Pictures of Jesus in Genesis Page 11

This is my kitchen window sill. I used this photo today because the stained glass dove is symbolic of the picture of Jesus in Genesis we will look at this week. I made the stained glass over 30 years ago. I never dreamed it would be featured on my blog…:) I love it. I love the color blue and the dove has great meaning to me personally. It’s a daily reminder that He is in control of my life. And to let Him!  I can’t believe next week we will end our study of Pictures of Jesus in Genesis! Maybe I can find a few more…well, I know I can…at least two more…

Today’s lesson concerns Isaac and his search for a wife. We talked about the first wedding early in this series of lessons on Pictures of Jesus in Genesis.  Today we will be talking about another wedding.

Last week, we left Isaac on the mountain top. He had miraculously been saved by the substitution of the ram. Symbolically he had been somehow ‘resurrected’ from a sure death. Notice this very important and significant fact…Isaac is not mentioned again after this event until after his mother dies and the servant returns with Rebecca.

This week, we begin with Abraham sending his servant on a journey to find a bride for his son, Isaac. You will remember from last week, Isaac is a picture of Jesus. At this time, Abraham is living in the midst of the Canaanites. He sends his servant to his own people to find a suitable bride, from among his clan. The servant leaves on a journey and finally comes to the village of Abraham’s relatives. He prays for the Lord to show him the right girl to take back as a bride for Isaac.

Rebecca comes to the well, the servant asks for water and she obliges and then offers to water his camel, too. This is the exact sign the servant was asking for. Now he knows this indeed is the bride chosen for Isaac. The servant blesses her with rings and bracelets and all sorts of evidences that Isaac is indeed worthy of her heart.

Rebecca is asked by her brothers if she will go and become Isaac’s bride and she says “yes.” She agrees to follow the servant to Canaan.

When Jesus left after his resurrection, he promised to send the Holy Spirit.  For the past 2000 years men and women have been asked and pursued by the Holy Spirit to become the bride of Christ. The servant in this story is a picture of the Holy Spirit. He is sent to find s suitable bride for Isaac.  Rebecca is asked to believe a man she had never met. We are asked to “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” whom we have never ‘met’.

She was asked to follow the leading of this man to places she had never been. The Holy Spirit leads us in paths of righteousness.  He leads us through all sorts of trials and tribulations.  We are to simply trust his leading in our lives.  The servant presented Rebecca with gifts from Isaac, token of his pledge. The Holy Spirit bestows spiritual gifts on us, proof of the riches that await us at our journey’s end.

And all along the way the Holy Spirit teaches us and shows us what Jesus is like so that we will know him when he returns. We can imagine the servant told Rebeccca all about Isaac on their journey home, just as the Holy Spirit reveals truths about Jesus to us. As the two approached the end of their journey, Rebecca spied a figure in the distance coming toward them and “asked who is coming to meet us?”  When the servant said it was ‘his master’, Rebecca jumped from the camel and ran to greet him. And Isaac ran to greet her and it says “She became his wife and He LOVED her.” Genesis 24:67  How beautiful.

What a beautiful picture God has placed in our album for us today. Isaac is symbolic of Jesus. Rebecca is symbolic of the church. The servant is symbolic of the Holy Spirit.

The servant’s name was Eliezer which means…”God is help.” or “Help of my God.” In the New Testament,  the Holy Spirit, means: Helper, comforter, advocate.  “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” – John 14:26

Isaac has not been heard from, in scripture, since his “resurrection.”  We read in Genesis 22:19 that Abraham and his servants returned from the mountain…but there is no mention of Isaac.

There is no mention of Isaac until Rebecca, his bride,  is seen coming in the distance. This is clearly a portrait of Jesus’s second coming for his bride, the church.

Picture Perfect! Next week is my most favorite picture of Jesus in Genesis. It is the clearest and most wonderful picture of all Old Testament pictures, to me.