A test of observed behavior

The story from Genesis (24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67) is a good one, too, for marriages. I’m not sure how often it’s read or if it’s even suggested. It’s not in the Book of Common Prayer list of suggested readings for “The Celebration and Blessing of a Marriage” — more’s the pity.

Abraham sends a servant to his far-away family, seeking a bride from among them for his son. The servant finds the daughter of the house fetching water from a well. He asks her for a drink, and she gives it, and not only that, waters his camels and then she adds, “We have plenty of straw and fodder and a place to spend the night.” The servant gives thanks: he’s found the right place and the right woman. Soon, they are journeying back to bring the bride and her prospective husband together.

It is as much a comedy — a story with a happy ending — as the story from the book of Tobit (8:5b-8) I’ve heard read at weddings more than once. That’s the one where Tobias and Sarah, his bride, pray by the bedside “that she and I may grow old together” before they climb under the covers and sleep through the night.

In this story from Genesis, of a wife sought and a husband found, we hear good words about good people, not only the bride and her groom but also the good people who are Abraham’s family, and his household.

The worthy and humble action the daughter of the house takes upon the servant’s request, to which she responds generously, seals the deal in his mind. And I think once Isaac saw Rebekah they were both pretty clear that the coming nuptials were a good thing. “Who’s that?” she asks, spotting Isaac for the first time.

The story of Rebekah and Isaac makes a good story, like Ruth and Naomi or Esther and Mordecai. It comes in the older book, the one about the whole business of God bringing humankind into a relationship with himself. In that book, which begins in the beginning, we hear a lot about mythical characters from the distant past. So it is all the more endearing to hear them talked about as human beings, with feelings, however distant their time and place and customs are from our own.

How many notions that “this is the one” begin with seeing her watering the camels?

And yet this is the kind of test, of observed behavior, that in even martial settings, tells the person with open eyes what to do. Remember how Gideon selected from his soldiers the ones who drank from a stream in a particular way. And how the son watching over the sheep, young David, was chosen to be shepherd of his people.

Rebekah was a woman of virtue. And alone among the matriarchs, she seemed to get her man to herself. Sarah and Hagar both bore children to Abraham. And the competition between Leah and Rachel to supply sons to Jacob was so fierce they each supplied a handmaid — their names were Bilhah and Zilpah — to give birth to some of the 12 sons of Israel. That is indeed far from our times and customs.

Rebekah however had no such problems, as the story comes down to us. She had another one. Her husband was almost sacrificed by her father-in-law. A lot of love had to come from another earthly source since Abraham, faithful as he was to God, was so rarefied in his affections among humans. I think one of his best moments was entertaining the three angels who came to the tent at the Oaks of Mamre.

And Rebekah was a worthy successor in hospitality to her parents-in-law, offering not only water but food and shelter to the strangers whom she met at the well.

The blessing given Rebekah is like the blessings given Abraham and Sarah. Genesis 24:60: “May you, our sister, become thousands of myriads; may your offspring gain possession of the gates of their foes.” She will become the mother of many, like Sarah before her, and through them a blessing for all people.

To the faithfulness of Abraham is added the hospitality of Rebekah.

Where shall we go to find such abundance of blessing and virtue in our own day? And how will we know it when we see it?

Tucson faith leaders, we would like to include your original sermon or scriptures of encouragement. Sermons must be written by the person submitting them, not borrowed from another source or writer. If you are a faith leader from any religion or denomination, please contact Sara Brown at sbbrown@tucson.com.