(Gen. 24.)
NOW Abraham had not forgotten that God had said, “I know him that he will command his children after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord,” and He therefore instructs Eliezer to fetch a wife for Isaac from his own kindred. It would be hardly possible for anyone who began to read this beautiful chapter to put it down unfinished, for, to speak of nothing else, the manner in which God prospers the way of Abraham’s servant and answers his prayer, is remarkable. But, without entering into details, there is something far beyond the surface here. It happened as “a type for us.” The Father has sent down the Holy Ghost into this world to call and lead through it a bride for His Son, as Abraham sent Eliezer to find and bring through the desert a wife for Isaac. Of the Holy Ghost it is said, “He shall testify of Me,” and Eliezer delights to speak of the riches and glory belonging to Abraham and Isaac, adding, “to him (Isaac) hath he given all that he hath.” God has committed everything to Christ, “the Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hand.” The only begotten Son of the Father, who went through death for us, who rose from the grave, and who is now in Heaven, will not be there alone. He died that He might “bring forth much fruit” and have “many sons” in glory with Him: so the Holy Ghost is convincing people of sin, and gathering out sinners to form the Church of God down here, that shall in glory be “the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” When Bethuel and Laban said to Rebekah, “Wilt thou go with this man?” how ready is her reply, “I will go.” Do any of my readers thus make choice of Christ? You have not seen Him, neither had Rebekah seen Isaac, but you may say by faith, “whom having not seen you love,” for you have heard of His love and glory, and how He died to win your hearts, and “these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God: and that believing, ye might have life through His name.” The word of God is the testimony to you, for “the Holy Scriptures are able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith, that is in Christ Jesus.” “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
By-and-by, when we are in the place prepared for us in the Father’s house, we shall look back and see how the Holy Ghost has ministered to us all through the wilderness from the very moment when our hearts have said, “I will go,” and we shall wonder at the love and mercy that chose us and bore with us. It is “God who is rich in mercy.”
In this remarkable history concerning Abraham, the friend of God, we have the pattern of one who walked before God as a stranger and a pilgrim, in a land where God was unknown; may those of us who know the Lord learn to do the same, remembering too that we have a further example in Christ, that we may follow His steps.