Sermon Central
-
The Calling Of The Bride
Contributed by Mark Holdcroft on Mar 27, 2004 (message contributor)
Summary: Abraham had a promise from God. His sons wife was going to be part of that promise and so Abraham was determined that Isaac married the right person. This is a picture of how god the Father looks for a Bride for His Son.
The Calling of the Bride.
...The servant explains why he has been sent and what has happened to Laban, Rebekahs brother...
This is the account of Abraham sending out his servant to find a bride for his son, Isaac. Abraham had been promised by God, that his descendants would become a great nation, as numerous as the stars, and so it was important to ensure that his son married a suitable person. We know that this promise was fulfilled and Abraham’s grandson Jacob, who had is name changed to Israel, became the start of that great nation.
Abraham knew that Isaac’s wife would be a part of that promise. Abraham therefore sends his most faithful servant to fulfil the task. The servant who isn’t named is faithful to his mission, praying continually that God may grant him success and show kindness to his master. We read that the servant is successful, and brings back Rebekah to marry Isaac. Rebekah is described as much loved, and brings comfort to her husband.
When we look at the account, it is also a picture of God sending out His servant to find a bride for His son Jesus. God the father, like Abraham, will only accept the best for His son. Jesus, like Isaac, is the groom in waiting for his bride. The Holy Spirit is like the faithful servant who carries out His masters work. The bible tells us in Revelation ch21, that the church is the bride of Christ, along with those from the tribes of Israel who God calls unto himself. Therefore we are like Rebekah in this story.
I want to look at why Rebekah was chosen to be a part of Gods promise. She could have easily missed out, as the servant could have chosen someone else, or been released from his oath if she had not been willing to come. I want to look at what Rebekah did that caused her to become the bride of Isaac, and show what we need to do in order to ensure that we are the bride of Christ.
(1) Rebekah was family, (2) she was pure and kept beautiful, (3) she was willing to serve and refresh, (4) and she was ready to go immediately, not being constrained by the world.
Rebekah was family.
Abraham sent his servant back to his own country for the bride. He wouldn’t allow his son to marry a Cannanite woman. They had different Gods and lived by different laws. They were a people that lived by their fleshly desires and would have been a poor match for his son. They would have contaminated the promise. Instead the bride would have to come from amongst his own relatives.
In the same way the Holy Spirit is sent to search for a bride amongst His own relatives. The Bible states that when we put our faith in God we are born again into His family. We become the same blood line as the son. We are therefore eligible to be His bride. The first condition for being picked to become the Bride of Christ is to be born again. We can never enter Gods promises except through the blood of Jesus.
Rebekah was pure and had been kept beautiful.
In verse 16 Rebekah is described as being a beautiful virgin. There is no way that the servant would have chosen her if she had been a loose woman or already in a relationship with another man. She also had to be beautiful. The servant wanted to make sure that Isaac would be pleased with what he saw. Even when carrying out the mundane chores, Rebekah had ensured that she still looked beautiful.
I once heard of a dissatisfied married woman. She was sitting on the sofa with the husband. She had her hair in curlers and her face covered with a mud pack. She had let her figure, which was once slim and trim, slip a little and she was wearing the old baggy clothes that she used for decorating the house in. She then turned to her husband and moaned..."Where’s all the romance gone?" Rebekah on the other hand, even when doing the household chores, ensured that she still looked beautiful.
If we want to be the Bride of Christ, we also need to keep ourselves pure and looking beautiful. We see impurity the world, but often, in the church, and in lives of Christians, purity is compromised. We can often agree that pornography is wrong and demeaning, but then not sensor ourselves properly from things that we see on the television. We can agree that theft is wrong, but then break Copyright and have no problems copying a tape or a video. We can even find ourselves gossiping about how wrong somebody is for gossiping. I am not on about things that happen in the world, but things that we can find in the church. We seem to try and justify our actions. Unless we search ourselves and ensure that we are kept pure, we can never please God, and we can never expect to become Jesus’ bride.
