INTRODUCTION: Last week, in Gen. 22:1-14, we saw Abraham experience the ultimate test of faith when God ordered him to take Isaac-his beloved son and heir to the promise-up on a mountain and once there, kill him and offer him as a burnt sacrifice. The underlying object of this test of faith was to see whether Abraham, who loved Isaac more than his own life, could put all common sense aside and prove that he loved God even more. We watched his agony as he took the boy up the mountain and lashed him a stack of firewood. We heard the boy ask his father, "where is the lamb?" and saw Abraham raise his knife to make the killing blow. Then before the knife could do its work, God's angel intervened, stopped him with a shout, and Abraham, looking up, saw a ram caught in the thicket, which he took and offered as a sacrifice instead of his son. We learned three things from Abraham's example: (1) Like Abraham, when we experience a personal crisis, we need to maintain faith in God even when our understanding of His plans is incomplete; (2) like Abraham, we must be willing to surrender everything we have in order to obey God's will; and (3) like Abraham, our faith should set an example to those who follow us.
This week, in Gen. 24:1-17, on a much lighter note, we will complete our quarterly study of the first half of Genesis as we see Abraham send one of his servants back to his homeland to find a wife for son, Isaac. To emphasize the utter seriousness of this quest, Abraham binds the servant to an oath having two non-negotiable conditions: (1) that the prospective bride must come from Abraham's own people and (2) under no circumstances will Isaac be allowed to leave Canaan. The lesson will reveal why these two conditions are so important to both Abraham and to God's plan to make him a nation.
Read Gen. 24:1-4 - TAKE A WIFE FOR MY SON ISAAC
1 Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years. And the LORD had blessed Abraham in all things. 2 And Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who had charge of all that he had, "Put your hand under my thigh, 3 that I may make you swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell, 4 but will go to my country and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son Isaac."
v. 1a: "Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years." - We come into today's text about 30-35 years after the events of the previous lesson. Abraham is now about 140, and although his age is "advanced," he will live another 35 years and father three more children with Keturah, his wife (or concubine?), following Sarah's death (Gen. 25:1-6).
v. 1b: "And the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things." - The "all things" with which God had blessed Abraham, included not only the birth of Isaac but great wealth and status within the land.
v. 2a: "And Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who had charge of all that he had," - By tradition, the "servant" is thought to have been Eliezer, the household slave who would have inherited his property when Abram complained that he still had no offspring (Gen. 15:2).
v. 2b: "Put your hand under my thigh," - This was an ancient Mesopotamian custom whereby an oath-taker would put his hand on the oath-giver's place of circumcision to swear to the oath.
v. 3a: "that I may make you swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and God of the earth," - Any deviation from this oath would invoke the wrath of YHWH, probably a death sentence.
v. 3b: "that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell," - Abraham obviously feared the possibility that he might die before Isaac, who is now about 40, could be married. He must ensure that under absolutely no circumstance would his servant permit Isaac to corrupt his bloodline by marrying a local, Canaanite woman. You might remember that later, Moses will instruct the Children of Israel to never intermarry with Canaanites, who were idol-worshiping pagans (Deut. 7:1-5). This was not God's plan for the Covenant heir and his descendants, which explains why Ishmael, a half-Egyptian, failed to qualify as the heir of the Covenant. (Gen. 17:20). And Abraham's reasons in this context aren't racial or even ethnic, but spiritual: God has made it crystal clear that his descendants are to be a people set apart for God. This same bloodline would over time produce Jacob, Judah, David, and ultimately, Jesus Christ.
v. 4: 'but will go to my country and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son Isaac." - Here, Abraham tells the servant that the search will be limited to a bride candidate selected from people who are related to him by blood. At this point, Abraham's "country" and "kindred" had migrated to the region of Paddan-Aram in the area around Haran (see map), a location that Abraham's father, Terah, had named for his deceased son, who was Lot's father (Gen. 11:27-31). They originally came from Ur, near the mouth of the Euphrates River (Gen. 11:28).
Read Gen. 24:5-9 - THE MISSION DEFINED
5 The servant said to him, "Perhaps the woman may not be willing to follow me to this land. Must I then take your son back to the land from which you came?" 6 Abraham said to him, "See to it that you do not take my son back there. 7 The LORD, the God of heaven, who took me from my father's house and from the land of my kindred, and who spoke to me and swore to me, 'To your offspring I will give this land,' he will send his angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there. 8 But if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be free from this oath of mine; only you must not take my son back there." 9 So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master and swore to him concerning this matter.
v. 5a: "The servant said to him, "Perhaps the woman may not be willing to follow me to this land." - The servant asks a very pertinent question: What if I find a qualified girl from your kinsmen, but she refuses to simply pack up and move to a strange place to marry a man she's never seen?
v. 5b: "Must I then take your son back to the land from which you came?" - The idea here is that Isaac himself would come along and participate in the bride selection process. That would remove a lot of the servant's personal accountability under this oath.
v. 6: "Abraham said to him, "See to it that you do not take my son back there. This is emphatic. Abraham immediately sees two potential problems with this scenario: Abraham might not live long enough to see Isaac return or even worse, his now 40-year-old son might decide he likes his bride's homeland better and never return to Canaan. Therefore, it must be a woman who is willing to return with him and marry a man sight unseen, and thereafter live with him in Canaan, a strange land.
