The most damaging phrase in the language is: 'It's always been done that way.

Become aglow with the spirit. Move forward today, serving the lord. Rejoice the Holy Spirit so that others may recognize this joy in you. Remember to pray, and remain patient. Today’s trials and tribulations will reveal a welcome solution or lesson tomorrow. Hold tightly to hope, as the future with our God is bright. 

[Pī'late] — one armed with a dart. The surname of the fifth Roman procurator of Judea, who was recalled by Tiberius and banished to Vienna, where tradition says he committed suicide in 41 a.d. (Matt. 27).

The Man Who Sinned Against Conscience

What a different story we would have had if Pilate had obeyed his own conscience and also had followed his wife’s intuition and advice. Pilate held office for some twelve years, and by his covetous and cruel government caused himself to be hated both by the Jews and Samaritans. His first name, Pontius, means, “belonging to the sea.”

What a man he was for shirking responsibilities! He turned Christ over to the Jewish authorities (John 18:31: – ³¹ Pilate said, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.” “But we have no right to execute anyone,” they objected). and then to Herod (Luke 23:7: - ⁷ When he learned that Jesus was under Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time). When Christ was returned to him, he proposed to inflict a minor penalty (Luke 23:22: - ²² For the third time he spoke to them: “Why? What crime has this man committed? I have found in him no grounds for the death penalty. Therefore I will have him punished and then release him”). When he could not silence the cry of the mob for the blood of Christ, he directed attention to Barabbas (Matt. 27:17: – ¹⁷ So when the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, “Which one do you want me to release to you: Jesus Barabbas, or Jesus who is called the Messiah?”), and when the die was cast, engaged in a hypocritical ceremony (Matt. 27:24: - ²⁴ When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!”).

Some authorities affirm that the name Pilate is from “Pilus,” a felt cap which was worn by a slave as an emblem of liberty.

The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. I will build you up again, and you, Virgin Israel, will be rebuilt. Again you will take up your timbrels and go out to dance with the joyful. Again you will plant vineyards on the hills of Samaria; the farmers will plant them and enjoy their fruit. There will be a day when watchmen cry out on the hills of Ephraim, ?Come, let us go up to Zion, to the LORD our God.” This is what the LORD says: ‘Sing with joy for Jacob; shout for the foremost of the nations. Make your praises heard, and say, ? LORD, save your people, the remnant of Israel.’ See, I will bring them from the land of the north and gather them from the ends of the earth. Among them will be the blind and the lame, expectant mothers and women in labor; a great throng will return. They will come with weeping; they will pray as I bring them back. I will lead them beside streams of water on a level path where they will not stumble, because I am Israel’s father, and Ephraim is my fi rstborn son. ‘Hear the word of the LORD, you nations; proclaim it in distant coastlands: ?He who scattered Israel will gather them and will watch over his flock like a shepherd.’ For the LORD will deliver Jacob and redeem them from the hand of those stronger than they. They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion; they will rejoice in the bounty of the LORD–the grain, the new wine and the olive oil, the young of the flocks and herds. They will be like a well-watered garden, and they will sorrow no more. Then young women will dance and be glad, young men and old as well. I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow. I will satisfy the priests with abundance, and my people will be filled with my bounty,’ declares the LORD.

This is the way God put it: ‘They found grace out in the desert, these people who survived the killing . Israel, out looking for a place to rest, met God out looking for them!’ God told them, ‘I’ve never quit loving you and never will. Expect love, love, and more love! And so now I’ll start over with you and build you up again, dear virgin Israel. You’ll resume your singing, grabbing tambourines and joining the dance. You’ll go back to your old work of planting vineyards on the Samaritan hillsides, And sit back and enjoy the fruit–oh, how you’ll enjoy those harvests! The time’s coming when watchmen will call out from the hilltops of Ephraim: ‘On your feet! Let’s go to Zion, go to meet our God!” Oh yes, God says so: ‘Shout for joy at the top of your lungs for Jacob! Announce the good news to the number-one nation! Raise cheers! Sing praises. Say, ‘God has saved his people, saved the core of Israel.’ ‘Watch what comes next: ‘I’ll bring my people back from the north country And gather them u p from the ends of the earth, gather those who’ve gone blind And those who are lame and limping, gather pregnant women, Even the mothers whose birth pangs have started, bring them all back, a huge crowd! ‘Watch them come! They’ll come weeping for joy as I take their hands and lead them, Lead them to fresh flowing brooks, lead them along smooth, uncluttered paths. Yes, it’s because I’m Israel’s Father and Ephraim’s my firstborn son! -’Hear this, nations! God’s Message! Broadcast this all over the world! Tell them, ‘The One who scattered Israel will gather them together again. From now on he’ll keep a careful eye on them, like a shepherd with his flock.’ I, God, will pay a stiff ransom price for Jacob; I’ll free him from the grip of the Babylonian bully. The people will climb up Zion’s slopes shouting with joy, their faces beaming because of God’s bounty–Grain and wine and oil, flocks of sheep, herds of cattl e. Their lives will be like a well-watered garden, never again left to dry up. Young women will dance and be happy, young men and old men will join in. I’ll convert their weeping into laughter, lavishing comfort, invading their grief with joy. I’ll make sure that their priests get three square meals a day and that my people have more than enough.” God’s Decree.

Dear Father, thank you for your goodness and faithfulness in my life. Help me keep my heart and mind focused on you. No matter what storm I may be facing, I trust that you are working behind the scenes and ordering my steps to the promise land you have for me.

