God had prepared all this to happen exactly like this and that it be Rebekah, and that she had a mindset of willingness to do this, and heard the story and moved by it as well and knew that there was a husband waiting for her. Incredible.

Genesis 24:59—So, they sent away Rebekah their sister, and her nurse, and Abraham’s servant, and his men. They blessed Rebekah by saying, May our sister be of thousands of ten thousands (little did they know). But again, moved. And may your descendants possess the gates of those who hate them. Did that just pop out of their minds?

Then Rebekah and her maids arose, and they rode on the camels, and followed the man. So the servant took Rebekah and departed.

Now, Isaac came from the way… So, now here we are, they’ve gone all this journey back. This is several hundred miles back down. They’re on this journey back down and just as they’re arriving there in that area, Now, Isaac came from the way of Be-er Lahai-roi, a fair distance, again, south of Beer-Sheva. So, it’s if you look on the map there again, south of Beer-Sheva. It says, for he dwelt in the land of the Negev. So this is the upper part of the Negev where there is still something growing, but not a lot. It was a good place for herding of animals and so forth, and that’s why they had them there, as a whole. This is the area he was prospering in, and God gave him blessings.

So it goes on to say, So Isaac had gone out to meditate in the field in the evening, and he lifted up his eyes and look, and there the camels were coming. Then Rebekah lifted her eyes, and when she saw Isaac she dismounted from her camel. For she had said to the servant, Who is the man walking in the field to meet us? And the servant said, It is my master. So, she took a veil and covered herself.

She was excited about meeting him. She lit off the camel, basically, and took off to meet him. So, different from what a lot of other people, in meeting someone perhaps and how they meet. This was awesomely unique.

And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. Then Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent. So again, these things, as it talks about some of these, in the process here it doesn’t go into exactly how and when. …and he took (accepted; received) Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her. So Isaac, it says, found comfort after his mother. Basically, as some put down, his mother’s death. But it’s showing here now that there is a transition in time. His mother had died past there and they were by themselves, Abraham and him.

Now, Abraham wasn’t very long, but that’s another story as we’ll come to it. But now he had a wife. Then the story tells of how Abraham took to himself a wife, Keturah, after that, and had six children. Now, he was at a point when Isaac was born of thinking that he wouldn’t be able to have a child. Yet long afterwards here he had more children, and it says, also he had children of his concubines. Then he died at 175 years old.

Then we drop on down and pick up the story flow because now it’s going to be moving obviously more now toward the life of Isaac and Rebekah and what took place in their life.

It says in Exodus 25:20—Now, Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel, the Syrian of Padan-aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian, because of the region it was in. Again here, it says being forty years old when him and Rebekah married so what does that make Abraham at that point? 140. So, that’s before, well before he died because he lived another 35 years. So this was at this point then, they’re going back and bringing up some of the story now.

Now, Isaac, it says, asked earnestly of the Eternal for his wife, because she was barren. So it’s jumping ahead here. She wasn’t able to have children. So here we go again, a unique situation. Sarah was old before she had a child, didn’t even know that she was supposed to have a child. God told her she was going to have one; they laughed. When we come at this point and now this lineage, it’s about this lineage, it’s about the inheritance, that which is impossible, in essence, for mankind.

It’s like I love the story of the children of Israel going by the way of the Red Sea because there was no way of the Red Sea. It’s something that God had to reveal to them. It’s a beautiful story because it shows that God leads the way to something that man looks at and says, “That’s not a way. You can’t go there. It isn’t a highway, it’s a sea. You can’t get across.”

This is the same kind of story. Here is something that with mankind it’s impossible. She’s barren, she can’t have children, but there is a lineage here. There is supposed to be an inheritance that follows. So it takes God’s intervention. So, it’s always keeping our eyes on God, that God fulfills the things in our lives and fulfills the need when we need them. God will provide. Awesome.

He asked earnestly of the Eternal for his wife because she was barren. And the Eternal was asked earnestly of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. Now, the children struggled together… It’s a word that means “crushed” inside of her. Whatever was taking place, some translate this differently, but literally in the Hebrew, that’s what it means. So there is that which was going on inside of her that wasn’t pleasant.

