Well, hello, everyone, and welcome back. This is our daily devotional for, what day will it be? Wednesday. My goodness, just speeding through the week. Wednesday, January 15th, 2025. And I'm so happy that I have this opportunity to be with you whenever it is you happen to find this. Maybe it's Wednesday, maybe it's not. Doesn't really matter. I know that the Lord is behind it whenever you do happen to find it. But if you do find it Wednesday, we would absolutely love to have you tonight at Old Providence, 645 to 730. and we do our best to get it done by 730. It's very informal, but also pretty in-depth Bible study as we are making our way through none other, not the book of Genesis, the book of Hebrews. Y'all, I've been going back and forth between Genesis and Hebrews quite a bit lately. Hebrews is fascinating. It's different than any other book in the Bible. It's not an epistle, right, where it's Paul. You hear about these knuckleheads in Corinth. I gotta do something about it, right? It's not that. There are some knuckleheads, but really the book of Hebrews is more like a sermon treatise. We don't even know who wrote it. I have my suspicions, but nevertheless. Wonderful, wonderful book that contains so many powerful things about who God is, who we are, points us to the Old Testament, gives us a fuller and richer understanding of what's going on in the Old Testament, all the things that God instituted to point forward to Christ. If you're available, we would absolutely love to have you, 645. And again, it's informal, it's interactive. I ask questions, let you give feedback. Every night that we have it, I think I end with any questions, comments, or snide remarks. So, if you got some snide remarks. Yeah, feel free. Load up, right? We're ready. Anyway, so that's tonight at the church, but I'm excited to be back with you as we're making our way through Genesis chapter 24. Now yesterday, we just dipped our toe into the water, okay, in terms of Eleazar's quest. He's just called Abraham's servant. We think it's Eleazar of Damascus referenced back in Genesis chapter 15. Nevertheless, nevertheless, the first day that we were in Genesis chapter 24, the day before yesterday, what we found was this wonderful example of trusting in God. And what we found yesterday, another wonderful example of trusting in God, but on top of it, We learned a lesson about prayer, and that's really what we focused on yesterday, was Eliezer's prayer, and how, y'all, it's okay to pray for specifics. Now, I gotta just tell you something, okay? And I try not to get too ultra-personal. I'm not gonna get into what it was, but yesterday, I was going through some things, right, and I prayed. I had to go to town, had to meet somebody, meet a visitor, but anyway. On the way there, I was really struggling through some things, and I prayed, and it occurred to me, right? It occurred to me, hey, dummy, why don't you do what you told them to do, okay? And what I mean by that is, it came to mind like, oh, wait a second, didn't you do a daily devotional today where you tell people to pray for specifics? Because if you don't, sometimes it betrays your fear, sometimes it betrays a lack of faith on your part, and you need to trust the Lord. And so I prayed for specifics. I mean, really specific stuff. And I'm telling you guys, and I'm not surprised by this because that's how wonderful our God is, in less than an hour, in fact, I think it was about 30 minutes after I closed that prayer, I got to where I was going, the Lord answered my prayers. Not exactly in the way that I thought he would, per se, but very clearly the Lord is working in those situations. So, you know, just personal testimony time here. Pray for specifics. That's what Eliezer did. You remember what he prayed? He prayed that the Lord would reveal this woman that Isaac, Abraham's son, was to marry, okay? Specifically, he said, may it be, and this is Eliezer praying to God, okay? May it be, this is Genesis 24, verse 14. May it be when I say to a girl, Please let down your jar that I might have a drink." And she says, drink, and I'll water your camels too. Let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master. By the way, it will be a sign that God has shown kindness to Eliezer. He's the one that made the oath, you recall. You want to talk about specifics, that's very specific. And no, this is not him putting out a fleece, this is not him testing the Lord, any of those sorts of things. It's simply Eliezer trusting. And y'all, you can do that with the Lord. You can pray for specifics. Will you always get what you ask for? No, and praise God you won't. Praise God I won't because he knows better than we know what we need, okay? But the Lord hears and the Lord loves you. We spent so much time on that yesterday. He's not just the creator of the universe. He's your father and he's your loving father who loves to give you good gifts. So trust him. Eliezer did, and we're about to see what happens. Let's pray, and then we'll dig in. Father, be with us now. Let us see your goodness and your faithfulness on