BRAGADAYJAH 69

When Abraham was very old and stricken in years, his mind turned to ensuring that the countless blessings with which God had blessed him would be passed on to his son Isaac. One way of ensuring this, he thought was to ensure that he married well; so he called his most trusted servant and gave him specific directions with regard to the choosing of a wife for Isaac. Accordingly, Abraham gave instructions and made his servant swear an oath that he did not want his son to marry a Canaanite woman. Therefore, he ordered his servant to journey back to his own home country, and find among his own kindred a wife for Isaac. To make sure he understood his master’s wishes completely, the servant asked Abraham if it would have been in order to take Isaac back to the home country, just in case the woman he found declined to travel away from her country; but Abraham was emphatic that the woman must willingly come to Isaac, and not having Isaac go back. Abraham’s reply makes it clear that at that time of his life his faith was fully fructified. “Do not, he said, under any circumstances, take my son back among my kindred. For I am confident that the same Lord God of heaven who took me out of my fathers house, and from the land of my kindred, and who spoke unto me, and swore unto me, and told me, Unto thy seed will I give this land; he shall send his angel before thee and thou shall take a wife for my son from there. But if peradventure the woman will not come with you, well then that would be the end of the matter, and you would be freed from your oath.” More