A Disinherited "Postman" Delivers a Mail Order Bride

Okay, this story is not all that obscure. I’m counting it as a Bible story as such simply because it is an especially delightful story. And there are a lot of people anymore who haven’t heard it, so I’m going to tell it.

Abraham was an extremely wealthy man. If you’re familiar with the Biblical accounts, or if you’ve been reading my stories, you know that he had hundreds of servants (remember, I mentioned his 318 trained men in the story of the rescue of Lot). We only know the names of two of these servants. One is Hagar, the mother of Ishmael. The second was named Eliezer. This is his story.

We don’t know a lot about Eliezer’s background, only that he came from Damascus. But from the first mention of his name, we know that he was an important man to Abraham.

The first time Eliezer is mentioned is at a time when God came to Abraham and promised him a great reward. Abraham asked God what in the world He was going to give him, since he was childless, and Eliezer of Damascus was one day going to inherit everything he had. God, at this time, promised Abraham a son and multitudes of descendants.

And then Ishmael was born, the son of Abraham and his wife’s servant Hagar. And no, the Bible doesn’t say that this was a right thing for Abraham to do. Just because Abraham was a hero of the faith doesn’t mean everything he did was right and good. There is only one human being in all of history that never sinned, and that was Jesus, the Son of God.

I wonder what Eliezer thought of that. First he was going to inherit great wealth, and then he was going to inherit nothing.

Fourteen years after Ishmael was born, Isaac was born, and since he was the son of Abraham’s true wife, he was the true heir. He would inherit everything that once Eliezer had hoped for.
Forty years later, though, Eliezer was still on the job. Ishmael had had a problem with being disinherited. Apparently Eliezer did not.

Now some fifty-six years, at least, had passed since the time that Abraham had named Eliezer to God as his intended heir, and God had said no. Abraham was a very old man by now, and Eliezer himself was no spring chicken. At this time Abraham had a job for Eliezer, probably the most important job of his life.

“I want you to go to my homeland and get a bride for Isaac.” Isaac couldn’t go; Abraham was determined that Isaac never see the land God had called him to leave. Abraham made that very clear in the conversation he had with Eliezer about it. Abraham couldn’t go, since one hundred and forty year old men do not travel that easily, especially on camel back.

None of the girls in Canaan would do. They worshipped idols. So did Abraham’s kin, but at least they knew about the true God. And, as previously pointed out, people in those days didn’t have a problem with marrying relatives. Obviously, Abraham preferred it.

So Eliezer, who once thought he would inherit all of Abraham’s property, set out with ten camels laden with “all kinds of good things from his master” (Gen. 24:10), to do his master’s bidding. When he reached his destination, he decided to set up a test for finding the right girl. He sat by the well where girls were going to be coming shortly to fill up their water pitchers and prayed that the right girl would show herself by offering to water his camels when he asked for a drink of water himself.

That was not, by any stretch of the imagination, an easy test. He had just had a journey of seventeen days with ten camels. One thing about camels that makes them so great to use as beasts of burden in the desert is that they can go for days without drinking. Of course, when they do drink, they drink a lot. In those days, of course, there was no running water. Water had to be drawn by the pitcherful up from a well. And of course water is heavy. Here was Eliezer, praying for a teenage girl to be willing to put in the time and effort necessary to draw pitcher after pitcher of water to provide enough water for ten very thirsty camels to drink. I have a seventeen year old daughter. She is generally a willing helper, but I don’t know if she would undertake a job like that. Perhaps she might start it and then discover just how hard it was going to be to accomplish. Teenage girls and camel watering do not seem to mix very well, if you think about it.

No sooner had Eliezer offered this prayer to God when a girl named Rebekah showed up and did it. So of course Eliezer had to give her some presents: a gold nose ring and a couple gold bracelets. Girls still like that kind of gift. I’m forty-five and I would like it. I’m not too sure what I’d do with the nose ring, but the bracelets would be nice. He asked her whose daughter she was and if her family had room and camel feed to allow him and all his camels to be their guests. Talk about ulterior motives! As far as Rebekah knew, all the old man in front of her needed was a place to stay. How was she to know that if she turned out to be related to Abraham and they guy got his way she’d never see her family again? She replied that they did have plenty. She also revealed that she was a granddaughter of Abraham’s brother Nahor, making her one of the very people Abraham had had in mind when he sent Eliezer on this hunt.

