“Yahweh has blessed my lord very much and he has become great. He has given him sheep and cattle, silver and gold, manservants and maidservants, and camels and donkeys. And Sarah, who is the wife of my lord, has borne a son to my lord after she reached old age. And he has given to him everything that is his.”

(Genesis 24:35-36)

What a remarkable introduction Eliezer gives. You can almost imagine him, in his excitement, speaking faster and faster as he explains himself. Even so, it is things like this that help remind us that these people are humans and prone to all of the kinds of goofy things that afflict us all today. And that is good because it helps us connect and identify with these people through whom God has so greatly worked and it reminds us that God can and will work in wonderful ways through us as well — despite our own quirks.

So this servant begins with the blessings of God in the life of his Lord. Notice, though, how the focus here is on earthly blessings, listing them in pairs of like things: animals, wealth, and servants. I think that we can be forgiving and say that it is the excitement, but we should take note that both Eliezer and Abraham understand that these earthly things, while they might make life more comfortable, are not things that can be taken with them into the grave. The covenant faithfulness of God is far more valuable than any amount of herds or cash. Even so, there is no question that God has blessed Abraham with great riches and that Isaac will become the sole heir of this wealth. Rebekah’s family also needs to be assured that their little girl will be provided for in a way similar to or better than she was provided for in her father’s house.

How often we too get caught up in the physical and worldly blessings of God and don’t spend enough time focusing on the eternal blessings of his Covenant, his Salvation, and life eternally in his presence. How often we spend most of our time and energies trying to invest in things that won’t last us, like money and health, and how little effort we spend on things that will serve us well not only on earth but in eternity as well like godliness and truth. Loved ones, take time to evaluate how you spend your day. What percentage of your time is built on building up your soul? What percentage of your time is spent on non-eternal matters? Why not work to repair that deficit.