Genesis 23-24

So far in the book of Genesis, we have learned many amazing truths about God. He is Elohim, the powerful Creator of all things. He spoke the world into existence! He is Yahweh, the personal God who stooped down to breathe life into man. He is El Shaddai, the Almighty God. Nothing is impossible with him. He is El Roi, the God who sees us and comes to our aid. He is Yahweh Yireh, the God who always provides. Throughout Genesis, we see the powerful Person of God and how he intimately works in the lives of his people. God is sovereign over all, and he allows us to make decisions that impact generations. We will see that in today’s passage.

Genesis 23 records the death of Sarah, who lived to be 127 years old. The land of Canaan, where Abraham and Sarah resided, would one day belong to their descendants, the great nation of Israel, but at this point, they were sojourners and foreigners in the land (Genesis 23:4). Abraham needed a place to bury Sarah, so he purchased the cave of Machpelah and the property around it, from a Hittite[1] named Ephron. Almost forty years later, Abraham was buried in the same location (Genesis 25:1-10).

We’ve come to know Sarah as a great woman of faith who had some unfaithful moments. Her plan to shortcut God’s timing led her to give her servant, Hagar, to Abraham. Although we don’t know the whole story, it seems Sarah’s jealousy and harshness forced Hagar to leave while she was pregnant, and later when Hagar’s son was a teenager. And yet, Sarah is named in the “hall of faith” from Hebrews 11 as an example of trusting in God (Hebrews 11:11-12), and in 1 Peter 3:6 as an example of the woman’s role in a biblical marriage. What a reminder today that God uses us—even with our sin, brokenness, and regrettable decisions!

At the end of Genesis 22, in a passage that seems almost out of place, Moses tells us that Abraham learned about his brother Nahor’s family living in the eastern regions. Now in Genesis 24, Abraham has a job for his servant, Eliezer—probably the same man we met in Genesis 15. There are two important lessons we learn in this account.

1. Abraham took personal responsibility for his legacy.

God promised Abraham that he would be the father of a great nation and that all people of the earth would be blessed through his descendants (Genesis 12:1-3). Abraham was “old, well advanced in years,” so now the promise depended on his son Isaac, who was forty years old and not married.

Genesis 24:2-4
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 daughters 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.”

Abraham gave a weighty assignment to his most trusted servant, Eliezer. Abraham sent Eliezer back to the country that Abraham and his family had settled in before they moved to Canaan. Eliezer realized that the trip was long and the outcome significant. He was concerned that a woman may not be willing to come back with him. But Abraham assured Eliezer that God was in charge.

Genesis 24:7-9
“The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my kindred, and who spoke to me and swore to me, ‘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.” So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master and swore to him concerning this matter.

Eliezer got his men together, loaded ten camels with all sorts of gifts, and set out on a five-hundred-mile trip to Nahor, a city named after Abraham’s brother. The city was around Paddan-Aram, located near the border of Syria.

The key to any city is water. The well for the area was located outside of town to keep the drinking water from being contaminated by dust from the busy streets. Every morning and evening, young women would go to the well to fetch water for their families. So, Eliezer put himself in a strategic spot by the well and then submitted his plan to the Lord.

Genesis 24:12-14
And he said, “O Lord, God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today and show steadfast love to my master Abraham. Behold, I am standing by the spring of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. Let the young woman to whom I shall say, ‘Please let down your jar that I may drink,’ and who shall say, ‘Drink, and I will water your camels’—let her be the one whom you have appointed for your servant Isaac. By this I shall know that you have shown steadfast love to my master.”

2. Seeking God’s will combines practical wisdom with divine wisdom.

Eliezer found the well and had a plan but now he waited for God. And God came through.

Genesis 24:15-21
Before he had finished speaking, behold, Rebekah, who was born to Bethuel the son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, came out with her water jar on her shoulder. The young woman was very attractive in appearance, a maiden whom no man had known. She went down to the spring and filled her jar and came up. Then the servant ran to meet her and said, “Please give me a little water to drink from your jar.” She said, “Drink, my lord.” And she quickly let down her jar upon her hand and gave him a drink. When she had finished giving him a drink, she said, “I will draw water for your camels also, until they have finished drinking.” So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough and ran again to the well to draw water, and she drew for all his camels. The man gazed at her in silence to learn whether the Lord had prospered his journey or not.

Eliezer went to Rebekah’s family and told them the whole story. They agreed that “the thing has come from the Lord” (Genesis 24:50). Eliezer “bowed himself to the earth before the Lord” in worship (Genesis 24:52) and gave jewelry of silver and gold, and costly ornaments. Then, a thankful Eliezer, with his men and Rebekah, started the two-month journey back so that Rebekah could become Isaac’s wife. Now a new generation takes the lead on God’s plan for a people from which to send the Savior.

Bible scholar, Alan Ross, summarizes the account this way:

…The message is clear: it is about the providence of God in the lives of faithful people, ensuring the perpetuity of the covenant. Two considerations are important here. First, God is declared to be the sole cause of the events of the narrative . . . Second, God is deliberately behind the scenes, yet directing the acts . . .The role of faith, expressed in personal prayer, trusting for divine guidance through circumstances, and acting responsibly in anticipation of God’s faithfulness is predominant because God is not visibly active.[2]

God is not always active in a visible way, but he is always active. He moves before us to accomplish his work. God can always be trusted to write his story in us!

PERSONAL TIME WITH GOD
Read Genesis 23-24. As you read today’s passage, take note of how God is at work behind the scenes to accomplish his will.

Prayer and Application
Thank God for being at work in your life. Although you may not be able to see it today, the evidence of God’s work in your life will always become unmistakable.

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[1] Hittites were descendants from Noah’s great-grandson, Heth (Gen. 10:15).
[2] Allen P. Ross, Creation & Blessing (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1998), 415.