https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Rebekah.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n\tby Jeffrey W. Hamilton<\/p>\n\t
Text: Genesis 24:1-26<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I. In archaeology, historians at times notice odd gaps in the records<\/p>\n
A. Even in well preserved records, there will be missing time periods.<\/p>\n
B. Monuments are clearly defaced.<\/p>\n C. Typically what it indicates that something happened during that time which later\ngenerations did not want to remember. Perhaps a major defeat or a rebellion that\nis just too embarrassing to admit.\n D. The Bible is different. It records both the strengths and weaknesses of people,\nparticularly the great heroes\n 1. Noah was a godly man and was saved from a corrupt world, but he got\ndrunk\n
2. We see Abraham’s faith, but we realize that he lied twice<\/p>\n 3. David is a man after God’s heart, but he committed adultery and to cover\nup his sin committed murder\n
E. We are going to focus on Rebekah today, who is shown in a similar way<\/p>\n
II. A wife for Isaac<\/p>\n A. After Sarah’s death, Abraham decided it was time Isaac was married – Genesis\n24:1-4\n 1. He sent a servant because he did not want Isaac to leave the land promised\nto him – Genesis 24:8\n 2. But he also did not want his son marrying any of the local women who\nfollowed after idols\n B. The servant journeyed about 400 miles to Haran. Not knowing how to find a wife\nfor his master’s son, he prayed – Genesis 24:10-14\n
C. It happened just as the servant asked – Genesis 24:15-27<\/p>\n
1. You might miss it, but what the servant asked for was quite clever.<\/p>\n 2. It wasn’t just a sign, it showed him the character of the woman he was\nseeking\n
III. What the servant proved to himself<\/p>\n
A. Rebekah was kind<\/p>\n
1. When a stranger asked for a drink she gave one – Hebrews 13:2<\/p>\n
2. It is a mark of God’s servants – Matthew 10:42<\/p>\n 3. But she also went beyond just what was asked. She watered his camels as\nwell. Jesus applied that attitude to even enemies – Matthew 5:40-42\n
B. Rebekah was industrious<\/p>\n 1. She watered ten camels. A thirsty camel can drink twenty to twenty-five\ngallons of water.\n a. Watering a camel doesn’t mean filling a watering trough with a\ngarden hose.\n b. A person had to walk down steps into a well, fill a jar and then\nwalk back up to pour it into a trough\n
c. Water weighs about 8 1\/3 pounds per gallon.<\/p>\n d. So Rebekah carried about a total of 1700 pounds of water by\nherself!\n 2. She demonstrated that she wasn’t lazy or afraid of work – Ecclesiastes\n9:10; Colossians 3:23\n
C. Rebekah was hospitable<\/p>\n 1. She told this stranger that there was room for his camels and a place to\nstay at her home.\n
2. I Peter 4:19<\/p>\n
3. Romans 12:13<\/p>\n
D. Rebekah was adventurous <\/p>\n 1. The servant explained his purpose in coming and how the Lord had helped\nhim find Rebekah.\n 2. He proposed marriage between Isaac and Rebekah that night – Genesis\n24:50-52\n 3. The next morning, he was ready to return home. The family was reluctant,\nbut Rebekah was willing to go – Genesis 24:54-59\n 4. It is the same sense of adventure that we admire in our ancestors who left\nhomes to travel to new lands based on hope.\n
E. Rebekah was spiritual<\/p>\n 1. Years later, when she was married and with child, she became concerned –\nGenesis 25:22-23\n
a. She went to God with her concerns<\/p>\n
2. We also see how her godless daughter-in-laws pained her – Genesis 26:34-35; 27:46<\/p>\n
IV. Rebekah’s weakness<\/p>\n
A. She tried to prevent her husband from doing wrong by trickery<\/p>\n 1. Isaac planned to go against God’s prophecy and give Esau the blessing –\nGenesis 27:1-4\n 2. Rebekah overheard, but rather than going to her husband, she came up\nwith a way to deceive him – Genesis 27:5-13\n
3. It involved Jacob lying to his father – Genesis 27:18-29<\/p>\n
B. The result was Esau threatened to kill his brother – Genesis 27:41<\/p>\n C. Rebekah planned to send Jacob away for a short while until Esau cooled down –\nGenesis 27:42-45\n
D. She never did send for Jacob. Perhaps Esau held onto his anger for a long while.<\/p>\n
1. But she died before Jacob returned.<\/p>\n
V. We don’t put our heros on pedestals<\/p>\n
A. We admire their strengths and abilities<\/p>\n
B. And yet we realize that we all have flaws at times<\/p>\n
C. When we see the consequences of those flaws, it warns away from sin<\/p>\n D. And knowing that even the greatest can slip, we remain on guard – I Corinthians\n10:11-12\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Genesis 24:1-26 I. In archaeology, historians at times notice odd gaps in the records A. Even in well preserved records, there will be missing time periods. B. Monuments are clearly defaced. C. Typically what it indicates that something happened during that time which later generations did not want to remember. Perhaps a major…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[119,32],"tags":[1242,1537],"class_list":["post-52055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audio","category-sermon","tag-character","tag-rebekah"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":30288,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-you-marry-for-reasons-other-than-love\/","url_meta":{"origin":52055,"position":0},"title":"Can you marry for reasons other than love?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 21, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it biblical to marry for reasons outside of love? For example for children, physical desire, status, family pressure, obligation, it is time, etc? Answer: So many people think that love is something that happens to a person when the truth is that love is something a person chooses\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29388,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-mahalath-a-canaanite-and-did-esau-marry-her-to-get-back-at-his-father-isaac\/","url_meta":{"origin":52055,"position":1},"title":"Was Mahalath a Canaanite and did Esau marry her to get back at his father, Isaac?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 2, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Was Mahalath a Canaanite and did Esau marry her to get back at his father, Isaac? 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Answer: In the times of the Old Testament children could inherit two things from their parents: property and a blessing. If your parents had three children, then on their death their property was divided four ways (one more than the number of living\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":92741,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-isaac-want-to-bless-esau\/","url_meta":{"origin":52055,"position":4},"title":"Why did Isaac want to bless Esau?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 22, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hey there. Regarding Genesis 27. Why does Isaac intend to bless Esau when the prophetic voice had already declared, \"The older shall serve the younger\" (Genesis 25:23)? Also, why does Isaac twice indicate that he suspects that Jacob is pulling a trick on him, yet does nothing? It seems\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51787,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/im-confused-by-the-apparent-compilation-of-records-in-genesis\/","url_meta":{"origin":52055,"position":5},"title":"I’m confused by the apparent compilation of records in Genesis","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 22, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have been reading your material in Genesis and find your conclusions intriguing on the book being a collection of inspired records that Moses made under the direction of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 I am creating material for my daily Genesis podcast, so I want to ensure that I'm accurately\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52055\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}