I, Isaac, Take Thee, Rebekah: Moving from Romance to Lasting Love - Hardcover

Zacharias, Ravi K.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0849917980 ISBN 13: 9780849917981

Publisher: Thomas Nelson Inc, 2004

Synopsis

In the twenty-fourth chapter of Genesis a beautiful young woman offers assistance to a weary traveler and his camels, and out of that simple action, a marriage results--a marriage that offers profound lessons to couples today. Bible scholar and renowned speaker Ravi Zacharias draws five points critical to the long-lasting success of every marriage from the biblical story of the marriage of Isaac and Rebekah.

"Real love folds together both the emotions and the will," writes Zacharias. "Without the emotions, marriage is a drudgery; without the will, it is a mockery." Building upon that foundational truth, Zacharias goes on to explain the principles of seeking the counsel of others when finding a mate, cherishing your partner, remaining pure, becoming a man or woman of prayer, and, finally, risking everything in a relationship in order to experience God's ideal for love.

Couples everywhere, from those about to be married, to those who have been married for decades, will draw strength and wisdom for the journey of marriage as they learn from Ravi what it means to move from romance to lasting love.

About this title

Reviews

Evangelical Christian apologist, speaker and author Zacharias (The Lotus and the Cross; Jesus Among Other Gods) turns his attention to intimate matters of the heart in this primer on romantic love and marriage. At a time when Christians' divorce statistics match those of nonbelievers, Zacharias provides a strong pathway to enduring, timeless love between men and women. Taking the biblical tale of Isaac and Rebekah's marriage as found in Genesis 24 as the premise for his text, Zacharias carefully depicts this primordial love story as a model to which today's couples can look for inspiration and direction. Love is hard work, he writes; it is, in fact, the hardest work of all, and no partner is ever allowed a vacation. Modern society has robbed couples of love's higher call-cherishing and nurturing one's spouse-by unfairly pairing marriage with charm and sensuality. Zacharias offers three pivotal habits necessary to yield the strength and wherewithal to endure marriage's fatal foes. Christian couples, he says, should prioritize their time to include a daily prayer retreat to gird themselves with strength; consistently study the Bible to allow eternal principles to take root; and invest themselves in a local church body where couples can work out their faith in a supportive environment. Readers will be enchanted by Zacharias's gentle, conversational style, yet challenged by his unwavering commitment to biblical truth.
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I, Isaac, take Thee, Rebekah

By Ravi Zacharias

Thomas Nelson

Copyright © 2007 Ravi Zacharias
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8499-1798-1

Contents

Acknowledgments..........................................ixIntroduction.............................................xi1. The Indispensable Element in Love.....................12. The Will to Do........................................233. The Living Act of a Dead Self.........................474. To Have and to Hold...................................635. Preparing to Leave....................................876. The First Glimpse, the Final Test.....................1137. Facing Reality and Each Other.........................133Notes....................................................157

Chapter One

Every spring along the streets of Delhi, huge processions follow an elegantly arrayed bridegroom on a white horse as he rides, sometimes for many miles, to the home of his bride. The horse is draped in colorful velvet. The groom sits tall, with the posture of a victor coming to claim the prize for which he has worked all his life. His attire is shining, with gold-intertwined threads falling from his turban and covering his face. Musicians, many of whom desperately need music lessons, serenade him with flutes and other instruments along his journey. These musicians rent out their services for such occasions, and though they try hard, their pathetic overestimation of their musical prowess is the subject of many jokes. Thankfully the added noise of congested streets drowns out some of the painful and off-key sounds that give the term "strain" when attached to music a whole different meaning. But frankly, amid such revelry, who really cares about these secondary matters? The musicians are there merely as accessories, not as the centerpiece.

