The Wooing of Rebekah: Part II – Held on Sunday, February 3, 2013

Personal Note on Posting Timeline

No Scripture Study Session on Sunday, February 10, 2013.  I will be attending the baptism of Cormik, our fourth grandchild, second son of Julia and John.

Gen. 24: 28 – 61 – The Wooing of Rebekah [Third Episode]

Background

Before reading the passage I reminded Heber of a question he had asked last week, Is this passage the source of pre-arranged marriages?  It’s an excellent question on a number of points.  The question identifies a cultural reality at the time of the author.  It assumes that the biblical account is the source, origin of that cultural reality.

The bible is not the source of the cultural reality of “Pre-arranged Marriages.” The opposite is true, namely, that the biblical author simply is giving expression to a cultural reality that he is quite familiar with but is not unique to the Israelite community.  It is more an expression of a patriarchal society.

It does raise, however, a basic question that we, as a group, rarely actually ask; let alone answer.  What in this story is unique to the Israelite community, what is being revealed, what is part of their story as the People of God?  Faryl wondered if it had something to do with descendants.  Annette thought it had to do with who Rebekah is, part of Abraham’s extended family.

Although both of these responses are an actual part of the story, the question remains.  Abraham was approaching death.  Yahweh had promised him both land and descendants.  Abraham knows that it is through Isaac and not Ishmael that the Yahweh intends to fulfill his promise.  This story is the concrete way in which Abraham becomes the instrument in which the promise will continue.  What Abraham was confronted with, we all are too.  We believe and we will die.  What is to become of that belief, my concrete belief in this place at this time?  I would suggest that it is in answering that question, Yahweh communicates through Abraham to all future generations.  What is to be done will change over time, but the story is to be lived by all who believe for the sake of world.

Keep in mind too, that in this story it is Rebekah and not Isaac who is called to leave family and land just as Abraham was asked to do.  She in her “I do” cooperates with Yahweh in the grand story being narrated and lived.  She is to play a vital role in the tradition that leads to Jesus of Nazareth.

There is as well two words in this passage that, at least for me, capture the heart of the God of the Israelites, that are revelatory.  The two Hebrew words are “hesed” and “emet.”  The translations that most attracts me are “hesed” which means Yahweh’s steadfast love and “emet” which means Yahweh’s kindness.  Each of us has been chosen to be alive and the very sources of that life is a relationship of steadfast love and kindness.  Yes life does offer sufficient evidence that God could not possibly be one who is steadfast in his love and kind and then there is Christ, crucified and risen.

Before we read the passage though I continue to offer Our Questions and My Refrain.  Quieting ourselves, allowing the questions to arise, paying attention to what happens to oneself in the reading/listening forms the condition of hearing God’s word.

Our Questions

For the sake of completeness I will include in our blog the basic questions that guide us in hearing the passages we study each week.

  1. First who are the characters and what role does each play? To the extent that we can identify
  • what the characters say and do, or
  • don’t say and do but we would expect them to do so, and
  • finally when they enter into the passage and leave it

We can more easily and more accurately know what their role is from the point of view of the author and / or the editor of the passage.

  1. The “when” question is quite complicated and again for the sake of completeness; there is
  • The “when” within the story / passage itself,
  • The “when” of the editor, and most importantly,
  • The “when” of our life at the time we are actually reading / studying the passage.
  1. What is the plot, the point of the passage?
  2. Finally, because each passage is at one and the same time the word of human beings and the Word of God, there is revealed the values that are part and parcel of the human beings in their time and place and there is the values revealed by God for the believer.  Our final question is to discern which values in the passage are attractive to us, we are drawn to and which are we repulsed by, inclined to reject?  The more difficult task, if we do identify these two responses in us of the values revealed, which are of God and we are being challenged to embrace and which are not of God and we are being challenged to correct and develop.

My Refrain

Before we read though, let’s quiet ourselves, remember whatever we can from the background, our questions and, most importantly, pay attention to what happens inside of us as we read.

Reading of the passage http://www.usccb.org/bible/genesis/24

Discussion Gen. 24: 28 – 61:  Rebekah and her family respond.

Tim wondered if we are dealing here with a second author since the story is repeated in a different context but pretty much the same story.  I pointed out that one of the key terms that helps scholars determine the authors is the name of God and that name is consistent in this story.  As far as I know, therefore, scholars see this whole story as being written by the J author.

Ken made an interesting observation, sometimes the story is told in the first person and at other times in the third person.  He knows that it is the author doing that in narrating the story but wondered why?

One thing that I thought this allowed the narrator to do is to make known to the reader / listener what is not necessarily known to the characters in the story.  This has an interesting impact on us who are the readers / listeners.  We realize that in the story the characters living a life of faith don’t know certain things.  In this passage Abraham and the servant don’t know who the woman is, whether she will say yes or no but the author does and so too do we the readers.  So as people of faith we at one and the same time know and don’t know.  The demands of life require us to live a life of prayer if we are to know “Yahweh’s Steadfast Love and Kindness” at the very time in our life when such knowing seems to be contradicted by the facts on the ground as it were.  It is at that very time we question, doubt that God could possibly be “Steadfast Love and Kindness.”  Paul urges us, therefore, to pray always.

Your comments, observations, questions are welcomed.  See “comment” link below

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