In Jesus’ Name
Amen

Psalm 23:1-6

¹ The LORD is my shepherd,
I lack nothing.

² He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,

³ he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
for his name’s sake.

⁴ Even though I walk
through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

⁵ You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.

⁶ Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want” (v. 1). That must be one of the most familiar quotations from the Old Testament. Everybody has some kind of shepherd. Jeremiah said, “It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps” (Jer. 10:23). We are like lost sheep, not able to guide our own lives. We need a shepherd. Who is your shepherd?

When the Lord is your Shepherd, what will happen in your life? First, you will live a day at a time. “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life” (v. 6). Psalm 23 talks about all the days of our lives, and they are lived one day at a time when the Lord is our Shepherd. Someone has said that the average person is being crucified between two thieves–the regrets of yesterday and the worries of tomorrow. Consequently, he can’t enjoy today.

Second, when the Lord is your Shepherd, you listen for His voice. In John 10:27 the Lord Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice.” The Shepherd does not drive his sheep from behind. Rather, He calls them from ahead. How do we listen to the Lord’s voice? Through the Word of God.

Third, when the Lord is your Shepherd, you must expect changes. You may have green pastures and still waters. Then you go through the valley of the shadow of death. You have a table in the presence of your enemies. Then you live in the house of the Lord (heaven) forever. You will experience changes in life. Expect them; don’t be afraid of them.

When you follow the Shepherd, the future is your friend, because the Lord is going before you. Live one day at a time, following the Shepherd, and you won’t have to be afraid.

Some people fail to adapt to life’s inevitable changes. As a believer, you need never fear the future. Trust the Shepherd, who goes before you, and listen to His Word. Commit this day to the Lord and thank Him for His guidance.

When Lars and I lived in Georgia he took me one Saturday night to a place called “Swampland” in the little country town of Toomsboro. It comprised a barnlike eating place and a barnlike auditorium where there was a gospel singing jamboree from four until midnight.

As we sat at a long table with a lot of people we didn’t know, eating our catfish and hush puppies (there wasn’t much else on the menu), we noticed an odd person standing by the fireplace. He was a kind of middle-aged hippie. He had long gray hair like a broom. He was wearing baggy patched pants, a jacket with fringes (some of them on purpose and some just tatters), a pistol belt, and a hat that was so greasy Lars said it would burn for a week if it ever caught fire. Every now and then he gave the logs on the fire a poke or two, but seemed to be otherwise unoccupied.

When the manager of the restaurant came by, table-hopping, we asked about the local character.

“You mean old Rusty Russell there? You don’t know Rusty Russell?”

We said no. We asked if he was the official fire-poker.

“Nope.”

“What does he do?”

“Do? Don’t do nothin’. Come with the place.” The manager went on to tell us a little more. Seems he was from Alabama originally. His old daddy used to live with him, and when he died, Rusty wanted to bury him back home in Alabama. Dressed him up in his Sunday suit, put a Sunday hat on his head, belted him into the front seat of his old Ford car, and headed out of town.

”Health authorities caught up with him, though. It was summertime. No way was they gonna let him drive that corpse outa state.

“Old Rusty had a wife once, too. Next-door neighbor took a shine to ‘er Rusty goes over, says, ‘See you like ma wife.’

” ‘Yup,’ he says.

” ‘Want ‘er?’ Rusty says.

” ‘Yup,’ he says.

” ‘What’ll you give me for ‘er?’

” ‘Stove,’ he says.

“Old Rusty says ‘I’ll take it.’

“He did. Traded his wife for a wood stove. Good one, too. Rusty still uses that stove, by golly. Got a good deal. Better’n the neighbor got, I reckon.”

We loved that story. We did not love the story we heard last week–three stories, in fact, depressingly familiar, of three ministers of the Gospel who, like Rusty’s neighbor, let their eyes wander to their neighbors’ wives. All three liked what they saw next door (or, more accurately, in one of the pews of their churches) and, hearkening to current commercials (“You can have it all,” “Do yourself a favor,” “Have it your way”) opted out.

Among the processes accelerating the breakdown of human structures is the flooding of imagery, produced by the mass media, “sweeping us into a chaotic and unassimilable whirlpool of influences,” writes Dr. James Houston in I Believe in the Creator (Eerdmans, 1980). “We are overwhelmed by undigested data, with endlessly incomplete alternatives to every sphere of living.”

Christians, encouraged by the example of Christian leaders everywhere, have begun to regard divorce as an option. There is nothing new about marital difficulties. If a man who is a sinner chooses as a life partner a woman who is a sinner they will run into trouble of some sort, depend upon it. Paul was realistic about this in 1 Corinthians 7: “Those who marry will have worldly troubles and I would spare you that.”

Jill Briscoe says that she and her husband Stuart are incompatible. She told a whole audience this. “And we live with incompatible children and an incompatible dog and an incompatible cat.” The point she makes is: when it comes right down to it, aren’t all human beings incompatible? It takes grace for any of them to get along on an every-day-of-the-year basis. The apostle Peter, who was married, reminded us that a husband and wife are “heirs together of the grace of life.” God knows our frame, remembers we’re nothing but dust, and we need grace, lots of grace. This God supplies–plenteous, sufficient, enough–to those willing to receive.

