He Shall Send His Angel Before Thee

[Posted by permission. Chippenham Old Baptist Chapel.]

Sermon preached at Old Baptist Chapel, Chippenham by Mr. G. D. Buss on Lord’s Day evening, 18th February, 2018

“He shall send His angel before thee.”—Genesis 24:7

“He” – that is the Lord God of heaven – “shall send His angel before thee.” And it was that which made the way prosperous for Eliezer in this vital matter which lay upon his shoulders to perform.

In the Garden of Eden, the Lord God Almighty instituted three ordinances which are to be observed to the end of time. And, although man has marred them, they are still there as God’s commands.

The first is the Sabbath day. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Although since New Testament times the Sabbath now is the first day of the week, the day our Lord arose; the principle is yet the same. One day in seven belongs to the Lord. It is for our rest, but it is especially for His honour and glory. It is for us to stand still for a moment and remember whose we are, to whom we are accountable and ask ourselves: “Whither goest thou?” Where is your journey going to end? The Sabbath is a most precious privilege. Do not despise it. Do not abuse it. The Lord says: “Them that honour Me I will honour, and they that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.”

The second institution God made in the Garden of Eden was work. Adam was given the garden in which to work, although before the fall it must have been easy work, with no sweat and no toil to it. Nonetheless, even before he fell he was not to be idle. And that is another principle that pervades. It is God’s will that while on the face of this earth we should not be idle. We should be occupied. And, if you fear God, you will want to know in what occupation He would have you work, so that you are found doing His will and occupying such a position that is for His honour and glory and for the good of your never-dying soul.

The third institution, of course, is marriage. Instituted in the Garden of Eden even before man fell, the Lord God brought to Adam his bride, Eve. She was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. And the principle went on from there: “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” It is very significant to notice that the longest chapter in the Book of Genesis, and one whole book later on; the Book of Ruth, are given over to an unfolding of the providential nature, as well as underneath the spiritual nature, of marriage that God has ordained for the good of man. And again, as in the Sabbath and as in work, so it is in this ordinance: it is for His honour and glory.

Now, Abraham was very concerned that Isaac should have a bride. Why was he so concerned? Well, I could give you three reasons. The first was because Abraham was living amidst heathen surroundings. It could well have been that Isaac might have cast his eyes on one around who did not fear God and who did not follow in the footsteps of his father Abraham. That would have been a snare to Isaac.

Secondly, Abraham was also very concerned that the Lord had given a promise. “In Isaac shall thy seed be called.” Abraham was now an old man. Many years had now passed since that promise was given. Isaac was probably forty years old at this time, in which case Abraham was indeed very aged. And, ’ere he passed from this time state, Abraham wanted to be sure that God had provided for Isaac that he might see the seed begin to unfold that God had promised: to be like the stars in the sky for multitude and the sand on the seashore innumerable. And, Abraham did live to see Jacob and Esau before he was taken away into eternity. “Well done, thou good and faithful servant,” must certainly have been said to Abraham, the father of the faithful.

The third and most important reason that Abraham was so concerned, was this: when Isaac was laid on the altar, as we read in another chapter, God showed Abraham that He would, in due season, send a Lamb; the Lamb of God. “My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering:” Hundreds of years later our Lord said: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day: and he saw it, and was glad.” Abraham was a poor sinner. He knew he needed a lamb; the Lamb. He knew God had promised that eventually His seed would come; that One of whom John the Baptist spoke, as we read in John 1: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” All these things lay with weight upon Abraham’s spirit. No doubt the words of the psalmist, written many, many years later, would have comforted him. “The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me.” So, when Abraham sent Eliezer on this mission, there was a humble confidence that the Lord was in the matter; that the Lord would indeed go before him and his servant Eliezer, and a bride would be provided for Isaac out of Abraham’s kindred.

But my point this evening is the way in which the Lord went before Eliezer in this matter that was laid upon him. Let me just make one comment here, which is very important. That matter was laid on Eliezer’s shoulders by God. It was a burden, yes. Abraham commanded him, but Eliezer’s God was in the matter. As Eliezer left Abraham’s tent and made his way across the desert to Laban and Rebekah, he had on his heart a heavy weight. It was a pleasant weight in one sense, but it was a solemn responsibility. Eliezer needed a guide. And friends, when the Lord lays a burden upon us; a path to be walked out or a way to go, then we need a guide. There is a lovely word in Psalm 32. Have you ever pleaded it? “I will guide thee with Mine eye.” “Mine eye!” Oh, that is a good word! Our eyes are dim. They are often blurred, and sometimes even shut. They cannot see a step ahead. But the eye of the Lord never sleeps. We read in Psalm 121: “Behold, He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.” What a lovely Psalm that is! And, in the Book of Deuteronomy we read of the land: “the eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.”

