This begins a sequence of events that is going to show us the considerable weight of responsibility that Abraham put on this man. I mean, it was very far-reaching, and included things beyond Abraham's death.
To give you a little bit of an idea of the authority that a steward could be entrusted with, and in order to get the full impact, you have to understand that at the time this occurred Abraham thought that he was near death. Actually he lived on probably about another fifteen years. But at the time, he thought that he was near death. It even says in verse 1, "Abraham was old, and well stricken in age." He thought he was about to die.
The steward was not only given the responsibility of finding a wife for the heir, but you have to also consider the sensitivity with which he was going to have to handle this thing. Not only was he entrusted with the weighty responsibility of finding Isaac a wife only (that is important) amongst Abraham's family. It could not be any old gal that might be willing. It had to be somebody particularly from Abraham's family. He also, as verse 10 says, was carrying with him ten camels loaded with a great amount of wealth.
Now that was not all of Abraham's wealth. That was only what he took on this particular trip. The steward not only had control of those ten camels and could spend it as he saw fit, he also was supervisor of all of Abraham's wealth. That is a pretty good deal of authority. And then comes, in a way to me, the coup de grace here. He asked Abraham, "What if you die? Should I take Isaac to live with your people?"
Do you see what is implied here? Even after Abraham died, and Isaac was about sixty years old, the steward had authority over where Isaac could live! How many of you men at age sixty would want one of the bosses—your father's employees—to tell you where you could live and whom you could marry? Not very many. But the steward had that responsibility.
Abraham said, "No! He is only to live here, and that's it! And he's only to have a bride from my family. And that's it!" So what the steward had to do was to carry out loyally and right to the "T" what Abraham said. And even if Abraham died, nothing was to change. Of course, it did not happen that way, but the steward had the authority to resist Isaac in where Isaac wanted to live.
The young man went to a far country, which is typical of the world. He left his father's house. You can begin to see why Abraham said to the steward, "No! Isaac shall not leave this place! I am entrusting you with the responsibility to make sure that he stays in our land, because that's the one that God has given to us, and that's the one that Isaac has to live in.”
This passage supplements our understanding of Revelation 18:4. It is clear that, in telling His people to “Come out of Babylon,” God means, “Stay out of Babylon!” Generation after generation, decade after decade, stay out. Abraham’s instructions to his chief servant, probably Eliezer of Damascus, could not be much more emphatic, much more explicit: “[G]o to my country and to my family. . .” Abraham recognized that Isaac must marry of the same blood line and that he must remain in Canaan. The last thing Abraham wanted was that Isaac should return to Mesopotamia, especially to marry there. He knew he would settle down there. As I shall point out later, Abraham had internalized that God’s promises to him were “forever,” to all his descendants. Abraham could not conceive of his descendants going back east, away from God, relocating to Mesopotamia.
Importantly, in calling Mesopotamia “my country” (Genesis 24:4), Abraham is not exposing a deep-seated, lingering connection with his old home in Ur. He understood that God had promised him Canaan, but that he was only a stranger there at that time; he had not yet inherited Canaan. His comment about Mesopotamia being “my country” reflects that fact. Applied to us, we can properly call the United States or Canada (or wherever we might live) “my country” at this time, knowing full well that the Kingdom is a promise, but a land we have not yet inherited. Paul makes this clear:
