Dear Christa—
God chose Rebekah for
Isaac. Abraham sent his servant to his homeland, to his family, to seek a wife
for his son. The servant prayed to the God of Abraham, who appears to be his
God too. He had depended on God to go before him, and he had. There the servant
found Rebekah.
Rebekah is a hard
worker—and a risk taker. She speaks to the stranger. She waters his camels. She
invites him home. She accepts his gifts; and, in a matter of hours, collects
her things and leaves her home forever—to marry a man she has never seen.
I wonder what she thought on
the journey back. Did she doubt herself? Did she wonder about this servant she
was traveling with? Whatever her thoughts, she had made her resolve. When she
sees Isaac approaching in the distance, she throws on the veil and is led away
by him, and Isaac loved her.
We don’t really know much
about Rebekah. Laban and their mother appear to be calculating, and Rebekah
is eventually the same in her actions of deceiving Isaac and sending Jacob away
to protect him, the blessing, and the birthright he’d stolen.
Rebekah had favored Jacob;
Isaac favored Esau.
There’s danger in that
picture. Favoritism in general and in families in particular has a way of
working to a bad end that God eventually has to wrestle out of us. Somehow, it
isn’t quite communicated to Esau what’s important to the family, and
Jacob—well, you know what they say about the apple not falling far from the
tree—at least on his mother’s side.
Not much is revealed about
the household of Isaac and Rebekah.
Two brothers who could have
been good friends, could have been a support for each other, could have been
iron that sharpens iron; but they were not. Parental favoritism slammed a wedge
between them…one that appears to have never quite loosened out.
Sometimes, the example is in
what not to do.
Yes, favoritism has a way of
working to a bad end that God eventually has to wrestle out of us.
—the parishioner who doesn’t do anything