My mind goes to an incident I read of a few months ago about a ship that was crossing the Atlantic towards the USA. The weather was very foggy, but the ship kept going at quite a considerable speed. Some of the passengers became alarmed and sent a message to the captain asking if he should perhaps slow down. But the captain sent a message back. ‘It’s all clear up here!’ Apparently the captain could see what the passengers could not see. And, child of God, your heavenly Father says to you tonight: ‘It’s all clear up here!’ It is! It may not seem to be to you. You have got to walk in Isaiah 50. “Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of His servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God”. Stay upon the One to whom your path is absolutely clear. There is no darkness in Him or with Him. He is not perplexed as to the way you should take, and not pondering what should be the next step. He knows the end from the beginning. He is “Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending.” He is “Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.” Friends, I tell you, it is all clear up there, in the eye, the heart and the mind of the Lord God Almighty. And that is how dear David felt when he was dying. Some things were not very clear, were they? His family was in confusion, and his own life had some sad blots in it. He was an afflicted man. And, even as he lay there, there was that man, Adonijah, trying to usurp the throne from his son Solomon. What did David say? “Although my house be not so with God; yet He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure.” It is all clear in the covenant, friends. Indeed, we read in 2 Samuel; “And He shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds.” “A morning without clouds!” Yes! What a mercy! In the eye of God your way is as clear as it could ever be.

“Blind unbelief is sure to err, 

And scan His work in vain; 

God is His own interpreter, 

And He will make it plain.”

W. Cowper

Let us come back to our text. “He shall send His angel before thee.” Let me now speak of something else; something that is very mysterious, but undoubtedly true; the ministry of angels. We are told in the New Testament, as well as the Old, that there are ministering spirits sent forth by God to minister unto His dear people; unto those who will be the heirs of salvation. For the most part, the actions of those ministering spirits are hidden and not seen. Yet, I do believe that if we get to glory, there will be a review of the way in which the Lord led us. I am well persuaded that we will see that there were times when the angel of the Lord was certainly at our side, though we knew it not. Is that not what the good hymnwriter meant when he said;

“A sovereign Protector I have, 

Unseen, yet for ever at hand; 

Unchangeably faithful to save,

Almighty to rule and command.”?

You may say, ‘But that is speaking of God, not of angels.’ That is true. But, what is true in grace concerning your never-dying soul is true in providence, too. Remember, God has everything in His hands: grace and providence. His angels are His messengers. They are His instruments to bring to pass that that He would have for His dear people in many, many ways.

It was so here with Eliezer. “He shall send His angel before thee.” We will come back to who that angel was in a moment. But here was a wonderful promise for Eliezer. He was to have good company. It was God-sent company, God-ordained company. And that is the best company to have in your journey, friend. It was so with the two on the road to Emmaus. “Jesus Himself drew near, and went with them.” What better company could they have wished for? Think of that lovely hymn we sometimes sing:

“The way I walk cannot be wrong, 

If Jesus be but there.”

J. Hart

You may be bereft of all else. The Lord may take away every other prop you have ever leant upon. But, if Jesus still be there, you are in the right way, you are safe and you are secure. And, what is more, that word concerning the righteous will be true of you; “The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.”

Let us get back to Eliezer. He ventures out with this promise, “He shall send His angel before thee.” Who is this angel? He does not say ‘an angel.’ There are myriads of angels; cherubims, seraphims, you can read elsewhere in God’s Word of the different functions they have. They each have different work to do. It has been said (and it is something you and I need to remember), that if an angel was asked to rule an empire or to sweep a room, they would do either with equal diligence. Would you? Would you? I wonder! Do you ever sweep up (or vacuum, of course, in these days), with that equal diligence? We are proud people by nature, aren’t we? We like to be something and somebody. Angels are not like that. Whatever task their Master gives them, they do it with equal diligence, equal love and with equal purpose to Him.

Again, look at it another way. Think of the ministry of angels throughout the Word of God. Think of the angel that was sent to support the dear Saviour in the garden of Gethsemane. Oh, what a privilege! To come from the very presence of God down to that place where He was sweating, as it were, great drops of blood in His holy agony! An angel from heaven was sent to support Him. There is something very precious there. What about the angel who was sent to roll away the stone from the sepulchre? What a privilege that was! And then, what a privilege for that one who was sent to unlock Peter’s gate to set him free! And the Lord still has His angels. He still has His messengers, though unseen.

