GENESIS CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR OVERVIEW
Overall what is happening in this chapter is that Abraham arranges for a suitable wife for Isaac.
Thomas Coke (1801) – Genesis 24
Abraham sends his eldest servant to his relations, to take a wife for his son Isaac. Rebekah meets the servant, who is hospitably entertained by Laban. She is delivered to him, and he returns with her, with all speed, to Isaac.
Daniel D. Whedon (1889) – Genesis 24
After the death of Sarah, the house of Abraham was left in gloom. He appears to have removed again into the south country, and was now probably dwelling near Beer-sheba. (See on Genesis 24:62.) Two years or more elapsed, and then the growing age of Abraham, and the loneliness of his home, prompted him to seek for his son Isaac a wife, that Sarah’s vacant tent might again be filled, and both he and Isaac comforted. (See Genesis 24:67.) Besides the inimitable beauty of this narrative, the attentive reader should note the following things:
1) The authority of parents and the elder brother in negotiating marriages.
2) The chief servant is the go-between, or mediator and manager, of such affairs for a princely family.
3) Marriage of cousins, or blood-kindred, rather than strangers.
4) Careful consideration of religious affinity and its influence on the posterity.
5) The marriage union cemented by mutual love.
Matthew Henry (1714) – Genesis 24
Marriages and funerals are the changes of families, and the common news among the inhabitants of the villages. In the foregoing chapter we had Abraham burying his wife, here we have him marrying his son. These stories concerning his family, with their minute circumstances, are largely related, while the histories of the kingdoms of the world then in being, with their revolutions, are buried in silence; for the Lord knows those that are his. The subjoining of Isaac's marriage to Sarah's funeral (with a particular reference to it, Genesis 24:67) shows us that as “one generation passes away another generation comes;” and thus the entail both of the human nature, and of the covenant, is preserved. Here is:
I. Abraham's care about the marrying of his son, and the charge he gave to his servant about it (Genesis 24:1-9).
II. His servant's journey into Abraham's country, to seek a wife for his young master among his own relations (Genesis 24:10-14).
III. The kind providence which brought him acquainted with Rebekah, whose father was Isaac's cousin-german (Genesis 24:15-28).
IV. The treaty of marriage with her relations (Genesis 24:29-49).
V. Their consent obtained (Genesis 24:50-60).
VI. The happy meeting and marriage between Isaac and Rebekah (Genesis 24:61-67).
Thomas Constable (2012) – Genesis 24
The choice of a bride for Isaac:
Abraham's servant returned to Paddan-aram charged with the duty of finding a suitable bride for Isaac. He faithfully and resolutely fulfilled his task relying on God's faithfulness to prosper his journey and God's providence to guide him. God directed him to Rebekah.
The length of this story and the amount of detail included suggests that this incident played an important part in the fulfillment of the Author's purpose. This is the longest chapter in Genesis. The details show how God provided a wife and seed-bearer for Isaac and thus remained faithful to His promises to Abraham. God's working providentially through the natural course of events to accomplish His purposes clarifies His ways with humankind.
"The key idea in the passage is in the word hesed, 'loyal love' or 'loyalty to the covenant'-from both God's perspective and man's."
"This narrative is the most pleasant and charming of all the patriarchal stories."
The structure of the four sections (1-9, 10-28, 29-61, 62-67) is again palistrophic (chiastic). The first and fourth sections take place in Abraham's household in Canaan, and the second and third record events in Rebekah's household in Aram.
KEY VERSE
Genesis 24:3 I will make you swear by Yahweh, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you shall not take a wife for my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I live.
KEY EVENT
Rebekah becomes Isaac’s wife.
KEY INSIGHT
This chapter revolves around the faith and faithfulness of an unnamed servant.
KEY CROSS-REFERENCE
Proverbs 18:22 Whoever finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor of Yahweh.
KEY QUOTE
“Faithfulness in little things is a big thing.” John Chrysostom
