As Rebekah’s story unfolds it reflects a foundational truth in the way God works with human beings: God acts first – grace precedes human response. Before Rebekah ever speaks, chooses, or acts, God is already at work. In Genesis 24, Abraham sent his senior servant to find a wife for his son Issac (vv.1-4). Concerned that the selected woman would be unwilling to come back with him (v.5) the servant stopped for water and prayed that the Lord would grant him success and show hesed  – Hebrew meaning ‘faithful, steadfast (covenant) love’ to Abraham (vv.11-12). The servant prayed that ‘…when I say to a young woman, “Please let down your jar that I may have a drink,” and she says, “Drink, and I’ll water your camels too”– let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac’ (v.14). Before he had finished praying Rebekah appeared at the well and generously offered water to this stranger and his camels (vv.15-19). 

Rebekah was not striving to enter God’s plan; she was being graciously drawn into it. Her defining response came quickly and simply: ‘I will go’ (v.58). With these words, Rebekah stepped into an unknown future, leaving behind the familiarity of her family to embrace a new life. This was not her initiative rather she was participating in what God was accomplishing. Her willingness reflects a trust that does not depend on full understanding, but trusts in the reliability of the One who calls.

Yet Rebekah’s journey, like ours, was not without tension. When God made known to her the destiny of the twins she was carrying: ‘…the elder will serve the younger’ (Genesis 25:23), she received a genuine promise. However, in time, she attempted to secure that promise through her own strategy, orchestrating Jacob’s deception (Genesis 27). This moment exposes the fragile mixture of faith and control that often marks human lives. Still, God’s purpose does not unravel; it continues, not because of human perfection, but because of divine faithfulness. Grace remains steady even when human actions falter.   

There was, however, a cost. Rebekah’s intervention fractured her family, and she lived with the painful consequences of that choice. Grace does not erase the reality of brokenness, but it does hold it within God’s redeeming work. In the light of grace, we see that we are not called to manipulate outcomes or to secure God’s promises by our own effort. What God has purposed, he will fulfil. Rebekah’s life is extraordinary not because she was flawless, but because she was included, chosen, called, and sustained by grace. She responded, struggled, and remained within the unfolding story of God’s covenant. 

Her story invites us to the same posture. We are not initiators of our relationship with God but are responders. We are not sustainers of his promises – he is. Like Rebekah, we are called to trust, to follow, and to rest in the assurance that God’s grace is both the beginning and the end of our journey.

Local congregation:
Grace Communion West Hampstead 
Sidings Community Centre
150 Brassey Road
West Hampstead
London
NW6 2BA

Meeting time:
Sunday 12.30 pm

Local congregational contact:
Gordon Brown
gordon.brown@gracecom.church

Word of Life contact:  
wordoflife@gracecom.church