And she said of this that she would enquire of the Eternal. So being worried and wanting help, whatever it might be, because she didn’t grasp what was going on. The Eternal said to her, Two nations are in your womb. Awesome! Two nations. Didn’t say two children. Again, it’s about inheritance, one that’s unique of something that leads into Elohim, another one that’s unique in a physical plane of something that God was going to accomplish on earth as well. Because even with that which is to become spiritual it still had the physical aspect because of the children of Israel and what was to happen to them.

Two nations are in your womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from your belly. That’s an understatement, “two manner of people.” They’re not alike. They’re not remotely alike. In their appearance it’s like, where did they come from? Well, at least one of them. “They’re different from what you look like.” That’s what it amounted to.

It says then, Two manner of people shall be separated from your belly, and one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger. So things that were going to happen through time in history because God had planned it this way to be this way.

So when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, twins were in her womb. The first came out red all over, like a hairy garment. It’s talking about on the body. He was a very hairy individual. And they called his name Esau. After this his brother came out, and his hand took hold of Esau’s heel… Accident? By design again. You think, you mean God’s that minutely involved in people’s lives and in things He’s done? Absolutely.

It’s just like in the blueprints, it’s there and there are things that God is going to work out for His plan and His purpose after His good will. He has done it all. He has mapped it all out. He has etched it out, in essence, and this is how it’s going to be accomplished, for many things to be taught through time and learned from through time.

We can’t learn it all at once. It’s to be built upon because God has to even give that, the ability to see and understand things that He had done and why He has done them. On and on it goes.

So he grabbed a hold of his brother, right at the heel because it has to do with what’s more in the story here and what God was going to work out later on as well. There’s a lot more to be filled out here in their lives as they grew, especially, in that respect, as Jacob grew. So, incredible, this story.

So after his brother came out, his hand took hold of Esau’s heel; his name was called Jacob. So it’s about his name, “Supplanter,” because of things he was going to do as time goes on and then lessons he needed to learn in his life, of what God was teaching and molding and fashioning with him. It’s an awesome story.

His name was called Jacob. And Isaac was sixty years old when she gave birth to them. The boys grew, and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field. So he was, this is what he was noted for, to live off the land, to go after game. Some places translate it “venison” but it’s more than that. It’s about game, other kinds of game, is how the old word goes all the way back.

It says, but Jacob was (in essence) a complete man. That’s more the translation of it, as close as one can get. …dwelling in tents. So that was his life. So, what does that mean, “a complete.” Some try to say he was a perfect man or whatever. That’s not what it’s about. There is a scripture back in Job that would be good to throw in here because it uses the word “complete” and basically even gives us definition of what it’s all about. This is what it’s about because it’s in the context of what the definition is.

Job 2:3—And the Eternal said unto Satan, Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth… It’s not “a perfect man” but complete in the sense of the context here of what that means, an upright man, because it’s part of the definition of being complete. He was an upright individual in how he lived his life and how he worked with and treated others and what he lived by in his thinking.

…one who fears God. It’s a part of being complete. Now, this is for us as well in our life. Here, this is what Job is on a physical plane, and others couldn’t grasp what he was lacking on a spiritual plane, but God did. But this was in him and that becomes an incredible story in itself, the story of Job and what he went through in his life to learn the lessons he needed to learn, to go beyond where he was as God was working with him. Because God was working with him. But he hadn’t seen certain things in himself yet and had to see those later on, and later grew more on a spiritual plane when he saw those things.

But again here, “one who fears God.” So, as a matter that knowledge of God, knowledge of things of the past, Job had them and tried to live by those things. So much so that he was quite meticulous about it.

…and eschews evil. A word that means literally in Hebrew, “turns away from evil.” He doesn’t participate in evil. So, an upright individual. He strives to live by what God had given to them that they knew at that point in time, or that he knew about God. That’s the definition of what it means “he’s a complete man,” compared to others of humanity, obviously.

That’s what it’s talking about back here when it speaks of Jacob. Different from Esau. Esau didn’t have the same mindset. He wasn’t as concerned about his life before God. It just wasn’t in his mind. Jacob was different, again, by design. God was working it out that one was to receive the inheritance and it wasn’t the first one. Because that’s how normally it would be. The first one to come out, the firstborn was Esau.