Now, here we have “His angel.” I think, dear friends, that with this angel we are quite legitimately able to say that it is the angel of the covenant; one of those precious intimations of the holy interest, influence and guidance God’s dear Son gave to the Old Testament Church even before He became verily God and verily man. “His angel.” There is something very precious here: God the Father’s uncreated angel. All the other angels were created. The uncreated angel is a name given to the second Person in the glorious Trinity: the eternal Son of the eternal Father, who eventually stooped down in a nature like our own to suffer bleed and die. But, on several occasions we find Him in the Old Testament to guide, to influence and to bring to pass further steps on the way to His own incarnation. Here was one of them; one of the links in the chain to provide Isaac with a bride that the succeeding generations of Abraham might be continued to the coming of our Saviour in due course. “His angel.” Let us pause again. “He shall send His angel before thee.” Think, my dear friends, of where the dear Saviour is now, at the right hand of His dear Father, “Whither the Forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.”

Let us, for a moment, consider Joseph, that great type of our Lord Jesus Christ. “He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant: Whose feet they hurt with fetters.” Why did He send Joseph before them? So that he would be in Egypt to be the preserver of the nation in due course. And so, my dear friends, in a far more glorious sense, the heavenly Joseph sits at the right hand of His Father. He has been sent before them. Oh, what a way He went! The way of the manger in Bethlehem, the way of the waters of Jordan to be baptised beneath, the way of temptation in the wilderness, the way of opposition, persecution, hatred, malice and spite; the way of the sweat, the toil and the blood of Gethsemane, the way of the judgment hall where He was crowned with thorns: His dear back smitten, stricken and afflicted and then the way of the cross to Golgotha, there to hang between two thieves bleeding, dying in ignominy and apparent shame! Now the grave, then the throne! The tomb empty, the throne filled! He sent an angel before them in that glorious, blessed sense. And now the dear Saviour sits at the right hand, verily God, verily Man.

“The same dear Man in heaven now reigns 

That suffered for our sake.”

J. Hart

Friends, were this not so, we would have no prospect beyond the grave. But He has gone before. “When He putteth forth his own sheep, He goeth before them.”

We will come back to our text. We keep wandering from it, but nonetheless I hope there is a purpose. “He shall send His angel before thee.” The point on my spirit this evening is how wonderfully this angel overruled the hearts, conversations and actions of one and another. Abraham was absolutely confident that this would take place. He was sure that this angel, that God sent before his servant Eliezer, would so order events there would be no doubt about the outcome. You think of what happened: things that seemed to happen by chance, but were not by chance. For example, the very time that Eliezer arrives outside the city of Haran was the very time that Rebekah should come out to the well. Friends, God’s timing is absolutely perfect. He is never before His time, and never behind it. Absolutely perfect! Our timing is so imperfect and so erratic, isn’t it? Not His. Not God’s. God’s timing is perfect. “As for God, His way is perfect.” Those of you who are waiting God’s time, are waiting a perfect time. You are waiting a perfect unfolding of your path by this great and blessed God.

Again. How dear Eliezer prayed! None but Almighty God could have put that prayer in his heart. A simple prayer, and yet a real prayer: that the first one who should come out would be willing to give him a drink of water, and feed his camels also. I understand there were ten camels. It has been estimated by godly scholars that Rebekah would have had to fill her pitcher thirty times to satisfy the thirst of those camels, and Eliezer’s thirst! It was no mean task. Here is a diligent woman; just the right person for Isaac. When Eliezer asked her, would she do it? Yes, she was willing. She was moved to do so. The very words were in her mouth! Who ordained that? God did. Friends, God’s people should not have the words ‘luck’ or ‘fortune’ in their vocabulary. There is no such thing as luck or fortune in God’s account.

“My life’s minutest circumstance 

Is subject to His eye.”

C. Wesley

I do not like to hear God’s people use the word ‘unlucky.’ They should not use it; it is not Scriptural. There is no such thing as being unlucky. Your providence is ordered. Although things often do not fall out as you wish, it is not bad luck. A humbling under the mighty hand of God is needed. “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you.” That is the wonder of it. However low that hand may bring you, there is always a hand underneath to support you. That is wonderful, isn’t it? “Casting all” – all that that hand brings. “Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you.” Blessed words for God’s dear people! Eliezer was among those, and so was Rebekah.

