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Sermon - June 29th, 2008
Abraham, Isaac & Rebekah
Rev. Gwen Drake
Scripture: Genesis 24
Before there were kings in Israel, there were judges, before the judges, there were the matriarchs and patriarchs. The stories in Genesis tell the stories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, patriarchs’ names that were spoken as a kind of a holy formula, a trinity of authority, spoken as if they were one name.
Abraham and Sarah were the parents of Isaac. Isaac and Rebekah were the parents of Jacob and Esau.
Jacob’s favorite wife, Rachel had twelve sons, and those twelve sons are the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel.
These stories in Genesis are a genealogy—a family tree by which the Jews trace their ancestry.
Abraham and Sarah were the first generation, famous for their faith. They were pioneer stock. They lived a hard life. They were accustomed to deprivation and disappointment. They were admirable, but not perfect, in their character. Their faces were full of strength and sternness, but you could also see some lines of laughter weathered into their faces.
The second generation was Isaac and Rebekah. We don’t hear too much about them, only a couple of chapters in Genesis. We could say that they were the conservative generation, who used all of their strength and ingenuity to hang onto and pass on what was given to them.
The third generation was Jacob and Esau. We could call them the rebellious generation. The fourth generation was the one that belonged to Joseph and all his brothers. Perhaps we could call them the transitional generation—the generation that brought the Hebrew people out of the Promised Land into Egypt.
We could spend the whole summer trekking through these generations of Genesis stories—and perhaps we will, stories that are somewhat familiar, stories of families that aren’t all that different than our own families today.
Today we begin talking about the second generation, Isaac and Rebekah who lived in the shadow of Abraham and Sarah.
Isaac was the only heir to God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah. He was one of those longed for and rejoiced in births, yet there are only a few times when Isaac stands in center stage in a flood of light. One of those times is among the best known and theologically most demanding stories in the Hebrew Scriptures. It must have killed Sarah to watch her only son go with his father into the hills that morning. She dies in the very next chapter in Genesis. To think that God would tempt Abraham with such a sacrifice and to watch Abraham obey with a deafening silence. It would be more than I could bear. Not in their wildest dreams, could Abraham and Sarah have imagined that God would take from them the one thing that would fulfill God’s promise to them, the one who brought them laughter, Isaac.
The God of Abraham is a very real God, not dignified, not businesslike, not the feel-good God we so often talk about in church. The God of Abraham and Sarah is fierce and demanding and asked everything from them and more. This God cannot be served without cost. The narrative is harsh and cold and stark, moving us quickly and horrifically to the climax, to the moment that Abraham draws out the knife that would take the precious life of his promised son and end the promise of a future beyond them. It is only seconds before death that God intervenes and provides Abraham with an alternative sacrifice. What kind of God would do that? Not a middle-of-the-road, reasonable God. Not a tamed, domesticated God. We have a God that wants nothing less than our complete obedience. Faith in this God is nothing other than trust in the power of life against every deathly circumstance.
This story shows us that God is a contradiction. God has sovereign freedom with inscrutable graciousness. I don’t understand God at all. I can’t explain this story to you adequately. If I told you it was a test and Abraham passed it, I would be extremely over-simplifying the mystery of God. And the more I read what is written about this story, the more I believe that this story is not about Abraham at all, but about God, God as a testing God and a providing God. I don’t even like to think about God giving me a test. What does that mean for me personally? The only answer that makes sense to me is I am tested when I am seduced into an easier, less demanding, more attractive alternative to God—and there are a lot of alternatives in our world. Just who is this God of ours? What is it in our life that drives us to find out what our faith is and then whether we mean what we say about our faith. You see, there is nothing wishy-washy about our God EVER—from the very beginning, God has insisted on our undivided loyalty. Now, maybe you are thinking—oh, that’s the Old Testament God you are talking about. Well, let me remind you that when we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we are praying to a God who tests us when we say, “…lead us not into temptation…”
And then, we see in this story, that the God of Abraham is a providing God. Now, before you breathe a sigh of relief, think about this aspect of God. The providing God can be just as difficult to comprehend. The claim that God alone provides is just as scandalous as the claim that God tests. How radical can we get!!! This also is in the Lord’s Prayer. When we pray “Give us this day, our daily bread...” we acknowledge that there is no other source but God, for bread and for life. So what we do, just as Abraham and Sarah did, we live in the midst of the contradiction between the testing of God and the providing of God, between the sovereign freedom of God that requires complete obedience and the gracious faithfulness which gives life, and blessings and good gifts.
