Marriage of Isaac
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her parentage, and on learning that she was the daughter of Bethuel,
Abraham’s nephew, he “bowed down his head, and worshiped the
Lord.”
The man had asked for entertainment at her father’s house, and in
his expressions of thanksgiving had revealed the fact of his connection
with Abraham. Returning home, the maiden told what had happened,
and Laban, her brother, at once hastened to bring the stranger and his
attendants to share their hospitality.
Eliezer would not partake of food until he had told his errand, his
prayer at the well, with all the circumstances attending it. Then he
said, “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 answer was, “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.”
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
he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, the camels were coming.
And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted
off the camel. For she had said unto the servant, What man is that that
walketh in the field to meet us? And the servant had said, It is my
master: therefore she took a veil, and covered herself. And the servant
told Isaac all things that he had done. And Isaac brought her into his
mother Sarah’s tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and
he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.”
Abraham had marked the result of the intermarriage of those who
feared God and those who feared Him not, from the days of Cain to
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his own time. The consequences of his own marriage with Hagar, and