00:00:10Why Genesis 24 Matters
00:00:41The Bible’s First Recorded Prayer
00:02:17Waiting For Marriage With Prayer
00:04:22Family Leadership And Finding A Spouse
00:09:14Church Community And Final Takeaways
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
The first recorded prayer in the Bible isn’t poetic or vague, it’s laser-specific, and it shows up in the middle of a very practical problem: finding a wife for Isaac. We walk through Genesis 24, the longest chapter in Genesis, and pull on the threads that make it surprisingly relevant to modern life, especially if you’ve ever wondered how to pray with faith when the stakes feel high.
We talk about Abraham’s servant asking God for a clear sign and getting an immediate answer, then we sit with the tension that creates for us today. Can God still answer that directly? What’s the difference between praying specifically and trying to control outcomes? Along the way, we notice Isaac’s posture too: he’s out in the field meditating and praying, and it feels like the whole household has a culture of prayer and worship long before Exodus and the law. That detail reframes Genesis 24 as more than a marriage story; it’s a discipleship story.
From there, we get practical and a little provocative about family responsibility. Abraham doesn’t shrug and tell Isaac to “figure it out.” He takes action, sends help, and treats marriage and vocation as serious life decisions that deserve guidance. We wrestle with what that might look like now, including how parents can prepare kids for adulthood without trying to run their lives, and why the local church can be one of the healthiest places for older and younger people to help each other grow toward marriage, maturity, and wise commitments.
If you want a Bible-based conversation on Genesis 24, specific prayer, Christian dating, and how community shapes big decisions, press play. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway: do you pray boldly with details, or do you hold back?
Text us at 737-231-0605 with any questions.
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TRANSCRIPT 🔗
WEBVTT
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And welcome back to A Chapter a Day.
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Keeps the Devil Away.
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And I'm your host, Pastor Pleck, along with Holland Craig and Jordan Smith, police expert of all things.
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All right, so we're talking today about Genesis 24, the longest chapter in Genesis.
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It takes a little while to read this one because you get a lot of repeating parts of the servant.
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But uh first off, let's get some observations from Holland Gregg.
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All right, here's an observation.
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Do you remember the first time prayer is mentioned in the Bible in Genesis?
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What you got?
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What you got?
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I don't remember other than it was.
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Genesis 426, at that time people began to call on the name of the Lord.
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Oh, I like it.
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Okay.
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So, but since then, we don't have any actual recorded prayers in the Bible until 20 chapters later.
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Wow.
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Genesis 24, when beginning in verse 12, we get a prayer.
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And he said, Oh Lord, God of my master Abraham, please grant me success.
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And this is the first recorded prayer in the Bible.
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And it is hyper specific.
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It is very specific.
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It is a very particular request.
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Yeah.
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And I think there's something to teach us that teaches us something here.
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The very first recorded prayer, very specific, very particular, asking for, you know, a very um unique kind of situation and expecting God to act.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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I like that.
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That's my observation.
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I think that's a wild observation.
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I think it's one that's very true.
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And uh, you know, I sometimes would eye roll in the past when people say you have to be specific with God.
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I'm like, God already knows, you know, he knows what you need him before you ask.
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But I but right here, clearly, he is really specific.
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And I think that's what gives him courage to go and do exactly what God has called him to do.
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And so I think specificity in prayer is actually a really great thing.
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Thanks for.
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Man, that's good.
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What about you?
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What was some um observations you saw?
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Uh, the thing that stands out to me is the servant just got like an immediate answer to his prayer.
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It's like, can that still happen today?
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How about I'll take some of that?
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Yeah, okay, that's good.
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Yeah.
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The servant gets an immediate answer.
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You know what I thought was interesting is that Isaac had to wait until he's 37 to get married.
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Why did he have to wait?
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Because he did was not given a wife, and it's not like you went out on like hinge or uh or you know, match.com and started dating.
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You got your wife was given to you, and apparently 37 is like, you know, old enough.
