Genesis 29:18-2818And Jacob loved Rachel; and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter. 19And Laban said, It is better that I give her to thee, than that I should give her to another man: abide with me. 20And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her. 21And Jacob said unto Laban, Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in unto her. 22And Laban gathered together all the men of the place, and made a feast. 23And it came to pass in the evening, that he took Leah his daughter, and brought her to him; and he went in unto her. 24And Laban gave unto his daughter Leah Zilpah his maid for an handmaid. 25And it came to pass, that in the morning, behold, it was Leah: and he said to Laban, What is this thou hast done unto me? did not I serve with thee for Rachel? wherefore then hast thou beguiled me? 26And Laban said, It must not be so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn. 27Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years. 28And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also. (Genesis 29:18‑28). Genesis 24:2-6, 58, 61-672And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had, Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh: 3And I will make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell: 4But thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac. 5And the servant said unto him, Peradventure the woman will not be willing to follow me unto this land: must I needs bring thy son again unto the land from whence thou camest? 6And Abraham said unto him, Beware thou that thou bring not my son thither again. (Genesis 24:2‑6)
58And they called Rebekah, and said unto her, Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go. (Genesis 24:58)
61And Rebekah arose, and her damsels, and they rode upon the camels, and followed the man: and the servant took Rebekah, and went his way. 62And Isaac came from the way of the well Lahai-roi; for he dwelt in the south country. 63And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide: and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, the camels were coming. 64And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off the camel. 65For she had said unto the servant, What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And the servant had said, It is my master: therefore she took a vail, and covered herself. 66And the servant told Isaac all things that he had done. 67And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death. (Genesis 24:61‑67).
(From Notes of Addresses).
IF in Genesis 2 we have Eve as a type of the church, the bride of Adam, by God’s gift, we find in Rachel, the bride of Jacob, one who typifies the Church as the object of the Bridegroom’s love, and in Rebecca, the type of the church as the object of the Spirit’s interest, led by the servant across the desert to the bridegroom.
We have considered Genesis 2. Let us now turn to the subject of Jacob and Rachel.
Very little is said of this case, but the love that Jacob bore to Rachel is the outstanding feature. It brings before us the Church in the character of a Bride but this time in relation to the love of the Bridegroom rather than the gift of God. Eve was God’s gift to Adam, it is quite true. The Church is God’s gift to Christ. For the moment, He has not got the Kingdom, but He has had given to Him a bride—the Church—and over and over again in John 17, He speaks about us having been given by the Father to Him.
But there is also this side of the story, that the bride is the object of the love of the Bridegroom, just as Rachel was the object of Jacob’s love. It says, “Jacob loved Rachel.” He had served a double period for her. He had to render a double service for her, and when speaking of those seven years of service, it says, “They seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her.” There is an old saying that “love lightens labor,” and there is truth in it. There was a love that lightened the burden of Christ. “For the joy that was set before Him, He endured the Cross, despising the shame.” It is true that our Jacob is serving a double period of service for us. He has served one period of service and. He is now serving the second period before He gets His bride.
He served us well upon yonder Cross under the weight of judgment. “He loved the Church and gave Himself for it.” They said to Him, “Come down from the Cross and save Thyself and us.” But He came down from the throne of glory to the Cross that He might save. Come down from the Cross and save, He could not. “Himself He cannot save,” they said, and they never said a truer word. Let us take those words as they come hissing from their Pharisaical lips and weave them into a crown for His glory:
“Love’s stream too deeply flowed,
In love Himself He gave
To pay the debt we owe:
Obedience to the Father’s will
And love to Him did all fulfill.”
We have the explanation of His doing His first bit of work. It was no rude Roman nails that kept the Saviour upon the Cross. It was not their fastening that kept Him there. It was love that kept Him, there. “He loved us and gave Himself for us.”
We may turn to Exodus 21, where we have another figure of the same love. It is the Hebrew servant, and the law with regard to him, which is, that he has to serve six years and when those six years are over, he can leave. But, as the law ran, he had to go out as he came in. “If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself; if he were married then his wife shall go out with him.” It all depended on how he came in. “If his master shall have given him a wife, and she shall have borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself.” Here, we have the parallel to Genesis, the one who has been given him by his master. What happened when the six years of service was over? The wife and children became the master’s. What about himself? He must go out as he came in—alone. Go out without them? Leave the objects of his love and go without them? Yes. What a test!
But another clause is put in, a saving clause. What is that? “If the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife and my children, I will not go out free.” Then there is only one thing for him. “His master shall bring him into the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him forever.” He can then have the objects of his love forever. That is just Luke 9 over again. The Lord had come to the end of His life of service, just before the Transfiguration. His years of service were practically over, and Moses and Elias came down to the mountain and talked with Him about His decease. If you have a Greek Testament, you will find that that word translated here “decease” is really the same word as that for the second Book of the Bible—Exodus. They spake concerning His exodus. Moses and Elias were talking to Him about His going out. How did He come in? He came in alone, and He will have to go out alone, unless He is prepared to go to the place of piercing; and, Hallelujah to His blessed name, He went to the place of piercing, and every step of that journey from the glory Mount to the Mount of sorrow and death and judgment, was musical with this, “I love you, I love you, I will not go out without you. In order to have you Mine forever, I will die for you.” That is the Saviour we know and love. Oh, what love! There is no love like the love of Jesus.
