Make your Name Great

Gen 12:3 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great;

The strength of blessing that was to flow into the family depended on the sense of respect for the place where it came. This is why God had to make the name of Abraham great. As we mentioned previously, the place where greatness begins is in the heart of Sarah, his wife. She is closer to him than any other person and knows him better than anyone else. All those who are in the family look to her as the pattern of how to approach the source of blessing.

The more respect and confidence she shows in her husband, the more ability he has to bless for his words are more significant and important. A good illustration of this principle is when a man is preaching to his church family. His wife sits in the front row. I have seen cases where the wife is nervous, deeply concerned worried that he will make mistakes and do a bad job. Her husband looks in her direction and sees the concern and then as he is trying to speak the thought comes to him, something is wrong; I must be doing something wrong! He loses his train of thought and then stumbles. She becomes even more anxious, which makes him even less capable to speak. At the same time others in the room can feel something is not right, they look to his wife and see her concern and they begin to think, maybe he is not really such a good speaker. After several attempts to preach he finally concludes that it is not for him and gives up. His wife completely unsuspecting is frustrated that she is married to such a hopeless man!

Since the wife did not know that God had placed it in her hands to make the name of her husband “great” she is the key. Now see let us look at this situation again with a woman with the heart of Sarah. As her husband speaks she sits there beaming confidence, her heart is completely at peace knowing that God will provide what is needed. As he looks to his beloved, he can see in her sweet face, the face of the one who knows him more than any other, complete peace, confidence and trust in God. Like the sweet fragrance of perfume, the joy of her heart wafts across the room and influences the people, she has made his path straight, she has fulfilled her role. She awakens the warrior, the knight in shining armour and suddenly his mind sharpens, the back straightens and the message pours forth with power. She is the key, she is the one who drew water from the well and gave it to the people to drink – all without saying one word!

The book of Genesis sends us a very strong message about the importance of the marriage relationship. The whole story of how Abraham went to great lengths to find a wife for his son that would draw water from his well to give to the world underscores this point.

Consider the simple fact that God uses 56 verses to describe the creation of the world, but uses 67 verses to describe the story of the marriage of Isaac to Rebekah. This fact alone should instruct us as to what is really important to God. God could have started the Bible by listing out the entire elemental table, the molecular structure of various system, the mystery of the atom and gravity, but He does not reveal any of this information. I think the point is clear.

Gen 24:7  The LORD God of heaven, which took me from my father's house, and from the land of my kindred, and which spake unto me, and that sware unto me, saying, Unto thy seed will I give this land; he shall send his angel before thee, and thou shalt take a wife unto my son from thence.

Consider the situation as Abraham is laying the foundations to secure his family kingdom. He carefully instructs his servant to make thorough search for a woman who would become his daughter and know how to draw the waters of life from the well of his son. All heaven watches with deep interest as this servant is led by the angel to this young and beautiful woman, how much more interesting is this story than studying the elemental table! The God of relationships lays down from the beginning; the genesis of what is important and how it works. This is in fact the elemental table of relationships and family – study it carefully and learn the secrets of such chemistry.

The whole kingdom of God now rests on this following prayer of the servant of Abraham

Gen 24:12-14  And he said, O LORD God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day, and shew kindness unto my master Abraham. Behold, I stand here by the well of water; and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water: And let it come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink; and she shall say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also: let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac; and thereby shall I know that thou hast shewed kindness unto my master.

God put it into the heart of Abraham’s servant to pray for a young woman that delights in service and hospitality. The simple act of drawing water, such a fitting symbol for the work of the daughter of Abraham, for on such the government rests. The story continues

Gen 24:16-19  And the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin, neither had any man known her: and she went down to the well, and filled her pitcher, and came up. And the servant ran to meet her, and said, Let me, I pray thee, drink a little water of thy pitcher.  And she said, Drink, my lord: and she hasted, and let down her pitcher upon her hand, and gave him drink. And when she had done giving him drink, she said, I will draw water for thy camels also, until they have done drinking.

Living in the time of Sodom and Gomorrah, finding a young woman who had not known another man would have been extremely rare. Why does the Bible specifically point this out? Why did it need to mention this? The experience of intimacy has an extremely profound effect on the heart and mind. It is God’s intent that a woman only draws water from one well and not several, the greater the number of wells drawn from the weaker the bonds of connection through the mixing of past memories with current experiences. Her husband also has to deal with the fact that she has connected with another and this can allow for doubts to enter his mind about her. The same of course is true for a man; the more women that he attracts to his well, the more vulnerable will be the woman he chooses to settle down with. She will have to fight off thoughts that is only “hopefully” the last of several women. All of these things serve to weaken the blessing channel.

This does not mean that God cannot heal hearts and restore wells to a sense of completeness, but the road is hard and requires much faith in the Lord’s promises.

Notice how the story says that the servant ran to meet her. Imagine this man of God running to this young woman to meet her, eager to see if she is the one that will become the wife of His master’s son. Her words are significant “Drink my lord” – She expresses words of respect and honour. She then freely offers to draw water for the animals. She considers the welfare of those creatures under the care of Abraham’s servant. The spirit of respect combined with the desire to serve show clearly that this woman possesses the spirit of Christ for these attributes only come from Him.

Hear the prayer of the servant of Abraham in realising this:

Gen 24:27  And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of my master Abraham, who hath not left destitute my master of his mercy and his truth: I being in the way, the LORD led me to the house of my master's brethren.

Just think that without Rebekah, Abraham would have become destitute of mercy and truth. Think it through carefully how significant this woman was to God’s kingdom.

I invite you to read again this most wonderful of love stories and its importance for us today. The willingness of this young woman to leave her home and become the wife of Isaac; how she covered her face when she first saw Isaac, how Isaac was comforted through Rebekah after the death of his mother and how Abraham’s name was not only made great through his wife but through Rebekah his daughter in-law. It was because of her that he was not left destitute of the mercy and truth of God.

In Rebekah we see the most wonderful attribute of the feminine spirit, the ability to draw water from the well. In looking to her husband with love and respect and confidence, she drew forth from him the spirit of Christ upon her and her children. She drew down the spirit of acceptance, the Lord’s pleasure combined with a fervent desire to please and obey the Father. Indeed she was a beautiful woman whose price was above rubies.
How the world needs women like this today to draw water from the well of the husband. The philosophy of this world teaches men and women to draw water from their own well, but a man can’t draw from his own well and a woman does not have one to draw from.

These stories in Genesis are indeed provide the foundational lessons for us to learn how best to form family and society. There is much more to the term childrren of Abraham than we might normally think. Let husbands always remember that his ability to bless and prosper and become a great nation depends upon his wife. Let him cherish her, love her, protect her with this in mind.