Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20110501.htm

BIOGRAPHIES OF BIBLE SAINTS
IV. Abraham's Servant: Finding The Right Spouse God's Way
A. Step One: Aligning With God's Will Before Searching For A Spouse
(Genesis 24:1-9)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    In the last two months, I have noticed a need has repeatedly surfaced in our Church body -- the need for Christian young adults or maturing teens to know how to find a qualified marriage partner.

    This is a big concern especially since the "pool" of quality, godly, prospective partners seems lean in today's apostate world, a fact we can easily illustrate:

    (1) James Frey's book, The Final Testament of the Holy Bible that was released to the public on Good Friday and will likely be promoted on the Oprah Winfrey Show next month, ("Testament': Far less than inspirational," by Deirdre Donahue in USA TODAY, April 25, 2011, p. 3D) presents the "Son of God" as "a Manhattan security guard named Ben who denounces faith, religion, the Bible, the afterlife, heaven, sin and pretty much all traditional concepts of God."

    It "tells the faithful that not only is religion false, it also has caused almost all the world's misery, pointing specifically at white American evangelical Christians and the Catholic Church."

    With such an obvious anti-Christian bias being so blatantly and widely broadcast, a Christian young adult can wonder where to find a Biblically qualified, quality Christian partner!

    (2) The April 23-24, 2011 issue of The Wall Street Journal, p. A15 cited Matt Gurney's April 15, 2011 article "Spring spheres" in the National Post that told how a Seattle, Washington school has required Easter eggs to be called "Spring spheres" to keep children from having to "reference the Christian belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ after the crucifixion . . ."

    Gurney lamented "that the symbol being targeted -- Easter eggs -- is itself already absurdly removed from the original meaning of Easter still marked by the devout Christians. There is simply no way that a child, presented with a choclatey oval, would possibly conclude that only those who seek forgiveness for their sins through Christ's love may attain salvation."

    In such a godless world and era, a devout, young believer in Christ may wonder WHERE he or she can find a Biblically qualified spouse!

    Accordingly, we begin a four-part series of messages on how Abraham's servant found a spouse for Isaac in an era when they faced great ungodliness in their world (as follows) . . .

    Need: "How may I START to find the right spouse with my ungodly era's limited pool of Biblically qualified, quality marital partners?!" partners?!"