So, this is quite a story when you see what it is, and it has much to do with Jacob’s name here, about being a supplanter, and what was to be given as time went along, what Jacob learned in his life, what he had to go through in his life to learn some pretty hard lessons, and yet how God was using and molding and fashioning in him, and different from Abraham, different from Isaac, but unique to Jacob.

So, that’s what incredible about God’s plan, is that we all have unique places. We’re not all to be the same. We all have different things with which God has worked, and as we yield to those things there will come those points in time where God will know what direction we’re going, where our minds are. We may be tested in certain things to bring that to the surface sometimes, to see if we’re set. We determine that in so many ways, we really do. “This is my life. I’m fighting for it. Nothing,” except knowing that you have to have God’s help, you pray to God, “This is it.” There is not any question about it.

But not everyone in the beginning grows through that process, and certain things pop up in their life, certain jealousies perhaps, certain pulls that they might have, and at certain points God determines that He’s not going to use them. He’s going to let them go in that direction that they want to go that’s really in their heart. That’s something that only God can know.

But if this is what we want and we cry out to God for it and we fight for it, He works with us and He continues to work with us, to mold and fashion something awesomely unique within us that’s unique to what we’re going to be doing in His Family.

We all need each other. It’s a family that needs each other, that functions together. That’s why the examples of the Church in scripture about being a Body and about we all have different things, we all have different parts in the Body. They don’t get into arguments with each other. They don’t fight with each other.

Some of those examples that Paul gave, very meaningful. Because when you look at that which is spiritual that’s the way it has to be. We love each other. We love the place that everyone has and it’s different parts of the Body. God places us there where it pleases Him. It’s His Body that He’s working with, in that respect, as far as the Church of God, the Body of Christ. It’s that which God is constructing, has designed, designed a long time ago. There will be a certain number when it’s all said and done, but we all have choices in the midst of this.

We’re tried in different things in the beginning, but it doesn’t take too many too long into the process and it becomes clearer and clearer where someone is going. God knows those things. He knows our minds. He knows how we think and the faithfulness or lack of it, the battles and our willingness to fight in those. On and on it goes.

Genesis 25:28—Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his, it’s really the word for “game” because it wasn’t just about venison. The old word for venison goes into other kinds of game and generally that which had horns and so forth, whether it be that which was wild and so forth, of whether it be goats or rams or deer or whatever it might be. So again here, just understand that this can be many things, because he was a hunter, and he went out and hunted various game as that which he loved to live off the land like that.

But Rebekah loved Jacob. So there were those things that were unique in both that each one held something in their heart toward one or the other. To me this is something that is difficult, because children know. Children know if something of favoritism or something is done toward someone else, that someone is favored above the others.

To me, that’s one of the worst things a parent could ever do or even think that way, especially in God’s Church. It would be a matter of crying out to God to ask that the mind be right. Because I have a tough time understanding some of that about the human mind and how that can happen, because it shouldn’t be there. There should be that which we understand that certain individuals have certain abilities, whether it be in a family, whether it be in a church or be in God’s Family, and on and on it goes. Again, it’s upon us to be careful of what we do and how we think in our lives and to learn from something like this that shows there’s a problem.

Because this creates problems. So, none of them were perfect. None of us are perfect. But there are things to learn from and to strive to understand.

That’s why I always loved Herbert Armstrong’s example when asked the question, because it fits so many things of life. I may not say this exactly right but when talking about the three campuses they asked him which he loved the most, which he liked the most. The response was, and again the word isn’t coming to me now, but basically, “They each excel one another in beauty.” They each excelled each other. They were unique to themselves, uniquely so, and they excelled in different things. They were all good. He loved all three and he didn’t have favorites.

That’s what he was saying, “I don’t have a favorite. I don’t have favorites. Each mutually excels each other. They mutually excel one another. That’s an awesome way of expressing something. That’s the way it is in life and with people. We all have things that are unique about us and sometimes it just takes an ability or a mind that can begin to grasp that which excels, that which is unique in individuals, that makes who they are a beautiful thing, a thing that is to be worked with by God Almighty, a thing that first of all, to see God in it. That’s where you start.

