Genesis 24 — Seeking and Trusting

This sermon is from Genesis chapter 24 and is entitled Seeking and Trusting.

Genesis 24 · chapter mention

It was delivered to Ekklesia Churches on Sunday, September 27, 2026.

How you respond to a problem can reveal a lot about you as a person.

My wife has a little sign above the coffee pot at home that says you can tell a lot about a person by how they deal with slow internet and tangled Christmas lights.

When you run into something that doesn't have a quick or an obvious solution and you have to wrestle through it, something about your character is exposed.

There are two ends of the spectrum when it comes to our response to this wrestle.

Sometimes we respond to an issue by putting it in a corner and hoping someone else deals with it.

I don't know where to start, and so I'm just going to leave this over here,

and it can be a tomorrow problem for someone else.

Other times, though, we respond by charging in without thinking or considering the wisdom of our actions,

and we make a mess that often becomes a tomorrow problem for someone else.

And the two sides or ends of that spectrum will point fingers at each other, calling one passive

and the other aggressive. And the passive aggressive folks are like texting each other

from the corner. And these same tendencies absolutely bleed into the life of faith

and understanding what the will of God is for us to do. What does it look like to seek the wisdom

of God while also trusting the providence of God. We don't want to be a bull in a china shop

pressing forward foolishly with our own plans and our own will and ignoring the wisdom of God.

We've seen plenty of that from Abraham. But we also don't want to be a people who fail to act

in obedience today because we can't see where that will take us tomorrow. So Genesis 24 is the story

of multiple people actually wrestling with this same question. And it gives us some incredible

examples from people like Abraham and his servant and Rebecca. What does it look like to seek the

wisdom of God while also trusting in the providence of God? The providence of God is ultimately what

is on display in this chapter by the end. It all comes to an end with this like picturesque scene

with Isaac and Rebecca together at last. And I think we'll walk away from this with two things.

First, a much clearer idea of what the will of God is for us, and at the same time,

learning to trust God's provision for all that we can't see or control. Let's begin by reading

the last direction given by Abraham in the book of Genesis as he wrestles with the issue of finding

a wife for his son Isaac. This is chapter 24, verses 1 through 9.

Isaiah 24:1–9

not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell, but

will go to my country and to my kindred and take a wife for my son Isaac.

The servant said to him, Perhaps the woman may not be willing to follow me to this land.

Must I then take your son back to the land from which you came?

Abraham said to him, See to it that you do not take my son back there.

The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father's house and from the land of my kindred,

and who spoke to me and swore to me, to your offspring I will give this land,

he will send his angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there.

But if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be free from this oath of mine,

only you must not take my son back there.

So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham, his master, and swore to him concerning

this matter.

This is the last act of Abraham that is recorded for us in Genesis.

And very similar to the buying of the piece of land in chapter 24, it's concerning a present

problem with a huge future impact.

Isaac remains unmarried.

And in this culture, the parents usually played a large role in finding a suitable spouse for their children.

Abraham also realizes how important this is for the future promised people that are supposed to come through his family line.

But again, being a sojourner in this land that God has promised to his descendants creates two very distinct problems.

The first is that Abraham does not want to send Isaac out of the land.

For the same reason, he didn't want to bury his wife in another land.

He believes the promise of God regarding this land, and he doesn't want to create a situation

in which Isaac leaves the land of promise.

However, the second issue is that he knows that intermarriage with the Canaanites would

be disastrous.

These are a people known for their worship of idols and all kinds of depraved practices

that come along with that.

There are plenty of places in Scripture where God impresses upon us the importance of being

equally yoked, equally partnered with someone of character who is going to pursue and value

the same things, particularly in marriage.

That is what Abraham desires for Isaac.

And so he makes a plan.

This plan is different than some of the previous plans of Abraham, though, in a few ways.

This plan is running in accordance with everything God has revealed already.

Some of Abraham's previous plans have ignored or gone directly against what God had said.

The plan involving having a son with Hagar went against what God had promised,

that he would have a child with Sarah.

The plan involving pretending Sarah to be his sister out of fear of Abimelech

ignored what God had said, promising to protect Abraham.

But this plan is different because Abraham starts with what God has revealed.

This is the land God promised, so I'm not sending my son away.

These people I live among are not God-honoring, so I'm not setting my son up with a wife who might turn his heart away from God.

God has spoken clearly many times to Abraham, but here, God has not given specific instructions for obtaining a wife.

interesting, through this whole passage, God does not speak directly. And the people have to make

decisions based on what they know God has already said. Another important difference, though, is

this plan Abraham is making with his head servant is that he recognizes his plans are not absolute.