Women carrying lighted kerosene lamps walk as part of the procession, providing a light along the darker roads and a brilliant symbol of the festive occasion. Hundreds, sometimes thousands, of guests shout and dance as they follow along toward the celebration that awaits them. As the bride's home comes into view, the music reaches a crescendo and the procession comes to a halt. Awaiting their arrival are the guests of the bride, and the massive tent set up for the feast suddenly becomes a beehive of activity. At this moment, all the attention is on the bride, bedecked in her magnificent and radiantly colored sari, her face covered by a veil, her hands and arms painted with henna in beautiful patterns.

Wedding processions are a fun part of life in those teeming cities of India. As a youngster I stood on the side of the road and watched dozens of them from a distance. I must also make a confession. With the weddings as large as they are, nobody knows who comes as whose guest. Often, as we watched a wedding procession going by, my buddies and I would bring our cricket game to a halt, casually join the groom's party of followers, and arrive along with them at the bride's home, ready to enjoy a gala dinner. During wedding season we could have feasted every night and no host would have been any the wiser. In fact, it is customary for wedding invitations to read, "We invite you, your family, and friends ..."

I have to admit that looking back on those days of youthful exuberance, I find my immodest self-invitations quite embarrassing to confess. Oh, but what meals we enjoyed, the best of Indian cuisine, justifying our participation as celebrants at a solemn ceremony! The truth is, we could not have cared less about the solemnity of the occasion. The food is what we came for. Priests chanted and recited incantations, but that was not for us. Weddings came and went, and I never stopped to think of what it all really meant beneath the exterior trappings.

That is why the first time I ever witnessed a wedding as an invited guest has remained etched in my memory. I accompanied my parents for the marriage of a close family friend. The ceremony took place in a church. The organ rolled, the guests rose, and the bride entered the church in a magnificent white-and-gold sari. She walked toward the groom waiting at the altar, where they pledged their vows to each other. Seeing this prompted a whirlwind of emotion within me. It was then that I began to ask questions about what it meant to be "man and wife." How did they meet? When did they decide to be married? Who did the asking? What does it mean to be in love? Does anyone ever get turned down? Is marriage forever? What if it is a mistake? What happens now? Can marriage get boring? I never doubted the sense of awe and beauty in the ceremony. There was charm in the air. But I wondered if this was all a veneer or the real thing.

Certainly the Christian world-view has a unique perspective on marriage; yet even then cultural aspects come into play-some good, some questionable, and others, however well intended, inflicting more pain than pleasure. I am convinced that marriage is at once the most powerful union and the most misunderstood relationship we can experience. Like everything of intrinsic value, its use or abuse determines delight or devastation. To understand marriage God's way is to carry a cherished dream into reality. To violate its built-in pattern is to mangle beauty and plunder one's own riches.

Let me therefore begin with a text of Scripture that carries all the essential elements of what God had in mind when He asked us to say, "I do."

A Lovely Story

A heart-gripping story is told in Genesis, chapter 24. From this narrative I will build my entire framework for I, Isaac, Take Thee, Rebekah. I truly pray that you may find your heart enthralled by the truths we uncover and your mind stirred to think of this union in God's way and not ours. If you will, this story is the lifting of the veil, showing us what goes on behind the scenes in the making of a beautiful relationship. Some of our most important decisions are made before we utter those words of commitment to someone else.

First, let me present the background to this story. The patriarch Abraham, a symbol of a life lived by faith, is in his last days on earth. He calls to his side his senior most servant. This servant is not named, but most Bible commentators believe he is Eliezer, who was mentioned in an earlier context. Abraham gives him a mission-indeed, his greatest one to this point: "I would like you to go back to the home of my fathers and find a young woman from among my people to be my son Isaac's wife" (see Genesis 24:3-4).

That was the charge. Eliezer was in a quandary. He didn't know how to meet this kind of demand. It was an enormous responsibility to place upon anyone. Lest you and I misunderstand this, Abraham and his servant had developed a very trusting relationship that had been proven over a protracted period of time. This was not just a menial task committed to someone who worked for him.

