I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 24-25.

In previous years I have written about how Abraham wanted Isaac to marry a woman from his home country. from among his relatives.  Yet, under no circumstances did he want Isaac to return there.  If a woman from there could not be found to come to the Land of Canaan to marry Isaac, then Isaac would be free to marry a Canaanite.  However, this year I want to write about how God provides and confirms His will to us.  Abraham believed that God wished for his son, Isaac, to marry a woman from among his relatives (I wonder what impact how Ishmael, whose mother was an Egyptian, turned out had on this).  So, Abraham had his servant vow to go and find Isaac a wife from among them.  When Abraham’s servant got to the land where Abraham’s relatives lived, he did not know how to find the right woman for Isaac.  So, he laid out a fleece (which is an interesting expression to use here, since it would be many hundreds of years after this story when the event from which that expression comes occurred).  Abraham and his servant believed that they understood what God wanted, but they laid things out so that God could confirm their decisions.  This sort of confirmation from God that we are following His will is not just for great men of God like Abraham.  When my wife and I were planning our wedding, we had picked out a date, but because of events beyond our control we had delayed booking a hall for the reception until just a few months before that date.  Then we decided we wanted to hold the reception in a hall which had deep meaning for her family.  When we approached the hall owner and said, “We would like to have our reception here.”  He responded, “Well, I have no open Saturdays for the next two years.  Except for this one Saturday.”  Which was exactly the day we wished to schedule it.   My immediate thought was that one day down the road there would be a time when we wondered if we did the right thing by getting married.  This was God giving us the answer to that.