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.