Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 24-25.
There are two questions which always cross my mind when I read the account of Abraham sending his servant to get a wife for Isaac. First, why was Abraham so adamant that Isaac not marry a Canaanite woman? Second, why was it even more important that Isaac not go back to the country from which Abraham came? There is a simple answer to the second question, although I’m not convinced it is complete. Abraham’s father had started the leave the land to which Abraham did not want Isaac to return, but got sidetracked. Only for Abraham to resume the journey and come to Canaan, a land which God promised to his descendants. So, we conclude that Abraham did not want Isaac to reverse the journey which he had taken. Canaan was the land which God had promised to Abraham and he did not want his son to leave that land. So, that answers that question. Except that it seems to me that there is more to it than that. Which brings us to the first question. Again, there is an easy, simple answer: Abraham did not want Isaac to get assimilated into the culture of the land of Canaan. He wanted Isaac to raise a family with the values which Abraham had brought with him from his home. That works, but once again it feels like there is more to it than that. I feel like the answers I mentioned above are not wrong, but I think that they are incomplete. Unfortunately, I do not know what the complete answer is.
I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.