John Calvin Commentary Genesis 24:33

"And there was set food before him to eat. But he said, I will not eat, until I have told mine errand. And he said, Speak on." — Genesis 24:33 (ASV)

I will not eat until I have told my errand. Moses begins to show by what means Rebekah's parents were induced to give her in marriage to their nephew. That the servant, when food was set before him, should refuse to eat until he had completed his work is a proof of his diligence and fidelity. It may properly be regarded as one of the benefits God had granted to Abraham, that he had a servant so faithful and so intent on his duty. However, since this was the reward of the holy discipline that Abraham maintained, we cannot wonder that very few such servants are found, seeing that everywhere they are so poorly governed.

Moreover, although the servant seems to weave a superfluous story, there is nothing in it that is not relevant to his immediate purpose. He knew that it was a feeling naturally inherent in parents not to willingly send their children far away.

1. He first mentions Abraham’s riches, so that they might not hesitate to connect their daughter with such a wealthy husband.
2. He explains that Isaac was born to his mother in her old age; this was not merely to inform them that he had been miraculously given to his father, from which they might infer his divine appointment to this greatness and eminence, but also so that Isaac’s age might be an additional commendation.
3. He affirms that Isaac would be his father's sole heir.
4. He relates that he had been bound by an oath to seek a wife for his master Isaac from among his own relatives; this special choice on Abraham's part was very effective in persuading them to agree.
5. He states that Abraham, fully confident that God would lead his journey, had entrusted the whole business to him.
6. He declares that whatever he had asked in prayer he had obtained from the Lord, from which it appeared that the marriage he was about to discuss was according to God's will.

We now see the design of his narration:

1. To persuade Rebekah's parents that he had not been sent to deceive them, that he had not acted craftily or by indirect methods in anything, but in the fear of the Lord, as the religious obligation of marriage requires.
2. That he was desiring nothing that would not be profitable and honorable for them.
3. And lastly, that God had been the director of the whole affair.

Moreover, since Abraham's servant, though persuaded that God's angel would guide his journey, directs neither his prayers nor his thanksgivings to the angel, we may learn from this that angels are not appointed as God's ministers to us in such a way that we should invoke them, or that they should transfer to themselves the worship due to God. This is a superstition that prevails almost worldwide to such a degree that people divert a portion of their faith from the only fountain of all good to the streams that flow from it. The clause, the Lord, before whom I walk (Genesis 24:40), which some refer to Abraham's integrity and good conscience, I rather explain as applying to the faith by which he set God before him as the governor of his life, confident that he was the object of God’s care and dependent on His grace.

If ye will deal kindly. I have recently explained the meaning of this expression: namely, to act with kindness and good faith. He thus modestly and humbly asks them to consent to Isaac and Rebekah's marriage. If he should meet with a refusal from them, he says, he will go either to the right hand or to the left; that is, he will look elsewhere. For he contrasts the right hand and the left with the straight way in which he had been led to them. However, some of the Hebrews, with fertile ingenuity, explain the words as meaning that he would go to Lot or to Ishmael.