Rebekah started out at once on the long journey across the desert. She was on her way to meet Isaac, and the whole journey is passed over by the inspired writer in a few words: she “followed the man.” She did not have to make the journey in her own strength, for the camels carried her, and the “man” guided her safely through the dangers of the wilderness. The way to Glory will not seem so long and hard to those of us who belong to the Lord, if we, too, follow the guidance of the Spirit of God through the Word.
Waiting in Faith to Meet the Lord
Isaac came out to meet her in the field, and so the Lord will soon come for us, for we who are saved are the bride of Christ. Rebekah was watching as well as waiting to see Isaac and was glad to alight from her camel and go to meet him. Are we, dear young believers, watching and waiting for the Lord to come at any moment? Are we willing to leave our “camels” and all that connects us with this wilderness world and go out to meet Him?
How wonderfully the story ends! Isaac himself escorted her to his mother’s tent, and she became his wife, and he loved her. Surely this speaks to us of the love of Christ, and when He takes us to His home above, we shall still be, as we are now, the objects of His love forever. Nothing can separate us from that love which passes knowledge. Can the reader of this little paper say, “The Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:2020I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20))?
Abraham gave all he had to Isaac, the promised heir, and we know, too, that God the Father has put all into His Son’s hands, who will in the coming day share it with His bride (the church) as Isaac did with Rebekah his wife.
At last Abraham’s long life ended, and he too was buried in the field he had purchased. He had been a stranger and a pilgrim, looking for the fulfillment of God’s promise — the possession of Canaan. However he “received not the promise” (Hebrews 11:99By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: (Hebrews 11:9)) as to earthly blessing, but he died in faith and will have something better — a heavenly portion. Like Sarah he was buried in Canaan, because he knew that God was the God of resurrection, and that He had not forgotten His promises.
Living in the Sense of God’s Presence
Isaac was a man of faith too, and God blessed him. He dwelt by the well Lahairoi. This was the place where he had met Rebekah when she came back with Eliezer, and it means “the well of Him that liveth and seeth.” How good for us as young people when we learn to live in the sense of God’s presence, and in the enjoyment of our relationship to Christ as His espoused bride.
To all outward appearances Ishmael did not seem to have anything like the troubles that Isaac did, but God passes over his life, as well as the lives of his family in a very few words. Ishmael, as far as we know, was not a man of faith, and his life was of little importance in the eyes of God. “Without faith it is impossible to please Him [God]” (Hebrews 11:6). Dear young reader, how does your life appear before God? Have you a real living faith in the Lord Jesus, so that you can say, “I know whom I have believed” (2 Timothy 1:1212For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. (2 Timothy 1:12))?
Further Meditation
1. What did Rebekah do when she saw Isaac come out to meet her in the field?
2. Living with a quiet sense of the Lord’s providing for us and not allowing sin in our lives are at the heart of communion. What are some of the indications that Abraham had enjoyed that communion in his life?
3. You would no doubt enjoy the simple booklet Communion With God: What Is It? by C. H. Mackintosh.