Chapter – 24 ‘An Answered Prayer’
Sitting beside Yosef on the platform was his recent brother-in-law. Tonight would be the final event of the week and there had been several meaningful decisions made by the youth. Even a few adults made the choice which had changed their eternal destination.
Jaye Valentine stood, as the time to begin the evening service approached. He walked to the podium and spoke a few words; he commented, “Have you ever thought about how much God must love when he answers our prayers?” Then he prayed for the Holy Spirit to meet with the speaker and the ones attending.
Yosef rose and then spoke, “Don’t forget to use the bulletin to take your notes this evening.” He paused a moment before he spoke again, “Do you think God ever plans an event and then works it out for we mortals?” He told them to think big just like some of the people of God, from the past, had done.
“I have been living in Israel recently and on occasions I have observed some of the modern gypsies. They travel with their families and their animals to different parts of the land to find grazing areas and water; then they set up camp for weeks; then eventually move on. Four thousand or so years ago, the Abraham mentioned in the book of Genesis lived like these gypsies. There came a day when he determined to find his son, Isaac, a wife. Some of you may know the story.” He told them that Abraham sent his trusted servant Eliezer to his family’s land, Nahor, to find a wife for Isaac. Genesis chapter 24.
Yosef told them that the servant stood by the well and was praying that God would show him the right woman for Isaac. Eliezer prayed that a woman would come to the well to draw water from the well, and then offer to draw water for his camels. Yosef exclaimed, “Before the servant finished the prayer, the young woman named Rebekah, came to the well and did exactly as he had prayed! So, when did The Lord answer the servant’s prayer?” Just then Valentine verbally responded from his seat, “When Rebekah came to the well.” Yosef smiled, then he replied, “In order to come to the well at that moment that the servant was praying, Rebekah would have started her travel prior to the servant actually praying for her, isn’t that right?” Valentine stood up from his seat and responded, “Then was it a predetermined time by God before she left her home?” Yosef put his fingers to his chin for a moment and nodded toward his friend.
Yosef walked to his right two steps, smiled a moment, prior to speaking then he said, “Before Rebekah left her home, she had to plan her day; a time she would go to the well as she normally did. The slightest delay and it would not have happened; you see, behind every predetermined event are countless minuet events over the course of time, which eventually leads to the actual event.” He told the audience to think about the movement of planets rotating the sun; then think of a gust of wind, as rain is falling; it could at times cause high water to occur somewhere. All things must work together, with absolute precision, for an event to happen as it does.
Yosef then commented, “For God to answer the servant’s prayer, then bring Rebekah to the well that day, HE caused the events needed, to happen or work perfectly. Yes, to answer the servant’s prayer God had to become involved in finding Isaac a bride.” Yosef lifted his forefinger and pointed it in the direction of Valentine, “So it is, for you Valentine, and others; HE directs events to make them happen. Your answered prayers and HIS eternal PLAN are directed by HIM.” Yosef paused and then told them he had a few questions that needed asked, “How do you think Moses felt when the sea was made dry so they could walk to the far side? Exod. 14:15-16. Did God provide the manna that came from heaven?” Exodus. 16:4. Then Yosef told them the story in the book of Daniel about a fiery furnace, then asked, “Who was in that furnace with the three friends of Daniel?” Daniel 3:24-25. “A fourth person.” So my question to all of us is this; does God ever intervene?
As Yosef was pausing for the audience to get their thoughts he turned toward Valentine. He asked, “Jaye, does God answer the request of the heathen or the ungodly?” Valentine looked at his friend and replied, “Doesn’t God answer with a Yes – No – or Wait?” Yosef commented, “That’s not quite the answer I was looking for; BUT it will do for now.”
Then Pastor Valentine sitting beside his son, opened his bible to a passage, and read it. Yosef looked at the audience and asked, “Did you hear the Pastors words? “ Then he said, God does not hear the Prayers of the sinners, those who have never repented nor asked Jesus to become their Savior; then he paused another moment and then raised his finger upward, then spoke, “BUT if a sinner cries out to God in repentance; he listens then.”
Yosef took a breath as he walked to the far end of the temporary stage and then he EXCLAIMED,
“Tonight is the night I want us all too pray for God to give us a greater faith!”
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Does God only answers the prayers of the righteous, not the ungodly?
Psalms 34:15. The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and His ears are open to their cry.
Job 35:12-13. “There they cry out, but He does not answer Because of the pride of evil men. 13 “Surely God will not listen to an empty cry, nor will the Almighty regard it.
John 9:31. God does not hear sinners….
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Genesis 24:1-28, Now Abraham was old, advanced in age, and the Lord had blessed Abraham in every way. 2 Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who had charge of all that he owned, “Please place your hand under my thigh, 3 and I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I live, 4 but you will go to my country and to my relatives, and take a wife for my son Isaac.” 5 The servant said to him, “Suppose the woman is not willing to follow me to this land; should I take your son back to the land from where you came?” 6 Then Abraham said to him, “Beware that you do not take my son back there! 7 The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my birth, and who spoke to me and who swore to me, saying, ‘To your descendants I will give this land,’ He will send His angel before you, and you will take a wife for my son from there. 8 But if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be free from this my oath; only do not take my son back there.” 9 So the servant placed his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and swore to him concerning this matter. 10 Then the servant took ten camels from the camels of his master, and set out with a variety of good things of his master’s in his hand; and he arose and went to Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor. 11 He made the camels kneel down outside the city by the well of water at evening time, the time when women go out to draw water. 12 He said, “O Lord, the God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today, and show lovingkindness to my master Abraham. 13 Behold, I am standing by the spring, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water; 14 now may it be that the girl to whom I say, ‘Please let down your jar so that I may drink,’ and who answers, ‘Drink, and I will water your camels also’—may she be the one whom You have appointed for Your servant Isaac; and by this I will know that You have shown lovingkindness to my master.”
Rebekah Is Chosen
15 Before he had finished speaking, behold, Rebekah who was born to Bethuel the son of Milcah, the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor, came out with her jar on her shoulder. 16 The girl was very beautiful, a virgin, and no man had had relations with her; and she went down to the spring and filled her jar and came up. 17 Then the servant ran to meet her, and said, “Please let me drink a little water from your jar.” 18 She said, “Drink, my lord”; and she quickly lowered her jar to her hand, and gave him a drink. 19 Now when she had finished giving him a drink, she said, “I will draw also for your camels until they have finished drinking.”20 So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough, and ran back to the well to draw, and she drew for all his camels. 21 Meanwhile, the man was gazing at her in silence, to know whether the Lord had made his journey successful or not. 22 When the camels had finished drinking, the man took a gold ring weighing a half-shekel and two bracelets for her wrists weighing ten shekels in gold, 23 and said, “Whose daughter are you? Please tell me, is there room for us to lodge in your father’s house?” 24 She said to him, “I am the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor.”25 Again she said to him, “We have plenty of both straw and feed, and room to lodge in.” 26 Then the man bowed low and worshiped the Lord.27 He said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His lovingkindness and His truth toward my master; as for me, the Lord has guided me in the way to the house of my master’s brothers.”
Romans 8:28, And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose….. verses 29-30 are in same paragraph; part of the context. [Who are those God FOREKNEW, PREDESTINED, and JUSTIFIED?] Ans. His Chosen
What do you think? Does God make ALL of the choices OR does mankind make some?
DG