Sunday Morning 10/18/2026 "Sarah's Burial and Isaac's Bride" Genesis 23-24
Birth. Bride. Burial. These three things are important to any man. Your birth is very important. Whether you realize it or not, who your parents are and what they have and are like will determine much of what happens to you for the rest of your life. Isaac had great parents: Abraham and Sarah. They were in a covenant relationship with the great God who had blessed them with prosperity and promises of a glorious future that would be passed down only to him. The Bible talks a lot about how a person is buried, and surprisingly where! Abraham was very concerned about where Sarah was buried. All of cha.23 is taken up with Sarah’s burial place. And after the new birth, nothing is more important than a good bride. Careful who you marry because a marriage can mean heaven or hell on earth. Your spouse may become your helpmate or your hellmate! Obtaining the right bride (spouse) should take a lot of prayer and observing and cooperating with the providence of God. It did for Isaac and it should for every one of us. (First comes the sacrifice, then the spouse.)
I. Sarah’s Burial. (Gen.23)
A. The Pain. “So the 127-year-old Sarah died, and Abraham came to mourn and weep for her.”
Death brings a lot of pain to the loved ones; Abraham was no exception. The pain is real. It hurts to lose someone we love and have them “buried out of my sight.” When our spouse dies, we grieve; but not as others who have no hope. Christians are the only ones on earth who have hope.
B. The Place. I don’t know why the place of burial is so important, but the Bible goes out of its way to talk about where people were buried. Father Abraham teaches us to be sure our loved ones are buried properly.
II. Isaac’s Bride. (Gen.24) “Then Isaac took Rebekah and she became his wife, and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.”
Providence. The providence of God is written all over this story about Abraham obtaining a bride for his son, Isaac. Providence means “Divine guidance and care.” (Webster) America’s Founding Fathers used this as their name for God because they could see the hand of God in everything concerning the forming of our nation.
Providence is not some blind fatalism. It is God working (mostly behind the scenes) to bring about His will. This is shown clearly in the story of Esther where God is not mentioned, but He was certainly working to bring about the preservation of Israel so that Messiah could come. In both Esther’s and Rebekah’s stories we learn that certain things work with the providence of God.
Prayer is one of those things. Throughout this story we see Abraham’s servant praying. And all his prayers were answered. People seriously err when they believe and act like things are just going to happen however God has determined they are going to happen. Nothing could be further from the truth. God does things in answer to prayer that He would not do if we didn’t pray. Providence uses prayer.
Personal Decisions work with providence. “Her family said, “Will you go with this man?” And she said, “I will go.” (v.58) Decisions are important. They decide destinies. Providence has laid out a plan for our lives, but each of us must choose to follow that plan. Rebekah did and so must we.
III. God’s Picture. In this ancient story God shows us the Trinity at work in our salvation. Let me explain. We suppose the servant in this story is Eleazer, but the Bible doesn’t tell us that. It simply identifies him with these words: “the oldest servant in Abraham’s house, who ruled over all that he had.” When an honorable, highly esteemed and unnamed servant is spoken of in the Bible it is often a type of the Holy Spirit. It certainly is here. Abraham is of course a type of God the Father, and Isaac a type of Jesus Christ.
In God’s providence in salvation, the Father sets up the plan. Why? Because just like Adam and Eve, the Father wants a bride for His son. Why? He wants many sons, many children. The first command of God to humans is “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” Hebrews 2:10 says this: “For it was fitting for Jesus, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.” You can’t have children without a bride. So the Father sends the Holy Spirit after the bride for His Son. Rebekah is the type of the church, the bride of Christ.
What an awesome picture of our salvation, authored and conducted by the providence of God. The Father sends the Spirit throughout the world, with the preaching of the Good News, to woo and win lost sinners to become the wealthy bride of Christ. But that bride must make a personal decision to be married to Him. He says, “Follow Me,” and we must say as Rebekah did, “I will go.” That decision will change your life.
Notice three things from this study.
1.) Rebeka went with the servant before she ever saw him. (1Pet.1:8-9) This is where faith comes in. You must follow Jesus even though you’ve never seen Him.
2.) She saw all the gifts and riches of the son. The church’s responsibility is to show the prospective bride of Christ the gifts of the Spirit and the riches of His likeness and blessings. We must demonstrate His power, love, joy, peace and grace, before we can expect them to believe what we say about Him and His blessings. This is what happened in Acts chapter two and in Acts 8: 6 where Philip went down to Samaria and preached Christ to them “and the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed; and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. And there was great joy in that city.” This is New Testament power evangelism. Show them the riches of Christ.
3.) She went to live with the son. She didn’t say to the servant, “I want to be married to this wealthy man, but you don’t expect me to leave my home and go to live in his house do you. I can’t do that.” Matthew 8:21-22 says, “Then another of His disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, let me first go and bury my father.’ But Jesus said to him, ‘Follow Me and let the dead bury their own dead.” I am skeptical of a salvation that claims to take you to heaven but won’t take you to church. The church is the house of God that Jesus is building for His bride. Jesus said these words, “Whoever of you who does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple.” (Lk.14:33) A bride who does not want to live in the home of her husband? Never happens.
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