Pastoral Letter 173
Dear Members of St. Andrew’s Uniting Church, Friends and Adherents,
Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ as well as Grace and Peace to you all.
Time flies, as we realise that we are already in the second half of the year 2023. By God’s grace and care, we continue our faith journey and do the best we can as a congregation being His faithful servants. We are sure that God is with us, as we face many challenges in life, as well as in our ministry, life and witness here at St. Andrew’s. We firmly believe that the God, who has brought us up to this point, will continue to do so as we look forward with hope and anticipation. God is good and faithful. All we need to do is to keep trusting Him and do our part as much as we can, and He will do the rest for us.
We are just five weeks from our traditional annual Market Morning, which will be held on Saturday 5 August 2023 from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm. Now it’s time to bring in our donations and let people around us know that we are happy to receive goods for the upcoming Market Morning. I am sure we will be able to get good results and allocate some money for charitable purpose. Set up will be during the week from Wednesday 2 August. Please be ready to help as we do every year and if you have any questions, please ask Virginia.
Please save the date Sunday 10 September 2023, which marks the 100th anniversary of the laying of the stone of our beautiful Sanctuary. We will have a special service at 2:00 pm with many guests, church leaders, families, friends, guests and dignitaries. We will have more details in the coming weeks. The Church Council and Elders will meet this Wednesday and finalise the details for the Special Service.
If you will not be able to be with us tomorrow morning Worship Service, please light a candle and join us following the attached Order of Service.
Be safe and well, continue to pray, remembering those who need care, support and love. Please let me know if you or anyone else has prayer points.
Here are some prayer points for this week:
- Pray for world peace and ask for God’s blessings.
- Pray for those who suffer because of violence, be it domestic or other.
- Pray for persecuted people who are abused, terrorised and facing hardship.
- Pray for the poor, the sick, the vulnerable, the struggling and the stressed.
- Pray for those who are facing natural disasters causing death, loss and pain.
- Pray for the children of Armenia and Artsakh. Summer Overnight and Day Camps have commenced.
- Pray for Soo-Tee and ask God for his quick recovery.
- Pray for the families and the children as they return from school holidays.
Best Regards,
Krikor
MESSAGE
God’s Promise Fulfilled, Again
Genesis 24
Some six years ago, Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, announced that Facebook passed two billion users, that almost one in four people on the entire planet earth were signed up on Facebook. He went on to say that communities would be Facebook’s new mission and that it would be the company’s focus from now on. Currently the number of Facebook users is almost three billion. In fact, The Sun reported, “Mark Zuckerberg has claimed Facebook is ‘the new church’ and the social network can take on the role that religion once did in giving people a sense of community.” The billionaire boss said groups on Facebook could give people a sense they are part of “something bigger than ourselves” similar to a religious congregation. Of course, many people, especially young people, find a greater sense of community and purpose in Facebook than they do in the Church of Jesus Christ.
Many church leaders fear for the future of the Church. They ask questions, such as:
Will our children still be communicant members of the Church?
What about our grandchildren?
Will the Church still be in existence a century from now?
The people of God in the Old Testament often feared for its existence as a nation. The story of God providing a wife for Isaac encouraged them to remember that God was faithful to His covenant promises and always He has fulfilled His promises, as we see here that He does again.
As we continue our journey through the book of Genesis, we see how God continues to deal with His people and fulfills all of His promises. The analysis of finding a wife for Isaac in Genesis 24 shows us how the Lord provided Rebekah as a wife for Isaac in order to continue the line of the seed of the woman according to is original promise to Abraham.
Let’s look to this passage in Genesis 24 with the following points:
1. The Servant was sent by Abraham to find a Wife for Isaac (24:1-9)
God had promised Abraham a number of blessings when He called him out of Ur of the Chaldeans. Among the many blessings was the promise that God would make of Abraham a great nation. Abraham and Sarah eventually had a child in their old age, a son God named Isaac. But, after forty years it seemed that God’s promise was not being fulfilled yet. Genesis 24:1 says: “Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years. And the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things.” Yes, God had blessed Abraham in all things, but for Isaac, now forty years old, there was no wife and, more importantly, no children to continue the line of the seed of the woman.
Abraham could have decided to have Isaac marry one of the local Canaanite girls. And, if he could arrange a marriage with a wealthy Canaanite girl who owned property, then Isaac could not only have a wife but also expand his own property in the Promised Land. But Abraham refused to do that. He understood that Noah’s statement, “Cursed be Canaan” (Genesis 9:25), was applicable to the present Canaanite descendants. Later on, God specifically forbade His people from marrying Canaanites, when He said, “Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons” (Deuteronomy 7:1–4).
In verses 2-4 we read Abraham’s last recorded words. He spoke to his servant, who is not named. It could be Eliezer of Damascus, mentioned in Genesis 15:2. However, whether it was Eliezer or another servant, we do know that he was a faithful servant who had come to trust in the God of his master Abraham was asked to make an oath. Putting a hand under Abraham’s thigh was apparently the ancient equivalent of swearing an oath on the Bible.
But the servant spotted a difficulty in Abraham’s proposal and said to him: “Perhaps the woman may not be willing to follow me to this land. Must I then take your son back to the land from which you came?” (24:5). That is a good question. What young woman would leave her family and go with a stranger to a distant land and marry someone she had never met? Wouldn’t it just be easier to have Isaac move to the bride’s country?
Abraham was resistant that Isaac does not leave the Promised Land. In fact, “Isaac was never once permitted to leave the land, even in time of famine “(26:2). Isaac summarized the divine promise of a people and a land. Abraham said to his servant, “Make sure that you do not take my son back there” (24:6). Abraham then encouraged his servant with an assurance of the Lord’s providential guidance, as we see in verses 7-8.
