Vs.41- “Then shalt thou be clear from this my oath,
when thou comest to my kindred; and if they give not thee one, thou shalt be
clear from my oath.”- The servant is free from the pledge he made if the family of Abraham
refuses to give a wife to Isaac. (See
Vs.8) The servant’s errand in coming has
now been made abundantly clear.
One-Line Explanation- The servant rehearses that his oath
is voided if the family refuses to give a wife to Isaac.
Lesson: 1.) “If they give not thee one..” Vs.8 says, “And if the woman will not be
willing to follow thee..” Both of these
actions take place in a marriage. When
my wife and I got married, she chose to be my bride, but her family also gave
her away. What that means is that I had her
heart and their blessing. Both of these
are essential if you want to have the right start and foundation to a
marriage. There are some key principles concerning
this. A.) You are marrying his/her family. I have known of marriages that were the
result of running away and eloping against the parent’s will. One marriage I’m thinking of in particular
ended in divorce. You cannot marry
someone and expect to ostracize them from their family. My wife loves her family. When I married her, I entered into a
relationship with her family. I am part
of her family now and she is part of my family.
We take trips to Mississippi (where my wife is from) constantly. I had to develop a relationship with her
parents, her siblings, her aunts, her uncles, etc. before we got married and
even more so afterward. Some say, “Well,
I just can’t stand his/her family.” You
may need to consider that diligently before deciding to enter into a
marriage. If your spouse or prospective
spouse like you ought to, then you should be willing to strive and work at
having a God-honoring relationship with your spouse’s family. B.)
You ought to have her family’s blessings before you get married. This is the idea of giving a bride away. I am old fashioned. I believe that a young man should ask the
parents or guardians of the young lady for permission to have her hand in
marriage. Sneaking behind the backs of
the parents and eloping is dishonest and dishonoring. The bible teaches us that we are to honor our
parents. This is not just a command to young
children, but to every one of all ages.
I am to honor my parents now as a 28 year old married man. It is very dishonoring to your parents to go
against their will and do something of such significance behind their
back. I believe that if you don’t have
the parent’s blessing then you don’t have God’s blessings. Why would God bless you for dishonoring your
parents? I would not marry a woman if I
did not have her parent’s blessings. I
have found that if you are the good Christian young man that you are supposed
to be then, on most occasions, they do not have a problem giving you
permission. There are occasions where a young
woman may have been reared in a Muslim home, for example, and been
converted. Her parents may be completely
opposed to the idea of her marrying a Christian man. I personally believe that there are exceptions
to the rule. Just like divorce, it is
never God’s perfect design, but there are times where God allows it. I don’t promote going against a parent’s will
in marriage, but there are rare exceptions to the rule. If a former Muslim, Jehovah’s Witness,
Mormon, etc. gets converted and wants to marry a born-again Christian and the
parents want them to marry someone who is a part of their cult, should the
young woman not marry? I personally
believe that this would be an exception to the general rule. The young man should make sure that he feels
she is God’s will for his life and should make every attempt to have a positive
and respectful relationship with her family.
2.) The individual must be willing
to go and the family must be willing to give.
I thought about the application of this principle to missions. Paul was called by the Holy Spirit to be a missionary. Paul surrendered to the call and willingly
went to the mission field and the church also sent Paul and Barnabas out (Acts
13:1-3). Paul and Barnabas were willing
to go and the church was willing to give them to the Lord. I’m sure Paul and Barnabas were a great blessing
to the church at Antioch, but God had called them to a work. The church was not selfish, but rather was
willing to give their faithful servants to the Lord. When it comes to missions there must be going
and there must be giving. We give our
money to help support the missionaries, we give our time and go help on the
mission field, and sometimes we must be willing to give our friends and family
over to the Lord to follow the calling God has placed on their life. If God calls us to the foreign mission field
then we must be willing to go. There
must be a willingness to go and a willingness to give.
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