But then again, there was Laban to deal with. As we read this chapter, I couldn’t help but notice how Laban very quickly saw the jewels; the gold and the silver. I think his eyes lit up when he saw them. A covetous man! It isn’t long before we see, in this chapter, some of his character coming out. For, when the matter had been unfolded, Laban began to work. Yes, he was willing that Rebekah should go, there was no problem there. But then she was asked to stay for ten days, or as the margin suggests, ten months! And friends, knowing Laban’s character later on, that would soon have been ten years! He was not a man to deal with was he? But, blessed be God, the angel was there. The matter was put to Rebekah. “Wilt thou go with this man?” I like the way Rebekah answered. There was no hesitancy, there was no qualification put upon it and she did not lay down any conditions. “I will go.” What did I tell you this morning about the Lord taking the will of His people in His hand? “Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power.” When the Lord makes His people willing, all the obstacles that others may put in the way mean nothing. They would say:

“Hinder me not, ye much-loved saints, 

“For I must go with you.”

J. Ryland

And so, Rebekah says: “I will go.” Yes, she had to say goodbye to her mother. She probably never saw her again. She had to kiss her brother Laban goodbye. She left all, we may say, “for Christ’s sake.”

“Thus make me willing, glorious Lamb, 

To suffer all things for Thy name;

At last be where my Jesus is,

And rise to everlasting bliss.”

And again, the same hymn says:

“But part with all, and follow Him.”

Part with all! That is a big word, isn’t it? I wonder if we have really walked in that path! “Part with all, and follow Him.” What it means, dear friends, is to part with everything that would hinder you in the way. Every idol, every sin and everything in this world that is hindering you from running in the way of His commandments: to part with it by God’s grace and with the strength that He will give you. “I will go.”

So, Rebekah leaves her family. She bids them goodbye, then makes that long journey, probably several days if not weeks, back to Isaac’s tent. Isaac that very evening, comes out to meditate. We are told that he went to pray. That is what it says in the margin. What was he praying about? That the Lord would perfect this matter. We read about the meeting of these two. It was a God-ordained meeting. The Lord brought them together because the Lord was in the matter. “He shall send His angel before thee.” And so He did.

Notice something else. There was a question that Eliezer put to Rebekah: “Is there room in thy father’s house for us?” “Is there room?” Now, God’s dear children ask that question in another way. They know that God has a house. It is called His Church. And there is that desire: is there room in my Father’s house for me?

Put it another way. See the dear Lord Jesus Christ. It is said of Solomon that he had “largeness of heart.” God gave him largeness of heart. And, if Solomon had a large heart, how much more does the greater than Solomon have a large heart! In His large heart, to which there are infinite proportions, there is room for His dear people. Yes, room for His dear people! One said:

“I have a mansion in His heart,

Nor death nor hell shall make us part.”

I. Watts

O, what a place to have; a mansion, in His heart! The place of love, the place of power, the place of purpose, the place of peace: a mansion in His heart! Have you a mansion there? That is a question isn’t it? The great point is really this: has Christ a heart for you? If He has a heart for you, you will have a heart for Him! In other words if you have a mansion in His heart, He; wonder of wonders, O stupendous grace, will make your heart His mansion too! That is the great test, isn’t it? I have told you before, that, when I was at school, we used to sing a hymn which ended like this:

“Oh come to my heart, Lord Jesus, 

There is room in my heart for Thee.”

E.S. Elliott

Even in those early days, something must have been stirring in my heart because I knew that by nature there was not room in my heart for Him. So, as we sang it, I used to change one line.

“Oh come to my heart, Lord Jesus, 

Make room in my heart for Thee.”

If the Lord should do that to you tonight, what room would He need to make? I think of Obededom, in that respect. Do you remember when things went wrong when bringing the ark back to Israel? They turned aside and put the ark into Obededom’s house. Just think what he probably had to get rid of, to make room for it! There were all the encumbrances of the ark. The priests had to go with it, and they had to be fed. It must have completely dominated his house. Did he resent it? Did he wish the ark wasn’t there? No! We read that the Lord blessed the house of Obededom because of the ark of the Lord. And He will bless your house, friend, if the presence of the Lord has the pre- eminence there. The Word of God – does it come first? Has it the pre- eminence, or are there some other idols which compete for the place He ought to have? He will not take second place. It is dishonouring to His holy name that He should do so. We read: “From all your idols, will I cleanse you.” If you are a child of God, and if He is taking second place to your idols, that word will be fulfilled, perhaps very painfully, and your flesh will have some painful things to learn. Oh, dear friends:

“May Christ be first, and Christ be last, 

And Christ be all in all.”

