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Reading: Genesis 24:1-28, 61

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.”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.

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.”

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.” 18 She said, “Drink, my lord.” And she quickly let down her jar upon her hand and gave him a drink. 19 When she had finished giving him a drink, she said, “I will draw water for your camels also, until they have finished drinking.” 20 So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough and ran again to the well to draw water, and she drew for all his camels. 21 The man gazed at her in silence to learn whether the Lord had prospered his journey or not.

22 When the camels had finished drinking, the man took a gold ring weighing a half shekel, and two bracelets for her arms weighing ten gold shekels, 23 and said, “Please tell me whose daughter you are. Is there room in your father's house for us to spend the night?” 24 She said to him, “I am the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor.” 25 She added, “We have plenty of both straw and fodder, and room to spend the night.” 26 The man bowed his head and worshiped the Lord 27 and said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his steadfast love and his faithfulness toward my master. As for me, the Lord has led me in the way to the house of my master's kinsmen.” 28 Then the young woman ran and told her mother's household about these things.

61 Then Rebekah and her young women arose and rode on the camels and followed the man. Thus the servant took Rebekah and went his way.

My Thoughts

Abraham, throughout his life, has asked many requests of God, but here we see for the first time that he asks someone else to carry out a request and that God will be with him to see this request through. 

Abraham's servant is clearly not sure if he can successfully carry out this mission because this is specifically dealing with someone else's will.

The request? To find a wife for his son Isaac from his (Abraham's) home country.

This is for sure not an easy request because the girl could just simply say no. But Abraham assures his servant that if that is indeed the case, then he is freed from his request. But I love how Abraham restates what God had promised him about his son Isaac.

Whether or not this servant believes in the God of Abraham, I don't know. But what is interesting is this: 

 (Verse 12-14) 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.”

He prays to the God of his master. It doesn't seem like he acknowledges God as his master. At the same time, maybe that was a humble way to approach God? He is here because of his master's request. I do love this part of his prayer "please grant me success today and show steadfast love to my master Abraham." Answering a request is one of the ways God shows His love to His people.

Apparently before he could even finish, a girl comes out and he sees her. She does everything that he requested of God to show him as a sign. Without hesitation he tells her everything that has happened.

Honestly I can only imagine her facial expression when he was doing and saying all these things. At the same time I can only imagine the purity of her heart as she brought the man to her father's house.

There's so much happening here that I can't touch on every one of the events, but what I would like to say is that again, Abraham had faith that God will come through somehow, and as usual, God did come through.

I can't help but think of so many people, even myself who forfeited what God had for them because they were not willing to take a risk. So many people try to understand everything before making a choice. But God is not like that all the time. More times than none, God chooses not to explain something fully so that we can see where we are at in the faith.

God wants us to grow. She gave up everything to follow this random man to a place that she doesn't know. Without even knowing it, she was doing exactly what she was supposed to do. She was exactly in God's will. Through her came nations.

How many of us have nations within us? How many of us have things to be birthed, but cannot fully deliver because of our lack of faith that our requests will be found...

I have to remember to keep my eyes up towards God that I may walk in His perfect will.