Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Matchmaker, Matchmaker

I haven't always appreciated the story of Isaac and Rebekah. As a young woman of the 21st century, I'm more likely to know of someone who has thirty-eight tattoos than someone who had an arranged marriage. Yet there's something about the story that is intriguing.

The tale begins with a servant being given the job of picking out a wife for his boss's son, Isaac. Not a low pressure task. While I suspect the servant was a little nerve-wracked by the responsibility on his shoulders, Abraham, his boss, says to trust God. The servant then travels to Mesopotamia, picks the first girl he meets (literally), and returns home with the new bride.

One would think that this sort of marriage tactic was a recipe for ruin. For all this servant-turned-Tevye knew, the bride could be a brat. She could have had a not-so-respectable-reputation. She could be any number of things considered undesirable in the ancient world.

But the bride isn't some selfish, Mesopotamian teenager. Even though the servant didn't know the girl from Adam, she ended up being quite a catch. She was even from a good family; a relative of Abraham.

Her name was Rebekah.

We don't know much of her character, but first impressions speak volumes. Upon meeting the servant, Rebekah willingly gives him the water she just drew from the well. Then, she offers to water his camels. "So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough, and ran back to the well to draw...." Not only did the girl show hospitality to a complete stranger, but she added extra work to her day in order to serve him.

What does this say of Rebekah? She had character. She was committed to doing the right thing, even if the only person watching was a dusty, thirsty servant. She was a stellar girl. Isaac couldn't have asked for more in a wife.

I'm not sure what the odds are for successful arranged marriages, but this one was so perfectly coordinated, one would almost suspect that God was behind it. And He was.

There are dozens of unexplainable "coincidences" in this story: How did the servant chance to meet a relative of his master in a foreign country? How did it happen that Rebekah was not only of a good family--but demonstrated an amazing servant's heart and a willingness to do anything that needed to be done? And in a broader sense, isn't it amazing that God could match a young man and a young woman who lived hundreds of miles away from each other?

Then, of course there are a myriad of "what-if's" this story brings to mind. What if Rebekah had tripped that morning on the way to the well, and the servant had bumped into another young lady? What if the servant had ridden his camel a little slower and arrived at the well after Rebekah left? What if Rebekah decided she wasn't in the mood to serve others? What if--



One of those little, everyday instances could've changed the Isaac and Rebekah's story drastically.



Robert Frost demonstrated this idea in his famous poem, "The Road Not Taken," when he wrote of finding two pathways in the forest. Both looked inviting, yet he was forced to choose one. Knowing the nature of destiny, and how one single decision can impact the future, he mused:

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.



In the love story of Isaac and Rebekah, God didn't leave those details to chance. He made the servant's timing perfect and Rebekah didn't miss a beat.

Paul wrote: "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! ....For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things." (Romans 12:33,36)

This is the same God who calls us to trust Him with our own lives.

This is where the main theme of Isaac and Rebekah's story comes to the surface: Trust God. The story is not a formula to follow for a happily ever after, but it is a real-life example of what God can do and has, in fact, done. It's a testimony to God's graciousness that's as real as any modern day newspaper clipping. It's a story showing that picking our pathways may feel risky, but God ordains our steps; and that makes all the difference.

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