The Pulpit Commentaries
Genesis 22:20-24
EXPOSITION
And it came to pass after these things (probably not long after his return to Beersheba), that it was told (by some unknown messenger or accidental traveler from Mesopotamia) Abraham, saying, Behold, Milcah (vide Genesis 11:29), she hath also born children unto thy brother Nahor—as Sarah has born a son to thee. From this it would almost seem as if Milcah had not begun to have her family at the time Abram left Ur of the Chaldees; but vide Genesis 11:30. The present brief table of Nahor's descendants is introduced for the sake of showing the descent of Rebekah, who is soon to become Isaac's wife.
Huz his firstborn,—(vide Genesis 10:23, where Uz appears as a son of Aram; and Genesis 36:28, where he recurs as a descendant of Esau. That he was a progenitor of Job (Jerome) has no better foundation than Job 1:1—and Buz his brother,—mentioned along with Dedan and Tema as an Arabian tribe (Jeremiah 25:23), and may have been an ancestor of Elihu (Job 32:2)—and Kemuel the father of Aram. "Not the founder of the Arameans, but the forefather of the family of Ram, to which the Buzite Elihu belonged; Aram being written for Ram, like Arammim, in 2 Kings 8:29, for Rammim, in 2 Chronicles 22:5" (Keil).
And Chesed,—according to Jerome the father of the Chasdim or Chaldees (Genesis 11:28); but more generally regarded as the head of a younger branch or offshoot of that race (Keil, Murphy, Lange; cf. Job 1:17)—and Hazo, and Pildash, and Jidlaph (concerning whom nothing is known), and Bethnel—"man of God" (Gesenius); dwelling of God (Furst); an indication probably of his piety.
And Bethuel begat Rebekah—Ribkah; captivating, ensnaring (Furst); "a rope with a noose," not unfit as the name of a girl who ensnares men by her beauty (Gesenius). Rebekah was the child of Isaac's cousin, and being the daughter of Nahor's youngest son, was probably about the same age as her future husband. These eight Milcah did bear to Nahor, Abraham's brother.
And his concubine (vide on Genesis 16:3), whose name was Reumah,—raised, elevated (Gesenius); pearl or coral (Furst)—she bare also Tebah, and Gaham, and Thahash, and Maachah—whence probably the Maachathites. That three of Terah's descendants (Nahor, Ishmael, and Jacob) should each have twelve sons has been pronounced" a contrived symmetry, the intentional character of which cannot be mistaken" (Bohlen); but "what intention the narrator should have connected with it remains inconceivable, unless it was to state the fact as it was, or (on the supposition that some of them had more than twelve sons) to supply a round number easily retainable by the memory" (Havernick).
HOMILETICS
Good news from a far country.
I. THE JOYFUL BUDGET.
1. Tidings from home. For nearly half a century Abraham had been a wanderer in Palestine, and with something like an emigrant's emotion on receiving letters from the old country would the patriarch listen to the message come from Haran beyond the river.
2. News concerning Nahor. It demands no violent exercise of fancy to believe that Abraham regarded his distant brother with intense fraternal affection, and that the unexpected report of that distant brother's prosperity struck a chord of joy within his aged bosom.
3. A message about Milcah. When the two brothers parted it would seem that neither of their spouses had begun to have a family. Now information reaches the patriarchal tent that the union of Nahor and Milcah, like that of himself and Sarai, has been blessed with offspring; and, in particular, that the second generation had begun to appear in Nahor's house, the queenly grace of Milcah being reproduced in her captivating grandchild Rebekah.
II. THE WELCOME MESSENGER.
1. His unknown name. One is curious to know who it was that brought the tidings from the old home. Some spirited adventurer who at the distance of half a century sought to emulate the Chaldaean chieftain who left the valley of the Euphrates for the bleak hills of Palestine; some Mesopotamian Stanley whom Nahor, now a wealthy Emir, had dispatched upon a mission of inquiry after his long-lost brother; or some chance traveler who had come across the patriarch's tent.
2. His timely arrival. Whoever he was, his appearance at this particular juncture was exceedingly opportune, when, the great trial having passed, Isaac's marriage must have loomed in the prospect as a near possibility. To Abraham it must have seemed not a fortuitous occurrence, but a providential arrangement.
Learn—
1. That no passage of Scripture can be said to be entirely useless.
2. That joy and sorrow mostly lie in close contiguity in human life.
3. That it becomes good men and women to be interested in each other's welfare.
4. That in God's government of the world there are no such things as accidents.
5. That it becomes good men to keep an outlook upon the leadings of Divine providence.