LIFE LESSONS
REBEKAH
DR. JIM DIXON
GENESIS 25:19-28
OCTOBER 27, 2002
In the West Bank between Israel and Jordan, there is a city called Hebron. Hebron is an ancient city. It is mentioned in the Book of Genesis, and it was associated with the patriarch Abraham. Today, 50,000 people live in the city of Hebron, and most of them are Arab Muslims. The city of Hebron is special, not only to Muslims but also to Jews and to Christians, because the city of Hebron contains a cave called the Cave of Machpelah. The name Machpelah means “double,” and indeed the cave is a twin-chambered cave.
The Bible tells us in Genesis, chapter 23, that Abraham purchased the Cave of Machpelah from Ephron the Hittite for four hundred shekels of silver. Abraham purchased that cave as a family tomb, a resting place for his family. And so it is that today in the Cave of Machpelah in the city of Hebron in the West Bank there is the Tomb of the Patriarchs. In that cave, you will find the Tomb of Abraham, the Tomb of Sarah, the Tomb of Isaac, the Tomb of Rebekah, the Tomb of Jacob, and the Tomb of Leah. Outside of the cave, there’s a Muslim Mosque, and the most ancient parts of that mosque were built by Herodian Edomites descended from Esau, the son of Isaac and Rebekah. Other portions of the structure were built later—some during the Roman era, some during the Byzantine Era, some during the crusader period—because for a time that building served as a Christian church.
Perhaps you are thinking, “Well, I’d like to go there. I would like to go to the West Bank. I would like to go to the city of Hebron. I would like to go to the Cave of Machpelah. I’d like to see the Tomb of the Patriarchs.” But do not get your hopes up. Tour groups are no longer traveling to Hebron because of the political volatility there, and Jews and Christians are not allowed into the Cave of Machpelah unless they receive special permission from the Muslim Supreme Council, and that permission is rarely given. But it really does not matter because what is important is not that you’ve seen the Tomb of the Patriarchs, not that you’ve seen the burial place of Abraham and Sarah and Isaac and Rebekah and Jacob and Leah. What is important is that you understand their lives and that the lessons of their lives have been applied to your life. That is what we seek this morning from the matriarch Rebekah, the daughter-in-law of Abraham, the wife of Isaac, the mother of Jacob and Esau.
From her life we have two lessons this morning and the first lesson is this: We need to believe in divine election. You need to believe in divine election. In Genesis, chapter 24, we are told the amazing story of God’s election of Rebekah. God chose Rebekah, and we are told how Abraham, the patriarch, summoned the chief of his servants. We know from Genesis, chapter 15, that was a man named Eliezer. Abraham said to Eliezer, “I do not want my son Isaac to marry one of these Canaanite women. I don’t want Isaac to marry a heathen. I want you, therefore, to journey all the way back to Northern Mesopotamia. I want you to journey to the city of Nahor, the city where the people are of my family. I want you to go there and choose a wife for my son Isaac.”
Eliezer said, “What if I choose her and she’s not willing to come? Shall I take Isaac there?” Abraham said, “No! God has given me and my descendants this land as the land of promise. Isaac is to dwell here. But the Angel of the Lord will go with you, and the Angel of the Lord will choose the woman, will elect the woman, who is to be my son’s wife.” And so Eliezer, a man of great faith, took ten camels laden with gifts and traveled that great trip, that long distance, all the way to Northern Mesopotamia near the city of Hebron to the city of Nahor, to the people of Abraham.
As he approached the outskirts of the city, he came to a well. Women were coming down to the well to draw water. We are told in Genesis 24 that Eliezer, a man of prayer, began to pray. He prayed, “Lord, help me select this woman. Choose the woman for me. Lord, as I go down to the well, I will ask for water and the woman who gives me water to drink and then also offers to water all of my camels, that will be the woman you have elected. That will be the woman you have chosen.” This was an amazing test because no person in their right mind would volunteer to water ten camels. Camels, when they have gone a number of days without water, normally drink twenty-five gallons of water before their thirst is sated—25 gallons per camel!
