Abraham was getting old and nearing his death. But Isaac had still to find a wife and Abraham was worried for him. He did not want his son marrying one of the women of the land that they were living in. So he called to his most trusted servant and said “I have an important task for you. I want you to make an unbreakable promise that you will NOT let my son marry any of the women of this land. Travel instead to the country we come from and my own relatives and find a wife for him there.”
The servant said “but what if this wife will not come back to this country with us? Do I then take your son back to your country to get him married?”
“NO No. Anything but that,” was Abraham’s wheezed reply. “God has promised me THIS land. The angel of the lord will lead you to my son’s future wife, if she will not returned then you are released from this unbreakable promise. But whatever you do don’t take Isaac back there.
So the servant made an unbreakable promise and prepared for the journey, taking ten camels and gifts to give to the woman’s family.
He made his way to the town of Nahor (it is his family that was mentioned yesterday.) As he reached the town he knew he had to somehow find which woman should be Isaacs wife, so he prayed and said “God of my master Abraham, please allow me to find a wife for Isaac. I’m standing by a stream. When the girls come out to collect water I will ask them for a drink of water. Let the one you have chosen to be Isaac’s wife say “Have a drink and I will also water all TEN of your camels for you too.”
Before he had finished praying, Rebekah came out carrying the jar she had to fill on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Abraham’s brother, Nahor. She was amazingly beautiful. Stunningly pretty. AND she was a virgin – no man had ever slept with her. She filled up the jar at the spring and started to walk back. The servant went to meet her and he said (as he’d said to God he would): “Please give me a drink.” And she lowered the jar and offered it to him.
As he finished she looked at all his camels and said: “I’ll get water for your camels too until they have finished drinking.” She put the water in the trough and ran back to the well to draw more water. She got enough to water all the camels.
The servant watched all this without saying a word, but he watched carefully to see whether god had made his journey to find Isaac a wife successful.
When Rebekah had finished he took some of Abraham’s gold and said “Who are your parents? Please tell me, could your father have enough room in his house to let me sleep there for a night?”
Rebekah said “I am the daughter of Nahor.” Then she added “We have plenty of straw and food and enough room for you to stay the night.”
The man was amazed so he bowed down to God and worshipped his master’s God. He said “Let Abraham’s God be praised. For that God is still kind and faithful to my master. I have come to the house of my master’s relatives!”
Rebekah, hearing this, ran to her mother, leaving the man out on the streets. Her brother was at home too and when he heard Rebekah’s story he rushed out to see this servant for himself. The man’s name was Laban and he comes up later in our story. He found the servant and said “You are blessed by God! But why do you stand here? The house is prepared for the camels!”
They went to the house and unloaded the camels. Straw and food were brought for the camels and water for the servant and those who travelled with him to wash their feet (as was custom) then a meal was brought, but the servant said “I will not eat until I tell you of everything that has happened!”
“So go ahead and tell us!” said Laban. So the servant told them everything. He ended his tale by saying “Please do my master a great kindness by doing this, but if you choose not to then at least tell me which direction I need to travel in to get back to my master.
But Laban said “This is definitely from God. No doubt. And so we can’t say no. Here is Rebekah. Take her and go, let her become Isaac’s wife as the Lord has shown should happen.”
The servant heard this and he bowed low. He brought out all the gifts Abraham had given him and gave them to Rebekah and to her mother and to Laban. Then they ate together.
In the morning the servant was keen to get going back to his master. But Laban and Rebekah’s mother said “Let Rebekah stay with us for ten days (you can’t expect us to not have a chance to say a good farewell)” But the servant said: “you’re not thinking of actually keeping me here are you? God has made everything happen that is right so far. Let me go back to my master.” Then Laban and Rebekah’s mother said “Let’s ask Rebekah what she wants” So they called Rebekah and asked he “Will you go with this man?”
“I will.”
So they sent Rebekah with the servant and they blessed Rebekah by saying “May you have many children and may all your children be successful in everything they do.”
Back with Abraham Isaac went out one day to the fields to meditate. He saw the procession of camels returning. Rebakah looked up from the camel sand saw Isaac
“Who is he?2 she asked
“That’s Isaac” said the servant. So Rebekah put a veil over her face as was custom for the bride to do before the wedding night.
When they reached Isaac the servant told him of everything that had happened and Isaac took Rebekah and gave her his mother’s old tent to sleep in. After a few days they were married and she became his wife and Isaac was comforted, for he was still upset about his mother’s death.
Matthew 9:14-38
John the Baptist had baptised Jesus quite some time ago. He had said to everyone: this is the messiah, the one you’ve been waiting for. John had his own disciples who followed him around and tried to be like him. One day some fo those disciples came up to Jesus and they said “Hey, Jesus. We fast – yep, that’s right, we go without food to show our commitment to God and become holier. How come that your disciples don’t do this? (Basically: we think you’re not teaching them correctly).
