Genesis 24:15-21

2008.Feb.23 02:03

Not your everyday courting

Read Genesis 24:15-21 | Full Chapter

Before he had finished speaking, behold, Rebekah who was born to Bethuel the son of Milcah, the wife of Abraham's brother Nahor, came out with her jar on her shoulder. The girl was very beautiful, a virgin, and no man had had relations with her; and she went down to the spring and filled her jar and came up. Then the servant ran to meet her, and said, "Please let me drink a little water from your jar." She said, "Drink, my lord"; and she quickly lowered her jar to her hand, and gave him a drink. Now when she had finished giving him a drink, she said, "I will draw also for your camels until they have finished drinking." So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough, and ran back to the well to draw, and she drew for all his camels. Meanwhile, the man was gazing at her in silence, to know whether the LORD had made his journey successful or not.
(Genesis 24:15-21, NASB)

Everybody is so nice in this passage. Well, anyway, the servant and Rebekah are so nice. Both of them are practicing servanthood–Abraham’s servant, by his care in seeking a wife for Isaac, and Rebekah, by her attentions to this traveler. They both exhibit one of the keys of true service to another, which is that their service is complete. Rebekah does not merely give the servant a bit to drink, but goes back to the well and draws additional water for his camels. Likewise, the servant does not just watch to see if she seems like a decent lady, but even once it’s clear that Rebekah is fulfilling the signs for which the servant had prayed, he’s watching her; he could have, at her first approach, said, “She looks good and is polite. Let’s go.” But instead, because he chooses to serve Abraham well watches Rebekah carefully to judge her qualities as best he can in this short span.

And, well, that’s the point I’m wanting to make in a nutshell. In a smaller nutshell, service to others is more than doing the minimum to help or please, it is rather helping in a complete way.

Genesis 22:20-24

2008.Jan.09 21:57

Children of Nahor

Read Genesis 22:20-24 | Full Chapter

Abraham’s brother Nahor had married Milcah, and Abraham was later told that they had eight sons. Uz was their first-born; Buz was next, and then there was Kemuel who became the father of Aram; their other five sons were: Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel, who became the father of Rebekah. Nahor also had another wife. Her name was Reumah, and she had four sons: Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.
(Genesis 22:20-24, CEV)

The amount of time spent in the Bible keeping track of families and lineages first strikes me as very high. While it’s useful to know the connections between various people in the Bible, Chesed’s relation to Abraham means nothing to me. And then I think about it a little longer and the time spent on ancestry isn’t very much. Did Chesed marry, after all? Did he have children? Who were the parents of Mrs. Chesed? Maybe it doesn’t matter sitting here in Oklahoma in 2008. But maybe it matters a great deal? After all, I like having information organized and available. Another few generations listed might have had a use I can’t imagine.

Paul reminds Titus to "avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless" (Titus 3:9, NIV) . I imagine that Jehovah has made some effort to minimize information in the Bible that could lead to such unprofitable focus. Still, the Bible does give significant focus to the family connections between people. I interpret this as at least revealing a significant value that Jehovah places on the connections between people. After all, his chosen nation, Israel, was principally defined during Biblical times (I think) by their common ancestry in Jacob.

And I’ve just realized that I have nothing more at this time to say on this point. This genealogical aside segues from the Isaac as potential, then actual, child segment of Genesis–focusing on the experiences of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar and Lot. The next few chapters have a “passing the torch” feel, following Isaac into adulthood, and through the deaths of Abraham and Sarah. Isaac himself sometimes seems to me a segue, a necessary step between the stories of Abraham/Sarah and of Jacob. Perhaps, then, one of the most significant values of this passage is a reminder that all these patriarchs and matriarchs that we read about and discuss are also members of a family, dealing with regular life. That is, they are not heroes who sprung from the ground fully formed, but, well, people.