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By Pastor Glenn Pease
CONTENTS
1.
REBEKAH, A
MARVELOUS MOTHER Based on Gen. 25:19‑28
2.
REBEKAH A MARVELOUS
MATE AND MOTHER Based on Gen. 27:1‑29
3.
HAGAR A
MOTHER SEES GOD Based on Gen. 21:1‑20
4.
RACHEL A
WINNING MOTHER Based on Gen. 30:1‑24
5. JOCHEBED A GREAT MOTHER Based on Ex. 2:1-10
6. BATHSHEBA A MOTHER WHO MADE A DIFFERENCE Based on I Kings
1:11-31
7. SARAH THE MOTHER OF NATIONS Based on Gen. 17:15‑22
8. WOMAN OF TYRE A MOTHER’S FAITH AND DOG FOOD Based on MARK7:24f
9. IDEAL MOTHER1 A SERVANT MOTHER Based
on Matt. 20:20-28
10. IDEAL
MOTHER2 PROVERBS IDEAL MOTHER Based on Prov. 31:10‑31
11. IDEAL
MOTHER3 PROVERBS IDEAL MOTHER 2 Based on Prov. 31:10‑31
12. IDEAL
MOTHER4 A MOTHER'S COMFORT Based on Isa. 66:7‑13
1. REBEKAH, A
MARVELOUS MOTHER
Nathan Ausabel tells of the Jewish couple with 9 children who went
to the Rabbi to get a divorce. When the
question of custody came up the wife said she wanted 5 of the children and he
could have 4. The husband said, "Why
should I have only 4? You take the 4
and I'll take the 5." In order to
resolve the conflict the Rabbi suggested that they live together one more year
and have another child. Then they could
divide with an equal share of the family.
The couple agreed to the plan.
But a year later the man came back to the Rabbi and said the plan did
not work. The Rabbi asked,
"Why? Didn't your wife give
birth?" "Yes," he said,
"But you see, it was twins."
They were right back where they started, and even Solomon in all his
wisdom could not divide an odd number of children evenly.
Twins can be a problem.
Luis Palau, the Billy Graham of South America, was worried sick when his
wife gave birth to twins in 1963. The
doctor told him there was a very strange heart beat and they may loose the
child. They did not know she had two
babies in her. Palau had to make the
decision that if necessary they let the baby die to save his wife, but it
turned out to be a day of joy as the irregular heartbeat was really the regular
heartbeat of two. What a scare these
twins gave him. Twins have scared
people all through history, and in many cultures they have been immediately
killed. Christian missionaries have
labored hard to convince natives that twins are not an evil omen, and today
there are many healthy twins where once they were killed.
This does not mean that twins are no longer a problem. They are often double trouble, and because
of their potential for mischief Walt Disney has been able to make some of his
greatest movies about mischievous twins.
It is not all fiction either, for there are numerous true stories about
the complexity of raising twins. One
mother heard both laughing and crying coming from her twin's bedroom at bath
time. She went to see what was the
matter and the laughing twin pointed to his weeping brother and said,
"Grandma has given Alexander 2 baths and hasn't given me any at
all."
The problems get greater as they get older. Jean and Auguste Piccard, the famous Swiss
twins, decided to have some fun with a barber.
Jean went in for a shave and complained that he had the most annoying
beard in the world because it grew back so fast. The barber assured him that his trusty razor would keep it off
for 24 hours or he would shave him free.
Jean let him scrape away and left.
Several hours later Auguste came in with a heavy stubble and collected
his free shave. He left the barber
pondering the most amazing beard he had ever seen.
The reason I share these twin stories is because we are
looking at the mother of the most famous twins of the Bible. Rebekah was the mother of Jacob and
Esau. These two brothers were as
different as night and day. They had
the same parents and the same environment, but they were opposites and totally
different in personality, and in the way they responded to the will of
God. It is superficial to expect all
children in a family to be alike. Even
in a godly family there will be radical differences. I once had a family in my church where the best kids and the
worst kids were from that same family.
Two of them ended up in the ministry and another broke the parents
hearts with unbelievable ungodliness. This
can be tough on parents, but it has to be accepted as a fact of life that the
best parents have no guarantee that their children will follow their values.
Rebekah was a great mother, but her twins sometimes became
as famous for their folly as for their faith.
