Rebecca: Type of the Bride of Christ

"I pray thee is there room in thy father's house for us to lodge in?" These words were spoken by Eliezer, Abraham's eldest servant and steward of his house, to Rebecca when he had found her at the well in answer to his prayer. Eliezer (meaning "God's Helper") is a type of the Holy Spirit, and Isaac is a type of Christ. Now as Eliezer was seeking a bride for Isaac, the son of Abraham, so the Holy Spirit today is seeking a bride for the Lord Jesus, God's only begotten Son.

Eliezer was sent to Abraham's country and to his kindred to take a wife for Isaac. So God our Father has sent the Holy Spirit from the glory land down into this world, and He, the Spirit of truth, is convicting the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and is selecting out of the body of Christ His bride. He is seeking among His kindred, the sanctified, and Jesus is baptizing them with the Holy Ghost and fire, preparing them for the great marriage supper of the Lamb. Praise our God! Eliezer was under oath not to select the bride from the Canaanites but from Abraham's kindred. So God is not selecting a bride for Christ among the sinners, for a sinner must first get saved and sanctified before he can be one with the Lord Jesus. Heb. 2:11 says, "For both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren." So He is seeking a bride among His brethren, the sanctified.

"Christ so loved the church that He gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word; that He might present it unto Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." Eph. 5:25-27. So Jesus today is selecting a sanctified people, baptizing them with the Holy Ghost and fire to greet Him at His coming. Rebecca was a virgin, the type of a sanctified soul. So the Holy Ghost today is standing at the heart of every pure virgin (sanctified soul) pleading, "I pray thee is there room in thy heart that I may come in and lodge?" O beloved, we see many of the sanctified people today rejecting the Holy Spirit, just as people rejected Christ when He was on earth here. It seems there is no room in their hearts for the baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire. May God help them to open their eyes and see that the time draweth nigh for His coming. O may Christ's waiting bride wake up and let the Holy Ghost come in.

Rebecca was a type of the wise virgins. When Eliezer met her at the well and asked her to let him drink a little water from her pitcher, O how sweet and ready she was. She answered and said, "Drink, my Lord." And she hastened and let down her pitcher upon her hand and gave him drink, and it pleased him. The Spirit is a person. He can be pleased, He can be quenched, and He can be insulted, as we find Ananias insulted Him. We please Him when we accept the words of Jesus. Then Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to witness in our hearts.

When Rebecca had done giving him drink, she said, "I will also draw water for thy camels." Christ's bride must do everything without murmuring. O how sweet it is when we have the mighty Spirit in our hearts; we are ready for service; we are ready for watering the whole entire world with the precious well of salvation in our heart. Beloved, when the Holy Ghost comes, He brings the well of salvation and rivers of living water.

"And it came to pass, as the camels had done drinking, that the man took a gold earring of half a shekel weight and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold." Praise God. This is what our beloved sanctified people receive when they receive the witness of the anointing of the Holy Ghost upon their hearts, as when Jesus breathed upon the disciples before Pentecost in the upper room, where He said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." The disciples had the witness in their hearts that very moment that "both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one." For He had opened the Scriptures to them, (Lu. 24:32) and their understanding was opened, (Lu. 24:31) "And their eyes were opened and they knew Him." So with us, when we receive sanctification and the witness of the Spirit in our hearts to our sanctification, the Scriptures are opened to us, we understand them, and our eyes are anointed. We see a picture of it in Rebecca. When she had received Eliezer and let him drink out of her pitcher and had watered the camels, he gave her the earrings and bracelets of gold. O beloved may we let the Holy Ghost sup out of our heart pitcher, for the Lord says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear My voice and open the door, I will come in and sup with him and he with Me."

And when He comes in, He opens His precious treasures to us, bracelets and earrings, great weights of gold. O how blessed it is when the precious Spirit enters into our hearts like Eliezer. He tells us the great wealth of our Father and of our Christ, for He opens up our understanding, and enlightens our minds. His continual conversation is about the Father and Jesus. Eliezer was the very type of the Holy Spirit who takes the things of Christ and shows them unto us, for He told Rebecca of the wealth of Abraham and Isaac, giving her jewels. And she wore them, showing that she was the espoused of Isaac. Hallelujah! Jesus breathed the Holy Ghost on His disciples and said, "Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained." Thus they had the witness in their hearts that they were candidates for the baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire. He commanded them, "Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye endued with power from on high." Praise our God!

"I pray thee is there room in thy father's house for us to lodge in?" Beloved, is there room in your heart that God's blessed Spirit can come and lodge in? Rebecca was a wise virgin. She met Eliezer at the well and received the bracelets and earrings; but she did not receive them until she had allowed him to drink out of her pitcher and had watered the camels. Many others stood by, no doubt; but they did not do any watering of the camels. O may all of Christ's waiting bride be filled with the rivers of living water that they may water the thirsty, parched hearts with the rivers of salvation.

Rebecca wore her jewels. She did not put them aside or into her pocket, for we read that Laban saw them on his sister's hands. When we have received the abiding anointing in our hearts, someone can always see it shining forth upon our faces. Praise God!

When Eliezer had fed the camels and had come into the house, and when meat was set before him, he said, "I will not eat until I have told mine errand." O beloved, we should be so zealous about the bride of Christ that nothing will be able to turn us aside. We find the first overthrow in the human soul was through the appetite; and when the Holy Ghost sends us on His mission, may we not be satisfied until we have told it, and of His coming back to earth again.

Then he told his mission how that Abraham had sent him to his kindred to take a wife for his son, and he said, "And now if ye will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me, and if not, tell me." They said, "The thing proceedeth from the Lord" and gave Rebecca to be his master's wife. When people are living under the guidance of God's Holy Spirit, it does not take them very long to hear the voice of God, and they are willing to obey. Praise God! Then Eliezer ate and tarried with them that night, because he had received the desire of his master's heart and his heart.

But on the morrow, her brother and mother said, "Let the damsel abide with us a few days, at least ten days." But he said, "Hinder me not." It is best, when we hear the words of God and the Spirit is upon us, to receive now the baptism with the Holy Spirit, instead of waiting two or three days and meeting friends and meeting the devil, who will try to persuade us out of it. If Rebecca had remained, perhaps her friends might have talked her out of going with Eliezer over the plains away off to that distant land to her husband Isaac.

Eliezer said, "Hinder me not." O may we do nothing to hinder the entrance of the baptism with the Holy Ghost. We should see that everything is out of the way and nothing to stand between us and this glorious blessing. Then they called Rebecca and said to her, "Wilt thou go with this man?" And she said, "I will go." To receive the baptism with the Holy Ghost, we must forsake all and follow Jesus all the way. For the Lord Jesus says, "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife." So we that are Christ's bride must forsake all and cleave to Christ, as Rebecca left father and mother, brother and sister, and rode on the camel to meet Isaac.

"And Isaac went out to meditate in the fields at eventide; and he lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold the camels were coming. And Rebecca lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off the camel" to meet him. Now we are living in the eventide of this dispensation, when the Holy Spirit is leading us, Christ's bride, to meet Him in the clouds.