Socrates was once asked "What is the cure for Love at first sight?"
The philosopher replied, "Take a closer second look." :)
Hey wait Isaac didn't marry when he was in his late 20's. Check out Gen 25:20, he married when was 40! Wow that was a long wait.
Also a note on how beautiful Rebekah is. Isaac says she was HOT! Check out Gen 26:7. He was so afraid that he might be killed because of her beauty he called her his sister rather than his wife. Wait this story sounds familiar. Like father like son. Check out Gen 20. They even tried to trick the same king, Abimelech (not sure if its just a namesake)!
Let me state this i don't believe love at first sight. I mean it sounds really romantic and all but if you think about it what's the basis? The most you can get out of first sight is looks and first impression. It can be misleading. Some people have the gift on analyzing others. Just by taking a look at his clothes, face, actions and etc... you would know a person already. Something like a Profiler. So is the Chief servant was a good judge of people? Just by observing Rebekah carry the gallons of water he could get a rough idea what type of person Rebekah was. I mean with all the water she carried he knew she was strong. Maybe by the way she organized herself by carrying the buckets and how she distributed the water he would figure out she was smart. Of course by her attitude and the way she served it. I mean you can fake being polite to somebody by giving them a glass of water but carrying buckets and buckets of water?
From what I recall from watching National Geographic, camels store their water in their humps and based on what I found on the internet the water capacity ranges of camels ranges from 8 to 15 gallons. 5 gallons is the size of the bottles used at water dispensers. I have to admit carrying the 5 gal bottle is heavy. So she would probably carry at least 2 bottles for each camel and thats 10 camels, so at least 20 5 gal bottles not including giving the people a drink.
So now lets meet the parents. Well the Bible only mentions the names of Bethuel, her dad and her brother Laban. So the Chief servant (CS) goes over to the her house as their guest and of course as good host they offer him food to eat. But wait CS tells them (my own words) "Hold up everybody! I will not eat yet! Before I start I would like to share to you what God has done..."
Ok back then they didn't have "Copy and paste" function. They had to write everything by hand. So the writer of the Bible could of just wrote something like "and he told them how God has led him to Rebekah." take out v34 to 49 would of saved him a lot of time copying the Bible. But no the writer painstakingly rewrote what the CS had told Bethuel and Laban. So whats the point? If you have a good testimony you tell it to others. Their love story is a good testimony to share on the faithfulness and providence of God. Why not tell it to others?
OK I thought it was a done deal already? Just from reading v.50 to 54 you would conclude that the deal is done. The following day CS says "Ok, lets go!". But woah v.55 they wanted Rebekah to stay another 10 days. Well to think about it, its kind of understandable. I mean one night a stranger appears tells you that your daughter is chosen to be the wife of somebody and the next day she is expected to be shipped out. Not enough time to prepare herself. Say goodbyes.
Well we haven't gotten to know much about her family especially Laban. Gen 29 tells of the account of how Jacob was tricked by his uncle Laban for his wife. We find here that Laban is one shrewed fellow. Just by reading Gen. 24 we find that Laban was like the one who controlled the household. v.29 he was the one who went out to meet CS. v.33 he was the one who talked to CS. v.50 Laban's name was mentioned before his dad's. v. 55 Laban's name was mentioned first before his mom. Well it seemed like he was the one making the decisions. CS with his experience and insights knew what was going on. Yeah he knew he was being tricked. So he made an ultimatum "I am leaving now!" OK I'm not sure of this but from my understanding of the OT customs, the ladies don't really have much say in the decisions. (Ok to the feminists please don't crucify me :P) But still they called Rebekah and asked her if she wanted to go. And well she had a lot of faith. I mean if it was me I'd think twice but God worked in her. She trusted God's plan for her.
Wow this is a classic case of arrange marriage. I heard in some cultures that they still follow this practice.
Well the time has come. v.63 tells us that Isaac was there meditating. If I were him I'd probably be praying hard that CS would find someone perfect for him. And out from a distance he saw her. It was love at first sight.
I thought I'd finish this already but there are still somethngs I'd like to share. So to be cont'd...
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