in part ne will also answer fully. God's dealings should always induce awe and patient waiting. He will often surprise us with the blessings of goodness. In our lives we have probably known like surprisingly rapid answers to prayer. Wo hrn-e even disbelieved in the answer. What if God had withdrawn. the help or blessing gi.-en because received in such unbelief I There are time11 when wo, like Eliezer, and like the Israelites on the shores of the Red Sea, have t> be still and know that the Lord is God. Then God's action staggers belief. IV. SEE HOW GRACIOUSLY Goo CONFIRMS ms SElWANT's WONDERING HOl'E, Elicze1 inquires of the maiden whether there is room in her father's house for him to lodge. After the manner of the Orientals, she readily replies, "We have both straw and provender enough, and room to lodge in." He follows Rebekah. Laban acts as host in place of his father Bethucl. He welcomes Eliezer heartily. "Come in, thou blessed of the Lord," &c. Eliezer enters and attends to the wants of his men and camels, but will not attend to his own until he has unburdened his mind. He tells of his errand, of the meeting '11-ith Rebekah at the well, of his praying, of the speedy an8wer, and of the sign fulfilled. Laban and Bethuel are surprised, and see in it God's hand. They say, "The thing proceedeth from the Lord; we cannot speak unto thee good or ill" Then the man"bowed his head and worshipped." .Rebekah consented to accompany him and become the wife of Isaac, his master's son, Everything fell out better than the steward could have expected; he could only sec in it God's band, God's mercy in guiding him and in confirming l1is hope. 1. God is as 'll'i!ling to answer us as to answer Eliezer of Damascus. 2. Prayer can overcome difficulties that seem insurmountable. When the cup of sorrow is not removed the strength is given to bear it, and so prayer is answered. If the way we expected does not open up in answer to our supplication, another and better is sw-e to be made plain. Prayer also "makes the darkened cloud withdraw." 3. When in tl1e other world we look at our past life, we shall all see that God had answered all prayers that it would have been for our good to have answered, and that in others the witbholdment has been kindliest response. There we shall "bow our heads and wor,;hip" him who made our earthly journey prosperous, and who had brought tis to ihe "city which bath foundations." Whatever, then, our. anxiety, trial, perplexity, let us lay all before God. If we are.earnestly trying for the salvation of members of our own family, or for the advancement of God's kingdom, let us by prayer a11d 6upplication make our requests known to God, and ho will send us an answer of peace, even as he did to Eliezer.-H.
EXPOSITION. ''er. 29.-And Rebekah had a brother, Yer. 30.-And it came to pass, when he and his name was Laban. "White," whose saw the earring and bracelets upon his chara.ctcr has been considerably traduced, sister's hands (vule ver. 22), and when he the Biblical narrative not ropresentin~ him heard the words of Rebekah his sillter, say- as "a monster of moral depravity, ' but ing, Thus spake the man unto me; that he rather as actuated by generous impulses and came unto the man (this cxplnins the causo hospitable dispositions (Kalisch). And La- of the action mentionecl in the previous ban ran out unto the man, unto the well. verse); and, behold, he stood by the oamels That Laban, and not Bcthuel, should have at the well. the prominence in all the subsequent trans- Yer. 31.-And he sai~, Come in, thou actions concerning Rebekah has been ex- blessed of the Lord. i1}i1 1 ';]~i.p (cf. eh. plained by the supposition that Bethuel was xxvi. 29; Numb. x.xiv. 9); the usual form now dead (Josephus), but vide ver. 50; that he was altogether an insignificant character being i1ii1 12, (i'Uie eh. xiv. 19; Ruth ii. 20; 7
(Lange, Wordsworth); that firstborn sons 1 Som. xv'. 13). Though Laban wns an enjoyed during their father's lifetime a por- idolater (eh. xxxi. 30), it seems more satis- tion of his authority, ancl even on important factory to regnrd him ns belonging to a occasions represented him (Kalisch); that family in which tho worship of Jehovah had in those times it was usual for brothers to originated, and by which it was still retained take a special interest in sisters' roarriagea (Murphy, Wordsworth), thun to suppose that -d. eh. xxxiv. 13; Juclges xxL 22; 2 Sam. he first learnt the name J ehovnh from tho ziii. 22 (Roscnmiillcr, Mid1a<•lis), ~•arvan l's a,l<lrcss (l(cil, Lnngc, Ifongstcnbcrg). tll. XXI\'. 20-G0,1 TUE BOOK OF GENESIS. 307