In the book of Genesis there are a couple of stories that wonderfully reveal the gifts the Lord has given us. The first story, recorded in Genesis chapter 24, is when Abraham sent his servant to find a wife for his son Isaac. In that wonderful story Abraham plays the part of the heavenly Father, who sent His servant, the Holy Spirit, to find a wife for His Son Jesus Christ.

Then the servant took ten of his master’s camels and departed, for all his master’s goods were in his hand. And he arose and went to Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor.
—Genesis 24:10

The ten camels represent the tithe that the Holy Spirit carried to the bride of Jesus. In the Bible horror story about the tithe I explained that the tithe is eternal life, the life of Christ, which the Father gave us by sending the Holy Spirit into our hearts. But the Holy Spirit has given us not only eternal life but also all His master’s goods. So what are these gifts the Father has given us through the Holy Spirit?

When the servant found the bride, Rebekah, it is written that he “took a golden nose ring weighing half a shekel, and two bracelets for her wrists weighing ten shekels of gold,” [Gen.24:22] As I was meditating on the gifts the servant gave Rebekah, the Lord showed me a very similar story in which a woman was given three different items.

The Pledge of the Holy Spirit

Genesis chapter 38 tells the story of Judah, who had three sons. “Then Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.” [Gen.38:6] Er was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord killed him. [Why did the Lord kill Er?] Then Judah told Onan, his second son, to raise up offspring for his brother. Onan was of the evil one, because he did not want to produce seed, and the seed is Christ. [Gal.3:16] In other words, he rejected Christ, and so the Lord killed him too. Judah was afraid to give his youngest son to Tamar, so he told her that the son was still young and sent Tamar back to her father’s house.

When Tamar saw that Shelah, Judah’s youngest son, had grown up and had not been given to her as a husband, and when she learned that Judah was coming to her town, she dressed as a harlot and sat at the gate of Enaim. The gate symbolises the cross of Christ, and Enaim in Hebrew means eyes. In other words, she received revelations (plural) of what happened on the cross.

Then he [Judah] turned to her [Tamar] by the way, and said, “Please let me come in to you”; for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. So she said, “What will you give me, that you may come in to me?” And he said, “I will send a young goat from the flock.” So she said, “Will you give me a pledge till you send it?” Then he said, “What pledge shall I give you?” So she said, “Your signet and cord, and your staff that is in your hand.” Then he gave them to her, and went in to her, and she conceived by him.
—Genesis 38:16-18

Tamar asked Judah for a pledge. What is this pledge? Paul writes: “Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” [2 Cor.1:21-22] (The Greek word for guarantee, arrabon, is the very word the Greek translation of the Old Testament uses for Tamar’s pledge.) In this story Judah is a type of the Holy Spirit. Just as Judah went in to Tamar, so the Holy Spirit came into our hearts. But notice what pledge she asked Judah for. It is three things, just as in the story of Abraham’s servant. In the first story there was a nose ring and two bracelets, and here a signet [a ring], a cord and a staff.

So what are these interesting gifts the Holy Spirit has given us? Let’s now move on to one more story, recorded in the Gospel of Luke, which Jesus told.

I think every Christian has heard the story of the prodigal son and how his loving father welcomed him. The younger son asked for his share of the inheritance and left home. Having squandered everything and living in poverty, he decided to return, and as he was coming back, his father ran to meet him, embraced him and kissed him, and then “said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry;‘” [Luk.15:22-23]

In this story the father’s servants, who are a type of the Holy Spirit, gave the younger son three things as well, just as in the two stories above. Although they differ a little, their essence is the same.

God’s Righteousness

The first thing the Father told them to bring was the best robe. What is this best robe? The book of Revelation says: “And to her [the bride] was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.” [Rev.19:8 KJV] Rebekah was given a golden bracelet, and Tamar a cord. The word cord in Hebrew is pathil [H6616], and it means a twisted thread, a cord of interwoven threads. The Lord commanded the children of Israel to wear just such cords on the corners of their garments: “Speak to the children of Israel: Tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a blue thread in the tassels of the corners.” [Num.15:38] The Jews also call them tzitzit.

It was just such a tassel on the corner of Jesus’ garment that was touched by the woman who had suffered from a flow of blood for twelve years: she “came from behind and touched the border of His garment. And immediately her flow of blood stopped.” [Luk.8:44] In this tassel there was a blue thread. The Hebrew word translated as blue is tekhelet [H8504]. This word consists of four letters. The first and the last are the letter tav, which signifies the cross. Who was crucified between two crosses? Jesus!

Interestingly, the word kol [H3605], which stands between the crosses, means all, every. It was not an ordinary man who hung on the cross. The whole world and all mankind hung on the cross in the body of the God-Man Jesus Christ. That is why Paul writes: “For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died;” [2 Cor.5:14] The word tekhelet contains the essence of the finished work: “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” [2 Cor.5:21]

Righteousness is a gift [Rom.5:17] that everyone who receives the Holy Spirit — the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of adoption — receives. Abraham’s servant asked Rebekah to give him a drink. Jesus did the same when He asked the Samaritan woman to give Him water to drink. Jesus said to her: “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” [Jhn.4:10] Jesus was speaking of the Holy Spirit and of eternal life. Giving Jesus a drink is the same as receiving Him into your life. It is a sign that a person receives Him. John 4 does not say that the Samaritan woman gave Jesus ordinary water to drink, but when the disciples came back, they found Him full of strength. When she received His word, by that very act she gave Him a drink.