v. 7a: "The LORD, the God of heaven, who took me from my father's house and from the land of my kindred, and who spoke to me and swore to me, 'To your offspring I will give this land,'" - Here, Abraham essentially reiterates God's original promise to him in Gen 12:7 to give the land of Canaan to his descendants. This is the reason why Isaac's bride must return here. It's non-negotiable.
v. 7b: "He will send his angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there." - At this juncture, based on his 60+ years of experience with God, Abraham was confident in God's ability to move people where he wanted them to go, and Isaac's future bride candidate was no exception.
v. 8: "But if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be free from this oath of mine; only you must not take my son back there." - This is the servant's escape clause. This concession didn't mean that Abraham doubted that God would provide; he simply wanted to raise the servant's comfort level by offering him a way out of his oath.
v. 9: "So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master and swore to him concerning this matter." - Thus, the oath is sealed, and the servant is now committed to his quest.
You might ask why Isaac, a grown man, wasn't included in this process or trusted to go with the servant. The short answer is that we really don't know. Part of it was most likely custom-that fathers in that culture took a leading role in selecting brides for their sons. And in Abraham's situation, given the time and distance involved, the servant needed to obey only one master.
Read Gen. 24:10-14 - BY THIS I SHALL KNOW
10 Then the servant took ten of his master's camels and departed, taking all sorts of choice gifts from his master; and he arose and went to Mesopotamia to the city of Nahor. 11 And he made the camels kneel down outside the city by the well of water at the time of evening, the time when women go out to draw water. 12 And he said, "O LORD, God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today and show steadfast love to my master Abraham. 13 Behold, I am standing by the spring of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. 14 Let the young woman to whom I shall say, 'Please let down your jar that I may drink,' and who shall say, 'Drink, and I will water your camels'-let her be the one whom you have appointed for your servant Isaac. By this I shall know that you have shown steadfast love to my master."
v. 10: "Then the servant took ten of his master's camels and departed, taking all sorts of choice gifts from his master; and he arose and went to Mesopotamia to the city of Nahor." - This journey was a substantial undertaking: A caravan consisting of ten camels that must have included a sizable crew of people under the control of Abraham's servant. Added to that, Abraham had sent "all sorts of choice gifts" for the prospective bride's family. All in all, it represented a grandiose demonstration of his master Abraham's extensive wealth and status. The journey to Nahor, a location named after Abraham's brother, was probably in the vicinity of Haran (see map), a distance of about 500 miles from Beer-Sheba. A typical journey of this distance by camel would take about a month.
v. 11: "And he made the camels kneel down outside the city by the well of water at the time of evening, the time when women go out to draw water." - This was a strategic move on the part of the servant-to match the watering of the camels with a time when the women came to this well to draw water for their families. Ten camels kneeling around the well would be quite a spectacle.
v. 12: "And he said, "O LORD, God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today and show steadfast love to my master Abraham." - This is critical-Abraham's servant shows himself to be a believer in YHWH, the One True God of the Universe! It almost certainly identifies him as Eliezer, a person who has been nurtured in the faith and raised by his master Abraham as an adoptive son.
v. 13: "Behold, I am standing by the spring of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water." - As he introduces his prayer, the servant very carefully lays out the setting of his petition to his Almighty God, showing us a good model for being prepared.
v. 14: "Let the young woman to whom I shall say, 'Please let down your jar that I may drink,' and who shall say, 'Drink, and I will water your camels'-let her be the one whom you have appointed for your servant Isaac. By this I shall know that you have shown steadfast love to my master." - Here, the servant submits to God's sovereign will by asking Him for a sign that will positively identify the woman that He has selected to be Isaac's bride.
Read Gen. 24:15-17 - BEHOLD, REBEKAH!
15 Before he had finished speaking, behold, Rebekah, who was born to Bethuel the son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, came out with her water jar on her shoulder.16 The young woman was very attractive in appearance, a maiden whom no man had known. She went down to the spring and filled her jar and came up. 17 Then the servant ran to meet her and said, "Please give me a little water to drink from your jar."
v. 15: "Before he had finished speaking, behold, Rebekah, who was born to Bethuel the son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, came out with her water jar on her shoulder." - We serve an amazing God, Amen? Before the servant can even finish his plea to God, "Rebekah" steps into his line of sight with her water jar. It is no accident that this young woman just happens to be Abraham's great-niece, the granddaughter of his brother Nahor!
v. 16: "The young woman was very attractive in appearance, a maiden whom no man had known. She went down to the spring and filled her jar and came up." - And besides her blood-relation to Abraham, Rebekah is a very good-looking, young, and is still an un-betrothed "maiden" (i.e., a virgin).
v. 17: "Then the servant ran to meet her and said, "Please give me a little water to drink from your jar." - This is the clincher, the sign requested.
POSTSCRIPT: The chapter verses that follow this one, completely confirmed the servant's predetermined sign to identify Rebekah as God's choice for Isaac's bride-to-be. In verse 58, when Rebekah's family finally asked her, "Will you go with this man?" She said, "I will go." And she went.
APPLICATION-Trusting in God's Provision:
