Thank you to Mark for this week’s MWB
Read: Genesis 24
Over these 3 weeks we are looking at 3 women in the Old Testament, and what they teach us about the life of faith.
Last week we were looking at Hagar, and the difference between slavery to the Law (our human efforts), and freedom through faith in Christ.
This week, we are thinking about Rebekah, who was the wife of Abraham and Sarah’s son, Isaac.
The story begins with the death of Isaac’s mother Sarah. God has promised Abraham that he will be the father of many nations. But how will this promise be fulfilled?
And so the story in Genesis 24 is about Abraham searching for a wife for Isaac. Abraham sends one of his servants on a particular mission: to find a wife for Isaac from among his own relatives, not from among the heathen Canaanites. It is a very specific mission, and even Abraham’s servant lays down a fleece for God, so that he can the right girl is chosen for Isaac.
Abraham and his servant are trusting in God’s promises, and it’s in this greater context that Rebekah arrives at the well, drawing water for camels.
Abraham’s servant immediately recognises she is the one, and as was the case with arranged marriages in those days, she goes with the servant on the journey to meet her future husband to be.
Isaac falls in love with Rebekah; they marry, and after 20 years of barrenness, Rebekah has twin sons, Jacob and Esau.
It is a beautiful love story, but there are twists and turns along the way.
Not least of these is the similarity between Rebekah and Sarah. Both were unable to have children for many years, but both eventually received the fulfilment of God’s promises and had children.
But the similarity doesn’t end there. Both women took matters into their own hands to to get what God had promised, rather than trusting Him in the moment. As we saw last week, Sarah told Abraham to sleep with her slave girl Hagar so that they could have a child, rather than trusting God’s promise that Sarah would have child in her old age.
And Rebekah also took matters into her own hands by deceiving her husband Isaac into giving Jacob a blessing rather than Esau.
But what do we learn from all this?
God is at work behind the scenes even when we mess up and do things our way rather than God’s way…
We may get impatient and anxious when God doesn’t move in our timeframe. But both Sarah and Rebekah show us that although they thought they had to fix things themselves, God was still at work, and through their lifeline, Jesus would eventually be born, as the genealogies from the New Testament tell us.
Can we trust in the faithfulness of God, even when He may not answer our prayers in the way we want and in the timing we want?