Free Bible Commentary
“Genesis 24:1-9”
Categories: Genesis“Now Abraham was old, advanced in age; and the Lord had blessed Abraham in every way. Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who had charge of all that he owned, 'Please place your hand under my thigh, and I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I live, but you will go to my country and to my relatives, and take a wife for my son Isaac.' The servant said to him, 'Suppose the woman is not willing to follow me to this land; should I take your son back to the land from where you came?' Then Abraham said to him, 'Beware that you do not take my son back there! The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my birth, and who spoke to me and who swore to me, saying, 'To your descendants I will give this land,' He will send His angel before you, and you will 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 my oath; only do not take my son back there.' So the servant placed his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and swore to him concerning this matter.'”
---End of Scripture verses---
After performing his duty to his deceased wife, Abraham now tends to the needs of his living son. Isaac was forty years old and a suitable bride had not yet been found for him. Parents arranged marriages for their children in this culture, so Abraham sent his oldest and wisest servant to Mesopotamia to find Isaac a wife from among his relatives. It was a long journey with an uncertain outcome, but Abraham trusted that God would provide in this matter as He had done in all others (verse 7) Abraham placed three stipulations upon his servant for selecting a bride for his son: 1) She must not be taken from the daughters of the Canaanites (verse 3); 2) She must come from among Abraham's own relatives (verse 4); 3) It was imperative that Isaac not go and live among the relatives of Abraham (verse 6).
“Now Abraham was old, advanced in age...” (verse 1) He was pushing 140 years of age and he felt the pressure of providing for the perpetuation of God's promises through his posterity. “Abraham's awareness of his extreme old age lends urgency to his quest for a wife for his son. That is why he extracts an oath from his servant when a simple order normally would have sufficed. The servant's query in verse 5 assumes the possibility of the patriarch not being alive by the end of his mission. Significantly, the only other instance of the particular form of oath described in verse 2 occurs in a deathbed scene, 47:29.” (Nahum Sarna) “And the Lord had blessed Abraham in every way.” The Lord had greatly blessed Abraham in the spiritual, physical and material realms, but His faithfulness in blessing Abraham with an abundance of material wealth qualified him to secure a wife for his son and bring her to him from a long distance away.
“Please place your hand under my thigh.” (verse 2) “For this symbolical act, compare the request made by Jacob in Genesis 47:29, where, in the expectation of death, he binds Joseph by the solemn pledge of this sign. Presumably Abraham is expecting his death; and he causes his servant to swear in the most solemn way that he will carry out his master’s wish. The words 'under my thigh' probably contain a survival of a very ancient piece of symbolism. The word 'thigh' is rendered 'loins' in Genesis 46:26, Exodus 1:5. The phrase here seems to refer to the organs of generation, and also, possibly, to the covenant rite of circumcision. The appeal is made to those who hereafter should be born, on the one hand, to attest the oath, and, on the other, to avenge its violation.” (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges)
“I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth...” (verse 3) What a solemn, somber and serious situation the selecting of a spouse for his son was for Abraham! That he would “make” his servant swear by the sacred name of Jehovah God—the Lord of all tribes, races, nations, and realms, whether terrestrial or celestial! Would to God that all of the Lord's people would take the sacred covenant of marriage so seriously and diligently pursue the right type of person to attach oneself to intimately, exclusively, permanently before even considering invoking their solemn vows! It was with great wisdom that God left godly parents in charge of initiating marriage contracts!
“You shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites...” (verse 3) “The Canaanites were not only gross idolaters and heinous sinners, for so many others were; but that they were a people under God’s peculiar curse, Genesis 9:25, and devoted to extirpation and utter destruction, which was to be inflicted upon them by Abraham’s posterity; and therefore to marry his son to such persons had been a high degree of self-murder, whereby the holy and blessed seed had been in danger of great infection from them, and utter ruin with them.” (Matthew Poole's Commentary)
“You will go to my country and to my relatives, and take a wife for my son Isaac.” (verse 4) “The family of Nahor his brother, which now dwelt at Haran in Mesopotamia, called the city of Nahor, Genesis 24:10; see Genesis 29:4; of the increase of whose family Abraham had heard a few years ago, Genesis 22:20... and take a wife to my son Isaac; from among them, who though they were not clear of superstition and idolatry, yet they worshipped the true God with their 'idols': and a woman taken out of such a family, and removed at a distance from it, it might be reasonably concluded would be brought off of those things, and adhere to the pure and undefiled religion; and the rather this family was chosen, not only because related to Abraham, but because it had sprung from Shem, who was blessed of God, and whose God the Lord was; nearness of kin was no objection and hinderance to such a marriage, the laws relating to marriage not being given till the time of Moses.” (Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible)
“Suppose the woman is not willing to follow me to this land; should I take your son back to the land from where you came?” (verse 5) This was a logical question and a legitimate concern for Abraham's unnamed servant. And who could blame a woman for not wanting to return to a faraway foreign land with a total stranger to marry a man that she had never before laid eyes on?! But, as reasonable as such a question and concern might have been, Abraham demanded in no uncertain terms, “Beware that you do not take my son back there!” (verse 6) Isaac's proper place was in the Land of Promise, where God had led Abraham to enter and dwell, and not back in Haran (or Ur) from whence the Lord had called him out of (verse 7)! Away from his family who were idolaters, and likely a greater danger for negative influence than the heathens of Canaan whom Isaac would know to keep at an arm's distance.
“He will send His angel before you, and you will take a wife for my son from there.” (verse 7) There were times in Abraham's odyssey of faith that he did not fully depend upon the trustworthiness of the Lord to pull him safely through times of uncertainty. And especially while traveling outside the Land of Promise, to Egypt and to Gerar, where he jeopardized Sarah's safety and sanctity. But now, in his old age, and after God had proven Himself trustworthy time and time again, he completely trusted the Lord to make good on His word and provide a wife for Isaac to produce an uncountable posterity and bless the whole world through his sacred Seed. Even though it be from a land hundreds of miles away, from a family he had not seen in decades, and from a maiden required to trust a complete stranger, He knew the Lord would provide, the Lord would deliver, the Lord would keep His promises against all merely human odds. Friends, you can depend on the Lord God Almighty, even when you can trust in no one else, including yourself.
Please read Genesis 24:10-14 for tomorrow.
Have a blessed day!
- Louie Taylor
