Rebekah And Isaac: Married At First Sight? Series

We’ll need a bit of background to get the context for this story. Abraham was around 140 years of age at this time. He, his wife, and other family members had left Ur of the Chaldees (ancient Sumer, modern-day Iraq) about 70 years before. Abraham, then known as Abram, stopped at Haran and stayed there until his father died (Genesis 11:27-32). Abram’s brother, Nahor, stayed there while, incredibly, Haran’s son, Lot, traveled with Abram on the journey. This group went into Canaan, Egypt, and back to Canaan where Abram settled.

Abram and Sarah, then Sarai, had no children even though God had promised they would have descendants “like the dust of the earth” or uncountable (Genesis 13:16) and more numerous than the stars in the sky (Genesis 15:5, paraphrased). We’ll pass over the birth and youth of Ishmael, son of Abraham and Hagar, his Egyptian servant, and go directly to the birth of Isaac. We recall the time when Abraham was told to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, but God stopped him from doing anything to Isaac except to get him off the altar.

So now Isaac is around 40 years of age, and he’s been grieving over the death of his mother, Sarah. This had been going on for a while, maybe a year or so, and Abraham decides Isaac needs a wife. That makes sense, as Abraham was nearly 140 himself and probably not able to meet all of Isaac’s needs at this time.

Pulling it all together, Abraham decided to send his oldest servant to find a wife for Isaac. The text has Abraham’s instructions and the servant’s ironing out of the details. Abraham, of course, was wise to not find a wife for Isaac among the Canaanites in the area: for one thing, they were descended from a different son of Noah (Ham, see Genesis 9:22 and 10:6) but Abraham and his surviving brother, among others, were descendants of Shem (see Genesis 10: 21-32; 11:10-32).

For another thing, the Canaanites worshiped idols, not the True God, the God of Abraham. They had a whole group, or as some describe it, a family of El, Baal, Astarte, Mot, and any number of other “gods” or pagan deities. Could it be that one or more of Abraham’s household had rejected the God of Abraham in order to marry one of the pagan Canaanites and worship those gods? At any rate, Abraham had lived long enough and had seen enough to never want Isaac bound to one of the pagans living nearby.

And for sure, Abraham didn’t want Isaac taken back to Haran, where Abraham’s brother lived. God had promised to Abraham, and his descendants, the land of Canaan, not the land of Haran. Keeping Isaac close by would perhaps reduce any temptation for Isaac to leave. We may never know all the reasons why Abraham decided the way he did, but he was firm: Isaac needed a wife (how else would there be any descendants if Isaac died childless?) and that wife was to come willingly from a different land.

The servant had his instructions and his information. He prepared for his journey, but he may have had some misgivings or doubts. He did have plenty of time to think, and pray, as he traveled. But how would he know for sure who would be the right choice for Isaac’s wife?