Some twins become much alike for all of life. The most famous example in our time is Ann Landers and Abigail
Van Buren. They are both famous
counselors, and their advice columns are very much alike. Other twins do not follow the same pattern
at all. One of the 12 Apostles was a
twin. Thomas called Didymus was a twin. Didymus is Greek for twin, and Thomas means
twin in Aramic. We have no idea about
his twin. He may have been an enemy of
Christ for all we know. Twins can be
opposites and that is what we see in the twins of Rebekah. They were opponents.
Rebekah favored
Jacob and her husband favored Esau, but in the end mom's boy became the man God
used. Mothers often are the key persons
in determining the success of their children.
Rebekah Bains Johnson, whose grandfather was a Baptist pastor, and who
came from a long line of pastors going back to Scotland, was determined to make
her son a great politician. Her father
was a politician and she married a politician, and she dreamed that her son
could be a great one. She had 4 other
children, but she favored Lyndon and pounded it into him that he was destined
for leadership. She kept him reading
the books and writings of Thomas Jefferson.
She guided him through college and on to Washington, and eventually to
become the 35th President of the United States.
Like the Rebekah of the Bible she was obsessed by her need to
favor one son and do all she could to promote him. This led to her other son, Sam Houston Johnson, being hurt. He worked for Lyndon and went to law school,
but he never practiced. He never got
equal time and encouragement from his mother, and that made a world of
difference in their careers. A mother
motivating her children makes a world of difference. We want to look at Rebekah as a mother, and try to learn from lessons
from her life.
I. HER MARRIAGE.
Ideal motherhood always begins with being a good mate. We have looked at this theme before and have
concluded that the best thing any mother can do for her children is to love
their father, just as the best thing a father can do is love their mother. Marriage comes before children, and it is
the foundation that must be well laid before the family is built upon it. In spite of Rebekah's deception of Isaac we
have to recognize she was one of the most loved wives in the Bible. Isaac is the only one of the Patriarchs who
did not take a second wife or a concubine.
In a culture where polygamy was perfectly acceptable Isaac was a one‑woman
man. Rebekah had to be some kind of
woman to keep a man a monogamist in that day.
He never saw Rebekah until the day he met her and married her, but from
that day he loved her, and only her, for the rest of his life. She also was faithful to him for all of her
life.
Here was a couple who had the world's shortest wedding. Gen. 24:67 says, "Isaac brought her
into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he married Rebekah. So she became his wife, and he loved her..." Here was a primitive wedding without benefit
of clergy or premarital counseling. There
was no courtship and no vows are recorded, and yet they made a commitment for a
lifetime. The old system of arranged
marriages could work because people were committed to love the one they
married. They did not fall in love and
then get married, but they married and then grew in love.
The modern idea of selecting a mate by the computer is not
as far fetched as it may seem. If two
people are brought together with all of the values and qualities that each
likes, and they are willing to make the commitment of the ancients to love the
one they married, these could turn out to be marvelous mates. The odds are better than the superficial way
many do it now. They feel sexual
attraction, and their only commitment is to keep their relationship going as
long as their hormones keeps pushing them in that direction. We could learn from the ancients that the
most important commitment on the human level is to love the one you marry. I've never met a couple who has so many
problems that they could not be solved by this single principle.
Isaac loved Rebekah in spite of the problems they had. The first problem was that she was
barren. For 20 years Isaac waited for
her to have a child. The culture left
him free to take another wife, but he never did. He waited and prayed, and God finally answered that prayer, and
Rebekah became a mother. They are the
only couple in the Bible who are caught making love in public. Gen. 26:8 says that King Abimelech looked
down from a window and saw Isaac sporting with Rebekah. We know this does not mean they were playing
tennis. Isaac was caressing and
fondling Rebekah, and that is how the king knew she was not his sister, but his
wife.
The point is, Rebekah was a fun and loving partner. Abraham and Sarah had their fights over
Hagar and Ishmael. Jacob and Rachel had
their fights over Leah. But in spite of
Rebekah's deceit of Isaac there is not one word of dispute between them. They had one of the most ideal marriages in
the Bible, and possibly the most ideal.
