Dennis Tuuri

the blood. The instruction whereby our God promises to strengthen us, reform us, transform us into new men, new men and women for the new kingdom that we are to participate in, to strengthen us to indeed be led on by King Jesus today. That scripture is found in Genesis 24. We’ll read the entire chapter, 67 verses. Genesis 24. Please stand for the reading of God’s word.

Genesis 24:

Now Abraham was old, well advanced in age, and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. So Abraham said to the oldest servant of his house, who ruled over all that he had, “Please put your hand under my thigh, and I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell. But you shall go to my country and to my family, and take a wife for my son Isaac.” And the servant said to him, “Perhaps the woman will not be willing to follow me to this land. Must I take your son back to the land from which you came?”

But Abraham said to him, “Beware that you do not take my son back there. The Lord God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my family and who spoke to me and swore to me, saying ‘To your descendants I give this land,’ he will send his angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there. And if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be released from this oath. Only do not take my son back there.” So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and swore to him concerning this matter.

Then the servant took 10 of his master’s camels and departed, for all his master’s goods were in his hand. And he arose and went to Mesopotamia to the city of Nahor. And he made his camels kneel down outside the city by a well of water at evening time, the time when women go out to draw water. Then he said, “Oh Lord God of my master Abraham, please give me success this day and show kindness to my master Abraham. Behold, here I stand by the well of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. Now let it be that the young woman to whom I say, ‘Please let down your pitcher that I may drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I will also give your camels a drink’—let her be the one you have appointed for your servant Isaac. And by this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master.”

And it happened before he had finished speaking that behold, Rebecca, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milka, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, came out with her pitcher on her shoulder. Now the young woman was very beautiful to behold, a virgin. No man had known her. And she went down to the well, filled her pitcher, and came up. And the servant ran to meet her and said, “Please, let me drink a little water from your pitcher.” So she said, “Drink, my lord.” Then she quickly let her pitcher down to her hand and gave him a drink. And when she had finished giving him a drink, she said, “I will draw water for your camels also, until they have finished drinking.” Then she quickly emptied her pitcher into the trough, ran back to the well, drew water, and drew for all his camels.

And the man, wondering at her, remained silent so as to know whether the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not. So it was when the camels had finished drinking that the man took a golden nose ring weighing half a shekel and two bracelets for her wrists weighing 10 shekels of gold and said, “Whose daughter are you? Tell me, please, is there room in your father’s house for us to lodge?”

So she said to him, “I am the daughter of Bethuel, Milka’s son, whom she bore to Nahor.” Moreover, she said to him, “We have both straw and feed enough and room to lodge.” Then the man bowed down his head and worshiped the Lord. And he said, “Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his mercy and his truth toward my master. As for me, being on the way, the Lord led me to the house of my master’s brethren.”

So the young woman ran and told her mother’s household these things. Now Rebecca had a brother whose name was Laban. And Laban ran out to the man by the well. So it came to pass when he saw the nose ring and the bracelets on his sister’s wrists, and when he heard the words of his sister Rebecca, saying, “Thus the man spoke to me,” that he went to the man. And there he stood by the camels at the well.

And he said, “Come in, oh blessed of the Lord. Why do you stand outside? For I have prepared the house and a place for the camels.” Then the man came to the house and he unloaded the camels and provided straw and feed for the camels and water to wash his feet and the feet of the men who were with him. Food was set before him to eat. But he said, “I will not eat until I have told about my errand.” And he said, “Speak on.”

So he said, “I am Abraham’s servant. The Lord has blessed my master greatly. He has become great, and he has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male and female servants, camels and donkeys. And Sarah, my master’s wife, bore a son to my master when she was old. And to him he has given all that he has. Now my master made me swear, saying, ‘You shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I dwell. But you shall go to my father’s house and to my family and take a wife for my son.’

