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Reading these words the prayer of Eliezer at first seems to lose its point. If it was
tolerably certain that any damsel in the East would thus respond, no great advance
towards identification would seem to have been accomplished. However, Thompson's
comment continues:
"But I have never found any young lady so generous as this fair daughter of Bethuel.
She drew for all his camels, and for nothing, while I have often found it difficult to get
my horse watered even for money."
That there should be a voluntary undertaking to water such thirsty creatures as camels,
was a testing stipulation, and would indicate an exceptionally generous nature in the
person sought. We can therefore understand the man "wondering at her" and "holding
his peace, to wit whether the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not". But when he
discovered that the damsel was actually Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, the Son of
Milcah, he "bowed down his head, and worshipped the Lord, and he said, Blessed be the
Lord God of my master of His 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" (Gen. 24: 26, 27).
Here is food for thought and light upon the nature of worship. The ascription of
"blessedness" to God, the reference to "mercy and truth", and the most evident leading of
Eliezer, combine to provide a warm and living atmosphere for the first reference to
"worship" in association with the key word we are at present using, qadad, "to bow".
The book of Redemption, Exodus, contains three occurrences of qadad. The first is
Exod. 4: 31, after Moses and Aaron had demonstrated by word and sign that the Lord
had visited the children of Israel and had looked upon their affliction. These afflicted
people did two associated things, "They believed . . . . . they bowed their head and
worshipped". Worship therefore here springs from believing the good news of salvation.
It must be as spontaneous as breathing, and can only be offered by a believing people.
The second reference is found in Exod. 12:, the chapter of the Passover. God had
now redeemed His promise; He had visited His people and when Moses enjoined upon
them annually to remember this great Passover deliverance and teach their children its
significance, the people, realizing something of the solemn nature of this great salvation,
"bowed the head and worshipped" (Exod. 12: 27). Be it noted also, that "worship", or
"bowed head", is closely allied with obeisance, for the next verse says: "And the
children of Israel went away, and did as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so
did they."
The third reference is Exod. 24: 8. Moses had prayed of the Lord that he might be
shown His glory. The Lord had replied, "I will make all My goodness pass before thee,
and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. And He said, Thou
canst not see My face; for there shall no man see My face and live" (Exod. 33: 19,
20). Moses is therefore put into a cleft of the rock and, while the glory of the Lord
passed by, Moses was covered by the Lord's hand, only such a revelation being permitted