Hi all,
We left Rebecca having agreed to return with Eliezer to marry Isaac, and being blessed by her family to do so.
There are some things to consider about her because she is a type of you and I, as believers and more than that, disciples of Jesus.
The first is that Abraham came from the very area in which she was born and lived. He left because after he came to know the Lord, the Lord appeared to him and told him to leave. He left by command, with a promise of reward.
Abraham and Sarah were the foundation of the faith, the groundbreakers. Isaac and Rebecca were the next generation of believers. They inherited the covenant Isaac’s mom and dad had made with God. They had to make their faith their own. They had to establish their own household, their own boundaries as the 2nd generation of the covenant.
Rebecca didn’t leave by command, but by her free will. Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac, came into the covenant with God directly. She didn’t, she entered the covenant and family through marriage. She is the first person in the Bible to of her own free will became grafted in to the covenant by faith, with the Jewish people.
She was unique for in the ancient world blessings and covenants were passed from father to son, so she was special, having entered into the covenant by marriage, and in a unique position to be sure the right son received the blessing.
The first among women
Rebecca was the first woman in the Bible to receive a blessing. Think about that. We will later read in nearly the whole of Genesis 49 how the aged Jacob blessed his sons, but Rebecca clear back in Genesis 24: 60, received a blessing from her father and family. She truly is remarkable.
Are you the first in your family to receive the blessing of God? Do they perhaps, like the culture of Rebecca’s day, not fully recognize the blessing of God on your life?
A picture of the ‘rapture’
With Abraham as the Father God, Isaac representing Jesus, and the Holy Spirit represented by Eliezer, we should note that Rebecca is alive and well when she gets on a camel and goes with Eliezer to the Father’s home for her.
She is carried off by Eliezer – with the Holy Spirit – to meet the groom. In fact we are told in 24: 63-67 that Isaac had left his father’s house to go pray in a field, no doubt thinking about his bride. He was gone from his home, but not yet fully at Rebecca’s home.
As she is carried along, one day she sees the groom, standing in the field. She is in between her home with her father and her home with her new father. Isaac is out in a field.
A field in the parables of Jesus is the human heart, or the harvest field of the world. Because he is a type of Jesus, and Rebecca a type of the church, we see the Lord having left His Father’s home to go to the field part way to His bride’s home – and she meets him there between the two. They two, standing in the field between homes, meeting face to face for the first time. No doubt laughter truly laughed with joy upon finally seeing his bride face to face! No doubt this young woman once ensnared, once bound, now bound to Laughter, was thrilled with her new life in him!
Verse 67 says Isaac took her into his tent, which was in his father’s home, and that he loved her. The fact they are concealed out of view in the tent is a picture as well – for the Jewish Feast of Trumpets tells us the last trumpet will be blown in the time of the new moon, and believers in Messiah will be caught up with Him, hidden from view as the new moon is also concealed.
What a picture of the ‘rapture’, meeting the Lord ‘in the air’, part way between His Father’s home in heaven and our home on earth!
Rebecca’s awareness of the times
We are told in 25: 20 that Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rebecca, which means she was probably about half his age, around 20 when they married. Keep in mind Isaac lived to be 180 years old* so waiting until he was 40 to get married does not seem out of place. (*35: 28-29)
Why is this happening to me? Fast forward in time
What we do see is that 25: 21-22 after Isaac asks the Lord to bless Rebecca with children, He does so, though she senses the twins struggling within her womb. Her response reveals even more about her character:
“And the children struggled together within her; and she said, “If it be that the Lord has answered our prayer, why is this happening to me?” And she went to enquire of the Lord.” (Genesis 25: 22)
That is SO much like us today. We seek answers. We pray and ask for something, and then when it happens differently than what we thought it would be, we stop and inquire of the Lord what is going on. “If this is the answered prayer, why is this happening?”
But she was amazing – no doubt the Lord spoke to her, or at least gave her peace – but she seemed to know which son the Lord wanted to receive the birthright. She was delivered of the struggling twins, and goes down in history not only as a matriarch of Israel, but a beautiful type of the church – strong, resourceful, people of action, strong morals and integrity, and walking with God to one day meet the Groom in that half way point to be taken to the Father’s home.
Come quickly Lord Jesus! New subject next week, until then, blessings,
John Fenn