We need to keep her marriage in mind when we look at the negative action
of her deceit. She did what she did in
all good conscience. It was not to do
any harm to her husband, but to assure that the son that she knew was most worthy
would be blest. God confirmed her
choice and blest Jacob. It seems that
mothers tend to have a degree of insight into the spiritual potential of their
children. Abraham leaned toward Ishmael
and Isaac leaned toward Esau, but the mothers chose Isaac and Jacob, and these
were the two that God chose to be in line to the Messiah. Mother's and God seem
to be on the same wavelength. Father's
look for the more macho type, but mothers look for the spirit that is more
willing to follow God's leading.
I have to admit that
until I looked at Rebekah through the eyes of Isaac I had some negative
feelings about her. I had the same feeling I had toward the wife of Job until I
discovered that Job loved her in spite of her faults, and stuck by her, and did
not demean her. So also, we see that Isaac has not a bad word for his wife, and
that is the final authority in judging a wife. If Isaac loved her and treated
her like a queen, then it really does not matter what I think. She was a good
wife, and that is where ideal motherhood begins. Being a good wife starts
before marriage. Rebekah as a young
woman was enthusiastic about serving the needs of others. Motherhood and servant‑hood are linked
as one. We see her serving spirit when
Abraham's servant came looking for a wife for Isaac. She was the one who volunteered to draw water for his
camels. That was the sign that she was
God's choice for a good wife. Find a
girl who cares about kindness and helpfulness and you are on the right track to
a good marriage and good motherhood.
Tally Rand said of a young lady of the court, "She is
intolerable, but that is her only fault."
Mark Twain once saw a mother with young twins and said, "This one
is a girl isn't it?" She replied,
"Yes." Twain said, "And is the other one of the contrary
sex?" The mother replied,
"Yes, she's a girl too."
Rebekah was not a contrary person.
She took opposite sides from Isaac from which twin was to be favored,
but as we will see this was not a serious conflict with Isaac. He found Rebekah to be a marvelous wife, and
he was a happy man in his marriage. He
considered Rebekah a marvelous mother.
So let's go from her marriage relationship and look more carefully at‑
II. HER MOTHERHOOD.
Rebekah was a good wife and a good mother, but one of the
facts of life is that good mothers do not necessarily have good children. Her first‑born was Esau, and he
married a couple of Hittite women. Gen.
26:35 says, "They were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah." Jacob did not marry Hittites, and they were
please with him. Isaac had to be
pleased with the clever way Rebekah worked out a plan to give the blessing to
Jacob. Has Esau been the one to inherit the riches of Isaac it would have all gone
to the Hittites. But by her cleverness Rebekah saw to it that it would go to
the people of Israel instead. Sometimes
husbands are happy that their wives win in a conflict, for in their hearts they
know the wife is right. This seems to
be the case here.
Rebekah still loved her rebel son, and so she sent Jacob away
lest he fight with Esau and she lose both in one day. This is part of
motherhood. They have the pain of loving one who is careless and indifferent to
God and His will. Love is the cause of much of the suffering of the world, for
mothers still love those sons who go astray like Esau. It is a paradox, but it
is true that the greatest virtue in life is also the cause of so much pain. If
mothers did not love rebel children, mountains of pain would be eliminated, but
the mountain stands as testimony to the pain of love. If God did not love the rebel race of mankind, He would not have
had to suffer the loss of His Son, and Jesus would not have had to die on the
cross. It was all because God so loved the world. God suffers because he loves, and so do mothers.
Gipsy Smith was one of the great evangelists in the history of
England and America. He tells of the price his mother paid because she loved
her children. His sister was sick and they called for a doctor. When he
examined her he said she had small‑pox. He ordered her to get out of town
so it did not spread to others. They set up a tent outside of town where the
mother and 4 other children stayed. They put the sick girl in a wagon 200 yards
away. Soon one of the boys got the pox and was sent to live in the wagon. One
day the mother also got the pox. She had to go through great suffering as a
mother as she cared for her sick children while she was sick herself. Her great
love made a life long impression on Gipsy, for he learned that suffering and
love go together. If you love deeply, you will suffer deeply.
The way to escape suffering is to never love, for the more you
love the more you suffer. Just ask Jesus. But what a pathetic world it would be
if nobody loved enough to suffer. Motherhood would not be exalted role as it is
if there were no cost to it. It is the suffering of mother love that makes it
the noble thing that it is. Show me a mother who does not care that her
children are rebels, and I will show you a mother, who by her lack of
suffering, is part of the problem, and not part of the answer. Suffering love
is the answer. It is God's answer, and though it does not solve all problems,
it has the potential to do so if rebels will respond to suffering love.