D. Herbert

Come back to our text. “He shall send His angel before thee.” The angel brought Isaac into a place prepared for him in that providential sense. In the book of the Exodus we read of that same angel. “Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.” “Which I have prepared.” It is true in providence and it is true in grace. And how our Lord Jesus Christ says in John 14: “In My Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” Friends, do you want a description of heaven? I will give it to you now: “That where I am, there ye may be also.” Put it like this. The moments of what we might call heaven on earth are when Christ has been, by faith, so visibly and so feelingly with us. They have been our best moments, haven’t they? Some of us can say so. Oh, sweet moments! They were only moments, but nothing can be compared with them. They were a foretaste of the glory within the veil. As Christ said: “That where I am, there ye may be also.” Oh, the wonder of it! That a poor sinner, a worm of this earth, should one day be in glory, clothed in His obedience, washed in His blood and gathered among that redeemed throng, singing “Alleluia” to the Lamb! Oh, my dear friends! “He shall send His angel before thee.” In that sense, when the Lord begins the work of grace, He sends an angel who maps and marks every step of the way until God’s people get safely home to glory.

“He shall send His angel before.” Then I think of godly Moses. There are so many lessons to be learnt from Moses’ life, aren’t there? Here is one of them. Israel had sinned so basely while Moses was up the mount. The Ten Commandments, so recently given, had been flagrantly broken. Even Aaron, the high priest, had succumbed to the pressure and had formed a golden calf. “These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” ‘Aaron, where have you got to?’ The fear of man: that is what it was. Aaron was afraid. “The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe.” The Lord was justly angry, and so was Moses. The Lord told Moses to depart. That wasn’t enough for Moses. ‘Lord, I dare not go unless Thou art with me.’ The Lord spoke about an angel. But who was this angel? Was it the Angel of the covenant? Nothing less would do for Moses. I think Eliezer had the same feeling when he left home that memorable morning and set out on his journey. “If Thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it be known here that I and Thy people have found grace in Thy sight? is it not in that Thou goest with us?” And Moses added one further thing: he put the whole burden of Israel right back upon the shoulders of his God: “And consider that this nation is Thy people.” It maybe that Eliezer said the same, in faith. ‘Lord, this matter is Thine. It is a step in the direction of the coming of Thy dear Son. It is part of the way to fulfil the promise given to Abraham.’

The Lord said to Moses “My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.” Oh, wonderful word! How many of us have coveted it! Some of us have proved it. “If Thy presence go not with me,” says Moses, “carry us not up hence.” But, no. It will go with him. “I will send an angel before thee.” Moses proved it, Eliezer proved it, Jacob proved it later on in this same book, and so will all God’s dear people prove it. There are those lovely words given by Moses to Joshua: “He it is that doth go before thee; He will be with thee, He will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.” Those words were confirmed to Joshua by God Himself in Joshua Chapter 1: “As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.”

Now, my last thought – you take it home and pray about it. There may be one here tonight with a step before you, and you are asking:

‘Is the Lord going before me in it?’ What we have said this evening may be of some help to you. But, do remember this, dear friends, we hear no more of Eliezer after this. He fades from the page of Scripture. His office was to bring Rebekah to Isaac, but then we read no more of him. There is a lesson here. The message of the gospel ministry, under the Holy Ghost’s power, is to bring sinners to Christ. It is a wonderful privilege for a minister of the gospel to be used in that way, but he must be eclipsed. So, when all is said and done, we must lose sight of the man and come where the three on the mount of transfiguration came: “They saw no man, save Jesus only.” That is why good John Baptist was content to be a voice. What grace that man had! You cannot see a voice, can you? You can hear it, but you cannot see it. “The voice of one crying in the wilderness.” “The voice.” Well, dear friends, I am nobody to look at; certainly nobody to be adored in any way. But, may I, nonetheless, in God’s hand, be a voice from time to time to you dear friends here. And, above all, may you have Eliezer’s blessing. “He shall send his angel before thee.” If that is true, He will bring you safely home, won’t He?

“To make His saints His glory view, 

And sing their cares away,

The Lord will make His goodness pass 

Before them in the way.”

May God add His blessing.

W. Gadsby 

Amen.