A match made in heaven

“And they called Rebekah, and said unto her, Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go.” - Genesis 24:58

World literature in the centuries has offered different kinds of love stories that are true and imaginary, with loveable and despicable characters, with pleasurable and lamentable ends… with impacts to be honoured and others to be forgotten. The cinema, on the other hand, has continually relied on bringing to the screen stories from books or new scripts, with the goal of sparking the pink fantasy of (mainly) girls, not always showing the necessary care about the lessons they leave to generations. Nevertheless, there is an old book in which love stories, the beautiful ones, go so much against the usual current of romantic heroes and heroines we have been fed with most of our lives. These stories do not spark pink fantasy; instead, they challenge it to find its fulfilment in the original model prepared by the Creator of all kinds of love. Considering the never fading interest towards the issue of romantic love and the (too much) time spent in such stories that send us to clouds from which one can easily fall, why not try something different and give a look at the Word of God to see His version of an unforgettable love story?

There are many such stories in the Bible, but a favourite one, standing alone for its uniqueness, for the great change from normal, for its sweetness, is the story of Isaac and Rebekah. The Lord is able to write very beautiful stories with the lives of two people like they, people in whom the hand of God is powerfully seen in action, people who are surrounded by the encouragement and prayers of other godly people.

As a good father, Abraham makes sure that his son, the chosen one in the line of the coming of the Messiah, would not be trapped in marriage to a Canaanite, an idolater who has no part in the Lord; so he has his servant swear he will go to his birthplace and his kinship and there find Isaac’s “help meet”. The servant is a loyal man, who loves dearly his master’s family, and who has seen how God has acted in this special family. He leaves to do as his master required, thus becoming himself an important character of a story from whose inheritance the Messiah would come. He is not a servant who merely carries out orders, but a servant who knows personally the Lord of his master, as is testified by his involvement in prayer and the binding of a condition with Him, to seek His guidance in the work he has set out to do. Such people are never left without an answer from above.

Though it seems like a strange condition, Rebecca’s presence and actions at the well show many aspects of her character. When the servant asks for water and Rebecca hurries up to give water to him and his camels also, it is clear this is no ordinary girl. This is a generous girl, ready to help and serve, a girl who does not restrain her help to a little, but is willingly offered to do more than enough. Though this is a short episode to judge, there can be seen in Rebecca many qualities of the godly woman described in Proverbs 31. She is generous, hardworking, a helper of people in need; she opens her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness. What a girl!

Rebecca was at the right place at the right time, and that was no coincidence. God knew her life well before, He knew her character, and He called her worthy of being there when she should be, because none of His sons and daughters who live in obedience will ever lose the right moment of God for the setting of their lives’ direction. Rebecca’s arrival at the well was no coincidence, nor her good luck, but a sign of the sovereign will of God Who bring things as is right when it is right, and Who brings people together as is right, when it is right.

Rebecca is also a model for the way how she honours her family and the authority it represents. Though today this is treated as old-fashioned, it is a fundamental element not only for the building of a daughter’s character, but also for the future of the family in which she will be a wife and a mother. She introduces the servant to her family, including them not only in the hearing of the amazing story he has to tell, but also in the process of making a decision and judging whether the person on whose behalf this servant has come is worthy of her leaving her family, and whether she is suitable to be included in the new family where she is expected to go.

Here comes the chance for Rebecca to hear what kind of a man Isaac, her future husband, is. The servant tells in detail how the Lord has richly blessed his master, how these blessing are going to his son, and how the God hears the prayers of this family who enjoys His special friendship. And Rebecca is a smart girl. How could she not want, by marrying Isaac, to become herself part of this group of people privileged by the continual presence of God, people marked for the realisation of His plan? Her godliness is again unfolded in the great step of faith she takes when she says “I will go!” She is not a daredevil, nor a daydreamer, but a girl who can discern the mighty hand of her God and doesn’t hesitate to jump in the “adventure” of obeying to Him. How could her obedience not be rewarded by what comes next in the story, with the full love of her husband, in their beautiful marriage, thought not deprived of challenges?

Isaac is a son obedient to his God to the point of being ready for the sacrifice of his life, a boy whom Rebecca finds thinking and praying (according to books of Jewish tradition). Rebecca is a girl who turns to the Lord for every concern she has and gets an answer (Genesis 25:22-23). They are both called by God in a common call, in a common plan, which they accept full-heartedly. Such a marriage, of two people of obedience, with the always desired presence of God, has no chance of not working and not living behind a legacy of romantic love that goes beyond the self-consuming frames of pink and makes you settle for no less than a match made in Heaven. It is worth saying: What a couple!