Journeying

Today we consider another episode in the Journeys we find in Genesis. In chapter 24 we read of how Rebekah leaves her homeland of Haran to be Isaac’s wife in Canaan.

“The Lord, the God of heaven, who brought me out of my father’s household and my native land and who spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give this land’—he will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there…”

Genesis 24 describes how Rebekah came to be the answer to Abraham’s search a wife for Isaac from among Abraham's people back in Mesopotamia. Abraham is so desperate that he requires the servant to swear an oath binding himself to completing this task.  The servant receives a caveat: If he cannot find a woman willing to return to Canaan to marry Isaac, the servant will be released from his oath. 

The servant arrives in Mesopotamia at the town of Nahor and  prays asking that if any of the young women coming to draw water at the town well offer to water his ten camels, she will be the one God has appointed for Isaac.

Before the servant has finished his prayer, Rebekah enters the scene and does exactly as the servant has asked. He immediately gives expensive jewelry to Rebekah. He asks if her family has room to accommodate a visit from himself and his company, including their camels. He also asks who her father is. 

When Rebekah names her father, the servant knows exactly who she is. She is the granddaughter of Abraham's own brother Nahor. Rebekah hurries home and soon her brother rushes to the well to welcome this servant of their family member Abraham. Invited into the home of Rebekah's father Bethuel, the servant presents his mission, telling in great detail how the Lord led him to Rebekah. Finally, he asks if they will give Rebekah in marriage to his master Abraham's son Isaac. They agree, stating that they could do nothing else given what the servant has told them. 

After a brief negotiation the next morning, Rebekah agrees to leave that very day to travel with the servant to the land of Canaan. At the end of the journey, she meets Isaac, now 40, for the first time. He allows her to live in the tent of his late mother Sarah, and soon they are happily wed.

What a wonderful example of faith in action.

Lord Jesus Christ,
alive and at large in the world,
help me to follow and find you there today,
in the places where I work,
meet people,
spend money,
and make plans.
Take me as a disciple of your kingdom,
to see through your eyes,
and here the questions you are asking,
to welcome all others with your trust and truth,
and to change the things that contradict God's love,
by the power of the cross Amen