Gen 24:42
“And this day I came to the fountain and said, ‘יהוה, Elohim of my master Aḇraham, please, if You are prospering the way in which I
am going,
Gen
24:43 see, I am standing by the fountain
of water, and when the maiden comes out to draw water, and I say to her,
“Please give me a little water from your jar to drink,”
Gen
24:44 and she says to me, “Drink, and
let me draw for your camels too,” let her be the woman whom יהוה has appointed for my master’s son.’
Gen
24:45 “I had not yet ended speaking in
my heart, then see, Riḇqah
was coming out with her jar on her shoulder. And she went down to the fountain
and drew water. And I said to her, ‘Please let me drink.’
Gen
24:46 “And she hurried and let her jar
down from her shoulder, and said, ‘Drink, and let me water your camels too.’ So
I drank, and she watered the camels too.
Note
the repetition of the word “water” YHVH understood that there was a deep thirst
within the soul of man for life.
Joh 4:13 יהושע answered and
said to her, “Everyone drinking of this water shall thirst again,
Joh 4:14 but
whoever drinks of the water I give him shall certainly never thirst. And the
water that I give him shall become in him a fountain of water springing up into
everlasting life.”
Joh 4:15 The woman
said to Him, “Master, give me this water, so that I do not thirst, nor come
here to draw.”
Joh 7:37 And on the last day, the great day of
the festival, יהושע stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone
thirsts, let him come to Me, and let him who believes in Me drink.
Joh 7:38 “As the
Scripture said, out of His innermost shall flow rivers of living water.”1
Footnote: 1Isa. 44:3, Jer. 2:13, Jer. 17:13, Zech. 14:8, Ps. 36:8,9,
Prov.14:27, John 4:10, John 6:63, 1 Cor. 10:4, Rev. 7:17, Rev. 21:6, Rev. 22:1
& 17.
Joh 7:39 And this
He said concerning the Spirit, which those believing in Him were about to
receive, for the Set-apart Spirit was not yet given,1 because
יהושע was not yet esteemed. Footnote: 1Ezek.
36:26-27, Joel 2:28-32, Acts 1:4-8, Acts 2:4 & 33, Acts 10:44-47, Acts
11:15-16, Eph. 5:18.
Gen
24:47 “And I asked her, and said, ‘Whose
daughter are you?’ And she said, ‘The daughter of Bethu’ĕl, Naḥor’s son, whom Milkah bore to him.’ Then I put the nose
ring on her nose and the bracelets on her wrists.
Gen
24:48 “And I bowed my head and
worshipped יהוה, and blessed יהוה, Elohim of my master Aḇraham, who had led me in the true way to take the
daughter of my master’s brother for his son.
Gen
24:49 “And now, if you are going to show
kindness and truth to my master, let me know, and if not, let me know, so that
I turn to the right or to the left.”
Gen
24:50 And Laḇan answered – Bethu’ĕl too – and said, “The matter comes
from יהוה, we are not able to speak to you either
evil or good.
Gen
24:51 “See, Riḇqah is before you. Take her and go, and let her be your
master’s son’s wife, as יהוה has spoken.”
Gen
24:52 And it came to be, when Aḇraham’s servant heard their words, that he bowed himself
towards the earth before יהוה.
Gen
24:53 And the servant brought out
ornaments of silver, and ornaments of gold, and garments, and gave them to Riḇqah. He also gave costly gifts to her brother and to her
mother.
Gen
24:54 And he and the men who were with
him ate and drank and spent the night. When they arose in the morning he said,
“Let me go to my master.”
This
story about how YHVH led Eliezer to Rivkah is repeated three times in Parashat
Chayei Sarah.
Perhaps
the Torah is teaching us that we all need a clear testimony not only of how we
met the Messiah, but a testimony of how Messiah calls us to be part of his
bride.
In
the book of Revelation it says that we overcome the devil by the word of our
testimony.
Rev 12:11 “And they overcame him because of the Blood
of the Lamb, and because of the Word of their witness, and they did not love
their lives to the death.
Let us imagine
Rivkah’s testimony of how she met her bridegroom.
Maybe
her family thought she was a little strange. There were many lovely young men
in her village of Nachor. Rivkah was not interested because she had this
strange idea that one day she would be taken off into a strange land (which
would later be called Yisrael) to find her true love. She would often be found
daydreaming about these strange ideas.
She
lived in a fairly wealthy family, they had servants, yet for some unexplainable
reason Rivkah would go down to the well
to draw water. She may have enjoyed the company of ordinary everyday people.
I believe each one of
us should have some kind of testimony, some kind of special story to tell about
how our Hebrew Messiah revealed himself to us.
Some believers have a
conviction that YHVH has been calling them to a special relationship since
childhood.
Jer 1:5 “Before I formed you in the belly I knew you,
and before you came out of the womb I did set you apart – I appointed you a
prophet to nations.”
Psa 139:1 O יהוה, You have
searched me And know me.
Psa 139:2 You know
my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thought from afar.
Psa 139:3 You sift
my path and my lying down, And know well all my ways.
Psa 139:4 For
there is not a word on my tongue, But see, O יהוה,
You know it
all!
Psa 139:5 You have
closed me in, behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me –
Psa 139:6
Knowledge too wondrous for me, It is high, I am unable to reach
it.