God tested, God provided, Isaac lived, and Sarah died and was buried. Abraham was obedient but there was still more that needed to happen for God’s promise to be fulfilled. Abraham needed grandchildren. Isaac needed a wife for that to happen. Not just any woman would do, either. Abraham needed to find a proper wife for Isaac. She needed to have the proper genealogy, to be good looking, have many camels, and be a virgin. So, Abraham sent his oldest and most trusted servant with ten camels and all kinds of other gifts back to his homeland to find a match made in heaven for Isaac.
When the servant arrived, he stopped at the well and waited for the women to come and draw water. Now, I am sure that this servant had done easier things in his lifetime with Abraham and Sarah than waiting at a well, watching the women come, hoping that he would know exactly which one was the one. So, he did what anyone would do in his position. He prayed, “Please God, give me a sign, I need major help, here.” He was not an experience match-maker. But never under-estimate the power of prayer. Before he had said, “amen” Rebekah came and filled her jar. Realizing, she could be the one, the servant asked her for a drink. Rebekah not only gave him a drink but the camels as well. That was the sign! Don’t ask me why, but it was. And she was the one! He thought, he hoped. And then he put his hypothesis to the test. God had given the sign, but the servant wanted to be sure. He looked around to see if he could tell if God was present.
The servant asked for a night’s accommodation and explained to Rebekah’s brother that he was searching for a wife for Abraham’s son. The servant felt sure God had led him to Rebekah. “Could she return with me?” The family agreed. Of course, many gifts were given to Rebekah and her family. The next morning, however, when the servant got ready to go, they wanted to wait 10 days, as if they were having second thoughts. Maybe they were wanting more gifts? The servant was sure, though, and insisted that they leave immediately. The family decided to ask Rebekah what she wanted to do. Rebekah responded, “Yes, I will go.” And they set forth for the land of Canaan.
When they arrived in the land of Canaan, Isaac met Rebekah, it was love at first sight, and they were married immediately.
The story of Isaac’s arranged marriage to Rebekah is a peaceful interlude, after the previous story, almost idyllic in tone. The workings of God in this story are not spectacular, not magical or odd. The servant practiced steady discernment and willingness to trust. And things seemed to occur as the servant stepped forward in faith.
We live with faith all the time. We really wouldn’t be living at all if we didn’t have faith in something. The faith of Abraham and Sarah, and now Rebekah is a faith lived between the old familiar homeland that is left behind and the new place, the new day that will come, the promise that will be fulfilled. We have that faith, too. The faith if takes to live in-between times, in-between places. Life is full of ambiguity. Life is uncertain. It takes faith to live here. And know this, God is in all the in-between places, in all the uncertainty and ambiguity. Our mysterious God of contradictions, always calling us to pay attention and be present and be aware, yearning for nothing less than complete obedience.
Isaac and Rebekah buried Father Abraham next to Sarah. They enjoyed the wealth and prosperity that they inherited. They conserved what they had so they could pass on what they had received. Rebekah went through similar child bearing problems as Sarah. When she finally conceived she had a difficult pregnancy. Rebekah’s prayer during her pregnancy was, “Why do I live, if it is to be this way.” And God told her that her womb was going to give birth to two nations, twins, who would always be adversaries. Her pregnancy was difficult because they were already fighting with each other in her womb.
Esau and Jacob were born—the third generation. Esau first, the blessed one, the son who was destined to inherit everything, followed by Jacob who was holding onto his brother’s heel when he arrived in the world.
Now, Rebekah had before her an even bigger task, for she was the one who would direct the course of the next generation. Isaac retreated again to the shadow. She was the one who knew and fulfilled what God wanted, behind the scenes. Rebekah listened closely, used all her wisdom and cleverness. She was willing to sacrifice herself to direct the next generation through Jacob, challenging the prevailing law of her day. God’s promise continued on the path toward fulfillment, despite all the obstacles. And the story continued…….
Amen. 1