We are on a journey - a spiritual journey that is leading us toward the matchless day that we will be joined in holy matrimony to our Heavenly Bridegroom. When that special day arrives, we will have become the Bride of His dreams - that is a Bride who has been transformed into the likeness of Christ, being a reflection of His glorious beauty. This awesome destiny that has been conferred upon us will become a wonderful reality through (and only through) the workings of the Holy Spirit within us. Without Holy Spirit activity, nothing of any eternal significance can be worked in our hearts and lives, including the forming of the glorious Bride of Christ. Therefore, if we are intent on becoming a glorious Bride, our vital union and connection with the Holy Spirit are of utmost importance. The greater our aspirations to become everything we were created to be, the more dependent we become on the Holy Spirit for His enabling power and ability. It is, and forever will be, even as was spoken to Zechariah, "...Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit...says the Lord of hosts"(Zechariah 4:6 KJV).
The Word of God abounds with beautiful portraits of our Divine love story. These pictures unveil for us prophetic images of Christ and His Bride. One such story is the story of Isaac and Rebekah found in Genesis 24. This marvelous adventure begins with a father (Abraham) passionately desiring to find a suitable bride for his beloved son (Isaac). In order to obtain a bride for his son, the father commissions his oldest and trusted servant Eliezer to journey to a far-a-way place and secure a bride for his son.
After a long journey, the servant arrived at a well outside the city where Abraham's relatives lived. There he prayed, asking for a sign from the Lord: "And let it so be that the girl to whom I say, Pray let down your jar that I may drink, and she replies, Drink, and I will give your camels drink also; let it be she whom You have selected and appointed and indicated for Your servant Isaac [to be a wife to him]; and by it I shall know that You have shown kindness and faithfulness to my master" (Verse 14). Before he finished his request, Rebekah appeared and fulfilled the sign he petitioned for. She gave him water and offered to water his camels. This was no small feat, for camels drink gallons of water. Understand that Rebekah didn't know the servant was on a mission to obtain a bride for his master's son or that the camels were loaded with costly treasures.
It was by divine happenstance and angelic assistance (Verses 7, 40) that Abraham's servant found the woman whom he believed was to become the wife of Isaac. However, even though Rebekah was the one destined to become Isaac's wife, the servant could not make her leave her homeland and follow him back to Canaan. Rebekah would have to make the choice for herself. After meeting the family and sharing his mission, the servant waited in anticipation to see how Rebekah would respond. Consider the magnitude of the decision that Rebekah was required to make. Her whole destiny rested on the choice laid out before her. Although she didn't know the plans of God, if she accepted the servant's proposal to become Isaac's wife, she would become the wife of a patriarch in the lineage of the Lord Jesus. She made the right choice! She said, "I will go."
As we ponder Rebekah's response, our hearts are in awe as we consider her willingness to become the wife of a man she had never seen (and didn't know) and set off on a long journey with a mere servant (that she has just met), trusting her life into his keeping. Imagine the undaunted trust required of Rebekah. Obviously, something awakened her heart, stirring her to leave her family and abandon all that was familiar to her in order to make this difficult, treacherous, journey with this servant. Although her pilgrimage would take her through a perilous wilderness, her heart seemed to know that whatever dangers and inconveniences she encountered would be worth the risk. The day finally arrives that Rebekah's journey comes to a climax and she beholds her betrothed face to face. The Bible tells us, "And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekah and she became his wife, and he loved her" (Genesis 24:67). What a day that must have been for both Isaac and Rebekah! As two lives became one, a love was birthed and a future secured that would bring to pass God's plans and purposes, not only for Isaac and Rebekah, but for all humanity.
