An Attitude of Service

“Drink, my lord,” she said, and quickly lowered the jar to her hands and gave him a drink. After she had given him a drink, she said, “I’ll draw water for your camels too, until they have had enough to drink.”  So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough, ran back to the well to draw more water, and drew enough for all his camels. Genesis 24: 18-20

Today’s passage is a hidden gem that was worth the extra time digging a little deeper. It’s easy to pass it over and think that Rebekah was a kind person who gave water to a traveler and his camels. But if you take a moment to discover the deeper message you will see that it describes a servant’s heart that goes beyond the minimum that is asked or requried.

Think about a time that you were hot, tired and thirsty. How many glasses of cool refreshing water did it take to quench your thirst? Two maybe three? How convienent that you only had to turn on the water at the sink or push a button on the fridge and water would flow effortlessly.

In biblical times there was a community well that everyone shared. Daily the women would walk to the well with large jars attached to a yoke to make them easier to carry. At the well they would lower a bucket down into the well to get the water, then draw it back up by pulling on the ropes and then they would dump the water into their jars. This would have to be repeated several times until the jars were full. Then they would attach the heavy jars to the yoke and carry them back to their homes.

Imagine how heavy those filled jars must have been. A gallon of water weighs 8.3 pounds, so if those jars were 3 gallons that would have been about 25 pounds. It would have been a simple task to give Eliezer enough water to quench his thirst, but Rebekah offered to water his camels as well. Keep in mind that he was traveling with 10 camels.

A thirsty camel can drink up to 30 gallons of water. So when you do the math, that would have been 30 gallons per camel 30 X10 = 300 gallons. Divided by the 3 gallon jar would mean that she filled it 100 times! How willing would you be to make 100 trips to the well?

Rebekah had a servant’s heart and after completing her task invited Eliezer to stay with her family. Her demonstration of loving service was the answer to his prayer and lead to her whole life being changed. She would leave the following day to a new land where she would become not only Isaac’s wife, but a noted woman in biblical history that would be part of God’s covenant promise.

What might God be doing through your acts of service? Who has prayed for the loving kindness that God has prepared you to give? How might your story be part of something much larger because you chose to go beyond the minimum that was asked or requried?

I pray that you will choose to have a servant’s heart. One that would go above and beyond, doing each and every task as if for God.