And I said to my master, ‘Perhaps the woman will not follow me.’ But he said to me, ‘The Lord before whom I walk will send his angel with you and prosper your way, and you shall take a wife for my son from my family and from my father’s house. You will be clear from this oath when you arrive among my family. For if they will not give her to you, then you will be released from my oath.’ And this day I came to the well and said, ‘Oh Lord God of my master Abraham, if you will now prosper the way in which I go:

Behold, I stand by the well of water, and it shall come to pass that when the virgin comes out to draw water, and I say to her, “Please give me a little water from your pitcher to drink,” and she says to me, “Drink, and I will draw for your camels also”—let her be the woman whom the Lord has appointed for my master’s son.’

But before I had finished speaking in my heart, there was Rebecca coming out with her pitcher on the shoulder, and she went down to the well and drew water. And I said to her, ‘Please let me drink.’ And she made haste and let her pitcher down from her shoulder and said, ‘Drink, and I’ll give your camels a drink also.’ So I drank, and she gave the camels a drink also. Then I asked her and said, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ And she said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor’s son, whom Milka bore to him.’ So I put the nose ring on her nose and the bracelets on her wrists.

And I bowed my head and worshiped the Lord, and blessed the God of my master Abraham, who had led me in the way of truth to take the daughter of my master’s brother for his son. Now, if you will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me. And if not, tell me, that I may turn to the right hand or to the left.”

Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, “The thing comes from the Lord. We cannot speak to you either bad or good. Here is Rebecca before you. Take her and go, and let her be your master’s son’s wife, as the Lord has spoken.” And it came to pass when Abraham’s servant heard their words that he worshiped the Lord, bowing himself to the earth. Then the servant brought out jewelry of silver, jewelry of gold, and clothing, and gave them to Rebecca. He also gave precious things to her brother and to her mother. And he and the men who were with him ate and drank and stayed all night.

Then they arose in the morning, and he said, “Send me away to my master.” But her brother and her mother said, “Let the young woman stay with us a few days, at least 10. After that, she may go.” And he said to them, “Do not hinder me since the Lord has prospered my way. Send me away so that I may go to my master.” And they said, “We will call the young woman and ask her personally.”

Then they called Rebecca and said to her, “Will you go with the man?” And she said, “I will go.” So they sent away Rebecca, their sister, and her nurse, and Abraham’s servant, and his men. And they blessed Rebecca and said to her, “Our sister, may you become the mother of thousands of ten thousands, and may your descendants possess the gates of those who hate them.”

Then Rebecca and her maids arose, and they rode on the camels, and followed the man. So the servant took Rebecca and departed. Now Isaac came from the way of Beir Lahai Roi, for he dwelt in the south. And Isaac went out to meditate in the field in the evening. And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, there the camels were coming. Then Rebecca lifted her eyes. And when she saw Isaac, she dismounted from her camel, for she had said to the servant, “Who is this man walking in the field to meet us?”

The servant said, “It is my master.” So she took a veil and clothed herself and covered herself. And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. Then Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent, and he took Rebecca, and she became his wife, and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for the words of your scriptures, and we pray, Lord God, that you would do the Spirit’s work in our hearts today to bring us to conformity to the teachings of this scripture. We pray this for the sake of the manifestation and continuance of Christ’s kingdom upon the earth. In his name we pray. Amen.

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After a couple months’ diversion into Advent sermons and then a couple of sermons preparing us for the new year and for preparation to go into the next millennium, we’re beginning now the return to the book of Genesis to talk about marriage and family and particularly husband-wife relationships as found in the scriptures. This is the next text that seemed to me to deal fairly importantly with such matters. So I decided this is where we pick up the series in Genesis working through marriage in the book of Genesis.

However, we have a bit more of a diversion this week. This is the first of two sermons on this particular text. Next week we’ll talk more explicitly about the relationship of Isaac and Rebecca, the provision of a wife for Isaac by Abraham and his servant. And we’ll talk more explicitly about marriage then, appropriately so I guess since next week is Valentine’s Day, so we’ll focus and I suppose hopefully dramatically on the conclusion of that story that we just read—that wonderful, beautiful picture of Isaac and his wife meeting and then the consummation of their marriage. And that’s a fitting theme for Valentine’s Day, and it will help us to think through wife-husband relationships.

But this Sunday, what I want to do is cast this story in a little bigger light. What I want to talk about somewhat next week is a father’s responsibility to provide a wife for his son—or his part of that provision. So we’ll talk about that next week. But to read this story simply as a story of provision of a wife for Isaac, I think it cuts it far too narrow in terms of what it is saying to us.

What I want to talk about today is covenantal succession—passing the torch. And I want us to look at this portion of scripture in the context of the entire narrative of Abraham’s life up to this point. And I think that what we see here is not just searching out a wife. It is a culmination of Abraham’s preparing his son as the covenantal successor.

So that’s what we want to talk about today. And this is really one of the last chapters in Abraham’s life recorded for us in Genesis. Just prior to this, Abraham’s wife Sarah has died and she’s now been buried. And then he provides this wife for his son. And at the end of this chapter, you read that his son is comforted after his mother’s death by the provision of a wife.

And then in chapter 25, Abraham takes a second wife, Keturah, and has children with her. But that’s basically the end of Abraham’s story. Then he dies after the recounting of his marriage with Keturah and the number of children that they had together. So this is, you know, definitely placed in the context of the scriptures at the end of the Abraham narrative and at the beginning then really of the full-fledged transition of the narrative to Isaac and then to his sons.

So it’s placed in that context—this context then of transition from one generation to another. And as we’ve kind of looked at an emphasis at RCC for this year and into the next millennium, I think for many of the men and women here, the mothers and fathers, our thoughts are turning to the second, to the next generation as our children grow up. And I think this text will help us to focus perhaps on what some of those things are that we should do in making provision for covenantal succession at Reformation Covenant Church—for passing the torch to our Isaacs, as it were—and that’s what we want to talk about now.

First then on the outline, I want to talk a little bit about covenantal succession—Abraham and Isaac and its broader context. And we’re going to read four sets of scriptures. First of all, we read—and actually we could go earlier than this—but remember that when I gave you an outline of the life of Abraham before, there are a series of statements where God promises seed, child to Abraham, and land. Abraham, name changing in the middle of the narrative. So you have this repeated emphasis upon covenantal succession in terms of a son and then where he will live in the context of the promise, eventually of the land.

But we’re going to pick up the narrative in Genesis 17:10. And here is one of those instances where God is indeed talking to Abraham about covenantal succession in his children. He says this:

“I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you and their generations for an everlasting covenant. To be God to you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you were a stranger—all the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession. And I will be their God. And God said to Abraham, ‘As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your descendants after you. Every male child among you shall be circumcised.’”

So first of all, in that section as well as other sections earlier in the Abraham narrative, we have this idea that covenantal succession will be accomplished through the descendants of Abraham. Covenantal succession will be accomplished through the descendants of Abraham. Very specifically, later in chapter 17, in verses 19-21, he is told that covenantal succession will come specifically through Isaac.

Verse 19 of Genesis 17:

“Then God said, ‘No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant and with his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget 12 princes, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year.’”

So further articulation that covenantal succession is tied specifically to a particular seed or descendant, and that descendant is Isaac. In Genesis 18:15-20, we have a text that says this is a very important part of God’s relationship to Abraham. The context here is that God comes to visit Sodom and Gomorrah in judgment. He comes first to Abraham’s house. There’s a discussion about how Sarah will have a son and she laughs about it. And then in verse 16, we read that the men arose from there and looked towards Sodom, and Abraham went with them to send them on the way.

And the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?”

Okay, so he’s talking there about the covenantal promise to Abraham—that he’ll be the father of many nations and all the nations of the earth will be blessed in him, ultimately through the seed of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the point is that’s the context of what he’s going to say next in verse 19.

Verse 19:

“For I have known him in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him.”

“I have known him,” and some texts read that “he will do these things.” Other, as this New King James Version reads, “I have known him in order that he may.” But in any event, the covenantal succession and the promises of the covenant are very specifically tied to the fact that Abraham will command his children and his household after them that they keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and justice—that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him.

