Genesis 22:1-14
Rev. Dr. Chris Ayers
God Chooses The Worst Possible People
A good sermon introduction may engage congregants in reflecting on how they met or selected their spouse.
Our text is about the selection of Rebecca. One of Abraham’s servants is sent to pick out a wife for Isaac. It’s ancient eharmony.com gone crazy.
Abraham’s servant knows Isaac’s wife can’t be one of the Canaanite girls. (Note there is a alternative witness in the Bible of major personalities marrying foreign women. Moses, for example, married Zipporah, and don’t forget Ruth and Boaz.) But other than this requirement he seems to be clueless, grasping for straws. He says, “I am standing here by the spring of water; let the young woman who comes out to draw, to whom I shall say, ‘Please give me a little water from your jar to drink.” Let that girl be THE ONE.
What a way to pick out a woman who will help fulfill God’s promise to Abraham that he will have tons of descendants.
Actually, kindness and consideration are two important qualities. And Rebekah, with those qualities serves up the water and fits the bill. Only problem is Rebekah turns out to be the worst possible choice. She too, as it turns out, is barren.
The modern church has it backwards. It often tries to choose the best possible people to do jobs even though God has a long history of choosing the worst possible people.
Clarence Jordan put it this way, God has some strange “hoe hands”.
As you preach keep in mind the Rebekah’s sitting in the pew. End your sermon with a vision of what God will surely do with each and every Rebekah.
