Genesis Ch.24
Summary:
Abraham
makes a covenant with his servant in regards to finding a wife for Isaac
(Vs.1-9); The servant goes his way and prays for God’s blessing (Vs.10-14); God
orchestrates the meeting of the servant with a young damsel named Rebekah
(Vs.15-27); Abraham’s servant meets Rebekah’s family and tells them the purpose
of his journey (Vs.28-49); The family answers the servant and agrees to give
Rebekah to Isaac in marriage; Rebekah and the servant return to Abraham
(Vs.50-61); Isaac meets Rebekah and they are married (Vs.62-67).
Vs.1- “And Abraham
was old, and well stricken in age:”- Abraham is now 140 years of
age. The Bible bluntly says that he was
old. It is interesting how the Bible
describes old age here; we are told that Abraham was well stricken in age. The word stricken means to be struck,
afflicted, tormented, troubled, or disturbed.
The longer an individual lives on this earth the more they understand the
description. A little girl observed her
grandfather make aching noises to get up and down, she noticed that he was
tired a lot of the time and took pills for many different ailments that he
had. She asked him, “Granddad are you
sick?” He replied, “No, worse; I am old!” Abraham
was 75 years of age when he left Ur of the Chaldees and has been on his
pilgrimage for 65 years now. He was 100
years of age when Isaac was born and Isaac is 40 in this story so Abraham must
be around 140 years of age.
“and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things.”- The word
blessed means to be happy, to benefit or be made prosperous by the Lord. God had blessed Abraham in ALL things. 1.) He
was blessed in spiritual matters. He had
been given the privilege to be the patriarch of God’s nation, the nation of
Israel. He is also the father of all
that believe by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The New Testament tells us that he had the privilege of having the
Gospel preached unto him. All that bless
Abraham and his seed will be blessed and all that curse Abraham and his seed
will be cursed. Through Abraham all
families of the earth would be blessed. 2.) Abraham was blessed with a wonderful
family. He had a magnificent wife that
followed him wherever God led him. He
had his son Isaac who was a child with a miraculous birth. 3.)
Abraham was blessed monetarily. He
was very wealthy and had faithful servants to minister to him. Abraham was so wealthy that the land could
not contain all of his flocks and herds and all of Lot’s. They were forced to separate because of his
wealth. 4.) Abraham was blessed with health and a long
life. Abraham lived to a ripe old age
and we don’t have any account of him getting ill. It is a blessing to have health and long
life. Abraham was blessed in every
aspect of life. This is the testimony
that I hope to have when I am well stricken in age. I want to be able to look back on my life and
see the blessings of God.
Meaning
of Names and Terms:
1.
Stricken-
of strike; struck; smitten; as the stricken deer.
2.
Blessed-
Happy; prosperous in worldly
affairs; enjoying spiritual happiness and the favor of God; enjoying heavenly
felicity.
One
Line Explanation-
Abraham is very old, but very blessed.
Lesson: 1.) Well-Stricken- Stricken
means to be struck, afflicted ,tormented, troubled, or disturbed. Getting old is like getting beat up! The older we get the more our bodies start to
break down. We don’t see as well as we
used to, our hearing is not as good, our minds many times are not as sharp as
they used to be, we can’t run or jump or get around as well as we used to when
we were younger. We bear the marks in
our bodies of the beating we take from age.
The older we get the less hair we have, our teeth begin to fall out, our
skin begins to wrinkle, and our bodies begin to stoop. We all understand that we begin to
deteriorate with age, but this was not the way God originally designed us. Adam and Eve were designed to live forever and
never wear down. The beating of old age
and the deterioration of our bodies is an evidence of the effects of sin. We are born with a sin nature and sin
eventually takes its toll on our bodies like the sun eventually takes its toll
on your roof. The more you sin the
quicker you are stricken in your body.
We have all seen people that have lived wicked lifestyles that look like
they are 85 years old and they are only in their mid-30s.
The good news is that Jesus defeated death and
sin on the cross of Calvary. Unless we
are privileged to be taken in the rapture, we will all have to die. It is a wonderful thing to know that, for the
Christian, death is not the end. We will
trade our age stricken bodies for a glorified body that will never deteriorate
or decay or get tired or sick. In heaven
we will no longer face the beating of Father Time.
2.)
Blessed in all things- Abraham was said to be blessed in all
things. Why was Abraham so blessed? I can think of a few reasons. A.) Because
God chose to bless him. We can never
rule out the sovereignty of God. God can
choose to bless whomsoever He desires to show favor to. B.)
Abraham was blessed because of his obedience. 65 years prior to this verse God had told
Abraham to leave everything he knew and to go to the land of Canaan. Abraham did not argue with God, but followed
God’s direction by faith. Many people do
not experience the blessings of God because they refuse to follow His direction
for their lives. Too many people think
they know better than God when it comes to the direction for their lives. Let us seek to follow the direction of God
for our lives wherever it may lead us.
If we desire to be blessed then we need to simply be obedient to the
prompting of the Holy Spirit. If God
calls you to be a missionary to Istanbul, Turkey then just simply follow His
leading by faith. C.) Abraham followed Biblical principles for
blessing. We understand that Abraham did
not have the scriptures as we do today, but he did follow principles found in
the scriptures. The Bible tells us over
and over again how we can be blessed. If
we desire the blessings of God then all we must do is follow God’s recipe. I would encourage you to look up all of the
scriptures that describe the blessings of God and ask the Lord to help you
apply these principles to you own life. Psalm
0ne is such a passage that describes how to be blessed. Matthew Ch.5 is also a portion of scripture
that describes what God blesses.
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