And Abraham said to his servant, the eldest of his house, who ruled over all that he had, Put thy hand, I pray thee, under my thigh,
Abraham is old, blessed in everything, and now turns his mind to the one thing still unsettled — a wife for Isaac. He calls the senior man of his household, the one trusted with everything he owned, and binds him by a solemn oath.
Nothing here starts with the servant or with the bride. The opening move is the father's.
First we learn that the thought of a bride for Isaac originates with Abraham. He is the one who begins the story of Genesis 24. He discloses his mind about the bride for Isaac; he instructs his servant, and sends him on his way. So we learn that the thought of a Bride for Christ originates in the purpose of the Father's heart. It is also the Father who sends the Spirit to bring the Bride to Christ (John 14:26).
This servant had charge of all that Abraham had. One writer marks the limit of that charge.
The first thing presented to us here is Eliezer, who has the oversight of all his master's goods. He is not the heir — the son is the heir. So the Holy Spirit has the disposal of all things. He takes of the things of Christ and shows them to us; that is, to the church.
The chapter never tells us this man's name. Writers take that silence as part of the picture.
The servant pictures the Holy Spirit. Perhaps he was Eliezer, Abraham's steward forty years earlier. If so, the silence of this chapter about his name is even more striking. A name would spoil him as a type of the Holy Spirit. A name calls attention to what anyone is. The Father and the Son have glorious Names, but the Holy Spirit has none. He is not here to call attention to Himself, or to make Himself the object we look at. He is here to serve the purposes of the Father concerning the Son.
The oath Abraham asks for is not routine. One writer sets it apart from every other oath in the Old Testament.
So Abraham employs his trusted Eliezer, the one "who had charge of all that he had." He fittingly pictures the place of service the Holy Spirit is pleased to take now, carrying out God's purpose about the church in this world. Nowhere else in Genesis, and nowhere else in all the Old Testament, do we find an oath whose purpose is urged again and again. Its subject matters just as much. Isaac must on no account have a wife from the daughters of Canaan. She must come from the country and family that God called Abraham, the father of the faithful, out of.
The hand under the thigh sounds strange today. The same act appears later in Genesis, when Jacob asks it of Joseph.
Jacob knew he was nearing his end. He called for Joseph and asked him to put his hand under his thigh. This was plainly a symbol of Joseph's willingness to do what his father asked of him.
The rest of the chapter follows this servant on his errand. His conduct there sets a pattern.
As an example, he displays the qualities that should always mark a servant of God. Here are some of them. First, his master commissions him; he does not run ahead before his master sends him. Then his master equips him for the service he calls him to: all his master's goods were in his hand (v. 10). Next, his master's instructions alone guide him; his own ideas have no place or influence (vv. 2-9). Further, he depends entirely on the Lord; he looks to Him to act for him (vv. 12-14).
Oldest, in charge of everything, with Abraham from the start. One writer builds the confidence of the whole errand on those three marks.
And whom does the servant foreshadow? He is the oldest servant. He ruled over all Abraham had. He was with him from the beginning… He testified of the Father and the Son: how rich the father is, and that Isaac is the heir of all the riches. And so the Holy Spirit does not speak of Himself, but of the Father and of the Son. He makes known the eternal purposes of the Father. As the servant's mission did not fail, so the mission of the Holy Spirit in the present age cannot fail.
- Father — The whole errand starts in Abraham's heart, and the picture is of the Father's own purpose for His Son.
- Trust — The servant has charge of all his master owns. But he is a steward, not the heir; what he handles belongs to the son.
- Nameless — The chapter never gives his name. He points to his master, not to himself.
- Oath — No other oath in the Old Testament is urged like this one. No wife from Canaan; the bride must come from the land Abraham left.
- Finished — Commissioned, equipped, guided, dependent. The servant's errand did not fail, and neither will the work it pictures.
and I will make thee swear by Jehovah, the God of the heavens and the God of the earth, that thou take not a wife for my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am dwelling;
Abraham is old, blessed in everything, and one matter is still unsettled: who Isaac will marry. Before the servant goes anywhere, Abraham makes him swear an oath. The first term is a ban: no Canaanite wife.
Abraham does not just forbid. He binds the servant by a name for God. One writer ties that name to the separation Abraham demands.
Here Abraham gives God His full title of glory in heaven and earth. There was to be no connection with the rejected race — with the world in which he lived as a stranger… The Canaanite was a judged race in the place of promise. But Abraham will not have Isaac in the place of nature — the place out of which he was called… The Canaanites have a special character in the world. They stand for the world that has turned away from God, of which Satan is prince. They are his instruments and his power.
Another writer takes that name further. Its full meaning came out only later, in Christ.
In Genesis 24 "the God of the heavens and the God of the earth" presents the universal rights of the only true God. Those rights are revealed fully, and only, when the Son of God has come. He, dead and risen, brings out all the truth clearly in connection with the call of the church, the bride of Christ.
Abraham's reason is not about nationality. It is about judgment — and it reaches all the way to what the church is made of.
Then the servant is told that the bride for Isaac is "not to be of the daughters of the Canaanites." Abraham says she is to be of "my kindred." The Canaanites were under the curse and devoted to judgment. There can be no link between Christ in the glory and a world under judgment. Isaac's bride was not to be a stranger but one that already belonged to Abraham's family. So the Church is not formed of unbelievers. Nor is it a mixture of believers and unbelievers. It is made up wholly of the family of faith.
The same rule returns in the next generation. One writer sees the pattern pointing forward.
