1
¶ And Abraham was old, and well stricken
in age: and the LORD had blessed Abraham in all things. 2 And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of
his house, that ruled over all that he had, Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my
thigh: 3 And I will make thee swear by
the LORD, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take
a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell:
4 But thou shalt go unto my country, and
to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac. 5 And the servant said unto him, Peradventure
the woman will not be willing to follow me unto this land: must I needs bring
thy son again unto the land from whence thou camest? 6 And Abraham said unto him, Beware thou that
thou bring not my son thither again. 7
The LORD God of heaven, which took me from my father’s house, and from
the land of my kindred, and which spake unto me, and that sware unto me,
saying, Unto thy seed will I give this land; he shall send his angel before
thee, and thou shalt take a wife unto my son from thence. 8 And if the woman will not be willing to
follow thee, then thou shalt be clear from this my oath: only bring not my son
thither again. 9 And the servant put his
hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and sware to him concerning that
matter.
Abraham was well-acquainted with the religious
practices and the character of the Canaanites. Ham’s grandson’s descendants
were very carnal and impulsive, prone to the most awful religious practices
like temple prostitution with both female prostitutes called whores and male prostitutes called sodomites, a reference to Sodom once
under control of Babylon, and the source of that early God-defying religion.
The slang dog is also used as a
derogatory term for them.
Deuteronomy
23:17 There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a
sodomite of the sons of Israel.
18 Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the LORD thy God
for any vow: for even both these are abomination unto the LORD thy God.
There was also child sacrifice to Baal where, with
trumpets blowing and drums beating, the infant was thrown into the super-heated
arms of a statue of this devil. The noise was so that the screams of the infant
could be muted because it was not pleasing to this devil for parents to mourn.
In this way, on one occasion, 300 babies were slaughtered in the city of
Carthage, a colony of Phoenicia, much later in history when Rome besieged it, to
appease Baal’s wrath.
Sex with animals as evidenced even today on an Indian
temple in carvings and other sexual practices under the guise of religion and
for any reason as banned by the Law given to Moses was also common. It was a
wicked world without even the superficial layer of pretended morality we have
today.
Abraham wanted nothing of this world to have polluted
the wife he desired for his son. Unfortunately for Solomon, later king of
Israel, he did not feel that way much to his shame.
1Kings
11:4 For it came to pass, when Solomon
was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart
was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.
Nehemiah
13:26 Did not Solomon king of Israel sin
by these things? yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was
beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless even
him did outlandish women cause to sin.
The Christian is warned not to be unequally yoked with
an unbeliever.
2Corinthians
6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together
with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?
and what communion hath light with darkness? 15
And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that
believeth with an infidel?
Many marriages made by Christians with cynical
unbelief have either turned out unhappy or, even if physically happy, have
borne no faith and a lack of regard for God in both parents and children is the
result. It is a terrible mistake to encourage a son or daughter who has been a
faithful Bible-believing young person to marry someone who does not believe or
trust in Christ, someone whom they met in the public school you sent them to or
the university you thought they must attend.
There are two things, two trends, in American history
that have killed faith in later generations. One of them is the hyper-Christianity,
the self-righteousness of conservatives and liberals who believed they were
bringing in the kingdom of Christ on earth without Him. The other is Christian
youth marrying unbelievers and creating confusion and then unbelief in their
families.
Here we see an odd custom of putting one’s hand under
the upper leg of a person superior in rank to swear an oath. The thigh in the
Bible refers to the leg down to the knee as in this description of breeches, the underwear of the Hebrew
priests.
Exodus
28:42 And thou shalt make them linen
breeches to cover their nakedness; from the loins even unto the thighs they
shall reach:
This steward the eldest
servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had is identified by name
as Eliezer of Damascus in 15:2. It has been said that if Abraham is a type of
God the Father, then Eliezer is a type of the Holy Ghost going into the world
to gather the church of believers only, the Bride of Christ, for Isaac, who is
a type of Christ. Verse 8 underscores the free will nature of this church as
God forces no one to follow Him.
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