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I guess they didn't want anyone going down the wrong path or something.
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I don't know.
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Like that seems to me like later on you're gonna see couples get married way younger.
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And here is Isaac at 37.
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And the other thing I thought is he he is going out to the field to meditate and pray.
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So, in the same way that you see the servant praying, the family has a culture of prayer that he's meditating and like I guess uh thinking that would be like he's meditating, that's prayer, and he's you know, asking God.
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I don't know if he he probably knows what his servant is doing, and he's like, God, give him success.
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I don't know what he's praying, but I I feel like there's a correlation there between the servant's prayer, Isaac's prayer, and the arrival of Rebecca.
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And I do think that for people that are waiting for a spouse, I think prayer is your friend.
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And you need to be praying and praying and praying and praying and praying and praying and praying.
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If you, you know, if you feel called to marriage, then you should be praying about that all the time because that's gonna be the most important person in your entire life.
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Uh, and so it's no small thing.
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It's not like what you know, what color socks should I wear today?
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It's more like, hey, this is the person I'm gonna spend the rest of my life with.
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So praying about that, giving it to the Lord, being being focused.
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And he obviously prayed in a position, in a place where he was oriented towards where his servant would be coming from with his wife.
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And so he couldn't see her when he started praying, but when he opened his eyes, there she was.
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And I think that's really kind of a cool way to look at it.
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Something else that stood out to me was uh the servant just being like, do not delay me.
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Yeah, that was freaking great.
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Like, you can't I he wants 10 days to spend with his sister, um, which I thought was interesting.
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And the other thing I thought was interesting is it's called her mother's house.
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Why is it called her mother's house and not like isn't Bethel uh isn't he the father or no?
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Laban.
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No, Laban's the brother.
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Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry.
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But what about Bethuel?
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Is he like, you know, he doesn't wear the pants in the family?
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What's going on there?
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That he is not like there, they're they're always going, it's the mother and Laban always talking, but Bethel is mentioned.
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He might be just so old that you know he doesn't have much of a, you know, he's just he's kind of just you know chewing gums at this point.
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Uh I I don't know.
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I thought that was fascinating that it was the it was the mother's, it was Laban and that the mother's household at the very beginning, and then the mother and Laban were the one that decided all that.
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Right.
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So I thought that was sort of a fascinating uh aspect there.
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Any any other thoughts on that?
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I'm just still struck by I'm looking again at you, you mentioned the servant's prayer and Isaac's prayer, and you think, even think back to like Abraham's uh when he goes to sacrifice Isaac, and you remember Isaac asks, um, you know, he says, Behold the fire in the wood, where's the lamb for a burnt offering?
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Isaac, even as a child, familiar with um sacrifices, with what was needed, like you get the sense that Abraham was really leading his household in worship.
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Yeah.
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In prayer, and sacrifices, and you know, and so even from this is before, yeah, this is before Exodus, is before we get the law, this is before we get all that.
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You see Abraham is a spiritual leader of his household.
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Um, I just that stuck out to me.
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Yeah, he's a man's man.
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I, you know, I I've always had a hard time finding a great father figure, but you see in in the Bible anyway, uh you see Abraham really leading his family, even at, you know, the at 150 or however old he is at this point.
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Yeah, and taking responsibility for he's like, hey, go find a uh a wife for my son.
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You know, there's uh it's really only in like recent times that parents have kind of stepped out of the role of finding, helping their children to find a spouse and to train them in a certain trade or vocation.
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There was uh is a book, old, old book, Domestical Duties.
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You ever read this book?
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No, I haven't missed that one.
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Okay, well, it's got it basically takes like Ephesians 5 and 6 on instructions for husbands and wives and parents to their children and breaks it down into like, you know, every single what does it mean for this?
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And here's what you do for this, all of your duties of the family.
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And there's several sections uh explaining the duties of parents to find a spouse for their children and prepare them with a vocation.
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Wow.
