Genesis 24:2
And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had, Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh: And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had, Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh:
Abraham entrusted the choice of a wife for Isaac to his eldest servant, a faithful, trusted, pious, God-fearing man of experience who ruled over his household and all his possessions. He bound the servant to the commission by a solemn oath before the Lord, expressed in the command to place his hand under Abraham's thigh. The oath required the servant not to choose a Canaanite wife for Isaac but to seek a wife from Abraham's kindred, Nahor's family in Mesopotamia, who worshiped the true God.
Abraham further charged the servant not to take Isaac there, and provided that if no woman was willing to leave her family the servant would be released from the oath. Abraham assured the servant that God would send His angel ahead of him to guide him and make the mission successful. Isaac, though forty years old, heir to the promises, and trained in the fear of God to a life of noble obedience, submitted to his father's arrangement, accepted the servant's role, and trusted God to direct the choice.
The course teaches parents, after Abraham's example, to command their households and take responsibility to guide and direct their children's affections toward persons judged to be suitable companions and to help them choose. Unguided youthful affections are to a great extent controlled by Satan, and the idea that affections should not be guided or restrained is rebuked. Isaac's deference is left on record as an example for children in later generations, especially those professing to fear God, that they should respect wise parental judgment and not choose marriage independently at fifteen to twenty years old without parental consent, but seek it in the fear of God and as a subject of prayer, a course that brings love and domestic happiness.