I have heard this story interpreted as a picture of how God the Father (Abraham) sent the Holy Spirit (the chief servant) back to his believing people (Rebekah) to lavish gifts on them to prepare them as a bride for His Son Jesus (Isaac) who awaits us in the Father’s country (heaven).  It has always made sense to me that in this true historical episode God was also teaching us a New Covenant truth.  Yet God kept taking me back to this chapter and I knew there must be more to understand.  Finally I asked God, “What is the key for my understanding of this?”  And I heard, “What is the heart of the Father?” 

Rereading I came to these words of Father Abraham to his servant, “I want you to swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living, but will go to my country and my own relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac.”  (Gen. 24: 3-4)  Then I realized that Abraham wanted a bride for his son who knew the ways of his people. His ways.   So he sent his servant with gifts from the new land (the new covenant) to adorn the bride who knew and was faithful to (she was a virgin – no adultery which God equates to idolatry) the ways of his old land (old covenant).  She said yes and came willingly and quickly to meet her bridegroom. 

God is looking for a people who do not follow the ways of the Canaanites, but follow the ways that He has given for His people.  These believing people, however, are adorned by the Holy Spirit with New Covenant understandings and giftings and willing follow the Holy Spirit wherever He leads them.   Which brings us back to one of the points of departure from the worship of the true and living God that we saw in our discussion of Jeroboam in 1 Kings 15.  He promoted syncretism and even idolatry among God’s people.  He brought the ways of “the Canaanites” into God’s worship.  How much of this is grieving God today in us and in our churches? 

There are two levels on which we can explore this:  the individual and the corporate, even as we spoke in the first teaching that we are temples on these two levels.  On the personal or individual level we need to examine our lives to see how much we resemble those Jews under Antiochus’ rule who gladly gave way to Greek assimilation.  It was convenient and even politically expedient for them to go along with Greek ways of doing things.  It made life easy and pleasant.  You didn’t have to ruffle anyone’s feathers or look old-fashioned and different from everyone else.  You didn’t have to inconvenience yourself to obey some things that really didn’t make complete sense to you anyway.  You didn’t have to try to do that impossible thing of loving God with your whole heart.  You could skate along the edges of religiosity without having to give up your secular ways.  You didn’t have to bother to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Cor. 10: 5)  Such a bother!  And you could set up any kind of idols you wanted in your own “house.” You could have the idol of money, the idol of power and control, the idol of eternal youth, any idol you wanted – the Greeks have room for them all.   They call them by their rightful name though – gods.  Well, I am being a bit sarcastic to make my point, but you get the idea.  It is easy to let ourselves slide into ways that are not exactly godly.  But then, if we are honest, we find ourselves faced with some questions.   Are we serving God with our whole hearts?  Are we dedicated temples?  Or are we seeing how much we can get by with?  How many Canaanite ways (or Greek, it’s all the same) have we adopted?   Well the exact answers are known only to each individual, but the remedy is the same.  God wants our temples cleansed and rededicated. 

And then there is the corporate level – our church life.  Where in our denominational traditions are we grieving God with things that ought not to be in our corporate temple?   

Frankly, no one can dictate that.  It must be approached prayerfully by each congregation even as we must prayerfully examine our own lives, and actions and motivations.  The Holy Spirit must be given liberty to be our guide.  That is the privilege we have as believers in Messiah.  I have come to feel quite strongly that the church needs to return to the Feasts of the Lord as we have discussed previously.  They belong to all people of God and are wonderful appointments with Him as well as pictures of Messiah.  This is hard for some believers to accept, but if approached prayerfully, God can reveal his will. No doubt there are other things we have left behind in forsaking our Jewish roots as well, but now is not the time to discuss them.  Again, we need to be prayerful and not judgmental of others as they seek to find the right balance in their corporate life.

The subject of Christmas always comes up at this time of year as well.  For myself, I would have to say that my views have mellowed.  There is no way of knowing for sure when Jesus was born, and yet it is important that we do recognize and rejoice in his incarnation.  There is a most excellent and balanced article by Dwight A. Pryor on the website www.jcstudies.com.  Just click on the “Christmas Controversy” link on the homepage for a printable pdf file of an insightful study.  I highly recommend it.

I do celebrate Christmas as well as Hanukkah and for me there is a crossover in the celebration of the Light of the World.  Both speak of Messiah and remind us of our life in him.  However, the Lord did take me (and is taking me) through a refining in terms of the celebration of Christmas.  Although I had always tried to keep Christ as the center of Christmas, there was much pruning that needed (and needs!) to be done in order to make Christmas a simpler and more meaningful time.  It is so easy for secularism and commercialism to overtake what should be a joyful celebration of the Savor’s birth.  I guess to relate this to what I said at the beginning of this article, it would be good to get the Canaanite ways out of the “ways” that are pleasing to the Lord in regard to Christmas!   Again I would refer you to Dr. Pryor’s thoughtful teaching on this subject.

Shalom,

Sarah McIlvaine

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-Sarah McIlvaine (2008)