A Happy Sendoff
Kind words from Rebekah’s kin graced her send off. “…They blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them.” (Gen 24:60 ~KJV).
Nothing about the entire transaction was antagonistic. None of the damsel’s relatives presented any resistance about her departure to marry Abraham’s son. They all wished her well and rejoiced at the good tidings. In fact, nowhere else in the King James Version Bible is the term ‘millions’ used except in the excerpt above.
Isaac loved his well-behaved wife. Her arrival brought comfort to an only son who’d just lost his mother, Sarah. Not only Isaac was comforted; Abraham rejoiced to see the lovely wife God had raised for his heir.
But alas, as things turned out, Rebekah was barren!
When newlyweds encounter marital strains, some people begin looking for hidden clues in the line-up to the marriage. If they discover that a parent, a pastor or some other authority figure had objected to the marriage, they see that as a curse—the genesis of difficulties. All sorts of ideas are then peddled on how that couple should rid themselves of ‘the curse.’
Such folks would find it difficult to explain Rebekah’s barrenness. Abraham’s servant was divinely led to the gracious virgin. Her relatives readily yielded to God’s will and sent the maiden away with highest blessings. How did such an unfortunate fate befall the epitome of feminine comeliness and chastity?
Not By Works Lest Any Man Should Boast
“…Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.” Gen 25:21. Isaac and Rebekah had been married for over twenty years when it became apparent they weren’t going to beget children without divine intervention. Rebekah’s womb opened only after Isaac entreated the Lord. Later, when she had conceived and felt a struggle going on inside her womb, Rebekah herself sought the Lord on what was happening. Thus, both Isaac and his wife sought God concerning their destinies.
The main point I want to you to get is that Rebekah’s breakthrough came by way of prayer and faith in God rather than through parental blessings. In the absence of that revelation she would probably never differentiate between God’s promises and parental blessing. Those are two distinct and unrelated issues. Rebekah needed to understand that the product of her womb had a divine promise, and that through Isaac! She must never think that the pronouncements made by her people had any capacity to unlock the plan of God for her life. The privilege to mother great nations would be realized only as a wife to Abraham’s son, Isaac. God’s promise would only be fulfilled through her connection to the heir of His covenant, not from the benevolence of her clan. Until God intervened, Rebekah remained barren in spite of her parental blessings.
On that note, we could make another important point. As a Christian, you draw God’s blessings via your connection to Jesus Christ. He is the ultimate Heir of God the Father. Your credentials and statuses, before and after coming to faith in God’s Son, don’t add anything to the equation. Your blessings are the result of God’s promises, and that through Christ Jesus His Son. Except you are the Bride of Christ, you’d stake no claims on the promises of God.
A String of Barren Women
Sarah, Isaac’s mother, was barren; Rebekah, Isaac’s wife was barren, and so was Rachel, Isaac’s son’s wife. Three consecutive generations of patriarchs with a divine promise, all encountered the same problem! Abraham’s Sarah, Isaac’s Rebekah and Jacob’s Rachel! What was happening?
Barrenness is inability to procreate. But in the case of these people, it went beyond mere infertility. Abraham fathered at least eight known sons—born to three women—Sarah, Hagar, and Keturah. Still more were born to unnamed concubines. Isaac had two sons and one is not reckoned in God’s divine plan.
God’s promises are the central theme in these accounts. But as you may observe, evil spiritual forces worked overtime in an effort to defeat God’s plan. Unless wives to the heirs gave birth, God’s promises would not be realized. Another way satan tried to complicate the situation was by introducing illicit heirs.
Spiritual Lessons
In some Scriptural instances, a woman symbolizes the Church. She is the Bride of Christ, a mother of God’s children on the earth (see 2 John vs 1, Rev 12, etc). No wonder the enemy works relentlessly to make her barren! Barrenness annuls God’s promises. Neither can illegitimate scions realize them. These are deep spiritual concepts, and the onus to decrypt them is a call to spiritual maturity.
The church must guard against conjectural doctrines. Well-meaning persons sometimes utter stray statements and Christians build dogmas around them. Words of men are elevated to a status of God’s oracles. Believers begin to view unscriptural utterances as promises that God is obligated to fulfill. But God’s promises are not to be confused with utterances of well-wishers. In fact, well-meaning utterances often lead to barrenness because they eclipse God’s Word. Basing one’s hope merely on men’s declarations could be a perfect recipe for disappointments. The only promise God is committed to fulfill is His own eternal Word, none other.
Blessings from parents and other authority figures have their valid place. I don’t mean to underrate their importance. But that’s beside our point here. This article focuses on a different idea. As Christians, we must base our hopes on something reliable–the promises of God– and they are not dependent on the goodwill of men.