John Calvin Commentary Genesis 24:7

"Jehovah, the God of heaven, who took me from my father`s house, and from the land of my nativity, and who spake unto me, and who sware unto me, saying, Unto thy seed will I give this land. He will send his angel before thee, and thou shalt take a wife for my son from thence." — Genesis 24:7 (ASV)

The Lord God of heaven. By a twofold argument Abraham infers that what he is deliberating regarding the marriage of his son will, by the grace of God, have a prosperous outcome. First, because God had not led him out in vain from his own country into a foreign land; and secondly, because God had not falsely promised to give the land, in which he was dwelling as a stranger, to his seed.

He might also rightly be confident that his plan would succeed, because he had undertaken it only by God's authority and, so to speak, under His guidance. For it was his sole regard for God which turned his mind away from the daughters of Canaan.

He may, however, be thought to have inferred without reason that God would give his son a wife from that country and kindred to which he himself had said farewell. But since he had left his relatives only at the divine command, he hopes that God will incline their minds to be gracious and favorable to him.

Meanwhile, he concludes from God's past kindnesses that His hand would not fail him in the present matter. It is as if he would say, “I, who at God's command left my country and have experienced His continued help in my pilgrimage, do not doubt that He will also be the guide of your journey, because it is in reliance on His promise that I lay this charge upon you.”

He then describes the manner in which assistance would be given: namely, that God would send His angel, for he knew that God helps His servants by the ministry of angels, of which he had already received many proofs. By calling God the God of heaven, he celebrates that divine power which was the ground of his confidence.