Jesus probably looked at them, but then he spoke and he said “Isn’t it obvious? How can the guests of the bridegroom MOURN and go without food?? Especially when he is with them. However the time will come for my disciples when the bridegroom wil be taken from them. Then they will fast.” But he continued: “You do not patch up a hole in an old garment with a piece of new cloth. Because the new cloth will shrink and it will rip away from the old garment and make the hole bigger. And you would never put new wine into an old wineskin because if you do do that then the wineskin will burst. However if you put the new wine into a new wineskin then you not only keep the wineskin but also the wine.”
And He might have gone on, but at that point an important man came and knelt before Jesus and said with tears, “Oh, Jesus, my daughter… my daughter has just… just died! Please come and lay your hand on her, because if you do I KNOW she can live again.” So Jesus got up and went with the important man. His disciples went after him to try and do everything he did, for that was their task: to become like their teacher (Jesus).
They were on their way when out of nowhere a woman in the crowd rushes up to Jesus. This woman had been bleeding for twelve years!! Because of this she was seen as being dirty and ungodly so all the people would not even touch her, because they believed that if they did touch her that they would become ungodly and dirty too. She rushed up to Jesus and grabbed his cloak because she thought “if I can just touch his cloak then I WILL be healed.” As soon as she touched his cloak Jesus turned around and looked right at her. (At that point she was probably like: Oh dear, I’m ungodly and I’ve touched this person who is godly and who will become angry because, by touching him, I have made him ungodly. He’s going to get me killed for this.” But Jesus says “Take courage, woman. Your faith that by touching my cloak you could be healed HAS healed you.” And at that moment the woman was aware that the bleeding that had made her unclean, the bleeding which had been going on for TWELVE years… was completely stopped.
Jesus and his disciples continued on to the important man’s house. Outside there were people playing the flute to mourn the passing of the dead girl. There was also a crowd who were mourning the death. Jesus said to them “Shoo! Go away, will you and give us some peace. And cheer up because the girl is NOT dead, but she is just asleep!” But the crowd laughed at him (and it is quite clear to see why – it is obvious when someone is dead and when someone is just asleep. They were probably thinking: we know when someone’s dead, alright? And that girl is as dead as they come!” But they all go outside anyway as Jesus said to and when they were Jesus took the girl’s hand and she got up. Back to life again :D News of this went through the entire region!
After that Jesus continued on from the important man’s house. From behind two blind men started following him and they called out “Messiah! Messiah! Have mercy on us!” Jesus went inside somewhere and the blind men still came after him so he asked them: “I know what you want. Do you believe that I can do this?”
“We do! We do!” replied the men
Jesus touched their eyes and said “You believed I could do it so it will be done.” Their sight suddenly returned to them and they could see! Before they could start rejoicing Jesus said in a stern voice “Tell no one about this!” But the men went outside and immediately started spreading the new about him all over the region.(and can you blame them? They’ve just stopped being blind!!)
As the blind men were leaving another man was being brought in. He was possessed by a demon and he could not speak. Jesus drove the demon out and suddenly the man could talk again! The crowd was amazed and said “Never in all of the history of our country and all the wondrous things recorded in the Old Testament has anything like this EVER been seen!” But the priests muttered “Ha! Think that’s God? The only reason Jesus can do all these things is because he is using the Devil’s power. This isn’t God doing this, you are fooled by him, he is tricking you. He is evil and possessed.”
Jesus travelled lots and he went into many synagogues (the equivalent of churches today) and preached at them. He preached the good news of the kingdom and healed EVERY disease and sickness. When he saw crowds he had the most amazing compassion for them because he knew that they were helpless to the power of the Roman empire and the iron rule of the priests who forced them into a twisted religion that had become something that it was never meant to be. He also saw that they were like sheep just wandering around trying to live the best they could because they had no shepherd to look after them.
One time he said to his disciples: “The people who would listen to us and believe in the truth of God’s kingdom is plentiful – there are sooo many people. But there are just so Few people who will actually go out and tell them about it and gather them to God. So ask that God will provide more workers to help tell people about his Kingdom.”
Psalm 8:1-9
GOD!
You are ABSOLUTELY AMAZING absolutely EVERYWHERE.
Your glory is above the sky
You have appointed children and infants to give you praise
Because of your enemies –
this will silence the enemy
whenever I think of the sky
Everything your hands made
The moon and stars
That YOU put into their place
I think: who are men that you even know of them?
Of what worth is your messiah that you actually care for him?
You made him less than angels
And THEN you crowned him with glory and honour
You made this messiah ruler over ALL the world
Everything obeys him
All the flocks and the herds
And the beasts that graze in the fields (like cows and sheep)
All the birds
And all the fish
GOD!
You are ABSOLUTELY AMAZING absolutely EVERYWHERE.
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