Motherhood is linked to servant‑hood, and servant‑hood
is linked to suffering, and the result is that good mothering is linked to
Christ‑likeness. Motherhood incorporates both the joy and the pain of the
cross. Motherhood begins with both the pain of birth and the joy of new life.
Pain and pleasure, burden and blessing are combined in becoming a mother.
Children are also both a pain and a pleasure in the marriage. They can add so
much joy to a couple's life, but they can also add so much pain. Many couples
report that the happiest time in their lives are before children are born and
after they grow up and leave the home.
But people go on having children, because they are the greatest
potential for the future. Children give hope that the future can be filled with
the blessing of God, and that is why motherhood is so honored. It is the path
by which mankind reaches out for God's best.
The Israelites were condemned to die in the wilderness, and
yet they went on having children. It was because they knew God had a future for
His people, and their children became the children of God who entered the
promised land. Motherhood was the key to God's plan being fulfilled, and that
is why motherhood will always be exalted.
Had Isaac and Rebakah given up after 20 years of trying to have a child,
Jacob would not have been born. And Jacob was the father of the twelve tribes
of Israel. He was crucial to God's plan. They never gave up and endured the
pain of it all, but out of that pain of waiting, and then of motherhood, came
the greatest of blessings, and God changed all of history through them.
Rebekah was an ideal wife and marvelous mother, but that did
not mean she was a hundred percent successful. Esau was a rebel and caused her
much grief. But she learned to concentrate on what she could do for the best
results. She focused on being a good wife and she focused on being a good
mother. And this meant she would specialize in seeing that the full potential
of her most likely son would be realized. Nobody can do everything and no
mother can be everything. She has to learn to focus on what she can do and not
become so fragmented in going in all directions. Dr. James Dobson wrote,
"I believe more divorces are caused by mutual over commitment by husbands
and wives than all other factors combined. It is the number one marriage
killer."
Good wives and mothers are those who know they cannot do all
things, and so they specialize in doing well what they can do to please their
mates and benefit their children. Let us learn from Rebekah to choose some
things we give top priority to in order to be the best wives and mothers we can
be. If your husband his happy with you, as Isaac was with Rebakah, and one or
more of your children are going in a way that pleases God, as was Jacob, then
you are succeeding, like Rebekah, as a
marvelous mother.
2.
REBEKAH A MARVELOUS MATE AND MOTHER
Annie Taylor was the first
person to ever go over Niagara Falls in a barrel and lived to tell about it. That was in 1901. In 1932 Pearl S. Buck was the first woman to receive a Nobel
Prize in literature. In 1979 Susan B.
Anthony became the first woman to ever appear on a United States coin. There are whole books written about women
who were the first to do specific things.
On this Mother's Day we are going to focus our attention on the first
woman in history that we have any record of who gave birth to twins.
Rebekah in giving birth to her two boys Jacob and Esau became
one of the most unique mothers ever, for her two boys changed the course of
history. In fact, her boys represent
the two great forces of human history‑good and evil. Jacob was the line to the Messiah, and Esau
was the line to Herod the Great, who tried to kill the Messiah as a child. Her twins each took one of the two main
roads in life. One took the way of
doing the will of God, and the other took the way of defying the will of God. Rebekah then represents both sides of
motherhood: the success and failure of
motherhood.
We often only look at the positive side of motherhood, but the
Bible gives us a balanced picture. The
same mother who bears a child who goes on to produce the 12 tribes of Israel,
and the very people of God, also bears a child who becomes a rebel who marries
pagan wives and produces a people who are great enemies of the people of
God. Here is a mother who can be
praised for being a mother of the best, even though she bore one who was the
worst.
It is important that we see this, for I have a hunch there are
millions of mothers who are made to feel rotten and guilty on Mother's Day by
sermons that exalt mothers to the heights of sainthood. This can be disturbing to mothers who are
like Rebekah. They can point to their
Jacobs and feel proud, but they also have their Esaus who have gone a different
route, and they feel hurt, bitter, and frustrated. They have done their best, but all of their children are not what
they wish, and what they have prayed for.
They feel guilty when good mothers are portrayed as always having all
their children as wonderful examples of good and godly people. It is a comfort that the Bible gives mothers
a break, and portrays one of the great mothers of Hebrew history as one who
also had failure, and a truly rotten kid.
