◄ Genesis 24:4 ►














Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
Lessons From The Sepulcher
Genesis 23:20
J.F. Montgomery
And the field, and the cave that is therein, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession of a burying-place. Abraham's first and only possession in Canaan, a sepulcher. The importance of the par-chase appears in the careful narrative of the transaction. For himself he was content to live as a stranger and pilgrim (cf. 1 Peter 5:7); but Sarah's death led him to acquire a burying-place. Declining the offer to use any of the sepulchers of the people of the land (cf. the separation at death between God's people and aliens), he bought the field and the cave, and carefully prepared the evidence of the purchase. The purchase showed his faith in God's truth; one of the branches of Adam's temptation (Genesis 3:4). It had been promised that his seed, after dwelling in a land not theirs, should return and possess that whereon he stood (cf. Jeremiah 32:14, 15). Type of entrance into rest after pilgrimage (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:1). It showed also his faith in a resurrection (cf. Psalm 16:10). The desire that he and his family should lie in the same sepulcher speaks of a life beyond the present. Parted by death, they were one family still. Sarah was to him "my dead." There was a link between them still. The living and dead still one family. Doctrine of communion of saints (cf. Matthew 22:32). Death was the gate of life (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:16). Canaan a type of the rest which remaineth; Abraham of the "children of the kingdom," pilgrims with a promise. No rest here. Life full of uncertainties. One thing sure, we must die. But -

I. WE ENTER THE HEAVENLY REST THROUGH DEATH; THE CITY OF GOD THROUGH THE VALLEY OF BACA. Here we walk by faith. Great and glorious promises for our encouragement, that we may not make our home here; yet we know not what we shall be. Sight cannot penetrate the curtain that separates time from eternity. Thus there is the trial, do we walk by faith or by sight? We instinctively shrink from death. It is connected in our mind with sorrow, with interruption of plans, with breaking up of loving companionship; but faith bids us sorrow not as those without hope. It reminds that it is the passing from what is defective and transitory to what is immortal. Here we are trained for the better things beyond, and our thoughts are turned to that sepulcher in which the victory over death was won; thence we see the Lord arising, the pledge of eternal life to all who will have it.

II. THE SEPULCHRE WAS MADE SURE TO ABRAHAM. In time he should enter it as one of the company gathered there to await the resurrection day; but meanwhile it was his. And if we look upon this as typical of our interest in the death of Christ, it speaks of comfort and trust. He took our nature that he might "taste death for every man." His grave is ours (2 Corinthians 5:14). We are "buried with him," "planted together in the likeness of his death.' The fact of his death is a possession that cannot be taken from us (Colossians 3:3, 4). He died that we might live. If frail man clings to the tomb of some dear one; if the heart is conscious of the link still enduring, shall we not rejoice in our union with him whose triumph makes us also more than conquerors?

III. THE FIELD AND CAVE. How small a part did Abraham possess in his lifetime, but it was an earnest of the whole; he felt it so, and in faith buried his dead (cf. Genesis 1:25; Hebrews 11:22). An earnest is all we possess here, but still we have an earnest. In the presence of the Lord (John 14:23), in the peace which he gives, in the spirit of adoption, we have the "substance of things hoped for," a real fragment and sample of the blessedness of heaven. - M.

Biblical Illustrator
Led me in the right way to take my master's brother's daughter unto his son.
Genesis 24:32-49
The marriage treaty
T H. Leale.
I. ITS RELIGIOUS ELEMENT.

1. The sense of instant duty.

2. A recognition of God's gracious dealings.

3. A solemn sense of responsibility.

(1)To man.

(2)To God.

II. ITS ECONOMIC ELEMENT. The steward gives an account of Abraham's wealth and position (ver. 35). He knew that the parents of this well-bred damsel would never consent to give their daughter to a man of mean circumstances and living one hundred miles away, nor to one of ignoble or degraded family. He takes care, therefore, to state that his master is rich, and that the bride would have a suitable home and congenial society. Still, with that pious feeling which marked him hitherto, he takes equal care to note that the riches of his master were righteously gotten. "The Lord hath blessed my master greatly" (ver. 35). He also gave suitable presents (ver. 47). He treats her as one who is to enter such a distinguished family. In all this transaction the religious and the economic elements are mixed in due proportion. The men who most believed in the supernatural, and who had most abundant witness of it, were the men who used the most care in the employment of common prudence and skill. This man does not blindly rely upon miracles alone, but uses human means and proprieties to their proper extent and trusts for the blessing of God.

(T H. Leale.)

Divine guidance
J. Irons.
I. DIVINE GUIDANCE. God's gracious way of saving sinners is a "right way."

II. THE IMMUTABLE CHARACTER OF THE GUIDE.

III. THE DEVOTION OF THE GUIDED MAN.

(J. Irons.)

Lessons
G. Hughes, B. D.
1. Fidelity makes servants own and honour their masters in performing their trust, especially in the Church (ver. 34).

