Relationship thoughts from Isaac and Rebekah

Image: Pixabay

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Genesis 24:50-67

TO CHEW ON: “Then Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent; and he took Rebekah and she became his wife, and he loved her.” Genesis 24:67.

Who doesn’t utter an “Awww” at a beautiful love story—and this one sure fits that category. Even though the customs are quite different from our own, here are some elements that I think enhance its beauty.

• God’s presence at every stage. The servant recognized and acknowledged God’s presence in the situation (and repeatedly: Genesis 24:27,40,48). Rebekah’s father and brother agreed - Genesis 24:50. Similarly we can invite God into every situation, especially courtship and marriage.

• The generosity of Abraham (through the servant). Beautiful gifts went to everyone (Genesis 24:22, 53).  I’m sure it was expected to load the bride and her family with dowry. Still, it speaks to me of God’s largesse with us when we align ourselves with Him and His plans for us.

• The understandable hesitance of Rebekah’s family to let her go at overnight notice—perhaps never to see her again (Genesis 24:55). They loved this beautiful young woman. No doubt her mother had had thoughts that someday she’d be asked to give her up. But so suddenly? And to so far away? This reminds me that thorns may be present, even on occasions of joy.

• The family’s regard for Rebekah’s wishes in this. They didn’t force her but asked her what she wanted (Genesis 24:58). This reminds me that God also gives us choices to follow Him and His best for us—in marriage and in life.

• The family’s blessing. Rebekah left with positive words of her family’s blessing ringing in her ears (Genesis 24:60). If only we realized, when we married, how important family was. The approval and blessing of both families is a huge asset to the establishment of a new home.

• Rebekah’s modesty, veiling her face in preparation to meet her groom (Genesis 24:65). In this way she acknowledged current cultural custom, and that this was a very special meeting. Similarly in our relationships, physical demonstrations of respect and modesty can be a sort of dramatization of our feelings and can help enhance them.

May we and our children experience similar storybook endings to God-filled relationships.


PRAYER: Dear Father, thank You for the love of human marriage. We want Your presence in these comings together, for us and our children.

MORE: Teaching based on this story.
Philosopher and author Ravi Zacharias has produced a powerful message about love and marriage based on Isaac and Rebekah’s love story. His talk “I Isaac take you Rebekah” is available (on YouTube) in five parts, linked below.

"I Isaac take you Rebekah" - Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5


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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Spirit of wisdom

"Stephen before the Council" 
by Joanes Vicente. 
From Artwork from the Bible 
and Its Story - Volume 10 (1910)

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Acts 6:8-7:8

TO CHEW ON: “And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke” - Acts 6:10


I never cease to be amazed by modern apologists like Ravi Zacharias. I’ve listened to numerous Q&A sessions, recorded at universities where questioners will pose to him the most difficult (to me) questions or dilemmas. Without skipping a beat, Zacharias answers, often exposing in the questioner and his/her question, the very fault of logic they are implying that he is making in his defense of Christianity.

(Eg. A back-and-forth with Zacharias can go something like:
Q: How can you say there is objective truth [implying such a thing doesn’t exist]?
A: The assumption you make by asking that question is itself based on your belief in the meaningfulness of statements that claim to be true or false [objective truth].)

I imagine Stephen as that kind of orator / apologist. I love how the NKJV with its capitalized pronouns of God draws our attention to the source of this wisdom:

“… they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke” - Acts 6:10.

Isaiah describes the Spirit that would rest on Jesus and was also on Stephen (Acts 6:5):

“The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him,
The Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
The Spirit of counsel and might,
The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD” - Isaiah 11:2 (emphasis on wisdom words added).

The beautiful thing is that God’s wisdom is available to us. James tells us:

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him” - James 1:5.

What exactly are we asking for, when we ask for this wisdom?

“But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality* and without hypocrisy” - James 3:17.

Though I would never aspire to be a Ravi Zacharias, I would love and welcome more of the Spirit of wisdom in my life!

PRAYER: Dear Jesus, thank You for sending Holy Spirit, who supplies wisdom, understanding, counsel, and knowledge. May You, Holy Spirit, find a welcome home in me. Amen. 


*Interesting, isn’t it, that Stephen came to prominence as someone the early church fathers put in place to correct a problem of perceived partiality - Acts 6:1-5.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Shades of wisdom

Image: Pixabay.com

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Proverbs 8:1-19

TO CHEW ON:  "I love those who love me,
And those who seek me diligently will find me." Proverbs 8:17

This chapter, titled "The Excellence of Wisdom" in my Bible, is a poem about wisdom (actually by wisdom, for Wisdom speaks as if a person throughout).

