A Wife for Isaac
24 Abraham was now a very old man, and the Lord had blessed him in every way. 2 One day Abraham said to his oldest servant, the man in charge of his household, “Take an oath by putting your hand under my thigh. 3 Swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and earth, that you will not allow my son to marry one of these local Canaanite women. 4 Go instead to my homeland, to my relatives, and find a wife there for my son Isaac.”
5 The servant asked, “But what if I can’t find a young woman who is willing to travel so far from home? Should I then take Isaac there to live among your relatives in the land you came from?”
6 “No!” Abraham responded. “Be careful never to take my son there. 7 For the Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and my native land, solemnly promised to give this land to my descendants.[a] He will send his angel ahead of you, and he will see to it that you find a wife there for my son. 8 If she is unwilling to come back with you, then you are free from this oath of mine. But under no circumstances are you to take my son there.”
9 So the servant took an oath by putting his hand under the thigh of his master, Abraham. He swore to follow Abraham’s instructions. 10 Then he loaded ten of Abraham’s camels with all kinds of expensive gifts from his master, and he traveled to distant Aram-naharaim. There he went to the town where Abraham’s brother Nahor had settled. 11 He made the camels kneel beside a well just outside the town. It was evening, and the women were coming out to draw water.
12 “O Lord, God of my master, Abraham,” he prayed. “Please give me success today, and show unfailing love to my master, Abraham. 13 See, I am standing here beside this spring, and the young women of the town are coming out to draw water. 14 This is my request. I will ask one of them, ‘Please give me a drink from your jug.’ If she says, ‘Yes, have a drink, and I will water your camels, too!’—let her be the one you have selected as Isaac’s wife. This is how I will know that you have shown unfailing love to my master.”
15 Before he had finished praying, he saw a young woman named Rebekah coming out with her water jug on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel, who was the son of Abraham’s brother Nahor and his wife, Milcah. 16 Rebekah was very beautiful and old enough to be married, but she was still a virgin. She went down to the spring, filled her jug, and came up again. 17 Running over to her, the servant said, “Please give me a little drink of water from your jug.”
18 “Yes, my lord,” she answered, “have a drink.” And she quickly lowered her jug from her shoulder and gave him a drink. 19 When she had given him a drink, she said, “I’ll draw water for your camels, too, until they have had enough to drink.” 20 So she quickly emptied her jug into the watering trough and ran back to the well to draw water for all his camels.
21 The servant watched her in silence, wondering whether or not the Lord had given him success in his mission. 22 Then at last, when the camels had finished drinking, he took out a gold ring for her nose and two large gold bracelets[b] for her wrists.
23 “Whose daughter are you?” he asked. “And please tell me, would your father have any room to put us up for the night?”
24 “I am the daughter of Bethuel,” she replied. “My grandparents are Nahor and Milcah. 25 Yes, we have plenty of straw and feed for the camels, and we have room for guests.”
26 The man bowed low and worshiped the Lord. 27 “Praise the Lord, the God of my master, Abraham,” he said. “The Lord has shown unfailing love and faithfulness to my master, for he has led me straight to my master’s relatives.”
Footnotes:
24:7 Hebrew seed; also in 24:60.
24:22 Hebrew a gold nose-ring weighing a beka [0.2 ounces or 6 grams] and two gold bracelets weighing 10 [shekels] [4 ounces or 114 grams].
Here we have a transition story, basically from Abraham's leadership to Isaac's. It is formulated in the familiar style of others such as Jacob and Rachel, or Moses and Zipporah. A meeting of a man and a woman at a well results in a marriage covenant. Here we see the first glimpses that Abraham will not live forever. And the promise is spoken once again, "For the Lord... solemnly promised to give this land to my descendants." This time it is the woman who is asked to leave her home and family to travel to a distant land.
The faithful call is initiated by Abraham though. He starts the ball rolling by commissioning his servant to conduct the search. And his servant, too, remains faithful by carrying out that commission. Later we will see Rebekah's family's response. But for now, we are left in this story as it unfolds at the well. Questions that come to my mind are how often do foreigners show up at this well surrounded by a herd of camels decked out with expensive baggage and gifts? Is this a regular occurrence or something that would have stood out to Rebekah? Did she see this odd occurrence as an opportunity or was she simply being the courteous young woman her parents and grandparents raised her to be? I must say, I love that she thought to care for the camels, as well as the manservant in front of her.
It also stood out to me that she immediately, without hesitation, offered food and lodging without having to run home and ask first. I think that says something both about her and her family. Maybe they were very well to do, but more likely, there simply was always enough for the traveler, the foreigner, the man journeying through.
I do find it peculiar that the servant brings out a couple of gold bracelets and a nose ring but nothing is done with them at this point, at least that we are told in the text. I would have thought those would have been brought out later when the question was asked... Did he dangle them in front of her like a carrot before a horse? Or simply move them around from one bag to the next in hopes she was taking a good peek? Or maybe they were a gift for the hospitality shown him and his camels and were handed to her immediately. Again, if travelers were regular, this may have been part of the proper etiquette of the day.
The question of the day remains: how often do we look to God to bless something God did not initiate? And how do we truly know it is God's will? Do we ask precise prayers that can confirm or decline? Do we pray for blessing in the midst of the process, assuring divine intervention along the way? Or do we wait... doing nothing until we feel led by God with the direction to go? I tend to lean more in Abraham's direction. Initiate. Set a plan into action. Consider God's will and that the plan aligns with it. And then put it into action. Be willing to risk failure if it wasn't in God's will to succeed, but also know that often, God is willing to respond to our initiations.
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