Sometimes It's Not a Moral Lesson

Then he prayed, “Lord, God of my master Abraham, make me successful today, and show kindness to my master Abraham. See, I am standing beside this spring, and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water. May it be that when I say to a young woman, ‘Please let down your jar that I may have a drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels too’—let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master.” – Genesis 24:12-14

In Genesis 24 Abraham is getting old. His son Isaac is yet to be married and he wants to make sure Isaac gets married and marries the right girl. So, he sends his servant to find Isaac a wife. Before we start to think this is crazy or Abraham is overbearing, we need to remember that this is how marriages were done in this culture. It was proper for Abraham to do this.

So, the servant returns to Abraham’s homeland, according to Abraham’s command, and arrives at a well. He knows it’s about to be the time when the women would come out to get water. So, he prays the prayer above. Shortly after, Rebekah shows up and offers the servant water for he and his camels.

God has answered the servant’s prayer and the servant proceeds to visit with Rebekah’s family and negotiate the marriage (again, this is how it was done in that culture). Rebekah then returns with the servant, marries Isaac, and the rest is history.

How many of us have tried the same thing, especially when we were young and single?

“Lord, may the next girl/guy who walks through the door be the person of my dreams who I will marry and live happily ever after with.”

Did it work? Probably not. Then we went home sad and alone.

But wait!! God, didn’t you do that for Isaac? Why not for me? I prayed! Did I need to pray at a well? What gives?!!

We do this a lot with the Bible. We read a passage and try to find the moral lesson or guide to life in it. What is God telling me here? We find the five smooth-stone steps to defeating our giants or the character traits for withstanding life’s fiery furnace.

However, sometimes there’s no moral lesson. Sometimes the passage is just telling us the history of what happened and there’s no promise that it will ever happen like that again. In fact, most of the Old Testament accounts aren’t intending to be “life lessons” and we are really reading our own ideas into story when we find moral lessons.

This can be troublesome for a few reasons.

We can miss the true intent of Scripture, the story of God redeeming man through Jesus and start to see the Bible as instructions for life. This can change our picture of who God is and what He wants.
We will have a hard time reconciling passages where the “hero” does something bad or sinful. Am I supposed to lie about my wife like Abraham did?
We can read false lessons into the Bible.

I am tempted like anyone else to find the moral lesson, but I’ve discovered that when you read the Bible for what it is, a story of redemption, it becomes clearer and more compelling. Rather than finding rules and tips, you find a God who worked the redemption of mankind over the course of several millenia. You find God loving and saving flawed people and even working through them. You find a God who loves you and is willing to die for you.

Heavenly Father,

Your Word is powerful, so much more than just rules and instructions. Your Word shows us Your love for us and even works faith in our hearts. Open my eyes and my mind to read Your Work faithfully and understand it.

Amen

In Christ’s Service,

Pastor Kurt

Sometimes It's not a moral lesson

Faith Lutheran Church in Wesley Chapel, FL serving Lutz, Zephyrhills, Land O’ Lakes, and New Tampa, FL