We know from archeology and from parabiblical literature that the average water jar used by people in the time of Abraham carried on a person’s shoulder, normally the woman’s shoulder, was a 3-gallon jar. To give water to one camel would require more than eight trips to the well. To water ten camels would require eighty trips to the wells. This was an incredible test, and he knew it, but he also knew that God would select the person.
There came Rebekah down to the well. The Bible tells us in Genesis 24, “She was beautiful, fair to look upon.” She was a virgin. She came to draw water. She filled her 3-gallon jar of water. Eliezer, the servant of Abraham, came up to her and said, “I’m thirsty. Would you give me to drink?” She said, “Drink, my lord.” Then she said, “While you drink, let me water your camels.” Then she went and made perhaps eighty trips to the well to draw water. It would have taken a great deal of time. The Bible tells us that all that time, Eliezer just sat there watching her, really amazed, I’m sure.
You might think, “Well, why didn’t he help her?” But this was the test of God. Would she do it all? And she did it all! God had indeed elected her. God had chosen her to be the daughter-in-law of Abraham, to be the wife of Isaac, to bear the seed of promise. The only reason that Rebekah’s family allowed her to leave their homeland and go to a foreign land and marry Isaac was because they believed she was indeed chosen of God. The reason Rebekah went so willingly was because she believed she was chosen of God. Indeed, there is every evidence that this reality that she was chosen of God meant more to her than anything. She went and she became Isaac’s wife. They loved each other, but she was barren. For twenty years, Rebekah could bear no children and so they prayed. As recorded in our scripture for today in Genesis 25, she gave birth to twins. She gave birth to Esau, the firstborn, and to Jacob, the second born, and God loved them both even as God had loved Ishmael and Isaac. God loved both Esau and Jacob, and God promised to bless them both and from both would come a great nation. So, from Esau came the Edomites, and from Jacob came the Jews. But the divine election was upon Jacob. He was the chosen child of the covenant, and he would bear the seed of promise and from him would come the covenant people of Israel.
This was announced to Rebekah when the twins were born because nothing was more important to her than divine election, to be chosen of God as Abraham had been chosen of God, as Isaac had been chosen of God, as she had been chosen of God. So now Jacob was chosen of God but there was one problem. Jacob was not the firstborn. Esau was the firstborn.
It is hard for us today to imagine what birth order meant in the patriarchal era. I shared last week how I was one of three boys. I still am one of three boys. My parents loved us all the same I said last week, and that is so true. My parents loved us all the same. They did not always treat us the same, particularly when it came to driving in the car. Whenever we as kids went anywhere with our parents, mom and dad would always sit in the front seat. It didn’t matter whether we were going to church or to the restaurant or on a trip across the country. Mom and Dad always sat in the front seat. Then Gary, the firstborn son, was given the first choice of where to sit. He would choose the seat right behind Dad, the window seat on the back left. He would sit there and that just became his permanent seat.
Greg was given the second choice because he was second born. Greg chose the window seat on the back right, right behind Mom, and that was always where Greg sat. I also was given a choice. I could choose the trunk or the middle of the back seat where the hump was. It really was no big deal, not when compared with the patriarchal era, because in the patriarchal era the firstborn was given the lion’s share of the inheritance. The firstborn was given all of the patriarchal family authority. All of the family authority was given to the firstborn.
Rebekah understood. She understood that nothing was more important than divine election. Divine election trumps the reality of the firstborn, the whole law of primogenitor, the law of the firstborn. Divine election trumps that. The family authority was to go to Jacob, the second born. But Isaac, the Bible tells us, resisted this. He wanted to follow the law of primogenitor. He wanted to follow the law of the firstborn, and he wanted everything to go to Esau, all the family authority to go to Esau. Of course, Esau also resisted divine election, the chosen of God. Even though he sold his birthright as described in Genesis 25, he would not really let it go. And Isaac, his father, would not really let it go. They resisted the divine election. And so Rebekah, the Bible tells us in Genesis 27, resorts to deceit. She resorts to trickery. You know the story of how she disguises the second born son Jacob to appear as though he were the firstborn son, Esau. In Isaac’s elderly years when he was blind, she sent Jacob into Isaac pretending to be Esau, that Jacob might receive the blessing of the firstborn.
