3. Servanthood is the Key to Destiny

15 And it happened, before he had finished speaking, that behold, Rebekah, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, came out with her pitcher on her shoulder.
16 Now the young woman was very beautiful to behold, a virgin; no man had known her. And she went down to the well, filled her pitcher, and came up.
17 And the servant ran to meet her and said, “Please let me drink a little water from your pitcher.”
18 So she said, “Drink, my lord.” Then she quickly let her pitcher down to her hand, and gave him a drink.
19 And when she had finished giving him a drink, she said, “I will draw water for your camels also, until they have finished drinking.”
20 Then she quickly emptied her pitcher into the trough, ran back to the well to draw water, and drew for all his camels.
21 And the man, wondering at her, remained silent so as to know whether the LORD had made his journey prosperous or not.
22 So it was, when the camels had finished drinking, that the man took a golden nose ring weighing half a shekel, and two bracelets for her wrists weighing ten shekels of gold,

Genesis 24:15-22

We have looked at servanthood being the key to promotion and authority. Now, we will look at Servanthood being the key to destiny. Let go to Genesis 24 where we will look at Abraham wanting a wife for his son, Isaac. So he sent out his oldest servant who ruled over Abraham’s household to look for a girl. This is a beautiful story of our times. God, the Father, is a picture of Abraham. Issac is a picture of Jesus the Son. God wants a bride, a generation of believers for His son, Jesus Christ. And He sent out His servant, the Holy Spirit, which is a picture of the oldest servant, looking for the bride for His son. So the servant walked throughout the land, looking for a girl for Isaac.

After a long day, he was thirsty. He came to a well and there were many women there. He saw this girl at the well. The servant did not ask the Lord for a girl who is well-educated, smart, a socialite, and etc. No, he just wanted a girl who served – Genesis 24:12-14. Lo and behold, here came Rebekah. In Genesis 24:15-20, we saw Rebekah giving a drink to the servant. And when she saw that he had finished drinking, she offered to draw water for his camels until they were all finished drinking. She did not draw for one camel but all the camels.

Now, when we read this casually, we cannot understand the magnitude of this action. To Rebekah, the servant was a perfect stranger. Most people won’t even serve their friends, let alone a stranger. This girl served a perfect stranger. But she has the heart of a servant. There were ten camels and she fed all of them with water. If you do your mathematics, an average camel drinks about 106 litres of water. It’s about 106 bottles of the big bottles of 1.5 litres. Ten camels mean 1060 litres of water. To help you understand this better, imagine the typical household pail you have at home in which you use it for bathing, for mopping the floor or to water your flowers in the garden. A pail of water is about 20 litres. To feed ten camels, 1060 litres is a total of 53 pails.

In those days, the well has 50 steps down into the water. Those are small steps built into the wall of the well. Imagine you have to carry a pail and walk down 50 steps, scope up 20 litres of water and walked up 50 steps out of the well. You got to do that 53 times. Now, Rebekah didn’t walk but she ran up and down the well – Genesis 24:20. She must be the modern day super gym woman! She was willing to serve a total stranger with a servant heart!

Now, the servant has ten camels and they were all filled with goodies. Genesis 24:22 says the servant took out a golden nose ring weighing half a shekel of gold and two bracelets weighing ten shekels of gold. So, she started to have gifts given to her. You want the anointing of the Holy Spirit. You want the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Then start serving. Look further at verse 53. The servant took out precious gifts of jewelry and clothing to Rebekah. Not only that, her brother and mother received gifts, too. Her servanthood immediately led to prosperity. The more you serve, the more God will give it to you and prosper you.

You may think at this point then that you better go out and serve. Go and create a career. Build up a big business. Score top in your studies. To do all these, it means you do not have a lot of time to serve. You may be thinking of waiting till you are successful and rich, then you tell people you are a Christian and everybody will come to the kingdom of God. Or, you may think that you want to be rich and successful first before you serve so you can give to the church. This someday will never come. The more you procrastinate, the more you cut yourself away from the destiny of the Lord. Listen, people! This is not how it works. There must be a balance. People do not come to church because you are rich. People come to church because you are a servant. But don’t into one extreme to start serving God and fail in your examination, forgot to complete your works in the office but busy doing church works during office hours, don’t serve God all the time until you loose your job or promotion. Excel in your job as you are paid to do your works. This will be a good testimony for people in your office. Both extremes are not God’s ways.

As Rebekah served the servant, the most beautiful thing was this. She was picked of all the women, to be the bride of Isaac and forty-two generations later, out of the lineage came forth Jesus Christ, the Messiah and Saviour of the whole world. Servanthood led Rebekah to her destiny!

Today, the Holy Spirit is sent out, looking for one man, one woman, one congregation, a church who will serve God. Today, as you choose to serve, God will not only promote you, gives you authority; He is going to bring you to your destiny! And through your life, Jesus Christ will be made known to people around you and to all the world. You may be a successful person today. Thank God for the success, for the talents and gifts but do not miss this one truth. When you get to heaven, Jesus is not going to say, “Well done, my successful Businessman/CEO/AVP/Doctor” but “Well done, my good and faithful servant”. How many of you out there are ready to serve God today? The most dangerous thing is we fool ourselves, carrying our bible, looking dignified and going to church every week. We think we will be alright as long as we fulfill our duties. Oh friends, your life should not be one of duty. Your life should be one of delights and your delight is of serving our God and serving His kingdom. Will you give a few hours of your week to serving the community, God’s kingdom, to be His voice in the boardroom, His mind in the project room? Will you make a stand and serve God today?

Remember, servanthood brings you promotion, authority and destiny.