Commentary - Overview

It is a beautiful scene at the spring by the gate of Haran, the old servant and the camels arriving from their long journey, the camels kneeling down to rest, the maidens of the city coming with their jars for water. Rebekah came; he asked, and she was of the family of Nahor, Abraham's brother. See the reverent eagerness of the old man as he feels it coming true.

The Psalm that we are learning tells us of the Lord's care with those who trust and follow Him. This lovely story brings us the same lesson and tells us of the Lord's special care for young men and women when they have thoughts of marriage. Their thoughts should be full of trust and desire to do as the Lord alone shall guide.

Commentary - In-Depth

The beauty and the tenderness of this story of Rebekah will help to deepen our sense of the sacredness of marriage and our wish to be guided and protected by the Lord in all things relating to it.

The story also teaches that thoughts of marriage should be upon a high, spiritual plane. They must not admit anything unworthy. They must not lead away from the highest, the holiest aims of life, to merely external pleasures and ambitions. A true marriage must be a marriage of inmost natures, and must exalt the noblest and the best in both husband and wife. Every young man or woman whose thoughts are turning to marriage may find a lesson in Abraham's earnest charge that his son should not marry a daughter of the Canaanites, and that he should not return to live in the distant land from which Abraham had come, but that a wife of his own people should be found who would come to him in the Holy Land.

Come now to our thought that Isaac represents a faculty of spiritual rationality developed in us in our regeneration, and a faculty of rationality which in the Lord by glorification became Divine.

Each new development needs its truth and affection for truth which is adapted to realize its purpose. This is the wife in relation to the childlike purpose represented by Abraham, or the rational purpose represented by Isaac. Helpmeet is to be found not among evil and false things, represented by the daughters of Canaan. She must indeed come from the land from which Abraham came, for all truth must be learned from without. (Note that the wives of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob all were from that land.) But among such truths and affections for truth, only such can serve as are related to spiritual life, as for example truths of the letter of the Word which contain spiritual lessons, or truths of nature which bear witness to the goodness and wisdom of the Lord; in a word, only such truths as can be elevated to the plane of spiritual life, and in particular such as can satisfy fully the needs of the rational life represented by Isaac. (Arcana Coelestia 3024, 3025, 3030)

How beautifully this scene at the spring of Haran unfolds its lesson. The maidens coming with their jars for water are various affections for truth, among them one who meets the conditions and is to be the wife for Isaac. (Arcana Coelestia 3058)

Rebekah was known by her giving water to the servant and the camels, Isaac's representatives who had come for her.

Spiritually the affection for truth which is sought must be able and ready to satisfy fully the needs of the rational mind represented by Isaac and those who served him. (Arcana Coelestia 3057, 3074)

Commentary for Young Students

You may have a picture of the beautiful maiden Rebekah, giving water from her jar to an old man, a traveler. He had come on a long journey, with ten camels of Abraham, his master, and with all kinds of precious things of his master's in his hand. The well or spring from which the maiden has filled her jar is at Haran, outside the city gate. This was where Nahor, Abraham's brother, stayed when Abraham and Lot went on to the land of Canaan. Abraham had had word of Nahor's family. (Genesis 22:20-24)

And why had the servant of Abraham come? Because it was time for Isaac to have a wife. She must not be of the native people of Canaan, but she must be from the relatives of Abraham who still lived in Haran. It was an important errand on which the old servant came, having sworn to Abraham to do it faithfully. The Lord had led him safely to the gate of Haran, to the spring where the maidens of the city were coming at evening to draw water. He prayed that the Lord would show him among the maidens the one who should be the wife for Isaac. The Lord put into his heart the sign that the maiden should be the one who, if he asked her for water, would give him drink and give water to the camels also. The sign came true, and it was Rebekah. He gave her presents that he had brought. Her brother and her people welcomed him in their home. They spread the supper for him, but he would not eat till he had told his errand. They all felt that the Lord had led him, and that it was right for Rebekah to go. They asked her and she was ready. The old servant gave rich presents to Rebekah as a sign of her betrothal and to her people as a price paid for the bride. In a few days the camels were turned homeward, with Rebekah and her old nurse and her maids, and came into the south country, where Abraham was living and where Isaac lived.

I have told it as quickly as I could, for we want time to read the beautiful story. I have suggested how you can shorten it if you have not time to read it all. As you read, you will be thinking, "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way."

Questions for discussion:

1. "Mesopotamia," verse 10. Where was this country? What is the meaning of the name?

2. "The city of Nahor." What city is meant? Why is it referred to in this way?

3. What charge did Abraham give to his servant in regard to a wife for Isaac?

4. By what sign did the servant know Rebekah?

5. Who was Rebekah's father? Who was her brother?

2574. 'And to Sarah he said' means perception from spiritual truth. This is clear from the representation of 'Sarah when a wife' as Divine spiritual truth, dealt with in 2507, and of the same character when 'a sister' as rational truth, dealt with in 2508, and from the meaning of 'saying' as perceiving, dealt with in 2506. Here Sarah is addressed as 'a wife' and also as 'a sister' - as 'a wife' because she had been restored [to Abraham], 2569, as 'a sister' because it is said, 'I have given a thousand pieces of silver to your brother'. Also, in that what was said by Abimelech was perceived by Sarah in her wifely status, therefore 'saying to Sarah' means perceiving from spiritual truth.

[2] These words, it is evident, embody deeper arcana than can be disclosed intelligibly. And if they were to be disclosed merely to a limited extent it would be necessary to explain many things first of all, which are as yet unknown, such as what spiritual truth is; what perception from spiritual truth is; the fact that the Lord alone has had perception from spiritual truth; the fact that just as the Lord implanted rational truth within rational good so He implanted spiritual truth within celestial good, and in so doing was constantly implanting the Human within the Divine in order that in every thing the marriage might exist of the Human with the Divine, and of the Divine with the Human. These things and many more must come first before the things within this verse can be presented intelligibly. Those things are primarily suited to the minds of angels which have the ability to understand them and for the sake of which minds the internal sense of the Word exists. To them these matters are represented in a heavenly manner; and by means of those matters and of the things within this chapter, an idea is instilled of how the Lord by degrees cast aside the human which He had from the mother until at length He was no longer her son (the fact that He did not acknowledge her as His mother is evident in Matthew 12:46-49; Mark 3:31-35; Luke 8:20-21; John 2:4) and also an idea of how by His own power He made the Human Divine until He was one with the Father, as He Himself teaches in John 14:6, 8-11, and elsewhere.

[3] By means of myriads of ideas and representations, all of which are beyond description, the Lord presents such matters to angels in clear light. The reason, as has been stated, is that these are suited to their minds, and when conscious of them they experience the bliss of intelligence and the happiness of wisdom. What is more, there are angels who, while they were men, formed ideas of the Lord's Human as they did of that of any other person. In order that these angels may exist together with celestial angels in the next life - for in that life ideas inspired by an affection for good join people together - such erroneous ideas as they have had about the Lord are dispelled by means of the internal sense, and in this way they are perfected. This shows how precious to angels those things are within the internal sense of the Word, though they may perhaps seem of small importance to man whose idea of such things is so obscure as to be scarcely any idea at all.