Genesis 24: Isaac Gets Married

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Isaac and Rebekah (v. 1-67)

Abraham wanted Isaac to get married, but he didn't want him to marry a Canaanite woman but they live in Canaan. So he sent a servant back to their homeland to get him to find a wife for Isaac. The servant asks if he should bring Isaac back to the other land in the event the woman doesn't want to come to Canaan. Abraham says no since God promised this land to his descendants. He tells the servant that if the woman doesn't want to come then he "is free from this oath".

I thought this phrase was somewhat unclear, I'm assuming it just means that he can move on and try to find another girl.

Along with an angel of the Lord, the servant goes to Mesopotamia with 10 camels and a bunch of gifts and such. He goes to a watering hole at the time when a bunch of women will be there and he asks God to let him know who the right woman is because she will get water for him and his camels. Rebekah comes out as he is finishing this thought and she does those things and winds up being the right girl.

This whole thing strikes me as just laziness on the servant's part. Instead of going out and finding a woman in whatever way he might normally, he's just like, God send me a sign. The first person that comes must be the woman God sent to me. It just reminds me of people who don't want to solve their own problems, but expect God to fix things for them.

He meets her family, stays the night with them and eats with them, tells them the whole story and winds up taking Rebekah back to be Isaac's wife.

You might be wondering how such a simple story can be 67 verses long. It's pretty easy actually, you just have to have the characters of the story constantly repeat themselves.