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Um, and so you see Abraham really taking that seriously with his role as a father as well as his faith in God's promise.
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Wow.
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I mean, when you said that, it just kind of made me go, Oh, we've given so much freedom to our kids to go choose whatever the go be whatever you want to be.
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And that's why you have 30-year-olds living at home without a job.
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Yeah.
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Look at that.
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Bam.
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And you know, we think that it's like, oh man, this is a good thing that we're um uh yeah, do whatever you want.
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You can be anything, whatever.
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But it it's it is a and there's some good things about that, you know.
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But it is a departure from the pattern um that was carried on in the Bible throughout church history up until modern times, that parents would have a role in finding a spouse for their children.
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And uh not I'm not even saying like arrange marriages, sure, uh, but even just like helping your children to be prepared for marriage and vocation.
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Wow.
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Whereas today, yeah, now it's like, well, I don't know, do you want to get married?
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You know, what do you want to do?
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Do you want to if that's convicting because I feel like that's one of the things now, granted, I have an 11-year-old, a nine-year-old, a seven-year-old, or 11, 10, 7, 5.
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Blink, and they'll they'll be moving out, though.
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So and so really being intentional about hey, here's the kind of woman you want to marry, here's the kind of job you want to do, here's how you're wired and gifted, here's where I'm gonna direct you.
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Uh, and you here's your lane to operate in.
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And I think that is really good.
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And I do think finding a spouse for your children is actually I I would love to have, I would have loved it if my parents were more involved in that.
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Man, yeah.
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I would have been.
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Well, you think about people who are like, you know, single and in their 30s and 40s today, and how hard it is to meet someone and find someone and you know, I mean imagine if it was part of our culture to really like be intentional and help that, you know, as our kids are coming of age and maturing and yeah, yeah.
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And I that's why I think uh being involved in a local church is so important.
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Uh, even as older people, because you'll be helping younger people get married because that's it that's just what you know.
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I do that all the time.
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I mean, how many people we introduce to each other and they end up getting married?
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Gazillions, pretty much all our young adults that were single and now they're married.
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Um but yeah, I I think that's part of it, and I think that's that's one of the things we need to be intentional about.
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What do you think, Jordan?
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Uh sounds good.
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I mean, I yeah.
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Uh not really uh applicable to me, all that portion.
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Well, why is that, Jordan?
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Uh I am not looking to get married right now.
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Uh don't have any kids to play that active role in.
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So I think you can see yourself if you had to like pick a person, who are you in this story?
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You could either be A, the servant, or B, Isaac.
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You're you know, you're praying and waiting, or you're praying and seeking for somebody else.
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Yeah, I mean, praying and waiting, I guess.
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Yeah.
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All right, I like it.
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Well, hey, thanks so much for watching.
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We love engaging God's word with you.
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Come back.
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We'll see us, we'll see you tomorrow for chapter a day.
00:00:10.480 --> 00:00:13.599
And welcome back to A Chapter a Day.
00:00:14.080 --> 00:00:15.519
Keeps the Devil Away.
00:00:15.919 --> 00:00:22.800
And I'm your host, Pastor Pleck, along with Holland Craig and Jordan Smith, police expert of all things.
00:00:22.960 --> 00:00:29.920
All right, so we're talking today about Genesis 24, the longest chapter in Genesis.
00:00:30.480 --> 00:00:36.799
It takes a little while to read this one because you get a lot of repeating parts of the servant.
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But uh first off, let's get some observations from Holland Gregg.
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All right, here's an observation.
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Do you remember the first time prayer is mentioned in the Bible in Genesis?
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What you got?
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What you got?
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I don't remember other than it was.
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Genesis 426, at that time people began to call on the name of the Lord.
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Oh, I like it.
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Okay.
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So, but since then, we don't have any actual recorded prayers in the Bible until 20 chapters later.
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Wow.
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Genesis 24, when beginning in verse 12, we get a prayer.
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And he said, Oh Lord, God of my master Abraham, please grant me success.
