Genesis 24: 1-9……Arranged marriages.

Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years. And the LORD had blessed Abraham in all things. And Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who had charge of all that he had, “Put your hand under my thigh, that I may make you swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell, but will go to my country and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son Isaac.” The servant said to him, “Perhaps the woman may not be willing to follow me to this land. Must I then take your son back to the land from which you came?” Abraham said to him, “See to it that you do not take my son back there. The LORD, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my kindred, and who spoke to me and swore to me, To your offspring I will give this land,’ he will send his angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there. But if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be free from this oath of mine; only you must not take my son back there.” So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master and swore to him concerning this matter.

Comment: Personally I am convinced that God has set absolutes and that one day we will all be called to answer for our reaction to them. Thus I believe, as set out in the beginning of Genesis, that marriage is one man, one woman and a life commitment – some how making marriage a special unit – in the beginning called ‘one flesh’. So for Adam the choice was easy, Eve, as it were was placed before him by God, and there was no choice. Here we see the aged Isaac concerned for the future. God had promised much through Isaac; God had called him out from a culture which he knew well, and obviously admired, to a place of very different principles and ways. So, and I don’t know if by custom he discussed it with Isaac or not, he arranged for an obviously very trusted servant to go back to his old stamping ground and find a wife for his son. If he took seriously what God had promised him then he was building a family, a tribe and eventually a nation. The way that people in those days sealed a promise would not be considered appropriate these days!

Prayer: I trust Your ways above those of governments who seem to have disposed of many eternal principles to the rubbish bin. I would walk in Your ways,O God.