John Calvin Commentary Genesis 24:12

"And he said, O Jehovah, the God of my master Abraham, send me, I pray thee, good speed this day, and show kindness unto my master Abraham." — Genesis 24:12 (ASV)

O Lord God of my master Abraham. The servant, lacking counsel, turns to prayer. Yet he does not simply ask counsel of the Lord; he also prays that the young woman appointed to be Isaac's wife would be brought to him with a specific sign, from which he might understand that she was divinely presented to him.

It is evidence of his piety and faith that in a matter of such perplexity he is not bewildered, as if astonished, but breaks forth into prayer with a collected mind. However, the method he uses seems hardly consistent with the true rule of prayer. For, first, we know that no one prays correctly unless he subjects his own wishes to God.

Therefore, there is nothing more unsuitable than to prescribe anything to God according to our own will. Where, then, it may be asked, is the servant's piety, who, according to his own pleasure, imposes a law upon God? Secondly, there ought to be nothing ambiguous in our prayers, and absolute certainty is to be sought only in the Word of God.

Now, since the servant prescribes to God what answer should be given, he appears culpably to depart from the suitable modesty of prayer. For although no promise had been given him, he nevertheless desires to be made fully certain about the whole affair. God, however, by listening to his wish, proves by the outcome that it was acceptable to Himself.

Therefore, we must know that although a special promise had not been made at that moment, the servant was not praying rashly, nor according to the lust of the flesh, but by the secret impulse of the Spirit. Moreover, the general law by which all the pious are bound does not prevent the Lord, when He determines to give something extraordinary, from directing the minds of His servants toward it; not that He would lead them away from His word, but only that He makes some special concession to them in their mode of praying.

The sum of the prayer before us is this: “O Lord, if a young woman presents herself who, when asked to give me a drink, also kindly and courteously offers it to my camels, I will seek her as a wife for my master Isaac, just as if she were delivered into my hand by You.” He seems, indeed, to be relying on some doubtful conjecture; but since he trusts in the Providence of God, he is certainly persuaded that this sign will be for him equivalent to an oracle, because God, who is the guardian of his undertaking, will not allow him to err.

Meanwhile, it is noteworthy that he does not get the sign of recognition from far away but takes it from something present. For she who will be so humane to an unknown guest will, by that very act, give proof of an excellent disposition. This observation may be useful to prevent inquisitive people from citing this example as a precedent for empty predictions.

In the words themselves, the following details should be noted: first, that he addresses himself to the God of his master Abraham, not as being himself a stranger to the worship of God, but because the matter in question depends on the promise given to Abraham. Indeed, he had no confidence in prayer from any other source than from the covenant into which God had entered with the house of Abraham.

The expression “cause to meet me this day,” Jerome translates as “meet me, I pray, this day.” But the verb is transitive, and Abraham's servant implies by its use that the affairs of men are so ordered by the counsel and hand of God that their outcome is not accidental.

It is as if he would say, “O Lord, in vain will I look here and there; in vain will I grasp at success by my own labor, industry, and various schemes, unless You direct the work.” And when he immediately afterward adds, show kindness to my master, he implies that in this undertaking he rests on nothing but the grace God had promised to Abraham.