Genesis 24:62-67 - Love at First Sight Can Happen!

http://www.colincowie.com/tips/wedding/traditional-wedding-veils

Now Isaac had come from Beer Lahai Roi, for he was living in the Negev.  He went out to the field one evening to meditate, and as he looked up, he saw camels approaching.  Rebekah also looked up and saw Isaac.  She got down from her camel and asked the servant, "Who is that man in the field coming to meet us?"  "He is my master," the servant answered.

So she took her veil and covered herself. 

Then the servant told Isaac all he had done.  Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he married Rebekah.  So she became his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is love at first sight :)

It's also where we get the tradition of wearing a veil down the aisle from!  Just a couple things I learned last night while doing my homework for this Beth Moore Bible study I've been doing for the past few weeks (The Patriarchs Encountering the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob).

I just loved this story of how Isaac and Rebekah meet for the first time.  It really is like in the movies when two people see each other from a distance and run towards each other and meet somewhere in the middle...(maybe it didn't exactly happen like that).  But we can imagine!

I was sort of debating whether or not I wanted to wear a veil down the aisle at my wedding.  But after reading this passage, and seeing where the tradition came from, I really want to do it!

A little Bible history lesson in case you have no idea who Isaac and Rebekah are -

Isaac is Abraham's son.  Abraham was blessed by God in Genesis 12 and promised that he would turn into a great nation, and that all people on earth will be blessed through him.

God honors his promise to Abraham, even though Abraham screws up a lot (he slept with his wife's servant just so that he could have an heir because he thought that his wife Sarah was child barren even though God had promised him that Sarah WOULD give him a son, He lies all the time, repeatedly, after God had corrected him, to kings telling them that Sarah is his sister instead of his wife just to protect himself, etc.).  Basically, Abraham had a hard time trusting that God would follow through on his promises.  But, God is a God of his word!

He gave Abraham a son through his wife Sarah at the ripe old age of ninety something.  This son's name was Isaac, and Isaac was the promised son that was supposed to turn into a great nation.

Sometime in Isaac's young adult life, God tested Abraham by asking him to sacrifice Isaac on an altar.  Abraham doesn't want to do it; however, he trusts in God so much at this point that he is willing to do it.  Before he had time to follow through, God stops him and tells him that it had been a test and that he passed!

So, before Abraham dies, he asks his servant to go to his homeland to find a bride for Isaac because he doesn't want him to marry someone from the foreign land that they were living in.  So the servant goes off to find Rebekah, and that is where the story picks up in Genesis 24.

And through Isaac and Rebekah, we get Jacob and Esau, and through them, I think we get the lands of Judea and Israel...(I haven't got that far in the study yet, but I believe that the feud between these two brothers is where all the conflict in the middle east started from. But don't quote me on that because I could be wrong.)

Anyway, I just think all this stuff is fascinating!