Rebekah "ran and told her mother's house," that is, evid ently to the female portion of the household. Next,

Laban, Rebekah's brother, seeing the jewels and hearing her tale, hastens to invite the stranger with true

Eastern profusion of welcome. But the terms in which Laban, partially at least an idolater, addressed

Abraham's servant: "Thou blessed of Jehovah," remind us how easily the language of Abraham - in other

words, religious language, is picked up by those who have really no claim to use it. The servant of Abraham,

on the other hand, is quite like his mas ter in his dignified bearing and earnestness of purpose. Before

accepting hospitality at the hands of Bethuel and Laban, he will have an answer to the commission on which

he has been sent, nor can persuasions or entreaty prevail on him to prolong his stay, even over the

following day. With the full consent of Rebekah, the caravan returns to Canaan. Once more it is evening

when the end of the journey is reached. It so happens that Isaac has "gone out to meditate in the field" - an

expression which implies re ligious communion with God, probably in connection with this very marriage -

when he meets the returning caravan. Rebekah receives her future husband with the becoming modesty of

an Eastern bride, and the heart -happiness of the son of promise is secured to him in union with her whom

the Lord Himself had "provided" as his wife. Isaac was at the time of his marriage forty years old.

In the quiet retirement of his old age Abraham not only witnessed the married happiness of his son, but

even lived fifteen years beyond the birth of Esau and Jacob. As for Isaac, he had settled far from the busy

haunts of the Canaanites, at the well Lahai-Roi a retreat suited to his quiet, retiring disposition. For twenty

years the union of Isaac and Rebekah had remained unblessed with children, to indicate that here also the

heir to the promises must be a gift from God granted to expectant faith. At last Jehovah listened to Isaac's

"entreaty," "for his wife," or rather, literally, "over against his wife," for, as Luther strikingly remarks: "When

I pray for any one, I place him right in view of my heart, and neither see nor think of anything else, but look

at him alone with my soul;" and this is true of all intercessory prayer. Rebekah was now to become the

mother of twin sons.

But even before their birth a sign occurred which distressed her, and induced her "to inquire of Jehovah" its

meaning, though we know not in what precise manner she did this. The answer of God indicated this at least

quite clearly, that of her children "the elder shall serve the younger;" that is, that, contrary to all usual

expectation, the firstborn should not possess the birthright which the Divine promise had conveyed to the

family of Abraham. The substitution of the younger for the elder son was indeed in accordance with God's

previous dealings, but it seemed strange where the two were sons of the same parents. It is not only

reasonable, but quite necessary for the understanding of the subsequent history, to believe that Rebekah

communicated the result of her inquiry to her husband, and that afterwards both Esau and Jacob were also

made acquainted with the fact.

This alone fully accounts for the conduct of Jacob and of his mother in seeking to appropriate the birthright,

contrary to what would otherwise have been the natural arrangement. When the two children were born, the

red and hairy appearance of the elder procured for him the name of Esau, or "hairy;" while the younger was

called Jacob, or he "who takes hold by the heel," because "his hand took hold b y Esau's heel" - a name

which afterwards was adapted to mean "a supplanter,"(Genesis 27:36) since he who takes hold by the heel

"trips up" the other.

The appearance of the children did not belie their character when they grew up. The wild disposition of

Esau, which found occupation in the roaming life of a hunter, reminds us of Ishmael; while Jacob, gentle and

domestic, sought his pleasures at home. As is so often the case, Isaac and Rebekah made favorites of the

sons who had the opposite of their own disposition. The quiet, retiring Isaac preferred his bold, daring,

strong, roaming elder son; while Rebekah, who was naturally energetic, felt chiefly drawn to her gentle son

Jacob. Yet at bottom Esau also was weak and easily depressed, as appeared in his tears and impotent

reproaches when he found himself really deprived of the blessing; while Jacob, too, like his mother,

impetuous, was ever ready to take matters into his own hands. We repeat it, that all parties must at the time

have been aware that, even before the birth of the children, the word of God had designated Jacob as heir of

the promises. But Isaac's preference for Esau made him reluctant to fall in with the Divine arrangement; while

the impetuosity of Rebekah and of Jacob prompted them to bring about in their own way the fulfillment of