If we receive that grace with thanksgiving he will enable us to make the sacrifice of self without which no human relationship will work very well. The refusal of grace is like the refusal to put oil in an engine. The machinery will break down. Prolonged friction between the parts will result in the whole thing’s grinding to a halt. When, for lack of grace in one or both partners, a marriage grinds to a halt, the “world,” coming at us loud, clear, and without interruption via television and other media, persuades us that we have plenty of alternatives. The Church, always in dancer of pollution by the spirit of the world, begins to choose the proffered alternatives in preference to grace, to replace “I believe” with “I feel.”

There is an Eternal Word which has been spoken. For thousands of years Christians have taken their stand on that Word, have driven into it all the stakes of their faith and hope, believing it to be a liberating Word, a saving Word. They have arranged their lives within its clear and bounded context.

The trouble with television is that it has no context. We sit in our living rooms or stand, as I often do, dicing carrots in our kitchens with the Sony on the counter. The program comes to us from New York or Hollywood or Bydgoszcz or Virginia Beach. The set–a corner of an elegant living room, a city street, a desk high in some skyscraper, or perhaps Cypress Gardens or a “crystal” cathedral–seems fake even if it is real. It has nothing to do with us or with what is being spoken. There is no context which embraces both my life and theirs, or it is “the context of no-context,” as George W. S. Trow argued brilliantly in a New Yorker article (November 17, 1980):

The work of television is to establish false contexts and to chronicle the unravelling of existing contexts; finally to establish the context of no-context and to chronicle it….The New History was the record of the expression of demographically significant preferences: the lunge of demography here as opposed to there….Nothing was judged, only counted. The preferences of the child carried as much weight as the preferences of an adult, so the refining of preferences was subtracted from what it was necessary for a man to learn to do.

Divorce has become “demographically significant” among Christians. So have too many other things. It is because we have forgotten that our context is the Kingdom of God, not the kingdom of this world (which is the kingdom of self). In the Kingdom of God the alternatives are not boundless, not so long as we live in this mortal coil. You can’t have it all. You are not there to do yourself a favor. You may not have it your way. You opted out of all that when you made up your mind to follow a Master who himself had relinquished all rights, all equality with the Father, and his own will as well. You are called not to be served but to serve, and you can’t serve two masters. You can’t operate in two opposing kingdoms. These kingdoms are the alternatives. Settle it once for all. It is, quite simply, a life and-death choice. Pay no attention to what is demographically significant.

I receive a good many letters from young people who are utterly at sea about their life’s choices college, career, marriage. They are faced with too many alternatives. The seeming limitlessness overwhelms, unsettles, often even paralyzes them. (Can I have marriage and a career? Can I have marriage and a career and babies? Can I be really feminine and be an initiator? Can I be really a man and not the head of my home?) Twenty years ago they were faced with a whole cupboard full of packaged breakfast foods and were asked by a well-meaning but unwise mother what they wanted for breakfast. They didn’t know. They have been going to McDonald’s ever since, gobbling up those (how many billions is it now?) hamburgers with or without onion, with or without mustard, relish, catsup, everything. They still think they can have it all, and they still don’t know what they want. Why not stop bothering about what you want, I suggest to them. Find out what your Master wants.

The three ministers think they know. They married the wrong woman. A youthful mistake. They’ve grown apart now. The children will not be hurt if they ”handle” it properly, they say. They owe it to themselves to take this daring and creative step. God wants them to be happy. It’s a leap and a risk and there’s a price to pay, but look how liberating, how stretching, how redemptive. Why be threatened by traditional morality? Why be hung up? The other woman has understood and affirmed and fulfilled them as the poor wife was never equipped to do an–a line from an old song reminds them–”to waste our lives would be a sin.”

Twirl those television dials. Look, for a minute, at the suffering of the world on the evening news. Twirl it off. Look at the beautiful people if you want to. There they are. You can be beautiful too. You can do what they do, go where they go. TWA will take you up, up and away. Delta is ready when you are. Become a legend. Charm a holiday party. Enhance your fragrance image. Give to thyself. Wear the Mark of Success. Try everything. Experience all the thrills.

Now it may be the flower for me
Is this beneath my nose,
But how shall I tell unless I smell
The Carthaginian rose?

So wrote Edna St. Vincent Millay (Collected Lyrics, Washington Square Press) decades ago. In the 1980s the possibilities seem even more endless and enticing, the unreached corners of the world ever more reachable, the pleasures of sin more innocuous. In fact, we suspect, they are not even luxuries. They have become, for the self-respecting man or woman, requirements.

There is plenty of room on the road that leads to that kingdom, and many go that way, but it is still true that the gate that leads to Life is small and the road is narrow and those who find it are few.

I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.

There will never be another like it.  No matter what happens today, it's up to you to make the most of it.

The Woman Whose Favoritism Brought Sorrow

Scripture References

Genesis 22:23: – ²³ Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. Milkah bore these eight sons to Abraham’s brother Nahor.

Gen. 22:24: – ²⁴ His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also had sons: Tebah, Gaham, Tahash and Maakah.

