I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 24-25.

When Abraham sent his servant to find a wife for Isaac, there were two elements to his commission to the servant.  The first was to find a wife for Isaac from Abraham’s homeland from among his family.  The second was to under no circumstances ever take Isaac to that land.  If the servant could not find a woman to come to Canaan to be Isaac’s wife he was freed from his oath.  From this we see that it was very important to Abraham that Isaac marry a woman from the family traditions, but it was more important to him that Isaac not return to his homeland and get caught up in whatever was going on there.  It seems to me that Abraham wanted Isaac to have a wife who would reinforce the traditions he had taught Isaac against the traditions of the people among whom Isaac lived, but did not want him to experience the corruption of that tradition which was going on in Abraham’s homeland. 

We can take a lesson from how both Abraham’s servant and Rebekah behaved in this passage.   When Abraham’s servant arrived outside the town where Abraham’s brother had settled he asked God for guidance.  He did not just generically ask for guidance.  Instead, he made a very specific request, “I am going to do this. Let the woman you intend for Isaac respond in this way.”  By making his request for God’s guidance, he made sure that there could be no doubt about the answer he received.  We often fail to do this for one of two reasons.  We either lack faith that God will guide us, or we want to do something that we know is not His will.

Rebekah’s actions are simpler.  She showed great hospitality to a stranger and was greatly rewarded for doing so.  This reflects well on her parents.  She did not even think about it.  When he asked for a drink of water, she gave him one and as soon as he had drunk she offered to draw water for his camels.  I note that she did not actually wait for his reply before starting to provide the camels with water.  Rebekah was well rewarded for her hospitality, but she did so without a thought to receiving such a reward. 

One final note: Rebekah was eager to leave with Abraham’s servant to go marry Isaac.  Perhaps this was just wishing to get out of her father’s house.  Or perhaps this was a similar feeling to why Abraham had left that area many years before.