Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household who was in charge of all that he owned, “Please place your hand under my thigh, and I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I live.
Genesis 24:2-3 (NASB)
For the first time in Scripture, we see this phrase: “the God of heaven and the God of earth.”
The rabbis note that Abraham says this while in the Promised Land, but never says it while in Egypt or in Haran. Perhaps it’s a statement about the Holy Land. It is specially designated as God’s special place.
But there is a hint of divine parable in the phrase. In Genesis 1, God “created the heavens and the earth,” so we understand that God made them… together. To be together, like a man and his wife.
This chapter is about marriage and covenant, and how God establishes a union over an impossible distance.