Genesis 24: Abraham had a son. He wanted Isaac to marry in the family (1). He sent an unnamed servant (2) to search for a suitable mate for Isaac. The servant, still unnamed, took ten camels and went to the family home, stopping at a well and told God his test of worthiness (3). “If she offers me water and then says she’ll draw water for all ten camels, that’s the one.” Rebekah comes and fulfills his conditions and he then asks who she is (4). Finally he puts a ring through her nose. Then she repeats the whole thing to her family and then the nameless servant does the same. That last bit repeating everything again and again is not unusual but the numbers above indicate things strange and, not to be too blunt about it, foreign to us.

(1)Most societies demand that you mate with somebody as unrelated to you as possible. Dire things happen when people intermarry. (2)For somebody to be the subject of a whole chapter of the Bible, a male and unnamed is strange to put it mildly. (3)The servant sets his own standards and God accepts them just like that. How’s that for unusual? (4)He plays it out and only afterward checks to see if he found the woman from the right family.

Just when we thought we were making sense of the Bible it throws us a whammy, in fact four of them. The ring right through the nose just emphasizes how you feel as a witness to this story.  And what does this say about Isaac? Who, if any, can you identify with among the participants: Servant, Beckie, Abe, thirsty camel? One theme for Lent 2011 is leaving our comfort zones to do what God calls us to do? We can leave comfort behind with even some familiar passages from the Bible if we examine what they actually say, can’t we? Where is God leading? Are we following? This passage may just surprise us. Others may shake us to the core. For example, how are you doing with loving your neighbor as yourself today?

-Dick Sales