Gen. 25:20-28: – ²⁰ and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram and sister of Laban the Aramean.
²¹ Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant.
²² The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord.
²³ The Lord said 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. ”
²⁴ When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb.
²⁵ The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so they named him Esau.
²⁶ After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.
²⁷ The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents.
²⁸ Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

Gen. 26:6-35: – ⁶ So Isaac stayed in Gerar.
⁷ When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister, ” because he was afraid to say, “She is my wife.” He thought, “The men of this place might kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful.”
⁸ When Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelek king of the Philistines looked down from a window and saw Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah.
⁹ So Abimelek summoned Isaac and said, “She is really your wife! Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’? ”
Isaac answered him, “Because I thought I might lose my life on account of her.”
¹⁰ Then Abimelek said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the men might well have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.”
¹¹ So Abimelek gave orders to all the people: “Anyone who harms this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”
¹² Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the Lord blessed him.
¹³ The man became rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy.
¹⁴ He had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him.
¹⁵ So all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the time of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up, filling them with earth.
¹⁶ Then Abimelek said to Isaac, “Move away from us; you have become too powerful for us. ”
¹⁷ So Isaac moved away from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar, where he settled.
¹⁸ Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died, and he gave them the same names his father had given them.
¹⁹ Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and discovered a well of fresh water there.
²⁰ But the herders of Gerar quarreled with those of Isaac and said, “The water is ours!” So he named the well Esek,because they disputed with him.
²¹ Then they dug another well, but they quarreled over that one also; so he named it Sitnah.
²² He moved on from there and dug another well, and no one quarreled over it. He named it Rehoboth, saying, “Now the Lord has given us room and we will flourish in the land.”
²³ From there he went up to Beersheba.
²⁴ That night the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bless you and will increase the number of your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham.”
²⁵ Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord. There he pitched his tent, and there his servants dug a well.
²⁶ Meanwhile, Abimelek had come to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his personal adviser and Phicol the commander of his forces.
²⁷ Isaac asked them, “Why have you come to me, since you were hostile to me and sent me away? ”
²⁸ They answered, “We saw clearly that the Lord was with you; so we said, ‘There ought to be a sworn agreement between us’—between us and you. Let us make a treaty with you
²⁹ that you will do us no harm, just as we did not harm you but always treated you well and sent you away peacefully. And now you are blessed by the Lord.”
³⁰ Isaac then made a feast for them, and they ate and drank.
³¹ Early the next morning the men swore an oath to each other. Then Isaac sent them on their way, and they went away peacefully.
³² That day Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well they had dug. They said, “We’ve found water!”
³³ He called it Shibah, and to this day the name of the town has been Beersheba.

Jacob Takes Esau’s Blessing

³⁴ When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite.
³⁵ They were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah.

Gen. 26:27: – ²⁷ Isaac asked them, “Why have you come to me, since you were hostile to me and sent me away?”

Gen. 28:5: – ⁵ Then Isaac sent Jacob on his way, and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, who was the mother of Jacob and Esau.

Gen. 29:12: – ¹² He had told Rachel that he was a relative of her father and a son of Rebekah. So she ran and told her father.

Gen. 35:8: – ⁸ Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak outside Bethel. So it was named Allon Bakuth.

Gen. 49:31: – ³¹ There Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried, there Isaac and his wife Rebekah were buried, and there I buried Leah.

Romans 9:6-16: – ⁶ It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.
⁷ Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”
⁸ In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.
⁹ For this was how the promise was stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”
¹⁰ Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac.
¹¹ Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad —in order that God’s purpose in election might stand:
¹² not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”
¹³ Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
¹⁴ What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all!
¹⁵ For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
¹⁶ It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.

Name Meaning  — Rebekah is another name with an animal connection. Although not belonging to any animal in particular, it has reference to animals of a limited class and in a peculiar condition. The name means a “tie rope for animals” or “a noose” in such a rope. Its root is found in a noun meaning a “hitching place” or “stall” and is connected with a “tied-up calf or lamb,” a young animal peculiarly choice and fat. Applied to a female, the figure suggests her beauty by means of which men are snared or bound. Thus another meaning of Rebekah is that of “captivating.” If, then, Rebekah means “a noosed cord,” the loop was firmly around Isaac’s neck. When Isaac took her as his bride he forgot his grief for his dead mother, and lived happily with his wife for twenty years during which time they had no children.

Family Connections — Rebekah is first mentioned in the genealogy of the descendants of Nahor, Abraham’s brother
Genesis 22:20-24: – ²⁰ Some time later Abraham was told, “Milkah is also a mother; she has borne sons to your brother Nahor:
²¹ Uz the firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel (the father of Aram),
²² Kesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph and Bethuel. ”
²³ Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. Milkah bore these eight sons to Abraham’s brother Nahor.
²⁴ His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also had sons: Tebah, Gaham, Tahash and Maakah.

When the pilgrims set out from the Ur of the Chaldees, Nahor was one of the party, and settled down at Charran where Terah, his father, died. Among Nahor’s sons was Bethuel who, by an unknown wife, became the father of Rebekah, the sister of Laban. Rebekah married Isaac the son of Abraham, by whom she had two sons, Esau and Jacob.

The story of Isaac and Rebekah as a love lyric full of romance and tender beauty has been retold times without number, and is a charming record that never loses its appeal. Such an idyllic narrative is almost too familiar to need rehearsal, and too simple to require comment, yet because it constitutes one of the most romantic scenes in the Bible, its “moving scenes, so fresh and artless in their old world simplicity” have a pertinent appeal for present-day society. Ancient Bible histories with their arrestive characters and remarkable sequence of events and fortunes never fail to leave an indelible imprint on our hearts. The chapter recording how a wife was found for Isaac presents a link in the chain of events leading up to—

That far-off Divine event

To which the whole creation moves.

