Arlene has a wonderful article on Isaac and Rebekah:She made the comment that perhaps Rebekah was ten days in her journey to meet Isaac.According to Easton's Bible dictionary, a biblical day's journey is: " The usual length of a day's journey in the East, on camel or horseback, in six or eight hours, is about 25 or 30 miles."From another website this is given: " Most early sources identify Mount Sinai with Jebel Musa or Mount Catherine on the southern Sinai peninsula, a five day journey (200 miles) from Egypt."So a ten day journey could consist of covering 400 miles by camel caravan. Rebekah could have taken 10 days to go from her home to meet her bridegroom Isaac, which could parallel the timeframe for us to leave our earthly home to meet our Bridegroom. Perhaps we will leave here on Ascension Day, May 17 on the Christian calendar, and 10 days later on Pentecost, May 27, will be the heavenly wedding. Another 10 day period is from Second Passover to Ascension Day on the Hebrew calendar, May 3-4 to May 14.According to Jewish tradition Pentecost is the day that God the Father was betrothed to Israel, His wife, but Jesus Christ the Son is the Bridegroom of the Church, the Bride of Christ. Perhaps Pentecost was the announcement of the marriage of the Bridegroom to his Bride.Something interesting that the Lord just confirmed to me, while reading the passage Arlene gives, is about how we are to ask of Him for specific directions. Notice the servant asked the Lord to do a specific thing in order for him to know who the bride - to - be was. He asked the Lord to have her come out and draw water for both him and his camels. Rebekah did exactly that, and later as Eliezer was recounting all this to Rebekah's family he said in Gen 24:45:"And before I had done speaking in mine heart"Notice he said as he had done speaking in his heart. Last week while in Mexico I was seeking the Lord about a particular thing. I asked Him, as I usually do, to confirm a matter with two or more witnesses if it be from Him. I also asked the Lord as I was praying silently to confirm indeed if we are to pray silently about these requests. I have believed for some time that when we pray about these specific matters, that we are to pray silently, in our hearts, in order that the enemy, who can hear spoken words, not hear our intimate conversations with the Lord.Only the Lord God Almighty is omnipotent, or all-powerful, omnipresent, or present everywhere, and omniscient, or all-knowing. Satan does not possess these divine attributes, although he is a great imitator. Satan cannot hear our thoughts, only the Lord can hear the prayers of our hearts, but the enemy can hear spoken words through the ranks of demons assigned to individuals, who can then report back to him. Satan can put thoughts INTO our minds, but he cannot eavesdrop on our thoughts. As he is the father of lies, John 8:44, and the author of confusion, 1 Cor 14:33, he is constantly trying to deceive the body of Christ.The enemy can lie and manipulate people and things in order to deceive us into believing we are hearing from the Lord. I have been confused and deceived many times during my life, and until recently I frequently spoke out loud when talking to the Lord. Once I began to pray silently in my heart to the Lord, I began to hear differently from Him, and He will usually confirm the matter I am seeking Him about with at least two witnesses, often within a very short time.Last week I believe He showed me a truth about this praying in silence, as He pointed me to the passage in Matt 6: 5-6:"And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."Does the Lord literally mean we are to go find a closet in our house and pray in there? What if we are driving down the road while we are praying, are we to pull over and look for the nearest closet? Of course not! In secret means to pray privately, alone, where our spirit communes with God, who is a spirit, in intimate conversation. Why would we reveal our innermost private thoughts to an eavesdropper?When we are in a group setting, that is different. We pray outloud in order to bless, exhort, encourage and give thanks in the presence of all those who are gathered. Those who hear the prayer are part of the communication to our Heavenly Father, but when we ask specific direction for ourselves, that should be done in private. Just as the servant spoke "in his heart", we are to speak in our hearts to the Lord, and He can give us clear direction, just as we ask Him, without the confusion the enemy will try to cause in making us think we are hearing from the Lord.There are other examples of people in the Bible who asked specific direction from the Lord, and He answered them in very specific ways. The account of Hannah