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And this is the first recorded prayer in the Bible.
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And it is hyper specific.
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It is very specific.
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It is a very particular request.
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Yeah.
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And I think there's something to teach us that teaches us something here.
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The very first recorded prayer, very specific, very particular, asking for, you know, a very um unique kind of situation and expecting God to act.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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I like that.
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That's my observation.
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I think that's a wild observation.
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I think it's one that's very true.
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And uh, you know, I sometimes would eye roll in the past when people say you have to be specific with God.
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I'm like, God already knows, you know, he knows what you need him before you ask.
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But I but right here, clearly, he is really specific.
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And I think that's what gives him courage to go and do exactly what God has called him to do.
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And so I think specificity in prayer is actually a really great thing.
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Thanks for.
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Man, that's good.
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What about you?
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What was some um observations you saw?
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Uh, the thing that stands out to me is the servant just got like an immediate answer to his prayer.
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It's like, can that still happen today?
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How about I'll take some of that?
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Yeah, okay, that's good.
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Yeah.
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The servant gets an immediate answer.
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You know what I thought was interesting is that Isaac had to wait until he's 37 to get married.
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Why did he have to wait?
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Because he did was not given a wife, and it's not like you went out on like hinge or uh or you know, match.com and started dating.
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You got your wife was given to you, and apparently 37 is like, you know, old enough.
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I guess they didn't want anyone going down the wrong path or something.
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I don't know.
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Like that seems to me like later on you're gonna see couples get married way younger.
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And here is Isaac at 37.
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And the other thing I thought is he he is going out to the field to meditate and pray.
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So, in the same way that you see the servant praying, the family has a culture of prayer that he's meditating and like I guess uh thinking that would be like he's meditating, that's prayer, and he's you know, asking God.
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I don't know if he he probably knows what his servant is doing, and he's like, God, give him success.
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I don't know what he's praying, but I I feel like there's a correlation there between the servant's prayer, Isaac's prayer, and the arrival of Rebecca.
00:03:33.680 --> 00:03:39.280
And I do think that for people that are waiting for a spouse, I think prayer is your friend.
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And you need to be praying and praying and praying and praying and praying and praying and praying.
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If you, you know, if you feel called to marriage, then you should be praying about that all the time because that's gonna be the most important person in your entire life.
00:03:53.439 --> 00:03:55.280
Uh, and so it's no small thing.
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It's not like what you know, what color socks should I wear today?
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It's more like, hey, this is the person I'm gonna spend the rest of my life with.
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So praying about that, giving it to the Lord, being being focused.
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And he obviously prayed in a position, in a place where he was oriented towards where his servant would be coming from with his wife.
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And so he couldn't see her when he started praying, but when he opened his eyes, there she was.
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And I think that's really kind of a cool way to look at it.
00:04:22.399 --> 00:04:26.959
Something else that stood out to me was uh the servant just being like, do not delay me.
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Yeah, that was freaking great.
00:04:28.480 --> 00:04:34.319
Like, you can't I he wants 10 days to spend with his sister, um, which I thought was interesting.
00:04:34.399 --> 00:04:38.720
And the other thing I thought was interesting is it's called her mother's house.
00:04:39.519 --> 00:04:49.279
Why is it called her mother's house and not like isn't Bethel uh isn't he the father or no?
00:04:51.199 --> 00:04:51.839
Laban.
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No, Laban's the brother.
00:04:53.279 --> 00:04:54.160
Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry.
00:04:54.319 --> 00:04:55.519
But what about Bethuel?
00:04:55.600 --> 00:04:57.600
Is he like, you know, he doesn't wear the pants in the family?
00:04:57.759 --> 00:04:58.800
What's going on there?
00:04:59.040 --> 00:05:05.759
That he is not like there, they're they're always going, it's the mother and Laban always talking, but Bethel is mentioned.
