And her brother and her mother said, Let the maiden abide with us [some] days, or [say] ten; after that she shall go.
The servant has finished his errand and asks to leave at once. Rebekah's brother and mother want to keep her at home a while longer. Their plea raises the question this chapter turns on: what happens when family love meets a mission that will not wait?
The servant had travelled many days and stayed only one night. Seen naturally, the family's plea makes sense.
How many of us would travel for many days to stay somewhere for only one night? Naturally speaking, it is easy to understand why Rebecca's brother and mother ask the servant to extend his stay — and Rebecca's — for ten days or so (v.55).
Writers see no ill will in the request. The family needed time to adjust.
However, her brother and her mother urged that they should wait some days, at least ten. No doubt they wanted time to get used to the thought of the young lady leaving home (v. 55).
The request is reasonable, and the servant still refuses it. What settles the matter for him is not the household's feelings but whose errand he is on.
We see Eliezer asking to leave quickly. He must be quick in this business, so as to bring Rebekah to his master's son. His mission is finished, and he says, "Do not hinder me." He does not trouble himself about Laban's house. He gives no thought to Laban's request, and he does not stop because of it. His love for his master makes him put his orders before everything else.
Most of us give way at this point. The reason is less noble than it looks.
This is usually where we show our weakness. We spare the flesh and neglect what we owe to God. In reality we are sparing ourselves, because we are afraid of not pleasing others. I have seen men who are faithful in what they have to say to others, and God blesses them when they speak simply and without hesitation.
Several writers hear in this verse the oldest excuse there is — not refusal, but "later." One writer turns the relatives' words straight onto the reader.
Her relatives want the moment of decision put off, and you want that too, don't you? "Some day," you say, "but not just now." You want to defer it. This is the plausible voice of the devil. If you are not turned to the Lord, your back is towards Him; you are still in your sins, and they will bring you to judgment. Those ten days are a quiet trap. Felix was a man of ten days. "Go away for the present. When I get an opportunity I will summon you." Ah, poor Felix, when did his opportunity ever come? He never had a better one. Oh, turn now to Jesus!
The same pull works on people who already belong to Christ.
How like this is to worldly believers! They put off complete surrender to Christ, and put off laying their lives fully at His blessed feet. In place of consecration to Him they take half measures and compromises with the flesh and the world — dishonouring to the Lord and disastrous for the believer. There is nothing like full surrender to the Lord's will.
Writers take the servant as a picture of the Holy Spirit. The family's plea pictures what slows His work in us.
If we allow the Holy Spirit to have His way with us — if we do not hinder Him — He will shape our minds to match His own. He will make us think as He thinks about Christ. He will detach our hearts from the things where Christ is not, and engage our affections with Christ where He is. Too often we hinder the work of the Spirit by clinging to the world, its politics, its pleasures, and its religion. But the world cannot hinder if our hearts are set upon reaching Christ in glory.
No argument breaks the deadlock. It passes to Rebekah, and she ends it in three words.
Rebekah's relatives pleaded for delay, and the relatives of believers today often do the same. If we have no relatives to do this, our own foolish hearts will do it even better. The servant, however, would allow no delay. So the question went to Rebekah, for the final decision rested with her — "Will you go with this man?" Was she ready to trust herself to the servant, who was acting for Isaac, and to do so at once? Her answer was simple and decisive — "I will go."
- The plea. Ten more days is a natural, even kind request — the family needed time to accept that Rebekah was leaving.
- The refusal. The servant puts his master's orders above the household's wishes. Love for his master decides it.
- The excuse. "At least ten days" is delay in its most believable form. Writers point to Felix, who put off the decision for a better moment that never came.
- The compromise. For believers the same delay shows up as half measures instead of full surrender. But the world cannot hold us if we set our hearts on Christ.
- The answer. Nobody could decide for Rebekah. Asked whether she would go, she said, "I will go" — and the delay was over.
And he said to them, Do not hinder me, seeing Jehovah has prospered my way send me away, and I will go to my master.
