I Will Go

Rebekah

 

Dust filled her mouth, despite the heavy veil covering her face leaving only her eyes free to observe the terrain.  Not that there was much to see, she thought wryly, everything looked the same after the first day.  Sand, sand, sand everywhere dotted by occasional circles of brown brush only hinting at green.  Her heart sank thinking of her hometown, surrounded by lush green fields and trees, only a short walk away from the river.  Would this vast bareness be what she would now call home? If they ever got there. Home. How strange to think of a place she’d never seen and people she’d never met as home.

Leaning back in the saddle, the familiar rocking of the camel, reminded her of how weary she was of traveling.  If only she could sleep, but the aching of her body, as the camel lurched forward again and again kept her from the blissful oblivion of true rest.  She wondered for the thousandth time if she had made the right choice.  She must have been mad to agree to leave immediately, to agree to marry a man she’d never met, to never see her family again.  Days melted into weeks and weeks into months and with them the possibility of turning back. Her camel stopped and Rebekah unwound the veil from around her face allowing herself the freedom of inhaling clean air. Glancing around, she was surprised to see they had stopped at a great well of water, and just beyond she could see fields of green.

Eliezer, the servant of Abraham approached her “My lady, we will rest here for a time.”

“Will we not stop for the night?” asked Rebekah confused, noting the sun drawing a close to the day. 

“No, for the tents of Abraham are just beyond those fields.”

Rebekah looked up surprised.  An end to the journey seemed impossible, yet the fields he spoke of lay directly before them.  Shielding her eyes, Rebekah made out the form of a man headed toward the well.  “Eliezer, do you know who approaches us?”

Turning, he spied the man in the distance “Why, it looks to be Master Isaac, stay there and I will lead you to him.”

Her fatigue gave way to excitement, her pain to joy, and her doubt to determination.  “No, help me down.  Keterah,” she called to one of her handmaidens, “bring my wedding veil and some water.  Quickly.”  Washing her face and arms, Rebekah removed her outer traveling coat caked with dust, and donned a vest glittering with beads.  She longed for a bath and to wash her hair, but time would not allow and she would meet her bridegroom humble and ready to be his bride not as a proud, weary, stranger looking down upon him.  Taking the veil held out to her, she thought briefly of her mother as the embroidered threads of her handiwork glinted in the sun.  She had been preparing for this day her entire life. Securing the veil, thin enough to just see out of, she took Eliezer’s hand and walked toward her future.

 

“I will go.”  Rebekah’s simple answer in Genesis 24:58, was the beginning of a long journey that would have allowed time to question her decision.  Bible Scholars estimate the journey to have been approximately 500 miles, taking 2-4 months to complete, for Rebekah to have traveled to Isaac.  How many days do you think she questioned her calling?  When Eliezer revealed all that had happened, in seeking a bride for Isaac, to her family, they had known it was the will of the Lord. (Genesis 24:50)  Yet, along the journey Rebekah’s fears and doubt would’ve crept in, causing her to wonder if all would indeed be well, if Isaac would want her, if she would want him, if they would find happiness.  But the Bible says as soon as she saw him approaching, she dismounted from her camel and veiled herself.  (Genesis 24:65)  Despite being exhausted from travel, homesick, and uncertain of the future she prepared herself to meet him as a bride.  (Just a side note, she did not veil herself to hide her face but to honor the custom for a marriage ceremony much like we are familiar with today.)

I want to remember that Rebekah, saying “I will go,” was in many ways the easy part.  Being willing is a huge step in taking a closer walk with God, and the closer we get to Him the bigger the, I will, becomes.  Saying yes is the beginning of a journey.  And journeys are not always easy.  A journey will wear you out more thoroughly than running a mile ever could, and sometimes at the end of a journey all we can do is collapse thankful it’s all over.  We have to be ready to revive ourselves, just as Rebekah got down of the camel and prepared to meet Jacob, we have to be ready to do what God has asked no matter how bruised we are from the trip, physically and mentally.  We have to continue to pray and study, ready to do his work.  Rebekah had her veil ready, not packed away in a trunk on one of the camels but close by where she could reach it.  We have to keep God’s word close by and hidden in our hearts (Ps 119:11), ready in season and out of season (2 Timothy 4:2) answering the call to become the women God designed us to be.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+24&version=NKJV