Genesis 24

What’s Happening?

God’s promise has been clear since the beginning: he is forming a family through whom he will bless the nations and fill the earth with life. But so far that promise has hung by a thread. Abraham and Sarah had only one son together—Isaac. Sarah has now died (Genesis 23:2), and Isaac has no children. If the promise of a great nation is going to move forward, Isaac needs a wife.

Abraham, now old, sends his servant back to his homeland to find a wife for Isaac (Genesis 24:3–4). Isaac’s bride must not come from the Canaanites around them, but from Abraham’s own people, so the family line set apart for God’s blessing will remain distinct.

When the servant arrives, he prays for God to give him a clear sign. He asks that the chosen woman will not only offer him water, but also freely water his camels (Genesis 24:14). Before he even finishes his prayer, Rebekah appears and does exactly that. God has answered.

The servant immediately gives her jewelry and tells her family what happened. They cannot deny God’s hand in the matter and allow Rebekah to go (Genesis 24:50). She leaves her home, journeys to Canaan, and becomes Isaac’s wife. God himself has provided the next matriarch of the promised family, ensuring that his plan for a flourishing people continues.

Where is the Gospel?

This story prepares us to see how God provides not only a bride for Isaac but ultimately a bride for his Son.

In John 4, Jesus also meets a woman at a well (John 4:6). But unlike Rebekah, she is not pure, honored, or included. She is an adulterous Samaritan, morally and culturally distant from the covenant people (John 4:17–18). Jesus asks her for a drink, just as Abraham’s servant had asked Rebekah. And just as Rebekah’s response revealed God’s choice, this woman’s conversation with Jesus reveals God’s plan: the true marriage God is arranging is not bound to geography, ethnicity, or purity. It is bound to faith in Jesus (John 4:23).

God orchestrated the marriage of Isaac and Rebekah to preserve his promise of a family. But in Jesus, God orchestrates the final marriage—between Christ and his people—that fulfills the promise once for all. And this family includes not only the beautiful, pure, and faithful, like Rebekah, but also the broken, excluded, and sinful, like the Samaritan woman. People like us.

Through Jesus, God is still gathering a bride for his Son. He is still forming a family to bless the nations and make the world flourish.

See for Yourself

I pray that the Holy Spirit would open your eyes to see the God who arranges everything to bring his people into his family. And I pray you would see Jesus as the true Bridegroom, who welcomes all who believe—near or far, pure or impure—into his covenant love.