The Search Begins

Good evening from the Panhandle. With a birthday fast approaching I find myself thing about past birthdays. As I think about those specific memories come to mind. Some have to do with birthdays others are just good memories. Going to see a movie that I pestered my Dad into taking me to is one birthday memory. The year that Bret made a really cool party light out of an old turn table. Playing “Baby If You Love Me Give Me A Smile.” There was a really cool Halloween party our church youth group went to at a ranch up in the foothills. Or the time me, Kevin, and Dean wore leather jackets with Rts on the back and had our hair done in a DA. And I can't forget the luau that Gayla threw for my fortieth birthday, she even had Hawaiian music playing. These are just some of the outstanding memories I have. With Isaac, Abraham's son by Sara; there are 3 outstanding events of his life recorded: (1) his birth, (2) his offering by Abraham, and (3) his bride which we are looking at in this chapter.

As we look at Genesis 24, Abraham was well advanced in years. Isaac was still unmarried. Abraham was concerned that his heir find a wife from his own people, instead of from the Canaanites. Abraham did not want Isaac to leave the land promised to them, so he chose his trusted servant, Eliezer, to make the long journey, about 500 miles, to Mesopotamia to find Isaac's bride.

CHAPTER 24: 1-9 AT A GLANCE:

Abraham, being a devoted father wanting to get his son Isaac properly married, calls his confidential servant (probably Eliezer) and makes him swear that he will not take a wife for Isaac from among the Canaanites, v. 1-3.

Abraham makes the servant swear that he will obtain a wife from among Abraham's own relatives, v. 4.

The servant poses certain difficulties, v. 5.

Abraham removes them by giving him the strongest assurances of God's direction in the matter, v. 6-7.

Then Abraham specifies the conditions of the oath, v. 8.

The form of the oath itself, v. 9.

The servant makes preparations for his journey and sets out for Mesopotamia, the residence of Abraham's kindred, v. 10.

Genesis 24:1-9

24:1 Abraham was now old and well advanced in years, and the LORD had blessed him in every way. 2 He said to the chief servant in his household, the one in charge of all that he had, "Put your hand under my thigh. 3 I want you to swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living, 4 but will go to my country and my own relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac."

5 The servant asked him, "What if the woman is unwilling to come back with me to this land? Shall I then take your son back to the country you came from?"

6 "Make sure that you do not take my son back there," Abraham said. 7 "The LORD, the God of heaven, who brought me out of my father's household and my native land and who spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, `To your offspring I will give this land'--he will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there. 8 If the woman is unwilling to come back with you, then you will be released from this oath of mine. Only do not take my son back there." 9 So the servant put his hand under the thigh of his master Abraham and swore an oath to him concerning this matter.

Abraham Sets Out To Get Isaac A Wife (vv. 1-9)

Abraham was anxious to see his son Isaac married. This was natural to his position as a pastoral chief interested in preserving the honor of his tribe. The first movement in this matrimonial arrangement is on the part of Abraham, who does not consult Isaac, but the chief manager of his household affairs.

Abraham was a hundred and forty years old, and Sarah has been dead three years. Isaac seemed to have been happy with the way things were, and was not looking to choose a wife that his father would approve. The promise of numerous offspring by the son of Sarah had to be on the mind of the patriarch. All these considerations force him to look out for a suitable wife for his son, and the blessing of the Lord encourages him to proceed.

Among the rustic tribes the marital arrangements are made by the parents, and a youth must marry, not among strangers, but in his own tribe, custom giving him a claim, which is seldom or never resisted, to the hand of his first cousin. But Abraham had a far higher motive - a fear of his son marring into a Canaanite family. If this happened he might be gradually led away from God; and as that people, were a race sinking fast into ungodliness, gross idolaters, and unrighteousness, this was not a good thing. These were not the people from whom the promised seed should succeed.

Abraham was eager that a marital negotiation to be opened with his Mesopotamian relatives, who, amid some corruptions, still retained the knowledge, some reverence for God and His will and still worshiped God to an extent.

The relatives of Abraham were Shemites, and still retained some knowledge of the true God. The experienced elder of Abraham's house did not wish to bind himself by an oath to what it might be impossible to fulfill. He made the assumption of the unwillingness of the bride whom he may select, and obtained a acquittal from his oath in that case. The patriarch, however, charges him not to take his son back to the land of his fathers, and expresses his confidence in the God of promise, that he would direct his servant to the suitable wife for his son.

Abraham bound the chief servant of his house to seek for a wife for his son Isaac among his kindred. Eliezer of mascus (Gen 15:2). Eliezer had been the steward of Abraham before the birth of Ishmael fifty-four Years ago.

"Under my thigh." The thigh was the seat of generative power, and the region of sacramental consecration, and to put the hand under the thigh was to acknowledge and pledge obedience to him who required the oath.

"His angel" (Gen 16:7). This is the Lord in the function of an angel or messenger opening the way for the servant of Abraham. He did not make any appearance to the Eliezer, though a superintending Providence is strikingly displayed in the whole affair. The faithful elder now understood and took the required oath.