Year 7, Day 23: Genesis 24

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Genesis 24 is all about obedience and trust.  The first place that we see obedience and trust is between Abraham and his servant.  Abraham asks the servant if he can trust him.  Then he sends the servant on a mission to find his son a wife.  Talk about the trust that Abraham had to place in the man!  He could have come back with anyone.  Abraham trusts that he will come back with a woman of God.

Naturally, the servant has to be obedient.  But in that the servant has to trust as well.  Do you read the parts that talk about the servant asking what happens if he can’t find a suitable bride?  The servant has to trust that Abraham will accept his discernment.  He has to trust that Abraham will release him should the task prove impossible.  Trust and obedience naturally go together.

As long as we are talking about the servant, do you hear the obedience and trust that he has in God?  No wonder Abraham trusts him!  The servant trusts God to be able to show him the right woman.  At the same time, the servant then has to be obedient to God once God shows him the woman to whom he should go!  Once more we see that trust and obedience are deeply connected.

And then there is Rebekah.  Here is a woman who meets a complete stranger and invites him home.  Of course, this would be the hospitable thing to do.  But she does more than that.  She listens to him.  She discerns his spirit.  She trusts him when he says that he will take her to a good man to marry.  She is obedient once she agrees to go.  Can you imagine the trust in God that you have to have to leave the only family you have behind and go to marry a person you’ve never met?

Trust and obedience often necessarily go together.  They complement one another well.  We can usually assert that one cannot happen in any grand way unless the other is also present.  It was true thousands of years ago; it is still true today.

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