display in this time from so long ago. Father, let us see your goodness on display in our lives on a daily basis. Let us, like Eliezer, pray for specifics, not because we're picky, but because we love you, and we trust you, and we know that you love us. and please hear our prayers. Please hear my prayer. Father, be with us by your Holy Spirit right now. Guide us, let us see what you would have us do. And we pray it all in Christ's name, amen. All right, so we just heard the prayer specifics, and y'all, God is so good. He is so good. Picking up in Genesis 24, verse 13, excuse me, verse 15, it says, before he had finished break, Rebecca came out with her jar on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel, son of Milca, who was the wife of Abraham's brother Nahor. Now, if your brain is doing that meme where it's the woman looking at the mathematical figures trying to figure out how the equation works, this is Isaac's first cousin once removed. Okay. Um, that, and I know that that's a Southern thing. You may be hearing this and you're like, what the heck is a first cousin wants removed? Um, don't worry about it. Okay. She's related to him, but she's separate enough. All right. Just, just keep that in mind. Not a sister, not. Remember, don't judge people from history by today's standards, okay? And realize you got this whole other thing going where Abraham is trying to prevent Isaac from marrying a wicked Canaanite woman, preserve the line, all of those different things, so keep that in mind. The point is, before he was even done praying, the Lord answered his prayer. Now, I got a comment on this too. There are times when that can happen, you know? Yesterday, very, very close. In fact, it's arguable that I didn't even finish praying what I was praying because I arrived at my destination, and then it wasn't even 30 minutes, y'all. It was really probably 10 minutes later. So it's arguable that it happened to me yesterday. But the reality is this. When you choose to trust, your prayer is always answered, especially if you're choosing to trust instead of fear. Y'all, there are times when prayer is its own answer. What I mean by that is, if you're busy trusting in the Lord, if you're busy turning to the Lord, if you're busy praising the Lord, you ain't got time to worry about that thing that you're worrying about. Sometimes prayer is its own answer, but the Lord really does answer prayer. And if you've been around a while, and if you've trusted Him for a while, you know it's true. You know it's true. All right, so she shows up. What do we know about her? Verse 16, the girl was very beautiful. Interestingly enough, the Hebrew there is similar to what was used to describe Sarai. The term exceedingly beautiful was used to describe Isaac's mother, Sarai. We know that Rebecca here is very beautiful. We find out also that she's a virgin. No man had lain with her. She went down to the spring, filled her jar, and came up again. Now, remember, I referenced this yesterday, okay? Why does he go here this time of the day? This was part of what a woman's duties were at that time, especially daughters in the household. This is just something that they did. And no, this isn't about woman's work and barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. That's not what this is. It's just how society worked out its norms. And we have that too. Newsflash, every society has had that since the history of history. Go back as far as you want to go. There are things that men do, there are things that women do. It doesn't matter if you and I like it, okay? That's just the way it is. You gotta run the railroad somehow, okay? And this isn't, Eleazar isn't a chauvinist, none of this stuff is good. That is just how society is. Okay, so she went down, filled her jar, came up again. Verse 17, the servant hurried to meet her and said, please give me a little water from your jar. Excuse me. Drink, my lord, she said, quickly, lowering her jar to her hands and gave him a drink. After she had given him a drink, she said, I'll draw water for your camels too until they have finished drinking. Y'all. You know, again, I don't, I'm glad that we don't have a picture Bible, but there are times where it's like, I wonder, is this where goosebumps come up on Eliezer Wright, where he's just finished, he has just finished praying, or hadn't even really finished praying. It got really specific. And what happens? She gives him a drink and she says, you know what? I'm gonna water your camels too. If you're wondering, excuse me, joking on something here, if you're wondering what gives with this, of all the signs, you know, why couldn't he ask for this or for that or the other? Well, you got a couple of things going on here, okay? Obviously, Eliezer is concerned, first and foremost, it's got to be somebody from Abraham's line. Remember the oath that he took. It's got to be somebody from Abraham's people where Abraham came from. Check and check. Now, he doesn't know exactly the family relations yet. He's going to find out. But she's in that area. Y'all, this is not