Ge – So Isaac Married Rebekah and He Loved Her 24: 61-67

So Isaac Married Rebekah and He Loved Her 
24: 61-67

So Isaac married Rebekah and he loved her DIG: What role does Isaac play in getting a wife? Why does ADONAI go to such lengths to provide a wife for Isaac? Incidental details aside, what do you see as the central issue of this chapter? How does this story make God’s point?

REFLECT: The place Beer Lahai Roi reminded us that God saw, God knew and He could be trusted with Isaac’s welfare. If ADONAI can take care of Hagar, take care of Isaac, can he take care of you? Since Messiah is the Living One who sees you, what does He see right now? What does this story teach you about the LORD?

Then Rebekah and her maids got ready and mounted their camels and went back with the servant. So he took Rebekah under his personal care and left (24:61). The long trip back probably took about a month. No dialogue is recorded, but obviously Rebekah wanted to know everything she could about Isaac (Hebrew: Yitz’chak), his father and the LORD’s plan for them. The servant was a good teacher and protector as well. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you (John 14:26). As far as Rebekah was concerned, the trip couldn’t go fast enough. But slowly, they made their way through the land of the Canaanites, down into the Negev, and finally to where Yitz’chak lived.

Rebekah had immediately left all to go to the son, loving him before she saw him and rejoicing with inexpressible joy. Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with inexpressible and glorious joy (First Peter 1:8). She journeyed through the wilderness to meet him, guided by the servant. The Holy Comforter, the One who is called along side, accompanies the Church through the world’s wilderness, teaching her the things of Christ and showing her things to come, until finally He presents her to Christ at the end of the journey.

Now Isaac had come from Beer Lahai Roi, or the well of the Living One who sees me (John 7:37), for he was living in the Negev (24:62). The Angel of the LORD had appeared to Hagar twice before at Beer Lahai Roi (16:1-10, 21:8-19). She was so touched by His care that Hagar named the place after her experience: I have now seen the One who sees me” (16:13). Yes, if I were in Isaac’s shoes I’d go wait at Beer Lahai Roi, at a place known as “the meeting place with the God who sees, knows, and communicates with those who are alone and desperate.” That would be Beer Lahai Roi: great place to wait on God. I wonder what Isaac’s prayers were like as he waited for the servant’s return?

The name of Yitz’chak has been absent from the Scriptures from the time of his being offered on Mount Moriah, until now, when he is united with his bride at the Well of the Living – One who sees me. In type we have the Father offering His only Son, who reappears when He is united with His bride, the Church, in heaven.

He went out to the field one evening to pray and meditate, (lasuach, only appearing here in the Scriptures), and as he looked up, he saw camels approaching. The Hebrew indicates that he was looking every single day. Instinctively, he must have realized that his bride had come to him. It was his father’s caravan, but more people were coming than had left a month earlier. Rebekah also looked up and saw him about the same time. She knew it was Isaac and jumped down quickly from her camel (24:63-64). It was love at first sight.

She asked the servant, “Who is that man in the field coming to meet us?” “He is my master,” the servant answered. So she took her veil and covered herself as a bride does when meeting the bridegroom. It covered both her face and body; this was in keeping with the custom of those days. Outwardly, Yitz’chak tried to appear calm, but his heart was pounding through his chest. He listened patiently as the servant told Isaac all he had done (24:65-66). There was no doubt in Isaac’s mind that ADONAI had chosen Rebekah to be his wife. What a glorious meeting it must have been! And what a glorious meeting it will be one day when the Lord Himself will come down from heaven and we are caught up together in the clouds to meet Him in the air (First Thessalonians 4:16-17).

Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah until the formalities of the marriage could be arranged. Then Yitz’chak married Rebekah when he was forty years old and brought her into his own tent at Lahai-Roi (25:11). So she became his wife, and he loved her. Also, the Church was loved by, and finally united forever to, the Son (Ephesians 5: 25-27; Revelation 19:7; First Thessalonians 4:17). Isaac loved his mother greatly; but now with Rebekah as his wife, he was comforted after his mother’s death (24:67). A man who truly loves and honors his father and mother will, when the time comes for marriage (2:24), likewise love and honor his wife.³⁹⁶