Always put the Assignment First

Genesis 24:22-33

Often, our prayers are centered around needs; it may be about a goal we have or family problems, or many other things like peace for a friend who has lost a child, yes the list is long because we have many needs, needs that are out of our hands.   But often, when the Lord has answered, we forget to give Him thanks; is it because we are better at asking than we are at being thankful?  That was not true with the faithful servant of Abraham, verses 26,27 state, “The man bowed his head and worshiped the Lord and said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his steadfast love and his faithfulness toward my master: As for me, the Lord has led me in the way to the house of my master’s kinsmen.”

What a lesson to each of us reading this prayer, what God was doing in the life of Abraham was not happening in a vacuum, Abraham’s walk with God was out in the open, and because of that relationship, Abraham’s servant has learned to walk with God and to talk with God, and even greater, to trust God.  God called that an act of worship!  Often in my thinking, worship has to do with a choir or a service at the local church, but that is not what God has stated; it was an act of prayer, a prayer of thanksgiving.

Why was Abraham’s servant so thankful?  To understand the answer we must return to the story beginning in verse 22 and going forward.  “When the camels had finished drinking, the man took a gold ring weighing a half shekel, and two bracelets for her arms weighing ten gold shekels, and said, “Please tell me whose daughter you are.  Is there room in your father’s house for us to spend the night?  She said to him, “I am the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor.”  She added, “We have plenty of both straw and fodder, and room to spend the night.”  The ladies reading this may want to know that a shekel was about 2/5 ounce or 11 grams of gold, so Rebekah was well paid for her service to Abraham’s servant and his men.

We are told that Rebekah ran to the house and told her family all that had happened and she and her brother Laban ran to the spring after he saw the ring and the bracelets on his sisters arm, and heard the words that Rebekah spoke.  Abraham’s servant had not moved, so Laban called him and said, “Come in, O blessed of the Lord.  Why do you stand outside?  For I have prepared the house and a place for the camels.  Then the servant follows Laban to the house, and takes care of his camels, giving them straw and fodder, and finds water for washing his feet and the feet of the men who were with him.

Verse 33 states; “Then food was set before him to eat.  But he said, “I will not eat until I have said what I have to say.”  He said, “Speak on.” I am assuming that the “he” is Laban, but what is very important is that the faithful servant of Abraham will not put his personal comfort before the assignment his master has given him.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice