Sight Unseen

One of the most powerful evidences of the divine inspiration of the Bible is the overwhelming depth of prophetic meaning behind every detail in its pages. As you read about characters and events in the Old Testament, it's almost difficult to miss the wealth of types and foreshadowings of New Testament characters and events, a fact which is expressed in the adage:

The New is in the Old concealed,
the Old is in the New revealed.

For example, I once wrote an article about Joseph, and in that article I discussed how the events of his life paralleled and foreshadowed the life and ministry of Jesus in a number of strikingly detailed ways. However, Joseph isn't the only Old Testament figure that portrays a type of Christ. Another is Joseph's grandfather Isaac.

Isaac's father Abraham obeyed God's explicit instructions and took his young son to Mt. Moriah in Jerusalem and was obedient to the point of being ready to sacrifice him on an altar, only to be stopped at the last moment by the angel of the LORD (Gen. 22). It was a dramatic foreshadowing of what God would do to His own Son on the exact same spot two thousand years later, and the scene is rich in prophetically significant details.

Christ isn't the only one foreshadowed in the Old Testament, however. What I want to do in this article is discuss the story of Rebekah, and how this Gentile woman who became Isaac's bride is a beautiful foreshadowing of the Church, the bride of Christ, and how the story of her decision to embark on an arduous journey with her granduncle's servant to marry Isaac sight unseen gives us insight into the nature and destiny of the Church.

The mission

The drama unfolds in Genesis 24, and let's meet the main actors before they take the stage:

• Abraham represents God the Father. It is Abraham who sends his servant on a mission to find a bride for his son Isaac, just as God sent the Holy Spirit into the world on the day of Pentecost to begin indwelling believers in order to take a bride for His Son.

• Abraham's servant (who is never named in the story) represents the Holy Spirit. In fact, in any story in the Bible in which someone represents the Holy Spirit, that character is always an unnamed servant. This is because the Holy Spirit never glorifies or speaks of Himself—He seeks to glorify Christ (John 15:13–14).

It's reasonably certain from previous references in Genesis that the servant's name is Eliezer (also spelled Eleazar), which means "the help of God" or "God is help," an appropriate appellation for the third Person of the Trinity who Jesus referred to as "the Helper" several times during the Upper Room Discourse at the Last Supper (John 13–17).

• Isaac represents Jesus. Note that the mission to find him a bride comes after his father Abraham was prepared to offer him as a sacrifice on Mt. Moriah. This is significant, since the Church came into existence after the Crucifixion, the event that was foreshadowed by what happened on Mt. Moriah. At the time of the quest to find him a bride, Isaac is 40 years old (Gen. 25:20).

• Rebekah represents the Church, the bride of Christ. She is a Gentile woman and is the granddaughter of Abraham's brother Nahor. She lives with her family about four to five hundred miles to the north in the general region where many of Abraham's relatives still lived at the time.

As we review the chapter, I'm not going to chase down every rabbit trail along the way. There are several points I want to focus on later in the article that relate to the Church, so there are a few details throughout the story that are interesting in and of themselves that I won't take time to explore in this particular article.

As the story opens in chapter 24, Abraham has already offered to sacrifice his son in chapter 22, and according to many timelines this occurred when Isaac was in his late teens or early twenties—a young man of military age. Also, Abraham's wife Sarah (who represents Israel in many ways) has died and is buried in chapter 23.

Abraham makes his servant promise that he will not take a bride for Isaac from among the Canaanites (which represent the world and the sinful world system). Abraham insists that his servant take a bride for his son from among his own people back in Mesopotamia. Spiritually, all those who are grafted into the New Covenant through faith in Christ are the spiritual seed of Abraham (Gal. 3:29), and are no longer "of the world."

"What if the woman isn't willing...?" Heads up to all Calvinists: Notice that even at this early juncture of the narrative, we already see an emphasis on the free-will decision on the part of Isaac's future bride (i.e., born-again believers). More on this later.

Abraham makes it clear that his son Isaac is not to physically go back to Mesopotamia to get his bride, but that the bride is to be brought to Isaac. This speaks to the fact that at the Rapture, Christ doesn't return to earth to get us—we are caught up to be with Him in the clouds. He doesn't return to earth until the Second Coming. This dovetails perfectly with a pre-trib Rapture, whereas a post-trib Rapture breaks the type and leaves us scratching our interpretive heads. Not surprisingly, the post-trib crowd's best "solution" is a pointlessly impractical and scripturally inconsistent U-turn.

This also speaks to the separation of the Church from the world. So often the corporate Church today seeks to link Christ's name and the message of the gospel with all manner of social programs and worldly initiatives, effectively dragging Isaac back to Mesopotamia.

Christ doesn't come to the world to be with the Church.
The Church leaves the world to be with Christ.

Just as Abraham is determined to see his son honored with a suitable bride, one thing we should understand here is that the Father's counsel in regard to the Church is inextricably linked to honoring His Son. The ultimate purpose of the Church is to be an eternal display of His mercy and grace (Eph. 2:7), and to honor His Son who shed His blood to pay the bride price for us.

We also see this in the Parable of the Banquet (Luke 14:15–24), where a king has prepared a wedding banquet for his son and has invited many guests. However, one guest after another begs off for some reason until the angry king finally sends his servants out to the busy roads and intersections to compel anyone they can find to attend his son's banquet.

The bottom line is that God's Son will be honored, because He alone is worthy (Rev. 5:12).

There is a fascinating detail here that many people miss. Notice the servant is traveling with 10 camels, and so at least theoretically he would be able to return with a group of 10 people. In Jewish tradition, 10 is the minimum number of people needed to hold any type of public worship, because 10 is considered a legal congregation (in Hebrew, a minyan).

The idea of 10 forming a legal congregation comes from Genesis 18, where God is about to rain judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah and Abraham (whose ne'er-do-well nephew Lot happened to live in Sodom) talks God all the way down to 10 as the number of righteous people required to spare the cities (Gen. 18:32).

The point is that the Holy Spirit is going to have a certified legal congregation of believers in tow at the Rapture.

The servant is also bringing a variety of "good things" with him to give to Isaac's new bride, which typify the gifts of the Spirit which are distributed among all believers.

The fact that it is time for the women to come to the well to gather water speaks to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit during the current Church Age. Note also that the servant depends completely on God's guidance to find a bride for Isaac. He prays for a very specific sign, and he doesn't have to wait long for his prayers to be answered.

When Rebekah comes along, her attitude and behavior are marked by charity and selfless devotion to others—a model all believers should attain to as we strive to manifest the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.

In verse 21, notice that the servant is watching Rebekah and is waiting to see if his journey would be successful or not. But wait a second...he's already prayed for and received God's guidance in identifying the woman who would be Isaac's bride, so the issue of whether Rebekah was the one or not has already been settled. He's got a positive ID on her.

So, hasn't his mission already succeeded? What's the deal?

Scripture is once again emphasizing the point that the Holy Spirit will not force us to come to Christ or obey God. God doesn't want automatons. He doesn't want mindless robots that have no choice but to do His bidding. He wants us to love Him and follow His ways out of a willing and grateful heart.

The point is that although the servant knows Rebekah is the right one, he isn't going to force her to leave her home and her family and follow him to a distant land to marry someone she's never met. God's foreknowledge of her decision notwithstanding, it still has to be her choice—and that remains to be seen. Yes, she responds favorably and yields to the servant's entreaties, but she clearly does so of her own volition.

So it is with every single individual who has ever heard the message of the gospel, responded to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and believed in faith that Christ died and was raised from the dead to atone for their sin. Contrary to the doctrine espoused by Calvinists, the Bible makes it crystal clear that we have a free-will choice in spiritual matters—we have a personal responsibility to respond to the convicting power of the Holy Spirit and believe the gospel in faith. It's just that an omiscient God knew that we would do so.

The servant politely asks if there is room for him to stay with them—he doesn't force himself on Rebekah's family. The Holy Spirit is above all things a gentleman—He doesn't force anyone to let Him into their hearts and lives. We must make room for Him. It is up to us to humbly invite Him in with an attitude of repentance and submission to His will for our lives.

Notice the constant worship and praise on the part of the servant. He has complete trust in God's help and is in constant communication with Him every step of the way.

As soon as Rebekah learns about Isaac, she runs back to tell her family. She couldn't wait to share the good news—and that's exactly the attitude believers should have toward the gospel. We have the best news of all to share, and we should be anxious to share it.

Rebekah relates to her family just what the servant told her, and there's no indication that she embellished it or juiced it up to make it more appealing. She simply reports to them what the servant said, and I believe there is a lesson here for ministers of the gospel who massage God's Word into lukewarm pablum and water down, sugar coat, purée, mince and marinate the message of the cross of Christ to suit the fickle tastes of modern society (and bolster their own popularity).

All God wants us to do is tell others that His Son Jesus died and rose again so that they could be saved. That's our job.

The Holy Spirit will do the rest. That's His job.

Note also that the servant has a sense of urgency, refusing to take food until he has explained the purpose of his journey. Similarly, the salvation of people who are lost in sin and hurtling toward an eternity separated from a holy God who loves them is deadly serious business, and there is nothing lackadaisical or ho-hum about the Holy Spirit's efforts to draw men to Christ.

The servant faithfully rehashes the particulars of his mission, and Rebekah's family wisely realizes that God is indeed behind the whole thing and they submit to God's will. Again, the servant doesn't push them into anything.

Although her brother Laban tells the servant to go ahead and take Rebekah, notice what happens next:

Back in verse 51, her brother Laban tells the servant to take Rebekah. But then in verse 55, he wants her to stay behind for at least another 10 days.

Without getting into any deep musings about the symbolism of the number 10 here, at face value this could be seen as a picture of how the world will always try to hold us back from following the Lord. Rebekah's brother is reminiscent of old friends and family members who innocently try to pull us back into our old ways and our old lifestyle because they fail to understand that something has changed—that we've changed after we've been spiritually regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit.

They don't get it. They can't, because the gospel is so much foolishness to them (1 Cor. 1:18). All they know is that we don't enjoy some of the same activities the way we used to. We are beginning to be drawn to things of the Spirit, and our taste for the things of the world seems to be waning. They don't understand that we're just not the same anymore. We just don't fit in the way we used to. They may even want to "help" us get back to "normal."

Although maturing in our walk with the Lord is a lifelong process, it begins the moment we believe the gospel in faith and the Holy Spirit takes up residence in our spirit.

And don't miss the most important question of all from Rebekah's family:

"Will you go with this man?"

...and the response that seals her destiny:

"I will go."

That was four thousand years ago, and today the Holy Spirit convicts men of sin and draws them to Christ, and asks:

"Will you come?"

And as He waits for an answer, my dear Calvinist friends are free to stick that in their predestination pipes and smoke it for awhile.

Note that this last verse can be a bit misleading if read out of context, because when it says Isaac brought Rebekah "into his mother Sarah's tent," it makes it sound as if Sarah were still living. In fact, Sarah had already been dead for three or four years according to most timelines (Gen. 23).

The fact that Sarah is out of the picture is significant because she is a type of Israel, and so this paints a picture of the Church not being formed until after Israel had been hardened and temporarily set aside following their rejection of their Messiah (Rom. 11:25).

And here's a little tidbit for the supersessionist folks who stubbornly cling to the error of replacement theology, and who wrongly suppose that the Church has replaced Israel. Throughout the story, Isaac's mother Sarah and his bride Rebekah are obviously two distinctly different people. When Isaac takes Rebekah into his mother's tent, it is a picture of the Church being grafted into the New Covenant through faith in Christ. Rebekah (the Church) didn't replace Sarah (Israel), but was brought in to be a new part of Isaac's family after Sarah (Israel) is taken out of the picture temporarily.

Rebekah came to be his bride, not to replace his mother!

The servant and Rebekah arrive at evening, which speaks to the fact that Jesus will take His bride at the end of the current Church Age. Note that Isaac only comes a short distance out into the field to meet her, which is a picture of the Lord descending from heaven and us being caught up to meet him in the air (1 Thess. 4:16–17).

Finally, in verse 67, notice that when Isaac marries Rebekah, he is "comforted after his mother's death." Sometimes it's easy for us to forget how much Jesus loves each and every member of His Church! When Christ came the first time, He came to offer Israel (His Father's wife) the kingdom—and they rejected Him and His offer and had Him nailed to a cross. The Father wants to "comfort" His Son by giving Him a bride, and He's not going to lose a single one of us:

As much as we think of Jesus comforting us, it's humbling to think that we bring Him comfort as well.

We know the predominantly Gentile Church is that pearl, because pearls come from clams and clams are unclean for Jews. And Jesus paid the highest price imaginable for us—His life.

It just blows me away when I stop and think that an eternity with us, His bride, is at least part of what helped Christ endure the cross.

Digging a little deeper

I want to elaborate a bit on a couple of details in the story of Rebekah's journey, because there are insights here about the nature and destiny of the Church that lie just below the surface.

First of all, it is clear that Rebekah's journey to Isaac's home represents the Church Age—the bride of Christ is called out from the world and responds in faith to ultimately be with the One the Holy Spirit has drawn us to.

Note that there is no mention of any major disasters on Rebekah's journey to Isaac. Nobody gets lost in a sandstorm. Nobody dies of thirst. Nobody gets waylaid by bloodthirsty bandits or sold into slavery.

And nobody is beheaded for refusing to take the mark of the beast.

The Church Age is characterized here as containing nothing more than the usual troubles and trials we can all expect in this world as believers in the gospel. This is what the Church can expect to endure, because we are told that all who seek to live godly lives in Christ will suffer persecution (2 Tim. 3:12).

"So," one might innocently inquire, "what am I missing here?"

The Tribulation. That's what we're missing here. What we're missing is any mention of anything that could be construed as being representative of the Tribulation. Daniel's 70th Week. The time of Jacob's trouble. You know, that prophesied period of time devoted to the national redemption of Israel and the judgment of the Christ-rejecting nations of the world that post-tribbers believe the bride of Christ will endure for some unspecified (and unscriptural) reasons.

The servant leaves with Rebekah and her maids in verse 61 (the Church is birthed by the Holy Spirit), and Isaac has met her (the Rapture) and has married her by verse 67, and note one thing: In this seven-verse synopsis of the Church Age, there isn't so much as a whisper about the Tribulation.

At the risk of belaboring the obvious, this is certainly consistent with a pre-tribulation Rapture.

Feast and famine: Although the Tribulation isn't mentioned in the story of Isaac, it figures prominently in the story of his grandson Joseph. In Genesis 41, Joseph interprets Pharaoh's dream about seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine, and as a result is honored and given a position of authority second only to Pharaoh himself. At the same time, Joseph takes a Gentile bride, another type of the Church. Then come the seven years of plenty, followed by the seven years of famine—one of the clearest foreshadowings of the Tribulation in the entire Old Testament.

And you'd be hard-pressed to find anything in the Old Testament that paints a clearer picture of a pre-trib Rapture.

Not only is there no mention of the Tribulation proper, but notice how often the hardships of their journey are mentioned (uh, never). Notice how often Rebekah complains about having to ride on the back of a stinky camel day after day through the hot, dry desert (ditto). Note how often Scripture talks about how Rebekah starts whining and is ready to give up, turn around, and head back to Mesopotamia (same deal—not once).

Of course, the journey was not an easy, comfortable one. On my list of Things I Hope I Never Have To Do, traveling five hundred miles through the desert on the back of a camel ranks right up there near the top. But the hardships she experienced aren't even mentioned because...they aren't worth mentioning:

The troubles and trials we suffer in this world are utterly inconsequential when compared to the glory we will experience knowing and being with Christ for eternity. And just as the prospect of a new life with Isaac motivated Rebekah to leave her home and endure the journey, it is this hope that should motivate born-again believers to crucify the flesh and put aside everything that hinders us in our walk with the Lord.