Through the marriage of Isaac and Rebekah, Abraham saw that day of Christ in which the church should become the Bride of Christ.

Almost two millenniums after the days of the patriarch whom God spoke of as His “friend,” there were those who considered it a privilege to belong to the race having Abraham as its fountainhead. To be “a son of Abraham” or a lineal descendant of such a grand, great old divine was an honor, but Isaac enjoyed a still greater advantage for Abraham was his own natural father. What a rich dowry of blessing must have been Isaac’s because of such a close relationship. He had the inspiration of his father’s godliness, and the benefit of his prayers and wise counsels—even in the matter of securing the right kind of wife.

Abraham’s opposition to idolatry is seen in his request that the partner for his son, Isaac, must not be “of the daughters of the Canaanites” (Gen. 24:3: - ³ I want you to swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living). As he had refused a grave for his wife, Sarah, amongst the sepulchers of the Hittites, so a wife for their son must not be sought among their daughters. Thus it came about that Abraham’s trusted, godly servant, Eliezer, was divinely guided to Haran where Nahor, Abraham’s brother settled. Too feeble to make the journey himself, Abraham gave his servant the most careful instructions, and impressed upon him the solemn significance of his mission. Confident as to the result of the search for a suitable wife for Isaac, Abraham assured the earthly seeker that he would be guided by God’s angel. Eliezer, the intelligent, prudent, obedient and praying servant went forth. Seeking a sign of divine guidance, not to prove God’s faithfulness, but for his own direction in the choice of a woman of character as a wife for his master’s son, the servant came to Nahor’s well at Nahor, and saw in Rebekah who had come to draw water the answer to his prayer and quest.

Eliezer lost no time in telling Rebekah who he was, and from whom he had come, and the purpose of his search. He revealed his tact in the way he wooed and won the heart of Rebekah. The gifts he bestowed upon her and the good things he said of his master, secured the favor of Rebekah’s family who gave its consent to the proposed marriage. Faced with instant departure from her dear ones, Rebekah is given her choice—“Wilt thou go with this man?” Without hesitation, feeling that she, too, was following the leading of God, as Eliezer had, Rebekah replied in a firm voice, “I will go.”

The caravan set out for Abraham’s home, and now we come to a superb touch in the romantic story. Isaac was out in the fields at eventide for his usual period of meditation. He saw the approaching camels and sensed the success of Eliezer in the choice of a wife. Reaching Isaac, Rebekah, according to custom, veiled her face, and the end of this exquisite poem of the meeting of bride and bridegroom is stated in most expressive terms—“Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her.”

Marrying “sight unseen” is a most dangerous venture, but in this case it was successful because “the angel of the Lord” had directed the events leading up to the union. When Rebekah saw the handsome, mild-mannered and meditative Isaac, her heart went out to him. As for Isaac, a man of forty, and some twenty years older than Rebekah, he instantly loved the most beautiful woman he beheld, and she remained his only love. Some matrimonial matches have been described as “Lucifer Matches,” because of clash of temperament and temper, but the marriage of Isaac and Rebekah was certainly one “made in heaven.” There would be fewer broken homes if only young people looking for partners would seek the guidance of God as the servant of Abraham did. We agree with Alexander Whyte when he says of the ancient record of the circumstances leading to the securing of a wife for Isaac—

A sweeter chapter was never written than the twenty-fourth of Genesis…. The picture of aged Abraham swearing his most trusty servant about a bride for his son Isaac; that servant’s journey to Padan-aram in the far east; Rebekah, first at the well, and then in her mother’s house; and then her first sight of her future husband—that long chapter is a perfect gem of ancient authorship.

As with other pairs in the Bible, it is hardly possible to separate Isaac from Rebekah whose lives were so closely knit together. Yet let us see if we can sketch a portrait of Rebekah herself.

Her Character

As a damsel, that is, a maiden around twenty years of age, Rebekah was “fair to look upon,” meaning that she had an unaffected Oriental beauty. She was a virgin, and had a childlike simplicity. There was no trace of wantonness in her. As with her mother-in-law, Sarah, beauty carried its dangers. During his sojourn in Gerar, Isaac feared lest the physical charms of his wife might excite the desire of the king of Gerar and so he lied. Thus Isaac passed Rebekah off as his sister—a course of action which might have had dire consequences

Genesis 26:6-16: – ⁶ So Isaac stayed in Gerar.
⁷ When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister, ” because he was afraid to say, “She is my wife.” He thought, “The men of this place might kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful.”
⁸ When Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelek king of the Philistines looked down from a window and saw Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah.
⁹ So Abimelek summoned Isaac and said, “She is really your wife! Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’? ”
Isaac answered him, “Because I thought I might lose my life on account of her.”
¹⁰ Then Abimelek said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the men might well have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.”
¹¹ So Abimelek gave orders to all the people: “Anyone who harms this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”
¹² Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the Lord blessed him.
¹³ The man became rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy.
¹⁴ He had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him.
¹⁵ So all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the time of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up, filling them with earth.
¹⁶ Then Abimelek said to Isaac, “Move away from us; you have become too powerful for us.”

He fell into the same error as his father before him (see Sarah). Andrew Fuller says, “The falls of those that have gone before us are like so many rocks on which others have been split; and the recording of them is like placing buoys over them for the security of future mariners.” But in the story of Isaac the buoy served no beneficial purpose.