So it says here, Isaac loved Esau. They knew it! Because, it says here, he loved the game. He loved the kind of food that he brought in and fixed for him, so this created a unique friendship, relationship or fondness that went beyond what he was showing to Jacob or what he saw in Jacob. Rebekah, on the other hand, it was Jacob.

Now Jacob had seethed a stew. And Esau came from the field, and he was exhausted, and he became in other words, weary and weak because he’d come in. Now, this is, the way it’s written it’s kind of hard to grasp some of this, how this could have been this way. But it just kind of shows the attitude and mind of Esau.

And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me of the red stew, for I am exhausted. Therefore, his name was called Edom, which is “red.” But Jacob said, Sell me this day your birthright. So again here, you have to hand it to Jacob; he wanted something, his heart was on something, he fought for it. He got a little devious about it too, but it showed what was inside of him that could be worked with, that Esau didn’t have this in him. That’s the point. It’s kind of like Cain and Abel, they both had something different in their heart and how they looked toward God. One did and one didn’t.

In this case here, Esau really didn’t. He wasn’t concerned about the things having to do with God, but Jacob did. That’s why it uses the unique word it does about Jacob being complete. There was a fear of God that he had. There was this mindset that he had, that he eschewed evil, that he steered away from things that were bad and held on to things that were good. That’s how he tried to live his life. This is how he was noted, in essence. Esau was different.

This story here really relates that. It shows an attitude and a spirit of Esau that’s more concerned with the here and now, not thinking ahead, not thinking about what God had told, in essence, his father, what was given and told to Abraham and then Isaac, because they knew of this. They know of the inheritance. He was the firstborn. It was just kind of taken for granted, for him and his attitude toward it. It wasn’t something that he relished with all of his being nor understood nor appreciated because he didn’t have that mind toward God. Big difference.

Jacob, he was a little different. He wanted it. That’s why he asked for it. He says, “Okay, you want what I’ve made up here, sell me your birthright.” Then Esau said, Behold, I am going to die, little drama there. I’m going to die so what profit shall my birthright do for me? So just kind of a goofy story, in that respect, of something like this, but it shows his attitude. It wasn’t a big deal, “Just give me the food!” He was hungry, he was worn out, he was exhausted, he didn’t want to have to prepare something himself and he expected his brother to give it to him. You know, “What’s the big deal?! I’m weak, I’m going to die.” Okay.

So Jacob said, Give me your oath this day. And he gave his oath to him, and he sold his birthright to Jacob. We can only try to try to understand this in some way. It’s just a difficult thing to grasp but it really reveals an attitude here of Esau that really kind of stunk when it came to his thinking toward the birthright.

You’re really going to do this and you’re going to make an oath? But he didn’t think that much about oaths, but he did it. Then that was held against him because he gave his word and Jacob didn’t forget that. “You made an oath.” In essence that oath is giving of his word before God. And he gave an oath to him; so he sold his birthright to Jacob.

Then Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way. Thus… So, this is the conclusion, and this is how God has it recorded, Thus Esau despised, in other words, “showed contempt or treated, basically, as worthless.” He didn’t value it. The point is he didn’t value it.

When we think about the birthright, because we’re going to go into this a lot more, this thing about the birthright and what it’s all about and this process of Passover being fulfilled in our lives. But again here, it makes it clear here, God makes it clear this is the attitude, this is what revealed Esau’s spirit. That he had contempt, in essence, showed contempt to what God had offered.

Because His working with Abraham, God’s working with Isaac, these things were not small things. The birthright wasn’t something to be treated in this manner whatsoever. To be treated on the plane of a bowl of soup, stew, whatever? And yet I think of so many people in God’s Church who have done so much worse…so much worse. Mind-boggling.

Thus Esau despised the birthright, the right of inheritance of the first born. So that’s what’s revealed in the story here.

I’m going to stop here because this is a good place to end, just to digest the thinking of what’s been given to this point, and we’ll continue on next Sabbath.