00:05:06.079 --> 00:05:14.399
He might be just so old that you know he doesn't have much of a, you know, he's just he's kind of just you know chewing gums at this point.
00:05:14.639 --> 00:05:15.680
Uh I I don't know.
00:05:15.759 --> 00:05:26.319
I thought that was fascinating that it was the it was the mother's, it was Laban and that the mother's household at the very beginning, and then the mother and Laban were the one that decided all that.
00:05:26.480 --> 00:05:26.639
Right.
00:05:26.800 --> 00:05:30.000
So I thought that was sort of a fascinating uh aspect there.
00:05:30.480 --> 00:05:32.000
Any any other thoughts on that?
00:05:32.319 --> 00:05:51.759
I'm just still struck by I'm looking again at you, you mentioned the servant's prayer and Isaac's prayer, and you think, even think back to like Abraham's uh when he goes to sacrifice Isaac, and you remember Isaac asks, um, you know, he says, Behold the fire in the wood, where's the lamb for a burnt offering?
00:05:52.000 --> 00:06:02.240
Isaac, even as a child, familiar with um sacrifices, with what was needed, like you get the sense that Abraham was really leading his household in worship.
00:06:02.480 --> 00:06:02.639
Yeah.
00:06:02.879 --> 00:06:12.480
In prayer, and sacrifices, and you know, and so even from this is before, yeah, this is before Exodus, is before we get the law, this is before we get all that.
00:06:12.639 --> 00:06:16.000
You see Abraham is a spiritual leader of his household.
00:06:16.079 --> 00:06:17.360
Um, I just that stuck out to me.
00:06:17.680 --> 00:06:18.480
Yeah, he's a man's man.
00:06:18.560 --> 00:06:34.560
I, you know, I I've always had a hard time finding a great father figure, but you see in in the Bible anyway, uh you see Abraham really leading his family, even at, you know, the at 150 or however old he is at this point.
00:06:34.639 --> 00:06:40.079
Yeah, and taking responsibility for he's like, hey, go find a uh a wife for my son.
00:06:40.560 --> 00:06:56.240
You know, there's uh it's really only in like recent times that parents have kind of stepped out of the role of finding, helping their children to find a spouse and to train them in a certain trade or vocation.
00:06:56.480 --> 00:07:00.879
There was uh is a book, old, old book, Domestical Duties.
00:07:01.040 --> 00:07:01.759
You ever read this book?
00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:03.360
No, I haven't missed that one.
00:07:03.600 --> 00:07:13.839
Okay, well, it's got it basically takes like Ephesians 5 and 6 on instructions for husbands and wives and parents to their children and breaks it down into like, you know, every single what does it mean for this?
00:07:13.920 --> 00:07:16.560
And here's what you do for this, all of your duties of the family.
00:07:16.720 --> 00:07:23.519
And there's several sections uh explaining the duties of parents to find a spouse for their children and prepare them with a vocation.
00:07:23.680 --> 00:07:24.000
Wow.
00:07:24.160 --> 00:07:30.639
Um, and so you see Abraham really taking that seriously with his role as a father as well as his faith in God's promise.
00:07:30.879 --> 00:07:31.040
Wow.
00:07:31.120 --> 00:07:37.759
I mean, when you said that, it just kind of made me go, Oh, we've given so much freedom to our kids to go choose whatever the go be whatever you want to be.
00:07:37.839 --> 00:07:40.160
And that's why you have 30-year-olds living at home without a job.
00:07:40.399 --> 00:07:40.959
Yeah.
00:07:41.199 --> 00:07:41.920
Look at that.
00:07:42.079 --> 00:07:42.480
Bam.
00:07:42.879 --> 00:07:48.959
And you know, we think that it's like, oh man, this is a good thing that we're um uh yeah, do whatever you want.
00:07:49.040 --> 00:07:50.319
You can be anything, whatever.
00:07:50.480 --> 00:07:53.519
But it it's it is a and there's some good things about that, you know.
