Abraham’s servant had traveled back to Abraham’s homeland to find a wife for Isaac, and had returned with Rebekah (Genesis 24:1-61). After all the uncertainty of Abraham and Sarah getting Isaac born and raised, and after all the adventure of getting Isaac a wife, Isaac and Rebekah were ready to settle down to a peaceful life of happily-ever-after.

But this is part of the saga of the birth of a nation: the descendants of Abraham and Sarah, the descendants of Isaac and Rebekah, will be comparable to the stars in the sky or the sand on the seashore for number (22:17). And in order to have millions of descendants, you have to have at least one: and Isaac and Rebekah had none. Then “Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord granted his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived” (25:21).

It seems it was not an easy pregnancy. “The children struggled within her; and she said, ‘If it is to be this way, why do I live?’ ” (25:22). It is a difficult phrase to translate, but the basic notion is this: why bother, or what’s the point, or why not just give up and die. The struggle seemed like too much to bear.

Yet Rebekah did not give up and die. “She went to inquire of the Lord” (25:22). In our own trying times, many of us have asked God why, and have struggled to hear any answer; but at least in Rebekah’s case, an answer came, and it was a full complex sentence – and how would Rebekah understand its meaning? “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples born of you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the elder shall serve the younger” (25:23).

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Hear our prayer, O Lord, in the midst of our own uncertainties: we call to you. Sometimes it seems like more than we can bear. Teach us to come to you, to inquire of you, and to hear your response, even when the answer seems mysterious and troubling.