Living our lives aligned with God’s purposes is the best place to be. Does this happen automatically, or do we play a part?  Ed.

In Gen 24:1-27 there is a fascinating story about how Rebekah came to be the wife of Abraham’s son, Isaac.

It starts with Abraham entrusting his head servant with the challenging responsibility of finding a suitable wife for Isaac. Gen 24:1-4 (NKJ): “ ¹ Now Abraham was old, well advanced in age; and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. ² So Abraham said to the oldest servant of his house, who ruled over all that he had, ‘Please, put your hand under my thigh, ³ and I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell; ⁴ but you shall go to my country and to my family, and take a wife for my son Isaac.’”

And we know the eventual outcome—the paths of Abraham’s servant and Rebekah intersect to produce an extraordinary outcome, for both of them, for Isaac, and for the world, with almost split-second timing. Abraham’s servant finds himself in the right place at the right time, to discharge an important responsibility. And Rebekah finds herself in the right place at the right time, to encounter an extraordinary opportunity to become the wife of Isaac and the ‘mother of Israel’.

What can we learn from this story that might help us to be in the right place at the right time to see God’s plan outworked in our life?

Abraham’s only (recorded) directions to his servant were that he was to select a wife for Isaac from among his relatives (in Nahor) and that she had to be willing to leave her land and her family to start a new life in Canaan, as the wife of a man she had never met (or seen on Facebook)! That left a lot of crucial decisions to be made by Abraham’s servant.

And one point in this story used to intrigue me. Why didn’t Abraham’s servant do the obvious thing? If you have to go to a particular city, to find a prospective wife for someone from amongst relatives, why not go to the city, locate the relatives, then try to select the best candidate from amongst the eligible women? But the servant didn’t do that—he reversed the process. He set out to find an exceptional person and only then inquire if she was a relative. And this was the key that unlocked the significance of this story for me.

Abraham’s servant had time to develop a plan. The distance from Beersheba (where Abraham was living at the time) to the city of Nahor in Mesopotamia was about 750 kilometres. And, normally, a camel caravan (the servant took 10 camels) could travel about 40 kilometres per day. On those figures, it might have taken Abraham’s servant about 19 days to cover the distance.

What was the plan he developed? The events that followed suggest that he thought about some special qualities that would be important in the right person as a wife for Isaac and devised a plan to identify someone who would demonstrate these special qualities…in normal life. We see this in the prayer he prayed as he reached his destination—Gen 24:11-14 (NKJ): “¹¹ And he made his camels kneel down outside the city by a well of water at evening time, the time when women go out to draw water. ¹² Then he said, ‘O Lord God of my master Abraham, please give me success this day, and show kindness to my master Abraham. ¹³ Behold, here I stand by the well of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. ¹⁴ Now let it be that the young woman to whom I say, ‘Please let down your pitcher that I may drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I will also give your camels a drink’ — let her be the one You have appointed for Your servant Isaac. And by this I will know that You have shown kindness to my master.’”

Abraham’s servant was aligned with God’s purposes, making wise decisions, and trusting God to guide his steps as a wise decision maker.

When we are aligned with God’s purposes, and making wise decisions, we can trust Him to guide our steps: “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” (Prov 3:6 – NKJ)

I’ve suggested that Abraham’s servant was looking for someone who would demonstrate some special qualities…in normal life. What qualities was he looking for? We’ll explore that next time….

Ray Graetz
September 18, 2024