The Witness of the Spirit

The second gift the father gave his son was a ring. Judah gave Tamar his signet, which usually looked like a ring with the owner’s name engraved or cast on top, and which showed that something belonged to that name. Paul writes: “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,” [Eph.1:13] And in Corinthians: “who also has sealed us” [2 Cor.1:22]

The seal of the Holy Spirit in our heart says that we belong to God forever. We carry His name in our hearts. Jesus said to the angel of the church in Pergamos: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it.” [Rev.2:17] The one who overcomes is the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. [1 Jhn.5:5] So everyone who believes in Him, having received the Holy Spirit, has received everything that Jesus in Revelation promises to give to the one who overcomes.

Why does no one know it except the one who receives it? You know how people usually say: “That brother came to church, repented, and then went back into the world.” In fact, no one knows whether he was a believer or not. If a person goes to church, it doesn’t mean he is a believer. Only the Lord sees the heart. That is why no one sees the seal in our heart except ourselves. Paul writes: “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,” [Rom.8:16] The Holy Spirit testifies to our spirit that we are children of God, not to everyone around us. This testimony is God’s seal.

The servant gave Rebekah a golden nose ring. The original uses the Hebrew word nezem [H5141], which means a ring for the nose or the ear. It too speaks of belonging. The text even states that this ring weighed half a shekel — the same half shekel of silver that was given in the Old Testament as a ransom. Silver was used to redeem things, so silver speaks of redemption. Paul writes: “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” [1 Cor.6:19-20]

The Power of the Good News

And the third gift is sandals on his feet. What do shoes speak of? Let’s see what is on the feet of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. When John was baptizing the Jews in the Jordan River, he said: “I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” [Luk.3:16]

In Greek, sandal is hupodema [G5266], and it literally means something bound under the feet. That is why John said he was not worthy to loose the sandal strap. In other words, he said he did not have the power that Jesus had. Jesus said to Peter: “And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” [Mat.16:19] Whom are we to bind? Jesus said to the Pharisees: “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.” [Mat.12:28-29]

And whom are we to loose? Jesus said to the Pharisee about the woman He had freed from a spirit of infirmity: “Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it? So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound — think of it — for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?” [Luk.13:15-16] The word loosed in Greek is luo [G3089], and it literally means to untie and to unfasten; that is why the Lord gave the example of the ox or the donkey that the Pharisee untied on the Sabbath.

What sets a person free from the devil’s bonds? Paul writes: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.” [Rom.1:16] The power of God is in the good news — the news of eternal forgiveness and eternal justification. “As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!’” [Rom.10:15]

It is written that when the other John (the apostle, not the Baptist) saw Jesus, “His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace” [Rev.1:15] The Greek word chalkolibanon [G5474] consists of two words: chalkos [G5475], which means bronze, and libanos [G3030], which means frankincense. It comes out as fragrant bronze. In the Bible bronze speaks of judgment, so fragrant bronze is the news that sin and the devil were condemned on the cross in the body of Jesus Christ, so that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us. [Rom.8:3-4] The enemy has been condemned and cast out. Every believer receives eternal justification. Christ’s burnt offering, which gave us justification, is like frankincense, like a sweet aroma to our heavenly Father.

Jesus testified about the Holy Spirit: “And when He [the Holy Spirit] has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” [Jhn.16:8-11] The Holy Spirit reveals our righteousness and tells us that the ruler of the world has already been judged. This is the good news, my friends. The good news that brings peace and rest, which is the power of God that sets us free from any bonds of the enemy.

Judah gave Tamar his staff. With this staff Moses parted the Red Sea, and the whole people of Israel crossed over to the other shore. When Rahab the harlot, who sat at the gate just like Tamar, heard this news, she believed and was saved. She said to the spies: “For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt…” [Jos.2:10] Rahab received the spies [the Holy Spirit] and was justified. [Jas.2:25]

In the same way, Rebekah was given two bracelets. One bracelet is a type of righteousness, like Tamar’s cord and the prodigal son’s best robe. And the other speaks of the good news that gives a person righteousness. Paul goes on to write about the good news: “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’” [Rom.1:17] The good news reveals that every believer receives God’s righteousness once and for all, and now he is righteous forever.

Everyone wants to be righteous. All arguments happen because people defend their rightness, or righteousness. A person wants to hear from his opponent: “You’re right!” — and when that happens, the argument dies down and peace comes. Thanks to the sacrifice and the blood of Jesus Christ, God now tells us every moment: “You’re right!” Lord, but what if I made a mistake? You’re right! And what if I acted badly? You’re right! Am I right because I acted badly? Of course not, but because your righteousness does not come from your works, but from faith in Jesus Christ! You’re right, because Jesus obeyed God and performed the righteous act! [Rom.5:18-19] News like this ends the inner struggle, and peace and rest come into the heart.

Paul writes to the Romans: “for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” [Rom.14:17] The best robe is righteousness, the sandals are peace, the ring on the hand is joy. “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.” [1 Cor.2:12] The Lord did not come to us empty-handed. He brought us the tithe — eternal life, the hidden manna, the fatted calf. He has given us gifts: “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” [Isa.61:10] Glory to the Lord! Amen!