Mothers need to know they can still be good and even great mothers, even
though they have failed to guide all their children in the way they ought to
go.
Now I must confess it has taken me years to choose Rebekah for
a Mother's Day message because I had some negative feelings about her as a
mother and a wife. Our text here in
Gen. 27 portrays her as deceiving her husband Isaac, and of aiding her son
Jacob to lie and deceive his father too.
Who needs TV to lead a child astray with a mother like this around? This has been my feeling over the
years. But then I began to study the
facts that the Bible reveals about Rebekah.
I discovered I was judging her unfairly, and that I had a prejudiced
attitude toward this unique woman based on a narrow view of this one event in
her life. I did the same thing with
Jobs wife because she told him to curse God and die. Then I discovered that Job never rejected her, but she was his
precious partner for life. The same is
true for Rebekah. Jacob never rejected
her.
In almost every Mother's Day sermon I have ever preached one
of the qualities that most stands out in the great mothers of the Bible is that
they were first of all loving and loyal wives. A mother's first obligation is
to help her children love God, and the second is to love their father on earth,
and they do this by being a good wife to the father. I always thought that
Rebekah got an F in this department because of this story of deception in Gen.
27. But then I discovered the facts that make Rebekah stand out as one of the
most marvelous and precious wives in all of the Bible. Let me share the facts,
for maybe you have the same prejudiced attitude toward her as I have had.
Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rebekah. He stayed with
her for 20 years, even though she was barren. Finally, when Isaac was 60 years
old she gave him the twins of Jacob and Esau. Isaac lived to be 180, and so he
was married to Rebekah to 140 years. Most marriages do not last that long
because people don't last that long. Today the 75 anniversary is the diamond
anniversary. What would it be for the 140th anniversary? Maybe uranium would be
worthy, but I don't think we need to be concerned about it. But here is the point: Show me any other
couple in the bible who were married this long and yet they kept the vows of
keeping themselves to each other as long as they both lived.
They are the most unique couple in the Bible. It was an age
of universal polygamy, and yet they were monogamous. Their culture and
environment favored multiple partners. Isaac's father Abraham had the multiple
partnership, and so did both of Isaac's sons. They were the only monogamous
couple in their time. Through 20 years of barrenness they struggled, and
through this time of deception, and yet these two never stopped being committed
to each other. They are an example to married people in all cultures and all
times. Isaac was a one woman man
married to a one man woman. From the wedding to the grave they were faithful to
each other. This is rare even among the great people of the Bible. This helps
us see this one negative incident in the light of the bigger picture. They were
so committed that this negative event did not hurt them in any permanent way.
We need to see also that in Gen. 25:23 Rebakah was told by God
that her first born would serve the younger son. She knew it was God's will
that Jacob be the blessed son, and so what she did was to help her failing
husband do what was right and best for the kingdom of God. If you read Gen. 28
you will discover that Isaac did not rebuke Rebekah, nor did he take a
concubine unto himself to hurt her. He respected her judgment and went along
with her plan completely, and he blessed Jacob again and send him off to find a
wife among the daughters of Rebekah's brother Laban.
There is no hint of Isaac being offended with his life
partner. In fact, he was so pleased with the wisdom of Rebekah that even Esau
saw it and decided to conform to some degree to his mother's wishes, and he
went off and married an acceptable wife from the line of Abraham. In isolation
Gen. 27 makes Rebekah look bad, and it gives the impression of her being a bad
wife and mother. But when you see the whole story it reveals her to be a
wonderful wife and marvelous mother. If we learn nothing else, let us learn not
to judge anybody by any isolated incident in their lives. By doing this to
Rebekah I have had negative feelings about her, and it was foolish for Isaac
never had these feelings. He loved her and respected her judgment.
She is an ideal example of the first principle of motherhood.
She was a loyal and loving wife. Children need to see this in a mother in order
to be good mates themselves. A mother who is a good mate will give her children
the foundation for building a good marriage themselves. This does not mean the
children of all good mates will never ruin their own marriage, for this happens
all the time, but it will not be because the lacked a good example. Rebakah
gets an A for her role as a good example. God knew all along when He guided
Abraham's servant to choose Rebekah to be the wife of Isaac. He was the unique
son of promise and needed a special wife, and Rebakah was God's choice for him.
