Isaac and Rebekah

A Type of Christ and the Church

In Genesis 24 God uses a beautiful picture to show how He calls those to be the bride of Christ [church]. Abraham sends his most trusted servant Eliezer to select a bride for his son Isaac. Abraham makes Eliezer promise not to go to the Caananites to select the bride for they were idolaters. Instead, Eliezer was to travel 550 miles to Haran and Abraham’s brother’s household for Isaac’s bride because they worshipped the God of heaven.

The main characters in chapter 24 have a spiritual application. Abraham represents God. No man cometh unto me lest the father draw him. (John 6:44) Eliezer pictures the Holy Spirit. He will teach you all things. (John 14:26) Rebecca represents the called and selected bride of Christ. She has adorned herself. (Rev. 21:2) Isaac pictures our Lord Jesus. Christ is the spiritual seed and heir of the Abrahamic promise.—Gal. 3:29

Verses 15 to 22 show Rebecca’s humble, loving and kind character, willing to serve others. This shows God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.—1 Peter 5:5

At the end of the journey Rebecca sees a man coming to greet them. Eliezer tells her that he is Isaac. She immediately leaps off the camel and puts on her veil. Isaac must have beenvery pleased because he took Rebecca to his mother’s tent and he was comforted.

What a leap of faith Rebecca made when she left her family forever to become the bride of Abraham’s son. So too, the followers of Jesus [church] have given up their earthly rights to become spiritual sons of God. (1 John 3:2) They receive guidance and help from the Holy Spirit during the journey. At the end the church makes herself ready. (Rev. 19.7) She puts on her veil, a symbol of death. Her old nature [flesh]s dies so that her new creature receives its spiritual body and joins our Lord Jesus in heaven. (1 Cor.15:50-54) This Gospel age and its harvest is the time to prepare and complete Christ and the church so the Abrahamic promise to bless all the nations of the earth can be fulfilled.—Gen. 22:18