Rebekah
Today’s woman is Rebekah. Rebekah was the daughter of Bethuel son of Milcah who was the wife of Hahor the brother of Abraham. The Bible tells us she was very beautiful and attractive, chaste and modest and unmarried.
Abraham sent his most favored servant out to find a wife for his son Isaac…… Abraham sent specific instructions with Eliezer [the servant] on how to find this perfect wife. When Rebekah appears at the well Eliezer ran to meet her. The servant said to her “I pray you, let me drink a little water from your water jar”. Rebekah responded “Drink, my lord”; and she quickly let down her jar onto her hand and gave him a drink. After Elizer drank from her jar she told him “I will draw water fro your camels also, until they finish drinking”. Elizer then asked her after the camels had finished drinking whose daughter she was and asked to lodge at her father’s house. While sitting down to feast, Elizer told of his errand. After listening, her father and brother acknowledged their understanding of his mission and said to Elizer. “Rebekah is before you; taker her and go and let her be the wife of your master’s son, as the Lord has said”.
Isaac and Rebekah married. Isaac prayed much to the Lord for his wife because she was unable to bear children. Now this is the second woman we have found to have been barren. The Bible goes on to say that she too was given a miracle when the Lord granted Isaac’s prayer and Rebekah became pregnant. Not only was she with child but was destined to bear two children. She questioned the Lord as to state of her condition. He replies “The founders of two nations are in your womb, and the separation of two peoples has begun in your body; the one people shall be stronger than the other, and the elder shall serve the younger. Now put yourself in Rebekah’s position. You just find out that you are pregnant after having been barren all for your life, then she realizes that she is not just pregnant but pregnant with twins. But these twins will serve a much higher purpose. When Isaac and Rebekah married he was forty years old but when she delivered he was sixty years old. Twenty years of prayer had passed that Isaac prayed for an heir now his reward was compounded.
What have we learned about Rebekah? Yes, she was beautiful, chaste and modest but she was also a woman of amazingly strong faith. It was her faith that led God to fulfill her greatest desire to bear children. And so he opened her womb to house the founders of two nations. While she was unprepared to bear twins, she loved them both but not equally.
The fact that she did not love her sons equally caused problems when her sons grew up. As faithful as she was, why was she not strong enough to rejoice in both of her sons. Read more about her relationship with her sons in Genesis 25-23 through Genesis 28-40.
Through My Eyes 