Guest blogger alert! Contributing Author, Jerry:

I want to relate a story to you that is a magnificient story. It really happened. It has elements of a mission impossible, of fear and risk and faith and angels. It tells of courageous obedience and success and the priority of God’s business.

And my guess is there is not one of us reading this blog who would not love to be able to tell this kind of story out of our own experience! Who wouldn’t want to relate to others how we got to play a part in God’s work in this world, how we got to be partners with an angel, how what we did shaped the course of history? So, what kind of person would we have to be to have this kind of life, to see God work this way on our behalf? Let me tell you the story first, then we can draw some conclusions together about what we can learn from it.

If you want to read this story I have in mind, you can turn to the first book of the Bible and flip over to chapter 24. I’ll wait while you get the Good Book and read the chapter. (How does that Jeopardy tune go?) Or if you want, I’ll just tell you the story…

A wealthy old man, Abraham, needed to find a wife for his very special son. He wasn’t interested in any of the local young ladies; their customs and culture were far too coarse. Not a one of them had the values and family background that was important to Abraham and his wife (that is, if his wife was still alive. She had just died). This special son had a great future ahead of him, a future that would have an impact on the whole world (so God had said), and so he needed a special woman to be by his side.

The ole dad called his most trustworthy servant to the office and gave him the assignment of finding a wife for Son #1 from among his own family back in a far country where he had once lived and where his relatives still called home. Now the old servant was no one’s fool. He hadn’t been born yesterday, and he hadn’t just fallen off the turnip truck. He wasn’t the chief servant, the oldest servant, the one in charge of everything the old man owned because he was stupid and foolish. So of course he was reluctant to take on such a weighty assignment. It was risky, it was fraught with opportunity for failure. The servant tried to wiggle out of the mission, but, after all, he was a servant, and eventually he saddled up 10 camels, gathered up some helpers, and headed back to Mesopotamia.

When he came to the city of Abraham’s brother, he put in place a plan that doubtless he’d been mulling over for days. He would ask one of the young ladies who came to the city well in the evening to draw water to give him a drink from her water jar. If she would offer him a drink and ALSO offer to water the ten camels, this would be the one. Now you ask, how did this servant come up with such a plan? More about that later, but for now you should know that before he even finished telling God what he planned and before he had completed his prayer asking for blessing, Rebekah approached the well. She is a va-va-varoom young lady (‘very beautiful’ according to the Book), single, chaste, and after going down to the spring, she comes back up with her water jar full.

The old servant springs into action. He runs to her and puts his plan in motion. “Please let me drink a little water from your jar.” She does, and then she says the most amazing thing: “I’ll water your camels, too, until they finish drinking.” And she does!! Now we don’t know how long it had been since these 10 camels had had a drink. And we don’t know how much a camel can drink. And we don’t know how many trips to the spring this maiden makes as she fills the water trough over and over again. And we don’t know what the men who have traveled with the old servant are doing (standing around??) while Rebekah is working like a trooper. So many questions, so few answers! When the camels can’t hold another drop, the servant rewards the young lady with a gold ring (for her nose! YIKES) and two golden bracelets. When he asks about lodging for the night, it just so happens that there is room in her family’s home, and the family turns out to be the relatives of Abraham!!! How cool can that be? Talk about the proverbial needle in a haystack!! How does this happen? Coincidence? Happenstance?

To make a great story a bit shorter, the old servant asks the father if Rebekah can go back with him to her uncle’s home and become the wife of the very special son. Dad agrees, and on the morrow, the caravan starts out on the long journey back to Abraham’s place. If you have ever heard Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bochelli sing “Time To Say Goodbye“, now would be a good time to enjoy that musical piece and think about Rebekah saying goodbye as she leaves home. The travelers do arrive safely home, and the young man and the young lady make a perfect match, and they live happily (almost every day) ever after.

So what would it take for you and me to have the kind of experience Eliezer had? What would it take to have a real story like that to tell out of our own life? What kind of person would we have to be to see God work this way on our behalf?

First of all, it helps to be a servant. The Big E can’t turn down the assignment, he’s a servant. Perhaps we don’t see God work on our behalf because, in our independence, we turn down the Master’s assignments! This week, starting today, become a servant in as many creative ways as you can. You’ll make yourself a candidate for breathtaking experiences that will be stories you’ll tell from now on. (You can see from the story in the Book that the servant told the story several times, and if I had to guess, I’d say he’s in heaven STILL telling that amazing account of what God did for him.)

Second, take the assignment. Sure the Master’s assignments look scary, risky, HUGE, and we know they are full of challenge. But if we want stories to tell, we have to sign on for the mission. Yes, we will be inadequate, and we will feel inadequate, but we can take it to the bank that God has a great plan in mind for us. We will be in over our heads! Any of us, perhaps young ladies, reading this blog want to water 10 camels? Remember, there was no faucet and hose to use. There was a jar, there were slobbering camels, there was mud at the edge of the spring… How many fingernails did Rebekah break that evening? If the Master calls, just take the assignment.

Third, pray and pray and pray. Eliezer prayed often on this trip. Count the times in the Book. Abraham had assured him that God would send His angel before him. And before he even finishes his conversation with God that evening at the well, Eliezer sees the answer to his plan unfolding before his very eyes. We want to ask again, where did the details of that plan come from? To ask a young lady for a drink is one thing; to expect that she would water the camels was quite another. Surely the angel of God, who was going before the caravan, had impressed these details upon the old servant. Eliezer concludes that “the Lord has guided me STRAIGHT to the house of my master’s brothers.” That sort of thing happens when we pray and pray and pray.

What a great story! Thanks for joining me in it. Rest assured that God will guide servants who are willing to take on great assignments. Courageous obedience on our part can and will shape the course of history. Say “YES” to God and work with angels. Say “YES” to God and you’ll have a story to tell…for all eternity.

God bless,
Jerry

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