The death of Sa'rah left an unhappy vacancy in A'bra-ham's family. For three years the man of God lived in deep, heart-felt mourning. He found the home very sad without the presence of Sa'rah, and he watched with anxiety the loneliness of his son I'saac. The chief interest in A'bra-ham's life was to provide for the happiness and security of I'saac, through whom the family was to be carried on according to the will of God.
I'saac was now forty years old, about the usual age when men of those days began to think seriously of marriage. It was then the custom for parents to arrange the marriage of their children.
In carrying out his duty as a parent A'bra-ham was both loving and careful, for he intended to find I'saac a wife whom the LORD approved. The people of the land in which they were now living worshipped idols, and were guilty of some of the worst sins. They were all descendants of Ham, but had divided into various tribes, which were known as the Hit'tites, Per'iz-zites, Ca'naan-ites, and similar names. Since few, if any of them, worshipped the True God, A'bra-ham did not feel it right for I'saac to take a wife from such heathen people. The LORD had already made it plain that the chosen nation of which A'bra-ham was the head should be descended from Shem, and had warned A'bra-ham not to allow any descendants of Ham or Ja'pheth to come into his family. His chief duty, therefore, in choosing a wife for I'saac was to carry out the will of God in this respect.
For this reason A'bra-ham decided to send one of his most trusted servants back to the land of his kinsmen to find a wife for I'saac. When he and Lot had moved from Ha'ran in Mes-o-po-ta'mia down to the land of Ca'naan, his brothers had remained in Mes-o-po-ta'mia. They had prospered, and had reared large families, and news of these facts had been brought to A'bra-ham. He was certain that somewhere among his kinsmen there was the chosen wife for I'saac, a woman of outstanding character and deep religious feeling; to find her, he put his trust in the LORD.
The task of searching for the woman and bringing her back to the home of A'bra-ham was placed upon E-li-e'zer, who had been a faithful steward of the household for nearly sixty years. To whom was given the duty of making the long journey of about four hundred miles back to the region between the two great rivers, the Ti'gris and the Eu-phra'tes, far to the north and east of Ca'naan. Here he was to trust in Divine Providence for discovering the woman whom God had chosen to become the wife of I'saac, and for securing her consent, and that of her parents, for the marriage.