Finally, note that verse 62 says that Isaac came from Beer Lahai Roi. In Hebrew, the word beer means "well," and the whole name means "the well of the One who lives and sees me," or "the well of the living One who sees me."

The well was so named as a result of the experience of Hagar, Sarah's Egyptian handmaid. In Genesis 16, we read that Sarah is unable to conceive, and out of desperation has her husband use Hagar as a surrogate to bear a child. But when Hagar actually conceives, she begins to treat Sarah with contempt and the tension between them comes to a head. An exasperated Sarah finally tells her husband that she wants the Lord to judge in the matter, and Abraham basically says "Hey, she's your servant...do whatever you want with her."

Sarah promptly kicks a pregnant Hagar out of the house and sends her packing. In the desert, the angel of the LORD* appears to Hagar and asks her where she came from and where she's going, and she tells him she is fleeing from her mistress Sarah. The angel tells her to go back to Sarah and submit to her, and also informs her that she will have a son who is to be called Ishmael, and that he will have countless descendants.

(*Note: Artistic conceptions notwithstanding, I agree with many Bible scholars who believe such Old Testament references to "the angel of the LORD" or "the angel of Yahweh" are in fact appearances of the pre-incarnate Christ.)

Hagar recognizes that she has been visited by the angel of the LORD, and is overwhelmed by the fact that God sees her and knows her predicament.

Although unseen, God sees.

So when Rebekah first meets Isaac in the field that evening, she is finally face to face with the One who lives and sees her. This is a beautiful picture of the nature of the Church's relationship with Christ during our earthly lives and what we will experience at the Rapture, when our faith in what we cannot see will find its complete fulfillment and we will see and be with Him for eternity.

And we will finally understand He has been watching over us all along.

Not seeing is believing

Recall in John 20 that Christ appears to His disciples on the evening of Resurrection Sunday. Thomas is absent, and refuses to believe the others when they tell him they have seen the Lord. Eight days later, Jesus appears to them again and Thomas is there, sees the scars, and believes.

And in one sentence, Jesus gives us the most profound characterization of the Church found anywhere in the entire New Testament:

Rebekah believed the servant's report about Isaac and traveled far to be with him sight unseen, never seeing him face to face until she finally met him at the end of her journey. We have believed the Holy Spirit's report about Christ and what He did for us and are traveling far to be with Him sight unseen, and we won't see Him face to face until the Rapture.

The servant told Rebekah all about Isaac and how his father Abraham had given him all things—so, what does the Holy Spirit tell us about Jesus and God the Father in Scripture?

The Holy Spirit tells us God loves us so much that He sent His Son Jesus into the world to die to pay the penalty for our sin that separates us from Him.

And we believe.

The Holy Spirit tells us He will forgive our sins and impute His Son's perfect righteousness to us if we ask in faith.

And we believe.

The Holy Spirit tells us Jesus rose from death to eternal life, and so will we if we place our faith in Him.

And we believe.

We haven't seen Him, but we believe. We may not see Him, but He sees us. The Lord may not intervene in our earthly lives in an overt manner, but just as the servant reported to Isaac all the details of everything that had transpired (v. 66), Jesus sees and is aware of every detail of our situations at all times, and is able to do whatever is needed at any moment to sustain us, provide for us, and carry us through.

We haven't seen Him, but that will change soon enough—and what a day that will be! We will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and in our new glorified bodies we will be able to see Him the way He really is because we will be like Him:

Don't miss the next verse, however:

So rather than waste time bickering about when we'll see Him, believers would do well to focus on the fact that we will. Only then can the hope of seeing Him do what it was intended to do—and that's motivate us to purify our lives, obey His Word, and live in a manner pleasing to Him so that we're not ashamed when we meet Him face to face.

And we will soon enough. And when we do, Jesus will no longer be the Lord of our lives that we serve sight unseen, but we will see Him as He is.

And it can't happen soon enough for me.

Greg Lauer — MAY '16

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