Genesis 24
Rebekah made my heart leap as I was studying. She was such a sensitive young woman. From the moment she showed up with her water jar, barely after Abraham’s servant prayed for the Lord to show him a sign of who Isaac’s wife should be, she checked off all his prayer boxes.
That is what stopped me. If Rebekah had been raised to be arrogant and unkind to strangers, she definitely would not have done such an act of kindness. Just musing, I don’t know if, at her age, I would have gone all out to give a strange man water to drink and then water his camels. I might have handed him the fetcher and asked him to draw the water himself while I waited, but thank God Rebekah is not me.
Such a well-raised girl. As soon as she heard the prayer of Abraham’s servant, she ran home to relay her experience to her accountability team, her family. Laban, being a protective brother, ran down to the well to meet the man and bring him home.
Another part that interested me was when her mother and brother suggested that Abraham’s servant stay an additional ten days before Rebekah could go with him. When they asked Rebekah if she was ready to go with the man, she said yes. That was wise, because anything could go awry within ten days.
And then, the moment she spotted Isaac from afar in the field, she was immediately sensitive enough to ask, “Who is that man?” And she veiled her face, as a responsible wife would.
She took charge immediately, loving Isaac deeply and comforting him after the death of his mother, Sarah.
Her sensitivity continues. She is a woman of faith as well. We see her as the first woman who inquired of the Lord to know the state of the twins in her womb: “If it be so, why am I thus?”
