genesis 23 and 24

Read Genesis 23 and 24 at Bible Gateway.

The Hebrew paragraph divisions:

Gen 23:1-20 {s} Heth gives Abraham a possession in Canaan
Gen 24:1-67 {p} The servant finds a bride for Isaac, the promised seed

The next strong themes in Genesis:

Gen 18:1-21:21 {s+s+p} The promised seed prophesied + faith in promise tested (Abimelech) + birth of Isaac
Gen 21:22-34 {p} Abimelech and Abraham make a covenant of peace
Gen 22:1-19 {p} Abraham and the binding of Isaac
Gen 22:20-24 {p} The seed of Nahor

In our reading today, Gen 23:1 about the death of Sarah, begins a completely new topic. Now we would EXPECT there to be a “p” paragraph division at the end of Gen 23:20, for to human logic, it seems that Gen 24 begins a completely new topic. Not so. The paragraph division at the end of Gen 23:20 is an “s” paragraph division, a weak paragraph division. There isn’t another paragraph division until the end of Gen 24:67, where there is a “p” paragraph division.

This means that God considers Gen 23:1-24:67 to be a single strong theme, teaching a single topic. But what? The chiastic structure helps us:

Gen 23-24 chiastic structure:

1a) Gen 23:1-2a, The death of Sarah;

1b) Gen 23:2b, Abraham mourned;

1c) Gen 23:3-20, Sarah’s grave;

1d) Gen 24:1-9, The master told his servant to take an oath;

1e) Gen 24:10, The servant departs to find Isaac’s bride;

1f) Gen 24:11-14, Arrival; prayer to YHVH for success;

1g) Gen 24:15-22a, Rebekah draws for the camels;

1h) Gen 24:22b-25, The servant gives jewelry, lodging asked;

central axis) Gen 24:26-27, “Then the man bowed low and worshiped YHVH. He said, “Blessed be YHVH, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His lovingkindness and His truth toward my master; as for me, YHVH has guided me in the way to the house of my master’s brothers.”

2h) Gen 24:28-33, The brother sees jewelry, lodging provided;

2g) Gen 24:34-49, The servant tells of Rebekah drawing for the camels;

2f) Gen 24:50-61, Departure; since YHVH has granted success;

2e) Gen 24:62-65, The servant arrives with Isaac’s bride;

2d) Gen 24:66, The servant told his master all that he had done to fulfill his oath;

2c) Gen 24:67a, Sarah’s tent;

2b) Gen 24:67b, Isaac was comforted;

2a) Gen 24:67b, After Sarah’s death.

Did you see what God put neon flashing lights around so that we wouldn’t miss it? God has NOT forsaken His lovingkindness and His truth toward Abraham, and I would venture to guess, toward Abraham’s seed as well!

Consider that Abraham and Sarah were “foreigners and visitors” in the land of their sojourning, and they had no place of their own to lay their head, until their head was laid to rest in burial. Jesus said of Himself, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head,” (Mat 8:20), that is, until His head was laid to rest in burial. Moreover we have already seen that Isaac, as the son of the promise, is a type for Messiah, the Promised Seed. In Gen 24, Abraham (the Father) sends his servant (a.k.a. the Holy Spirit) to search for the bride (the body of believers, the bride of Messiah) of Isaac (the Promised Seed, the Son). This event occurs AFTER the “death and resurrection” of the Promised Seed in Gen 22. In the end, the Holy Spirit, I mean, the servant, brings the Bride to the Son, as the Son goes out to meet them.

Just seeing some of the intricacies of these things should lay to rest for everyone whether every word, every jot and tittle (Mat 5:18) that we have in our Bibles today is IN FACT the unaltered, unchanged, complete and whole Word of YHVH. No man, no JEDP editors, no human mind can encode everything that is elegantly hidden in plain sight within God’s living and active Word like this. This is why I prefer the KJV and NKJV, by the way, for English translation, because the modern translations have words and phrases taken out and added in, based on subjective human logic and ‘textual criticism’ applied to questionable manuscripts.

For further reading:

Genesis 23, Learning from the narrative teaching tool
The Hittites and the Old Testament (pdf, Tyndale Old Testament Lecture, 1947)
The Cave of the Patriarchs (Wikipedia)
The Camels and the Well (Brad Scott)
Eliezer and Ruach HaKodesh (Hebrew 4 Christians)
The Wealth and Power of Biblical Patriarchs (Assoc. for Biblical Research)
Studies in Genesis index