God Knows before We Ask

Having been privy to God calling Abraham from Ur of the Chaldeans to Canaan,[1] we might tend to automatically consider Israel to be Abraham’s homeland. But Abraham didn’t. For as we’ve seen, throughout the time he was in Canaan he lived there as an immigrant, a foreigner and a stranger on earth who was looking forward to his heavenly home, “whose architect and builder is God.”[2] It was only much later, during the time of Joshua, that the land of Canaan was conquered by the twelve tribes of Israel.[3] But as for Abraham—and his son, Isaac—and his son, Jacob, who would later be called Israel— throughout their lives they lived as foreigners and strangers in the land the LORD had promised. The relevance of all this as it relates to our morning’s passage is that in Genesis 24 we see Abraham seeking a wife for Isaac, the child of promise who had been borne to him and Sarah when they were 100 and 90 years old, respectively. And we’ll see how insistent Abraham was about two matters: First, that his son’s future wife be selected from his homeland; and second, that she nonetheless return to Canaan in order that she and Isaac might continue to live as foreigners and strangers there, in keeping with God’s command.  

Now since I’m again jumping over some portions in Genesis, I want to touch upon them briefly before moving on. At the end of Genesis 22, we’re provided with some seemingly inconsequential information. We’re told that some time after Abraham returned to Beersheba, he received information about his brother and sister-in-law, Nahor and Milkah, respectively. They’d had eight sons whose names are provided.[4] But also included is a mention of a granddaughter, Rebekah, which indicates that this information is far from being inconsequential for Rebekah would become Isaac’s wife—the focus of our morning’s passage.[5] Chapter 23 opens by telling about the death of Sarah stating, “¹ Sarah lived to be a hundred and twenty-seven years old. ² She died at Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to weep over her.”[6] The remainder of the chapter details the arrangements Abraham made to secure a burial site for her amongst the Hittites. He purchased a field from a man named Ephron, which field contained a cave in which Sarah was buried.[7] The purchase of this cave became the only part of Canaan that belonged to Abraham to whom God had promised that the possession of the entirety of that land would one day belong to his descendants.[8] Over the course of time, Abraham, his son and daughter-in-law, Isaac and Rebekah, and his grandson along with one of his wives, Jacob and Leah, would all be laid to rest in this very cave.[9]

Now if Sarah was 127 years old when she died, this means that Isaac was 37 at the time of her death since she was 90 when he was born. As already noted, as chapter 24 opens we see Abraham making plans to find a wife for his child of promise. Starting with verse 1,

¹ Abraham was now very old, and the Lord had blessed him in every way. ² He said to the senior servant in his household, the one in charge of all that he had, “Put your hand under my thigh. ³ I want you to swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living, ⁴ but will go to my country and my own relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac.”

So what might be the significance of Abraham seeking a wife for Isaac from his homeland rather than from the land of Canaan where they were living? If you’ll recall back when we studied Noah,[10] Noah had had three sons.[11] One of them, Shem, would continue the Messianic line whereas another, Ham, would not. What we see here, then, is that Abraham sought a wife for Isaac from the Messianic line of Shem,[12] who had been blessed by Noah, rather than from the non-Messianic of Ham who had been cursed by Noah for his wicked deed[13] and from whom the Canaanites descended.[14]

Now after hearing Abraham’s conditions for finding a wife for Isaac, the senior servant[15] asked a logical question, verse 5, “What if the woman is unwilling to come back with me to this land? Shall I then take your son back to the country you came from?” Abraham’s reply is found starting in verse 6,

⁶ Make sure that you do not take my son back there…. The Lord, the God of heaven, who brought me out of my father’s household and my native land and who spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give this land’[16]—he will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there. ⁸ If the woman is unwilling to come back with you, then you will be released from this oath of mine. Only do not take my son back there.

