Genesis 24:55-60: a reflection

55Her brother and her mother said, “Let the young lady stay with us a few days, at least ten. After that she will go.” 56He said to them, “Don’t hinder me, since the LORD has prospered my way. Send me away that I may go to my master.” 57They said, “We will call the young lady, and ask her.” 58They called Rebekah, and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” She said, “I will go.” 59They sent away Rebekah, their sister, with her nurse, Abraham’s servant, and his men. 60They blessed Rebekah, and said to her, “Our sister, may you be the mother of thousands of ten thousands, and let your offspring possess the gate of those who hate them.”

Abraham's servant has come to find a wife for Isaac, and God has led him to Rebekah. When the moment comes for her to leave her family and travel to a distant land to marry a man she has never met, her family asks her directly: Will you go with this man? And Rebekah answers, simply and decisively: I will go. She is willing to leave the familiar, her home, her family, all she has known, and step into an unknown future, following where she believes God is leading.

Notice Rebekah's decisive willingness: I will go. It was no small thing she was asked, to leave everything familiar and travel to a far country to a new life she could not foresee. She could have hesitated, delayed, clung to the familiar. But she said, simply, I will go, willing to follow God's leading into the unknown, trusting the God who was guiding her.

That willingness is a picture of the faith God often calls for. There are times when God leads us to leave the familiar, to step into an unknown future, to say yes to a call whose outcome we cannot see. The temptation is to hesitate, to cling to what is known and safe, to delay. Rebekah shows a better response: a decisive I will go, a willingness to follow God's leading even into the unknown. When God leads you to step out, to leave the familiar, to follow him into a future you cannot foresee, do not cling to what is safe and known. Answer as Rebekah did: I will go. Trust the God who leads you, and be willing to follow him, even into the unknown.

Lord, when Rebekah was asked to leave her home and family and travel to a distant land for an unknown future, she answered simply and decisively: I will go. Give me that willingness to follow you. There are times when you lead me to leave the familiar, to step into an unknown future, to say yes to a call whose outcome I cannot see. Keep me from hesitating, clinging to what is known and safe, delaying. Help me answer, as Rebekah did, I will go, willing to follow your leading even into the unknown, trusting the God who guides me. When you call me to step out, give me the faith to say yes and go, not knowing all that lies ahead, but trusting you who lead me. Make me willing to follow you wherever you lead.