Genesis 24:58 And they called Rebekah, and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” She said, “I will.”

As Christians, we are taught from a young age to celebrate Abrahm / Abraham as a hero of faith. He definitely had his flaws and made some awful decisions, but overall he is remembered as someone who heard an invitation to leave everything that was familiar to him; his home, his family, his future that was laid out for him.

He left all of that to go out on his own to a new, unidentified land with a promise from God that will show him the land when he gets there. We understand how much trust and faith must go into leaving everything that is familiar, all the existing means of support, and entering into a land of strangers. So its rightfully credited to Abraham as an act of great faith.

This past Sunday, our sermon text was about Rebekah becoming the wife of Isaac and becoming Abraham’s daughter-in-law. As we looked at the story of the servant who went back to Abraham’s homeland and invited Rebekah to leave her home, her family, and her future that was laid out for her we see the similarities between the faith that was required of Abraham and Rebekah.

To join in with God’s covenant promise and God’s covenant people, both Abraham and Rebekah had to take a journey from their home to an unknown place that was promised to them. For Rebekah to join in Abraham’s family and to become part of the story of what God was doing in the world through God’s people, Rebekah had to answer the question that her family put to her in Genesis 24:58

“Will you go with this man?”

And it is this point where I felt like we all were being written in as characters in the story. The invitation given to us is to take a leap of faith, leaving the life that is familiar and safe. We are asked to hear a promise about what the new life could be like. We are asked to put our lives in the hands of someone else. We are presented with the possibility of a new life as part of God’s covenant people, but it requires us to make a journey too.

Will you take the journey that Abraham took several years before? And it’s not just a physical journey from Ur to the promised land, but a spiritual journey as well. A journey that requires trust and vulnerability. It’s a journey away from the life that is familiar towards a life that is outside of our own control. And all that we are given to start is a promise about what life will be like when we arrive:

In this new land, there is abundance. You will have what you need. In this new land, there is family. You will be adopted, brought into the family and loved deeply. In this new land you will find purpose. God will work through your life to bring hope and promise to others.

All this awaits us at the other end of this journey of faith. But right now, all we have is the promise. A simple message from servants of the master. We cannot really know if the message is true until we arrive and see for ourselves if what the servant said is to be trusted.

And so the question that is before each and everyone of us is the question that Rebekah is asked by her family? Will you take a journey of faith based upon nothing more than a promise?

“Will you go?”

Take some time this week reflecting upon the faith of Abraham and Rebekah. Read Genesis 24. Pray that God provides the grace and faith for us to be people who say yes to invitations from God. May we, like Rebekah, answer boldly, putting our trust in the promises of God, say ‘Yes, I will go.”

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