With this we learn the two requirements for finding a wife for Isaac already noted: on the one hand, this future wife had to come from among Abraham’s own people, from the Messianic line of Shem; on the other, said wife was to brought back to Canaan, the land of promise to which God had originally called Abraham. These conditions were so important that before the servant left, Abraham made him swear with an oath that he would do as he had requested, verse 9.[17] In all of this, as was typical for him, Abraham obeyed the LORD who had guided and been with him these many years.

For his part, the servant no doubt wondered how in the world all of this would come to pass. And its perhaps worth noting that the distance from Hebron, where Sarah was buried, to Haran, where Nahor lived, was approximately 520 miles. According to one commentator, it would have taken around 21 days for the servant to arrive there.[18] Even so, as stated in verse 10, in obedience to his master the servant set off to Nahor, where Abraham’s brother lived, “taking with him ten of his master’s camels loaded with all kinds of good things from his master.”[19] Around 20 days later, he finally arrived there towards evening, “the time the women go out to draw water,” verse 11, and “[h]e had the camels kneel down near the well outside the town.” What the servant did next was no doubt the very thing he had seen his master, Abraham, do many times before—he prayed, that is, he talked with God. His prayer is recorded in verses 12–14:

Lord, God of my master Abraham, make me successful today, and show kindness to my master Abraham. ¹³ See, I am standing beside this spring, and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water. ¹⁴ May it be that when I say to a young woman, “Please let down your jar that I may have a drink,” and she says, “Drink, and I’ll water your camels too”—let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master.

The servant prayed about the first stipulation that Abraham had placed upon him—that the woman he found for Isaac be from his father’s household in his native land. Abraham had assured him that God would send his angel before him so that he would be able to do so.[20] Even so, this senior servant now asked the LORD for a two-fold confirmation: First, that when he asked the woman for a drink she would provide it not only for him but second, that she would further offer to provide water for his camels as well.

In what follows we see that the LORD, the God of his master Abraham, did indeed display the kindness—and an even better translation is the “steadfast love”[21]—which ever characterizes God. As stated beginning in verse 15, “¹⁵ Before he had finished praying, Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel son of Milkah, who was the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor. ¹⁶ The woman was very beautiful, a virgin; no man had ever slept with her. She went down to the spring, filled her jar and came up again” Again, we see here part of the significance as to why Nahor’s family was mentioned at the end of Genesis 22 for it turned out to be a kind of foreshadowing indicating that Rebekah was Nahor’s granddaughter and therefore Abraham’s kin. But though we’ve been let in on the fact that Rebekah was a relative of Abraham, the servant had yet to discover this fact.

Notice how he sought to confirm whether or not this young woman was the one chosen by the LORD to become Isaac’s wife. As he “hurried to meet her,” verse 17, he said to her in keeping with his prayer, “Please give me a little water from your jar.” In verse 18 we see that she responded just as the servant had prayed she would, “Drink, my lord.” This was the first confirmation. What is more, in verse 20 we see that she went on to offer precisely what the servant had asked of the LORD for after the servant had taken a drink she said to him, “I’ll draw water for your camels too, until they have had enough to drink” and then “ran back to the well to draw more water, and drew enough for all his camels.” This was the second confirmation of the servant’s prayer. Even so, the servant had yet to meet the most important criterion which had been set forth by his master Abraham: Was this woman one of Abraham’s kindred?

Therefore, we see how, verse 21, “Without saying a word, the man watched her closely to learn whether or not the Lord had made his journey successful.” Despite these initial confirmations the servant hadn’t simply assumed that Rebekah was the one chosen by God. He also used discernment to try and determine if this young woman was, indeed, the one he had been sent to find. Therefore, after “the camels had finished drinking” and he had given her a gold nose ring and two gold arm bracelets,[22] he posed to her the critical question, verse 23, “Whose daughter are you?” He also asked whether there was room in her father’s house for them to spend the night. When she answered that she was “the daughter of Bethuel, the son that Milkah bore to Nahor” and assured him that there was room for them to spend the night,[23] verse 26 begins to record the servant’s response upon receiving such news: “²⁶ Then the man bowed down and worshiped the Lord, ²⁷ saying, ‘Praise be to the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not abandoned his kindness and faithfulness to my master. As for me, the Lord has led me on the journey to the house of my master’s relatives.’” In other words, mission accomplished—at least most of it. Out of his great kindness, his great steadfast love and faithfulness, God had indeed guided the path of Abraham’s senior servant, answering his prayer even before he had finished praying it.