Time being a real concern due to Abraham's failing health, Eliezer immediately prepared for his journey and began with a passionate prayer to God. This is how the Bible tells the story:

Then the servant took ten of his master's camels and left, taking with him all kinds of good things from his master. He set out for [Mesopotamia] and made his way to the town of Nahor. He had the camels kneel down near the well outside the town; it was toward evening, the time the women go out to draw water. Then he prayed, "O Lord, God of my master Abraham, give me success today, and show kindness to my master Abraham. See, I am standing beside this spring, and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water. May it be that when I say to a girl, `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. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master." Before he had finished praying, Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel son of Milcah, who was the wife of Abraham's brother Nahor. The girl was very beautiful, a virgin; no man had ever lain with her. She went down to the spring, filled her jar and came up again. The servant hurried to meet her and said, "Please give me a little water from your jar." "Drink, my lord," she said, and quickly lowered the jar to her hands and gave him a drink. After she had given him a drink, she said, "I'll draw water for your camels too, until they have finished drinking." So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough, ran back to the well to draw more water, and drew enough for all his camels. Without saying a word, the man watched her closely to learn whether or not the Lord had made his journey successful. When the camels had finished drinking, the man took out a gold nose ring weighing a beka and two gold bracelets weighing ten shekels. Then he asked, "Whose daughter are you? Please tell me, is there room in your father's house for us to spend the night?" She answered him, "I am the daughter of Bethuel, the son that Milcah bore to Nahor." And she added, "We have plenty of straw and fodder, as well as room for you to spend the night." Then the man bowed down and worshipped the LORD, saying, "Praise be to the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not abandoned his kindness and faithfulness to my master. As for me, the Lord has led me on the journey to the house of my master's relatives." (Genesis 24:10-27)

In the Beginning

This is the kind of story from which movies should be made-camels, a well, a devout man, a beautiful woman coming to draw water, a suspenseful encounter. A fleece is laid and, lo and behold, the sign follows. Ah, but that is only the veil. Let us remove the veil and catch a real glimpse of what is underneath.

The reason everyone enjoys a story like this is that each of us has a heart that beats for love and romance. When I first started preaching as a teenager, I remember quoting some humorous poetry that I can still recite from memory:

Love is like an onion- You taste it with delight, But when it's gone you wonder Whatever made you bite. Love is a funny thing, just like a lizard, It curls up 'round your heart and then jumps into your gizzard. Love is swell, it's so enticing, It's orange gel, it's strawberry icing, It's chocolate mousse, it's roasted goose, It's ham on rye, it's banana pie. Love's all good things without a question; In other words, it's indigestion.

Although the poem sounded cute and I could always count on it to bring the response I anticipated, I knew that on the inside I was wishing the opposite to be true. Every teenager who laughed did so because it was "cool" to make fun of something you knew so little about. Only when it became something real did we know that hearts are built and torn on this thing called love.

Another poem went this way:

Slippery ice, very thin, Pretty girl tumbles in, Saw a boy on the bank, Gave a shriek, then she sank. Boy on hand, heard her shout, Jumped right in, pulled her out. Now she's his, very nice. But she had to break the ice.

With all of its frivolity and lightheartedness, this poem, too, brings a smile because we all remember the first time we set eyes on the one who attracted us this way. It is easy for a young man to imagine a moment of gallantry when by some daring act of courage he rescues a girl-whether it be from slippery ice or a burning building-who turns out to be the lovely young girl of his dreams, and he whisks her off to safety. That alone, he thinks to himself, would prompt her parents to say, "That man deserves your love."

That word, love, is probably one of the most used and abused epithets that mankind has ever pondered. It has brought peace to many and yet, misunderstood and distorted, has broken many. And as you and I begin to look at this theme, I want to particularly challenge you who are unmarried with certain principles that the Bible gives us. These truths are undeniable if you are to build a successful home. If you are well on your journey in marriage, these thoughts, I trust, will light a fresh fire and bring your commitment back to where God intended it to be. Any human being who violates the laws of God only ends up proving them, not destroying them. The Word of God remains eternal. Those who have tried to bury it only find out that the Bible rises up to outlive its pallbearers.