Rebekah, the bride of Isaac, and Leah, the bride of Jacob, both belonged to the same country and the same kindred as their husbands. In each case a very clear charge forbade taking a daughter of Canaan as wife (Gen. 24:3; Gen. 28:1). So too the bride of the Lamb must belong to His country and His kindred. She is not only heavenly in destiny, but heavenly in origin. Jerusalem above is our Mother (Gal. 4:26), and we are not of the world, even as He is not of the world. Hebrews 2:11 shows that we are of His kindred.
The ban also decides how the whole chapter should be read.
The bride for Isaac must be suited to Isaac, and so must not be taken from the daughters of the Canaanites (v. 3). Such were devoted to judgment and therefore wholly unsuited to Isaac. So the dealings with Rebekah are not really a picture of the grace of God bringing salvation to sinners. They picture the love of Christ appealing to saints. If the point were to show the grace of God that reaches the vilest sinners, the servant would have gone straight to the daughters of the Canaanites.
Abraham held this rule long before Israel received it as law.
The law forbade Israel to intermarry with the Canaanites (Ex. 34:15-16). Long before that command came, Abraham's spiritual sense had made it a law for him (Gen. 24:3).
Abraham applied the same rule to his whole household. One writer draws the line straight to parents today.
The people of the land where Abraham lived were a doomed race, because of their great wickedness. Abraham would not have a wife for his son from among them, but one of his own kindred… Called to separation, he would faithfully keep it intact in his family and household. Suppose a Christian parent approves the marriage of one of his children into a godless family. That parent is surely not walking in the steps of faithful Abraham.
- Sworn — Abraham binds the servant by "the God of heaven and God of the earth." That name claims heaven and earth alike, and rules out any tie with the world he lived in as a stranger.
- Excluded — judgment bars the Canaanites, not preference. There can be no link between the son and a people under the curse.
- Kindred — the other side of the same rule. The bride must already belong to the family. So the bride of the Lamb is heavenly in origin, not only in destiny.
- Suited — the ban falls on Canaan. So writers see here the love of Christ appealing to those already His, not grace reaching the vilest.
- Household — Abraham kept this separation as law before any law required it. He kept it inside his own family too. Parents who bless a child's marriage into a godless family are not walking in his steps.
but thou shalt go to my land and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son Isaac.
Abraham is old and his son is still unmarried. God's promise runs through Isaac's line, so the first thing Abraham settles is not where Isaac will live but where his wife will come from. His charge draws two lines: no wife from Canaan, and a wife only from his own family. Commentators find in both a meaning that reaches far beyond one household's marriage.
The oath fixes both a source and a direction for the search.
Genesis 24:1-6 show that Abraham laid down two conditions. First, the wife was not to be taken from among the Canaanites, who were then in the land. Second, she was to be of his own kindred; yet the marriage must not be allowed to lure Isaac back to the land he had come out of. The chosen woman must be willing to share the stranger position which Isaac occupied, and come to him. He was not to go to her.
This was not mere dislike of foreigners. It rested on the judgment hanging over the Canaanites.
Then the servant is told that the bride for Isaac is "not to be of the daughters of the Canaanites." Abraham says she is to be of "my kindred." The Canaanites were under the curse and marked out for judgment. There can be no link between Christ in the glory and a world under judgment. Isaac's bride was not to be a stranger but one that already belonged to Abraham's family. So the Church is not formed of unbelievers, nor of believers and unbelievers mixed together. It is formed entirely of the family of faith.
Grant fastens on the timing. Rebekah already belonged to the family before the servant ever set out.
Note about Rebekah that she is already of Abraham's kindred. Isaac is not being sought an outside stranger... The Church is found in the family of faith. It is the gathering together of the children of God who are scattered abroad (John 11:52)... So, in my view, Rebekah does not picture the call of sinners by the gospel. She pictures the call of saints to a place of special relationship with Christ on high.
Kelly weighs the oath itself, and the place God had called Abraham out of.
Nowhere else in Genesis, or in the whole Old Testament, do we find an oath brought in and pressed again and again like this one. Isaac must on no account take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. His wife must come from the country and kin out of which Abraham, the father of the faithful, had himself been called. Angels are not called, fallen or unfallen: sovereign grace chooses from the world.
Isaac never leaves home. The father sends a servant, and the servant makes the whole journey.
In this chapter Abraham sends Eliezer to seek a wife for Isaac. This represents the Holy Spirit sent by the Father to seek the church, "the bride, the Lamb's wife." It is not Isaac who goes to look for a bride. No more does Christ return to this earth to choose a church for Himself. Rebekah must leave her country and come to the land of promise.
Three people keep this charge: the father who gives it, the servant who swears to it, and the son who waits alone for the outcome.
Abraham sends a special mission into a distant land to get a wife "in the Lord" for his son. Eliezer goes on that mission with a ready mind. Isaac waits patiently for its fruit. He seeks no alliance with the nearer people. Sad and alone though he is, he keeps himself for the wife the Lord appoints... He might have got a daughter of Canaan; but he endured. He would rather suffer the heartsickness of hope deferred than not marry "in the Lord."
One writer turns this into a warning for parents today.
A Christian parent who sanctions the union of one of his children with a godless family is surely not walking in the steps of faithful Abraham.
- The purpose starts with the father. Abraham, not Isaac, opens the search and sets its terms; the son waits while the errand is run.
- The source is fenced. No daughter of Canaan. Canaan lay under judgment, and the son can have no link with a doomed people.
- The kindred is chosen. The bride already belongs to the family before the servant fetches her. So the church is formed of the family of faith, not a mix of believers and unbelievers.
- The servant does the travelling. The servant sent to a far country pictures the Spirit sent to seek a bride, while the son stays where he is.
- The bride must come out. She must leave her country and share the stranger place of the one she is joined to. That same refusal to mix still shapes how believers marry and how parents guide their children.