00:07:53.759 --> 00:08:05.040
But it is a departure from the pattern um that was carried on in the Bible throughout church history up until modern times, that parents would have a role in finding a spouse for their children.
00:08:05.279 --> 00:08:13.439
And uh not I'm not even saying like arrange marriages, sure, uh, but even just like helping your children to be prepared for marriage and vocation.
00:08:13.519 --> 00:08:13.680
Wow.
00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:17.040
Whereas today, yeah, now it's like, well, I don't know, do you want to get married?
00:08:17.439 --> 00:08:18.480
You know, what do you want to do?
00:08:18.560 --> 00:08:28.079
Do you want to if that's convicting because I feel like that's one of the things now, granted, I have an 11-year-old, a nine-year-old, a seven-year-old, or 11, 10, 7, 5.
00:08:28.480 --> 00:08:30.399
Blink, and they'll they'll be moving out, though.
00:08:30.480 --> 00:08:40.879
So and so really being intentional about hey, here's the kind of woman you want to marry, here's the kind of job you want to do, here's how you're wired and gifted, here's where I'm gonna direct you.
00:08:40.960 --> 00:08:44.159
Uh, and you here's your lane to operate in.
00:08:44.320 --> 00:08:45.840
And I think that is really good.
00:08:45.919 --> 00:08:54.000
And I do think finding a spouse for your children is actually I I would love to have, I would have loved it if my parents were more involved in that.
00:08:54.240 --> 00:08:54.799
Man, yeah.
00:08:54.960 --> 00:08:55.360
I would have been.
00:08:55.600 --> 00:09:14.399
Well, you think about people who are like, you know, single and in their 30s and 40s today, and how hard it is to meet someone and find someone and you know, I mean imagine if it was part of our culture to really like be intentional and help that, you know, as our kids are coming of age and maturing and yeah, yeah.
00:09:14.480 --> 00:09:18.399
And I that's why I think uh being involved in a local church is so important.
00:09:18.879 --> 00:09:26.639
Uh, even as older people, because you'll be helping younger people get married because that's it that's just what you know.
00:09:26.720 --> 00:09:27.360
I do that all the time.
00:09:27.440 --> 00:09:29.759
I mean, how many people we introduce to each other and they end up getting married?
00:09:29.919 --> 00:09:33.519
Gazillions, pretty much all our young adults that were single and now they're married.
00:09:33.759 --> 00:09:38.240
Um but yeah, I I think that's part of it, and I think that's that's one of the things we need to be intentional about.
00:09:38.399 --> 00:09:39.440
What do you think, Jordan?
00:09:41.039 --> 00:09:42.399
Uh sounds good.
00:09:42.639 --> 00:09:43.919
I mean, I yeah.
00:09:44.320 --> 00:09:48.480
Uh not really uh applicable to me, all that portion.
00:09:48.879 --> 00:09:50.080
Well, why is that, Jordan?
00:09:50.960 --> 00:09:55.519
Uh I am not looking to get married right now.
00:09:55.679 --> 00:09:59.279
Uh don't have any kids to play that active role in.
00:10:00.559 --> 00:10:05.440
So I think you can see yourself if you had to like pick a person, who are you in this story?
00:10:05.600 --> 00:10:09.519
You could either be A, the servant, or B, Isaac.
00:10:09.600 --> 00:10:13.519
You're you know, you're praying and waiting, or you're praying and seeking for somebody else.
00:10:14.720 --> 00:10:16.960
Yeah, I mean, praying and waiting, I guess.
00:10:17.120 --> 00:10:17.360
Yeah.
00:10:17.840 --> 00:10:18.799
All right, I like it.
00:10:19.039 --> 00:10:20.720
Well, hey, thanks so much for watching.
00:10:20.960 --> 00:10:22.960
We love engaging God's word with you.
00:10:23.039 --> 00:10:23.440
Come back.
00:10:23.519 --> 00:10:26.720
We'll see us, we'll see you tomorrow for chapter a day.
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