So we have these big blessings of the covenant tied to the big parenting job that Abraham’s going to do for his children as well as his household. But the next generation, Abraham is going to command those children to walk in the way of the Lord. So the covenantal succession is tied, and the promises of it, to this big command in terms of an overarching theme of covenantal fidelity on the part of Abraham to raise his children in the context of the faith.

And then finally, Genesis 22:16-18—covenantal succession and also now the component of victory is thrown into the mix as well.

Genesis 22:16-18:

“And he said, ‘By myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son. Blessing I will bless you. Multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore. And your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.’”

Now the context here is Abraham has willingly sacrificed his son. He goes up to the mount and God tells him to slay Isaac. Now he’s been told that covenantal succession will come very definitively through Isaac. So this is a test of his belief in the resurrection of the dead. That’s one thing that’s going on here. It’s also a test of his own death—to his own personal views or sense of accomplishment in having a son. You know, God causes us to sacrifice things, to hand them over to him, that he might hand them back to us with a proper understanding of our need to rely upon his calling for our children.

But in any event, Abraham knows that Isaac will live through this somehow—through resurrection or whatever. And because he’s faithful in this, this is what God tells him:

“By myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son. Blessing I will bless you. Multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore. And your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”

Okay? So Abraham has all these statements from God recorded in the text for us that covenantal succession is going to come through Isaac. That covenantal succession means more than just Isaac having a son or a daughter. It means Isaac being raised in the faith, being raised in covenantal fidelity to God—to love him and follow his commandments. And that God promises Isaac then victory because of the covenantal fidelity of his parents. It’ll be also his fidelity as well.

It’s in the context of that then that the story of Abraham obtaining a wife for Isaac must be seen. It is a part, but kind of symbolically in the narrative of the story, it’s a part for the whole of his responsibility to see Isaac as covenantal successor to him and to equip Isaac in every way for his calling and his fidelity to the God of the covenant. And that’s all encapsulated in the story—the particular story given to us in terms of that parenting that Abraham does for Isaac—is the obtaining of a wife. Very important part of course, because without a wife we’re not going to have children and the covenantal succession stops. At least that’s what God wants us to think about it.

So it’s real important to see this. Now next week we’ll talk about marriage more and what happens in preparation for or obtaining a wife for a son. But today I want us to see it in terms of this passing the torch to the second generation and covenantal fidelity to one’s children and raising them in the context of covenantal fidelity to God.

Okay. So what can we glean from the text now—from Genesis 24 specifically—as we go about thinking of the covenantal succession we have in this church in terms of the next generation?

Now, I want to put this stuff in here because point three of the outline—where we get to the actual articulation of goals for children that I think we ought to have at this church, not comprehensive list, but a list nonetheless. You know, when we get there, I was thinking the last couple weeks about this sermon, and I really don’t—I don’t want, as a result of articulating the list of what I think should be goals for our children, I don’t want to make people, I don’t want to make you feel guilty.

Then I thought, “Well, maybe I want the men to feel guilty, but I don’t want the wives to feel guilty.” Because the wives typically do feel guilty. They, you know, our wives, you know, most women at our church are homeschooling. If they’re not, they’re overseeing the children in private school. They seem to have a heart for children and a fear for their lack of whatever it might be for their children that men don’t seem to have quite the focus on.

Now, maybe that’s okay. I mean, men are called to exercise vocation and certainly we see in Abraham’s life that a big part of that is training the next generation of the covenant seed. But in any case, I don’t know all the reasons, but I think it’s generally true that when I articulate a list of goals for our children, the mothers are going to tend to feel guilty that they haven’t done that, and I don’t want you to do that.

But if the men feel guilty because they haven’t done enough in that way, that might be okay, because I think most men need a good, strong encouragement and exhortation to covenantal fidelity on the part of Abraham to raise his children in the context of the faith.