modern day. If you lived in an area that meant you were from a certain line. Well, except for Abraham, but outside of Abraham, he was the odd duck in all of this. But if you're wondering about the camel thing and why that would be his litmus test, as it were, you know, here's the thing. There are certain portions of scripture that we read that we might find it difficult to relate to. It's just like electricity. You know, you don't think about electricity until you flip the switch and nothing happens. Just the same with water. You don't think about running water until you turn the tap and nothing comes out. Okay. And realize what's going on here. When we hear about wells, I don't know what comes to your mind. Is it the traditional wishing well kind of thing? You know, the bucket on the rope, that kind of thing? Because that is not what was going on in this corner of Mesopotamia. Remember, that's where he's gone back to, not too far from Egypt. The Northwest Mesopotamia is where Eliezer is at this point. And so when this woman offers to not only give him a drink after she's gone down, the Hebrew here is important there because he says let down, really it's go down. And the reason it's go down is because of how the wells worked at this time. They were referred to as wells. They were also referred to as pools, okay? They were springs in a very desert-like region. If you're wondering what I'm talking about, This is one right here. Okay, I printed this out. You see the staircase right there? Sorry, it's in reverse. The staircase right there, and then the little individual right there, right? They would have gone down with their jar into the pool of water, and then they would have gone back up the flight of stairs. That's one. We don't know what this well or what this pool looks like, but here are some examples of ones that are that old, okay, that come from that period of time. Look at all of those stairs going down, down, down deep. Now, why does this matter? Rewind. Remember what Eliezer has done. You gotta go all the way back to verse 10. Then the servant took 10 of his master's camels. 10 camels. You might say, okay, great, what's the big deal about that? He's traveled all the way back to the land of Abraham, the land of Abraham's people, I should say. You know how much a thirsty camel can drink in one sitting? Each camel can drink up to 32 gallons of water. 32 gallons. Well, let's see, I'm no mathematician, but if they're drinking until they're not thirsty anymore, 32 times 10, carry to zero, pi r squared, my slide rule, 320 gallons of water. And if she's going downstairs like that, or even easy ones like that, okay, I should say like that, this is a lot of work, y'all. Think about what that might point to about the character of this woman. The character of this young woman who doesn't even know who this man is. Now, let's be fair. She would have known that he was either a man of means or represented a man of means. Remember what I said, the sign of wealth at this time in world history in this area of the world was how many camels a man had. and this joker shows up with tennum. So she knows that he's important, or that he's the servant of someone who is very, very important. But, without even pausing, she says, oh yes, certainly, have a drink, and let me water your camels too. Okay? Y'all, what a vast amount of work this is. You wanna know why Eleazar had this as his sign? Because he was gonna find out about this woman. And y'all, there's lots of ways to get into this, lots of ways to talk about this, and no, this is not a takeoff on women or anything like that, but if you read Proverbs 31, okay, that talks about what a good wife is, one of the things that a good wife is, is that a good wife is a hard worker and is industrious. One that doesn't shy away from responsibility, that cares for others, that kind of thing. And Rebecca is showing, even though Proverbs 31 hasn't been written yet, she's showing herself to be a woman of noble character. And it doesn't hurt that she's easy on the eyes, y'all. I mean, let's just be real about it, okay? And so all of these things come into play immediately, all at once, before Eleazar's even done praying. Again, the real point of this is God's faithfulness, okay? God is so faithful. Now, Continuing on, verse 22. When the camels had finished drinking, the man took out a gold nose ring, weighing a becca and two gold bracelets weighing 10 shekels. Okay, the first one, about one fifth of an ounce. You might say, well, that's not that much. You wanna put something heavier than that in your nose? And no, y'all, this is not, this wouldn't have been the thing that you see out there now, you know, the bowl thing, the bowl ring. No, this was part of beauty at that time, okay? But then the others, I mean, this is four ounces, so it's a quarter of a pound of gold. I don't know what gold is trading at today, but this is no paltry gift, okay, that Eliezer the servant furnishes here. Okay, this is a real sign of wealth. Verse 23, then he asked, whose daughter are you? Please tell me, is there a