Rebekah is probably better known for her ingenuity, not God’s. From the moment she enters Scripture she’s a woman who easily takes charge, not hesitating to answer Eliezer’s request for a drink, and she waters all ten of his camels too (Genesis 24:17-19). And when asked if there’s room in her father’s house for Eliezer and his men to spend the night, she doesn’t consult at all with her father, she simply states, “We have plenty of straw and fodder as well as room for you to spend the night” (23-25).
Rebekah has confidence oozing out of every beautiful pore, which may explain why she’d had no drooling suitors and remained a virgin (24:16). She also commanded the respect of her family too, because no way would they let her leave with Eliezer without her permission. And having her own nurse (59) probably meant she was a woman of some stature in that culture too.
And in the story of Isaac she takes up most of it as well, as the one most instrumental in the blessing of Jacob. Which brings God’s ingenuity into the story, because Isaac was besotted with Esau (25:28) and wanted to give him the blessing – despite YHWH’s prophecy back in verse 23 that “the older (Esau) will serve the younger.” But YHWH has an ace up his ingenious sleeve: it’s Rebekah.
Because Rebekah doesn’t mess around. When she sees a need she gets right to it. And YHWH can relate to that all right, because he’s always responding to needs, which in this case was getting Jacob blessed. Well, lo and behold, along comes Rebekah, who on hearing Isaac preparing to bless Esau, comes up with a brilliant plan of her own to get Jacob blessed instead. And does YHWH step in and stop her? No, he lets her go ahead with her crafty plan, and he even lets her pull it off too.
To YHWH that wasn’t a problem, though, because he simply slotted her plan in with what he was planning. It’s a great lesson in God’s ingenuity, because in creating us with amazing brains – like Rebekah’s agile brain – he works with what we come up with to bring about what he wants done. So just like Rebekah we can think we’re being jolly clever, but God is even more clever, neatly fitting in our ‘brilliant’ plans with his. Which is encouraging, because we have all sorts of people right now who think they’re being ever so clever in their plans for the planet without a thought of God on their minds, not realizing that God is happily using their self-congratulating ‘brilliance’ to bring about his own plans. He did with Rebekah and now with “Jacob: God’s master plan continues”….(next blog)
Buck To Basics 