He is serving us in the glory now. The yesterday of His love was “He loved the Church and gave Himself for it.” The today of His love is “that He might cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church.” The presentation of it is the tomorrow of His love. He is performing His second period of service now, that beloved Lord of ours. The Bridegroom is up there in the double character of an Intercessor and Priest, to sustain us in our weakness, and to undertake our case when we have sinned. He is an Advocate with the Father, and a Priest with God, to represent us there in the presence of God. Oh, what bitter tears we have had to shed. I have had to shed bitter tears many a dine because I have not taken advantage of His service as Priest, to support me, and have fallen on the road, and I have had to weep over the fact that I had to take advantage of His intercessory service as Advocate with the Father. And this is what He is doing, that He might cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and when that period of service is up, Christ will get His bride, His Rachel, the object of His affections.
We come now to the instance of Isaac and Rebekah. There is another person prominent in this case. The servant is called by Abraham and sent on a mission to seek a bride for his son, and his service seems to be the predominating feature. He says, “Where am I to look for her?” The answer was, “You must look for her amongst our own kindred. Don’t choose a bride out of the nations, it must be one of our own kindred, one of our relatives.” Don’t you see, there must be no disparity. The Sanctifier and the sanctified are all of one, for which cause He is not ashamed to call us brethren. Everything about us, that would have made Him ashamed to own us, He has obliterated by His death, in order that He might have us on new ground, in a new association and relationship, in a way in which He will not be ashamed to call us His brethren.
Well, the servant starts upon his mission. He is a fitting figure of the Holy. Ghost in His mission on earth today, seeking out in His blessed activities a bride for the true Isaac. Isaac was one who had been received from the dead. When you find the Holy Ghost recording the action of Abraham in offering up Isaac, He practically puts it down that Abraham did offer him and that he received him from the dead in figure, and that Abraham is positively put beside God in that respect. He is allowed to feel something of what God felt when He gave His Son. It says, “He did not withhold his only begotten son.” What about Ishmael? He was of the flesh, and God did not reckon him. God looked upon Isaac, the child of promise, as the only begotten son, and He said that Abraham had practically offered his son, and had practically received him again from the dead. He is a type of the true Isaac, a representative of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The servant sent by Abraham is a figure of the Holy Ghost, the One sent by God to seek a bride for His exalted Son. The story is so sweet and blessed. The servant finds the bride and sets her up first of all with jewels of silver (silver is the redemption money) and jewels of gold (gold sets before us the righteousness of God); then he brings out the raiment, which represents the new character. So she is set up in redemption and righteousness, and in a new character. You and I, who form part of the bride of Christ, have been established on the ground of redemption and on the ground of righteousness, and we are now to appear in the character of Christ Himself. The features of Christ are to be seen in us.
Then Rebekah’s relatives make a challenge: “Wilt thou go with this man?” The challenge to us is, “Will you go with the Holy Ghost?” What is the Holy Ghost doing? Conducting the bride to Christ. What else? Attracting the affections of our hearts, which should be bridal affections, to Christ where He now is. It is the Holy Ghost’s mission to carry us right across the wilderness to meet Christ, because we find that Isaac comes out to, meet his bride. He meets them in the field.
There is another striking thing in connection with this, you never hear of one word that the servant speaks except about Isaac after he takes charge of Rebekah to bring her to Isaac. The Holy Ghost’s mission is not only to bring us to Christ, but on the way to meet Him the Spirit of God would engage our hearts and affections with the Lord Himself. Later on, we find Isaac and Rebekah meeting and greeting each other, and the chapter winds up by saying, “He brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent,... and Isaac was comforted.” Here is a bride that is going to be a comfort to a bereaved heart.
Sarah represents Israel. She is spoken of as the mother of Israel. Just as a mother represents her family, Sarah represents Israel; and Sarah is dead. What does that mean? Isaac has lost his mother. So Christ has lost Israel for the time being. What has He got in place of the Kingdom and people? He has had a new company given to Him, the Church which is to be His bride, and which in the meantime, since He has lost Israel, is to be a source of comfort to His heart. What a privilege is ours today in the hour of Christ’s rejection, when He has been deprived of His earthly rights, to administer a little comfort to His blessed heart.
Then when we turn to the end of the Bible we find the bride again. The bride, it says, is the Lamb’s wife, and when it speaks of marriage, it does not say, “the marriage of the bride,” but “the marriage of the Lamb.” He is everything. The bride is looked at in association with Him. The Church as the bride of Christ will share His joy and His glory when she comes out in her bridal attire, arrayed as a bride adorned for her husband. It is not the dress that suits her eyes, it is not the adornment that would please her tastes. No. Everything is to answer to the tastes and pleasure of her husband. He is everything, and the bride is everything to Him.
What a unique place the Church fills in the thoughts of God, does it not? Here we are, a poor, insignificant set of people, having often to bemoan our crookedness and waywardness, and yet to think that we are to be linked up with Christ, as that which is destined to be His bride, to sit with Him on His throne and share with Him. All His interests are ours, and ours His, both merged into one. So God puts one name on them, which covers them both. He puts the name of Christ now upon us, so that we are the bearers of His name.
So it is going to be with Israel, when she comes forth again, and Jehovah gets His earthly bride. His name is Jehovah-Tsidkenu, and this is the name by which she shall be called. He is going to put His name upon her in that day of glory, as He has put His name upon us in this His day of rejection. There is union, and with union comes the thought of affection. Union of purpose, union of affection, we are united to Him. What a privileged people! Oh, what a fall the Church has suffered when we think of her high and holy destiny. What a frightful fall she has suffered, that we should find her hand and glove with the world, that has stained its hand with the blood of Him whose bride the Church is.
May the Lord give us more vitality and affection of heart for Himself, that we may look upon ourselves here, insignificant as we may be, as God’s gift to His Son, that we may look upon ourselves as the object of the Holy Spirit’s interests and activity as He conducts us through this weary waste until He sets us down in the presence of the true Isaac, and we go to be His joy and glory forever. May the Lord be praised for such a privilege. Amen!
Art. Cutting.