Finding Rebekah (Part I)

        

Rebekah at the Well

painting by Michael Deas 1995

You recall the story of Rebekah:                            
The servant, the oath, the camels, the spring,       
How aged Abram had buried Sarah

And knowing his own time was expiring,

He summoned his oldest servant to swear           

To find his dear son a wife of Promise            

Back home in Mesopotamia where

Abram left family to wander homeless

Seventy years like a nomad abroad        

To Harran, Egypt and the Great Trees of Mamre  

Leaving behind kin by order of God.   

Consequently, who would Isaac marry?

Such a task filled the man with holy dread      

Rousing questions about how and what if         

No lady would agree to return to wed

Isaac, the son of the long lost relative.

Thusly, Abraham himself relented                    

Saying that if no one was willing to come    

Then the oath need not be contended,

Only do not take Isaac from home.

So the servant went with camels manned,       

Gifts and provisions for the task ahead     

Back to Aram Nahariam, the land                

Where family stayed after Terah died.     

In those weeks of travel, the servant must                

Have practiced the story that he would tell            

To his master's kin, explaining this quest         

To earn their trust so that all would go well.       

Again and again, the words through his mind

Til perhaps overwrought at Nahor town,    

He asked God one evening for a sign,          

By a well with his camels kneeling down.                

                                                                                  

"God of my master," was the prayer on his breath,              

"I'm weary of wondering and worrying each day,

'Where might she live? What shall be said?'  

Show me the one you've appointed, I pray."

"Grant me success today through this test.                        

May the one I ask for a drink from her jug,     

Who offers to draw for my camels at rest

Be the one you've chosen for Isaac to wed.

Then when these events unfold 'fore my eyes        

I shall know your kindness to my master."                

Thus he prayed with evening drawing in the skies 

Golden colors upon the women come for water.

See Part II of Finding Rebekah