1. Sarah is dead. The patriarch has been bereaved of the fair wife of his youth, and three whole years are devoted to mourning the loved and lost. Her death warns Abraham of the passing away of his own generation, and recalls him to the duty of providing for the permanence of the chosen seed. Anxious to find a wife for Isaac, that his line may be perpetuated, the patriarch sends his confidential servant, Eliezer, to Padan-aram, to his own kindred, in search of a fitting helpmeet for his son. Isaac must not be “unequally yoked” with one of the daughters of the land; and the man is made to swear that he will not seek a wife for him among any of the tribes of Canaan, and that he will not take him back to the land of his kindred beyond the Euphrates.
So the servant went to Nahor, arriving in the evening when the women came to fetch water from the well, and prayed for a sign to guide him to the right girl among the maidens. “And behold, Rebekah came out with her pitcher upon her shoulder. And the damsel was very fair to look upon.” All unconscious of being watched with any particular interest, this good-looking girl filled her pitcher and came up with it, when suddenly the stranger hastened towards her and requested a drink of water. There was nothing remarkable in that either, for travellers often asked a similar favour, but did not always receive such a ready and cheerful response, as the incident at Sychar's well showed (Joh_4:6-9). It was unusually considerate and gracious of Rebekah to offer to draw water for the camels, as there were ten of these to supply, and her pitcher would need filling many times before they were all satisfied, yet she did it as gladly as if she had known what was involved in her action.
In this remarkable providence Eliezer sees an answer to his prayer; and feeling that the Lord had made his journey prosperous and that so far He had ordered his steps, and without pausing to inquire of what lineage she came, but perfectly satisfied, he presents the gifts which the usage of the time warranted. He “took a golden ring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold; and said, Whose daughter art thou? tell me, I pray thee. Is there room in thy father's house for us to lodge in? And she said unto him, I am the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, which she bare unto Nahor. She said moreover unto him, We have both straw and provender enough, and room to lodge in.” Overcome with so evident a proof of the Lord's marvellous guidance the old man bows his head, and worships. “Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, who hath not left destitute my master of his mercy and his truth: I being in the way, the Lord led me to the house of my master's brethren.” Struck with his profound devotion, hearing him mention the name of Abraham, and hearing him also say that he has been “led to the house of his master's brethren,” the maiden hastens home to communicate the strange intelligence, and to tell them of her mother's house these things. She carries back upon her person the rich gifts which she has received. These were love-tokens from the man who seeks her hand, and who would woo and win her as his bride.
The beauty of such actions as Rebekah's lies in the fact that the doer of them sees nothing to admire. They are little nothings-“nameless unremembered acts of kindness and of love.” But some day they fix one's destiny. Trivial things both make and reveal character. “Trifles!” said a very great man, “perfection is made out of trifles, and perfection is not a trifle.” Rebekah was never more lovely than when she was completing her self-imposed task at the well. Kindness in the heart is light in the eyes, music in the voice, grace in the motions. The first element of vital beauty, as Ruskin says, is “the kindness and unselfish fulness of heart which receives the utmost amount of pleasure from the happiness of all things.”1 [Note: J. Strachan, Hebrew Ideals, i. 187.]
2. One is struck by the swiftness with which everything in this incident was done. When the servant saw Rebekah he ran to meet her; Rebekah hastened with her pitcher, and ran again to the well to replenish it; and after she had assured the stranger that her people had straw and provender enough for him, and room to lodge in, and after she had received his present of a golden ring and two bracelets, she ran to tell her mother. Laban, too, ran out to meet Abraham's servant, and when he saw the ring and the bracelets which had been given to his sister, he said, “Come in, thou blessed of the Lord; wherefore standest thou without?”
3. All that follows is equally interesting. The zeal and persuasiveness of Eliezer as he tells his story to Rebekah's mother and her brother Laban; the decision that she should go and become the wife of Isaac-a decision evidently come to without consulting Rebekah herself, for it was only when Eliezer urged immediate departure that it was agreed to refer the matter to her. “And they called Rebekah, and said unto her, Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go”-an indication of that practical-mindedness and decision of character which come out later on.
Although Rebekah does not seem to have taken long to make up her mind, she must have felt that this was a serious question to face, for her whole future would be affected by the answer she gave. Evidence is forthcoming in our own day of the existence of a strong and prosperous nation in this part of the world, the people of the Hittites among whom the family of Rebekah dwelt. And if she had cared, she might easily have made a better match from a worldly point of view than her marriage with Isaac. What, then, was the determining factor and influence? Why was it that when the question was put to Rebekah, “Wilt thou go with this man?” there was no hesitation about her reply? Unquestionably it was this, that she saw the hand of God in it: her decision rested upon a religious basis; what turned the scale was the fact that the son of her grand-uncle, Abraham, had been trained in the fear of Jehovah. She felt that her race, which was also his race, had in it that which would survive the brilliant trappings of the Hittites and bequeath an heirloom to posterity which they were powerless to bestow. That was what far-seeing Rebekah thought, and it became the dominant thought of her life. She stands before us at this time and at all times as a woman of caste. Hers is not the caste of birth, of station, of wealth, or even of learning. It is the caste of religious faith. She would have recoiled from no poverty. She would have shrunk from no manner of toil. She would have despised no alliance of an inferior degree. But to unite with a worshipper of another God, to join matrimonial hands with an idolater, this was the revulsion of her soul. And so from Rebekah's gaze all Hittite offers fade; and the figure of the Hebrew Isaac stands triumphant. This woman presents us with a fair and beautiful pattern of faith.
