Rebekah's reflex and Rebekah's regret

It’s Genesis 25 verses 20 -26, and the camera zooms in on a pregnant lady. Rebekah was happy to be expecting, because she had been barren for twenty years and this pregnancy was an answer to her husband’s prayers. But she was also worried. Pregnant women often say that they can feel the baby kicking inside, but Rebekah was feeling a lot more than that, and she didn’t know what was going on. Perhaps she was anxious that she was going to lose the baby. There was no ultrasound in those days, so it wasn’t so easy to check that the baby was okay, and she had no way of knowing that she was actually expecting twins.

So, what was Rebekah’s reflex response in this situation of concern? She turned to the Lord and asked Him, “Why is this happening to me?” We can see that she does have a relationship with God, and expects that she will be able to hear His voice in response to her question and her worry. This was a great reflex on Rebekah’s part; it’s so easy for us to fret and worry about situations that confuse us, instead of having this reflex reaction of trusting God and asking for His input.

And so it came about that God, the divine obstetrician, told her she was expecting twins and explained to her what was going on. He also gave her some prophetic words about the two boys’ future. I often wonder if it was Jacob’s quieter stay-at-home nature that made him later become Rebekah’s favourite son, or did she have a particular soft spot for him because of the destiny God had spoken over his life?

Jump forward forty years, and we have a family situation of favouritism and sibling rivalry. Rebekah’s husband, Isaac, thinks that he is dying, and makes plans to bless his oldest son, Esau. Rebekah’s reflexes may have been good back at the time of her pregnancy, but she doesn’t handle the situation quite so well in these later years of her life. Was it simply favouritism and deception that made her instigate a complex charade that would allow the blessing to come to Jacob instead? Or was it some sort of misjudged step of faith, where she thought she had to intervene to prevent Isaac from pronouncing a blessing that she believed to be contrary to God’s stated purposes?

Like her parents-in-law before her (see post of 16th January), Rebekah tried to give God a helping hand, and make things turn out the way she believed they should. The sad saga is told in Genesis chapter 27 (see this post for more about that.) It’s never a good idea to use lies and deception to try to bring about God’s purposes, and the sorry scheme backfired on her. The result was that one twin was so furious, he began plotting to kill his brother, and by the end of chapter 27, Rebekah’s heart is filled with regret.

Rebekah sees that she has lost Esau - that her underhand actions have cost her her relationship with one of her sons. Favouritsm can do that within a family. And she quickly realises that there’s a danger of losing her other son too - if Esau finds a way to kill his twin. What regrets she must have felt as she made plans to send Jacob away for his own safety. “I’ll send for you when he calms down,” she said (somewhat naively!) “Why should I lose both of my sons in the same day?” (Genesis 27: 42 - 45)

In fact, she did lose both of her sons that day. Neither of them could have foreseen, as she said goodbye to Jacob, that he would be gone for more than twenty years, and that she would never see him again.

How tragic! A woman, who earlier in life has a healthy reflex of seeking God’s wisdom for her situation, finishes her life full of regrets because she has tricked her husband and lost both of her sons. It would have been so much wiser to let God be God, and trust that He is more than able to work out even the challenging situations for our good. Let’s live our lives with that reflex, and avoid having to live them with regret.