Rebekah

KNOWN AS THE MOTHER OF TWO NATIONS
Genesis 22-28

IMAGINE: Going to the community well to fetch daily water for the family only to come to a fork in the road causing you to leave everything behind and looking ahead to nothing you know.
Rebekah is the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Nahor, Abraham’s brother. She is a grandniece to Abraham but becomes his daughter-in-law upon her marriage to his son Isaac, who is her second cousin. She eventually becomes the mother to twins Esau and Jacob.
When Abraham, Sarah and Lot left Haran to go into the land of the Canaanites, Nahor and his family stayed behind in Haran also known as Aram-Naharaim. Terah, who was father to Abraham, Nahor and also Sarah (Gen. 20:12), died in Haran and was a worshiper and idol maker of nanna/sin, the moon god. Who, if any, from Nahor’s family worshiped Jehovah God we are not told. We do know Abraham was told by God to “go out from your land, your relatives and your father’s house.” (Gen.12:1).
When Isaac is forty years old and his mother Sarah now deceased, Abraham sees the need for Isaac to marry. He, however, does not want him to marry a Canaanite woman, but someone from his own family line back in his homeland of Mesopotamia. Abraham sends his servant, along with ten camels and all kinds of goods, to his brother’s relatives to seek a wife for Isaac.
As the servant comes upon the well outside the city, he finds the beautiful Rebekah. She is approximately twenty years old. It is recorded she is a virgin. The servant learns this amazing young woman is Nahor’s granddaughter making her his master Abraham’s grandniece.
She gives him a drink, waters his ten camels, runs to her father’s house and shows her father the jewels she has just received from the new guy in town.  A camel that has gone a few days without water can drink as much as twenty-five gallons. A water jug used by a young woman for her family might hold three gallons. That’s more than eight trips to the well to bring water to one camel. It appears Rebekah is strong, energetic, and hospitable.
The servant explains to Rebekah’s father Bethuel, and her brother Laban, that his mission is to obtain a wife for his master’s son Isaac who happens to be a family relative. The family realizes quickly how advantageous a marriage into a rich family could be, and how pleasant it would be to receive jewels and gifts, the bride price for Rebekah.
This adventurous young woman agrees to leave her home and family immediately and sets out on the 500-mile journey with the servant to meet her husband-to-be. It is difficult to know why she was so willing to leave her family for the unknown, but it appears this is the last time she ever sees them.
She arrives safely to where Isaac is, marries him and after he prays for twenty years she conceives and has a very troublesome pregnancy. She inquires of the Lord as to why her baby seems so agitated and active. God informs her, although we are not told how, that she is carrying two babies and they are fighting with each other.
Rebekah does indeed give birth to two sons who are very different. Esau who is red and hairy arrives first. He will become the father of the Edomites. Jacob is the second son to arrive and will be the child of promise along with his father, Isaac, and his grandfather, Abraham, and will be father to the twelve tribes of Israel. Isaac favored Esau while Rebekah favored Jacob as the boys were growing up. 
When the boys are forty years old, Esau marries two Canaanite women who apparently make Rebekah’s life miserable. Esau had earlier given up his birthright to his brother Jacob for a bowl of stew. The birthright was a double portion of the inheritance he would have received when their father died, and he was entitled to as he was the oldest son. It is recorded he despised his birthright. (Gen. 25:34).
Isaac and Rebekah each show favoritism toward their respective sons which causes great disappointment, jealously between two bothers and the tragedy of a broken family. Isaac wants to give his blessing to Esau, whereas Rebekah manipulates the circumstance so as for Jacob to receive the blessing, in effect, the passing of family leadership.
God had already declared Jacob would be the one to carry on the Covenant blessing he had made with Abraham and with Isaac, but apparently Rebekah felt the need to help God with this. That is an idea that very rarely turns out well.  Jacob does indeed get the blessing from Isaac, by hook or by crook, but now his brother is out to kill him.
Again, Rebekah chooses to solve yet another family dilemma herself instead of turning to God. She decides to send her beloved son to her brother Laban in Haran telling Isaac she cannot stand the idea of Jacob marrying a Canaanite woman as Esau has done. This interference from her, instead of depending on God, cost her dearly.
As a result of her favoritism and manipulation it appears, she dies never seeing her favored son again. Nor his children who will eventually become the twelve tribes of Israel. Rebekah, in her youth, was beautiful and generous, but in her later years is conniving, manipulative and will do anything to benefit her favorite son, Jacob.
Indeed, her two sons and their descendants were and still are at odds 2000 years after the birth of these fraternal twin boys. Herod the Great, who hailed from Idumea, which is the Greek name for Edom, Esau’s territory, would slaughter many innocent Hebrew children in his attempt to destroy the infant Jesus. Today the descendants of these two are still at war with each other. The consequences of favoritism apparently had a far reach.
Did Rebekah know she would never see her family members in Haran again when she set out for Canaan with Abraham’s servant to meet and marry Isaac? Did she know she would never see her favored son again when she sent him to her family relatives back in Haran where she had left decades ago?  
We do not know. We are told her daughters-in-law, Esau’s wives, made her life miserable and we can venture a pretty good guess she was totally distraught up until the day she died waiting for her favorite son, Jacob, to return to her. The consequences of favoritism can also be costly. In this case, Esau left home, and Jacob fled from it, resulting in sorrow and separation.
Isaac, although much older than Rebekah, was still living when Jacob returned to Canaan over twenty years later. It is assumed that Rebekah died during Jacob’s long absence and was buried in the cave of Machpelah near Hebron. (Gen. 49:31). We are only not told when she died but how she died. Possibly she just died of a broken heart.
Rebekah took control and influenced a circumstance that God had already proclaimed the outcome to concerning Jacob, the child of promise. Sadly, Rebekah was willing to follow a mere human into the unknown but had trouble following and trusting God with her favored son, the son He, God, had given her. Rebekah teaches if we insist on taking control, we can lose everything. If we give God control, we can lose nothing.

            Something to consider:

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to know the difference.
Al Anon