This detail about the hand going under the thigh is this ancient symbol that we don't completely

understand, but the meaning of sincerity is clear in context. He's swearing to the Lord,

the highest vow this man can take. But Abraham also includes a condition.

If it doesn't work out, he's free of the oath. So Abraham is making this plan proactively in

light of everything he knows about doing what will honor God here, yet he also leaves room for God

doing something unexpected. If my plan doesn't work out, then God must have other plans to provide

a wife for my son. I think there's a lot we can learn from Abraham here about making plans when

it comes to seeking the wisdom of God while still trusting the providence of God in our plans.

Proverbs 16.9 says, the heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.

So making plans does not show a lack of faith.

The book of Proverbs, in fact, is filled with counsel to plan and to do it carefully, to

consider your plans with wisdom, to base them in the fear and the knowledge of God.

James chapter 4 does warn us not to plan arrogantly, but even Jesus in Luke says that

James 4 · chapter mention

a wise man counts up the costs before he starts to move forward with his plan to build.

I think there are some well-meaning people who have left many Christians with the impression

that following Jesus means leaving all plans behind, that we should empty our heads of

plans and just let go and let God, which is not a Bible verse, by the way.

Instead, we take our plans and we evaluate them carefully in the light of the wisdom

of God's word.

We make some demands of our plans that we might not otherwise, right?

Like, is this the best way to honor God with what he's given me?

Or in order to achieve this goal, am I making sacrifices that don't glorify God?

Or does this line up with what God says about choosing to dwell on whatever is true, noble,

right, and pure?

And really importantly, as I make these plans, with the best of what I know about what God

has said, am I still ultimately trusting God with the outcome? Is my hope or my confidence in the

success of my plans, or is it ultimately in the providence of God? If the plan fails tomorrow

and everything falls apart, is my faith still secure in the God who provides for me?

We can make good plans, informed by the wisdom of God's word, while still leaving the results

open to God's provision. That's what Abraham is doing here. Let's read the next section about the

faith of his servant, and particularly, we're going to look at the way prayer factors into this.

Let's start with verse 10.

Then the servant took ten of his master's camels and departed, taking all sorts of choice gifts

from his master. And he arose and went to Mesopotamia, to the city called Nahor.

And he made the camels kneel down outside the city by the well of water at the time of evening,

the time when women go out to draw water. And he said, O Lord, God of my master Abraham,

Please grant me success today and show steadfast love to my master Abraham.

Behold, I am standing by the spring of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are

coming out to draw water.

Let the young woman to whom I shall say, Please let down your jar that I may drink.

And who shall say, Drink, and I will water your camels.

Let her be the one whom you have appointed for your servant Isaac.

By this I shall know that you have shown steadfast love to my master.

Before we talk about how the servant went about doing this task, let's talk about the servant

himself for a moment. So believe it or not, this is not the first time that we have seen this man.

Though his name is not given in this passage, this is at least very likely Eliezer, who we met

in Genesis 15 as the man Abraham said would inherit his entire household if he had no children.

And I think that's significant because it tells us something about the heart of this man.

This is someone who has watched any hope of his earthly inheritance disappear, not once,

but twice. The first time when Ishmael was born and the second time when Isaac was born. But

He desires God's will, which is to bless Abraham.

And so he travels for around three weeks through the desert to a land he does not know, yet

with the same faith that God will provide what is needed.

His plan to find a wife for Isaac involves going to the well outside the city and waiting

in the evening for the women of the city to come out.

And there he prays.

And that prayer is what I want us to really look at here because it tells us a lot about

this relationship between prayer for God to act and also our action to obey God.

In verse 12, it is the Lord, Yahweh, that he prays to.

And he begins by asking for success, not for his own gain, but for the good of Abraham.

This is a man who begins from a place of desiring not only the highest good for another, but

for the glory of God.

This prayer is without an ounce of selfish ambition, and that is remarkable to me.

In verse 14, he begins to ask in earnest for God to bring the right woman to him for Isaac,

but his request is interesting.

It's not just for a sign.

He's not asking for a supernatural sign or wonder, a divine voice, a light, a miracle.

Instead, he asks that God would bring forward someone who shows signs of good character.

He's asking that the woman God has already appointed for Isaac be compassionate enough

to share water with a stranger and be so extraordinarily generous that she offers to

water his camels as well. He doesn't ask that she be beautiful or wealthy or have social status.