I now wish to bring to your attention to what many overlook in this wonderful love story: the critical role that the servant plays. Had it not been for this capable and obedient servant, Rebekah would have had no possible means of fulfilling her destiny; a destiny she would never have known had not the servant awakened in her a desire stronger than any other as he wooed and won her heart for his master, Isaac. Once she placed her trust in the servant, depending on him to bring her safely to her betrothed, he could guide and protect her on the long and perilous journey she was required to make. I imagine a close personal friendship developed between Rebekah and Abraham's servant on this journey. Because she was to become Isaac's bride, I sense that she became a "cherished treasure" to the servant. How he must have guarded and protected her as they traveled back to Canaan. Because of the servant's honored position with Abraham and his role in securing a wife for Isaac, I envision him spending countless hours talking to Rebekah and sharing with her concerning the wonderful, kind, tenderhearted man who would become her husband. I believe the servant passionately desired to stir Rebekah's heart in love for Isaac. It is easy to imagine that as she came to know Isaac through the testimony of this servant, her heart became captivated, longing for the moment that she would arrive and behold Isaac.
As you can clearly see, the narrative of Isaac and Rebekah reflects our divine love story. Mirrored within this story is the plan of our Heavenly Father. We glimpse a prophetic revelation of His heart as we see His passionate desire to find a suitable Bride for His Son and His willingness to send forth the Holy Spirit as a Servant to seek, woo, and win a Bride for His Beloved Son. Just as the servant played a key role in the story of Isaac and Rebekah, the Holy Spirit plays a key role in our divine love story.
As the saga of Isaac and Rebekah unfolds, it becomes apparent that Rebekah needed the help, assistance, protection, and guidance of the servant in order to make the journey to Isaac and become his wife. In like manner, we need the Holy Spirit helping us, assisting us, and directing and guiding our steps on our pilgrimage toward our Beloved. In John 14:16-18, we find these words spoken by Jesus concerning the ministry of the precious Holy Spirit: And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener and Standby) that He may remain with you forever, The Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive (welcome, take to its heart), because it does not see Him, nor know and recognize Him, for He lives with you [constantly] and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans - comfortless, desolate, bereaved, forlorn, helpless - I will come [back] to you." Our Father has sent the Holy Spirit into this earth to walk with us through life as our Friend, Mentor and Guide. He longs to be our dearest and most cherished Friend in this earth realm. It is to our advantage to cultivate a personal friendship with Him. As we do, He will supernaturally take us by the hand and assist us on our pilgrimage toward our Bridegroom. Similarly, as Rebekah who had to journey through a wilderness to reach her promised bridegroom, our pilgrimage to reach our Beloved Bridegroom takes us through the way of the wilderness - a way which requires of us to walk through hard places, dry and barren places, dark places. Although we would rather not walk the wilderness path, we must, for it is in the wilderness that we are forged and formed into a fit and suitable Bride.
During love's long journey through the wilderness, the Holy Spirit is preparing us for our future role as the Bride of Christ. Preparation of the Bride is His most important assignment. This preparation consists of His ever increasing activity in our inward parts, awakening us to our magnificent destiny as the Bride of the Father's Son. As we seek to know our Heavenly Bridegroom, the Holy Spirit saturates our hearts with knowledge of His beautiful personage. As we walk day by day with the Holy Spirit on our journey toward the Lover of our soul, He assures us of how dearly we are loved and how our Beloved longs for the day that we, as His chosen one, will become His Bride. With every new revelation that He gives to us, we gain a clearer portrait of our Bridegroom; this in turn moves our heart into greater depths of love for our Beloved.
What a priceless, precious, treasure was given to us when we received the gift of the Holy Spirit! It behooves us to deeply value and esteem our friendship and partnership with Him. Our relationship with Him is more important than any other relationship we have in this earth. We don't have to be smart, clever, creative, gifted, or talented to be victorious on life's journey. All we need is to be in a living, vital fellowship with the Holy Spirit (ever conscious of His indwelling presence), and He will navigate us successfully through love's long journey and bring us face to face with our Beautiful Bridegroom God. Just as Rebekkah finally reached her destination and saw Isaac face to face, our day will come, and we will see the Lover of our souls. When we do, all the trials, tests, adversities, sorrows and sacrifices will seem as nothing in comparison to reaching our destination and being joined together with our Beloved Jesus forever.
Recommended Reading:
The Holy Spirit: Our Divine Helper
The Divine Romance
Scripture References:
Genesis 24
John 14:16-18
Zechariah 4:6