Genesis 24:54 - Meaning and Application

Rebekah is here taking leave of her father’s house. Abraham’s servant asks to be sent away. Though he and his men had been warmly welcomed and treated with kindness, he said, “Send me away” (Genesis 24:54), and again (Genesis 24:56). He knew his master would be waiting for him with some concern, and he still had work to do at home. So, like a man who puts duty before comfort, he was eager to return.

Lingering and delaying do not suit a wise and good man. When we have finished our business away from home, we should not put off returning to the work that waits for us there. We should not stay away any longer than we must. “Like a bird that wanders from her nest,” so is a person who wanders from his place (Proverbs 27:8).

Rebekah’s relatives, out of natural affection and the usual kindness shown in such moments, asked that she stay a little longer (Genesis 24:55). They could hardly bear to part with her at once, especially since she was going far away and they would likely never see her again. They asked that she stay a few days, at least ten. That makes the request seem much more reasonable than the marginal reading, “a year, or at least ten months.” They had agreed to the marriage, yet they were still reluctant to let her go.

This shows the emptiness of worldly joy. There is nothing in this world so pleasant that it has no sorrow mixed with it. They were glad to have matched a daughter of their family so well, yet when the time came, they found it hard to send her away.

Rebekah herself settled the matter. They asked her, as was proper, “Call the young woman and ask her” (Genesis 24:57). She had withdrawn to her room with modest silence. Children should not marry without their parents’ consent, and parents should not arrange a marriage without the child’s own agreement. Before the matter is settled, “ask the young woman.” She is the one most directly involved, so she should be consulted first.

Rebekah agreed, and not only to go, but to go at once: “I will go” (Genesis 24:58). We may hope that what she had seen in the servant’s devotion and reverence for God gave her some sense of the religion and godliness found in the family she was joining. That may have made her eager to go there quickly and willing to leave her own people and her father’s house, where religion had not held such a place.

Then she was sent away with Abraham’s servant, likely not the very next day, but very soon. Her family saw that she was willing, and so they dismissed her with proper company, her nurse (Genesis 24:59) and her damsels, or maidservants (Genesis 24:61). This shows that when she once went to the well for water, it was not because she lacked servants. Rather, she seems to have taken pleasure in humble, useful work. Now that she was going among strangers, it was fitting that she should be accompanied by people she knew.

Nothing is said here about her dowry or portion. Her own worth was her portion; she needed none to go with her, and that was never part of the marriage agreement.

They also sent her away with heartfelt blessings (Genesis 24:60). When our relatives enter a new stage of life, we should pray that God will bless and guide them. Since she was going to become a wife, they prayed that she would become the mother of many descendants, even a victorious people. Abraham’s servant may have told them about God’s recent promise to his master, that God would multiply his seed like the stars of heaven and that they would possess the gate of their enemies (Genesis 22:17). They likely had that promise in mind when they blessed her: “May you be the mother of that promised seed.”