Genesis 22:20-24 - Exposition

Good news from a far country.

I. THE JOYFUL BUDGET .

1. Tidings from home . For nearly half a century Abraham had been a wanderer in Palestine, and with something like an emigrant's emotion on receiving letters from the old country would the patriarch listen to the message come from Haran beyond the river.

2. News concerning Nahor . It demands no violent exercise of fancy to believe that Abraham regarded his distant brother with intense fraternal affection, and that the unexpected report of that distant brother's prosperity struck a chord of joy within his aged bosom.

3. A message about Milcah . When the two brothers parted it would seem that neither of their spouses had begun to have a family. Now information reaches the patriarchal tent that the union of Nahor and Milcah, like that of himself and Sarai, has been blessed with offspring; and, in particular, that the second generation had begun to appear in Nahor's house, the queenly grace of Milcah being reproduced in her captivating grandchild Rebekah.

II. THE WELCOME MESSENGER .

1. His unknown name . One is curious to know who it was that brought the tidings from the old home. Some spirited adventurer who at the distance of half a century sought to emulate the Chaldaean chieftain who left the valley of the Euphrates for the bleak hills of Palestine; some Mesopotamian Stanley whom Nahor, now a wealthy Emir, had dispatched upon a mission of inquiry after his long-lost brother; or some chance traveler who had come across the patriarch's tent.

2. His timely arrival . Whoever he was, his appearance at this particular juncture was exceedingly opportune, when, the great trial having passed, Isaac's marriage must have loomed in the prospect as a near possibility. To Abraham it must have seemed not a fortuitous occurrence, but a providential arrangement.

Learn—

1. That no passage of Scripture can be said to be entirely useless.

2. That joy and sorrow mostly lie in close contiguity in human life.

3. That it becomes good men and women to be interested in each other's welfare.

4. That in God's government of the world there are no such things as accidents.

5. That it becomes good men to keep an outlook upon the leadings of Divine providence.