The Book of Genesis
Part 39
When Jacob was about to die, he blessed Ephraim and Manasseh, saying, “The God which fed (shepherded) me all my life long unto this day. The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads” (Gen. 48:15-16). This aged Patriarch as he reviewed his years, at their close was conscious of God’s providential care in the details of his life.
In a similar spirit, David took a retrospect of the years he had spent hiding from Saul in caves, wildernesses, and foreign cities, and said. “The Lord liveth Who hath redeemed my soul from all adversity” (2 Sam. 4:9. 1 Kings 1:29). God’s providential dealing with him had preserved him throughout these trying times.
Many of the Psalms breathe these very sentiments. Psalms three to five are permeated with them. These Psalms, it is generally believed, were written as David fled before wicked Absalom. In them David prays, “Lead me, O Lord, in Thy righteousness because of mine enemies; make Thy way straight before my face” (5:6).
The somewhat unexpected insertion at the close of chapter 22 of the family news from far away Nahor, a city in Mesopotamia, can only be explained in the light of an over-ruling Providence. Without this knowledge, Abraham could not have acted as he did in chapter 24. To the devout mind things like this which appear to be casual and even irrelevant, are acknowledged to be acts resulting from divine control and direction in the lives of God’s people.
Let us consider the family life of Abraham at this time, and this latest information about his relatives.
Isaac
What a remarkable character we have to consider! The place he occupies in the Messianic line is his by divine election. As, in later times, God chose Jacob who was second to Esau, even so in this case God chose Isaac in preference to Ishmael, Abraham’s first-born. Isaac was not only given to Abraham in a miraculous manner, was not only chosen by God over Ishmael, but, as we have seen, was returned to Abraham as if from the dead. In every respect, Isaac was a most remarkable individual, singled out by God and predestined to special purposes. Moreover, Isaac was now of marriageable age. From chapter 25:20, we learn that he was 40 years old at the time of his wedding.
In all probability, there were many attractive marriageable maidens known to both Abraham and Isaac among the Canaanites. Would one of them be a suitable wife for Isaac, the young man of divine provision and selection? Let us see.
Abraham’s Convictions
Abraham said in conversation with his steward, Eliezer, “Thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell” (24:3).
Abraham had learned by the bitter experience with Hagar the undesirability of the intrusion of aliens into the race; therefore, he was anxious to keep his descendants free from foreign blood. Moreover, he knew God’s mind about the Canaanites that by their sin they eventually would be expelled from the land, and that the land by promise belonged to his seed forever.
There is another salient point here we ought to consider. Throughout the Old Testament the major emphasis of history lies upon the genealogical line of the Messiah. In tracing this line, we see how God set aside Cain and chose Seth; how He took up Shem, selected Abraham, and covenanted through Isaac instead of through Abraham’s first-born, Ishmael; and, how He made choice of Jacob over Esau. Abraham had so learned God, and so knew traditional history, that although he was ignorant of the formation of this genealogical line of Christ, he realized that the people of God were to walk in separation from the men of the world.
In the sixth chapter of Genesis, we saw the tragic mixing of the two lines, the line of Cain, “the sons of men,” and the line of Seth, “the sons of God,” and the dreadful resulting moral degeneracy. Abraham would have no such blending of the Hebrew and the Canaanite lines through his beloved Isaac.
Family News
Such thoughts and observations no doubt caused Abraham some anxiety. There is an ancient Arab law which says, “When a son has attained the age of 20, his father, if able, should marry him, and then take his hand and say, ‘I have disciplined thee, and taught thee, and married thee; I now seek refuge with God from thy mischief in the present world and the next’.” Abraham had disciplined and
taught Isaac who was now well advanced in his 30’s, therefore, as his father, Abraham would be thinking of a suitable bride.
At this very time, interesting information reached our Patriarch about his family from which he had parted more than fifty years before, “And it came to pass after these things that it was told Abraham, saying, Behold, Milcah, she hath also born children unto thy brother Nahor.” Among these was a son, Bethuel of whom we read, “And Bethuel begat Rebekah.” What thoughts must have stirred in father Abraham’s heart! He despised the daughters of the Canaanites among whom he dwelt, now by the good hand of the Lord, word had been brought that there was a suitable worthy maiden of his own race who might be wooed and won for his extraordinary son. These reflections he likely reserved to himself until the proper time arrived, and then, without hesitancy, he acted upon them (chapter 24).
This lesson in several respects reminds us of the statement made regarding all New Testament saints, “All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom. 8:29). How little we understand of the fact that every happening in life is so controlled and directed of God that it results and culminates in that ultimate good, conformity to the image of the Son of God. As this information worked to the good of Abraham and Isaac, so all things in life work together for that ultimate good in the people of God, Christ likeness in Time and in Eternity.
“Oh, the joy, the inexpressible delight of being alone with your friend, when you can pour out everything that is in your soul, all you think, wheat and chaff together, knowing that your listening friend will, with the breath of kindness, blow away the chaff and keep only the grain!”
—Mrs. Craig.