But first, before we get to the goals themselves, let me articulate some principles that emerge from the text of Genesis 24. Some principles that we should bear in mind as we think about raising our children to be covenantal successors in the context of this church.

First, there’s a firm reliance upon the sovereignty of God. Now, Abraham was pretty certain because Isaac was the carrier of the covenantal seed. So he’s got to have a wife. So he can say very definitively that God has appointed a wife. And we can say very definitively that for our children who are going to become married—and that’s most of them—God has appointed husbands and wives. So there’s a firm reliance upon the sovereignty of God in going about the task.

And as a result of that sovereignty, the servant then can pray knowing that God is the blessed controller of all things and can bring to pass the circumstance that he prays about. So there’s a firm reliance upon the sovereignty of God that permeates this text.

Look again at verse 15. And when she had finished giving him a drink, she said, “I will draw water for your camels also till they have finished drinking.” The sovereignty of God is demonstrated in the text of what the servant prays for comes to pass. And you know, right away he hadn’t barely finished the prayer and Rebecca starts walking up there, and he sees what’s going on, and so she fulfills this prayer that he has made.

There’s a firm reliance upon the sovereignty of God. When we talk about raising our children and articulating goals for what are some of the things we want to see in them as they leave our homes, we have to do so—not as Arminians, not with a fear and dread thinking that somehow our efforts are the only thing that’s important in this matter—that if we don’t do a good enough job, it’s not going to happen.

No, we rely upon the sovereignty of God in the upbringing of our children and not sinfully so, but we do rely upon the sovereignty of God. If you don’t have that down, the sort of demands that the scriptures make upon Christian parents, and that are articulated at churches where the Bible is preached, will be crushing to you. You see, because somehow it’s now all my job instead of God’s job.

So there must be a firm reliance upon the sovereignty of God.

Secondly, there’s a reliance on the providence of God. And we can see that in some of the texts we just read. God, Abraham said, “God will send his angel with you, and the thing will be prospered.” It isn’t just that God is sovereign in a kind of overarching sense, but that God’s sovereignty takes an active form in terms of his providence.

At verse 48 of the text, “And I bow down my head and worship the Lord and bless the God of my master Abraham, who has led me in the way of truth to take the daughter of my master’s brother for his son.”

You know, it’s not enough just to have an overarching view of the providence of the sovereignty of God. Providence is the application of sovereignty to the everyday details of a particular task. And Abraham’s servant can look back and say, “God led me in the way of truth.” God is actively involved in our lives. He’s not distant. He’s not remote. God is leading us in the way we train our children.

Again, if we don’t believe that, if our view of sovereignty is somehow detached—”Yeah, he’s sovereign, but you know, secondary means are everything and he’s not really too involved in those”—we’re going to be crushed under the task articulated by the scriptures and preached at this church.

We got to do so with a reliance and a rest on God’s sovereignty and his providence. Scriptures tell us in Proverbs 3:6: “In all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths.”

What a beautiful picture we have in this account of obtaining a wife for Isaac of the truth of that scripture, do we not? Abraham acknowledges God. The servant acknowledges God. A great pious man. The servant was self-sacrificial. They acknowledge God, and God directs their paths.

So parents, you feel ill-equipped for the task. Well, you are ill-equipped for the task. You’re a fallen sinner, and you’re raising the holy seed of God. But in the providence of God, he has placed you there, and you must rely upon the calling, the clear calling that God has given you as parents, to prevent yourself from becoming crushed with this feeling of inadequacy. We’re all inadequate.

Abraham’s servant couldn’t go to “my land over there” and “find a wife for my child. You know, got to be a good wife, virgin, covenant believer, and all that stuff, you know, way over there, long way away. Go find them.” Well, how are you going to do that? The servant is not equipped for that task except he relies upon the providence of God. And as a result, he acknowledges God and he counts on God directing his paths. Doesn’t mean there’s no anxiety or concern, but it does mean that there’s a bedrock of rest in the sovereign God who is providentially working in our lives as we raise our children.