He is asking that she be a woman of extraordinary character. We'll get to talk about Rebecca in a

moment, but there's a lot that we can glean from this man's prayer. First, he does start from a

place of humility without selfish ambition. I feel like after three weeks in the desert,

my prayers would have been, oh Lord, give me quick success so I can go home. Or, oh God,

show me a place to stay for the night so I can sleep and rest. But this guy has a heart condition

in like the best way possible that brings him to pray first for God's will to be done,

which is how Jesus instructed us to begin our prayers as well. But second, I want us to notice

that this prayer happens in the middle of the servant already obeying. He stops to pray for

God's sovereign guidance and provision, but he's already been obedient to the point of going where

he was supposed to go, and he's asking for the right things. His obedience in what he knew was

right preceded this request that God provide what he did not know. Another way to say this is that

we should pray with humility while living with obedience. Let me give you a few examples to kind

of illustrate this for us in 2026. If you are asking God to make you more like Jesus, but you

are neglecting to make a single step toward knowing Jesus better, you're missing something

pretty crucial. So Psalm 119 verse 11 says, I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not

Psalms 119:11

sin against you. I can't tell you how many times I've asked God, help me to stop sinning or make

me more like you and more or less waiting for God to do something miraculous and make me feel

different, but instead of reading his word and storing it up in my heart, I'm staring at a screen

for hours a day. I'm failing to obey the basic prescription or instruction of God to those who

want to be more like Christ. God has given us so much good instruction in his word that we neglect

to do while we wait for God to accomplish it by some kind of miracle. I like the way that Taylor

put it when I was chatting with him earlier this week. We want God to change our life,

but so often without changing any of our priorities or activities.

Let me give you a more physical example. If like me, you might be trying to treat your body with

more care to get in better physical shape. My body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. I should

care for it as such. We can and we should in that process pray for God to continue to produce this

fruit of self-control in us because only God can change the heart of a person to want to honor God

with my body for his glory. But if I'm asking God for help to change my heart while continuing to

stock my pantry with junk food and leaving my walking shoes in the closet, then something is

amiss here. My prayer lacks sincerity if I don't want to act on it. Take a moment this week to take

stock of your obedience. What is the thing that you keep asking the Lord for but are not taking

steps toward what he's already said to do? It's good to seek the wisdom of God in prayer, but we

must also trust God by living in obedience. We can't live as disciples of Jesus without committing

to the disciplines that he's called us to for our formation. We're going to move pretty quickly

through a good amount of this story, so I do encourage you to read it yourself this week,

but let's finish by looking at Rebekah and how she responds. This is verse 15 through 21.

Before he had finished speaking, behold, Rebekah, who was born to Bethuel, the son of Milcah,

the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, came out with her water jar on her shoulder.

The young woman was very attractive in appearance, a maiden whom no man had known.

She went down to the spring and filled her jar and came up.

Then the servant ran to meet her and said,

Please, give me a little water to drink from your jar.

And she said, Drink, my lord.

And she quickly let down the jar upon her hand and gave him a drink.

When she had finished giving him a drink, she said, I will draw water for your camels also,

until they have finished drinking. She quickly emptied her jar into the trough and ran again to

the well to draw water, and she drew for all his camels. The man gazed at her in silence to learn

whether the Lord had prospered his journey or not. Rebecca not only shows tremendous character,

but she also checks every single box when it comes to being a suitable match for Isaac.

Surely this is the providence of God, bringing things together at the right place in the right

time for Isaac's good, for God's glory.

So just so we understand what Rebecca has done here, I think we read past this too quickly.

This well is not like the ones you may have seen with like the circle of stones and a bucket on a

pulley. That's not what's being described here, this going down to the spring. This well was an

underground spring that you would have walked down a flight of steps cut into the stone,

and you would have filled a five-gallon pitcher at the underground pool and then carried it back

up the steps. So taking the pitcher down off her shoulder and letting him have a drink is already

a kindness that took effort if you've ever carried five-gallon buckets of water for animals before.

But giving water to the camels is another story.

On an average day, a camel will drink five gallons of water if it's being kept watered.

So that would have been alone for these 10 camels, 10 trips up and down the steps.

But these camels have been in the desert for three weeks.

They're going to drink closer to 20 gallons of water each to replenish their water store.

So Rebecca is spending an hour taking 40 to 50 trips up and down the stairs with a 50

pound pitcher of water to care for a stranger.

This woman is indeed extraordinary.

She's beautiful and kind and apparently strong as an ox.

