THE ESSENCE OF SERVANTHOOD

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Abraham was now old and well advanced in years, and the Lord had blessed him in every way. He said to the chief servant in his household, the one in charge of all that he had, "Put your hand under my thigh. I want you to swear by the Lord, the God of Heaven and the God of earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living, but will go to my country and my own relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac."

The servant asked him, "What if the woman is unwilling to come back with me to this land? Shall I then take your son back to the country you came from?"

"Make sure that you do not take my son back there," Abraham said. "The Lord, the God of Heaven, who brought me out of my father's household and my native land and who spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, 'To your offspring I will give this land'-he will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there. If the woman is unwilling to come back with you, then you will be released from this oath of mine. Only do not take my son back there."

So the servant put his hand under the thigh of his master Abraham and swore an oath to him concerning this matter.

Genesis 24:1-9

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Have you ever been given a task that seemed a bit overwhelming on the surface?

Maybe you felt a little unsure you could accomplish what you were asked to do.

Maybe you were more than a little afraid of failure as well, fearful of letting someone down that was depending on you.

I think we all may have been in this place an one time or another and so today’s scripture passage from the opening verses of Genesis, chapter 24, are helpful as they provide great insight into how we can best approach daunting assignments when they come our way. Look again at those words here:

Abraham was now old and well advanced in years, and the Lord had blessed him in every way. He said to the chief servant in his household, the one in charge of all that he had, "Put your hand under my thigh. I want you to swear by the Lord, the God of Heaven and the God of earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living, but will go to my country and my own relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac."

The servant asked him, "What if the woman is unwilling to come back with me to this land? Shall I then take your son back to the country you came from?"

"Make sure that you do not take my son back there," Abraham said. "The Lord, the God of Heaven, who brought me out of my father's household and my native land and who spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, 'To your offspring I will give this land'-he will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there. If the woman is unwilling to come back with you, then you will be released from this oath of mine. Only do not take my son back there."

So the servant put his hand under the thigh of his master Abraham and swore an oath to him concerning this matter. Vv.1-9

The scene starts with Abraham calling on his chief servant to give him an important assignment. We know that Sarah, Abraham’s wife and dear love of his life, has died and this leaves him realizing that he too was "old and well advanced in years", possibly drawing ever nearer to his own death.

We sense this breeds some urgency within Abraham as he seeks to make sure his only son, Isaac, is married before death comes. And so Abraham calls on his servant and tasks him with finding a woman suitable to marry Isaac.

Now this mission had a restriction attached to it for Abraham makes it very clear that Isaac’s wife could not be a Canaanite but rather had to come from his relatives living in the region. In response to this, we find the servant expressing a little anxiety about what he was being asked to do, saying:

"What if the woman is unwilling to come back with me to this land? Shall I then take your son back to the country you came from?"

This brought a hasty, pointed response from Abraham, especially in regard to proposition of taking Isaac back “to the country” Abraham had come from.

"Make sure that you do not take my son back there. The Lord, the God of Heaven, who brought me out of my father's household and my native land and who spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, 'To your offspring I will give this land'-he will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there.”

Abraham had full trust in God that He would provide the proper wife for Isaac and he wanted to servant to feel that way as well. There was no need for any worry over the matter for the Lord would do just what He said He would do but Abraham did make sure the servant understood that there would be no consequences if the woman he asked to marry Isaac was unwilling to return with him.

“If the woman is unwilling to come back with you, then you will be released from this oath of mine. Only do not take my son back there."

And with that reassurance, the servant swore an oath that he would obey Abraham’s order before setting out on the journey to Abraham’s country do as he was told. We’ll look into what happened next in tomorrow’s message but before I close for today, I think there are two very interesting items to highlight in this preliminary encounter between Abraham and his chief servant:

1. The servant is being sent back to Abraham’s country to find Isaac a wife and that’s all he’s given for guidance except for the order that the woman could not be a Canaanite.

The chief servant doesn’t have any idea who he is looking for, not what she looks or what her name is. He only knows that she lives in Abraham’s country and needed to be a relative. You couldn’t blame the servant for asking, "Is there any way you could narrow this down a little for me Abraham?"

What I find most fascinating about this account is that there is a direct parallel to Abraham himself when God first came to him and gave him an order.

You’ll remember that God told Abraham to "leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you" (Genesis 12:1). Abraham didn’t know where he was going and yet he followed God’s tasking obediently, just like his chief servant would do for him now.

2. We are never told the servant’s name.

The most we know is that he is a male and while every other key person in the event documented in Genesis 24 is named by name, the servant is called just that, a servant. In looking at this, I think that this was by design for the events here aren’t about the servant as much as they are about Abraham, Isaac, and Rebekah.

This leads me to a question regarding when we are carrying out the Lord’s duties.

For how often do we seek recognition or acknowledgement for our role in carrying out God’s plan?

Too often, I’m afraid.

You see, our human nature craves being the center of attention. We see to have an innate hunger for recognition, we want to be noticed. This, as in so many other matters, puts us in direct conflict with what God desires and expects from us. For like the servant, the Lord wants us to adopt an attitude of humility as we serve Him, an attitude that would have us glorify Him, not ourselves.

God would have us realize that the greatest reward we can ever gain in life has already been secured through Jesus Christ, and one day we will claim our inheritance as co-heirs with Jesus within the very Kingdom of our God (Romans 8:14-17). Until that time comes, we are to get out into the Gospel needy mission field and execute the game plan that God has drawn up for us through His Son, and we need to do so prayerfully and thankfully, yearning only to please God in a way that He might look down on us and say, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

Friends, through the example of Abraham’s servant, we get an excellent view of servanthood and how to do it right. For the chief servant in this story was given tasking by his master that was broad and extremely challenging, and yet, he went forth with an oath to carry Abraham’s will, just as Abraham had done with God prior.

So what is God calling you to do today? And in response to that call, are you ready to respond in faithful obedience and go where He might send you, no matter the cost?

Are you ready to trust Him, knowing that He will lead you to where He wants you to be and guide you to what He wants you to do so that His will might be accomplished?

God expects that our answer to these questions will be a resounding “Yes!” because only a response as this would show true discipleship and reflect the nature of His Son, Jesus, the Savior of the world who testified to have come to serve and not be served (Matthew 20:28).

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com