Got to be in place. Husband, one of the best things you can do for your wives in this regard is to continually remind them of that—even if you think you’re doing a bad job. What you want to do first is remind them of the providence and sovereignty of God by which they can then do the work in terms of their portion of the delegated tasks in a household.

Okay. Firm reliance on the providence of God.

Third, the use of secondary means. You know, we don’t want to ignore the fact that the servant had to get together some camels, get on the camels, drive—you know, ride them on over to where he was going to go. He then talks about a prayer. He gets involved at the well. There are things he does and there are things that Abraham has to do. So by a firm reliance on God’s sovereignty and providence, I don’t mean the kind of reliance that says, “Oh, God will take care of it. I’m off the hook.” No, we have to make the appropriate use of secondary means.

Fourth, the centrality of prayer. Prayers permeate or dot through this text of scripture for us. I’ve got them listed on your outline in verses 12 and 13. You know, he’s come to the land. He’s at the well. And then he starts praying. Job is now going to start to find this gal, and he says, “Oh Lord God of my master Abraham, please give me success this day. Show kindness to my master Abraham. Behold, here I stand by the well of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water.”

He prays before the task begins. See, we should be in continual prayer about covenantal succession. That’s what he’s praying about. He’s praying about the keeper of the covenant promises, Isaac, and the provision of a wife so that the covenant can move on through the generations to come until it culminates in Jesus. So he’s talking about the same thing in essence that we’re talking about today—how we pass the torch on to our children. And a firm reliance upon prayer should undergird the entire task.

Again, in verse 26, after Rebecca manifests that she’s the one, she follows, she meets the test, and then he asks her where she’s from, and she’s from the right family as well. So she meets the test. So Rebecca is manifested. And in verse 26, the man bowed down his head and worshiped the Lord. He said, “Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his mercy and his truth toward my master. As for me, being on the way, the Lord led me to the house of my master’s brethren.”

Providence of God, sovereignty of God, but undergirded by prayers of thanksgiving.

Now, and then finally, in verse 52, after Laban and Bethuel, her sister and mother consent to the marriage:

“And it came to pass when Abraham’s servant heard their words, then he worshiped the Lord, bowing himself to the earth.”

A beautiful picture here of prayer and of a progression of the sort of devotion in that prayer. He starts on his feet asking for God’s guidance to go through the task. As the guidance becomes evident, he moves to his knees in prayer. And then as the task is finally accomplished and the permission is given from the covenantal head of the woman for her to accompany him back and become Isaac’s wife, he falls to his face on the ground and worships God.

That’s the sort of prayer life that should undergird the training of our children. At the beginning of training, we pray for them. And as God manifests his movement in their maturation, we should go back to prayer—not now of intercession, but of thanksgiving—upon our knees. And then as the task is completed, and when you get the joy that I had this last year of seeing a child, a daughter go away from the home and the blessings of God upon her and her husband, their faithfulness to Christ—and when you see covenantal succession now accomplished, as the arrow is shot, the bullet leaves the gun, whatever you want to call it, then there should be a prostrating of yourself before God in adoration to him for what he’s accomplished.

Knowing that you couldn’t do anything—in us, there’s no goodness that lies in us. It’s all of God.

So this movement, you know, of intercession, thanksgiving, and then adoration—standing, kneeling, and then prostrate upon the ground—is a beautiful picture to keep in mind of the sorts of prayers that should permeate our covenant rearing lives as we pray for our children both in terms of intercession, thanksgiving, and adoration to God for the change in their lives. We see the maturation in covenantal faithfulness that they exhibit.

Fifth, a reliance upon God’s blessings. Just very briefly, we talk about the law a lot. That’s very important because it’s God’s word to us. But don’t think somehow that it is your obedience that merits the blessings of God. You are placed in the path of blessing, dear ones, beloved of the Lord, because of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and his election. You are placed in the context of blessing.

