What does Genesis 24:4 mean?
In the previous verse, Abraham asked his most trusted servant to swear an oath. This promise was to not allow his son Isaac to take a wife from among the local, Canaanite women. Apparently afraid that he might die before Isaac could be married, Abraham further asks his servant to swear to find a wife for Isaac among the women of Abraham's old homeland and extended family.Why is Abraham so urgent about this request? He is aware of God's promise to make from him a great people who will belong to the Lord. This promise from God was also to give Abraham's offspring the land of Canaan, as their own possession. He apparently does not want Isaac to marry a Canaanite woman and to begin to assimilate into the Canaanite people as one of them. He is concerned, even in this first generation, that God's people maintain a separate and distinct identity from the people of the land of Canaan.
Later, the Israelites will be officially commanded by God not to intermarry with the people of the land of Canaan (Deuteronomy 7:1–4). Then, as now, the issue has nothing to do with race. Rather, the concern is over faith—avoiding the particularly wicked practices of the Canaanite people.
Genesis 24:1–9 describes an urgent conversation between Abraham and his most trusted servant. Abraham is asking the servant to swear an oath to find a wife for Isaac from among his own people in Mesopotamia. The servant must not allow Isaac either to marry into a Canaanite family or to leave the promised land of Canaan. With the understanding that he will be released from the oath if no young woman will agree to return with him, the servant swears to find Isaac a wife.
Abraham asks his most trusted servant to travel to his former homeland to find a wife for his son Isaac. Swearing to do so, the servant arrives at the city of Nahor and asks the Lord to show him which young women is appointed for Isaac. Finding Rebekah, the very granddaughter of Abraham's brother Nahor, the servant reveals the reason for his journey to her family. Her father Bethuel and brother Laban agree to allow Rebekah to travel to Canaan and marry Isaac, which she does.
