Thursday, March 18, 2010

Creator God has a Plan for You


Genesis 24:61-67
 As we read the Scriptures it is easy to error when we begin to fill in the blanks.  What happened on this long journey back to Isaac, did Rebekah ask thousands of questions about Isaac and the land she was going to?  Did the servant teach her the history of Abraham and Sarah, and how Isaac was the promise of God?  The Bible is silent on what took place on the trip to find Rebekah, as well as the trip back to her future husband Isaac all we can do is wonder?  It is ok to wonder, but it is wrong to teach as truth what is not mentioned.  Many times as we search the Scriptures, the Lord has filled in the story in another book.

Genesis 24:64-65, gives this account, “And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she dismounted 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.”  Henry M. Morris gives this account on page 406 of the “Genesis Record”, “Rebekah saw him at about the same time, and also instinctively knew it was Isaac.  When she asked the servant, and he had confirmed it, she literally “fell off” the camel to meet him (the Hebrew verb is naphal, which the King James translation renders “lighted off”).  She quickly put on a “veil,” actually a garment which covered both face and body, as this was the proper way, in accord with the custom, to first meet her husband-to-be.  Isaac, outwardly calm but inwardly eager with anticipation, listened patiently as the servant made the appropriate introductions, and them recounted how the Lord had led him so plainly and clearly to Rebekah, and how Rebekah had consented to come.”

Isaac took Rebekah to his mother’s tent, Sarah has been dead for about three years and this only child of his mother had missed her deeply.  The bond of a son with his mother is very tight, but Isaac was her promise, she lived in such a way around him that when he took a wife, he would know how to love his wife.  Once he arranged all that was needed for the marriage ceremony, he married her and took her to his own tent. 

It is clear from what we studied so far that Isaac was a young man who knew that God had a plan for his life, that he was a man who honored both his father and mother, and that made it easy for him to honor his wife.  It is very important to know that God has made plans for you, Psalm 139:16, states, “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them.”  God saw your unformed substance, and we ask the question when does life begin?  Our answer is, long before the egg and the sperm come together and form a living being.  God wrote about your life, before one day had taken place.  How can God do that, you may ask: and it is not hard to explain that God who is eternal, who created time, has been from beginning to end, of what we call time.  And when we leave this earth, we will be like God in this respect, we will be eternal and time will be no more.  Eternal does not mean living in heaven with God!  Jeremiah 29:11, is a verse that gives me great hope; “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”  God had you and me in mind from the beginning before he created the world. He also knew we would turn to independent living and need a Savior, before He created the world. Yes, He knows the plans He has for us!

From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice

No comments: