Genesis by David Guzik

Author:David Guzik [Guzik, David]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781939466174
Publisher: Enduring Word Media
Published: 2012-12-08T05:00:00+00:00

a. Abraham said to him: Apparently, Abraham anticipated that he might die while his servant was gone, so the instructions were made perfectly clear.

b. Beware that you do not take my son back there: Isaac, the son of promise, never once left the Promised Land.

B. The servant’s mission fulfilled.

1. (10-14) Eliezer’s prayer to God.

Then the servant took ten of his master’s camels and departed, for all his master’s goods were in his hand. And he arose and went to Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor. And he made his camels kneel down outside the city by a well of water at evening time, the time when women go out to draw water. Then he said, “O Lord God of my master Abraham, please give me success this day, and show kindness to my master Abraham. Behold, here I stand by the well of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. Now let it be that the young woman to whom I say, ‘Please let down your pitcher that I may drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I will also give your camels a drink’; let her be the one You have appointed for Your servant Isaac. And by this I will know that You have shown kindness to my master.”

a. O Lord God of my master Abraham, please give me success this day: Essentially, Eliezer asked God to guide through providential circumstances. Often (but certainly not always) this is a bad way to discern God’s will.

i. Generally speaking, circumstances alone can be a dangerous way to discern God’s will. We have a way of ignoring circumstances that speak against our desired outcome (or we attribute those circumstances to the devil), while focusing on the circumstances that speak for our desired outcome.

ii. But in this case, Eliezer established what he would look for before anything happened. He wasn’t making up the standard as the process unfolded.

b. Drink, and I will also give your camels a drink: Eliezer was wise enough to ask for a sign that was remarkable, but (in human terms) possible. He didn’t tempt God by asking for fire to fall from heaven or for protection as he leapt from an unsafe height.

c. Let her be the one: In praying this prayer, there was a sense in which Eliezer set the odds against finding someone. It would take a remarkable woman to volunteer for this tedious task.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.