Genesis 24:1-67
Get ready this is an all time made for movie story. In the opening verses of Genesis 24 we hear an older yet Abraham pleading for his servant to find his son Isaac a wife, not among the Canaanites where they live, but back in his home country. When the servant asks if the woman he finds is not willing to come back should he take Isaac there and Abraham gives an emphatic “No!” Abraham is confident that God will send an angel to guide the servant to the just right marriage partner. In Genesis 24:12 the servant prays for God’s help and blessing. In a humorous way, the servant tells God how he wants this to play out. But before he finishes his prayer, there Rebekah is doing everything just as he asks. In the remainder of the story the servant repeats how his journey came about, his prayer and the following action to Rebekah’s father, Laban. When the Laban agrees for his daughter to be given in marriage to Isaac, whom they have never met, the servant is anxious to be on the way, lest the deal fall apart. Rebekah is asked if she is willing to go and she says, “Yes.” It seems that her consent was an unusual action in arranged marriages.
When they are approaching Abraham’s camp, Rebekah sees Isaac in the distance and veils herself before meeting him. When the servant tells the story to Isaac he brings her to the tent of his mother Sarah (an indication of the role mothers played in the marriage agreement) and he marries her. Time for the tissues!
Psalm 45
Psalm 45 is noted as a wedding song. Initially the psalmist sings to the king. In vss 6 & 7 he affirms that the king has been chosen by God and his kingdom will last forever. Vs. 8 affirms that the king bears testimony just by the garments he wears to the blessing of God. Those who are familiar with the song, “Ivory Palaces” will recognize this verse as the foundation of that song.
In vs. 9 the psalmist addresses woman or the women who will marry or attend to the king. Note how similar his instructions are to the Rebekah story about leaving your family to go to a new place. Would you give this advice to women today?
Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
In vss 16-19, Jesus ponders the present generation and compares them to the words of a children’s song that he apparently hears being sung. The quandary that he observes is that John the Baptist came as one who abstains from eating excessive food and drinking alcoholic beverages and people said that he had a demon. The Son of Man (Jesus) came eating and drinking like others and he is called a glutton and drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and “sinners. His last phrase is: But wisdom is proved right by her actions. What do you make of that statement?
In vss 25-26 Jesus gives thanks to the Father, for God’s wisdom where the wise and learned miss the lessons revealed to young and unlearned. In vs 27 Jesus repeats a phrase that he often speaks about the Son knowing the Father and the Father knowing the Son and about people that God chooses to make revelation of both to.
In vs. 28-30 Jesus gives an invitation to those who are weary and heavily burdened. The invitation may not make sense initially, but we are invited to exchange weariness and heavy burdens for a yoke, which usually appears to be heavy and cumbersome. In vs. 30 Jesus affirms that his yoke I easy and his burden light. In vs. 29 Jesus invites us to take his yoke and learn from him for he is gentle and humble in heart. The outcome he says is that we will find rest for our souls. How do you understand that? What testimony can you give of that wisdom?
Romans 7:15-25a
Paul confesses that he does not understand his own actions. What he wants to do, he does not do and the things he does not want to do, is the very thing that he does. Does that speak to anyone? Paul is wrestling with the principles at work in his life and in his spirit. In vs. 21 he acknowledges that part of the trouble in staying focused on the good he wants to do is the presence of evil. While he wants to do God’s law or God’s will in his heart, his earthly body is caught up in the war of wills with temptation and evil. It seems to him like a wretched situation, but his hope, expressed in vs. 25 is in Jesus Christ.