Rebekah

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Grace Aquilar

Based on Genesis chapter 24

Genesis 25:20

And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.

The characters of the Bible are all human; though we too often judge them by any and every other test than that of humanity. Religion, instead of deadening, ever deepens and strengthens mere human feelings. No one has ever yet truly and devotedly loved God without feeling every natural affection heightened and more precious. So we always find the most affectionate feelings in the chosen servants of God.

Abraham felt that it would be easier to choose a wife for Isaac from the daughters of Laban's house as she would more likely follow God than the daughters of the land of Canaan.

Rebekah had grown into beautiful womanhood, loved and cherished by parents and brothers, and pursuing with cheerful content and affection the simple routine of everyday life. There is no mention in Scripture of her having ever been sought in marriage before the offer of Isaac. We rather suppose that she was scarcely seen or known beyond her father's house. This also made the Hebrew woman more distinguished from other heathen nations.

The daily employments of the young females of the East appear to have been completely domestic; and, in obedience to these daily duties, we find Rebekah, one evening, going as usual to the well with her pitcher on her shoulder to draw water. The group of strangers beside the well must have struck her as something remarkable, but we do not find that she in any way loitered or wavered in the steady performance of the task.

'And the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin; and she went down to the well, and filled her pitcher, and came up. And the servant ran to meet her, and said, Let me, I pray thee, drink a little water of thy pitcher. And she said, Drink, my lord; and she let down her pitcher upon her hand, and gave him drink. And when she had done giving him drink, she said, I will draw water for thy camels also, until they have done drinking. And she hurried, and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran again unto the well to draw water, and drew for all his camels.'

The same unsophisticated nature that led her quietly to do her duty, without turning to the right hand or to the left, also prompted the active kindness to the stranger when he addressed her, and the respectful deference to his age and sex, which the words 'drink, my lord', imply. It was the quiet self-possession, the modest ease and frankness, the total disregard of self, both with regard to personal trouble as to the impression her own beautiful face and form might make, which ever proceed from a proper self-esteem, without which no woman, however situated, can happily, or with propriety, pass through life.

She not only gave refreshment to the steward, but filled the trough for the weary camels to drink also. Many times must she have ascended and descended to the well, burdened with a weighty pitcher - a fair and gentle girl, while so many strong men were standing round - but they were strangers and travellers, and she was in her own land.

Well might Eliezer, 'wondering at her, hold his peace, to see whether the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not.' It was difficult to believe that the prayer he had scarcely concluded before Rebekah appeared should so speedily be answered, and it was, no doubt, with some little trembling he asked, 'Whose daughter art thou? Tell me, 1 pray thee, is there room in thy father's house for us to lodge in?' and how must his heart have bounded with returning confidence at the reply; 'I am the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Milcah, which she bare unto Nahor! She said, moreover, to him, 'We have both straw and provender enough, and room to lodge in.'

Our ancient fathers, with much justice, suppose that the splendid presents of the steward followed this announcement, and were not given, as we might imagine from the general translations of the Bible, before he knew her name. They had been entrusted to him for the bride of Isaac; and therefore it was not likely he should bestow them on anyone, however beautiful and hospitable, unless perfectly convinced that she was the maiden destined so to be.

The little conversation between them, and even the steward's joy and thanksgiving, probably took place while the camels were drinking, and it was when they had finished, 'that the man took a golden earring of half a shekel weight, and the bracelets for her hand of ten shekels weight of gold.' Greatly must the maiden have marvelled, not only at the richness of the presents, but that they should be offered at all; and, true to the almost childish nature which the whole narration displays, 'she ran and told them in her mother's house these things.'

When Rebekah's brother saw the earring, and the bracelets on his sister's hands, and when he heard her words, he came unto the man who still stood with his camels beside the well, and said, 'Come in, thou BLESSED OF THE LORD; wherefore standest thou without? for I have prepared the house, and room for the camels. And the man came into the house, and he ungirded his camels. And they gave straw and provender for the camels, and water to wash his feet, and the men's feet who were with him. And they set meat before him to cat, but he said, I will not eat, till I have said mine errand. And Laban said, Speak on.'

Laban, as the generous, unsuspicious host, had performed his part; and now the servant of Abraham failed not to perform his.

Earnest in his master's cause, his mission occupying alike heart and mind, - convinced that he was in the Lord's hands, he would not wait till hunger was appeased and weariness subdued, but at once spoke; his first word refusing all honour to himself by the simple declaration 'Servant of Abraham am I.' It was, indeed, a wondrous tale to which the family of Bethuel listened.

By the words of Laban, at its conclusion, 'Behold, Rebekah is before thee,' we may infer that the maiden and her mother were both present, though by no word or exclamation did Rebekah interrupt even though it concerned her so deeply; yet as a woman, and very young one, how many feelings must have stirred within her as the steward spoke!