Bible scholars are divided on Rebekah. Some view her deceit as wholly evil, and they condemn her for this. Others say, “Well, Isaac and Esau drove her to it because they resisted the divine election of God,” and they exonerate Rebekah. But we should never think that the end justifies the means. And yet there is no denying that Rebekah believed in divine election. She believed in divine election, and she knew that as Abraham had been chosen of God and Isaac had been chosen of God and as she had been chosen of God, so now Jacob was chosen of God.
I want to ask you this morning, how do you view divine election? What does it mean to you to be chosen of God? Of course, there are many Christians in this room. Would that all of you were Christians, I do not know, but there are surely many Christians in this room. If you’re a Christian, you have pledged your life to Christ. You have received Him as your Savior from sin and you have also embraced Him as your Lord of Life, and you seek to follow Him. The Bible says that as a Christian, you are chosen.
I do not care to debate this theologically this morning. I do not care to discuss Calvinism and Arminianism, the sovereignty of God and the free will of man, supralapsarianism, infralapsarianism, theological arguments regarding minutia. I do not care to discuss it. I don’t even care to discuss divine election soteriologically, as it relates to the concept of salvation. I would rather take a look at divine election in terms of ministry because in John 15:16 Jesus said, “You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen You, and I have appointed you to go and bear fruit that your fruit should remain.”
What God wants us to understand this morning is you have been chosen for a purpose. He has elected you for a purpose, and that purpose is fruitfulness. “You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and appointed you to bear fruit, that your fruit should remain.” How important is that to you? That you have been chosen to bear fruit? Even as Abraham was chosen to bear fruit and Isaac and Rebekah were chosen to bear fruit and Jacob was chosen to bear fruit, you have been chosen to bear fruit. How important is that to you? It better be more important than anything.
In Mark, chapter 11, the Bible tells us Jesus was walking from the city of Jerusalem to the village of Bethany. His disciples were with Him. There was a fig tree by the side of the road. Jesus went up to it and the disciples saw Jesus do something they had never seen Him do before. He cursed the fig tree. The next morning, they were returning from the village of Bethany to the city of Jerusalem on that same road. They came past that fig tree and the disciples were amazed to see that it had withered and shrunk to the ground. What was that all about? We understand that the fig tree in the Bible is a symbol of Israel, and we are told that that fig tree was barren. It had borne no fruit. A barren fruitless tree, and it was a symbol of Israel, and Israel was cursed. Jesus had just gone into the Temple. He had seen that they had turned the House of God into a place of business. They were spiritually bankrupt. They were called to be a blessing to the nations, and they had not blessed anybody. Barren. The Bible tells us there is a sense in which Israel was cut off as a branch from the House of God, a sense in which Israel was cut off. Gentile believers were grafted into the Tree of God, the Tree of Life.
Now, God’s not done with Israel. He’s not done with them, but don’t be smug as Gentile believers because we’ve been called too to bear fruit. We have been called to bear fruit, not to be barren. For this we are chosen. For this we have received divine election.
Some people view the Christian church as a hospital. The church is a hospital, a place where people can come for healing, emotionally, spiritually, even physically. Certainly, the church of Jesus Christ is a hospital, and we seek to minister in healing in every way we can. Some people view the church of Jesus Christ as a school, not simply in the sense of Sunday school but a school for people of all ages where people can come and be taught the Word of God and where the holy scriptures can be rightly divided, and you can grow in your knowledge of God’s Word. And the church IS a school.
