Gen. xxiv. 2 — 4. And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had, Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh : and I tvill make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell; but thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac.
THE great events which take place in the world, such as the rise and overthrow of kingdoms, are dis- regarded by God as unworthy of notice ; whilst the
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most trivial things that appertain to his church and people, are recorded with the minutest exactness. The whole chapter from whence our text is taken relates to the marriage of Isaac. We are introduced into the most private scenes, and made acquainted with the whole rise, progress, and consummation of a matter, which might as well, to all appearance, have been narrated in a few words. But nothing is unimportant in God's eyes, that can illustrate the operations of his grace, or tend to the edification of his church. In discoursing on this part of sacred history we shall notice,
I. Its peculiar incidents —
Abraham commissioned his servant to go and seek a wife for his son Isaac —
[That holy man could not endure the thought of his son forming a connexion with the Canaanites, who would be likely to draw him aside from the worship of the true God. He there- fore ordered his old and faithful servant, Eliezer a, to go to the country where his father's relations lived, and where, though idolatry obtained in part, Jehovah was still known and wor- shipped, to bring for his son a wife from thence. As Isaac was forty years of age, it might have seemed more proper for him to go himself: but Abraham had been called out from thence, and would on no account either go back thither himself, or suffer his son to go, lest he should appear weary of his pilgrim- age, or countenance his descendants in going back to the world from whence they have been brought forth. On this account, when his servant asked whether, in the event of the woman, whom he should fix upon, being unwilling to accompany him, he should take Isaac thither to see her, Abraham in the most peremptory manner imaginable forbade any such step ; and declared his confidence, that while he was thus jealous for the honour of his God, God would overrule the mind of any person who should be selected as a partner for his sonb. But not contented with charging him in this manner, he imposed an oath upon him, and bound him by the most solemn obligations to execute his commission with fidelity and carec.
a It is not absolutely said that this was the servant ; but the con- fidence placed in him sixty years before, renders it most probable. Gen. xv. 2. b ver. 6 — 8.
c The more customary mode of swearing was by lifting up the hand to heaven (Gen.xiv. 22.) : but here it was by putting his hand under Abraham's thigh ; which was afterwards required by Jacob for the same purpose of his son Joseph. Gen. xlvii. 29.