Beautiful Rebekah had been taken by Abimelech, but one day as he looked out of the window he saw Isaac caressing Rebekah, and he knew that he had been deceived. Isaac’s untruthfulness was discovered, and the heir of God’s promises was rebuked by a heathen king for his lying and deception. In the providence of God, Abimelech, an idolater, was made the protector of the child of promise (see Psalm 17:13: - ¹³ Rise up, Lord, confront them, bring them down; with your sword rescue me from the wicked). As “an amiable and lovely girl,” as her name suggests, she was industrious, for although she was a member of a family of standing she was not afraid to soil her hands. The hard work of drawing and carrying water, the provision she made for Eliezer’s camels, and the meal she prepared, speak of Rebekah as one who did not shun domestic duties. That she was a woman of faith is evident from what Paul says of her as being the recipient of a direct revelation from the Lord regarding universal blessing through her favorite Jacob
Romans 9:12: – ¹² not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”

Rebekah’s best qualities come out in the simple yet heartwarming narrative describing her response to Eliezer’s approach, in her service to him, and in her willingness to believe and act upon all he had told her. In his remarkable cameo of Rebekah, George Matheson uses the following terms or expressions—“a fine manner” &–; “remarkable tact”—“a sunbeam to her household”—“a very beautiful young woman, with the gift of physical charm which was apt to produce self-consciousness”—“the gift of intellectual sympathy” — “Rebekah’s morning ray is a ray of sympathetic insight.”

Modest and meek, frank and open, ready kindness, great energy and faith, graciousness matching her physical charm, describe Rebekah. When she became a mother she revealed how masterful and clever she could be—a direct contrast to Isaac who was probably more simple, slow of wit, and mild of manner than his wife. The lines of Wordsworth can express Isaac’s feelings when for the first time he gazed upon the lovely Rebekah and came to experience her comforting love as she filled the empty place in his heart because of his mother’s death.

She was a phantom of delight

When first she gleamed upon my sight;

A lovely apparition, sent

To be a moment’s ornament;

Her eyes as stars of twilight fair,

Like twilight’s, too, her dusky hair.

But all things else about her drawn

From May-time and the cheerful dawn.

A dancing shape, an image gay,

To haunt, to startle, and waylay.

I saw her upon nearer view,

A spirit, yet a woman too!

Her Children

Motherhood came to Rebekah somewhat late in life when Isaac was an aging man. For twenty years she had been childless, and conscious of God’s promise that the Abrahamic Covenant could not be broken, Isaac entreated God that his long barren wife might conceive. He graciously answered his earnest intercession

Genesis 25:19-34: – ¹⁹ This is the account of the family line of Abraham’s son Isaac. Abraham became the father of Isaac,
²⁰ and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram and sister of Laban the Aramean.
²¹ Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant.
²² The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord.
²³ The Lord said 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.”
²⁴ When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb.
²⁵ The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so they named him Esau.
²⁶ After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.
²⁷ The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents.
²⁸ Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
²⁹ Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished.
³⁰ He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom.)
³¹ Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright. ”
³² “Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?”
³³ But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob.
³⁴ Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left.
So Esau despised his birthright.

As his prayer was in the line of God’s purpose, it was sure of an answer (1 John 5:14: - ¹⁴ This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us). The years of waiting on the part of Isaac and Rebekah show that God has His own time for the fulfillment of His purpose.

Like coral strands beneath the sea,

So strongly built and chaste,

The plans of God, unfolding, show

No signs of human haste.

In an age of almost universal polygamy, Isaac took no handmaid, concubine, or second wife. Rebekah and he were bound together by the bonds of a mutual affection, and although childless, yet became the parents of two sons who were destined to be the progenitors of different nations. But when Rebekah became the mother of twins—the first of two Bible women mentioned as giving birth to twins—the other was Tamar (Genesis 38:27: -²⁷ When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb) — somehow she changed and was a different character from the young bride who rode south so gaily to meet her lover in Canaan, as our next glimpse of her will show.

The opposite characters of Rebekah’s twins, Esau and Jacob, brought into sharp focus the dark side of their mother. As Esau was the first to emerge from her womb he had the precedence and was thus the heir of two things, namely “the sovereignty and the priesthood, of the clan—the birthright and the blessing. The birthright was the right of succession…. The blessing was something to be given during the lifetime of the father.” We learn that as the boys grew, “Esau was a cunning (skillful) hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents.” At the time of their birth, Jacob seized his brother’s heel—an incident prophetic of the day when he would supplant Esau. Often in children there are characteristics predictive of the manner of adults they will be.

The divergence of Rebekah’s twins in temperament, inclination, occupation, and religious aspirations is most apparent. Esau was wrapped in a raiment of hair, a rough man of the wilderness, a clever hunter with something of the wild daring spirit of the modern Bedouin. Jacob was the opposite of his brother. He preferred a fixed abode, to dwell in his tent rather than roam the desert. Esau was probably more brilliant, attractive, forceful, daring than his twin brother. Jacob, in spite of his weaknesses and mistakes was the finer character, and on the whole truer to the Lord and more fitted to possess the blessing of the birthright. Further, there was the difference of regard on the part of Isaac and Rebekah toward their two sons that resulted in sorrow and separation.

Isaac loved Esau, but the love was somewhat sensual. He loved his son “because he did eat of his venison.” Such love is of a carnal nature, for love in its highest sense has regard not so much to what the loved one gives as to what he or she is.

