I wrote this post 4 years ago, on the eve of my daughter's 16th birthday. Tomorrow she turns 20, and what I said then is even more true today.
Tomorrow
my daughter turns 16. For the last
couple of hours I’ve been looking at her picture and feeling all wet in the
eyes.
Which
made me think about Eliezer and Abraham.
Genesis
15: 1-3 says that Eliezer was the chief servant in Abraham’s household.
The household of a Biblical patriarch was a lot like a family owned corporation. For example, in the house of Abraham, the patriarch had more servants (employees) than actual relatives by blood or marriage.
Yet
the entire household depended on one another. Together they weathered storms and
famine. Together, they fought marauders
and rival tribes. Together they would either prosper or die in
the Canaanite frontier. And when God
gave Abraham the sign of circumcision in Genesis 17, EVERY male in Abraham’s
house became a Jew---- the hard way.
But
you could say that was all just good business.
You
have to be nice to the boss. You have to
work together. If the company
(household) fails then everybody’s out of a job. In Old Testament days, being “out of a job”
meant death or enslavement, so doing a good job was simple self-interest. Genuine love wasn’t necessarily part of the
job description.
But
sometimes it was.
Before
Abraham and Sarah had children, Eliezer was the designated heir of Abraham’s
entire fortune. So when Isaac, the promised
son, came along Eliezer had no objective economic reason to love the boy.
But
he did.
We
know that Eliezer CARED ABOUT Isaac because Eliezer INVESTED IN Isaac.
In
Genesis 25, Abraham sent his chief servant to research and negotiate a
marriage-merger for his son. This was a
lot of trouble. There was no match.com
to sign onto, no Instagram full of selfies to peruse, not even a postal system
to send letters asking, “Hey, do you know any nice single women around Isaac’s
age?”
Eliezer
had to take ten camels and basically wander around the sparsely populated
Canaanite and Mesopotamian wilderness looking for “the one.”
And if the woman is not willing to
follow you, then you will be released from this oath; only do not take my son
back there.”…Then the servant took ten of his master’s camels and departed,
for all his master’s goods were in his hand. (Genesis 25: 8, 10)
At
this point Abraham was old and Eliezer had power of attorney over the whole
family business. All he had to do was “not
find” the right woman or ship Isaac off to Syria and he could have taken over
the family.
But
he didn’t.
Instead,
he risked his time, the peril of his own safety (wandering around the dessert
with a caravan of provisions at his age), and his personal self-interest; and
invested it all in his boss’s child.
Then he said, “O Lord God of my master
Abraham, please give me success this day, and show kindness to my master
Abraham. (Genesis 25: 12)
In
my career as an educator and pastor I’ve worked with, for, and over a lot of
people. Especially on faculties when I
was a department chair or administrator (boss), teachers had an economic
self-interest in being nice to me because I performed their evaluations and
managed their personnel files.
They
didn’t have to really love me. They didn’t
have to really love my house, my family.
But
they have.
My
daughter turns 16 tomorrow. When I posted the announcement online and looked at
the range of people who commented and liked I realized how expansive my
household has really been.
Over
the last 20 years, teachers, counselor, pastors, co-workers, colleagues, church members, and employees have invested in their
time, their gifts, their favor, and their love in me, my wife, and our children.
They
have gone far, far out of their way to protect my children when I could not be
there to protect them.
They
have prayed for my family. They have
looked out for my wife. They have sought
our good when our good wouldn’t do them any good. They helped me and mine when undermining me would
have been easy and profitable.
I
know what you did.
You
loved my house when you didn’t have to.
Thank
you.
Thank
you all.
---Anderson T. Graves
II is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry,
and rural leadership development.
Rev.
Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama; executive director of the Substance Abuse
Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO); and
director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human
Development (NIHD).
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
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P O
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