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 it was time for Isaac to marry, Abraham emphatically did not want him to marry a Canaanite woman. Abraham asked his servant to return to his (Abraham’s) homeland and find a wife there among his relatives. The servant asked what he should do if the woman was unwilling to return to the land of Canaan, should he take Isaac to Abraham’s homeland? Abraham was even more emphatic that Isaac should on no account go to Abraham’s homeland. This exchange reminds me of the fact that Abraham’s father started out from his homeland heading for the land of Canaan. There was something about the culture of Abraham’s homeland that made him want Isaac’s wife to come from there, but did not want his son to go there. One further piece of the puzzle shows up in the response of Rebekah’s brother and father to the story Abraham’s servant told them explaining why he was there. They agreed to send Rebekah to be Isaac’s wife because they acknowledged that God had clearly directed Abraham’s servant to her. They clearly honored and worshiped the same God as Abraham, yet we know that years later when Jacob came to stay with Laban, the latter no longer worshiped God as his god.