Rebekah loved Jacob, not because he was more of a “homebody” than his brother, or possessed a more loving nature than he, but because Jacob was the Lord’s preference (Romans 9:13: - ¹³ Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”). Esau thought so lightly of the birthright that he was willing to sell it for a mess of pottage, and be guilty, thereby, of the sin of profanity (Hebrews 12:16: -¹⁶ See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son). Jacob, however, recognized the solemnity of the birthright and wished to possess it. Esau thought of it as of no more value than a mouthful of food, but Jacob knew something of the sacred significance of the birthright and was therefore a more fit channel through which the blessing of God could flow to the seed of Abraham.

As Rebekah is often blamed for the partiality or favoritism she manifested for Jacob, it may be profitable to consider the matter of preference in family life. When parents single out one of their children as a favorite and shower more love and attention upon that one than the rest, such an unwise and unnatural course inevitably results in jealousy and strife. Although Isaac found “in Esau that strong practical nature, and energetic character which distinguished the woman he so dearly loved; and Rebekah saw in the gentle Jacob a replica of the father who had so strangely attracted her that first day when she met him meditating in the fields at evening,” the partiality was absolutely indefensible and led to lying and deception on Rebekah’s part.

What else can be expected but confusion and trouble when there is a crossing of purposes between parents concerning their children? Was the root-cause of Rebekah’s unnatural and unmotherly preference of Jacob over Esau and her treatment of Esau as though he was not, the lack of deep love for her husband, and that union of moral and spiritual ideas and ideals characteristic of every true marriage? We are certainly told that Isaac loved Rebekah, but not that she loved Isaac. Somehow we feel that if husband and wife had been one in all things in that ancient home, Rebekah would have been more concerned about Jacob’s character than his prosperity. But Isaac was partial to Esau and Rebekah partial to Jacob—which favoritism resulted in Esau leaving home, and Jacob fleeing from it. Rebekah’s record therefore shows that while Isaac was faithful to her, she was unfaithful to Isaac in a twofold way. First, she cheated Esau, her oldest son, and Isaac’s pet out of his birthright. Then she cheated Esau out of his father’s blessing, which prerogative had the effect of a testamentary bequest.

Comparing the chapter of the romantic meeting of Isaac and Rebekah with its perfection of writing, and the dark chapter of Rebekah’s deception, Alexander Whyte says, “That the ship was launched on such a golden morning only the more darkens the surrounding gloom when she goes to the bottom.” Then dealing with the secret alienation that developed between Isaac and Rebekah, the same renowned expositor adds—

When the two twin-brothers were brought up day after day and hour after hour in an atmosphere of favouritism, and partiality, and indulgence, and injustice, no father, no mother, can surely need to have it pointed out to them what present misery, and what future wages of such sin, is all to be seen and to be expected in that evil house.

One result of Rebekah’s preference for Jacob was the spite and the sight of Esau going out and grieving his parents by marrying two ungodly women. Esau was forty years old when he did this &–;the same age at which Isaac married Rebekah. His parents must have seen in the foreign wives he brought home the firstfruits of the devil’s garden they had sowed for themselves. “Their great grief would seem to have been almost the only thing the two old people were at one about by that time.” Esau had seen little in his mother to admire and respect; therefore he was never in any mood to please her. What a different story would have been written if Esau’s home had been “without partiality”!

Her Chicanery

Chicanery is described as the act of one who deliberately deceives, and this was Rebekah’s sin. The destiny of her favorite son, Jacob, was strongly influenced by his mother’s strong-mindedness, and thus she became the authoress of the treacherous plan to deprive Esau of his father’s blessing. Isaac is old, feeble and blind, and informs the members of his household that the time has come to give Esau, officially, what was left to him after selling his birthright, namely, the blessing which carried with it the recognition of his headship, the ratification of the birthright. So Isaac told his favorite son to take his bow and arrow and go into the fields, hunt for his much-liked venison, and make a savory meal. At that time, and for centuries in the Orient, a meal taken together was a common symbol of a saved pledge when father and son partook together. In such an hour of sacred fellowship the father bestowed upon the elder son his rank and place.

Rebekah overheard, and her deceitful heart was stirred to action. She set about to thwart her husband’s purpose. Her favorite son must not be displaced, and her hopes for him dashed to the ground, by the impetuous hunter whom Isaac loved. Cunningly she devised the plan of impersonation. While Esau was out in the fields hunting, Rebekah told Jacob to go to a flock nearby and bring two kids for her to dress and cook and pass off as venison. While cautious about his mother’s duplicity, he had no conscience against it. What made Jacob hesitant was the fact that his brother was a hairy man, while his own skin was smooth, and that if his father felt him and sensed the deception, he would not bless him, but curse him.

Rebekah, however, was equal to this fear of Jacob, and he followed the counsels of his treacherous mother. He put the skin of the kids upon his hands and upon his neck, thus making himself feel and smell like Esau, and so deceived his aged, blind father. Doubtless Rebekah stood nearby in convenient concealment to see how her ill-conceived ruse would succeed. Smelling Esau’s clothes, and feeling the false hairy hands, Isaac was a little doubtful and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” But reassured by the repeated lies of Jacob, the deceived father bestowed the unalterable blessing upon his son, and Jacob, by fraud, became the father of Israel’s race. To his discredit, he played the role successfully which his mother had drilled into him with masterly skill. Covetous of the sacred, patriarchal blessing for her favorite son, Rebekah felt she had to resort to duplicity to gain her ends, and in doing so she prostituted parental authority. “My son obey my voice” (Genesis 27:8: - ⁸ Now, my son, listen carefully and do what I tell you), and Jacob the misguided son obeyed, and in his subsequent career bore the bitter fruit of his conduct when Laban deceived him regarding Rachel.

