Good Morning Friends,
“Then they said, ‘Let's call the girl and ask
her about it.’ So they called Rebekah and asked her, ‘Will you go with this
man?’ ‘I will go,’ she said. So they sent their sister Rebekah on her way, along
with her nurse and Abraham’s servant and his men. And they blessed Rebekah and
said to her, ‘Our sister, may you increase to thousands upon thousands; may
your offspring possess the gates of their enemies.’ Then Rebekah and her maids
got ready and mounted their camels and went back with the man. So the servant
took Rebekah and left.” (Genesis 24:57-61)
We speak often of the great men of faith from
the pages of the Bible – and there are many to choose from. Men like Abraham,
Noah, Moses, David, Paul, Peter and the list goes on and on. But men are not
the only people of faith of which the Bible speaks. The Bible also speaks of a
great many women of great faith. Rebekah certainly stands among the list of
women of great faith.
Rebekah was a young woman – as yet unmarried.
She was happily living with her parents and serving as a caregiver of her
father’s sheep. And then – out of the blue – a man comes from a great distance
and he tells her that God has chosen her to return with him to the far country
and become the wife of his master’s son. Abraham had sent his servant to his
ancestral land and to his own family to find a wife for his son, Isaac. The
servant had followed Abraham’s instructions and had chosen Rebekah as the woman
of God’s choosing.
How would the young woman react? She could
have recoiled at the word of the servant and refused to go with him. Genesis 24
seems to say it is likely that her family would have supported her decision to
turn the servant down or at least delay her departure from her home. But
Rebekah didn’t refuse. Rebekah didn’t even delay. As soon as she got her things
ready for the trip, Rebekah willing traveled with the servant a great distance
from her home and family and became the wife of a man she did not know and had
never seen.
That’s faith. Rebekah trusted that the word
of the servant and the clarity with which the servant believed he had heard
from God was really God’s will for her and – in faith – she set out for a new
life.
And God blessed Rebekah’s decision. God
blessed Rebekah’s faith. She stands in the long line of ancestors to the people
of Israel – to Moses – and David – and Jesus.
She stands as one of the many examples of
women who have shown great faith.
His, by Grace,
Steve
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