Now, the possibility of curse of chastisement sits out there should you stray from the path. Okay? But it’s not as if you walk into this affair of raising your kids, for instance, neutral. You walk in the context of Christ’s blessings upon you. And unless you apostatize from the task, you’re not going to get into the cursed side of the thing. You see, because the blessings are not a result of your work.

There’s a firm reliance upon the blessings of God. The servant has no confusion about this. That’s why he adores God. The adoration of worship and prayer to God at the conclusion of the task is because he knows that God has done this thing—even though the servant has engaged himself in secondary means.

And then finally, a sacrificial spirit. Now, I’m trying here to get you ready for these goals. You won’t feel too bad when I articulate them. But you’ll rely upon God’s sovereignty and his providence and his blessings, and you’ll pray for your kids and make use of the secondary means. But you know, it’d be a big fat lie to get up here and tell you that parenting is anything other than sacrifice.

And you children, you’re not going to believe this. You won’t understand this. I don’t care. You will in about 20 years. Most of you, 15, 20 years, you’ll know this is true. Parenting is about sacrifice. It is about every day dying to some aspect of what you would like to do for the sake of another.

Isn’t that wonderful? I mean, it sounds kind of gruesome, but it’s really what the faith is all about. It’s walking in the path of Jesus.

Now, this servant—we don’t know for sure who this servant was, but you know, it’s probably the old servant, the head steward over all that Abraham has. Probably Eliezer, right? Eliezer has been named for us early in the Abraham narrative in Genesis 15:2 and 3. Abraham says, “Lord God, what will you give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” He kind of wants Eliezer to be the one who carries this thing on. So the heir of his house until the child comes along is Eliezer.

Now, if this is still Eliezer, and it probably is, think of what a good guy this guy is. What a self-sacrificial man he is. He’s lost the inheritance of all this stuff. He’s been supplanted by Isaac. You can see an analogy here to John the Baptist being supplanted by Jesus. You know, and that’s kind of the picture of Eliezer. He’s going to be supplanted by this second generation. He’s a self-sacrificial guy who has tremendous devotion to his master. Does he not? You see that repeated in his prayers: “God, you’ve been faithful to my master. Oh, prosper my master’s task.”

You see, he’s such a neat example to us of piety, a sense of piety with his prayers and his adoration of God, his devotion to his covenantal head, his master. His quiet, good sense is one thing that Derek Kidner in his commentary on this text talks about as well as his determination in seeing the matter through. And I want us to think just a moment then about his self-sacrificial attitude.

And we’re going to talk about these goals. These goals aren’t going to be easy for church or family. And yet they’re things that we should give ourselves to, I think. But it’s going to be hard work. It’s self-sacrificial work. There’s a great joy, you know, in prospering the task of the master. Now, the master here to us in this task is God. You know, when we baptize our kids, we essentially say, “We can’t do it. They’re your kids.” He says, “They’re my kids. And now I want you to raise him for me.” He’s the master.

So we’re very much in the position of Eliezer with our own children. And we’re sacrificing ourselves for the sake of the covenantal succession that God brings to pass through our children.

Self-sacrificial spirit must permeate our passing of the torch. Okay.

Now, let’s talk then about articulation of some goals. How do we pass the torch at Reformation Covenant Church? These are some suggested goals for our children. This is the beginning, hopefully, of a series of discussions we can have about these goals. I thought, you know, please, some of these may be wrong. This is not the inspired word of God I’m preaching here. I think it is an application of the word of God, but there’s room for critique and improvement.

What we have in this church is some really excellent people—us in this church is some really excellent people who have provided materials and tools. The Foresters here have provided materials in Christian character evaluation and development. There are other Christian tools out there as well—articulation of what the character should look like. What does it mean, love for Jesus Christ in the church? How does that look in the context of the life of a young man or woman growing up? What does it mean, a good conscience, means you know, clean from defilement? And what does it mean, unhypocritical faith?

