Summary
Rebekah: A Promise Received, A Promise Doubted
Rebekah enters the biblical narrative as the answer to a prayer not yet finished. When Abraham, grown old, sent his trusted servant to find a wife for Isaac, the servant arrived at the well and pleaded, "O LORD, God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today" Genesis 24:12. Before he had even concluded the petition, Rebekah appeared. She would become Isaac's wife, and Scripture tells us simply that "Isaac loved Rebekah."
In time she conceived twins, and the children struggled within her. When she inquired of the Lord, she received a remarkable word of prophecy: "Two nations are in your womb… and the elder shall serve the younger" Genesis 25:23. This was no mere prediction about family dynamics. It was a divine election. Jacob, the younger, would carry forward the covenant line that would lead to the Messiah. Why Jacob and not Esau? Paul takes up exactly this question in Romans 9:10-12 and answers that it was settled before the boys had done anything good or bad—"so that God's purpose of election might continue, not by works but by his call." The choice rested entirely on God's free grace.
The family that followed was anything but tidy. Isaac favored Esau; Rebekah favored Jacob Genesis 25:28. Esau despised his birthright and sold it to his brother for a bowl of stew. And when Isaac, old and dim-eyed, prepared to bestow the blessing on Esau anyway, Rebekah crafted an elaborate deception—dressing Jacob in his brother's garments, covering his arms with goatskins, preparing the savory food, and sending him in to steal the blessing from his blind father Genesis 27.
The deeper question Rebekah presses upon us is this: what does her scheming reveal about her? She had been told plainly by God himself that the elder would serve the younger. The promise was hers. Yet when the moment of crisis came, she did not trust the One who had spoken. She took matters into her own hands and pursued by deceit what God had already pledged to give. Her words and her actions exposed a heart that had stopped resting on the promise.
This is the sin we share with her. God comes to his people with a host of promises—of his presence, his guidance, his strength, his forgiveness—and yet we are tempted, again and again, to live as though those promises will not hold unless we manipulate the outcome. We can see Rebekah in ourselves whenever fear or impatience drives us to act apart from trust.
And still the line continued. Through this very flawed family, through Jacob the deceiver and his scheming mother, God brought forth the Messiah he had promised. Jesus took to the cross every sin of his people, including the sin of distrusting the Father's word, and rose to assure us that the God who makes promises is the God who keeps them. To those claimed in the waters of baptism, the word stands firm: he will never leave you nor forsake you; he is your strength, your light, your assurance. Where Rebekah grasped, we are invited to receive—and to speak and act on the promises of the God who cannot lie.
Video citations
- "Rebekah" — Let's open our Bibles, please. This morning for our study, we will begin in Genesis, the very first book of Holy Scripture, the 24th chapter. Genesis 24, where we will begin this morning. The Bible…