24
Daughters of God
kindred and come where he was, then he should be clear of the oath
which he had made.—
The Signs of the Times, April 10, 1879
.
This important matter was not left with Isaac, for him to select [a
wife] for himself, independent of his father. Abraham tells his servant
that God will send His angel before him to direct him in his choice.
The servant to whom this mission was entrusted started on his long
journey. As he entered the city where Abraham’s kindred dwelt, he
prayed earnestly to God to direct him in his choice of a wife for Isaac.
He asked that certain evidence might be given him, that he should not
err in the matter.
He rested by a well which was a place of the greatest gathering.
Here he particularly noticed the engaging manners and courteous
conduct of Rebekah, and all the evidence he has asked of God he
receives that Rebekah is the one whom God has been pleased to select
to become Isaac’s wife. She invites the servant to her father’s house.
[30]
He then relates to Rebekah’s father, and her brother, the evidences he
has received from the Lord, that Rebekah should become the wife of
his master’s son, Isaac.
Abraham’s servant then said to them, “And now if ye will deal
kindly and truly with my master, tell me: and if not, tell me; that I may
turn to the right hand, or to the left.” The father and son answered,
“The thing proceedeth from the Lord: we cannot speak unto thee bad
or good. Behold, Rebekah is before thee, take her, and go, and let her
be thy master’s son’s wife, as the Lord hath spoken. And it came to
pass, that, when Abraham’s servant heard their words, he worshipped
the Lord, bowing himself to the earth.”—
Spiritual Gifts 3:109, 110
(1864)
.
After the consent of the family had been obtained, Rebekah herself
was consulted as to whether she would go to so great a distance from
her father’s house, to marry the son of Abraham. She believed, from
what had taken place, that God had selected her to be Isaac’s wife, and
she said, “I will go.”
The servant, anticipating his master’s joy at the success of his
mission, was impatient to be gone; and with the morning they set out
on the homeward journey. Abraham dwelt at Beersheba, and Isaac,
who had been attending to the flocks in the adjoining country, had
returned to his father’s tent to await the arrival of the messenger from
Haran. “And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide: and