Waiting on the Manger: Day 3
Rebekah
During this entire journey, Rebekah’s story is the most exciting story to me because her story was an unexpected treasure.
Just like Isaac, her story is sandwiched between two other generations: Sarah (Abraham’s wife) and Leah and Rachel (Jacob’s wives). I don’t really hear a lot of sermons talking about Rebekah and her life, but her story is worth examining. The “in-between” seasons might seem boring or unimportant, but God does significant work during those times.
We are introduced to Rebekah in Genesis 24, towards the end of Abraham’s life, when he asked his servant to go back to his “country and [his] kindred” to find a wife for Isaac. I thought this was interesting because the Bible does not spend a lot of time highlighting marriage arrangements, but the selection of a wife for Isaac was clearly an important matter.
Abraham told his servant that God would send “His angel before” him to make his mission successful. As he embarked on this journey, the servant prayed that God would grant him success, asking that “the girl to whom [he] say[s], ‘Please let down your jar that [he] may drink,’ and who responds, ‘Drink, and I will water your camels as well’—let her be the one You have appointed for Your servant Isaac.” Rebekah shows up by the spring and does exactly what the servant prayed for because she was the wife God appointed for Isaac.
I am going to pause for a moment here and talk about God’s appointed time. God exists outside of time. His ways are not our ways. He is a master storyteller. So, when we are in a season of waiting, it is often easy to think that God has forgotten us or that He is a masochist who delights in watching us suffer as we beg Him to intervene. When God is involved in your life and story, there will be seasons where you do not understand what He is doing or how His hand could be on your life. But in those seasons, you need to lean in and trust Him more. Trust His heart when you do not see His hands.
While Sarah was waiting on the promise of Isaac for all those years, I am sure she wondered why she had to experience barrenness, especially when her servant, Hagar, was able to conceive a child for her own husband! Sarah must have felt shame, pain, and bitterness during those years of waiting. At the old age of 90, Sarah finally got to hold her promised child. But while she was waiting and experiencing that pain, God was behind the scenes, writing her story and the story of her child, Isaac.
Rebekah was appointed by God to be Isaac’s wife. Let’s take a look at her lineage in Genesis 22. Abraham’s brother Nahor had a son named Bethuel, and Bethuel was the father of Rebekah. While Abraham and Sarah were waiting on a child, Abraham’s brother was busy having kids and grandkids. But God’s hand was upon this because, at the right time, Rebekah was born—the appointed one for Isaac.
Romans 8:28 says, “All things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose.” God was working and orchestrating everything for Isaac’s good.
Okay, so back to the story: Rebekah agrees to marry Isaac and returns with the servant. Isaac takes her as his wife, and yay, they are married! You would think that because God appointed their marriage, it would be such a blissful experience. But Genesis 25 tells us that this was not the case. Similarly to her mother-in-law, Rebekah was unable to have children. Isaac prays to God, God hears him, and Rebekah conceives.
However, her pregnancy was not a blissful experience either. She experienced difficulties and pain during her pregnancy—so much so that she said, “Why is this happening to me?” After inquiring of the Lord for herself, God declared this 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.”
This revelation to Rebekah was extremely interesting to me because Rebekah was the only matriarch to whom God seemingly revealed His plans. We don’t see any records of God speaking to Sarah, Leah, or Rachel about what He planned to do with Abraham’s family. He revealed His plans to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob alike, but not to their wives. Yet, God revealed His plans to Rebekah.
Naturally, this made me wonder: why Rebekah? Why did she gain insight into God’s plans like this? The parable of the shrewd manager came to mind. Jesus once told a parable about “a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions.” When the rich man confronted his manager and basically gave him notice of termination, the manager quickly made a plan to use his access to the rich man’s accounts to set himself up for life after his termination. He settled debts owed to the rich man for less than the actual debt amount. When the rich man found out about this plan, he commended his servant for acting shrewdly or cleverly. Jesus then goes on to say that the children of light need to be more clever in dealing with people.
I always wrestled with this parable because I was like, “Jesus wants us to be sneaky and deceitful or something?” But that was not the lesson. Jesus basically implored us to use wisdom in our dealings. The shrewd manager made a clever plan to take care of himself after he was terminated. We should also use clever methods in our dealings with men.
Relating this principle back to Rebekah, I wonder if she was appointed to be Isaac’s wife and the mother of Esau and Jacob because God knew she would deal shrewdly with her affairs. I wonder if God revealed His plans to her because He knew how cleverly she would act to ensure that she lived her life in pursuit of His promise.
When Isaac was getting old and ready to die, Rebekah was the one who devised the plan for Jacob to get Isaac’s blessing. She cooked the meal she knew Isaac would love, she took animal skins and put them on Jacob so Isaac would think he was touching Esau. Rebekah told Jacob that she would bear the curse of their deceit if necessary, and she also advised Jacob to run away to Laban, her brother, after Esau threatened to kill him.
Rebekah’s shrewdness led to Jacob receiving the blessing, in fulfillment of God’s word to Rebekah.
One might wonder: why did Rebekah go through all of this deceit and scheming? Was it necessary? The answer lies in the question she asked herself during her pregnancy: “Why is this happening to me?” In that question, we get a glimpse into Rebekah’s mindset. She wanted to know the purpose of her pain. She wanted to know why she had to endure 20 years of barrenness and, when the time came for her to conceive, why her pregnancy was laden with struggle and pain.When God revealed His plans to her, Rebekah found purpose in her pain. She found purpose in her struggle.
So, looking forward to Jesus, how would Rebekah view the birth of Jesus? She would see Him as the ultimate fulfillment of God’s word to her. To Rebekah, Jesus was the purpose in her struggle—the purpose for her pain.