Rebekah
Our sister, may you become the
mother of thousands of ten thousands; and may your descendants possess the
gates of those who hate them.” Gen. 24:60
The story of Rebekah
begins in Genesis 24. Abraham has
instructed his servant to find a wife for his son Isaac. It is noteworthy that the servant took an
oath to do as Abraham instructed, and upon the servant’s arrival in Nahor, he
prayed for the Lord God to reveal clearly the woman who was to be Isaac’s
wife. The servant had not even finished
praying when out walked Rebekah, fulfilling the prayer. As we read through the narrative in Genesis
24, we find that Rebekah was a servant who quickly hurried to meet the needs of
the servant. She displayed hospitality,
much in the manner of Abraham and Sarah.
The name Rebekah means “bound” and this is worth
examining. The man she was to marry was
Isaac, who had experienced what must have been a life-changing event with his
father. In Hebrew this is referred to as
the Akeda – the binding of Isaac. Gen.
22:9 reads, “Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed
the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him upon the altar, upon
the wood.” As Isaac was bound out
of his father’s obedience to God, so too Rebekah was bound to her husband
Isaac. It is also significant that
Rebekah was Isaac’s “basherte” – meaning his God-chosen bride. When we stop and consider that Isaac was the
promise (Abraham was the father of the promise) and Rebekah was Isaac’s
God-chosen bride, the wonderful truth is revealed to us that Rebekah was a
prophetic type of the church, the bride of Christ.
As we move to Gen. 24:60, Rebekah agreed to return with
Abraham’s servant to be Isaac’s wife.
Her family gathers around her and prays a blessing: “Our sister, may you become the mother of
thousands of ten thousands; and may your descendants possess the gates of those
who hate them.” This is similar to
the blessing of the Angel of the Lord given to Abraham in Gen. 22:17, “Blessing
I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars
of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants
shall possess the gates of their enemies.”
We realize from the blessing
for Rebekah that this was confirming prophecy and she was indeed, the
God-chosen bride for Isaac.
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