Some people view the church as a house, a family home where the family of God can come together and encourage each other and support to each other, comfort each other. And certainly the church is a house. It is the House of God; it is the home of the family of God. There should be encouragement and comfort here. But the church is also a recruiting and equipping station. I tell you, nothing is more important than this. The church is a recruiting and equipping place, and we recruit you into God’s service that you might bear fruit. We equip you for God’s service that you might be fruit-bearing. For this you have been chosen. For this you have been elected.
Why do we always invite you to teach Sunday school? That you might bear fruit. Why do we invite you to sing in the choir? That you might bear fruit. Why do we invite you to join us and go into the inner city and work with the inner-city children as tutors? That you might bear fruit for Christ and for His kingdom. It’s all about fruit. So, how much does divine election mean to you? It meant everything to Rebekah.
Secondly, we have this final teaching from Rebekah that is that we must not only believe in divine election, but we must have a servant’s heart. God wants us to have a servant’s heart. This really is related to the first teaching, because we’ve been chosen to bear fruit. We have been chosen to serve. We must have a servant’s heart.
When we go back to Genesis, chapter 24, we see how Eliezer, the servant of Abraham, went to the well outside of Nahor. And Rebekah was chosen of God, but she was chosen as she manifested a servant’s heart. When you look at that test again wherein she agreed to give water—not only to Eliezer but water to the point of the satisfaction of their thirst all ten camels—what an incredible servant’s heart she demonstrated. Her task took her probably hours. She did it, by every indication, willingly and freely. She had a servant’s heart. That is what Christ calls each of us to, servant-heartedness. Regardless of gender, regardless of birth order, we are all called to servant-heartedness. It was Jesus who said that “The Son of Man has come not to be served but rather to serve and give His life, a ransom for many.”
As you enter your marriage, as you go to work, as you get in your car, as you walk through your neighborhood, whatever you do, you must say, “I come not to be served but I come rather to serve and to give my life.” This is the call that is upon us, and for this reason we were chosen.
I was talking to my son Drew a few weeks ago. We were talking about marriage and what kind of wife he would like to have. He, like every other guy, wants a wife that is beautiful to him. He also wants a wife that has a great sense of humor and loves to laugh. Those are understandable desires. But then Drew said to me, “But above all else, I would like to find a wife who loves Christ and has a servant’s heart.” Drew knows that he, too, needs to love Christ and have a servant’s heart, and he does. I believe the only reason he’s entered medical school is that he might serve. He has a servant’s heart. But he wants a wife with a servant’s heart, and that’s wisdom.
Marriages really do not work unless we have servant’s hearts. I read a long time ago and you may have read too the story—it is kind of a funny story—about a fight that a husband and wife got into. It was Friday evening when the husband came home, and they were going out to an event. His wife had not picked up his clothes at the cleaners. He was upset. She said, “Why can’t you pick up your own clothes at the cleaners?” He said, “Well, I normally do but you drove right past the place.” They got into a big fight, a BIG fight. When they went to bed, they were still angry. They got up the next morning, Saturday morning. He was off that day, but she had to go to a meeting. She put on a dress and she said, “Would you come and help me zip up the back of the dress?” He came and he took the zipper. He took the zipper and went down and up and down and up and down and up and left it down. She just thought, “Boy! What an unreasonable guy!”
She got her dress zipped up and went out to her meeting. She came home a couple of hours later. She saw the car out in the driveway and her husband working under the car. As she had been driving home, she’d been thinking, “Well, you know, I’ve been a little over the top. I need to be forgiving. Even if he doesn’t deserve it, I need to be forgiving.” So, she decided to be kind of playful. As he was under the car and his feet were out underneath, the lower half of his body was out from underneath the car, she reached down and grabbed his zipper and went down and up and down and up and down and up and left it down. He didn’t even respond. Then she went into the house, and there her husband was coming out of the kitchen with two drinks. She said, “Who’s that under the car?” He said it was his friend under the car and he was bringing him a drink. They both ran outside, and his friend was unconscious under the car. When she did that deal with the zipper, his friend jumped up, hit his head on the bottom of the car and knocked himself out. This was in that paramedic section of the newspaper. What was the whole thing caused by? It all began with two people not really willing to serve each other.