Psa 139:7 Where
would I go from Your Spirit? Or where would I flee from Your face?
Psa 139:8 If I go
up into the heavens, You are there; If I make my bed in the grave, see, You are
there.
Psa 139:9 I take
the wings of the morning, I dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
Psa 139:10 There,
too, Your hand would lead me, And Your right hand hold me.
Psa 139:11 If I
say, “Darkness shall cover me,” Then night would be light to me;
Psa 139:12 Even
darkness is not dark for You, But night shines as the day – As is darkness, so
is light.
Psa 139:13 For
You, You possessed my kidneys, You have covered me in my mother’s womb.
Psa 139:14 I give
thanks to You, For I am awesomely and wondrously made! Wondrous are Your works,
And my being knows it well.
Psa 139:15 My
bones was not concealed from You, When I was shaped in a hidden place, Knit
together in the depths of the earth.
Psa 139:16 Your
eyes saw my unformed body. And in Your book all of them were written, The days
they were formed, While none was among them.
Psa 139:17 And how
precious are Your thoughts to me, O Ěl! How great has been the sum of them!
YHVH has written a book
about each one of our lives. When we meet the Hebrew Messiah, the story about
how we met him becomes a best seller.
Midrash about personal testimonies.
Gen
24:55 But her brother and her mother
said, “Let the young woman stay with us a few days, at least ten, then you go.”
Gen
24:56 And he said to them, “Do not delay
me, since יהוה has prospered
my way. Let me go so that I go to my master.”
Gen
24:57 And they said, “Let us call the
young woman and ask her.”
Gen
24:58 So they called Riḇqah and said to her, “Are you going with this man?” And
she said, “I shall go.”
We
are reminded that even though we are called to meet our bridegroom, the
scriptures say “many are called but few are chosen” – Matt 22:14 – this warning
is given in the context of being invited to a wedding.
Rev 19:9 And he said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those
who have been called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’ ” And he said to me,
“These are the true words of Elohim.”
We
were chosen and called before the foundation of the world.
Eph 1:4 even as He chose us in Him before the
foundation of the world, that we should be set-apart and blameless before Him
in love,1 Footnote: 12 Thess. 2:13.
Eph 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in
Messiah יהושע unto good
works, which Elohim prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
You can make wrong choices and miss being part of the
marriage of the bride. You may be invited as a guest but not as a bride.
Mat 24:13 “But he who shall have endured to the end
shall be saved.1 Footnote:1See 10:22.
The Greek word for saved is “sozo” and can also mean “preserved
or made whole”
Gen
24:59 So they let go Riḇqah their sister and her nurse, and Aḇraham’s servant and his men.
Gen
24:60 And they blessed Riḇqah and said to her, “Let our sister become the mother of
thousands of ten thousands, and let your seed possess the gates of those who
hate them.”
Gen
24:61 And Riḇqah and her young women arose, and they rode on the
camels and followed the man. So the servant took Riḇqah and left.
Gen
24:62 And Yitsḥaq came from the way of Be’ĕr Laḥai Ro’i, (Well where one has a vision of life -16:14;25:11) for he dwelt in the South.
Gen
24:63 And Yitsḥaq went out to meditate in the field in the evening. And
he lifted his eyes and looked and saw the camels coming.
Gen
24:64 And Riḇqah lifted her eyes, and when she saw Yitsḥaq she dismounted from her camel,
Gen
24:65 and she had said to the servant,
“Who is this man walking in the field to meet us?” And the servant said, “It is
my master.” So she took a veil and covered herself.
Gen
24:66 And the servant told Yitsḥaq all the matters he had done.
Gen
24:67 And Yitsḥaq brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent. And he took
Riḇqah and she became his wife, and he loved her. Thus Yitsḥaq was comforted after his mother’s death.
“To the measure a man contemplates
the deeper issues of life, to this same measure he is enabled to more fully
enjoy the moments of pleasure available in relationships with those he loves.”
Note
Eliezer now calls Yitzchak his master
In the culture of the Yisraelites it was not common for a
woman to go about completely veiled. However it was common for Yisraelite woman
to be veiled on their wedding day. It was the duty and privilege of the husband
not only to remove her veil but to also for the first time to uncover her
nakedness and receive the gift of her virginity which she treasured and kept
for that one special man that YHVH would bring into her life.
“and he loved her” this is only the second time in the
Torah thus far that the word “love” in Hebrew “ahav” appears. The first time
this word appears is in Ber/Gen 22:2 and speaks of Avraham’s love for Yitzchak.
Finally Yitzchak is comforted. It bothers some people
that not more detail is given about a marriage ceremony. We can speculate that
there was but the Torah does not mention it.
So also Messiah is coming for a chaste virgin
without spot or wrinkle. A Bride not defiled with religious mixture. A Bride to
seek to present herself pure and separated from the spirit of the religion of
this world.
Baruch atah
YHVH, Eloheynu, Melech ha-‘Olam, asher natan lanu Toraht-emet, v’chay-yeh o’lam
nata-b’tochenu. Baruch atah YHVH, noteyn ha-Torah. Ameyn.”
(Blessed are
you Yahweh, our Elohim, King of the Universe, you have given us your Torah of
truth, and have planted everlasting life within our midst. Blessed are you,
YHVH giver of the Torah – Ameyn