In what follows, all that had occurred up to this point is recounted by Rebekah to her family in verses 28–30. Consequently, her brother Laban went out to Abraham’s servant and said, verse 31, “Come, you who are blessed by the Lord…. Why are you standing out here? I have prepared the house and a place for the camels.” Then Abraham’s servant, in turn, recounted why he was there, beginning by telling of Abraham’s wealth and of how Sarah had borne him a son in her old age and how Abraham had given that son “everything he own[ed],” verse 36. Again, recall that since Ishmael had been sent away, everything that Abraham owned was to go to his only remaining son, Isaac. Because Abraham’s wealth was considerable so would Isaac’s be. The servant went on to tell of the task that Abraham had sent him on to find a wife for Isaac from his father’s family and clan.[24] In his recounting, he included the servant’s question of what he should do if he found the woman but she would not return,[25] along with Abraham’s reply. As recorded beginning in verse 40, Abraham had reassured his servant, “The Lord, before whom I have walked faithfully, will send his angel with you and make your journey a success, so that you can get a wife for my son from my own clan and from my father’s family. ⁴¹ You will be released from my oath if, when you go to my clan, they refuse to give her to you—then you will be released from my oath.” This part of the servant’s mission was yet to be determined but thus far everything had gone according to plan. The servant also told them of his own prayer to the God of his master Abraham[26] and of how that prayer had been answered—even before he had finished praying it—by Rebekah coming out with her jar on her shoulder and offering a drink not only him but also to his camels.[27] This level of repetition in story-telling was common in the ancient world for oral tradition was how history was preserved.

Now verse 49 records the last missing component. For although the LORD had indeed led Abraham’s servant to his kindred and confirmed to him that Rebekah met this most important criterion, he still didn’t know if she and her family would agree to have her to return with him to Canaan. Therefore we read in verse 49 that after recounting all that had transpired he said to them, “Now if you will show kindness and faithfulness to my master, tell me; and if not, tell me, so I may know which way to turn.” In other words, the servant hadn’t presumed that simply because he had found someone from Abraham’s family, that she would return with him. Fortunately Laban, Rebekah’s brother, was persuaded by everything the servant had recounted as he responded, starting in verse 50, “This is from the Lord; we can say nothing to you one way or the other. ⁵¹ Here is Rebekah; take her and go, and let her become the wife of your master’s son, as the Lord has directed.” Then, in addition to the nose ring and arm bracelets the servant had already given Rebekah, he further, verse 53, “brought out gold and silver jewelry and articles of clothing and gave them to Rebekah; he also gave costly gifts to her brother and to her mother.” Once all “ate and drank” with the servant and he “spent the night there,” verse 54, we see that the next morning he asked to be sent on his way back to his master Abraham. However, Laban and Rebekah’s mother asked that she be allowed to stay with them for ten more days or so[28]—keep in mind how quickly everything had transpired. But the servant prevailed upon them saying to them, verse 56, “Do not detain me, now that the Lord has granted success to my journey. Send me on my way so I may go to my master.” When they then asked Rebekah if she would go and she agreed, we read in verses 59–60 how “they sent their sister Rebekah on her way, along with her nurse and Abraham’s servant and his men. ⁶⁰ And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, ‘Our sister, may you increase to thousands upon thousands; may your offspring possess the cities of their enemies.’” This blessing was in keeping with what the LORD had said to Abraham in Genesis 22: “¹⁷ I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies….”[29]

