Torah Portion for November 11th Genesis 23:1-25:18 She Said “I Will Go”

How to be chosen by Yah for greatness: Service & Discernment 

The passage for this week’s Torah portion is called Chayei Sarah-The Life of Sarah by many scholars.
In this week’s Torah portion we see the death of a dynasty and the beginning of a new one. Sarah and Abraham pass away and are gathered to their ancestors and Isaac and Rebekah are united in a divinely orchestrated marriage. In order for the covenant that Yah entered into with Abraham to be passed on Isaac as the son of promise would need to marry a woman who worshiped Yah and not the nearby idols. For this Torah Portion reflection I would like to focus on Rebekah and what she can teach us about being available for the blessings of Yah. If we look at Genesis 24:12-14 we see Abraham’s servant Eliezer which means My Yah will help sent on a mission to find a wife for Isaac who would not be a woman of idolatry but a woman of Yah and he prays that this woman would not be beautiful, not be quiet, not be a good cook, but be a woman who was willing to serve him and his camels water. What we should know about fetching water is that the water were gallons and very heavy so this would be no easy act of service. Scholars say one camels drinks about 14 gallons of water and Abraham’s servant had 10 camels so she fetched 140 gallons of water! This is in addition to the pitcher of water she gave to Eliezer. Why didn’t Abraham’s servant make beauty, or modesty or a nice personality the requirement for Isaac’s wife? Why did he make her ability to fetch gallons of water the sign that she was to be the woman to help Isaac continue to the covenant? One for Rebekah to step into the role of not only a wife but a Matriarch who would give birth to the line that would produce the 12 Tribes of Israel (Jacob her son would have his name changed to Israel and he along with his wives and handmaidens would give birth to the 12 Tribes of Israel) she would need to be a woman of service and care. In Hebrew the characteristic Abraham’s servant wanted Isaac’s wife to possess was the word Chesed meaning loving kindness and mercy, we see this term again in scripture in Genesis 39:21 when we read that Yah showed lovingkindness to Joseph. Chesed is also one of the fruits of the Ruach Ha’kodesh (Holy Spirit). The fact that the woman who was to be Issac’s wife had to show loving kindness to a complete stranger shows that her character needed to be extremely virtuous. Furthermore, Rebekah was willing to drop everything she knew to join Isaac as his wife though she never laid eyes on him which points to her trust for the circumstances Yah brought into her life. Rebekah could drop everything and go to a land she didn’t know like her Father-In Law Abraham because she could discern the voice of Yah in the marriage proposal. This gift of discernment would lead Rebekah to notice that she had two nations wrestling in her womb (Genesis 25:23) and that Jacob was the child of promise who should continue the covenant. Without a spirit of service and the gift of discernment Rebekah would not be the woman who could help Isaac continue the covenant Yah gave to Abraham.
Rebekah has a couple of things in common with her Father in Law Abraham:
  1. She leaves all she knows to travel to another land after hearing a call. Abraham heard the call directly from Yah (Genesis 12:1) Rebekah heard the call from Yah through the servant of Arvaham.
  2. The blessing Rebekah’s family gives to her is very similar to the blessing Abraham receives from Yah after being willing to sacrifice Isaac:
Yah’s blessing to Abraham was: That in blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. Genesis 22:17
Rebekah’s family blessed her by saying: You are our sister, be the mother of thousands, of millions, and let your descendants possess the gate of those who hate them. Genesis 24:60
Rebekah is a model for anyone who wants to be used by Yah in a mighty way. She had a heart to serve and she had the gift of discernment to know when Yah was calling her. I don’t think Rebekah went to marry Isaac because she heard a wedding proposal from Abraham’s servant but I believe she went because she heard a proposal from Yah to her spirit. Without a heart of service and the spirit of discernment we won’t be able to answer Yah’s call for our lives. Many opportunities to serve will come but if we are too self absorbed to notice them we may miss a divine proposal. Many proposals may come our way but it is the spirit of discernment that lets us know when to drop everything to accept a proposal for marriage, a business, a ministry or an opportunity. The spirit of discernment will also let us know which proposals we should say no to. Rebekah can teach us a great deal about the characteristics we need to develop to become apart of what Yah is doing in the world-service and discernment it is only with these characteristics that we can be used by Yah in a mighty way.
Questions to Consider
This week how will you serve others?
Are there opportunities you have been presented with but don’t know if you should take them? Pray for the Ruach Hakodesh (Holy Spirit) to give you discernment to know which opportunities to accept and which to reject.
In what ways was Abraham’s Servant Eliezer acting similar to the way the Ruach Ha’Kodesh acts in our lives.
For Further Study: Yah has a pattern of important men and women meeting at Wells or other bodies of water (Rebekah and Abraham’s Servant, Moses and Zipporah, Yahshua and the Woman at the Well) study this pattern and let me know what you find out about Yah, Women and Wells?