My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, God told Abraham to go to Mount Moriah, told him to offer Isaac as an offering and tested him. We see that after he tested him, he blessed him. After that Abraham who was victorious in the test received the promised generation from God. Then his wife Sarah died. He buries her in a cave of a field which he bought as his own called Machpelah. This Machpelah cave is in the land of Canaan in the city of Ephron before Mamre.

After that Abraham was old, well advanced in age; and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things.

So, Abraham said to his servant who ruled over all that he had

Genesis 24: 3 – “Please, put your hand under my thigh, and I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell;

Genesis 24: 4 -but you shall go to my country and to my family and take a wife for my son Isaac.”

And the servant said to him, “Perhaps the woman will not be willing to follow me to this land. Must I take your son back to the land from which you came?”

But Abraham said to him, “Beware that you do not take my son back there.

Genesis 24: 7 - The Lord God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my family, and who spoke to me and swore to me, saying, ‘To your descendants I give this land,’ He will send His angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there.

So, the servant swore to do according to what Abraham told him.

From this what we understand is that, God is removing us from the deeds of the Chaldeans like our hereditary life, hereditary traditions, hereditary thoughts, hereditary customs and is submitting us to Christ. After that our mind should not in any way go to the old deeds, old places of worship, old culture, old luxurious life. Our relation should be a new relation with Christ. For this, we have to put away the old and put on the new. So God is showing us this as a pattern through Abraham so that we should live in a relationship with Christ through the bride the Holy Spirit.

That is why, in Genesis 24: 8 - And if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be released from this oath;

This shows that somehow, we must find the bride and if we do not find the bride we will be released from our oath with God. Also our soul should not go to any other place and that our soul is saved by God through Christ, and our soul which is saved should not be caught in worldly pleasures and we must take an effort to receive the bride – The Holy Spirit. That is why Abraham says - only do not take my son back there.

The reason Abraham said not to take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites because we see that he says I am a foreigner and a visitor among you.

God said that all our fellowship should not be mixed with the Gentiles. The tribes lived in the land of Canaan, it was a land of the tribes and in order to possess that land we must chase the tribes there through faith so that all the tribes should be removed from the land so that God can give the land of Canaan as a possession to Israel as their own. This happens when we accept our Lord Jesus Christ as our personal savior, the tribes (and their deeds) in our soul should be removed. Whom should our fellowship be with – 1 John 1: 3

that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.   

1 John 1:4   And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.

If we have fellowship with other strange churches, when we say strange churches – any church that does not follow God’s true teachings but follows worldly walks. If we have fellowship with such churches, we will not receive the Holy Spirit. We must know that we will be directed by the spirit of the world which is the evil spirit. That is why God is calling Sarah as Jerusalem, a free woman and Abraham as Master. For us to give our soul completely as an offering he tells him to give Isaac as an offering and while he offered him God showed him a ram. For God’s righteousness to be fulfilled within us Christ was sacrificed as a propitiation for our sins and Christ’s life has been showered upon us by his grace. When we accept God’s words daily and walk according to it God fills us with his grace. It can lead us to perfection.

Abraham’s servant prayed to God to receive that blessing and stood by a well of water.

Genesis 24: 13 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.”

When he was praying to God like this, that Rebekah, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, came out with her pitcher on her shoulder.                                                                  

Let us pray. May the Lord bless you all.

-        To be continued