Excerpts
from Chapter 3
The Call of the Bride
The 24th
chapter of Genesis is of the deepest interest to the Christian, for
therein we have a divinely given picture
of what is engaging every Person in the Godhead at the present moment.
Occupation
with service, constant vigilance against the enemy, and conflict for
the truth—entailed by the need of the world, the increasing corruption
of Christendom, and the failure of God's people—may so thoroughly
engross our thoughts that at times we may overlook what God is doing
in spite of all the power of the enemy, the corruption, and the failure.
Hence it is no small mercy that God has given us this beautiful picture
which present a comprehensive view of the aims and activities of Divine
Persons. Thus, losing sight of man and his failure, our souls may delight
in God and His purpose, and be calmed and quieted as we realize that
what God has purposed He will most surely bring to pass, in spite of
failure and opposition.
To enter
intelligently into the typical teaching of the chapter we must seize
the connection of the passage with the chapters that precede and follow.
The 24th of Genesis forms part of the last section of Abraham's history,
beginning with chapter 22 and ending with chapter 25 verse 10. The early
part of his history illustrates the individual life of faith, but in
this last section we have a comprehensive view of the dispensational
ways of God. In chapter 22 Isaac is offered up, and received from the
dead in figure—a striking type of the death and resurrection of
Christ. Following upon the offering up of Isaac, we have in chapter
23 the death of Sarah, and Abraham, "a stranger and sojourner" (v. 4)
in the promised land: all being typical of the setting aside, for the
time being, of Israel as a nation on the ground of promise, consequent
upon the death of Christ. In the call of Rebekah, chapter 24, we have
typically the call of the Church as the Bride of Christ during the time
that Israel is set aside. Chapter 25 completes the picture by presenting
the marriage of Abraham, and the sons of this second wife, typical of
the restoration of Israel and the millennial blessing of the nations.
Confining
our thoughts to chapter 24 we have the unfolding in a picture of the
great mystery of Christ and the Church. We see therein the purpose of
God and the way He takes to fulfil that purpose. Let us however keep
in mind that it is God's purpose in connection with the Church viewed
as the Bride of Christ. As we have seen, this aspect of the Church presents
God's purpose to have an object entirely suited for Christ to love.
Here then in picture we have the call of the Bride, the adornment of
the Bride, and the presentation of the Bride to the Bridegroom in suitability
to Himself. Moral suitability to the heart of Christ, and response to
the love of Christ, are the outstanding thoughts in connection with
the Church as the Bride.
We have
seen that Eve, at the creation, speaks of the Bride of Christ. Isaac
and Rebekah, eighteen centuries later, again take up the story of Christ
and His Bride. There is however a difference, for in Scripture there
is no mere repetition; in Eve we see the bride as wholly the result
of a divine work which formed her and brought her to Adam: in Rebekah
we see the exercise of affection in the bride—the outgoings of
love that are called into activity by the servant. If Eve tells us of
a divine work for the bride, Rebekah speaks of a divine work
in the bride.
The chapter
opens with Abraham giving his directions to his servant (vv. 1-9). Then
the main portion of the chapter is occupied with the servant and his
mission (vv. 10-61). Finally it closes with Isaac and his love for Rebekah
(vv. 62-67). Thus in type we have in the first section the Father and
His purpose; in the second the Holy Spirit and His work; and in the
last, Christ and His affection. Hence in picture we have every Divine
Person engaged in securing the Bride.
First we
learn that the thought of a bride for Isaac originates with Abraham.
He it is that commences the story of Genesis 24. He discloses his mind
as to the bride for Isaac; he instructs his servant, and sends him on
his way. Thus we learn that the thought of a Bride for Christ originates
in the purpose of the Father's heart. It is, too, the Father who sends
the Spirit to bring the Bride to Christ (John 14:26).
The second
verse brings before us the one whose activities form the prominent part
in the story—"the eldest servant" of Abraham's house. Very fittingly
his name is not mentioned, for is he not a type of the Holy Spirit who
has come, not to speak of Himself, but, to take of the things of Christ
and show them unto us?
The activities
of the Holy Spirit in this world are many and varied, but in this chapter
the Holy Spirit is presented in picture as bringing the Bride to light,
awakening affection in the Bride by unfolding the glories of Christ,
and then satisfying those affections by leading her to Christ.
Very significant
are the directions that the servant receives from Abraham and rich with
instructions for our souls.
1. The bride
for Isaac must be suited for Isaac and hence must not be taken from
the daughters of the Canaanites (v. 3). Such were devoted to judgment
and therefore wholly unsuited to Isaac. This would show that the dealings
with Rebekah are not exactly a picture of the grace of God bringing
salvation to sinners, but rather of the love of Christ appealing to
saints. Were it a question of setting forth the grace of God that reaches
the vilest sinners then surely the daughters of the Canaanites would
have been the very people to whom the servant would have been sent as
in the gospel story, in which God takes up a Syrophenician woman—a
daughter of Canaan—to show forth His grace.
2. It follows
that if the bride is to be suited to Isaac she must be of Isaac's kindred.
So the direction to the servant is, "Thou shalt go unto my country and
to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac" (v. 4). We have already
noticed that the one who was suited to be the bride of Adam had to be
"his like," and to obtain one "his like" Adam had to pass through the
"deep sleep." Isaac, too, must in type go through death—must be
offered up on Mount Moriah—before he could secure a bride from
Mesopotamia. So Christ, the great Anti-type, the precious corn of wheat,
must fall into the ground and die or for ever remain alone. When His
soul is made an offering for sin then we read, "He shall see his seed."
