Fear No Fear

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

“Then Laban and Bethuel answered, “The thing proceeds from Yahweh. We can’t speak to you bad or good. Behold, Rebekah is before you. Take her, and go, and let her be your master’s son’s wife, as Yahweh has spoken.” When Abraham’s servant heard their words, he bowed himself down to the earth to Yahweh. The servant brought out jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and clothing, and gave them to Rebekah. He also gave precious things to her brother and her mother.”
(Genesis 24:50-53)

It was clear that God’s hand was on this situation. That He had guided the servant, guided Rebekah, and led them to each other. It was clear that she was the intended bride for Isaac. But she still had a choice – it had been mentioned more than once. They could accept God’s moving, or they could reject it. They chose to accept.

The servant worshipped God at every stage of his journey. He gave glory where it was due. He had an attitude of thanksgiving. He responded correctly.

Rebekah’s family may have been motivated by the dowry more than from any feelings they may have harboured for their connection with Abraham. Abraham had provided an impressive dowry. He did this because he was generous. He blessed those around him. But he also would have done this to prove that he had enough wealth to care for Isaac and Rebekah’s future properly. They wouldn’t be sending her into a complete unknown, but to family relations who were clearly wealthy.

The servant didn’t just provide Rebekah a dowry, but also gave gifts to Laban and her mother. Abraham was generous with the whole family.

It would seem that either this family was still worshipping Yahweh, or they were mixing their worship. We know from events later that Laban particularly worshipped other gods.

The sage Rashi writes: ‘ויען לבן ובתואל THEN LABAN AND BETHUEL ANSWERED —He (Laban) was a wicked person and so rushed in to answer before his father. לא נוכל דבר אליך WE CANNOT SPEAK UNTO THEE — refusing this proposition either by answering you with unpleasant words (i. e. a flat refusal) or by giving you a reasoned reply, for it is evident that the matter proceedeth from the Lord since, according to your statement, He brought her and you together. וישתחו ארצה HE PROSTRATED HIMSELF — From this we may learn that we should thank God for good news (Genesis Rabbah 60:6). ומגדנות PRECIOUS THINGS — it has the same meaning as מגדים (cf. Song 7:14) “precious fruits״, for he had brought with him various kinds of fruit from the land of Israel (Genesis Rabbah 60:11).’

The sage Rav Hirsch writes: ‘V. 53. מגדנות. One is not justified in taking this here to refer to anything other than delicious fruit etc. and not to precious valuable gifts. מגד from which the word clearly comes, only occurs in this sense, and מגדנות where it is mentioned with other gifts, as in Chron. II. 21,3, and Ezra 1,6, always comes last in the list, and so is certainly not the most valuable. He gave precious gifts to the young bride, confectionery, polite attentions, to the mother and brother, to the father — nothing! This is worth noting. What a lot of rubbish has not been read into, and attributed to our Jewish past. Travellers reports, and tales of the present-day customs and habits of the oriental — according to the axiom “nothing changes in the East” — have been laid down as the pattern according to which one understands Jewish life in the past to have been. The מהר ומתן, which is sometimes referred to, is at once taken to be the buying price which is paid to the parents with which to buy the bride. Here we have an “oriental” marriage in question, but Eliezer, gives the father nothing, and the other members of the family only get little marks of attention of small value. (Incidentally can be mentioned how hurt Rachel and Leah felt that Laban allowed himself to be paid for them, and after twenty years had not forgotten כי מכרנו).’