She took off to tell her family they had a guest and left him there at the well in absolute astounded wonder. The Bible says he worshipped.

The next person Eliezer saw was Rebekah’s brother Laban, who came out as quick as he could get there as soon as he heard his sister’s story and saw her new jewelry. I remember hearing my mother read this story to us from the Bible, and she paused in her reading to add something of her own at this point: “but Laban didn’t get a nose ring or any bracelets,” she said. While of course this is not in the Bible, for young Laban to be hoping for a gift and disappointed not to get one wouldn’t fit badly with what is known of his character. If you read the book of Genesis you’ll get to know Laban pretty well later, when he is much older, and has dealings with Rebekah’s son Jacob. But for now, Laban merely invited Eliezer to his house.

In that culture, men ate together without the women, and Eliezer was invited to eat with Laban and Bethuel, Laban’s and Rebekah’s father. But Eliezer would not eat until he had said what he had come to say. He told his story of Abraham and Isaac and what his errand was and what it had to do with the household in which he was a guest—about his prayer and the amazing answer to it. Can’t you just hear him: “Guys, she watered my camels! And there were ten of them! And here she is related to Abraham, just who we were hoping for!”

At this point, Bethuel and Laban said “God is in this! We can’t refuse you. Sure, take Rebekah and let her be married to Isaac.” Nobody asked Rebekah. Now, those of you who know this story are saying, “Now wait a minute! That’s one of the really beautiful parts of this story, where they asked her if she’d go with him and she said she would!” Sorry, that came later. The decision to marry Rebekah to Isaac sight unseen came from Bethuel and Laban and any other brothers Rebekah might have had that weren’t mentioned. This was strictly in keeping with the culture of the time. The Bible is God’s holy Word and God is good. One thing it isn’t, however, is a feminist manifesto. Besides, it wouldn’t have been true if it were made into one. At this point, we’re being told what actually took place, without mention of what maybe should have been taking place. This was not a made up story to teach a lesson. Not that it doesn’t teach a lesson, because it very resoundingly does, but it isn’t made up, so we can’t go back and change it if we don’t like some part of it. Eliezer negotiated for Rebekah’s hand in marriage to Isaac with her father and brother, and not with Rebekah herself. What is good about that is that God worked through the culture, even though the culture may not have been acting toward womankind as God intended when He took Eve from Adam’s rib cage. He is still present when people don’t live up to His standards of how people should treat one another.

Once again, Eliezer started handing out presents, especially to Rebekah. This time Laban was included. Interestingly, Rebekah’s unnamed mother was also included in this giveaway.
The question didn’t come to Rebekah until the next morning when Eliezer made it known that he wanted to leave right away with Rebekah. This didn’t set too well with Laban or with Rebekah’s mother. “Oh, please wait a few days—at least ten!” they protested, but Eliezer wasn’t hearing it. He insisted, and that was when they asked Rebekah if she would go with this man.

She said she would, and she did.

And Isaac loved her, and his marriage to Rebekah brought him comfort. He had apparently still been in grief over his mother’s death three years before, and Rebekah was the answer for him.

Most people, when they tell this story, make Rebekah the hero, and she certainly was one. But I also like Eliezer. When God gave an awesome and unexpected blessing to Abraham, through it, Eliezer lost everything, but he continued on as a faithful servant. Genesis 24 is a long chapter in the Bible (thus the long story I’ve told), but all through it, you never once see Eliezer ask anything for himself. He was given a task, a hard task which the Bible makes clear he was in no way certain was even possible, but he went ahead with it with all his heart and saw it through with no promise of any gain from doing so. He could have taken off in the direction of Abraham’s relatives and then brought home any girl he could find easily, and just said she was of Abraham’s kin. Who would have known? They had never met Rebekah before. But that’s not what he did. He didn’t cut corners, he didn’t complain, and he didn’t ask for anything. I like to think that when Eliezer died, he got a big, big reward for what he did. “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. (Matthew 24:45-46).” “Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life. (Revelation 2:10).” “Well done, good and faithful servant...Come and share your master’s happiness!”