COME AS A CHILD - LESSON 66 - THE GIRL BEHIND THE VEIL

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

As she left Rebekah could hear her family chanting the blessing they sent with her:

“Our sister, may you increase to thousands upon thousands; may your offspring possess the cities of their enemies.”

Little did she know or understand that this expression of blessing that proclaimed an entire jurisdiction and dominion over others by her offspring would be fulfilled in the times to come during the days of Joshua, David and Solomon.  This would be their physical fulfillment, but even greater would be the spiritual fulfillment by God who had given the same words to Abraham in a covenant even before Rebekah’s family recited the blessing.  Did they know?  How could they have known?  Yet, it would be Abraham’s principal seed, passed through Rebekah and Isaac and on down through many generations that would destroy Satan and his principalities and powers and overcome the world and make an end to sin and abolish death.  It was through the blood of the offspring from Rebekah and Isaac that God’s people would be delivered out of the hands of all their enemies and made more than conquerors over them through the promised Son, Yeshua. 

All these things that originated at the time of Isaac, as strange as it sounds, hinged upon the actions of this one young woman riding through the desert with the servant of Abraham, headed straight toward a destiny totally unknown to her.  

Do you ever think back over your life and realize you had one moment in time where everything you did or said could have changed history?  It happens, yet we are usually as unaware as this young maid in Eliezer’s caravan.  Of course if Rebekah had said no, God would have made another way for His will to come about.  The point is that God gives us the freedom to chose our destiny and God choses the people who will interact to bring about the destiny of all mankind.  We can follow His plan or go our own way.  Rebekah chose to accept the destiny and the purposes that God had planned for her.    

The young girl who would be Isaac's wife must have truly felt anticipation, perhaps a stirring that she did not understand, as she left on her journey to meet her future husband; but she was quite oblivious to the consequences that God was setting in place with her marriage. 

Rebekah had one familiar face on this journey.  She took her childhood nurse with her as a servant.  You can just imagine their talk as they traveled across the land together, both of them strangers in a strange land.  Funny how the different classes of people and positions become leveled and equal when circumstances erode to the place where there is no one else who is familiar but just the master and the servant.  Such situations usually turn into lifelong friendships and the servant often becomes more cherished by the master than actual family members.  There is often a beautiful and unexplainable bond between two people where one has given up all they know and own simply to make the other feel more comfortable and blessed with no reward in sight for themselves.  Rebekah must have cherished having this dear servant/friend in the new place.     

Isaac had been sojourning in Beer Lahai Roi, in the Negev near the well where Hagar met the angel.  Before arrival there, he had spent the previous three years of his life studying in the school of Shem at Moriah.  His studies had been all that consoled him since his mother’s death; and he still grieved even after all this time.  He had stopped in Beer Lahai Roi after completing school to report his progress to Abraham.  It was then that he learned an arrangement had been made for his marriage and that his bride was on her way to Hebron, where he was to meet her.  

Isaac had been glad to see Abraham who had been living in the area of Beer Lahai Roi since Sarah’s death, as he could not bear to be alone in Hebron after Sarah's death with Isaac away at school.  After a good visit with Abraham in which they probably celebrated the wonderful things Isaac had learned of the mysteries of God  from Shem, Isaac made his way to Hebron.

      

There had been several years packed full of transformation and change in Isaac’s life.  Now; as he approached the trees of Mamre in the land of Hebron, he must have been recalling many memories of his mother, and he went outside to walk through the fields in order to meditate. 

It is here that we once again see how Isaac mirrored Yeshua, who often rose early in the morning and walked through the fields to pray.  One can't help but think of the Hebraic phrase "The King Is In The Field."  It is a phrase often used during the time leading up to the Day of Atonement when people are examining their lives and repenting of their sins before God.  They wish to do this before Rosh Hashanah, and it is said during this time that God is like a great landowner walking through His field that is ready to harvest, stopping to speak to each laborer, making himself available and giving them easy access to his wisdom and love for all in the land. Formalities are dropped and the King and those who serve him are on equal ground and can speak with one another freely and openly.  There is a certain element of mercy and compassion that the people realize in knowing that the King of the land has taken the time to come personally to them.   There is a picture of the King showing great compassion and love to have taken the time to come out to the field of the laborers instead of choosing to stay in the comfort of his throne room.  

Perhaps Isaac, walking through his fields, was thinking of how much he missed his mother.  Perhaps he was thinking of how old Abraham had looked when he last saw him.  Perhaps he was contemplating the huge responsibility he now shouldered in looking after the multitude of servants, livestock and possessions that Abraham had turned over to him.  In the midst of it all he was most likely lifting up prayers to God the Father, asking for guidance and help, thanking Him for his good fortune and seeking His leadership for the future.  Perhaps and most likely he was praying about his upcoming marriage to a woman he had never met.  What would she be like?   

