This Is From The Lord

I was struck by the response of Rebekah’s family in Genesis 24 when Eliezer came and asked to take her to be the wife of Isaac. Eliezer described to them in detail how God had led him to the well where he met Rebekah and how God had answered his prayer to make his journey a success. He asked the girl’s family if they’d allow her to leave with him or not. Their response was: “This is from the Lord; we can say nothing to you one way or the other. Here is Rebekah; take her and go, and let her become the wife of your master's son, as the LORD has directed."

Eliezer had already told Rebekah’s family that his master was Abraham, who the Lord had “blessed…abundantly.” He’d already explained that God had given Abraham “sheep and cattle, silver and gold, menservants and maidservants, and camels and donkeys.” (Genesis 24:35) He had brought ten of Abraham’s camels, along with silver, gold and other precious things which one can guess the girl’s family were aware of, given that they took such good care of him as he entered their home. We discover later that Laban, Rebekah's brother, tended to make decisions based on how he himself would benefit from the circumstances and that's probably what he was doing here. But they framed their response as if it was not measured in terms of what they’d receive for agreeing to let Rebekah leave.

It looked like things might change the next day; the family hesitated when the time came for Rebekah to actually depart. Don’t we all second-guess ourselves sometimes after making a decision to act in a certain way; don’t we sometimes reconsider when the full magnitude of that decision is upon us? Even when overcome by the desire to see God’s purposes fulfilled, when it’s finally time to act on our promises, often our confidence wavers. When Rebekah’s family’s confidence wavered, they deferred to Rebekah herself. This is significant, because it seemed as if they were neither motivated by the reward they received for letting her go, nor by the desire to please themselves by going back on their word and insisting that she stay. They seemed to trust Rebekah with the decision and seemed to love her enough to abide by her decision.

When we begin second-guessing the difficult decisions we make, how often do we love God enough to defer to Him and abide in His purposes? It’s easy to offer to step outside of our comfort zones. Actually doing it is when we need Christ the most. His trust in the purposes of His Father was the perfect example for us. Despite the severity of His suffering in the garden of Gethsemane, He deferred to the will of His Father, knowing the goodness of His purposes. As He sweated drops of blood and faced death, He trusted in the good purposes of His Father; through His sacrifice we can trust that, when the weight of our decisions is upon us, this, too, is from the Lord.