  1. In Genesis 24:1-67, Abraham's servant found the right spouse for Abraham's son though they lived among the ungodly Canaanites!
  2. Genesis 24:1-9 reveals a key to his success was his ALIGNMENT with GOD'S WILL BEFORE he BEGAN his SEARCH for a wife:
    1. Before searching for Isaac's wife, Abraham's servant acknowledged God's will that Isaac needed a wife, Genesis 24:1-4, 7: the Lord had promised to bless Isaac's seed (Genesis 17:15-19b), so Abraham made his servant acknowledge it was God's will that Isaac marry in order to have children in line with God's covenant! (Gen. 24:1-4, 7) [Today, a lack of the gift of celibacy calls for marriage, 1 Cor. 7:7-9.]
    2. Before searching for Isaac's wife, Abraham's servant acknowledged God's will that Isaac marry a holy woman, Genesis 24:1-4:
      1. Abraham made his servant solemnly swear NOT to take a wife for his son from the Canaanites among whom they lived, Gen. 24:3, 9.
      2. There were several holy reasons for this directive (as follows):
        1. The Genesis 9:25 curse on Canaan's line meant marriage with a Canaanite countered the blessing due his Shemite line, Gn. 9:26.
        2. Also, the Canaanites were very immoral (Gen. 15:16; Gen. 19).
        3. Thus, as in our era where believers are not to marry the unsaved (2 Cor. 6:14) or abusive parties (2 Tim. 3:1-5), holiness in the prospective spouse was a necessary qualification!
    3. Before searching for Isaac's wife, Abraham's servant acknowledged God's will that Isaac marry a compatible woman, Genesis 24:4:
      1. Abraham made his servant solemnly swear to acquire a wife for Isaac from his kinfolk of similar heritage, Genesis 24:4, 9.
      2. This affinity in heritage would maximize the opportunity for Isaac and his wife to be compatible in their married lives.
    4. Before searching for Isaac's wife, Abraham's servant acknowledged God's will that Isaac marry a willing woman, Genesis 24:5:
      1. Abraham's servant knew that for him to ask a young woman to move to another country 500 miles away from her home and to marry a man she had never met risked her declining his marriage proposal, Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Genesis 24:4-9.
      2. Thus, he asked Abraham what he should do if he found a qualified woman who declined his complex marriage proposal, Gen. 24:5a.
      3. Abraham thus made his servant solemnly swear to trust God for that concern: God Who had led him to Canaan and promised his seed that land would supply a willing wife for Isaac, Genesis 24:7.
    5. Before searching for Isaac's wife, Abraham's servant acknowledged God's will to follow God IN making his search effort, Genesis 24:7:
      1. Abraham testified to his servant that God would send His Angel to lead him in finding a wife for Isaac, Genesis 24:7b.
      2. This belief was rooted in God's past leading of Abraham to enter Canaan and His promise to give the land to Abraham's seed, and the servant believed this truth and acted accordingly, Gen. 24:7a, 9.
    6. Before searching for Isaac's wife, Abraham's servant acknowledged God's will to be holy IN making his search effort, Genesis 24:6, 8:
      1. When Abraham's servant asked if he should take Isaac back to Abraham's homeland better to convince the qualified woman to marry him (Gen. 24:5b), Abraham said no, Gen. 24:6. He knew he and Isaac were to stay in Canaan as God directed, Heb. 11:15-16.
      2. Even if the qualified woman did not want to move to Canaan, Abraham made his servant solemnly swear not to take Isaac back to his homeland and thus away from God's will, Genesis 24:8, 9.
    7. Before searching for Isaac's wife, Abraham's servant acknowledged God's will that he initiate making the search effort, Genesis 24:4, 9:
      1. Abraham did NOT wait for God to bring a wife for Isaac from the many people who came along the international trade routes that crossed Canaan, The MacMillan Bible Atlas , 1968, p. 16, map 9.
      2. Rather, he made his servant solemnly swear to take the initiative and TRAVEL 500 miles to the most likely place to find the qualified spouse (Gen. 24:4), and his servant initiated this trip in search of a Biblically qualified, quality wife, Ge nesis 24:9, 10a!
Application: If we wish to find God's qualified spouse, (1) may we trust in Christ as Savior to be a child of God whom God can guide, John 1:11-12; Romans 8:14. (2) Then, may we rely on the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:16-23) to heed the example of Abraham's servant to align with God's will BEFORE searching for our future spouse.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

 In the early 1940s, a young man named Bob who attended the Multnomah School of the Bible in Portland, Oregon, had become convinced that a young woman named Madge he had met at the school was the one the Lord wanted him to marry. He thus decided to propose to her on a certain evening.

However, the effort appeared humanly daunting: (1) early in the day of this planned proposal, Madge told her girlfriend that if Bob ever proposed marriage to her, she would turn him down! (2) Bob did not know about this incident, but he had another concern: he was sure that in his marriage proposal, he would need to tell Madge that he planned to obey God's call for him go to Africa as a missionary, so his proposal meant she also had to agreed to be a missionary to Africa!

Bob didn't how to make such a complex proposal romantic, so, when he was eventually alone with Madge that night, he decided to trust the Lord with the results and be direct with her! He thus asked her, "I was wondering if you would like to go to Africa with me?"

Madge blurted right back, "Why, Bob Shell, the only way I'd ever run off to Africa with you was if you married me!"

Bob looked a bit nervous, but in faith in God's work in Madge, he quietly replied, "Actually, that's what I had in mind!"

Madge later reported that at that instant, regardless what she had told her girlfriend earlier that same day, a great love for this man suddenly flooded over her, and she right there agreed to marry him!

Bob and Madge Shell, my parents, were then married in 1945, and sailed from New York City to Nigeria, West Africa in 1948!

Mom's commentary on this event to this day is very revealing: she claims that because my late father had already been committed to following God in God's call that he be a missionary to Africa, the Lord worked in the circumstances and in her heart to make her WILLING to be his wife and go off to Africa with him once he proposed to her! God helped my Dad make his marriage proposal successful after Dad had decided to obey the Lord in his life, and when he then took the initiative to propose to Mom that he as the man was supposed to do!

May those of us who are in need of God's provision of a spouse then also follow the example of Abraham and his servant in aligning with the will of God BEFORE searching for a spouse, and THEN see GOD work in the details for His glory and our blessing!