Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Genesis 24:41


Vs.41- “Then shalt thou be clear from this my oath, when thou comest to my kindred; and if they give not thee one, thou shalt be clear from my oath.”- The servant is free from the pledge he made if the family of Abraham refuses to give a wife to Isaac.  (See Vs.8)  The servant’s errand in coming has now been made abundantly clear. 

 

One-Line Explanation- The servant rehearses that his oath is voided if the family refuses to give a wife to Isaac. 

 

Lesson:  1.)  “If they give not thee one..”  Vs.8 says, “And if the woman will not be willing to follow thee..”  Both of these actions take place in a marriage.  When my wife and I got married, she chose to be my bride, but her family also gave her away.  What that means is that I had her heart and their blessing.  Both of these are essential if you want to have the right start and foundation to a marriage.  There are some key principles concerning this.  A.)  You are marrying his/her family.  I have known of marriages that were the result of running away and eloping against the parent’s will.  One marriage I’m thinking of in particular ended in divorce.  You cannot marry someone and expect to ostracize them from their family.  My wife loves her family.  When I married her, I entered into a relationship with her family.  I am part of her family now and she is part of my family.  We take trips to Mississippi (where my wife is from) constantly.  I had to develop a relationship with her parents, her siblings, her aunts, her uncles, etc. before we got married and even more so afterward.  Some say, “Well, I just can’t stand his/her family.”  You may need to consider that diligently before deciding to enter into a marriage.  If your spouse or prospective spouse like you ought to, then you should be willing to strive and work at having a God-honoring relationship with your spouse’s family.  B.)  You ought to have her family’s blessings before you get married.  This is the idea of giving a bride away.  I am old fashioned.  I believe that a young man should ask the parents or guardians of the young lady for permission to have her hand in marriage.  Sneaking behind the backs of the parents and eloping is dishonest and dishonoring.  The bible teaches us that we are to honor our parents.  This is not just a command to young children, but to every one of all ages.  I am to honor my parents now as a 28 year old married man.  It is very dishonoring to your parents to go against their will and do something of such significance behind their back.  I believe that if you don’t have the parent’s blessing then you don’t have God’s blessings.  Why would God bless you for dishonoring your parents?  I would not marry a woman if I did not have her parent’s blessings.  I have found that if you are the good Christian young man that you are supposed to be then, on most occasions, they do not have a problem giving you permission.  There are occasions where a young woman may have been reared in a Muslim home, for example, and been converted.  Her parents may be completely opposed to the idea of her marrying a Christian man.  I personally believe that there are exceptions to the rule.  Just like divorce, it is never God’s perfect design, but there are times where God allows it.  I don’t promote going against a parent’s will in marriage, but there are rare exceptions to the rule.  If a former Muslim, Jehovah’s Witness, Mormon, etc. gets converted and wants to marry a born-again Christian and the parents want them to marry someone who is a part of their cult, should the young woman not marry?  I personally believe that this would be an exception to the general rule.  The young man should make sure that he feels she is God’s will for his life and should make every attempt to have a positive and respectful relationship with her family.  2.)  The individual must be willing to go and the family must be willing to give.  I thought about the application of this principle to missions.  Paul was called by the Holy Spirit to be a missionary.  Paul surrendered to the call and willingly went to the mission field and the church also sent Paul and Barnabas out (Acts 13:1-3).  Paul and Barnabas were willing to go and the church was willing to give them to the Lord.  I’m sure Paul and Barnabas were a great blessing to the church at Antioch, but God had called them to a work.   The church was not selfish, but rather was willing to give their faithful servants to the Lord.  When it comes to missions there must be going and there must be giving.  We give our money to help support the missionaries, we give our time and go help on the mission field, and sometimes we must be willing to give our friends and family over to the Lord to follow the calling God has placed on their life.  If God calls us to the foreign mission field then we must be willing to go.  There must be a willingness to go and a willingness to give.

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