Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“After these things, Abraham was told, “Behold, Milcah, she also has borne children to your brother Nahor: Uz his firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel the father of Aram, Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.” Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother. His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.”
(Genesis 22:20-24)

God’s ‘tests’ aren’t so that He will know what we will do. They are opportunities for us to prove to ourselves that what He says about us is true. God didn’t wait for Abraham to ‘prove’ anything to Him. God was working already to provide a bride for Isaac. God provides everything we need for what He’s called us to do. He does it before we do anything. He provides for His promises because His promises can be trusted. The tests are a way for us to prove to ourselves that truth. So that we WILL believe and so that we WILL trust. We have to walk them out, but God provides everything that is needed to do just that. Including the tests to cement that knowledge in ourselves.

Uz is the land that Job lived in. Buz is considered to be the ancestor of Elihu the Buzite. That would date the book of Job to occurring around the time of Jacob or a little later, somewhere in the Arabia Desert.

All the men listed in this verse were Laban and Rebekah’s uncles, which made them both Isaac’s cousins and his uncles-in-law once he married Rebekah . Rebekah was Abraham’s grandniece and Isaac’s cousin. Marrying your cousin was NOT forbidden in Leviticus 18 (where it deals with the close relatives that are forbidden to you – implicit and implied).

The sage Ramban writes: ‘BEHOLD, MILCAH, SHE ALSO HATH BORN CHILDREN. Since Milcah was the daughter of his brother Haran, this was a tiding to Abraham that his older brother Nahor had been visited with many children from the daughter of his dead brother Haran. Now from the text of Scripture it would appear that Abraham had no knowledge of any of them except on that day. If they were visited with children in their younger days, it would be impossible for them not to have been heard until this time for the distance between Mesopotamia and the land of Canaan is not great. Now when Abraham left Haran he was seventy-five years old, and Nahor was also elderly and his wife too was not young. Indeed, we must say, G-d performed a miracle for them in that they were visited with children in their old age. This is the sense of the verse, Milcah, she also. In the words of our Rabbis, it is said that Milcah was visited with children as was her sister Sarah. AND BETHUEL BEGOT REBEKAH. The verse does not mention Laban, even though he was older than Rebekah, for its intent is only to mention the eight children which Milcah bore to Nahor. However, Rebekah is mentioned since the entire chapter is written to make known her genealogy. Kemuel the father of Aram. Aram is mentioned only in order to make known the identity of Kemuel as Aram was a more important man than his father. Perhaps, also, there was another Kemuel in their generation. Hence [Scripture identifies Kemuel by saying that] he was the father of Aram. AND HIS CONCUBINE, WHOSE NAME WAS REUMAH. Scripture tells the entire tiding which they related to Abraham concerning his brother’s children. It is possible that this was written in order to make known the entire genealogy of Nahor, to establish that all of them were worthy to marry the children of Abraham, and it was with reference to all of them that Abraham said to Eliezer: But thou shalt go unto my father’s house and to my family. Chayei Sarah’

The sage Rav Hirsch writes: ‘V. 20. The word הנה here, indicates that these news were a reply to an enquiry: Yes Milka too, the sister of Sarah, has had children” (and so you can easily find a suitable match for Isaac, if you wish to find a wife for him). It seems that Abraham took the לך לך ,ומבית אביך וגו׳ so seriously that he had meticulously kept himself so much away from his relations, that he only came to know of their increase and extension when he looked around for a daughter-in-law.’

The Torah: A Women’s Commentary writes: ‘Sandwiched between the binding of Isaac and Sarah’s death (in the next parashah) is a paragraph concerning Rebekah’s family. This parashah ends with Isaac safe, and with his future wife born to the right woman from the right lineage. Rebekah, the matriarch for the next generation, appears immediately before the previous one, Sarah, dies. This passage emphasizes the women in the lineage and highlights the importance of women in the “patriarchal” line of the people of Israel. On the role of women in the Israelite lineage, see also at 17:19, 22. Milcah. We were told of her marriage to Nahor when she was first introduced with Sarai (11:29), before Abram’s household left the city of Haran for Canaan. Now she is mentioned again—and once more in verse 23—just before Sarah dies (23:1–2). Rebekah will also mention her grandmother Milcah when she identifies herself (24:24, 47). It is not clear why Milcah merits her relative prominence. Bethuel fathered Rebekah. The text highlights only Rebekah in her generation. Rebekah is important not only because she will marry Isaac (Genesis 24) but also because she proves to be decisive in arranging for the transfer of the covenantal blessing in the next generation (27:6–13). Although we know the name of Rebekah’s grandmother, Milcah, we never learn the name of her mother.’