This portion of the story ends with the servant and Rebekah heading back to Canaan—again, a journey of at least 20 days. As they neared their journey’s end, in verse 62 we read, “⁶² Now Isaac had come from Beer Lahai Roi, for he was living in the Negev. ⁶³ He went out to the field one evening to meditate, and as he looked up, he saw camels approaching.” Rebekah, too, looked up and upon seeing Isaac asked the servant who he was. When the servant told her, we read at the end of verse 65, “So she took her veil and covered herself”—the veil being a symbol of betrothal which, in the ancient world, would be worn until the marriage was consummated.[30] Once the servant told Isaac everything that had transpired, the chapter closes in stating, “Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he married Rebekah. So she became his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.” Three years had passed since Sarah, Isaac’s mother had died therefore Isaac was 40 years old when he and Rebekah married.[31] And although Abraham would go on to live another 35 years after Isaac’s marriage,[32] the Messianic baton had now been passed from Abraham to Isaac and from Sarah to Rebekah.[33]

Now in seeking to apply lessons from narrative texts like that in Genesis 24, we need to be mindful that promises made to Abraham or to any other historical personage from Scripture must be taken in their context. In other words, we shouldn’t assume that a promise made to Abraham is a promise that is made to us. But what is instructive is for us to consider is the God who is behind those promises. As we’re nearing the end of Abraham’s life, we’ve seen how consistent the LORD is. Though Abraham, like us, had his shortcomings—the most notable one recorded for us was when he had Sarah lie twice and say she was his sister rather than his wife[34]—those shortcomings were unable to stand in the way of the God who knows how to make and keep his promises.

And it’s touching to see yet again in our passage, as was the case with Hagar, Sarah’s servant,[35] that the LORD’s mercy—and kindness—and steadfast love aren’t reserved only for the rich and the rulers but are extended to the humble and the servants as well. For this unnamed senior servant of Abraham’s was tasked with the enormous responsibility of traveling to his master’s homeland to find his master’s son a wife from among his people—again, a journey of about 520 miles that would have taken around three weeks. Yet this servant showed great wisdom in praying to the LORD, the God of his master Abraham, for he essentially asked God to be himself, that is, to show his kindness, his steadfast love, to his master in granting him success. And the key part of this account that we can apply is what is stated in verse 15 of Genesis 24, “Before he had finished praying,…” Before the servant had finished asking God, talking with God, praying to God, his prayer began to be answered for “Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder.”

This propensity for God to answer prayers even before we finish praying them is characteristic of God for he knows and loves us intimately. In the passage from Matthew 6 read earlier, we see Jesus essentially teaching the very same thing. He contrasts prayer that pleases God with prayer that displeases him. Prayer that displeases God is prayer that seeks to impress others. It’s the prayer of the hypocrites who, verse 5, “love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others.” In doing so, Jesus says, they’ve “received their reward in full.”[36] Nor do the pagans’ prayer that babble on please God for they wrongly think, verse 7, that “they will be heard because of their many words.”[37]

No, as stated in verse 6, prayer that pleases God is prayer that is done in private, in your room, with the door closed; directed not toward the praise of others but to our heavenly Father alone who is unseen. Then “your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” What is more, prayer that pleases God doesn’t go on—and on—and on—and on. It should simply state to God what is on our hearts. It needn’t go on and on because God knows us. As was true of Abraham’s servant, God knows what we need, verse 8, even “before [we] ask him.” So let’s ask. For though God knows what we need before we ask, we may not. But he wants us to ask because he wants to delight us. His answer may be “no.” His answer may be “yes.” Or his answer may be a mix of what we ask combined with other things that never occurred to us.

Another thing that our passage from Genesis 24 teaches us is the proper response to prayer. Whether a “no” or a “yes” or something in between, having prayed, and knowing that God hears our prayers; and knowing that God knows our prayers even before we pray them, let us, like Abraham’s servant, bow down and worship the LORD.[38] For this servant did so even before he knew that Rebekah would return with him; even before he knew what the final answer to his prayers would be.

Therefore, dear sisters and brothers,

Let us, too praise the LORD when we pray;

Let us, too, praise the LORD even before knowing how the LORD may choose to answer our prayers;

Let us, too, praise him always, knowing that he is kind—and faithful—and seeks to extend his steadfast love to all who come to him.

So let us pray!