The Servant of Abraham

There are a handful of personages in the scriptures who exhibit great faith and have powerful stories told about them and yet we aren’t given their name.  The Brother of Jared is one example—he had a personal visitation of the Lord, moved a mountain through his faith, got his people miraculously to the promised land across and ocean, and wrote down a revelation so powerful that it is still sealed up and hid from us.  And yet we aren’t told his name in the account that describes him.  We only know that he was the brother of Jared.  Similarly, the wife of King Lamoni is nameless in the text, and yet she showed great faith, so much so that Ammon said to her: “Blessed art thou because of thy exceeding faith; I say unto thee, woman, there has not been such great faith among all the people of the Nephites” (Alma 19:10).  In the New Testament we see other examples of these nameless believers, such as the “woman of Canaan” who pleaded for Jesus to heal her daughter.  The Savior said to her: “O woman, great is thy faith” (Matt. 15:28).  Several others that Jesus healed who clearly were full of faith also are left nameless in the text, such as the “woman, which was diseased an issue of blood twelve years” to whom the Savior said, “Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole” (Matt. 9:22).  I’d like to think that these and other individuals who showed great faith in the Lord and yet remained nameless are meant to encourage us that we too can have this kind of faith and these kinds of miracles in our lives.

               One of those who is nameless in the Old Testament is the servant of Abraham who went to find a wife for Isaac, and he was another who showed great faith in the Lord.  He was tasked by Abraham to go up to where some of Abraham’s family was in Nahor and seek out a worthy woman who could be marry Isaac in the covenant.  I’m impressed in particular by his loyalty to his duty and his trust in the Lord.  He knew that he was on the Lord’s errand, and so he believed that God would lead him to find the woman for Isaac.  He prayed to the Lord in very specific detail about how he would know that the right woman had been found and then trusted that the Lord would indeed grant his petition.  And He did, even “before he had done speaking” (Genesis 24:15).  He found Rebekah, and he was quick to recognize the Lord’s hand in it as soon as it was apparent to him: “And the man bowed down his head, and worshipped the Lord. And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, who hath not left destitute my master of his mercy and his truth: I being in the way, the Lord led me to the house of my master’s brethren” (Genesis 24:26-27).  His faith was such that he not only trusted in the Lord to answer his prayer, but he recognized the moment the Lord did bless him and was quick to give thanks to Him.  This servant was also fiercely loyal to his mission and could not be deterred from accomplishing it by his own wants.  When the family offered him food upon arrival, he responded, “I will not eat, until I have told mine errand” (Genesis 24:33).  Likely he was exhausted and famished from his long journey, but he still put his own wants behind his duty.  Similarly after the arrangement was made he told them the very next morning, “Send me away unto my master.”  When they wanted to have him stay and wait at least ten days, he said, “  Hinder me not, seeing the Lord hath prospered my way; send me away that I may go to my master” (Genesis 24:54-56).  Though surely he would have appreciated a chance to rest, he put his mission before his personal comfort.  He is an example to us today of what it means to do one’s duty and to trust in the Lord.  That he has no name in the text perhaps is a message that all of us can likewise show the loyalty and faith of this unnamed man.