God's plan to bring His son into the world depended a great
deal upon sensitive mothers. Mothers seem to have a greater sense of which of
their children are most likely to be God's choice. Abraham would have give his
blessing to Ishmael, and Isaac would have given his blessing to Esau. But it
was the mothers choices who were the ones God chose. A mother's choice is more
likely to be the choice of God. Isaac was in favor of Esau because he was so
macho. He was rough and tough, and a man of nature. He was a mighty hunter who
could live off the land in its wild state. Jacob was more of the domesticated
type. He had his garden and animals, and was more of a home body. He was gentle
and tender, and far more romantic than Esau. He was mom's favorite, and God's
as well, for God's Son was going to be more like Jacob than Esau.
God uses both types of men, for the greatest man of the Old
Testament was John the Baptist and he was the rough and tough man of
nature. God uses all types to play a
role in His kingdom, but the star role goes to the Star of Jacob, who was the
Messiah. He would be more like a
mother's favorite. Mary was the chief
influence in the life of Jesus, for Joseph died and she raised Him as a single
parent.
God says some powerful things about mothers in His Word. There is just no escaping the evidence. They are the key tools God uses to determine
the course of history. The hand that
rocks the cradle rules the world is not a superficial cliche, but is supported
by God's revelation, and no where is it seen more clearly than in the life of
Rebekah. Let's look at some of the
details of her life that are almost trivia that reveal just how a mother can be
used of God to make a difference in the world.
First we see‑
I. REBEKAH WAS A GOOD COOK.
This whole story revolves around tasty food, and if Rebekah
could not have made a goat to taste like wild game she never would have been
able to pull off her plan. But she was
confident she could make a meal fit for a king that would please Isaac, in
verse 17 states that she also made bread.
Here we get a picture of the old time country kitchen with homemade
bread and a pot of stew.
This image is radically changed in our day, and the majority of
Americans will be eating out on this Mother's Day, or sometime this week. The home is not the center of eating as it
once was, but it is still the place where mothers need to provide their family
with pleasurable experiences around food. Rebekah had no choice. She had to learn to be a good cook. Today, mothers do not have to because there
are alternatives galore with fast food and microwave dinners, as well as
numerous places to eat out. The danger
is that mothers will fail to realize that it is still a vital part of family
life to have enjoyable times together around good food. There is something special that is never
forgotten about the enjoyment of a delicious meal made by mom.
Mothers are the first source of food and pleasure to a
baby. It is one of the roles of
motherhood to be a food provider. It
does something for the whole family to be able to enjoy the pleasure of good
food prepared by mom. It gives the husband
a sense of pride, and the children a sense of security, as well as memories of
a happy home life. The comedian may
have only been joking, but he may also been expressing a deep seated
disappointment when he said, "In my house you could eat off the floor. Most of the time, that's where the food
would end up. We would sneak it off our
plates and give it to the dog. I
wouldn't say mom was a bad cook, but one year we went through 12 dogs.
Bad cooking even leads other people to lie. A new preacher received a pie from one of
his members. It was so terrible they
could not eat it. They had to throw it
in the garbage. He didn't know how to
respond when she asked how he liked it.
He did not want to tell her the truth so he said, "I can assure you
that a pie like yours doesn't last long at our house." Mothers who want to avoid things like this
need to focus on the fact that they still play the key role in what happens at
the family table. It needs to be a time
of fun with tasty food and positive family fellowship. Heaven begins with a great family feast at the
marriage of the Lamb.
Part of good mothering is to make sure your family praises God
for taste buds because they are exercised frequently around the table, and
giving them pleasant memories of home and family life that will guide them to
seek the same when they establish their home.
This may seem like a secular quality to stress, and it is, but it is
also a spiritual matter. Rebekah had the spiritual concern, and her good
cooking was just mothers means to the greater end that she and her family be tools to accomplish God's will in
history. Indifference to the physical
side of life is not an asset, but a hindrance to the spiritual side of life. Anything a mother can do to enhance the
physical enjoyment of life will be an aid to her guiding her children
spiritually. The poet wrote,
It isn't the hours that
makes the home,
That gives a glory to life.
It isn't the things that
fill the room.
It's mainly the heart of a
wife.
Rebekah was the heart of her home, for her heart was set on
first of all pleasing God, who chose her and Jacob; secondly pleasing her
husband, and thirdly pleasing her children.