beseeching the Lord for a son is given in 1 Samuel 1. Hannah was childless and was the object of scorn and mockery by her rival, Peninnah, who had children by Elkinah, the husband of both women. Hannah went to the the temple to petition the Lord for a son, and verses 13-15 have this to say of Hannah's pleading before the Lord:"Now Hannah, she spake in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard: therefore Eli thought she had been drunken. And Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou be drunken? put away thy wine from thee. And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the LORD. "The Lord did hear Hannah's prayer and the very next day she conceived a son, whom she later named Samuel, "Because I have asked him of the LORD". Verses 27 and 28 tell us that Hannah kept her vow unto the Lord, and later took her son Samuel to Eli the priest:"For this child I prayed; and the LORD hath given me my petition which I asked of him: Therefore also I have lent him to the LORD; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the LORD. And he worshipped the LORD there."Some people will try to argue about testing the Lord, or "putting out a fleece", as Gideon did, pointing out that the fleece was only used once in the Bible and we are not to do that today. The fleece was an actual fleece, the wooly pelt of a sheep, and Gideon asked the Lord for clarification about Israel winning the battle, not once, but twice! Both times the Lord answered Gideon exactly as he had asked. Read Judges 6 and be blessed to see the glory of the Lord so clearly manifested. The Bible does not clearly say whether or not Gideon spoke audibly unto the Lord, but the point is made that as he specifically asked the Lord, the Lord very clearly answered him in the exact way that Gideon asked.I can give a very personal example of asking and hearing from the Lord. I came to the Lord at the age of eight, and as young girl growing up in a Southern Baptist church I was active in the Girl's Auxilliary, a missions group. I remember checking out from the church library a book titled Blue Flower, which was about a missionary woman who went to work with the Indians in the southwest US. Because of her blue eyes, which were the same color as a blue flower which grew there, they called her Blue Flower. I remember reading this book and telling my dad that when I grew up I wanted to be a missionary like Blue Flower. My father wept to think that the Lord had called one of his six children to be a missionary.I went on to live many years in rebellion, not walking with the Lord, and lived in the wilderness for many years. There were times in my life that I would walk with the Lord, then other times I would live in rebellion. Despite the years that the locusts have taken, the Lord still wants to use me, and for the past ten years or so, I have been earnestly seeking to serve the Lord. Recently, I have spoken about my trip to Mexico and my desire to help with Christian work among the people there, most of whom are of Indian background. I was communing with the Lord just yesterday morning, April 12, and asked Him silently if indeed He called me at the age of eight, to do missions work just like Blue Flower. I was reminded that my Mexican friends and husband have many nicknames for me, and among them is one that refers to my own very blue eyes. I asked the Lord to show me if this was His calling by showing me something about Blue Flower that same day. After my quiet time with the Lord, I usually read Five Doves letters, and yesterday was no exception. What was an exception was reading a post by someone whose name I did not recognize, DS Lear:This post was about Rahab, the harlot who hid the two spies by covering them with bundles of flax.The post ended with this paragraph:Can it happen right along with the feast of spring? That is when the flax is in full bloom she is not like the barley in that though whipped by hail she is not harmed for she can be pulled up and out and all by the hand of her Beloved. The flower of flax is a True Blue.....like a sapphire we cannot describe but indeed a day of reckoning.Imagine how my heart leaped with joy to see the Lord answer my question, in a very specific manner, to show me that yes, even at the age of eight, when I first came to Him, he called me for a specific purpose! I never knew that flax plants even blossomed, much less had blue flowers, but naturally I wanted to see this flower. Here is a link:It is interesting that flax is the plant from which linen is made. One day soon, at the wedding of the Bridegroom and the Bride of Christ, symbolized by Isaac and Rebekah, we shall be given robes of fine linen.Rev. 19: 7-8: Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.