Genesis 24:42-48

‘And I came this day to the spring, and said, “Oh Yahweh, God of my master Abraham, if now you prosper my way that I go, see, I am standing by the spring of water. And let it be that the young woman who comes forth to draw, to whom I will say ‘Give me, I pray, a little water from your pitcher to drink', and she shall say to me, ‘Both you drink and I will also draw for your camels', let the same be the woman whom Yahweh has appointed for my master's son. And before I had finished speaking in my heart, behold Rebekah came out with her pitcher on her shoulder. And she went down to the spring and drew, and I said to her, ‘Let me drink, I pray you'. And she quickly brought her pitcher down from her shoulder and said, ‘Drink, and I will also give your camels drink'. So I drank, and she made the camels drink as well. And I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?' And she said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel, son of Nahor, whom Milcah bore to him. And I put the ring on her nose and the bracelets on her arms, and I bowed my head and worshipped Yahweh, and blessed Yahweh, the God of my master Abraham, who has led me in the right way to take my master's brother's daughter for his son”.'

The passage must be read as one whole. This is his unrejectable argument as to why Rebekah should be given to Isaac. It begins and ends with reference to ‘Yahweh, the God of my master Abraham'. The work is His doing and to go against it would be to go against Him. It is His work from start to finish. The specific connection to Abraham indicates that he does not expect them to acknowledge Yahweh as their God. But he does expect them to honour His revealed power and authority.

He expects them also to see in what has happened a truly divine hand. What other explanation can there be? For outwardly it could have been any woman who came to the spring, and they must surely see that the fact that it was the one woman whom the steward was seeking could only be attributed to the direct action of Yahweh.

That he had fully recognised this comes out in the fact that he gave the valuable gifts to Rebekah and his openly expressed gratitude to Yahweh. He now calls on his hearers to grant the same recognition.

“If You prosper my way” (Genesis 24:42). Everything is in Yahweh's hands. He possibly expects his readers to realise the covenant that he made with Yahweh. Thus ‘the right way' (Genesis 24:48) is the way brought about by Yahweh.