That is the order of priorities for the ideal mother. She used her cooking skill to accomplish all
three. She learned that there is a lot
of truth in the saying that, "The way to a man's heart is through his
stomach." It was also the way to
God's will. Rebekah is the ideal example of how developing physical and secular
skills can be a major factor in accomplishing spiritual ends. The second thing we want to note is‑
II. REBEKAH WAS A GOOD
PROBLEM‑SOLVER.
Mothers are, by definition, people‑makers. Women make a lot of things, but as mothers
they make people. People are the result
of their labor as mothers. The only two
people in all of history not mother‑made were Adam and Eve. God only made two people by Himself. All others have been made by mothers. But since the first mother fell even before
she became a mother, all of the people mothers make are also fallen, and so
problem making goes along with people making.
Where there are people there are problems. If a tree falls in the wood with nobody there to hear it, does it
make any sound? That is an age old
question that is debated, but one thing we know for sure, if there are no people
there to hear it, it is not a problem, sound or no sound. There are only problems where there are
people, and God's people have never been problem free.
Here is a godly family, and they are a key link to the line to
the Messiah. The salvation of the whole
world is in their hands, and they are about to fumble. Isaac is about to go with his preference and
forget God's choice. He is ready to
bless his rebel son Esau, and he would have had it not been for Rebekah's
clever plan. By this plan she saved her
husband from folly, and helped fulfill the prophecy of God. We just have accept this reality of life
that mothers are sometimes the best trouble shooters. They have insights and wisdom, and a sensitivity to what God is
doing that men sometimes do not have.
Jesus did not give all of His most profound teachings to His
disciples. He often chose a woman to
hear His deepest revelations, for He knew they could see what men often miss.
Even in the Old Testament where men were in control, and where
they had all the authority, we see God using a woman like Rebekah to get His
plan accomplished, even though the men were doing all they could to derail
it. The fact is, God's will that Jacob
be blest and the ruler over Esau would not have happened without Rebekah. The fact is, a lot of God's will would never
be accomplished without mothers.
Jacob saw his mothers determination to do what she was
convinced was the will of God, and solve the problem that stood in the
way. He became a problem solver like
this himself. He had to work out
problems with his father‑in‑law Laban over his wives and
wages. He had to work out his problems
with Esau. He even wrestled with God
and won a victory. He had a life of
problems, but he solved them and became the channel by which God's people were
formed. When he died he was buried in
the same tomb where his mother was buried.
Charles Dickens said, "I think it must be somewhere
written that the virtues of mothers shall be visited on their children as well
as the sins of their fathers." This was certainly true with Rebekah and
Jacob. He could have said with the poet,
All that I have she gave to
me‑
She molded my destiny
With loving care she raised
me,
And gave me a legacy.
A mother came into her kitchen and found her two young boys
fighting over the last cookie. She took the cookie and said, "I'll solve
this problem for you. I'll eat it myself." And she did. Sometimes the only
way to solve a problem is to eliminate the basis for the problem. Rebekah did
this by getting Jacob sent off to her brother's place to find a wife. The
separation even helped Esau to cool off and forget his plot to murder Jacob.
Separation is a great problem solver. Eve might have saved Abel by this
strategy. Rebekah did save Jacob, and by doing so changed the course of
history.
Kay Kuzma, a university professor, wrote an article called
Every Mother Is A Working Mother. She has three children, and she calculated
that by the time they reaches 18 she will have put in 18,000 hours of child‑generated
housework. That is housework she would not have had if she had not had
children. There is no such thing as a non‑working mother.
A mother of 11 was asked how she found time for all of them.
She replied, "When I had my first child I realized that one child can take
all of your time, so I decided to have more, for it couldn't make much
difference." Kay Kuzma wrote, " No one has any idea how much time it
takes to love a child into maturity‑ until they have had one! You know, I
think that is why so many women get discouraged after a couple of years. By
choosing to spend more time at home with their children they envision they will
have time to do everything they have always wanted to do. Instead it takes them
twice as long to read a book, the Christmas light are still up for their
family's Easter celebration, and there is no time for those home improvements
they had dreamed of making. Instead, the carpet gets spotted, the doorways get
fingerprinted, the walls get scribbled on, the curtains get snagged and their
favorite china gets chipped. Plus, the bills just keep getting bigger! You
begin to think you will never get ahead!"
