Genesis 24:1-10
These first ten verses of Genesis 24 are not that easily understood by someone who grew-up in the United States, or in the Western Hemisphere. I worked with a young Palestinian man who lives in Dubai and he shared with me how he met his wife and what had to take place in order for them to marry. This is the story he told me while I was in Dubai working with him; he and his wife both attended college in Kansas and began a real friendship and when he got home he told his mother that he would like to marry this young lady. His mother called the other mother who lived in Jordan and set up a visit to the young ladies home. He told me that he and his mother sat on one side of the room and the girl and her mother sat on the other side. Neither he nor the girl talked, the mothers did all the talking, then he and his mother left and returned to Dubai.
That was the first faze, next both mothers call friends and family in the area and ask about the character of each person, and find out about the family and if they are respected in the community. Next both mothers hire investigators to check out what kind of income they receive and how they handle money. After this was done, they had a return visit to Jordan and the mothers decided how much gold my friend needed to pay before he married the young lady. The engagement happened after He agreed that he would pay $10,000 in gold. I’m not sure about you, but I would still be single if that was the custom in the West.
In today’s world we would say the oldest servant of Abraham household was like a general manager, he was the one whom Abraham trusted with all his stuff. “Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years. And the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. 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, 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 daughter’s of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell, but will go to my country and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son Isaac.”
The servant was very sharp and did not want to enter into an agreement that he could not complete to the satisfaction of his master, “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?” Abraham was very clear that Isaac was not to return to that land, and he reminded the servant what God had promised; “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. 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.”
It is of some interest that Isaac was forty years old at this time, and it was time for him to be married; it is also of importance to note that Isaac fully trusted his father’s judgment in such an important decision. Isaac also understood that his wife must be a virgin, that she must be united in faith and that she should believe in the covenant God. This was why it was important to send his servant back to Mesopotamia, back to his kinsmen, and it was not a short trip, it was some five hundred miles from Canaan.
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
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