TMI

Happy Monday! At least, it's happy for me because I got a little bonus sleep this morning (for no apparent reason!). It was delicious and, I think, the best way to start the week! And the Steelers mauling the Chargers doesn't hurt, either!! Enough gloating, Allison, get down to business.


Here's yesterday's question of the day:
Sun, Jan. 11: Have you ever felt the way the psalmist feels in Psalm 6? Why? How did God respond? (There’s no right or wrong answer for this one. Just be honest with yourself. )

And here's today's question of the day:
Mon, Jan. 12 Where did Jesus find Matthew? (Matt 9)


And here's today's reflection:
TMI
Genesis 24:2-4 2 Abraham said to the chief servant in his household, the one in charge of all that he had, "Put your hand under my thigh. 3 I want you to swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living, 4 but will go to my country and my own relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac."

Sometimes questions are better left unasked. I asked a question this morning that I wish I hadn't. Are you familiar with the expression "TMI?" It means "too much information," which is where I ended up this morning as I opened a few other books to help me understand what was going on with the oath in Genesis 24! I'll get to that in a minute, but first I thought I'd share with you some of the stuff I read about oaths.

The word "oath" comes from the Hebrew word for seven, the sacred number in Hebrew culture. If you remember from Gen 21, seven lambs are used as witnesses to a covenant. An oath is a statement people use to give assurance that they have (or will) speak the truth. An oath can also be used as a promise that someone will do something. Usually God is invoked in the middle of this oath, kind of a biblical version of "Do you promise to the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?" The expectation is that if you break your oath, or swear a false oath, it is assumed that punishment is sure to follow. Oaths are meant to be HOLY and to break an oath is to "profane God's name." (Harper-Collins Bible Dictionary, p 770)

So, back to "the wooing of Rebekah" in the land of TIMI in Gen 24. Abraham wants to find a wife for his son Isaac ("she laughs," remember?). But now Abraham is "old and well advanced in years" and is not able to complete the search himself. Instead, he commissions his own most trusted servant to do the searching for him by looking for a woman by a well, a detail not given by God but rather of Abraham's own discernment.

This is a very important mission in Abraham's eyes. So important, in fact, he makes his servant swear an oath and tells him to "put your hand under my thigh." At least that's probably what your Bible says. BUT, according to the New International Bible Commentary, "thigh" is not the most precise translation. A more accurate translation refers not to the thigh but to what the NIB calls a man's "vehicle of life," if you know what I mean.

So that leaves us in the land of TMI with an answer to the innocent question, "Why does the servant put his hand under Abraham's thigh as part of an oath?" And though it is a detail perhaps we could have lived without, I think it does indicate just how important oaths are and how they are not meant to be made lightly. I think those Old Testament folks understood the importance of making and keeping promises a lot better than we do.

Just a little something for you to think about the next time you make a promise!!
Allison