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Rebekah-A Most Impressive Woman of God

Listening to most explicators/preachers/teachers of the bible, you’d think Rebecca, the wife of Isaac was just a scheming mother who deceived her husband for the selfish goal of helping her favorite child. This is wrong, unbiblical, and highly misleading for young women needing a mentor or example for godly living as a woman. Rebecca is one of the most godly women you’ll find in scripture, and women will find in her a model for life as a wife and mother. It is a bias based on a moral standard that modern moralistic Christians claim is higher than God’s standard in the bible.

Rebecca, at an extremely young age, understood the value of following Christ and seeking first the kingdom. She was kind, a servant of extraordinary capacity, and sought God and His kingdom above all. How can I say that? It is clear that Abraham’s family, even those who stayed behind in the land from which he came, was more godly than anyone else Abraham knew of. He sent his servant there to get a wife for Isaac: “But thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac.” Gen. 24:4. Abraham strictly forbad his servant from taking a wife for Isaac from anywhere else. “. . . thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell: . . . .” Gen. 24:3.

The servant of Abraham sought a woman who was of a servant heart, for he prayed:

“O LORD God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day, and shew kindness unto my master Abraham. Behold, I stand [here] by the well of water; and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water: And let it come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink; and she shall say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also: [let the same be] she [that] thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac; and thereby shall I know that thou hast shewed kindness unto my master.”

Gen. 24:12-14. And that is exactly what Rebecca did when she arrived, directly after he prayed this prayer. You don’t feed a camel water just to fill his stomach. To do that for just one camel would be quite a job, so doing so for ten camels was an even greater job. But camels don’t just drink to fill their stomachs; they fill their humps also. Rebecca offered to go the extra mile for Abraham’s servant, a total stranger by the way.

But that servant heart is not all that commends Rebecca. When he saw that his prayer was answered, he gave Rebecca two golden bracelets and a golden earring. To come with no dowry would have been a waste of time on the part of the servant. The only other assurance Rebecca had of the quality of family into which she was marrying was the servant’s statement: “And he said, Blessed [be] the LORD God of my master Abraham, who hath not left destitute my master of his mercy and his truth: I [being] in the way, the LORD led me to the house of my master’s brethren.” Gen. 24:17

Upon the servant explaining the prayer and all that happened to Rebecca and her family, particularly her brother Laban, Laban responded:

Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, The thing proceedeth from the LORD: 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.”

Gen. 24:50-1. The very next day, Laban and Rebecca’s mother engaged in this conversation with the servant:

And her brother and her mother said, Let the damsel abide with us [a few] days, at the least ten; after that she shall go. And he said unto them, Hinder me not, seeing the LORD hath prospered my way; send me away that I may go to my master. And they said, We will call the damsel, and enquire at her mouth.”

Gen. 24:55-7. For some reason, they were trying to delay Rebecca’s departure. Maybe they wanted some gift from the servant or were sentimental about her departing.

Rebecca, who in that culture and time was probably a young teenager, had this attitude: “And they called Rebekah, and said unto her, Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go.” She was like Peter and John, who when called by Jesus to follow Him, dropped their nets and followed. She left her family, her home, the land she knew to go to a strange land about a thousand miles away, to a husband she’d never met, and marry into the family of Abraham, the friend of God. She looked for a kingdom not of the familiar, not of this world, you could say. She walked by faith.