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Gen_24:1-10
The first thing that strikes us is the great and absorbing anxiety of Abraham that his son should not marry among the native women of Canaan, or among any but his own family, away in Mesopotamia. This is usually ascribed to his wish to keep the blood of the chosen seed, from which the Messiah was to come, from foreign intermixture. This may have had some weight in his estimation perhaps: but it was of little real consequence, as we find women of alien blood among the ancestresses of the Lord Jesus; and, singular as the fact may appear, the names of none but such alien females do find place in his genealogy, as given by Matthew. Without, however, overlooking this, we have a plainer and more satisfactory explanation in the general anxiety which we find among the Arabs at this day, that marriages should run in the same tribe or family; and that among them, as among the Jews, a man is held to have a right prior to all others to the hand of his female cousin.
As Abraham cannot undertake this matter in person, and as he probably considered himself precluded from allowing the heir of the promises to return, even temporarily, to the land of his nativity, he was obliged to confide the business to the hands of the chief servant and steward of his household, identified by some with Eliezer of Damascus, whom we have previously seen as the person looked upon by Abraham as his heir before the birth of Ishmael. The patriarch had the highest confidence in this man’s fidelity; he trusted all his substance into his hands; yet, on an occasion so momentous, he solemnly swears him to execute faithfully the mission entrusted to him. The danger that Abraham apprehended was, lest this person, to save himself the fatigue and trouble of so long a journey, should bring a woman from some nearer and more accessible quarter, and introduce her as having been brought from the family in Padanaram. It is difficult to see that Abraham could have apprehended anything else, and that he apprehended this—and that such an imposition was regarded as possible, implies that such a woman would not from any obvious circumstances in her appearance, manners, or speech, be at once detected; and it therefore shows, that there could have been no very essential difference, in these respects, between the women of the remoter and the nearer country.
The servant is worthy of such a master as Abraham. He is conscientiously anxious to understand the nature of his enterprise, before he swears to carry it out. He suggests the possibility that the woman may not be willing to follow him. What does Abraham answer to this? Does he tell him to set forth the wealth and power of his master, to dwell upon the glorious promises of which Isaac was the heir, to expatiate upon the dignity and influence which will belong to her as the lady of this noble camp? Nothing of the kind occurs to his thoughts. “The Lord,” said he, “before whom I walk, will send his angel before thee, and prosper thy way.” What glorious freedom from all anxiety and care about events is there in such a thought as that! How happy are they who can enjoy—as all may that will—such blessed repose. This conviction and assurance inspirited the servant. He at once took the oath, and hastened his preparations for the journey.
At a future day the grandson of Abraham takes the same journey on foot, and crossed the Jordan with a simple staff in his hand, Gen_32:10; but the servant of Abraham takes with him not less than ten camels. These, with the necessary attendance, would give the mission a respectable appearance in the eyes of the intended bride and her relatives, and stand in evidence of the wealth of Abraham. The animals would also carry the provisions required by the ambassador and his men for the journey; with the presents intended for the bride and her friends: and the number doubtless included the dromedaries to bring her and her suite, and two or three spare camels—of which a proportion is required in every considerable journey, to provide for the contingency of any of them falling lame or ill, or of being lost or stolen.
It will be observed, that this is the first historical notice of actual riding upon camels. These animals are so useful for other purposes than riding that their mere presence in the patriarchal flocks would not alone assure us that they were employed for this purpose. But the information respecting this journey, leaves us satisfied that the camel had already come to be engaged in those services of transport and of travel, for which it is to this day used; and for which it is well adapted by a physical constitution, which gives it extraordinary power in resisting thirst, which enables it to endure much fatigue with little sustenance, and which renders the scant herbage of the desert its choicest food; and by the possession of a foot, specially adapted, in the wise providence of God, for traversing the sandy wastes and arid tracts which, but for its aid, would be impassable. The journey which Abraham’s servant took was not, however, through a sandy desert, being, for the most part, where not green, over hard gravelly ground, for which, even better than for soft sand, the foot of the camel is adapted. This journey is one which is usually performed on horseback; and would, in this instance, probably have been so, had the horse been at this time brought into use for such common purposes.
Having been led to mention the camel thus particularly, we may notice, that with all the frequent reference to the animal in Scripture, and with all the existing evidence of its great usefulness, there is not a word in its commendation throughout the sacred volume, which is not sparing in the praise of many other animals seemingly less useful. There is a reason for this. If the matter be looked at, it is seen that all the most glowing eulogiums on the camel come from those who know it least, and who transfer, unconsciously perhaps, the impression created by its great usefulness to its temper and character. But it is only in the descriptions of western travellers that the camel bears the same character, of a—
“Patient, honest, guileless animal.”
which the poet ascribes to the ox. But, alas, the camel, although it may be reasonably honest, is anything but patient or guileless. On the contrary, of all the animals which have been domesticated for higher purposes than to serve mankind merely as food, the camel is, past all doubt, the most churlish, irascible, revengeful and self-willed. We have heard of strong attachments between man and all other domestic animals; but never between a man and his camel. Of all the creatures promoted to be man’s companion in travel and in rest, no one so unloving and unloved as the camel exists. Its very countenance, which the inexperienced call patient, is the very impersonation of malice and ill-nature—even when its eyes are not kindled up into active spite, and when its mouth does not quiver with burning rage. Even among themselves quarrels are frequent; and he who has been summoned by their sharp and bitter cries to witness a camel fight, will not easily forget the scene.
It is by the sheer force of important services that the camel has won his way into man’s esteem, in spite of the evil qualities of his nature.