COFFEE CHATTER

DAY NINETEEN: SEASON 1

Genesis 24:16…“The woman was very beautiful, a virgin; no man had ever slept with her. She went down to the spring, filled her jar and came up again.”

CAMELS NEED WATER TOO!

When I first laid eyes on my wife, it was at an outdoor recreational volleyball game, just outside a church. For about six months, I had been serving with six other recent university graduates in launching a new “Christian Singles Ministry” in a small, quiet, suburban town in New Jersey. Why we chose volleyball as our summer Friday evening activity, I will never re-member; little did I know that it was the driving attraction why my future wife visited us that evening. Her passion in life, at the time, was semi-pro volleyball and she could be coerced into trying any activity that remotely resembled a rectangular court with a dividing net and a white ball (all volleyballs were white back in 1987). That first providential meeting set the stage for the attendance of many subsequent Friday nights, which eventually moved indoors to a local Christian elementary school gymnasium, once the weather got colder.

Abraham was old when he called for his senior servant, the manager of his entire household, and said to him, “You shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I live, but you shall go to my country and to my relatives and take a wife for my son Isaac” (Gen. 24:3, 4). The Canaanites were a vile race, cursed by God and doomed to destruction. God would not be pleased for Isaac to marry one of them. Nevertheless, although Abraham’s relatives in northern Mesopotamia had their idols too, they were at least a moral people who knew about God and respected Him. While we do not choose our children’s mates for them anymore, we must teach them when they are very young the importance of marrying believers (cf. 1 Cor. 7:39; 2 Cor. 6:14). It will help them find God’s choice of a life partner when the time comes for that important decision to be made.

So, the old servant began the difficult journey to Haran, where Abraham’s brother had remained after Abraham mi-grated to Canaan sixty-five years earlier. Abraham had as-sured the servant that the angel of the Lord would go before him. With that sense of divine direction, he stopped at a well in the town of Nahor – which also happened to be Abraham’s brother’s name. Abraham had instructed his most trustworthy senior servant that when they arrived at the well to pray that God would bring the right girl to that reservoir and lead her to offer water for his camels. It was a very specific request, but there is a lesson in it for us - the best way for our children to find God’s choice of a mate is to pray about it. The more accurate the prayer, the greater the miracle.

Before the servant even got to the “amen,” God had the answer on the way. Rebekah, who was the granddaughter of Abraham’s brother, came out with her jar on her shoulder. Scripture says she was very beautiful, and a virgin. When she came from the wellspring with her jar filled with water, the servant ran to meet her and said, “Please let me drink a little water from your jar.” She said, “Drink, my lord”, and quickly gave him a drink. When he finished drinking, she said, “I will draw also for your camels until they have finished drinking.” So, she emptied her jar into the drinking trough and ran back to the well for some more water, and she drew enough water for all ten of his camels (Gen. 24:15-20).

What a girl she was - beautiful, vivacious, friendly, out-going, unselfish, and energetic. Furthermore, when the serv-ant found out that she was the granddaughter of Abraham’s brother, he bowed his head and worshiped the Lord in thanksgiving (Gen. 24:27).

It becomes obvious from the outset of this story that God is the real matchmaker in the marriage. When the servant re-lated to Rebekah’s family the indications of God’s guidance, her brother and her father agreed. “The matter comes from the Lord,” they said (Gen. 24:50). No matter what kind of problems a marriage may encounter, they will be easier to solve if both husband and wife have a settled assurance that God has brought them together. Difficulties cannot be over-come without it, and it must be one of the building blocks of a strong and enduring relationship. If God is to be glorified, the persistent hypothesis that they married out of the will of God will make them committed about working at their relationship with self-sacrificing diligence.

Rebekah was immediately challenged to face a number of immense decisions in her life: leaving the home and family she would never see again, traveling nearly five hundred miles on camelback with a total stranger, marrying a man she had nev-er met. Yet, her prompt faith exposed her path that she was walking boldly with God. It was her confidence in God’s sovereign direction that motivated her decision, and it revealed her courage and trust.

Certainly, the hours of travel were filled with talk of Isaac. The old, trusted servant described him honestly and completely. Isaac was an unassuming, mild-mannered, peace-loving man. He would go to any lengths to avoid a fight (cf. Gen. 26:18-25). He was also a meditative man, not a quick gossiper, but rather quiet and reserved. He was not the great man his father was, but he was a good man, with a steadfast faith in God and a sense of divine mission. He was different from the radiant, quick-witted Rebekah - far different; the ex-perts tell us that opposites attract. Rebekah could feel her heart being drawn to this one whom she would soon meet and give herself to in marriage.

Whenever I read this story, the Biblical descriptions of Rebekah (beautiful, vivacious, friendly, outgoing, unselfish, and energetic) and Isaac (meditative man, rather quiet, reserved, with a steadfast faith and a divine mission), it reminds me of those same qualities that both my wife and I share. I can’t help but speculate how, although we both came from worlds so far apart, that it could very well have been like “500 miles on camelback.” Yet, the Lord knew what He was doing when He sent our spheres of influence colliding with each other one summer evening in 1987 on a night when we felt captivated by our presence and circumstances to talk for hours on end until the early hours of the morning, thrusting into motion events that would forever change the lives that we had once known. Little did we realize the impact of that innocent even-ing spent together and how it would create a chain reaction of many wonderful opportunities that God had in store for us throughout our lives together.