Power of Faith: How Abraham’s Servant Found Rebekah

Do you want to know just how powerful the power of faith really is? And how having faith combined with prayer moves God to action? Let’s explore Abraham’s most trusted servant, Eliezer, and how he utilized his faith– in what seemed like a radical request to God– to find Isaac’s future wife, Rebekah.

We all know that Abraham is often called “The Father of Faith,” which is a well-deserved title. He walked with God when there was no instruction manual—such as the Bible—that he could reference in times of need, uncertainty, and hardship. He also obeyed God even when it didn’t seem logical and didn’t make any sense! Yet, he stayed strong and unwavering in his faith in God, and we believers now refer to him as the “Father of Faith.”

But, while Abraham is often praised for his tremendous amount of faith, his most trusted servant’s story of faith is often overlooked. His servant appears nameless in the Bible, but many believe his name to be Eliezer, so that’s what we’ll call him throughout this article.

In this post, you are going to learn just how Eliezer applied his faith to a difficult situation and managed to get a swift same-minute response from God, in the form of an answered prayer.

After reading about Eliezer’s faith, you are going to be inspired to exercise your own faith while believing that God can and will answer your prayer request as well, if you start with having just a little bit of faith!

This post is all about how Abraham’s servant exercised the power of faith, which swiftly moved God to help him find exactly who he came to find: Rebekah.

Power of Faith

Genesis Chapter 24: Eliezer Travels to Find Rebekah

As the story goes, Abraham was old in age and didn’t want to leave his son Isaac alone without a wife. So, he sent his most trusted servant, Eliezer hundreds of miles back to his hometown, Mesopotamia, which is now modern-day Iraq, to find his son a wife. Before Eliezer left, Abraham gave Eliezer strict requirements that Isaac’s potential wife had to fulfill, in order to marry his son, then he sent Eliezer on his way.

After traveling, what most scholars believe to be upwards of more than 400 miles by foot with a host of camels, Eliezer finally reaches his destination. When he arrives, he finds that he is thirsty after such a long journey. So, he stops near a well only to pray an unlikely request to God.

He starts by asking God to give him success that same day in finding Isaac’s future wife, then proceeds to tell God the unthinkable. Eliezer begins to tell God exactly how he wants the events to unfold. He says something along the lines of: LORD can it be that the wife that you have for Isaac comes to offer me a drink of water, and not only me, but also offers to give my ten camels a drink of water as well?

…

Now… what he asked for does not sound like much in modern times, but let’s dissect his request. Camels are animals that can drink a lot of water. The average camel can drink anywhere from 30-53 gallons of water in just one sitting. So, just imagine how thirsty all ten of Eliezer’s camels were after traveling hundreds of miles. I’m pretty sure they were very thirsty!

Before Eliezer could even finish his prayer to God, out walks lovely Rebekah, on her way to the well to draw water for her family.

In that moment, Eliezer asks Rebekah for a drink of water. She kindly gives him water, then proceeds to do exactly what Eliezer prayed for: she offers to bring his camels water too! So not only did Rebekah kindly give Eliezer a drink of water, but she also went back and forth I would imagine upwards of 100 times so that she could get his ten camels’ water too.

How amazing is that! That was not a normal occurrence nor was it an act of kindness that you see on an everyday basis. Ask yourself, if a stranger asked you for a drink of water and he had ten camels with him, would you go out of your way to provide water for the stranger AND all ten of his camels? Probably not! Especially, considering how much water it takes to satisfy just one camel.

Purchase of all digital product links, directly supports the author’s work and enables them to continue creating valuable content

Power of Faith in the Bible

What Eliezer saw happening before his very eyes was an answered prayer. But that prayer could not be answered if he didn’t first have faith. You see, before Eliezer ever spoke the prayer aloud, he had to first believe that the prayer could and would be answered, without any doubt present in his heart and mind. That’s exactly what having faith is, it’s believing for something without seeing any proof of it and believing in it so strongly that all doubt is gone, so you wait in expectation that what you want/ask for will be delivered just as you asked.

