Genesis 24:1–9: A Wife for Isaac and Abraham's Last Recorded Words

Sarah was in the cave at Machpelah, and Isaac was a grown man with no wife. "By now Abraham was old and well along in years, and the LORD had blessed him in every way" (Genesis 24:1).

He sent for the chief servant of his household, the one "who managed all he owned" (Genesis 24:2), and had him put his hand under his thigh and swear by "the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of earth" (Genesis 24:3).

What happens in Genesis 24:1–9?

Isaac's wife had to come from Abraham's own kindred, back in the country he had left, hundreds of miles to the north. The servant asked the obvious question: "What if the woman is unwilling to follow me to this land? Shall I then take your son back to the land from which you came?" (Genesis 24:5)

Abraham answered at once. "Make sure that you do not take my son back there" (Genesis 24:6). Then he gave his reason, and the reason was everything God had said and done since Haran.

Why would Abraham not let Isaac go back?

He described God to his servant: "The LORD, the God of heaven, who brought me from my father's house and my native land, who spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, 'To your offspring I will give this land'" (Genesis 24:7). From that history came his confidence: "He will send His angel before you so that you can take a wife for my son from there."

The servant had asked about logistics, and Abraham answered with more than sixty years of knowing God. God took him out of his father's house. God spoke to him. God swore to give this land to his children. Taking Isaac back to Mesopotamia would mean walking away from the place God had promised, so Isaac stayed, and God would go ahead of the servant instead.

These are the last words Genesis records from Abraham. In the next chapter he dies "old and contented" (Genesis 25:8). With them he told the man he trusted most what God had said, and sent him out on the strength of it.

How do you know a God you have only heard about?

God had spoken to Abraham again and again and proved true every time. His servant knew Him mostly through Abraham. When he prays at the well that evening, he calls on the "LORD, God of my master Abraham" (Genesis 24:12). He set off carrying Abraham's account of God, and it was enough to begin on. Many people come to know God this way, through someone else's record of Him, until they hear Him for themselves and find that He knows them too.

How does Genesis 24:1–9 point to Jesus?

Abraham bound his servant with an oath for a journey he would not make himself. God had already sworn to Abraham, and God had nobody greater to swear by. "When God made His promise to Abraham, since He had no one greater to swear by, He swore by Himself" (Hebrews 6:13). Hebrews says God did it for "the heirs of the promise" (Hebrews 6:17), and that the hope it gives reaches into the inner sanctuary, "where Jesus our forerunner has entered on our behalf" (Hebrews 6:20). In Jesus, the One the promise was about has already gone ahead of us into God's presence.

What will you hand on?

Abraham's servant set out with only what Abraham told him that day. You can leave more for whoever comes after you. Write down what God has said to you and what He has done, with the dates, in the Doxa app. When someone younger asks you how you know God is real, you will have the record to show them, and they can carry it until they hear Him for themselves.

What has God said to you, or done for you, that someone after you needs to hear?

Deeper study today in the Doxa Deeper Dive: why the servant swore with his hand under Abraham's thigh, and the Hebrew verb that ties Abraham's call to Isaac's bride. Read it here.