room in your father's house for us to spend the night? The us there, this is not the royal we. He would have had other servants with him. It would have been a contingency, okay, or an entourage that he had. Verse 24, she answered him, I am the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Milcah, born to Nahor. And she added, we have plenty of straw and fodder as well as room for you to spend the night. Then the man bowed down and worshipped the Lord." And y'all, this is just as important. This is just as important as the fact that God answers prayer. What you have is God answering Eliezer's prayer before he's even done praying. But before things even progress, you have Eleazar stop and worship the Lord, and convicting, I haven't done so as I should have after the Lord answered my prayer yesterday. I did thank the Lord, and I thanked him heartily, and he knows that I did. I said, thank you, God, and praise God that he sees the contents of our hearts, and he knows our attitudes, and he reads those things, and it doesn't have to be a show. But the point is, is that Eleazar shows gratitude, He's not like one of those who Jesus healed that never even came back, okay? Eliezer recognizes that this isn't coincidence, that it isn't just things, oh boy, I was lucky. No, Eliezer knows that this is the Lord at work. Verse 26, then the man bowed down and worshiped the Lord saying, praise be to the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not abandoned his kindness and faithfulness to my master. As for me, Jehovah has led me on the journey to the house of my master's relatives. Now, We're 18 minutes in. And so with this, I'm going to end and then we'll finish up the saga tomorrow. But I asked you yesterday, do you trust the Lord enough to pray for specifics? That was yesterday. Today, I've got to ask you, do you love the Lord enough? Do you trust the Lord enough? Do you take the time to recognize God's faithfulness to you? Do you take the time to praise Him? Do you take the time to worship Him? It's my prayer that you do. But the wonderful thing about God is this, every day is an opportunity to do these things. And if you're here today or at night or whatever time this is, and who knows what even date this is, that you happen to find this, it's the internet and it doesn't vanish. Well, theoretically, it doesn't at least. You can start at any time. I want to encourage you to do something. After this devotional, it doesn't have to be a long time. It doesn't have to be flourish. It doesn't have to be a big show. Take the time to stop and praise God for his faithfulness. Maybe it is for an answered prayer. Maybe it's for a prayer that he hasn't answered yet, but praise him because you know that he hears you and you know that he loves you. or praise him for the fact, I mean, my goodness, think about it. I mean, you've seen this. And no, I'm not saying that I'm some profound gift. Instead, you've heard the word of God today. You have, theoretically, you have electricity. If you have a tap that you can go to and turn and then drink the water that comes out of you, that puts you on a level of wealth that eclipses the rest of the world. We could go on and on about the ways that the Lord is faithful. If you don't take the time to stop and praise him, take the time today. Just pick a few things. Worship him, but also don't forget this about worship. And I know I harp on this all the time. Well, the answer shows us something about how you can worship God anywhere. But y'all, there is a calling as well to worship God with his people. To come together, not just as individuals, but as the people of God, to attribute to him his worth. to praise Him. It's Wednesday, you can come tonight and worship with us by going to God's Word, by studying God's Word this coming Sunday. You don't have to be here, and you don't have to come here tonight, but you need to be somewhere, especially on the Lord's Day. On Wednesday, as good as it is, you can make arguments about it being optional, I get that, but what is not optional is the Lord's Day. It's the Lord's Day for a reason, and He calls you to worship Him. you've got a good reason to, you've got countless good reasons to, so do I. So take the time to stop and worship him just like Eliezer did. Let's pray. Oh Lord, would you forgive us? Forgive us for the times that we overlook your blessings when we, because of our hurt, because of our pain, because of our lack of vision and foresight and wisdom, we just miss you. A lot of times it's out of selfishness, but help us to stop and pray and worship, thanking you for how you have answered prayer. Right here, right now, I praise you for how you answered my prayer yesterday, specifically. You are so good to me. You are so good to us. We don't deserve it, but you're so good to us. Help us to love you. And we pray it all in Jesus' name, amen. Well, I'd like to thank you all for being a part of this time. Lord willing, we'll be back together again tomorrow. 6 a.m. will be available. It's available all day, but hopefully we will see you soon. Take care.