Rebekah and Isaac Choose to Obey God

Genesis 24:62-67 ⁶² Now Isaac had come from Beer Lahai Roi, for he was living in the Negev. ⁶³ He went out to the field one evening to meditate, and as he looked up, he saw camels approaching. ⁶⁴ Rebekah also looked up and saw Isaac. She got down from her camel ⁶⁵ and 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.

⁶⁶ Then the servant told Isaac all he had done. ⁶⁷ Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he married Rebekah. So she became his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.

Isaac also chose to wait on God. Where it says he was meditating, he may have been praying about his future bride, or about losing his mother. God rewarded him with a kind and faithful wife.

This story, from the time of the early church, has been seen as a portrayal of the church as Christ’s bride. Abraham is said to represent God the Father seeking a wife, the new humanity, for His Son, Jesus Christ. Revelation 19:7 speaks of this marriage, “For the wedding of the Lamb (Jesus) has come, and his bride has made herself ready.”

Isaac, the son, represents Jesus Christ, who, like Isaac, submitted Himself to be sacrificed in obedience to His Father. Based on Sarah’s age at her death, many scholars think Isaac was 33 when that happened! The same age Jesus was when He was crucified. Isaac was out in the field waiting on his bride, like Jesus waits for His bride in heaven.

Abraham’s servant represents the Holy Spirit. He doesn’t speak of Himself, yet it’s He who draws us to Christ by first convicting us of sin, revealing the righteousness of Christ to us and sealing us for God as he makes us know we are called of God, then born again to become His sons. It’s the Holy Spirit, who like the servant, keeps us from harm on our journey to heaven and our bridegroom. Instead of giving us jewels from the bridegroom, He gives us the fruits of the spirit.

And lastly, Rebekah illustrates the believer. Again the choosing, the response to God’s Word and the work of the Holy Spirit.