What is significant in Abraham’s words is his faith in God. In the beginning of his relationship with God, Abraham at times doubted God’s word to him that he would be given a son. But now, in his last recorded words, Abraham expressed firm faith in God. Abraham believed that God would provide a bride for his son Isaac.
So, with that assurance from his master Abraham, the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master and swore to him concerning this matter (24:9).
2. The Servant met Rebekah at the Well (24:10-28)
Verse 10 says that without any delay, the servant took ten of his master’s camels and departed, taking all sorts of choice gifts from his master; and he arose and went to Mesopotamia to the city of Nahor. The journey was not important; what was important was what happened when the servant reached his destination (fifty-one verses for one evening and morning, verses 11-61).
So, a month later, when he arrived at Nahor, the servant made the camels kneel down outside the city by the well of water at the time of evening, the time when women go out to draw water (24:11). And then he prayed in a very specific way asking God for a sign. But note that it was not a miraculous sign. The sign he requested was appropriate to the task at hand and showed that Abraham’s servant had thought carefully about asking God for a sign.
But how could Abraham’s servant determine quickly which of the girls that would soon be arriving would have such qualities? It would be necessary for him to make the first approach toward conversation, and the obvious thing would be for him to ask her for a drink of water from her pitcher. However, almost any girl, out of common courtesy, would agree to such a request as that; so that act alone would not be sufficient. If, however, she would then, on her own initiative, offer to help in some further way, going a second mile as it were, this would definitely be a good sign.
But this would be a most unreasonable thing to expect. Drawing enough water to satisfy the thirst of ten large and tired camels would be a hard and tiresome task, to say the least. He couldn’t really ask a girl to do such a thing. Nevertheless, if she would do it voluntarily, it would be a strong indication that she was the right one. Accordingly, he decided to pray to this specific end.
Remarkably, before he had finished speaking, behold, Rebekah, who was born to Bethuel the son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, came out with her water jar on her shoulder (24:15). At this point, the servant did not know if Rebekah was God’s provision of a bride for Isaac. He asked her for a drink, and she gave him a drink (24:18). It would not be too much trouble to give a man a drink, but would she offer to water his camels? Verse 19 says, “After she had given him a drink, she said, “I will draw water for your camels also, until they have finished drinking.” And she did so.
After she had finished watering the camels, the servant gave her several gifts, and asked her whose daughter she was. When the servant heard that she was a grandniece of Abraham, he bowed his head and worshiped the Lord. Here again we see God’s providence in leading Abraham’s servant to Rebekah.
But there were still more hurdles to overcome. Would Rebekah’s family be willing to let her go with a stranger and marry an unknown man? And would Rebekah herself be willing to leave her family and marry someone she had never met?
3. The Servant explained his mission to Rebekah’s family (24:29-61)
Rebekah’s brother, Laban, invited Abraham’s servant to spend the night at their home. Food was set before the servant, but he insisted that he explain his mission to Rebekah’s family before he would eat. He explained how it was that he came to be there looking for a bride for Isaac. He concluded his explanation.
Sensing that God had sent the servant on this mission, Laban and Bethuel agreed. Having done his mission, the servant, those with him, and Rebekah’s family enjoyed a feast.
However, the next morning there was another problem. When Abraham’s servant got up to leave, Laban and Rebekah’s mother said: “Let the girl remain with us ten days or so; then you may go” (24:55).
But Abraham’s servant insisted that they leave immediately. So, they called Rebekah and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” She said, “I will go” (24:57-58). Recognising the call of the same Lord who called Abraham, Rebekah’s family sent her away.
Only one question now remained: Would Isaac accept Rebekah as his bride? Or would Rebekah have travelled all that way for nothing?
4. The Servant brought Rebekah to Isaac (24:62-67)
The scene switches to Isaac, who had returned from Beer-lahai-roi and was dwelling in the Negeb, which was southern Canaan. And Isaac went out to meditate in the field toward evening. And he lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, there were camels coming (24:62-63).
At the same time, Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she descended from the camel and said to the servant, “Who is that man, walking in the field to meet us?” The servant said, “It is my master.” So, she took her veil and covered herself (24:64-65). In that culture, a bride wore a veil when meeting her groom.
When Isaac got to the place where the servant and Rebekah were, the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done (24:66). Isaac clearly acknowledged that all that had taken place was from the Lord, because he brought Rebekah into the tent of Sarah his mother and took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her (24:67a). This is the first time in Scripture that a man is said to love a woman.
But, more importantly, God’s covenant promise would now continue through Rebekah. She would eventually bear twin sons, named Esau and Jacob, and the seed of the woman continued and hence the beginning of the nation that God had promised to Abraham many years ago.
Centuries after Rebekah, there was another young woman who said: “I will.” She was Mary, the mother of Jesus. The son that was born to Mary was the seed of the woman. Through Jesus, God is fulfilling his promise to bless all the people of the earth.
Jesus is building his Church. We may be assured that just as the Lord provided Rebekah as a wife for Isaac, he will providentially care for the Church of Jesus Christ. Although the Church is currently falling on hard times, we should be encouraged to believe that God will bring men and women, boys and girls, faithful servants to a saving knowledge of his Son, Jesus Christ.
Let us pray for the Church and more importantly for the Uniting Church. And let us continue to proclaim the good news of the gospel so that all the elect may be saved.
We are called to be the household of God, the people of God, who works hard so that many people, especially young people, find a greater sense of community and purpose in Church of Jesus Christ than they do in the Facebook.
Amen!