I really think nothing is more important in marriage or in life than a servant’s heart. Maybe you are thinking, “Well, you know, I can change people. I do not need to look for somebody chosen of God. I do not need to look for somebody from the household of God. I don’t need to look for somebody with a servant’s heart because I can change them later.” Maybe you think like that.
I know many of you are familiar with the story of Don Quixote. Don Quixote’s story was told in The Man of La Mancha, written by Miguel De Cervantes in 1605. Don Quixote was an elderly chivalrous knight. We are told that he came upon a woman whose name was Aldonza. She was a street prostitute, and Don Quixote said to her, “You are my lady and I call you Dulcinea.” She said, “I’m not your lady and my name is not Dulcinea.” Don Quixote continued to call her “his lady” and to name her “Dulcinea.” If you know the story, you know that at the end of Don Quixote’s life when he’s on his deathbed, Aldonza comes to him, and she says to him in death, “I am your lady, and my name is Dulcinea.” Her life has been transformed by his belief in her, transformed simply by him calling her “his lady” and renaming her.
We read stories like that and we kind of grow up with stories like that, and we think transformation is easy, and it’s not. We should always remember that, as de Cervantes described Don Quixote, he was really a well-intentioned nincompoop! He really was, as described by Cervantes. He was deluded and he was delusional. He had read too many books about chivalry, and he had imagined himself a knight when he was not even a knight. He went forth and he fought windmills thinking they were giants. He did not even know who Aldonza was. He had misperceived her.
We are deluded too. We’re deluded if we think transformation is easy. You are deluded if you think transformation is easy. Christ has the power to transform His people. When we give our life to Him, He can incrementally, bit by bit by the power of the Holy Spirit within, us change us. But the world is not easily transformed.
As you seek anyone in marriage—your husband or your wife—look for somebody chosen of God and someone with a servant’s heart. As we look at our own lives, believe in divine election and the call to fruitfulness, and view that call as more important than anything, and seek each day to develop a servant’s heart.
I have a wedding ring on my hand. I lost it just a week or so ago, and I thought I’d never find it again. I had been playing golf the prior day. I was thinking through my mind, “Where could I have lost it?” I went through everything—all the trash and all around the house and in all of the rooms of the house—and could not find it. I remembered the day before with some friends here at the church, I had gone out to play golf at Inverness. I was playing the Par 3, number 3 hole. I hit my shot just over the lake, and it went about a foot over the lake and then buried in some mud. I was glad just to clear the lake, being the golfer that I am.
I went over there to get my golf ball. It was buried about 8 inches down into the mud. I took my left hand, and I began to dig down into the mud. It took me quite a while and I could not quite pull it out, but finally got the golf ball out. Then I went ahead and played golf. But I was thinking the next day, “Maybe when I reached into that hole, somehow my ring came off.” I went back the next day to the golf course, worked my way through the foursomes that were playing the course, made my way to the third hole and up to the mud. I had a trowel with me, and I began to dig. I dug and I dug and I dug the mud. Pretty soon the hole went all the way down into the edge of the lake. I was reaching everywhere and could not find it. I was praying, “Lord, help me find that ring.” Finally, I could not find it and was about to give up. I kind of turned around and started to crawl up and put my hand on something, and it was my wedding ring.
I am grateful to find my wedding ring again for a number of reasons. This wedding band Barb and I bought in Israel. It says “Abba, Bin, Ruah,” on it in Hebrew, which means “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” This ring is always a reminder to me of my divine election and that I have been called by God. It’s my wedding ring, and it’s a reminder of my love for Barb and my covenant with her and commitment to her. And yet it’s only a ring. What is really important is how I live my life—whether I live my life in light of God’s call, in honor of His election, and whether I live my life in such a way as to show I love Barb and have entered into a lifetime covenant with her. It is all about how we live. What is true of me is true of you. It is all about how you live.
Well, Rebekah tells us we need to believe in divine election and have a servant’s heart. Let us close with a word of prayer.