How far beyond the poor starveling hope of a bare and precarious salvation—which is the utmost reach of general human thought about the gospel—is the mission of Eliezer to Rebekah! He invites her to share the home, wealth, and love of Isaac, and to be taken also into the affection and adoption of his father. Of course this includes the promise of real sustenance—salvation: but how much more does it include! When Nicolas of Russia sought to win the German princess for his wife, he handed her a piece of bread with a ring upon it, a customary action with some classes of Russians: so Christ not only offers us the bread of life—we must have that, indeed, or perish—but crowns the gift of salvation with the golden pledge of eternal love and union.
Eliezer persuades her to go; yet that persuasion is mot disconnected with the operation of her own will. She is asked, Wilt thou go? That is the question which tests as to whether she has FAITH in what is told her: and her decision is taken and expressed, “I will go.” The journey is rough and tedious, but she goes forth to meet the bridegroom, and is escorted in right lordly fashion. This is how the Father and the Son would have it. Not as the wife of Gilbert a Beckett, who came to her espoused from the far east, knowing only two words of any western language, “Gilbert” and “London." She reached London and met Gilbert eventually, after great sufferings and difficulties, as those also, who can truly pronounce the two divine words “Jesus” and “Heaven,” shall eventually find themselves in heaven and welcomed by Jesus. But this was not the manner in which Gilbert a Beckett would have desired his affianced to come; nor is it the way in which Christ designs that the church should travel. The Holy Ghost has come and has adequate agencies of ministry to support and protect; happy are we if we yield ourselves entirely to His safe and sure guidance.
The Holy Ghost adorns the embryo Bride, as an earnest of what is to come, with symbols of espousal: “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long. suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” When Laban saw the gifts “he said, Come in, thou blessed of the Lord: wherefore standest thou without? for I have prepared the house, and room for the camels.” This is the natural and frequent, but not universal, result: at least, it is the duly desired order of things; that those amongst whom the believer lives should perceive these spiritual adornments, and welcome to their own hearts and homes the ministrant Spirit “in the day of visitation.” The messenger remained all night, as does the Holy Ghost, departing with the Bride-elect when the bright and morning star arises, to the great regret of impartial and upright men like Laban.
There are in Eliezer the true evangelistic traits: he has always the father's object in view, not to occupy himself in improving Mesopotamia, but to bring away the bride; to speak not of himself but of Isaac. He does everything in prayer, thanksgiving, and seeking the divine guidance; he approaches with courtesy and consideration, but with much directness and energy—he will not eat nor drink till he has told his errand, and, like Philip to the Ethiopian, he ran (ver. 17).
It is very wonderful to consider what this implies typically. In Luke 15 the father of the prodigal also “ran” to meet him. All God's movements in creation are accomplished with that majestic and awful deliberateness which comports with the august dignity of His Being; yet when it is a question of saving sinful men, the Son is “straitened till it be accomplished.” The descent of the Holy Ghost is like a “rushing mighty wind,” and the action of the Father is typically expressed in that which reveals so emphatically that “the Lord will hasten it in His time!" The seraph “flew” with the coal of fire from the altar. And so “the servant ran;” “Rebekah ran;” and “Laban ran;" for all I know, the camels and sheep ran too—what a commotion to be sure—I am afraid there must have been a little excitement! There are many excellent and well-meaning Christians who are very censorious at any lack of propriety of this sort in gospel work. Let them consider such things as I have referred to. No doubt a spurious sensationalism is much to be deplored and condemned; but there is something worse even than that—the benumbing chill of a criticizing respectability.
But there is no more need to shiver on that cold rock Scylla than there is to flounder in the “sensational” whirlpool of Charybdis.