In the part of Proverbs 8 that is our reading today, wisdom describes herself. Let's look through these 19 verses to compile a list of wisdom's attributes as stated and shown in them.

Wisdom is:

• Bold - The way this chapter starts out with wisdom crying out from hilltops, crossroads and city gates brings to mind another kind of woman. It's as if wisdom, knowing the importance of persuading people to her way is not above using the wiles of the loose woman (Proverbs 9:13-17).
• Prudent: "O you simple ones, understand prudence…" Proverbs 8:5,12.
• Understanding - "… you fools, be of an understanding heart" - Proverbs 8:5,15.
• Recognized and identified by speech - "Listen for I will speak of excellent things, And from the opening of my lips will come right things" - Proverbs 8:6.
• Truthful - "For my mouth will speak truth" - Proverbs 8:8.
• Righteous - "All the words of my mouth are righteousness - Proverbs 8:8, 20. Wisdom also is the fear of God that "hates … the evil way" - Proverbs 8:13,20.
• Not given to perversion - "… nothing crooked or perverse is in them" (the words of her mouth) - Proverbs 8:8, 13.
• A clear communicator - Her words are "… plain to him who understands" - Proverbs 8:9.
• Valuable - Wisdom's instruction is compared to silver, gold and rubies - Proverbs 8:10,11, 18, 19.
• Knowledge - "Receive … knowledge" - Proverbs 8:10, 12.
• Discretion - "I wisdom … find out … discretion" - Proverbs 8:12.
• Humble - "Pride and arrogance … I hate" - Proverbs 8:13.
• Good advice - "Counsel is mine" - Proverbs 8:14.
• Necessary for rulers, nobles and judges - Proverbs 8:15,16.
• A kindred spirit  - "I love those who love me" - Proverbs 8:17.
• Discoverable - "… those who seek me diligently will find me" - Proverbs 8:17.
• Just - "I traverse the way of righteousness, In the midst of the paths of justice" - Proverbs 8:20.
• A means to achieve success - "That I may cause those who love me to inherit wealth" - Proverbs 8:18,21.

 What stands out for me in this list is that Wisdom—this amazing quality of the companion of the Creator and fellow crafter of the Earth (Proverbs 8:30) is available to those who seek it/her. Bible characters that were gifted with wisdom, like Samuel and Solomon, come to mind. But this gift of wisdom is also available to us moderns.

In reading Ravi Zacharias's memoir, Walking from East to West, I was shocked to discover that  all through elementary and high school Dr. Zacharias (known worldwide for his ability to understand philosophy and defend the Bible) was a miserable failure as a student. His despair at his inability to perform and his fear that he would be a failure in life and a great disappointment to his father were responsible for him attempting suicide as a teen.

But all that changed when he accepted Christ.  In his own words: "During those intense months (following his conversion), as I gobbled up every morsel of learning I could, something changed in my life, causing an about-face I never would have expected: I became a voracious reader" - Ravi Zacharias, Walking From East to West, p. 110.

I would submit that when Jesus entered Ravi Zacharias's life, one of the things he brought was wisdom.

I want to be wise—don't you? Let's take the words of Proverbs 8 and James 1:5-8 to heart and ask God for it.


PRAYER: Dear God, may I be a lover of true wisdom—one who lives wisely in thought, word, and action. Amen.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The right that doesn't change

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Isaiah 51:1-23

TO CHEW ON: "Do not fear the reproach of men, nor be afraid of their insults. For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool. But My righteousness will be forever, and My salvation from generation to generation." Isaiah 51:7,8


I often listen to Ravi Zacharias's weekday radio broadcast Just Thinking. In the last while he has been talking about moral relativism. He explains how our society no longer acknowledges that there is a code of absolutes. Instead, what's considered right and wrong shifts with public opinion.

He tells of how prominent atheist Richard Dawkins illustrated this. A chef prepared human placenta using garlic, lime juice, shallots and other ingredients to make it into a gourmet pate. When served to a group of people (who didn't know what it was), all exclaimed how good it tasted.

Dawkins concluded, "Eating a placenta is eating a baby's clone. Science can't tell you whether it's right or wrong to do that but it can tell you that that's what you're doing. Then you decide for yourself whether it's right or wrong."

It brings up the question in us, 'Where does it end?' The answer implied here is, 'No where.'

