Day 8 - Genesis 24-25

ONE-YEAR JOURNEY OF THE BIBLE

Day 8 - Genesis 24-25 (Amazing Answer to Prayer!)

“Then he said, "O Lord God of my master Abraham, please give me success this day, and show kindness to my master Abraham.  Behold, here I stand by the well of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water.  Now let it be that the young woman to whom I say, 'Please let down your pitcher that I may drink,' and she says, 'Drink, and I will also give your camels a drink'--let her be the one You have appointed for Your servant Isaac. And by this I will know that You have shown kindness to my master."  And it happened, before he had finished speaking, that behold, Rebekah, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, came out with her pitcher on her shoulder.  Now the young woman was very beautiful to behold, a virgin; no man had known her. And she went down to the well, filled her pitcher, and came up.  And the servant ran to meet her and said, "Please let me drink a little water from your pitcher."  So she said, "Drink, my lord." Then she quickly let her pitcher down to her hand, and gave him a drink.  And when she had finished giving him a drink, she said, "I will draw water for your camels also, until they have finished drinking."  Then she quickly emptied her pitcher into the trough, ran back to the well to draw water, and drew for all his camels.”   (Genesis 24:12-20)

I have never heard a sermon about a man simply referred to in the Bible as Abraham’s servant but I was deeply moved by this godly person’s complete dependence on God.  I love how God decided to simply call this person a servant - and what a servant he was!  I know of no other servant in the Bible or in history who was more faithful to his master than this servant of Abraham.  No wonder, Abraham entrusted this man with a most important mission to find a wife for his only heir, Isaac and who would eventually become the matriach of the nation of Israel.

Note in our text above that this servant prayed to God to grant him success in his mission and to show him very clearly who it is that would become the wife of his master’s son.  What blew my mind was the immediate answer to his prayer even before he finished speaking to God!  I don’t know about you, but I can get impatient waiting for God to answer my prayers and I would do anything to experience an immediate answer to prayer just like Abraham’s servant did.

There is another godly man in the old testament who experienced immediate answer to prayer even before he finished speaking to God; his name was Daniel:  

“...while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering.  And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, "O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you skill to understand.  At the beginning of your supplications the command went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved; therefore consider the matter, and understand the vision:”  (Daniel 9:21-23)

The angel Gabriel told Daniel, even while he was still praying, that God had heard His prayers (we don’t need to finish our prayers for God to know what we are asking Him) because he was greatly beloved by God.  God immediately answered both the prayers of Daniel and of the servant of Abraham because they were both greatly beloved by God!

There is nothing in life that I desire more than to be greatly beloved by God and to greatly love God.  I look forward to the day when God will be pleased to immediately answer my prayer even before I finish speaking with Him.