16 Jun Isaac Meets the Love of His Life
Genesis 24:67 – Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he married Rebekah. So she became his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.
As we read yesterday, even though Abraham horrifically messed up his family in fathering a child with a woman other than his wife, setting off generations of conflict between nations, he learned the error of his ways and wanted to do better for his promised child, Isaac. He sends a servant back to the land from which he came in order to bring back a godly wife for his son.
Abraham’s faithful servant did as he was told and went to the region of Abraham’s brother, Nahor. Stopping at a spring, the servant prayed for God to provide. Before he had finished his prayer, God had already answered it, sending the lovely virgin Rebekah to the spring. Rebekah drew water for Nahor and his animals and was clearly a very sweet and kind woman. When the servant inquired of her family, she said her father was Nahor and that he was welcome to stay at their home. The servant was so overjoyed at God’s perfect provision that he bowed down and worshiped the Lord for answering his prayer.
Upon returning home to her mother, we are then introduced to the shady and scandalous character Laban, who was Rebekah’s brother. We’ll learn more about him later in Genesis. Nonetheless, Rebekah agreed to go with Abraham’s servant to be Isaac’s wife. Upon arriving at Abraham’s household, Rebekah was brought into the former tent of Isaac’s mother Sarah and they got married. The account of Isaac and Rebekah’s marriage ends with the beautiful words that “he loved her” and she was such a delightful woman that he was comforted by her love after the death of his mother. Subsequently, Isaac is now positioned to take the place of Abraham and Rebekah is positioned to take the place of Sarah in the family and their family ministry.
Lastly, we learn a great deal about God in this section, not through His speaking, as He remains silent throughout the story. Rather, it is God’s unseen hand of providence that moves the story along, showing that God is faithful to Abraham and Isaac, and that God answers prayer and can be trusted to provide even when He has not spoken but has been spoken to in prayer.
In one of the great love stories of the Bible, we read that Isaac loved Rebekah. What other Scriptures come to mind about what love is?
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