According to the common understanding of most Christians, the main point of this chapter is that Isaac is a type of Christ as the Bridegroom and that Rebekah is a type of the church as the bride. However, this is not the main point. The primary point is the practical living in oneness with the Lord for the fulfilling of God's purpose. We should not understand the Bible according to our common knowledge or tradition, but come back to the pure Word. Whenever we read any portion of the Scriptures, we must forget all we have learned in the past and look to the Lord for something new. Fifty years ago I read Genesis 24 carefully, doing my best to remember every point. Nevertheless, when I come to this chapter now, I do not care for what I had in the past. I like to come to this portion of the Word as if I were reading it for the first time. I can testify that just recently I have seen something new in this chapter.
Have you ever realized that in Genesis 24 we can see a practical living in oneness with the Lord? As we have seen, God has a purpose, and the way to fulfill His purpose is by life. These are the two governing points in understanding the Bible. If we would understand Genesis 24, we must apply these two governing points. Why does Genesis 24 give us such a record of Isaac's marriage? If we only read chapter twenty-four we cannot see the purpose of this record. In order to answer this question we must read the three foregoing chapters. Genesis 21:12 says, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called." God called Abraham with a purpose. For the fulfillment of this purpose, God promised to give Abraham the good land and the seed which would inherit the land. God's eternal purpose is to express Himself in a corporate way. In order to have this corporate expression, God must have a people. This people is the seed of Abraham. Furthermore, in order to have the people to express God corporately there is the need of the land. What then is the purpose of the marriage in Genesis 24? Is it simply that a single man might have a happy, comfortable life? No. If you consider the Bible as a whole, you will see that Isaac's marriage was altogether for the fulfillment of God's eternal purpose. Without marriage, how could Isaac have brought forth the seed? If this single man was to have seed for the fulfillment of God's eternal purpose, he had to get married. After Abraham had been tested in chapter twenty-two, God said, "In blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed" (22:17-18). Here we also have the seed for the fulfillment of God's purpose. Thus, Isaac's marriage was not common nor merely for his human living; it was for the fulfillment of God's eternal purpose.