Death which cuts a man off from all hope of a seed, becomes the very
way by which Christ secures His seed. And His seed is His like, His
kindred, as is the heavenly One so also are the heavenly ones. Thus
we see the Bride of Christ is composed of those who are suited in
origin through a divine work for them, and stand in relation to Christ
as His kindred through a divine work in them, producing faith in Christ.
On earth the Lord could say, "My mother, and my brethren are those which
hear the word of God and do it" (Luke 8:21).
3. Abraham
solemnly warns the servant twice over that he is not to bring Isaac
again to Mesopotamia (vv. 6 and 8). Isaac in this chapter sets forth
a heavenly Christ and hence after the offering up of Isaac in chapter
22, his name is not even mentioned until the end of chapter 24. As Isaac
was not again to be linked with Mesopotamia, so there is to be no link
with Christ and the world while Christ is on high and the Holy Spirit
is here calling out the Bride for the heavenly Christ. Alas! so thoroughly
has Christendom lost all true thought of Christianity that its one great
effort is to link Christ with the world that has cast Him out. Ignoring
the fact that Christ is the Stone rejected by the builders of this world,
they seek to make Christ the chief corner stone, as it were, of their
great earthly religious systems. His Name is attached to their great
religious buildings, their schemes of reformation, their works of philanthropy,
and their forms of government. In a word the great effort is to bring
Christ back to the world and attach His Name to unsaved and unconverted
men of the world with the hope of reforming men, and making the world
in which they live a brighter and better place. It is hardly possible
to conceive anything more characteristic of the ingenuity of the devil
than for the world to attempt to cover its wickedness with a veneer
of respectability, by attaching to itself the Name of the One that it
has rejected and nailed to the Cross.
However
the instructed believer knows by New Testament teaching, as well as
Old Testament type, that the Holy Spirit is here, not to bring Christ
back to the world, but to take the Bride out of the world to Christ.
So we read, "God... did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people
for his name" (Acts 15:14).
4. Finally
Abraham says, "The Lord God of heaven... shall send his angel before
thee" (v. 7). The angel would providentially clear the way before the
servant, but the servant was personally to deal with the bride, "Thou
shalt take a wife unto my son." Both the servant and the angel were
wholly occupied in securing a bride for Isaac. In a day to come we know
what a large part the angels will take in executing judgment in the
world, but to-day they are "sent forth to minister for them who shall
be heirs of salvation." As in the picture, so in fact, we see the difference
maintained between the providential work of angels and the personal
work of the Spirit. The angel of the Lord guides Philip on his way to
the desert of Gaza, but the Spirit guides Philip in his personal dealing
with the Eunuch (Acts 8:26, 29).
Clearly
then in the directions given by Abraham to his servant, we learn the
great mission of the Holy Spirit in this world. He is not here to prosper
the Christian in business, or to make us wealthy men in this world,
or to make the world a comfortable place for us. He is not here to remove
the curse, or hush creation's groan. He is not here to make the desert
rejoice and blossom as the rose. He is not here to remove pain, and
death, and sorrow, and tears. All this Christ will do in a day yet to
come. Nor is He here to convert the world as some think. He is here
to bring to light a people who are suited to Christ for the joy and
satisfaction of His heart.
Thus in
accordance with these instructions we find that in the course of the
story the servant does not interfere with the conditions that prevailed
in Mesopotamia. He did not attempt to alter its religion, or improve
its social conditions, or interfere with its government. His one business
was to secure the bride for Isaac. How much disappointment the people
of God would escape if once they realized God's great purpose at the
present time, and the special mission of the Holy Spirit in this world.
Believers
are oft-times disappointed with themselves. Desiring to do some great
work for the Lord, they find they are left to do some quiet work in
a hidden corner, and are disappointed. Again they may get sadly disappointed
with the local company of saints with whom they walk. They had hoped
that God would convert great numbers and bring their little company
into prominence as a centre of blessing with the Lord's public approval
and instead they find weakness and failure, and are disappointed. Again
we may be disappointed with the people of God generally. We perhaps
had visions of getting the scattered fragments of God's people together
to walk in unity and love, and behold we find only discord and further
disintegration and we grow disappointed.
Again the
people of God may entertain great hopes from the mission field. With
thousands of missionaries working in all parts of the world they had
hoped that the strongholds of heathendom, Buddhism and Mohammedanism
would be broken down before the light of Christianity, and yet they
find these false systems are hardly touched, and they are disappointed.
Others again
have entertained the thought that after nineteen centuries of the light
of Christianity the world would be morally better, and instead they
have to admit that never was society more corrupt, lawlessness so prevalent,
and unrest so general, hence they are disappointed.
If, however,
we abandon our own thoughts and rise up to God's thoughts we shall not
be disappointed. Our expectations are oftentimes too limited, our outlook
too circumscribed. We think of the present moment and look only at things
seen. Let us, however, "look beyond the long dark night and hail the
coming day." Let us see to what great end God is working, so that, out
of the wreck and ruin of this world, He shall secure a Bride that will
be suited for the love of Christ. What a thought, that the Spirit of
God is here to form bridal affections in the hearts of believers in
view of the day—the great day—the day of the marriage of
the Lamb.
To this
end the Father sent the Spirit. To this end the Spirit is working on
earth. To this end Christ is waiting in heaven. And will the Father,
the Son and the Holy Spirit fail in this great end? Will Divine Persons
be disappointed? Impossible! Every purpose of God will have its glorious
fulfillment. Nor shall we be disappointed if we think God's thoughts
with God, and keep in view God's great purpose—the marriage of
the Lamb.
* * *
Biography
of Hamilton Smith
Reprinted from:
Words of Truth, P. O. Box 147
Belfast BT8 4TT, Northern Ireland, 1986.
No copyright. Public domain.
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