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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
Now Isaac had come from Beer Lahai Roi, for he was living in the Negev. He went out to the field one evening to meditate, and as he looked up, he saw camels approaching.
Rebekah also looked up and saw Isaac. She got down from her camel and asked the servant, "Who is that man in the field coming to meet us?" "
He is my master," the servant answered.
So she took her veil and covered herself.
Then the servant told Isaac all he had done.
Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he married Rebekah. So she became his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.
Genesis 24:62-67
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Have you ever lost a parent?
If so, you know the emptiness it leaves in your life.
A parent is one of the people responsible for physically bringing you into the world, one of the people who invested so much in raising and teaching you about life, one of the main people in your life who you went to for advice, counsel and comfort as you grew into adulthood and faced life on your own.
For me, it was my father who went to be with the Lord in 2011, the year before I retired from the military. He was my number one supporter as I served for nearly 30 years and it was a sad time for me at my retirement ceremony because he didn’t make it to be there with me on that special day. He had been taken from this earthly existence and was no longer available for me.
Maybe you can relate to this kind of loss but if you’ve never experienced, I would ask you to take a moment and imagine what it will be for you because the inevitability of life is that we all will die and typically a parent passes before their children.
As we turn to our scripture passage for today, we find Isaac in the midst of grieving the death of his mother, Sarah. And given that he was an only child, the loss left him alone with now-widowed father, Abraham still alive.
It was into this moment that we find God intervening and bringing a new person into Isaac’s life to love for the rest of his days. Look again at these closing verses from Genesis, chapter 24:
Now Isaac had come from Beer Lahai Roi, for he was living in the Negev. He went out to the field one evening to meditate, and as he looked up, he saw camels approaching.
Rebekah also looked up and saw Isaac. She got down from her camel and asked the servant, "Who is that man in the field coming to meet us?" "
He is my master," the servant answered.
So she took her veil and covered herself.
Then the servant told Isaac all he had done.
Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he married Rebekah. So she became his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death. Vv.62-67
Now, let’s picture Isaac on the day of our scripture passage.
It's been about three years since his mother's passing and he was heading "out to the field” in order “to meditate". This tells us that Isaac, a man of God like his father, prayed as a part of his individual faith life. While we don’t know what Isaac prayed for, perhaps he would ask the Lord occasionally for the blessing of companionship, for the blessing of someone that he could share life with, someone who would break the bondage of loneliness, someone could fill some of the void left by his mother's loss.
Well just as Isaac sets out to meditate, something happens that breaks the monotony of the day. For we read where he looked up to see camels approaching and it’s at that moment, that Rebekah sees Isaac, her future husband, for the first time.
Of interest here, she doesn’t know it is Isaac. She had never met him before and so she asks the chief servant about the man was that she saw and he quickly responds, saying:
"He is my master"
The scripture tells us that knowing she was in the presence of her husband-to-be prompted Rebekah to cover herself with her veil, a showing of humility, modesty and respect. And after Isaac hears the report from the chief servant about everything that had transpired and how God had moved through the situation, he (Isaac) takes Rebekah "into the tent of his mother Sarah” and marries her.
This now completed the chief servant’s mission. He had fulfilled his oath to Abraham after playing such an important role in God’s plan to bring a Rebekah to Isaac, forming a wonderful new bond, one that would place the new couple in the lineage of Jesus.
The new marriage flourished as it was instituted by God. We read that Isaac "loved” Rebekah and through her was “comforted after his mother's death." All and all, a wife was given to Isaac when he needed her most for as we know, our Lord’s timing is always perfect.
Before I close, it’s important to note that we all will deal with loss in some way or another in life. It doesn't have to be a death for it could be a broken marriage, friendship, or family relationship. It could even involve losing a pet for many people have close bonds with their animals that sometimes match the intimacy that human beings have for one another. No matter what the type of loss, it is never easy to deal with and it can often leave us abandoned, hopeless, sorrowful, and feeling lost and alone.
If you have experienced this and are still in the midst of dealing with the pain that comes with loss, I pray that you would draw encouragement from this chapter of scripture, Genesis, chapter 24. In it, we discover several key points to help us when we're in the midst of missing someone:
1. God always has a plan.
It's ever difficult to have patience and wait for the Lord to do His work but we must wait and trust in faith that He is working in our best interest (Romans 8:28). As mentioned, we will all experience loss at some time in our life and when it happens, God stands ready to bring comfort (Matthew 5:4) and teach us how to cope with our loneliness.
Ultimately, He wants to step into the gap and fill the void left by our loss. We simply need to invite Him in. So if you're experiencing grief today, I hope you’ll allow the Lord to enter in and bring you healing and consolation as only He can.
2. When we lose someone in our life, God often has people or a person in mind to enter in and fill the gap left by the loss.
Whether it is a wife, a friend, a group to join, or a new pet, the Lord will work on your behalf to bring someone to you. We need to just stay prayerful and be patient, just as Isaac was before God brought him Rebekah. In the interim, seek to grow stronger in your relationship with God. For when we draw nearer to Him, He will always draw nearer to us, bringing His love and fellowship.
3. Meditate and stay in close communion with God.
Although Isaac was alone and had to be dealing with many of the same emotions we deal with when we lose someone special, he took time to meditate daily, drawing near to the Lord who he believed could do all things. And as we saw in the scriptures, he was rewarded for his faithfulness and devoted trust.
Since then and right up to today, God has been in the business of answering prayers. It might not come immediately but he will answer. Remember that Isaac waited three long years after Sarah’s death until the Lord brought him Rebekah.
Personally, I know of a wonderful, beautiful woman who waited well into her 40's, hoping and praying that the Lord would bring her the right man. She had made a promise to herself and God that she wouldn’t settle for just anyone but rather, the man that He would bring into her life. It was a long time to wait and as it worked out, she ended up waiting much longer than even Isaac did but, like him, her faith was rewarded.
For the Lord did bring a man into her life, a man who feared the Lord and sought to be a strong disciple. And to date, my wife Grace and I have now been married over 32 years in what we both would say is a dream marriage because God is the head of it.
And so this message ends with a quick question:
Are you willing to wait on the Lord and do so patiently as Isaac did in biblical times or as Grace did in our present days?
My hope is you will, trusting that the Lord will reward your patient waiting with a rich blessing that will answer your prayers.
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.
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