The Servant's Prayer: Genesis 24:1-27

Abraham was now very old, and the LORD had blessed him in every way.

Sarah was dead. Isaac was unmarried. The promise of descendants hung on finding a wife for the son of promise—but not just any wife.

He said to the senior servant in his household, the one in charge of all that he had, "Put your hand under my thigh. I want you to swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living, but will go to my country and my own relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac."

The oath was solemn—hand under the thigh, the ancient gesture of covenant binding. The mission was clear: no Canaanite bride. The wife must come from Abraham's own people, from the family left behind in Mesopotamia.