The first book of the Old Testament, the Book of Genesis, speaks of our roots. It begins with the words, "In the beginning God ..." and ends with the words, "So Joseph died and was buried." I find that fascinating. The book starts with the creating God and ends with a man in a coffin. In those first few words, "In the beginning God ..." lies the paradigm of how everything in this world of time and space began. God, in His power, brought it to be. I think it was Dr. Billy Graham who once said, "I have no problem believing that the whale swallowed Jonah. I would have even believed it if Jonah had swallowed the whale." If you will pardon the pun, that is not flippant gullibility. That is the defining truth that underlies whether the supernatural is part and parcel of our lives or just a pipe dream. A. W. Tozer said, "Give me Genesis 1:1, and the rest of the Bible poses no problem for me." Once you accept the reality of God as not merely an assumption but the undeniable foundation of our very lives, many other deductions for life follow.

The distinguished philosopher Mortimer Adler, who was co-editor of The Great Books of the Western World, was once asked a very obvious question. This compilation of books contains essays on every major subject addressed by Western thinkers over the centuries. The longest article is on God. When an interviewer asked Adler why this was so, he replied, "More consequences for life and action follow from the affirmation or denial of God than from answering any other basic question." Adler was absolutely right. The consequences of sacredness and profanity are worlds apart. If life is from God, then life is essentially sacred. If God is not necessary for life, then life is profane. The word profane means "outside the temple"-that is, God has no jurisdiction over life or part in it. "In the beginning God ..." must be the generating dictum of all our choices and commitments.

From the beginning God positioned this relationship of man and woman in a unique context. Having created Adam, God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone" (Genesis 2:18), so He created a partner for him. Man's aloneness was an impediment to his complete fulfillment. I find that to be thought provoking, because in a very real sense man was not alone. God was with him. Adam experienced companionship in his relationship with God. God walked and talked with him. Their communion was nestled in the beauty of a garden. Yet God said that man was "alone." Interestingly, He made this pronouncement before Adam's disobedience ruptured his relationship with God. So when God says, "It is not good for the man to be alone," He must have had in mind a kind of companionship uniquely human to help meet Adam's human finitude in a way that God designed and orchestrated. In other words, God has made each of us with certain needs that are an intrinsic part of being human-needs that only a fellow human being can meet. We must step back and take note of that. Once we understand this, we realize that though God uses marriage to represent His relationship with us, the Church, that relationship with God is not identical to marriage. God has designed marriage to be a distinctly human relationship, different from all others. That is the first reminder in the creation of humanity.

The Basis Established

There is another reality that is often forgotten. When God said that it was not good for the man to be alone, even though he was in a close relationship with God, He created a woman. The fact that God did not create another man ought not to escape our attention. The companionship and the complementariness in that created pattern is defining for all of the rest of procreation. The woman met the desire, the need, and the insufficiency of the man in a way that God precluded Himself from and that another man was not intended to meet. Neither the gender of maleness nor the man's spiritual relationship with his heavenly Father was to provide this particular relationship.

Let me describe this in another way, in order to reinforce it. In Himself, God is all in all. There is nothing He lacks in His perfection. He is wholly sufficient for all our needs, yet He chose to craft a relationship designed so specifically that only a woman could complete the incompleteness of the man. It is the distinctive role of a woman, fashioned and splendidly made, to meet a need that could not be fulfilled by another man. This is an extraordinary order in creation made by God to "perfect" the entity He called Adam. The language reveals this: It is not just "the man"; it is now "the man and his wife" (Genesis 3:8; emphasis added).

G. K. Chesterton was once asked what one book he would want to have in his possession if he were stranded on an island. How to Build a Boat, came his immediate answer. Here in the garden, a magnificently designed companion completes the text on How to Live in a Garden.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from I, Isaac, take Thee, Rebekahby Ravi Zacharias Copyright © 2007 by Ravi Zacharias. Excerpted by permission.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Thomas Nelson Inc
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0849917980
• ISBN 13: 9780849917981
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 176