Posted by: Bill Hornbeck | February 20, 2022

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; … he who trusts in the LORD, lovingkindness shall surround him.”

Today’s devotion comes from Genesis 24:15-27.

“Before he had finished speaking, behold, Rebekah who was born to Bethuel the son of Milcah, the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor, came out with her jar on her shoulder.  The girl was very beautiful, a virgin, and no man had had relations with her;  and she went down to the spring and filled her jar and came up.  Then the servant ran to meet her, and said, “Please let me drink a little water from your jar.”  She said, “Drink, my lord”;  and she quickly lowered her jar to her hand, and gave him a drink.  Now when she had finished giving him a drink, she said, “I will draw also for your camels until they have finished drinking.”  So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough, and ran back to the well to draw, and she drew for all his camels.  Meanwhile, the man was gazing at her in silence, to know whether the LORD had made his journey successful or not.

When the camels had finished drinking, the man took a gold ring weighing a half-shekel and two bracelets for her wrists weighing ten shekels in gold, and said, “Whose daughter are you?  Please tell me, is there room for us to lodge in your father’s house?”  She said to him, “I am the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor.”  Again she said to him, “We have plenty of both straw and feed, and room to lodge in.”  Then the man bowed low and worshiped the LORD.  He said, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His lovingkindness and His truth toward my master;  as for me, the LORD has guided me in the way to the house of my master’s brothers.”   Genesis 24:15-27.

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We remember the command and commission that Abraham gave his servant:  “but you will go to my country and to my relatives, and take a wife for my son Isaac.”  Genesis 24:4.

Was the servant proud in what he did or was the servant humble and glad in what God had done?

The servant was humble.  “Meanwhile, the man was gazing at her in silence, to know whether the LORD had made his journey successful or not.”  Verse 21.  “Then the man bowed low and worshiped the LORD.”  Verse 26.

The servant was glad in what God had done.  “He said, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His lovingkindness and His truth toward my master;  as for me, the LORD has guided me in the way to the house of my master’s brothers.”  Verse 27.

The servant could have focused on and trusted his sense of direction and his wisdom in finding and choosing Rebekah.  But, instead, the servant focused on and trusted in God and God’s guidance. 

“8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go;
I will counsel you with My eye upon you.
9 Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding,
Whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check,
Otherwise they will not come near to you.
10 Many are the sorrows of the wicked,
But he who trusts in the LORD, lovingkindness shall surround him.
11 Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous ones;
And shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart.” Psalm 32:8-11.


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