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How many women would be truly willing to give up their family, friends

and country and go to live far away in a foreign land? It was so far away

that she would never see her family again. How many women would be

willing to marry a man they had never met? It would take a very special

woman, one who had faith in God, to be willing to do so. (Of course, this

was a unique situation where she knew God was guiding events. Ordinarily

people should not marry someone they have never met, whom they do

not know well first.)

The blessing that Rebekah’s family pronounced upon her when she left

was a prophetic blessing inspired of God’s Spirit, and the words would be

fulfilled by God: “Our sister, may you become the mother of thousands of

ten thousands; and may your descendants possess the gates of those who

hate them” (verse 60).

This was similar to a prophecy given to Abraham in Genesis 22:17:

“Blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants

as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and

your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.”

So Rebekah, her nurse Deborah (Genesis 35:8) and her maids (Genesis

24:59, 61) went with Abraham’s servant and his men.

The meeting

When Rebekah first saw Isaac, she dismounted from her camel. It would

have been inappropriate for her, as a woman, to have remained astride

her camel, towering over Isaac, a man.

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