Rebekah

Today we are going to look at Rebekah in Genesis 24 and 25.

A little history before we dive in here. Now, I have shared about Abaraham in a few podcasts which ties into the verse that I am about to share. God's promise to Abraham in Genesis 12 is “And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing” This promise is why I have had the opportunity to mention him multiple times. This promise impacts nations and it is going to be fulfilled by his son, Isaac. During this time period, it was not uncommon for a man to have multiple wives but Isaac had only one wife and that was Rebekah.

I am going to start our study on Rebekah with Abraham and his desire to find Isaac a wife.

In Genesis 24 verses 3-4 we see that Abraham sends his servant to go and find a wife for Isaac.  It reads

“I want you to swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living,  but will go to my country and my own relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac.”

So why do you think it was important that a wife came from his own country and relatives and not Canaan?  I believe it was to ensure that Isaac married someone who shared Abraham’s faith and lineage, Canaanite people worshipped different gods and could potentially lead Isaac away from God's covenant.  This is crucial to maintaining the purity of the chosen line of descendants promised to Abraham by God.

I love that later in verse 12 that the servant prayed to God 

 “Lord, God of my master Abraham, make me successful today, and show kindness to my master Abraham.”

Everyone and everything involved with making this marriage union work was directed by God.  

So this servant starts off on his journey and stops by a well and right on cue we are introduced to Rebekah in verse 15.

Before he had finished praying, Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel son of Milkah, who was the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor. The woman was very beautiful, a virgin; no man had ever slept with her. She went down to the spring, filled her jar and came up again.

You can read the full story but ultimately the servant meets Rebekah and she not only gives him a drink from the well but also his camels. She was a kind and generous woman. He asked her about her family and he knew that Rebekah was who God had chosen and he praised God.

Rebekah was chosen because of her kindness, humility, and willingness to help the servant and his camels. She agreed to leave her family and homeland to marry Isaac, a man she had never met.  I think this is the most important part of the story of Rebekah.  She had faith to leave her family and marry Isaac.  I imagine that Rebekah and the servant had a deeper conversation that is not captured here.  Obviously, the servant believed in God since he prayed to him in verse 12.  Rebekah believed in God so they potentially discussed the idea that this was all part of God’s plan.  Rebekah shows us that marriage is not just about love but it is about faith.

Fast forwarding a bit in her story to where we see that Rebekah struggled with infertility to provide additional context to her life as a woman of God.  In Genesis 25 verses 21-24 it reads 

Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant.  The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord.

The Lord said to her,

“Two nations are in your womb,

    and two peoples from within you will be separated;

one people will be stronger than the other,

    and the older will serve the younger.”

When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb.  The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so they named him Esau.  After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.

Here we still see Rebekah as a faithful servant to God.  Isaac has been told through Abraham that they will build a great nation but through Isaac praying to God on behalf of His wife due to being childless, we can assume that she is struggling with getting pregnant.  One of the biggest things that I struggle with and I know many others to do is being patient with God’s timing.  We believe in God, we have faith in God but His timing is different than ours.  Rebekah is feeling that her not able to be pregnant here but, Isaac does take this to God.

But God does answer the prayer (in his time) and Rebekah gives birth to twins, Esau and Jacob.  Esau was born first, which matters due to birthright. Although my story, today, is about Rebekah, I want to give a few little tidbits about the brothers and then I encourage you to dig a little deeper into the story of the two brothers. 

First, let me explaining that in the Old Testament times, birthright meant the privileges and responsibilities given to the firstborn son in a family. The birthright included a double portion of the father's inheritance, as well as the role of family head.  Having the birthright meant a lot. 

Back to the story of Esau and Jacob….. As the boys grew, Esau was a great hunter and Jacob was more of a homebody.  One day Esau was extremely hungry and asked Jacob to feed him.  Jacob told him to give him his birthright first and then he would feed him.  The story states that Esau was near death and truly needed food so it was a desperate situation and so he swore that he would sell him his birthright.

Esau despised his birthright and Esau married women outside of Israel, and didn't respect his birthright. This was a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah. It was part of God's plan that Esau be excluded from the line that would lead to Christ. Instead, God chose Jacob, who was flawed, yet faithful, to carry on His promise to Isaac and Abraham

Adding Rebekah back into this story now, in verse 5,  we see that Isaac who is very old and cannot see, asks Esau to go out and hunt in order for Isaac to give him his blessing as firstborn.  Rebekah overheard this and went to Jacob and told him what had happened.  She told Jacob to prepare some game so he can present it to Isaac before Esau.  Jacob mentioned that Esau was a hairy man so Rebekah covered Jacob’s hands in goatskin, and had him dress in Esau’s clothes in order to trick Isaac.

Isaac ultimately blessed Jacob. Isaac assumed it was Esau. He had no idea he was being tricked and that it was Jacob in disguise. Right after he blessed Jacob, Esau enters and asks Isaac to bless him.  At this point Isaac is extremely confused, ultimately Esau and Isaac piece together that Jacob deceived them. Esau begs for his blessing because he had already lost his birthright to Jacob when was hungry and he needed to be fed. Isaac could not bless both. This led to Esau holding a grudge against Jacob, vowing to kill him once Isaac is dead.

Rebekah finds out about what Esau is going to do and tells Jacob to move away until Esau cools down.

Rebekah played a pivotal role in the deception of her husband, Isaac. She favored Jacob over Esau and conspired with him to deceive Isaac into giving Jacob the blessing that was meant for Esau, who was the older son. This deceit led to a significant family conflict.

So what are your thoughts on Rebekah?  When I was growing up in the church, she was always perceived as a deceiver.  While she did try to take things into her own hands, she was still part of God’s plan and helped carry out that plan.

What can we learn from the story of Rebekah?

Let God carry out his Plan

Throughout this story, you must have a variety of mixed feelings and questions for Rebekah now. Why did she favor Jacob? Why did she deceive? What happened to the faith she had in the beginning of her story, trusting God, to move and marry Isaac? We do not know the full story of her reasons for making this decisions. What we do know is that while she did try to take things into her own hands and take control, she was still a part of God's plan and ties back to Abraham.

Remember, we are all running a mile a minute and we want what we want and we want it now.  That’s hard for us to say out loud but we know deep down it is the truth.  

Pray to God, respect His timing.  It all comes down to trust. Take some time to reflect on where you may be needing to give a plan or give control to God today.