Pictures

I don’t know about you, but I enjoy looking at pictures. There was a time when people displayed their pictures around their homes – on coffee tables or hung on walls. I loved to pore through photo albums, but these days pictures are stored digitally and even though I still enjoy watching pictures, it does not quite give me that same feeling of nostalgia.

Moving right along…the bible causes us to form pictures in our minds. The Word is written in such a way that when we read these fascinating stories, we experience a picture forming process which allows us to see the characters and the places.

Reading Genesis chapter 24, you would notice that the entire chapter is completely devoted to Abraham’s servant who was sent to find a bride for Isaac, Abraham’s son of promise.

This chapter speaks of four main characters, Abraham, Isaac, the servant and Rebekah. Has a picture formed in your mind?

Abraham is a picture of the Father;

Isaac is a picture of the Son;

The servant is a picture of the Spirit;

And Rebekah is a picture of the Church.

In Genesis 22, we read where God tested Abraham – picture the scene.

Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.” (v 1-2 NIV)

After this incredible event, nothing more is said about Isaac, it’s as if he disappeared from the picture but then he reappears in chapter 24, when Abraham sends his servant to find him a bride.

What is this a picture of?

It’s a picture of the ascension of Jesus which occurred forty days after Jesus, the Son, was resurrected (see Acts 1:6-11).

In my first book I told you, Theophilus, about everything Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up to heaven (Acts 1:1-2 NLT)

Though we are left to picture, we aren’t often left to wonder, however, we are definitely left to dig deeper.

You see, after Isaac, the son, is seemingly left out of the picture, he is brought back into the narrative when Abraham, his father, sends his servant, Eliezer to go to my country and to my kindred and get a wife for my son Isaac (Genesis 24:4 NRSVUE).

Similarly, after the Son disappears from view, His Spirit is sent to go and get a bride, the Church, for the Son, Jesus.

Beloved, it is no coincidence that the name of the servant, Eliezer, means “my God is my help”; for who is our Helper?

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name (John 14:26 ESV)

Picture this, when Eliezer encountered Rebekah, her response was “yes” – “yes” to giving him water at the well and “yes” to going with him to Abraham and to Isaac.

They called her and asked her, “Do you want to go with this man now?” Rebekah said, “Yes, I will go.” (Genesis 24:58 ERV)

This is a picture of the bride, that is you, individually and you, collectively as the Church, saying yes to the Spirit to go to the Father and to the Son.

Eliezer asked Rebekah, “Please tell me whose daughter you are. Is there room in your father's house for us…” (Genesis 24:23 ESV) and the Spirit asks each one of us the same question.

To whom do you belong; is there room in your house for them, the Father, the Son and the Spirit?

Amen †

Shelley Johnson “Pictures” © 2026 August 27, 2026