I've been going through Genesis again and I came to the story where Abraham sends out his servant to find a wife for his son Isaac. I have always loved this story. Abraham wants his son to have a good Surwife, someone from back home in Mesopotamia, not one of the wild and idolatrous Canaanite women. So he sends a servant, loaded up with 10 camels worth of treasures, to travel all the way back to the Euphrates to find a wife for his son.
What must this guy have thought? Would he be successful? Would there be danger on the road? What if he was robbed? What if he couldn't find anyone? Would the Lord, the God of Abraham, be with him? Surely this was not just a random servant or a young man to be appointed with such an important and delicate task. This would have had to have been a trusted servant, maybe someone who had been in Abraham's household a long time. Had he witnessed the Lord's provision for Abraham? Did he, perhaps, take part in the battle to save Abraham's brother Lot? Was he present when Abraham and a younger Isaac went up the mountain to make a sacrifice to The Lord? We don't know. But even if he had seen The Lord bless and prosper his master and had seen his master's faith, would the Lord be with him now?
He goes and after a long journey finally makes it to his destination at the time that the women were coming out of the city to get water from the well. What incredible timing, or is it? He has only just arrived and hasn't had a chance to familiarize himself with the area. Maybe he had been with Abraham since the start and knew the place, but even so a little time to scope the area out would have probably put his mind and heart at ease. So there's no time to really get himself together after this long journey and so he prays that the woman who offers him a drink and to water his camels as well would be the one who he would take back as Isaac's wife.
Then, even before he could finish his prayer his attention goes to an attractive young woman. He asks her for a little water from her jar and she not only lets him drink but draws water for the ten camels as well! When he asks her who her father is and if he might have room for them to stay she says that she is the daughter of Bethuel, a relative of Abraham, the very house he was sent to speak to! Can you imagine the servant's amazement and joy at this? He knelt down and worshiped The Lord for leading him exactly to where he needed to be!
Now obviously the dynamics of human rights were a little different back then some 4000 years ago. Marriages were arranged to build strong ties between families and to earn status. Women often didn't get a say in who they wanted to marry and marrying "for love" was out of the question. But before you think that this story and the God of Abraham are barbaric, consider that in an age when a woman's opinion on her marriage did not matter her family let her decide and her decisions played an extremely important role in God's designs for their children Jacob and Esau and the founding of Israel, God's chosen people. Consider also that Isaac and Rebecca did end up to love each other and that The Lord had given her the opportunity to marry, not only according to his plans for a nation, and the future savior of all humankind, but also into incredible wealth and standing within ancient copper age society.
The servant repeats his story to Rebekah and her family, almost word for word according to what was narrated to the reader which is important. It highlights the absolute amazement of the occurrence and the excitement of the servant. We are the same way today, we have something incredible happen and we tell someone and by the end of the telling some others have come to listen and ask "what happened?" and you are happy to go back and tell it from the beginning all over again (and nothing will stop you from doing so). But here's the thing that struck me this time; before he was even done speaking to The Lord, The Lord had answered his prayer and was indeed with him.
I've had a few moments like these, where 'incredibly fortuitous circumstance' can only be described as God's orchestrating. The vehicle breaks down with my young family in the dead cold of a Saskatchewan winter. We pray for help and even as we finish the prayer we notice a pickup truck headed our way. The man was happy to help us and didn't mind interrupting his errand give us a ride back home. His cell phone stopped working and so he was on his way into town to have it fixed but halfway taking us back home his cell worked again. A big serve trip for the youth group is delayed because we don't have the right tools to fix the trailer, we pray, and just as we finish praying someone stops to help us who just so happens to have the exact tool we needed. During a time of incredible inner pain I choose obedience to God over what I think will cure the pain and pray for help and I had instant peace. These sorts of instant answers to prayer do not happen everyday, but they do happen, and even if we have to wait the God of Abraham is faithful and he is with all of Abraham's house, from the master to the son and from the servant then to those who have put their faith in Jesus now. Praise be to The Lord, the God of Abraham the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit! Amen.
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