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10. Isaac.
Sarah, Abraham's wife,
did not live to see the marriage of her son Isaac. But when she died,
Abraham had no place to bury her, despite all his wealth. For there were
no churchyards in those days. Anyone who owned a plot of land buried
their dead in it. Abraham, however, did not yet have any lying property
in the land, but he bought a field from a local man named Ephron, in
which there was a twofold cave. He buried the companion of his life and
his happiness in the cave. This was the first possession of Abraham and
his descendants in the land that was promised to them, a piece of
farmland and a corpse in it.
Abraham did not want to give his son Isaac any of the daughters of the
strangers among whom he lived as wives. He ordered Eliezer, his oldest
and most faithful servant, who was in charge of all his property, to go
to his fatherland, from which God had led him to Canaan. There he was to
go out to find a good virgin for his son Isaac. This is love of his
fatherland and faith in the goodness of his fatherland. ‘The God of
heaven,’ he said, ‘who took me from my father's house and from my
homeland, will send his angel before you to take a wife for my son there.’
The servant of Abraham set out with ten camels and many foodstuffs and
gifts and travelled many days' journeys through foreign lands to
Mesopotamia, the homeland of his master. Outside a town he camped with
his camels at a well. - There he prayed that God would have mercy on his
master, Abraham, and on his son Isaac, and show him in this city a good
person for his master's son.
Then a fine and modest maiden came with a water jug; she went down to
the well and filled the jug. Abraham's servant asked her to give him a
drink of the water. The virgin said, ‘Drink, my lord! I will also draw
for your camels until they have all drunk.’ Such kindness and
servanthood towards strangers is well and commendable for the youth and
is the sign of a sensible upbringing. Abraham's servant therefore wished
that God would give such a daughter to his master's son as a wife.
He took two gold bracelets from the treasures Abraham had given him and
placed them in her arms. ‘Tell me, my daughter, to whom do you belong,
and do we also have room in your father's house for lodging?’ But what
joy entered the good old man's heart when he heard who the strange
maiden was: ‘I am Rebekah,’ she said, ‘the daughter of Bethuel, who is
the son of Nahor.’ This is the same Nahor, the brother of Abraham, who
had stayed behind in Mesopotamia when Abraham and Lot travelled to the
land of Canaan. When the man heard this, he worshipped the Lord: ‘Praise
be to the Lord, the God of Abraham, who has not withdrawn his mercy and
his truth from my master, for he has led me the way to the house of my
master's brother.’
The servant of the pious Abraham can be recognised by this prayer. For
godly rule draws godly servants, and one becomes another's blessing.
Evil rule draws evil servants, and one becomes a unblessing to another.
Meanwhile Rebekah hurried home and made arrangements to take in the
stranger. But Laban, her brother, hurried to the well and fetched the
man with his camel and took him to his father's house. There he suddenly
and unexpectedly found himself in the middle of a foreign country among
his master's relatives. But if he was astonished and delighted at this,
they were no less so when they heard that he had come to Canaan from
their friend Abraham, and when he told them how God had blessed his
master with a good son and great wealth.
When he saw that God had given favour to his journey and had brought him
to this house, he told them the purpose of his journey and the desire of
his heart that Bethuel would give his daughter to his master's son in
marriage. When Bethuel and his children heard this, they said, ‘This is
from the Lord; therefore we can say nothing against it. Here is Rebekah!
Take her and go, that she may be a wife to your master's son.’ But they
said to Rebekah, ‘You are our sister; grow into many thousands of
thousands!’ So he went away again and took Rebekah with him, after he
had given them many jewels and beautiful clothes and delicious spices
from the land of Canaan and had eaten and drunk with them, and arrived
back in the land of Canaan.
Isaac had gone out to pray from the field about evening, and saw the
camels coming, and Abraham's servant showed Rebekah the pious young man
in his blooming form, that this was her future husband. Then she
dismounted from the camel on which she had been sitting, covered herself
according to the custom of the East and greeted him. Isaac brought her
before his father Abraham to receive her as his wife, and then led her
into the tent which his mother Sarah had occupied, that it might now be
hers.
So Abraham experienced the joy of seeing his son married to a virgin of
the good blood of his kin, the granddaughter of his brother Nahor. God
crowned his long, pious life with this joy. Abraham lived for a long
time in a peaceful old age until his hour finally came and God called
his friend to Himself.
When he died, his children buried him in the cave of Sarah, his wife, so
that death could reunite what death had separated, and Isaac was the
heir to all his possessions and to the love and esteem Abraham had
earned among the inhabitants of the land. - God also confirmed his
father's blessing to him: ‘Through your descendants all the nations of
the earth shall be blessed.’
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