Genesis 24:5 The servant asked him, “What if the woman is unwilling to come back with me to this land? Shall I then take your son back to the country you came from?”
Life is full of questions. One of the most troubling in so many circumstances is the “What if?” question. When things go wrong, especially when terribly wrong like a death, we want to second guess ourselves. Maybe we could have prevented it!
We also sometimes question an upcoming decision or request with a series of questions. These questions might be clarifying, asking for more details in order to be sure that we execute the assignment according to the specifications. But sometimes, these questions a way to sidetrack the request.
In our text for today, we are not sure exactly which one of these ways of asking this question, but I think it is the clarification question. This servant want to know how he is to fulfill his assignment. There is a possibility that the woman won’t want to come back, or her family won’t release her, or they won’t even recognize the request as legitimate.
Think about the assignment he is given. He is to travel to a land, several months of travel, to go to a family he doesn’t know, in a place he hasn’t been, to find a family and request that a woman come and marry a distant relative who has been gone for many years. Wow, that is a lot of fuzzy stuff. No wonder he has a question.
And then the second question. If she won’t come, do we go there? This sounds like a question connected to the call of the LORD for Abraham and his family to leave that place. Is the leaving really a reflection of the LORD’s call? If He is calling, why is there so much difficulty?
But here Abraham is being faithful to the LORD’s call. He is passing on the assurance of the LORD’s call to his servant as he is going to ensure the purity of the promised line. The LORD promised Abraham that his descendants would be too numerous to count. This is part of the blessing, and it must be maintained.
So as we read the story, we see the unfolding of the faithfulness of the LORD. This servant goes, stops at the right place, meets the right family, lays out the faithfulness of the LORD and makes the request. The young woman, despite her family’s hesitance to allow immediate departure, chooses to step in line with the promise of God. She chooses to be part of what then LORD is doing.
Sometimes in our lives we get so hung up on the “What if’s” that we are unwilling to enter into the ongoing will of God. We allow the immediate to overshadow the eternal. We allow what we want to cloud the clear indications of the direction the LORD is leading. Or is this just me that does this?
This “What if” that is stated here reminds us of the “What if’s” that Abraham had spoken to the heavenly visitors who came to investigate the horrors of Sodom and Gomorrah. He asked about the needed size of a righteous population in order for the LORD to spare the city. He asks about 50, 40, 30 20, 10. I am sure Abraham expected Lot’s influence to have extended beyond his immediate family. He was very wrong. Only four made it out, and only three survived. Remember Lot’s wife!
Questions are just fine as long as they lead us toward the will of God and not away from it. In fact, Jesus himself so often asked questions to move people forward in their understanding relationship with Him. Use questions judiciously, but use them.
The Arnold Journey 