Eliezer chose not to look at his current circumstances. He had just finished traveling a long journey, was thirsty, in a new place where he knew absolutely no one, and he was expected to find a very specific type of wife for Isaac. To the average person, all of that alone would’ve been very overwhelming, like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

Most of us wouldn’t have known where to begin to look for the type of wife that Abraham wanted for his son. But, Eliezer knew where to start; he first started with having faith, by believing that something could and would happen before it ever even happened. Secondly, he prayed to God, and sincerely communicated his belief/request to God. Lastly, he praised God after God quickly answered his prayer. So, do you now see how the power of faith works?

…

Had Eliezer looked at his current situation that probably would’ve discouraged him from asking God what he really wanted. Because, let’s be honest… his circumstances didn’t look too promising. But because having faith is so powerful, he was able to see instant results as he was still praying.

There’s a reason that God’s Word gives a clear depiction of what is required to please Him… Because it works! It’s like God giving His believers rules to follow to reach Him as we pray. Isn’t that great?!? God took all the guessing out of the equation and He tells us very clearly in Hebrews 11:6 that, “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who approaches Him must first believe that He exists and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him.” Plain and simple: everything starts with having faith in God.

Side note: I am in no way endorsing the secular term known as “manifesting,” I am strictly talking about faith only!

About Rebekah

In the end Rebekah decided to go with Eliezer back to Canaan to marry Isaac, a man that she’d never seen nor met before.

Little is known about Rebekah before Eliezer met her except that she was of Abraham’s blood lineage, and we can safely assume that she was raised to be a nice well-mannered person. However, the Bible does mention that she was very beautiful, and if the Bible emphasizes a woman’s beauty in the Old Testament, then that really means that she was considered to be extremely attractive. To be exact drop dead gorgeous!

In the Old Testament, the Bible only credits a few women as being considered beautiful. The first woman it regards as beautiful is Sarah– Isaac’s mother, then Rebekah– Isaac’s wife. How awesome is that? Isaac was exposed and used to the beauty of a woman, which was first introduced in his life as his beautiful mother. And God being the awesome God that he is, continued to give Isaac exactly what he had grown accustomed to–beauty– in the form of giving him a very beautiful wife. Oh, how blessed was Isaac!

Examples of the Power of Faith : Abraham, Eliezer, and Rebekah’s Faith

This Biblical story is so amazingly filled with faith that it’s exciting to read. When we read about it in the Bible, we can see that three of the people involved in this story all operated with such strong faith, which in return produced powerful results. It started with Abraham’s very specific request to Eliezer, to Eliezer’s very specific request to God, then to Rebekah’s bold decision to leave with Eliezer. A complete stranger. So, it isn’t just the faith of Eliezer that we see operating, but also Abraham’s and Rebekah’s faith too! She had no clue what she was walking into, yet she took the leap of faith and decided to leave her family and all that she had ever known to marry a complete stranger, that she hadn’t even seen yet!

To do something as radical as that requires remarkable faith. A type of faith that only Abraham, Eliezer, and Rebekah had.

Bonus: My Personal Story of Faith

The first time my faith was made known to me was when I was ten-years-old. At the time, I was in foster care and living with a nice Native American family. I remember it so vividly! Uncle Smokey asked me to walk to the convenient store with him, which was a few blocks from where I stayed. The entire walk I was rambling non-stop about how I’m not staying in the foster care system and how I was going back home with my mother. I was going on and on. I’m surprised that he even listened, as I think most adults would’ve tuned me out after a certain period. But not Uncle Smokey.

…

He quietly listened to my entire conversation and about five minutes into me talking he suddenly stopped walking and stood still, which triggered me to stop walking as well. And I will never forget what he told me. He said “little girl, you have A LOT of faith!” I’ll never forget the way he looked at me as he said it. He had such an astounded and impressed look on his face. If I had to guess what he was thinking, I think it was somewhere along the lines of: How does this little ten-year-old kid have so much faith? She has more faith than most adults!

I didn’t even know what faith was at the time. But it didn’t take me long to figure out, that Uncle Smokey knew what he was talking about! He wasn’t the last person to point out my gift of faith. Unfortunately, I never returned home with my mother. Yet, that still has NEVER stopped me from having an abundance of faith in God.

Thanks for reading this post about power of faith. Hopefully, it helped you. Your comments are greatly appreciated!