“Wilt thou go with this man?” ~ Genesis 24:58

   As I read this chapter of Genesis, I again marvelled at Rebekah’s response to this question.  Abraham’s servant, in meeting her the evening before was persuaded that she was the one for his master’s son.  God had made that abundantly clear to him.  Rebekah’s father and brother had given their consent to the union, but requested that she stay with them a while longer before leaving.  When the servant pressed for a speedy departure, however, they called for Rebekah.  If she chose to go, she would probably experience the greatest change in her entire life.  She would leave the security of the house where she had dwelt all her life and the routine, quiet job of tending sheep to live an unpredictable nomad’s life in a tent, never having a piece of land to call “home.”  As a shepherd girl, she had perhaps never experienced the seasickening motion of a camel ride.  The long trek across miles of unknown terrain with no company but the strangers met the evening before would be tiring with no familiar face to greet her at the end of the journey.  The very climate of this far-off place could well differ vastly from what she currently knew.  She would leave behind all that was familiar to her: all her friends, her family, those who thought like her, talked like her, believed like her.  She would leave them behind to go live in a place where she knew no one and where no one but her proposed husband and his aged father believed in the God Who was sending her there.  Yet Rebekah didn’t hesitate.  “I will go.”

   There is so much that she didn’t say.  She had only just met this servant the evening prior and had no proof beyond his own word that he was who he said he was.  She could have cross-questioned him to find out more about him and his master.  She could have asked to know more about Isaac and what he was expecting of her.  She could have refused to go unless Isaac came for her himself.  She could have requested time to think about such a big decision.  She could have demanded that the servant explain how the various obstacles she would face could be overcome.  But she did none of these things.  “I will go.”  It was simple.  God’s will for today was amply clear and she chose to act on the light He had given for the moment.  The unknown future she left in His hands.

   Am I like Rebekah?  When God says, “Will you go?”, do I raise all kinds of objections and refuse to move unless my path be lit further ahead? Or do I say simply and unreservedly, “I will go.”?  When God says, “Will you stay?”, do I argue and explain why my plan for my future is better than His?  Or do I answer in submission, “I will stay.”?

   “Wilt thou go…?”