Abraham's servant has found the bride, told his errand, and seen the family agree, so he asks to leave at once. They offer ten days instead, and he refuses — which raises the question of this verse: why will he not wait?
One writer reads this servant in two ways at once. He lists the marks of a true servant, and the last one lands on this verse.
Abraham's servant can be seen as a picture and as an example. As a picture, he clearly shows the work of the Holy Spirit, who came into this world after the death and resurrection of Christ. He came to gather a bride for Christ, and to bring her across the wilderness to the true Isaac. As an example, he shows the marks that should always set apart a servant of God... He is also fully devoted to doing his master's will. He will not eat until he has told his errand. And he will not stay on once the Lord has prospered his way (vv. 33, 56).
The servant does not argue that ten days would be inconvenient. He argues from what God has already done — the way has been prospered, so the errand must be completed.
We see Eliezer asking to leave quickly. He must hurry in this business, so that he can bring Rebekah to his master's son. His mission is done, so he says, "Hinder me not." He does not trouble himself about Laban's house, and he pays no attention to his request. He does not stop because of it. His love for his master makes him put his orders before everything else.
The request from Rebekah's brother and mother sounds mild. Commentators read it as the very thing that softens a wholehearted response into a managed one.
Abraham's servant was keen to finish his task, so he urged them to let him leave without delay. The mother and brother, however, pressed for Rebekah to stay at home for at least ten days, and then she might go. How like this are worldly believers! They put off full surrender to Christ, and put off laying their lives at His blessed feet with a whole heart. In place of giving themselves to Him, they offer half measures and compromises with the flesh and the world. These dishonour the Lord, and they are disastrous for the believer.
Because the servant pictures the Spirit, his three words are heard as a plea addressed to Christians. One writer names the specific things that get in the way — and warns that respectable religion can obstruct more than open worldliness does.
HINDER ME NOT. This is what I want to stress. To me, the Spirit's voice sounds out in these words... Worldly ways and entanglements hinder the Spirit in His great work. Coldness towards Christ grieves Him deeply. Pride and self-satisfaction quench what He is doing, and no pride is more hateful to Him than religious pride. He cannot take the things of Christ and show them to us if we are indifferent, or inattentive, or self-centred. Worldliness is bad, very bad, and it shows a divided heart. But religious pretence is worse, for SELF is the beginning and the end of it, and Christ and His things are made to serve self.
Put positively, the same words show what the Spirit does when we let Him work.
The relatives wanted to keep Rebekah at least ten days. The servant wants to be away, and by his report of Isaac he forms the same mind in Rebekah. Suppose we let the Holy Spirit have His way with us, and do not hinder Him. Then He will shape our minds to match His own. We will think as He thinks about Christ. He will pull our hearts away from the things where Christ is not, and fix our affections on Christ where He is.
The family's delay collapses the moment Rebekah is asked. Her answer matches the servant's single-mindedness.
Natural feeling might plead to keep her a few days, at least ten. But she had only heard and believed the report, and her heart is made up, like the Christian toward Christ... Brother, mother, house, family, country all speak in vain. And the servant was true to his errand of love, to bring the bride home. This is the very pattern of the Spirit at work in the new man, making Christ the one absorbing object... The servant is not distracted — he has only "one thing" to do... When His love is truly known, it makes true love in return. Here, Rebekah's simple answer is, "I will go."
Another writer presses the ten days on anyone still undecided about Christ:
Rebekah hears the message one day and starts the next. Many have put off coming to Christ for ten days and have spent them in hell. I beg you to come now to Jesus.
- Errand. The servant pictures the Holy Spirit. He came to gather a bride for Christ and lead her across the wilderness to Him.
- Ground. His hurry rests on what God has done: the Lord prospered the way, so the journey must finish.
- Hindrance. Ten days sounds harmless. Writers read it as half measures taking the place of full surrender.
- Voice. "Hinder me not" becomes the Spirit's own appeal against coldness, worldliness, and religious pride.
- Answer. Unhindered, the Spirit forms Christ's mind in us — and the reply He waits for is Rebekah's: I will go.