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Brian Thiel

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The woman who said, "I will go (now)."

Rebekah

Every 'ordinary life' is full of unexpected events.  ORDINARY certainly does not mean dull or uninteresting,  especially for any person who lives by faith.

A sad mistake so many make is to imagine "a real life, an interesting life" is full of thrills, lots of creature comforts and luxuries, and the satisfaction of being noticed - even famous. 

If you say, those things don't matter to you, not even a little bit, I can only say, "You and I operate on a different wave-length.  I wish I could say those things never  matter to me, but after 60 years being a Christian, sometimes they do."  I always have to struggle with my life's priorities -- keeping 1st things 1st.

Today we are going to look back into history to see a young woman who did some things right... Rebekah.  But not every part of her life was up to that standard, either.

Rebekah's story...

• As a young woman - (Genesis 24:15ff) she was virtuous, very good looking, hard working, willing to completely leave her family to follow the providence of God.
• Rebekah accepted marriage to a 40-year-old man she never saw before. However he loved her right away;  they hugged & kissed. (26:8)  But Isaac never seemed to be the dynamic man that his father Abraham had been, nor as his sons became.  He was a pretty ordinary man.
• Despite having a happy relationship with her husband, she was unable for about 20 years to have children. In desperation, she "gave" her personal attendant to her husband so she could bear a child for Isaac.  That introduced a great sorrow to her life. Her husband prayed for her to have children, and at last she bore twin boys, Esau & Jacob, knowing that only one, Jacob, was the one to continue the line of faith promised through Abraham.
• The two boys were completely different from each other. Esau was his daddy's boy and Jacob was mama's boy. Esau was rebellious and disrespectful of the family's heritage as the line of faith. In a moment of weakness he "sold" his birthright (2/3 inheritance) to Jacob. Esau married young to local girls (not from families of faith). But Jacob was more a homebody, but at 40 he was still a bachelor.
• Rebekah assisted Jacob complete the inheritance transaction between the boys earlier by helping deceive the toddering and nearly blind Isaac into giving his formal blessing to Jacob.
• Rebekah assisted Jacob escape Esau's murderous intent and got Isaac to direct Jacob to go back to the same place for a wife as his father had.

That's about all we know about her. 

The New Testament, Romans 9, briefly mentions Rebekah as an example that God's providence was set even before her twins were born, but adds nothing about her character.

Her whole life seems to have had but one highlight when as a teenager she said, I will go NOW.  She did not even stay one extra day at home, but left immediately to go far away to marry a man believing that God's providence has provided for her.

She must have said to herself, "the man is the son of my great uncle who left this place many years ago to go to a place that our God showed him. Now he is asking me to follow that path, too. I believe it is God calling me."

Did she wonder what kind of man he was that she would marry?  She must have.

We cannot know just what thoughts were in her heart at that moment.  But there must have been some level of awareness that she was following her divine destiny.  When that happens, we all sense in our hearts a divine melody.

And in the few glimpses we see of her life in the years to follow she kept her awe at that divine providence.  She placed her trust in in God's purposes for the family she joined and thus also for her own life. 

Her life was not perfect, far from it. Not all things she did were noble.  But she kept true to her core faith.

Sometimes we, too, may hear divine melodies in our hearts calling us to things of God.  Common wisdom is to "sleep on it" when we must make a big decision.
But saying "YES" right away when it is God calling is an even better way to live. For doing just that, Rebekah deserves to be remembered as a model for ourselves.