 Zacharias, in his talk, shows the logical fallacy of such thinking when he says, "Would he (Dawkins) believe that, if I decided to carve up one of his children just because I liked it?"

Isaiah here tells us God's righteousness—and that includes the biblical laws that tell us what is right wrong—"will be forever."

In a culture where standards are always changing, upholding those laws may get us into ever more trouble with our fellow citizens. There may well be "reproach" and "insults," even lawsuits and jail.  But as Isaiah reminds us, the purveyors of such relativism are as vulnerable and short-lived as wool in the presence of hungry moths while God's standards "will not be abolished … will be forever … from generation to generation" - Isaiah 51:6,8.  

PRAYER: Dear God, please help me to take Your standards as my own and live by them despite the changing standards of the society around me. Amen.

MORE: Listen to the whole talk

You can listen to Ravi Zacharias's entire talk referred to above HERE.



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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Recipe for discipleship

Artist: Illustrator of Bible Card
published in 1904

TODAY'S SPECIAL: John 8:31-47

TO CHEW ON: "Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed in Him, 'If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.'" John 8:31-32

Here we have Jesus explaining to some new Jewish believers — perhaps even some Pharisees among then — the essence of discipleship. He said that:

if they would abide...

[Abide = meno: to remain or abide, to sojourn or tarry and not to depart; to continue to be present; to be held, kept continually, to last, endure, to remain and not to become different]

in His word...
those things He had just said about Himself:
- that He came from God (John 8:14).
- that God was His father (John 8:16).
- that God supported Him (John 8:18).
- that He would go away to a place they could not follow (John 8:21).
- that they would die in their sins unless they believed He was who He said He was (John 8:23-24).
- that He would be 'lifted up' - crucified - and thus prove that His life and death were God's initiative, not His own (John 8:28-29).

they would prove themselves His disciples.
And they would know...

[Know = ginosko: perceive, understand recognize, gain knowledge, realize, come to know. "Ginosko is the knowledge that has an inception, a progress, and an attainment. It is the recognition of truth by personal experience" - New Spirit-Filled Life Bible p. 1459.]

the truth...

[Truth = aletheia: the opposite of fictitious, feigned or false. It denotes veracity, reality, sincerity, accuracy, integrity, truthfulness, dependability and propriety.]

- Jesus brought it (John 1:17).
- Jesus was full of it (John 1:14).
- Jesus is it (John 14:6).

And the truth would set them free.
Free from what? It was not a freedom from ethnic, racial or political slavery. Rather it was freedom from the slavery of sin (8:34-36).

What strikes me about this recipe for discipleship is the faith needed to live it. These new believers would need to "abide" in Jesus' words (against all that their fellow Jews were saying and in the context, later, of Jesus' arrest, trial, and crucifixion). By doing this they would not only prove themselves His disciples but know (at the level of personal experience) the truth (Jesus and the fact of God's plan accomplished through Him — leading finally to freedom from sin — both its enslavement in this life and its final death-curse).

Discipleship for us takes no less "abiding" faith.


PRAYER: Dear Jesus, thank You for bringing truth, for being full of truth and being truth embodied. Help me to "abide" in You and Your words so I will know truth at the level of personal experience. Amen.

MORE: Jesus' extraordinary claims

Theologian and apologist Ravi Zacharias:

"The first and most important step to understanding the nature of truth is exemplified in a conversation between Jesus and Pilate. The conversation began with Pilate asking Jesus if indeed he was a king. The very surprising answer of Jesus was, "Are you asking this of your own, or has someone else set you up for this?" 

In effect, Jesus was asking Pilate if this was a genuine question or purely an academic one. He was not merely checking on Pilate's sincerity. He was opening up Pilate's heart to himself, to reveal to Pilate his unwillingness to deal with the implications of Jesus's answer. Intent, in the pursuit of truth, is prior to content, or to the availability of it. The love of truth and the willingness to submit to its demands is the first step.

But second, Jesus said something even more extraordinary. After identifying his Lordship in a kingdom that was not of this world, he said, "They that are on the side of truth, listen to me" (John 18:37). Jesus was not merely establishing the existence of truth, but his pristine embodiment of it. He was identical with the truth. This meant that everything he said and did, and the life he lived in the flesh, represented that which was in keeping with ultimate reality. Therefore, to reject him is to choose to govern one's self with a lie" - (emphasis added) by Ravi Zacharias, in "The Empirical Demonstration of Truth" (quote  from the RZIM website; the article is no longer online).