And they said, Let us call the maiden and inquire at her mouth.
Abraham's servant had just turned down the family's plea for a ten-day delay. Their answer was to hand the matter to Rebekah herself, so the whole errand now waits on one person's reply.
Up to now, others have moved the story along. Here the weight shifts to Rebekah. Older translations render "ask her" as "inquire at her mouth" — the family must hear the answer from her. One writer sums up all that has led to this moment:
The decision must come from Rebekah's own lips. In a way, we reach the climax of the whole story here. We have seen the Father's plan, and the Spirit's mission, carried out with care and without tiring. The call has gone out, and it is clear beyond doubt (she would have to come, and Isaac would not go). What will the response be?
The question is not whether she approves of the plan. It is whether she will trust the messenger and go at once:
The servant, however, would allow no delay. So they put the question to Rebekah, for the final decision rested with her — "Will you go with this man?" Was she ready to trust herself to the servant, who was acting for Isaac, and to do so at once? Her answer was simple and decisive — "I will go."
The family's suggestion sounded modest — wait a while, at least ten days. One writer hears in it a voice we still hear today:
"Her brother and her mother said, Let the young woman remain with us a while, at least ten days; after that she may go" (v. 55). That was the delaying speech of that day, and many a soul solemnly echoes it today. Do you say, "I will decide for Christ in a few days at the least: at most, ten"? Ten days from now! Oh, no! It must be now if you want to be with Christ in glory.
Delay can also come from nearer at hand than a household. The same pressure appears in a family circle and in the heart itself:
Rebekah's relatives pleaded for delay, and so often do the relatives of believers today, and if we have no relatives to do this our own foolish hearts will do it even more effectively.
Her family expected the question to be open. It was not. The servant had already formed his own mind in her, and commentators read him as a picture of the Holy Spirit:
He longs to be away and reach Isaac, and he creates the same desires in the heart of Rebekah. He wills to go, and she is made willing to go. Her relatives can understand that the servant wants to be away to his master. But they would rather keep Rebekah a while — at least ten days. So they call the young woman and ask her. They only discover how well the servant had done his work. He had formed his own mind in her mind, so that if he was longing to go, she was ready to go.
Notice what the family gives away. By agreeing to ask her, they admit that their wish to keep her cannot settle the matter:
Whether we allow the world to hinder us or not depends not upon the world but upon ourselves. The brother and mother may seek to keep Rebekah back. They admit it themselves, for they say, "Let us call the young woman and ask her." If, like Rebekah, our answer is "I will go," the Spirit will so stir our hearts that nothing in the world can hold us back, however strong or attractive it is.
The same writer turns her question into one for every reader:
The great question for Rebekah — "Will you go with this man?" — is still the question for each one of us. Do we recognise the presence of the Holy Spirit, and are we ready at any cost to follow His leading?
Because the verse puts the question in her mouth, nobody around her could answer in her place:
Rebekah's answer to her relations was, "I will go." No one else can decide for you. You have a soul, and its eternal welfare depends on your answer. You have a soul to be saved or lost. Oh, will you let anyone, anything, come in between the Lord and your soul? Decide, decide now.
- Called — the family hands the question to Rebekah. Commentators call this the high point of the chapter: the Father's plan and the servant's errand now wait on one word.
- Asked — her question is not about the plan's merits. It is about trust and timing: will she go with this man, and go now?
- Prepared — the question only revealed what the servant's work had already done. He longed to reach Isaac, and she was ready to go.
- Hindered — her relatives asked for ten days, and writers hear that same delaying voice today. Yet by agreeing to ask her, the family admitted they could not hold her back.
- Answered — no one could reply for her, and no one can reply for us; the decision must come from a person's own lips.
And they called Rebecca and said to her, Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go.
Abraham's servant has finished his errand and refuses to stay another day. The family, who had pleaded for delay, put the matter to Rebekah herself. Her answer takes three words. Commentators read the scene as a picture of how anyone is won to a person they have never seen.
The "man" in the question is the servant, not the bridegroom. The pressure to delay comes first from relatives, then from our own hearts.
Rebekah's relatives pleaded for delay. The relatives of believers today so often do the same. And if we have no relatives to do this, our own foolish hearts will do it even more effectively. The servant, however, would allow no delay. So they put the question to Rebekah, for the final decision rested with her — "Will you go with this man?" Was she ready to entrust herself at once to the servant, who was acting on behalf of Isaac? Her answer was simple and decisive — "I will go."
Nothing in her answer came from sight. She had only a report about a man who was not there, and it set her present work against a far greater place.
Rebecca's affection for the absent bridegroom decided the matter. She took a decision of faith. If the report about Isaac, about her future and her high destiny was true, then nothing would keep her where she was. What was her former work of looking after Laban's sheep compared with the place of the wife of the son who was the heir of all things?
The servant refused to wait even a day. One writer asks whom he pictures, and why Rebekah answered so fast.
Let us remember that he is a picture of the Spirit of God. The Spirit acts with positive decision, and produces firm decision in the hearts of those whom He influences. We see this again in Rebekah's reply without hesitation when they ask her, "Will you go with this man?" She answers at once, "I will go" (v. 58). Such is the response that the grace of God brings forth from the hearts of those who are drawn to the blessed person of the Lord Jesus. Natural relationships fade into the background when Christ becomes the Object of the heart. He must have first place.
Her answer was not the escape of someone with nothing to lose.
Rebekah was not a penniless orphan. She had a father and mother, a home in Mesopotamia, and prospects of wealth and possessions in the land of her birth. To enjoy all these blessings she had no need to leave her native land and face a wilderness journey. Yet she leaves it all. She forgets her own people and her father's house, and she faces a wilderness journey to reach a person whom she has never seen. Such is the mighty attractive power of a person when faith and affection for that person have been awakened.
A half-hearted yes would have left her stranded between two homes.
Suppose Rebekah had hesitated and had kept thinking about the country she had left. She would have been unhappy. She would have had neither Isaac's house nor her father Bethuel's. If she had left all and yet had neither one home nor the other, her heart would have been alone in the wilderness, in an impossible position. But she has left all. As she talks with Eliezer, the servant, she fills her mind with what interests her heart. That lifts her heart above the things she has now left for ever. And she journeys in peace towards the home of her bridegroom.
One writer turns the question on the reader.
What was Rebekah's answer when her relations said to her, "Will you go with this man?" She said, "I will go." No one else can decide for you. You have a soul, its eternal welfare depends on your answer. You have a soul to be saved or lost. Oh, will you let anyone, anything, come in between the Lord and your soul? Decide, decide now.
- Asked — the family could arrange the match, but the servant would not move until Rebekah answered. The final decision was hers.
- Won — she had never seen Isaac. A report about him had already captured her heart, so her yes was a decision of faith, not of sight.
- Decided — the servant refused delay, and the same decisiveness appeared in her. When Christ becomes the heart's object, natural ties fall into second place.
- Left — she had a home, family and prospects worth keeping. She left them all for a wilderness journey toward a person she had not met.
- Whole-hearted — a half yes would have left her with neither her old home nor her new one. Because she left all, she travelled in peace toward her bridegroom.