Eliezer told how his master had grown rich and great by the blessing of the Lord, who had so granted in his old age a son, to whom Abraham had given all that he had; - how anxious he was to guard his son from a connection with the Canaanites, and to take him a wife from his own kindred; how in obedience he had set out, and, arriving that day at the well, had prayed to the Lord God of his master Abraham to grant that the virgin who, when he wished for a little water from her pitcher, should reply, 'Drink thou, and I will draw for thy camels also,' should be the maiden whom the Lord had appointed for his master's son; - how his prayer had been heard and answered by the appearance and kind courtesy of Rebekah; - and he concluded, 'I bowed down my head, and worshipped the Lord God of my master Abraham, who had led me in the right way, to take my master's brother's daughter for his son. And now, if you will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me; and if not, tell me; that 1 may turn to the right hand, or the left.'

Deeply must the tale have affected his hearers. 'The thing proceedeth from the Lord,' was their instant answer. 'We cannot speak unto thee bad or good. Behold, Rebekah is before thee, take her, and go, and let her be thy master's son's wife, as the Lord hath spoken.'

One night only, the steward accepted the hospitality of his hosts. The family wanted more time before Rebekah left them but the steward pleaded with them that he must go. So Rebekah was called and asked whether she would go or not.

Young and quiet as she was, her own voice was to decide the matter. They would neither keep nor send her away without her own consent, thus proving that even family authority in the Bible was an authority of love.

'And calling her, they said, Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go!' - a brief and simple answer, yet suited alike to her character and the occasion. She was sought by Abraham for his son, and selected by God Himself so every natural feeling of a woman was satisfied and soothed.

How many thoughts must have crowded the heart and mind of Rebekah during this journey - the home she had left, and the home she was about to seek - the friends of her childhood, and those unknown, yet towards whom she turned with the yearning to love and be beloved, probably hearing from the lips of the steward so much of his young master, as to render him in her mind no longer a stranger.

Simply and beautifully is the last touch to this portion of her history given by the inspired historian. Canaan was reached; and the tents of the patriarch in sight. And lifting up her eyes, Rebekah beheld a man walking forth in the fertile fields; with his thoughts on God. It was sunset, that still solemn hour of holy thought, sought only by those who love God. Rebekah probably guessed who it was on whom she gazed. When she asked her guide who it was and received her answer she with deep respectfulness got off her camel and took a veil and covered herself.

She demanded no more respect than she gave. By covering herself with her veil she showed respect to Isaac and yet retained her own gentle dignity, by concealing all her beauty until the servant's tale was told, and Isaac claimed her as his bride. Personal beauty was not so important to her even though she was very beautiful so she hid her beauty until Isaac accepted her to be his wife.

'Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and he took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her, and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.'

Although there is a wide distinction between patriarchal and modern times, and our positions and duties as a daughter of Israel can never resemble those of Rebekah, we have, like her, duties to perform, and a position to fulfil.

The women of the Bible are forcibly portrayed, not for us to follow them exactly, for that we could not do, but from their conduct in their lives we can be guided in ours. They teach us what is acceptable in the eyes of our heavenly Father, and what is not; and how we may understand the Word of God.

The words 'Whatsoever thy hand finds to do, do it with all your might,' guided Rebekah's life. She had every temptation of idling away her time with the goodly-looking strangers, but she would have been unfit to be the mother of God's chosen race. As she went down to the well, and filled her pitcher, and came up, 'neither turning to the right nor to the left,' so it shows us to follow our daily duties, if we would receive the blessing of the Lord.

It is said that a woman's nature is unsteady - caught by the glare of every new object, every new face - to become frivolous, from allowing herself in youth to flutter from one employment to another, seeking what is sweet, and terrified at the first sight of all that may seem more harsh or stern.

But a woman whose guidance is her Bible, whose sustainer is her God is not so. She feels so deeply responsible to Him for every hour of her time. Let us then in our every pursuit, first ponder well if we may lay it before our God, and upon it ask His blessing; and if we truly can, let us pursue it with all our heart, and soul, and might, if we would indeed, seek the loving tenderness of our God, the respect of the world, and of ourselves.

Also the winning and obliging gentleness in which Rebekah met the stranger's address, proceeded from the genuine kindness, the real politeness of an utterly unselfish heart. We, like Rebekah may know, indeed, nothing of the stranger with whom for a brief hour, we may be thrown. But that very ignorance should urge us to courtesy and kindliness. His course may have been one of care, his present lot a waste, and a gentle tone and kind manner may be to him as the flower in the desert, taking him a brief while from his own sad thoughts. Or it may be his lot has been and is all joy; and yet will kindliness be sweet, even as the flower in the festive hall, or in the pathway of the bride.

We are not placed here to live for ourselves alone, and more powerfully than anything else, if it spring from the heart, and has its birth in feeling, will a kind and gently manner rivet the links of brotherhood, bid us feel we are all children of our common Father, and so strengthen our love in Him and for each other.

We should not look abroad for opportunities to act as Rebekah did; but, like her, we shall find them without leaving our home, in the domestic and social intercourse of daily life. Let us ponder well upon these things, and, as daughters of Israel, make it our glory and our pride to do our simplest duty `with all our might'; our pleasure to scatter flowers on the path of all with whom we may be thrown; and, dwelling with meek and loving contentment in our appointed sphere.

oooOooo

Coming soon:

Esther

Naomi

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