A New Generation
Preparing for Lesson 19
Sarah died when Isaac was about 37 years old. Abraham purchased a field at Machpelah, which faced Mamre and which had a cave on it, to use as a burial site for Sarah. Genesis chapter 23 contains the story of Abraham haggling to buy the site.
Think About This: The “Cave of Malchpelah” is located in modern day Hebron, and a Muslim mosque is built over the burial site. Although there is very strict security at the site, tourists are permitted to enter the mosque where they can look through a little hole in the floor and down into the cave in which Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob and Leah are all said to be buried. (Rachel is buried in Bethlehem.)
You see, Abraham did not yet own the land that had been promised to him; in fact, he did not own any property in Canaan. But Abraham believed God when He said that one day, his descendants would own that very land. So Abraham wanted to remain there, even in death, with the full expectation that he and Sarah, along with their descendants, would be resurrected to live again in the land that was to be theirs. So, it was important to Abraham that he actually purchase land for a family burial site; he did not want anything to be given to him. Just as he refused to take booty from the king of Sodom, he refused to take land for a burial site, even though the owner of land offered it to him free of charge.
In our last lesson, we examined Isaac’s life only up to the point where he was willing to lay down his life in obedience to his father. Now, we fast forward several years to the death of Sarah and we see Abraham taking one last measure to ensure Isaac’s godliness, happiness and fruitfulness. He initiates the search for the perfect wife for Isaac. Let’s see how that worked out.
Lesson 19: A New Generation
Choosing a Bride for Isaac
Abraham demonstrated over and over again his belief and trust in God. Now he employs his most trusted servant, probably Eliezer, to carry out this mission. He makes the servant swear to these conditions: (1) do not allow a Canaanite woman to marry Isaac; (2) do not take Isaac back to Abraham’s homeland; (3) the servant will be released from his oath if the woman he selects is unwilling (Genesis 24:3-8).
The servant himself also displays trust in God when he arrives in Mesopotamia by asking God to lead him in making the right choice (Genesis 24:12-14). And even before the prayer was out of his mouth, a lovely young woman came to the well and began speaking to the servant. By her words and actions, she fulfilled every sign the servant had asked God to use to confirm his choice. By the time their “chance” meeting was over, it was evident that the woman had been confirmed as being a suitable choice for Isaac.
According to the servant’s prayer, the chosen woman would not only give him water from her jar, but she would offer to water his camels as well.
Think About This: R. Kent Hughes describes exactly how significant this act really was. Typically an ancient water jar held about three gallons of water. The well was a deep hole in the ground with steps leading down to the spring water, so filling the jar just once required substantial effort. Each camel could drink about twenty-five gallons of water, so she had to make eight trips down to the spring to water one camel. One gallon of water in a plastic bottle like we buy at a grocery store weighs just over eight pounds. The young woman had a three-gallon clay jar, ten camels, and eighty trips back and forth to the spring. The servant had requested a very specific response from the chosen young woman so he would have no lingering doubts. It was also a sneaky way to get all of his camels watered.
We know now that the young woman was Rebekah. Her father was Isaac’s cousin Bethuel, whose father was Nahor, brother of Abraham. The servant’s prayer had been answered, and he bowed down and worshipped the Lord. And having found God’s chosen bride for Isaac, the servant gave Rebekah a gold ring and two gold bracelets.
When Rebekah’s brother, Laban, saw the gold jewelry, he ran out to meet the man. He provided a place for Abraham’s servant and his men to stay and fed the camels as well. But Laban’s actions probably had less to do with hospitality than they did with trying to get his hands on some more of the servant’s gold. Scripture makes it clear that Laban was a lover of money (Genesis 24:29-30) and we are given more evidence of this in his future dealings with Jacob. In fact, after the deal was struck for Rebekah to travel to Canaan to become Isaac’s wife, the servant was generous not only to Rebekah but to her mother and brother as well, giving them valuable silver, gold and garments. And the following morning the caravan, along with Rebekah and her nurse, began the return trip to Canaan.
It may have been by simple chance that Isaac was walking in a field when he notice the caravan in the distance, and it appears that Rebekah saw him at about the same time. She donned a wedding veil to signify that she was his bride. “Then Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent, and he took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her; thus Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death” (Genesis 24:67). R. Kent Hughes says, “Rebekah replaced Sarah by entering the deceased matriarch’s tent, and she became the new matriarch of Israel.”
The Death of Abraham
Although the next event described in Scripture is Abraham’s marriage to a woman named Keturah, we do not know whether this happened before or after Isaac’s marriage. Commentators speculate that Abraham and Keturah were married about thirty-five years prior to his death.
Keturah bore six sons to Abraham. Genesis 25:1 says she was Abraham’s wife, but 1 Chronicles 1:32, refers to her as a concubine. A concubine was a slave woman or a single female without male protectors who willingly entered into an exclusive, monogamous relationship with a man. It is likely that Keturah began her relationship with Abraham as a concubine but after the death of Sarah, was considered a wife, albeit a wife of lesser status than Sarah. The six sons are named in Genesis 25:1-2 and again in 1 Chronicles 1:32, and except for the descendants of Midian, they are not mentioned again in Scripture. During his lifetime, Abraham gave gifts to the sons of Keturah and sent them eastward, away from Isaac, who inherited all that Abraham had.
Abraham lived to the ripe old age of 175, and then breathed his last. His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the Cave at Machpelah beside Sarah. And after a brief mention of Ishmael’s sons, Scripture shifts its attention from Abraham to the sons of Isaac, the next generation, and that will be the subject of our next lesson.
Think About It, Talk About It
Why did Abraham insist that Isaac not marry a Canaanite woman? Abraham himself came from a pagan and idol worshipping family, so what made him think a wife from Nahor’s family would have been a better choice?
How did Abraham’s servant know that Rebekah was a young woman of whom God would approve? What qualities did she possess that made him certain she was the chosen one?
What arrangements did Abraham make with Keturah’s sons to ensure they would not enter into conflict with Isaac, the sole heir of all that Abraham had?
Sources
Hebrew-Greek Key Word Bible Study, NASB (AMG International, Inc. 2008)
Hughes, R. Kent: Preaching the Word-Genesis (Crossway Books)
McGee, J. Vernon, Thru the Bible with J. Vernon McGee-Genesis (Thomas Nelson, Inc. 19081)
Who was Keturah in the Bible? (www.gotquestions.org)