And right after this, the servant finds out that she is actually from the household of

Abraham's brother and he rejoices.

This is who he was looking for.

I'll give you a summary of the verses that follow

The servant gives her extravagant gifts

Reveals that he's there for Abraham

And asks to come speak to her family

And stay with them

She brings him back

And there he presents the story

The entire story

As evidence to the family

That God has chosen her as a wife for Isaac

Rebekah's brother Laban

Is very impressed by the gold that he has given them

We'll see more of him and his greed

kind of come up in a few chapters. Rebecca's mother, understandably, doesn't want to let her

go right away. But generally, the family responds positively to this turn of events. They know who

Abraham is. They know about his God. And they see how God has providentially brought about this

whole thing. They see the evidence. And then they ask Rebecca what she will do. In verse 58,

They called Rebekah and said to her, will you go with this man?

And she responds very simply, I will go.

Rebekah is showing the kind of faith in God and his plans that Abraham showed all those years ago.

Back in Genesis 12, God called Abraham into this land with a promise and Abraham went.

Rebekah, when presented with a very similar call by this servant of God, responds the same.

I want you to see Rebecca living in this space between what God has revealed and what he hasn't.

She's living thus far, developing good character that will allow her to serve well in the future.

And now God has sent this servant, opened this door, and provided this opportunity

to step into something completely new.

But at the same time, there's a whole lot of unknown in that decision.

First of all, she's never seen Isaac.

She knows he's distantly related, but has lived in a foreign land his entire life.

She does not know what his family is like.

She's leaving a home with a family that owns land to go to a life of wandering in a land

that has been promised to them, but hasn't been given to them yet.

In fact, the only guarantee for a future that she has is that the family does own a burial

plot in the land.

But she sees the way God has orchestrated everything leading up to this moment.

And as a result, she puts her faith in God's plans for her future.

Our knowledge of what God has done gives us faith in what he will do.

For human beings like you and me, it's difficult to live only in this present moment.

yet this is where we live, where we have the experience of the past and we have no experience

of the future. We are flying blind in our own knowledge and wisdom and it can be terrifying.

Even the best predictions from the smartest people fail to really give us hope for the future.

I want to give you an example. In some of the work I do as a marketer, it's important for me to keep

a finger on the pulse of various technologies. In the last week, I have listened to two separate

interviews with people who are experts in their respective fields, supposedly, talking about the

future of AI. One of them spoke very convincingly about how artificial intelligence was going to

take us to a paradise on earth where nobody would have to work and everything would be automated and

we can live for our own pleasure, which as a Christian, that sounds terrible.

The second, though, was equally convinced that AI would lead to our complete destruction.

So what's the expert opinion on the future involving AI?

Well, it's somewhere between a hedonist paradise where we serve only ourselves and complete

destruction where we serve the machines.

In short, they have no idea.

They've looked at technology from the past and here in the present, and they're making

a guess about the future, but it's based on their own limited knowledge and perspective.

Even AI superintelligence is limited in its knowledge to the thoughts of men.

But here's what I know about my God.

Isaiah 55 verses 8 and 9, God says,

Isaiah 55:8

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts

than your thoughts. Not only is the wisdom of God above and beyond our wildest dreams,

He is also sovereign, powerful enough to accomplish anything that is in his will.

And that means nothing is out of his control.

Nothing is out of his hands.

And the best news is that he is good and his promises for us are good.

His promise to us is salvation from the sin of the past and hope and eternal life for the future.

And why do I believe that promise?

because God has a perfect track record of keeping his promises.

We see that play out through all of Scripture.

Think about it.

Abraham acted in faith knowing what God had done in his own life.

Rebecca acted in faith knowing what God had done in the story of this servant

and the life of Abraham.

But we have so much more than that in the Word of God.

We have hundreds of stories and eyewitness accounts to the promise-keeping activity of

God over thousands of years of human history.

We have the account of Jesus who came and died for our sin and then rose from the dead

to prove that he has victory even over death itself.

That's the God that my faith is in.

And it's not a blind faith.

It's a faith based on everything that he has done perfectly throughout all of time.

It's a faith that completely rests on his ability to do all things well in the future.

And it's a faith that calls me to seek his wisdom in all my plans while trusting his providence for all of my future.

Ekklesia is a church of house churches gathering weekly in Council Bluffs, Iowa and in homes throughout the week.

We are a Bible-centered church focused on preaching from Scripture and making disciples of Jesus.

You can learn more about what we believe and contact a pastor at ekklesiachurches.org.