So the goal of our instruction must be kept in mind. It’s interesting that in—I just listed a couple scriptures here of kind of deathbed sort of talks. In 1 Kings 2:1-4, we read this:

“Now the days of David drew near that he should die. And he charged Solomon his son, saying, ‘I go the way of all the earth. Be strong, therefore, and prove yourself a man. Keep the charge of the Lord your God to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, his commandments, his judgments, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn. That the Lord may fulfill his word which he spoke concerning me, saying, “If your sons take heed to their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul,” he said, “you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.”‘”

On his deathbed, David exhorts his now adult son to faithfulness to God—to love God with all his heart, soul, and might, to cleave to the commandments and thus have a good conscience, and to believe to these commandments as articulated in God’s word—to have a faith in the word of God and in God’s providence that he might prosper.

I pray that many of us might be able to have long, lingering deaths. You don’t want that. You want to die in your sleep, don’t you? I don’t want to die in my sleep. I’d like—I know that maybe I’m goofy here, but I kind of want a lingering death so that I can gather some people together the way David did, the way Joshua did, and articulate in very clear terms what we desire for the next generation.

Those of you who knew Judge Beers know that the last few months of his life, he got very pointed in his speech about what needed to be done at this church and what needed to be addressed in particular people’s lives. You know, death has that way of clarifying vision. And so we’re going to talk about some other kind of goals, but the end result is that the kids and the generations to come—and that we might always see ourselves in a position of choosing this day who we will serve and of exhorting each other to serve the Lord Jesus Christ.

That’s what Joshua does in his deathbed talk, part of which is recorded in verses 14 and 15 of chapter 24 of Joshua:

“Now therefore, Joshua said, ‘Fear the Lord. Serve him in sincerity and in truth. Put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the river and in Egypt. Serve the Lord. And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the river or the gods of the Ammonites in whose land you dwell. But as for me in my house, we will serve the Lord.’”

Good, self-conscious, presuppositional thinking. You’re either going to serve the Lord or choose which idol you’re going to serve. There’s no neutral ground. He’s telling the next generation, and he’s exhorting them to have faith in God, not to be idolaters. In our day and age, in our language of the New Testament, to cleave to the Lord Jesus Christ.

The upbringing of our children should include at some point in time, probably somewhat regularly, admonitions that our children walk in the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. If they do not do that, if that is not at the heart or the purpose or the goal of our instruction, then everything else is wasted. It doesn’t make any difference. In fact, all the skills we might give them, if they’re used for the idolatrous religions, it’s worse than wasted. You see, they’re traitors to the cause if that happens.

So we must remember the goal of our instruction.

Secondly, though, now getting to more some more explicit, some more evaluatory sort of items: a good knowledge of Bible content. I believe our children should have a good knowledge of Bible content. You know, kind of obvious. We do not have a mystical religion in the sense that there was a guy named Edgar Cayce, the sleeping prophet—a weird guy, interesting life. You know, he would sleep with the Bible under his pillow and he would absorb the knowledge of the Bible supposedly in that way. There was some demonic stuff going on in Edgar Cayce’s life. Of that there’s very little doubt in my mind. But that’s what he would do.

Well, it doesn’t work that way. You see, we can’t just have the Bible in our homes if our children don’t—and we can’t even just tell them to read the Bible regularly. If they don’t understand what they’re reading and don’t retain what that Bible knowledge is, you see, they simply need good Bible content. They need to have a knowledge of Bible content.

Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3 and said, “You must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures—not just read the Holy Scriptures, not sleep on them, not just have it in the living room. You have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”

You see, there again the goal of knowing the scriptures is relationship with Christ—to be wise in knowing him and to have this faith and a good conscience and love.

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Our children are not complete and equipped for every good work if they don’t know the Bible. Now, as I said very importantly, the goal of this—the goal as is articulated here—the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. In John, Jesus said, “You search the scriptures, in them you think you have eternal life, and these are they which testify of me.”

He wasn’t saying, “Don’t search the scriptures; just meditate on me.” He was saying that the scriptures, in the providence of God and in the spirit of God, to the elect—to those who aren’t rebellious—lead us to Christ. So he’s drawing the two together. He’s not separating them.