What girl
Now reads in her bosom as clear
As Rebekah read, when she sate
At eve by the palm-shaded well?
Who guards in her breast
As deep, as pellucid a spring
Of feeling, as tranquil, as sure?1 [Note: Matthew Arnold.]
4. We have a charming picture of the end of the journey “Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide,” and he saw the cavalcade approaching. Rebekah saw him. Her behaviour was excellent. With the graceful ingenuousness and promptitude which characterized her, she did the right thing at the right moment, alighting from her camel, and veiling herself. It was love at first sight. Isaac understood that it was no unworthy maiden who was to be his wife; and he “brought her into his mother Sarah's tent,” a sacred place to him; “and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.”
Stanley's life was fuller and more crowded than it had ever been before! but his marriage made the increased burden light, for it brought out the strength and dignity of his character, while it restored the lightness and vivacity of earlier times. He drew fresh vigour from the companionship of a wife who made herself one with him to an extraordinary degree, who threw herself heart and soul into all his work and aspirations, whose power of understanding others was as strong as it was quick, and whose sympathy was at once ready and real, wide yet always individual, tender but at the same time intensely practical.… Gay, cheerful, keenly enjoying life, she inspired brightness and hope by her presence. Helpful to all with whom she came in contact, full of kindly thought for every one but herself, she was one of those women on whom her friends knew that they could count, with a certainty that she would not fail. The simple, easy, genuine courtesy with which she received all who came to her house was never omitted from hurry or from preoccupation. The small acts of thoughtful kindness, which are especially grateful to the humble or obscure, were never neglected, and her gracious welcome, extended alike to all ranks-to the uninteresting as well as to the interesting-filled the Deanery with an atmosphere of sunshine.1 [Note: R. E. Prothcro, Life of Dean Stanley, ii. 344.]
But Isaac also
Walking in the field,
Saw from afar
A company that came,
Camels, and a seat
As where a woman sat;
Wherefore he came
And met them on the way.
Whom when Rebekah
Saw, she came before
Saying, Behold
The handmaid of my lord
Who for my lord's sake
Travel from my land.
But he said, O
Thou blessed of our God,
Come, for the tent
Is eager for thy face.
Shall not thy husband
Be unto thee more than
Hundreds of kinsmen
Living in thy land?
And Eleazer answered,
Thus and thus
Even according
As thy father bade
Did we; and thus and
Thus it came to pass.
Lo! is not this
Rebekah, Bethuel's child?
And as he ended
Isaac spoke and said,
Truly my heart
Went with you on the way,
When with the beasts
Ye came unto the place.
Truly, O child
Of Nahor, I was there,
When to thy mother
And thy mother's son
Thou madest answer,
Saying I will go.
And Isaac brought her
To his mother's tent.1 [Note: A. H. Clough.]
5. Isaac had no idea of Rebekah's character, he could only yield himself to God's knowledge of what he needed; and so there came to him, from a country he had never seen, a helpmeet singularly adapted to his own character. One cannot read of her lively, bustling, almost forward, but obliging and generous conduct at the well, or of her prompt, impulsive departure to an unknown land, without seeing, as no doubt Eliezer very quickly saw, that this was exactly the woman for Isaac. In this eager, ardent, active, enterprising spirit, his own retiring and contemplative, if not sombre, disposition found its appropriate relief and stimulus. Hers was a spirit which might indeed, with so mild a lord, take more of the management of affairs than was befitting; and when the wear and tear of life had tamed down the girlish vivacity with which she spoke to Eliezer at the well, and leapt from the camel to meet her lord, her active-mindedness does appear in the disagreeable shape of the clever scheming of the mother of a family. In her sons you see her qualities exaggerated: from her Esau derived his activity and open-handedness, and in Jacob you find that her self-reliant and unscrupulous management has become a self-asserting craft which leads him into much trouble, if it also sometimes gets him out of difficulties. But such as Rebekah was, she was quite the woman to attract Isaac and supplement his character.
“Each fulfils defect in each”-the passive, pensive, patient Isaac; the ardent, eager Rebekah. L'allegra weds il penseroso. The providence of God, the sanction of parents, the approval of friends, community of faith, manly virtues, maidenly graces, conspire to bless their union; Heaven's gift of love makes them one; and they are faithful unto death. Nothing could more clearly indicate the essential greatness of the Hebrew race than the fact that such pure and lofty ideals were conceived and realized. To quote Ewald, “The fair type of matrimony presented in the story of Isaac and Rebekah does no more than represent with little alteration marriage as it really existed in the majority of families in the best days of the nation. And here we may clearly see the mighty working of an elevated religion.”1 [Note: J. Strachan, Hebrew Ideals, i. 193.]