A deceiver Jacob was

Full of craft and guile;

Thro’ long years he bore his guilt,

Unrepentant all the while.

Samuel Morely once said, “I am much what my mother has made me.” It was so in a wrong sense in the life of Jacob, for as in the case of Athaliah, “his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly” (2 Chronicles 22:3: – ³ He too followed the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother encouraged him to act wickedly). The thoroughness with which Jacob carried out his mother’s plan of deception is surely one of the worse features of the narrative. Fearful of the failure of his mother’s plot, Jacob said, “I will bring a curse upon me and not a blessing.” But Rebekah replied, “Upon me be thy curse, my son, only obey my voice.” The future scheming life of Jacob, however, was but the extension of the deceitful qualities of his mother, and both suffered as the result of adopting false methods to accomplish right ends.

When Esau found that he had been robbed of his blessing through the cunning scheme of his mother, he became a remorseless avenger and swore the death of his brother who was forced to flee for his life to Haran, some 500 miles away. Rebekah never saw the face of her much-loved son again. To add to her reproach she had to endure the grief of seeing her other son marry heathen women. Esau’s heathen wives caused Rebekah to be weary of her life (Genesis 27:46: - ⁴⁶ Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I’m disgusted with living because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a wife from among the women of this land, from Hittite women like these, my life will not be worth living”). Esau received a promise from his father that he would be the progenitor of a great nation—the Edomites—and much misery accrued to Israel because of Edom. The wrath of Esau’s enraged blood boiled in the blood of Herod the Idumean on the day he reviled the Man of Sorrows.

There are some writers who try to justify the actions of Rebekah by saying that she was prompted to take the course she did concerning Jacob because of the prediction that, “the elder shall serve the younger,” but God had no need of trickery and deceit to fulfill His promise. Ambitious for her son, Rebekah sacrificed the love of her husband, the loss of the esteem of her elder son, and the peace of her soul, for the idolized son whose face she never saw again. Without doubt, Jacob was the divinely-appointed heir of Abraham (Genesis 25:23: - ²³ The Lord said 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”), and Rebekah seeking to overrule the purpose of Isaac in his blessing of Esau, resorted to deceit to accomplish the will of God. Her guiding principle was, “Let us do evil that good may come” (Romans 3:8: - ⁸ Why not say—as some slanderously claim that we say—“Let us do evil that good may result”? Their condemnation is just!), but wrong is never right (James 1:20: - ²⁰ because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires). Esau had sold his birthright for a mess of pottage, and Rebekah catered to Isaac’s carnal appetite in order to accomplish a divine purpose. Had she laid aside “all guile, and hypocrisies” (1 Peter 2:1: - ¹ Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind), and reasoned with her husband about the solemn issue at stake she would have been saved from the disgrace which her worldly policy brought upon her own head and from the sorrow others had to endure.

Almost the last picture we have of Rebekah is when she tearfully witnessed the hasty departure of her favorite son. “A strong-minded, decisive girl had grown into an autocratic matriarch,” and ends her days a brokenhearted woman. When she died we are not told. Isaac, although much older than Rebekah, was still living when Jacob returned to Canaan over 20 years later. It is assumed that she died during Jacob’s long absence, and was buried in the cave of Machpelah near Hebron (Genesis 49:31: – ³¹ There Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried, there Isaac and his wife Rebekah were buried, and there I buried Leah). A fitting epitaph for her grave would have been, “Died of a broken heart.” The only monument Rebekah has is to be found in the Anglican marriage service of The Book of Common Prayerwhere we read—

That as Isaac and Rebekah lived faithfully together, so these persons may surely perform and keep the vow and covenant betwixt them.

While she may have been faithful during the first 20 years of marriage while she was childless, Rebekah, by her unjustifiable treacherous and wholly inexplicable intervention for her favorite son, stained her solemn marriage.

Reviewing Rebekah’s life and character what are some of the warnings to heed? Are we not forcibly reminded that love which seeks success at the cost of truth and righteousness is of the earth, earthy? The devil’s maxim is, “Nothing succeeds like success.” But from God’s standpoint nothing succeeds which does not follow the way of truth and honesty. Then, while she had physical beauty, her domination of Jacob and her scheme to deceive her husband revealed the lack of the beauty of a godly character. Further, Rebekah is a warning to all parents that there should be no favorites in the family; that all alike should be dear to them. If there is partiality for any in a family, it should only be for those who are weak and helpless.

Another warning bell is that when a wife conspires against her husband, or vice versa, they are guilty of a baseness which language cannot describe. When one partner finds that he has been betrayed by the other, the world becomes a blank.

The mind has a thousand eyes

The heart but one,

But the light of a whole life dies

When love is done.

There is one beneficial application we can make of Rebekah’s prompt decision to follow Eliezer to meet her future bridegroom, Isaac &–;I will go! In connection with the higher betrothal of the soul to the heavenly Bridegroom, He comes to the sinner saying as Eliezer did to Rebekah, “Will you go with Me? Will you follow Me into that country where saints immortal reign?” When hearts respond to such an appeal, “Yea, Lord I will go. I will follow Thee, whithersoever Thou goest!” they are twice blessed.