The Servant’s Prayer and Sign

Then, so that you will not think he is demanding payment as though it were owed, listen to what follows: “And show mercy to my master Abraham.” Even if we had accomplished ten thousand good deeds, he is saying, we still ask to be saved by grace and to receive this from God's loving kindness, not as something owed to us as a debt.

What, then, do you want? “Here I stand,” he says, “by the spring of water, and the daughters of the people who live in the city are coming out to draw water. Let the young woman to whom I say, ‘Please lower your jar so that I may drink,’ and who says, ‘Drink, and I will water your camels too, until they have all finished drinking,’ be the one You have prepared for Your servant Isaac. By this I will know that You have shown mercy to my master Abraham.”

See the servant's wisdom and the kind of sign he chose. He did not say, “If I see a woman being carried on mules or riding in a carriage, followed by a crowd of eunuchs, attended by many servants, beautiful and radiant in bodily appearance, then she is the one You have prepared for Your servant.” What did he say instead? “The one to whom I say, ‘Please lower your jar so that I may drink.’”