Rebekah married into great wealth when she married Isaac, and she
had servants too. So maybe she had more time to think and plan strategy than
most mothers. Mothers differ greatly in the time they have to give to helping
their children find God's best. Rebekah succeeded in helping Jacob, and to a
lesser degree even Esau, for he also was changed. She was a problem solver for
the whole family. The record of her life takes up a good portion of the book of
Genesis. She is a major person is the history of God's people. She is not
famous for any great project or movement. She did not write a book, a song, or
a poem. She did not achieve any public fame. All she did was be a marvelous
mate and mother, and that is enough to have made her special to God.
Sarah was the oldest mother in the Bible, and likely the oldest
woman to ever have a baby. She was 90
years old when she gave birth to Isaac.
This is not a record many are striving to match or break, so it is likely
to stand for all time. Abraham is the
father of Judaism, Islam and Christianity.
He is the father of all who call themselves the people of God because
his wife became a mother of one son in his old age. Her one experience of motherhood made her the most famous mother
in history. A mother of an only child
can be as great or greater than a mother of a dozen.
Because of her greatness we seldom pay much attention to
another mother in Sarah's shadow. She
was also the mother of an only son.
Hagar is her name, but it never became popular in our culture like the
name Sarah did. Hagar was an Egyptian
servant girl in the house of Abraham and Sarah. She was a comparative nobody, but she became a somebody that God
used to change history by her motherhood.
These two mothers of only one son make it clear that God never counts
one as a small number. One is enough
for God to change the course of history.
The Bible and history teach this lesson over and over
again. God knew man would not be
impressed with one, and so they would not realize the significance of loving,
caring for, and teaching just one. Many
a Sunday School teacher has given up because they only had one student. They missed the message of God's Word that
one is enough. Paul preached his heart
out in Athens, and Acts 17 tells us that when all was said and done only one
named woman and one named man responded to the Gospel. Paul could have said, "I quit for the
fruit is just too little." The one
man who responded after all the debate was Dionysius the Areopagite. He went on to have a great impact for Christ
in that city, and many of the pagan temples became churches, and he became the
patron saint of Athens. One is no
number to belittle if you have the perspective of God.
One righteous man like Noah was all God needed to save the
human race. One faithful man like
Joseph was all God needed to save Jacob and his family, and thereby the future
of the Jewish race. One courageous
woman like Esther was all God needed to save the Jewish nation. One sinless Son was all God needed to save a
world of sinners for all eternity.
Study your Bible and see how often God uses a committee to achieve His
purpose in history. You will not find
much at all. But study to see how often
he uses one individual, and you will have a great many notes. God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob. He is the God of Sarah and
Hagar. He is the God of individuals,
and so one is always a major number with God.
It is an old story I have heard a number of times, but it
gives us an image we need to be reminded of often. And old man was walking the beach where masses of star fish had
been stranded by a storm that washed them ashore. He was picking them up and flinging them back into the sea. A young man asked him why he was doing it,
and he explained that they would die if left to the next day. But the young man protested that the beach
goes for miles and there were millions of them. He asked, "How can you make any difference?" The old man looked at the starfish in his
hands and then threw it into the waves saying, "It makes a big difference
to that one."
By not recognizing the importance of one we let the bigness
of life's problems overwhelm us and paralyze us. We cannot see how we can make a big difference and so we do nothing. When the fact is, all we need to do to make
a difference is to focus on one. Chuck
Colson in his book Loving God tells this remarkable story of a Russian Jew
named Boris Kornfeld. He was a doctor
in the Gulag caring for the sick prisoners.
An unknown Christian told him about Jesus and he believed and became a
committed Christian in a Communist system.
He stopped cooperating with the ruthless system that treated prisoners
like dirt. He became a nuisance to the
authorities, for he reported injustices rather than look the other way.
One of his patience was a young man recovering from cancer
surgery. He told this young man of his
faith in Christ and he listened.
Kornfeld was soon clubbed to death to get rid of him, but the young man
he witnessed to became a Christian. His
name was Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the most famous Russian Christian of modern
times. Kornfeld only lived long enough
as a Christian to win one man to Christ.
What a tragedy, some might say, if all they knew was human math. But a victorious life was his if you know
God's math where one is enough to make a world of difference. MacLeish wrote, "We are neither weak
nor few as long as one man does what one can do." Or, one mother, as was the case with Sarah
and Hagar, and a host of other mothers through history.