In the middle of Isaac’s deep thoughts and prayers he looked up to see the caravan approaching.  At the same moment, Rebekah also looked up and saw Isaac walking in the field.  She got down from her camel and asked Eliezer “Who is that man in the field coming to meet us?”

“He is my master,” said Eliezer.  Rebekah then took her veil and covered herself. It was a nuptial custom for women about to marry to cover themselves with a veil when they were presented to their future husbands.  Rebekah decided to keep the custom.  The veil symbolized her new un-approachability to others, not only sexually, but as “hekdesh” which was the name for a sanctified object in the temple.  The sacred objects of the tabernacle were “veiled” before being taken up to be carried by the Levites.  At the point of our story, the tabernacle has not even happened yet, but perhaps this is where the idea first started, with Rebekah meeting Isaac.  

The marriage ceremony is likened, in a legal sense, to those sanctified objects of the Temple.  One should from this time forth (after her veiling upon meeting her groom) approach this woman with honor and dignity and nothing that would defile her.  Like the veil of Moses after he had spent time with God on the mountain, of which we will learn more about later; the veil here implies a willingness to be separate and apart from others in order to stay holy.

Rebekah did not usually wear a veil.  Before and after her marriage her face was uncovered.   Why did she suddenly decide to remain true to this custom?

 Contrary to what many have mistakenly believed, except for an unmarried woman meeting her groom to be, women in the time and culture of Isaac walked and went about their days with uncovered faces.  The constant covering of a woman's face is a custom brought about many years later, and is of Muslim origin.  

It is not a Hebraic custom, nor was it the custom of the women in the days of Isaac to keep their faces constantly covered at all times.  As a matter of fact, the women who usually covered their faces all the time in this land (except for brides first meeting their future grooms) were the prostitutes, not the decent women.  This becomes apparent later in the scriptures when we read of Judah and Tamar.  

We also know just from reading the scriptures that Rebekah usually walked with her face free of a veil, (as Sarah did before her) and she simply covered herself as she was to meet Isaac because it was the custom of a bride to cover her face when she was presented to her future groom.  This is a very old custom that has carried over into modern times.  It was also to signify her modesty.  The symbolic modesty of the veil for a bride-to-be teaches an important lesson; that “the glory of the princess is the interior” of the person.

Despite any outward beauty and charm, her inner qualities and characteristics were much more important in the role of a wife.  With the external covering of the veil all attention could be directed to the inner person without distractions.
 

Did Isaac walking in the field and spotting the caravan get a glimpse of Rebekah’s striking beauty from a distance even before this covering of the veil happened?  We do not know.

When we read of Rebekah putting on her veil before she meets Isaac we know she had entered into a moment in her life of decisiveness.  We all have those moments, when our actions show the greatest decisions of our heart.  It was a very significant moment that changed all events that came after and confirmed all events that had happened before that moment.  It happened the first moment that she saw Isaac.  He had been walking through the fields praying.  She saw him deep in prayer.  At that moment Rebekah could have chosen to join in the prayer, to celebrate the blessing that they both had been given.  What did it mean here, that she veiled herself?  Was she shutting herself off from the prayer and the blessing of her future husband?  How should we interpret this veiling?  

At this point in the story it could go one way or the other, so we will continue and find out later what this significant moment and the actions of Rebekah meant for them.  

We have to consider that Isaac had just been to Beer Lahai Roi, the place where one’s eyes are said to be opened.  Isaac was now openly praying in the field.  Yet, his future bride was covering herself and hiding behind a veil.  What did this mean for their future?  What did this mean for the house of Isaac?  What did this mean for the generations of Abraham?    

Did Isaac already know the answers as he approached the caravan coming toward him?  

Would things have turned out differently if Rebekah had forsaken the common tradition and responded openly in her first meeting with Isaac?

 That isn’t what happened, and we will never know the whole truth of this.

 When Isaac arrived and greeted them Eliezer told him the story of how he had found Rebekah among Abraham’s family in the far land.  

In spite of Rebekah’s lack of openness and her desire to hide her face from him, Isaac loved her.  He loved her very much.  He felt assured that she was the one that God had intended for him to marry.

Isaac married Rebekah and brought her into the tent of Sarah.  He loved Rebekah very much and Rebekah filled the empty place that had been in his heart ever since his mother had died.  All of the miracles that had left the tent upon Sarah's death returned when Rebekah married Isaac.

Sarah’s tent once again was covered by the glorious cloud.  When Rebekah lit the candles to welcome the Sabbath they did not go out for the next seven days, until she lit new ones to welcome the Sabbath again, and they gave constant light to all who entered her tent.  Rebekah’s dough was plentiful and it never ran out, no matter how much bread she baked.  

The land of Mamre was filled once more with the sound of a woman’s laughter  and the voice of a woman's song.  Sarah’s soul must have smiled as it rested in the cave at Machpelah which was near to the tents of Abraham at Hebron.

  New life had come to the family of Abraham and there was once again hope of all the blessings that God had promised.