2. Pious souls know and acknowledge God to be the only author of the prosperity of His servants.

3. Prosperity of believers is God's blessing. This maketh rich and adds no sorrow (Proverbs 10:22).

4. God is not strained towards His in outward things, when they are good for them.

5. Greatness of estate and honour sometimes God uniteth unto godliness. So it was here with Abraham (ver. 35).

6. God's miracles should be related when they make to His praise, and His people's good. So doth he.

7. The heir of promise may be the heir of all things here below. So Isaac. So eminently Christ was.

8. It is but rational in seeking marriage to declare the state in measure which God hath given (ver. 36).

(G. Hughes, B. D.)

People
Abraham, Aram, Bethuel, Canaanites, Isaac, Laban, Milcah, Nahor, Rebekah, Sarah
Places
Beer-lahai-roi, Hebron, Mesopotamia, Nahor, Negeb
Topics
Hast, Isaac, Kindred, Relations, Relatives, Wife
Outline
1. Abraham swears his servant.
10. The servant's journey.
12. His prayer.
14. His sign.
15. Rebekah meets him;
18. fulfils his sign;
22. receives jewels;
23. shows her kindred;
25. and invites him home.
26. The servant blesses God.
29. Laban entertains him.
34. The servant shows his message.
50. Laban and Bethuel approve it.
58. Rebekah consents to go, and departs.
62. Isaac meets and marries her.

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Genesis 24:4

     5654   betrothal

Genesis 24:1-4

     5077   Abraham, character
     6650   finding

Genesis 24:1-9

     5076   Abraham, life of
     5681   family, nature of

Genesis 24:2-4

     5523   servants, good

Genesis 24:3-4

     4696   yoke
     5711   marriage, restrictions

Genesis 24:3-9

     5430   oaths, human

Library
Guidance in the Way
'I being in the way, the Lord led me.'--GENESIS xxiv. 27. So said Abraham's anonymous servant when telling how he had found Rebekah at the well, and known her to be the destined bride of his master's servant. There is no more beautiful page, even amongst the many lovely ones in these ancient stories, than this domestic idyll of the mission of the faithful servant from far Canaan across the desert. The homely test by which he would determine that the maiden should be pointed out to him, the glimpse …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

No Compromise
The faithful servant of Abraham, before he started, communed with his master; and this is a lesson to us, who go on our Lord's errands. Let us, before we engage in actual service, see the Master's face, talk with him, and tell to him any difficulties which occur to our minds. Before we get to work, let us know what we are at, and on what footing we stand. Let us hear from our Lord's own mouth what he expects us to do, and how far he will help us in the doing of it. I charge you, my fellow-servants, …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 34: 1888

If, Therefore, Even they who are United in Marriage Only for the Purpose Of...
22. If, therefore, even they who are united in marriage only for the purpose of begetting, for which purpose marriage was instituted, are not compared with the Fathers, seeking their very sons in a way far other than do these; forasmuch as Abraham, being bidden to slay his son, fearless and devoted, spared not his only son, whom from out of great despair he had received [1997] save that he laid down his hand, when He forbade him, at Whose command he had lifted it up; it remains that we consider, …
St. Augustine—On the Good of Marriage

Jesus Sets Out from Judæa for Galilee.
Subdivision B. At Jacob's Well, and at Sychar. ^D John IV. 5-42. ^d 5 So he cometh to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 and Jacob's well was there. [Commentators long made the mistake of supposing that Shechem, now called Nablous, was the town here called Sychar. Sheckem lies a mile and a half west of Jacob's well, while the real Sychar, now called 'Askar, lies scarcely half a mile north of the well. It was a small town, loosely called …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The Blessing of Jacob Upon Judah. (Gen. Xlix. 8-10. )
Ver. 8. "Judah, thou, thy brethren shall praise thee; thy hand shall be on the neck of thine enemies; before thee shall bow down the sons of thy father. Ver. 9. A lion's whelp is Judah; from the prey, my son, thou goest up; he stoopeth down, he coucheth as a lion, and as a full-grown lion, who shall rouse him up? Ver. 10. The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come, and unto Him the people shall adhere." Thus does dying Jacob, in announcing …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

The Blessings of Noah Upon Shem and Japheth. (Gen. Ix. 18-27. )
Ver. 20. "And Noah began and became an husbandman, and planted vineyards."--This does not imply that Noah was the first who began to till the ground, and, more especially, to cultivate the vine; for Cain, too, was a tiller of the ground, Gen. iv. 2. The sense rather is, that Noah, after the flood, again took up this calling. Moreover, the remark has not an independent import; it serves only to prepare the way for the communication of the subsequent account of Noah's drunkenness. By this remark, …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

Genesis
The Old Testament opens very impressively. In measured and dignified language it introduces the story of Israel's origin and settlement upon the land of Canaan (Gen.--Josh.) by the story of creation, i.-ii. 4a, and thus suggests, at the very beginning, the far-reaching purpose and the world-wide significance of the people and religion of Israel. The narrative has not travelled far till it becomes apparent that its dominant interests are to be religious and moral; for, after a pictorial sketch of …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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