Rebekah

BY Guest Writer

Three years ago, we told our kids we were moving to a new city. Through tears, we told them we were choosing to follow where we believed God was leading us. My husband said he believed God would be kind to each one of us in this move because He “is good, and his faithful love endures forever; his faithfulness, through all generations” (Psalm 100:5, emphasis mine).

Granted, God’s goodness didn’t always look the way we expected it to, but over these past three years, our family has experientially learned over and over again that God is indeed good and that He doesn’t stop being faithful to His people. And we see that same faithful God in Rebekah’s story.

Rebekah is going about the daily work the Lord has set before her when she’s asked to leave everything familiar behind and follow God into the unknown. Not only is she asked to move to a new land, but she’s also asked to marry a man she’s never seen. And she goes willingly!

When Abraham’s servant tells Rebekah’s family this remarkable story of God’s leading, Rebekah’s father and brother declare, “This is from the Lord; we have no choice in the matter. Rebekah is here in front of you. Take her and go, and let her be a wife for your master’s son, just as the Lord has spoken” (Genesis 24:50–51).

It’s clear to Rebekah’s family and to Abraham’s servant that “a person’s steps are established by the Lord” (Psalm 37:23). They see that the Lord has appointed Rebekah for Isaac.

While we see the faithfulness of both Rebekah and her family in how they follow God, this is also the story of a much deeper faithfulness—God’s faithfulness to His people. Rebekah’s story, my story, and all the stories of God’s children are ultimately stories of God’s unending commitment to His people. Even in the deeply painful places, God is faithful. His faithfulness is found all over this story and throughout our own lives as well. And as we see with Abraham’s servant, when we share the stories of God’s faithfulness, they lead us to worship.

You don’t have to read much further to find that Rebekah is sinful just like us. But the good news of the gospel is that God’s faithfulness isn’t contingent upon our own. “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). The Bible is the story of God’s faithfulness to an unfaithful people He never stops pursuing.

However huge and daunting the unfamiliar—or even the familiar—seems today, we can trust God because He is faithful, as He was in the past and will be forever. “His mercies never end. They are new every morning; great is [His] faithfulness!” (Lamentations 3:22–23).

Kimberly Girard is a well-loved child of God, wife of an extraordinary man, mother of three amazing kids, and writer living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. You can find her at Loud Singing and on Twitter.