Genesis Chapter 24 v.1-25

Abraham was getting old. He called for his servant that ran his household and made him put his hand under his thigh. Which would be grounds for calling a lawyer nowadays.

Abraham made his servant swear an oath to go and get Isaac a wife. But not from the dirty Hittites of Canaan, oh no. Someone from, shall we say, the old stock. Meaning: my own family.

So you had a son with your half-sister and now you want him to marry one of his cousins? Are you intending this as some kind of scientific experiment? No, that actually wasn't the argument. The servant was worried no one would want to follow him back to a strange, famine-prone land to marry some strange person they'd never met. The servant wanted to know, maybe he could take Isaac back if that were the case.

Abraham was adamant, no, don't take Isaac back there! The Lord god of blah blah blah has given this land blah blah blah. He convinced the servant that his god would send 'an angel' before him to make his task easier. You know, cause he was such a whiner. Moreover, if a woman wouldn't come back, that was okay too. It was a lax kind of oath.

Of course his servant agreed, then removed his hand and probably-hopefully-washed it.

So the servant (they don't bother ever giving this poor man a name) gathered together all the things he would need for his long journey to procure a wife, like gold and "good things" and camels. Maybe chocolate.

When he got to Abraham's home town it was evening, and he sat the camels down next to a well where all the village women were coming to get water. This is where the servant made a wager, like tossing the dice. Only with god, and in regards to people's lives.

He told god that he would ask a woman for a sip of water and if she gave him a sip and also got him water for his camels, the servant would take it as a sign that this was SUPPOSED to be the wife he sought. You know, why bother asking around and getting NAMES and things when you can just settle for the first affable female and blame it on god?

This is how we meet Rebekah. She was the daughter of Abraham's nephew, Bethuel. She fell for the 'let me have a drink of water' gag and even got water for the stranger's camels. He gave her some jewelry and asked her who she was, and if he could sleep at her house. I think the jewelry must've been nice because she told him her pad was crazy-swinging, with "plenty of straw and fodder" which I imagine was for the camels.

More on this next time. Same god-time. Same god-channel.