Isaac’s Meditation in Prayer While Awaiting the Arrival of His Bride

Genesis 24 not only records Abraham’s servant praying for guidance in identifying a bride for Isaac, but also records Isaac himself praying to God before the arrival of his bride.

Genesis 24:63 Isaac went out to meditate in the field toward evening; and he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, camels were coming. (NASB95)

“Meditate” is the verb suach, which means, “to go over a matter in one’s mind,” and which denotes meditation in prayer.

The word appears only once in the Old Testament, here in Genesis 24:63, in the qal infinitive form, meaning, “in order to meditate in prayer.”

The meaning is substantiated when Isaac is said to lift up his eyes, which implies that his head was down.

Suach, therefore, indicates that Isaac was meditating in prayer concerning his marriage and his new bride.

Undoubtedly, Abraham had informed Isaac of his intention to send Eliezer to secure a wife for him among his relatives in northern Mesopotamia.

Therefore, Isaac was surely interested in the outcome of the matter.

Isaac wanted to be alone with God and reflect upon his upcoming marriage to a woman he had never met!

Most likely, Isaac was praying that the will of God be accomplished in the securing of a bride for him.

As we noted, prayer is asking for what God wants.

Our prayers must be according to His will in order to be effective and productive.

1 John 5:14 This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. (NASB95)

Isaac’s prayer was successful because it was according to the will of God.

Genesis 25:21 records Isaac’s wife, Rebekah, having issues with getting pregnant.

In this passage, we see that Isaac, in response to this problem, prayed to the Lord to resolve Rebekah’s infertility.

The Lord fulfilled Isaac’s prayer request twenty years later, since Genesis 25:21 records Isaac being forty when he married Rebekah, and Genesis 25:26 records Isaac being sixty when Rebekah had twins.

The fact that Isaac prayed for twenty years for his wife to get pregnant emphasizes that, like his father Abraham, Isaac was a man of great faith, persistent in his prayer life.

Genesis 25:21 Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD answered him and Rebekah his wife conceived. (NASB95)

“Prayed” is the qal imperfect form of the verb `athar, which means, “to intercede in prayer.”

“Lord” is the proper noun Yahweh, which is the personal covenant name of God emphasizing the “immanency” of God, where the Lord intervenes in the life of Isaac and Rebekah, providing them children in order to fulfill His covenant promises to Abraham and Isaac.

The proper noun Yahweh, “Lord,” is used here to emphasize that, by answering Isaac’s prayer, God is fulfilling His promises to Abraham, which states that Abraham will have numerous progeny and that Isaac would be in the line of the Promised Seed, Jesus Christ.

Again, Isaac’s prayer was successful because it was according to the will of God and was offered in faith.

Biblical faith is trusting in the promises of God.

During these twenty years, Isaac and Rebekah’s faith was deliberately tested, since a faith that is incapable of enduring trials and tribulations is no faith at all.

The Lord tested Isaac and Rebekah’s faith to produce endurance in them.

Jeremiah 20:12 Yet, O LORD of hosts, you who test the righteous, who see the mind and the heart. (NASB95)

James 1:2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance 4 and let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (NASB95)

Making Isaac and Rebekah wait twenty years for children also tested Abraham’s faith because Abraham lived another thirty-five years after Isaac was married.

Thus, he was also waiting for grandchildren.

The Lord rewarded Isaac’s faith.

This teaches us that the Lord rewards the believer after his faith is tested; but, like Isaac, we must wait patiently.

James 1:12 Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. (NASB95)

Hebrews 6:13 For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, 14 saying, “I WILL SURELY BLESS YOU AND I WILL SURELY MULTIPLY YOU.” 15 And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise. (NASB95)

The fulfillment of Isaac’s twenty-year intercessory prayer request for his wife Rebekah teaches us that perseverance is essential in order to receive the fulfillment of God’s promises.

If you recall, perseverance is one of the characteristics of a productive prayer life.

Matthew 7:7 “Ask repeatedly, and it will be given to you; seek repeatedly, and you will find; knock repeatedly, and it will be opened to you.” (My translation)

Unlike Abraham and Sarah, the Scriptures do not record Isaac and Rebekah trying to help the Lord out in solving their infertility problem by using a surrogate.

Remember, that is what Abraham and Sarah did in Genesis 16.

Evidently, Abraham and Sarah taught Isaac to wait on the Lord since, of all the patriarchs, Isaac was the only one who was monogamous and never took a concubine.

The faith of Isaac in praying for Rebekah, and the Lord’s answer to his prayer, demonstrates the spiritual principle that you appropriate the omnipotence of God by operating in faith.

Matthew 17:20 “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.’” (NASB95)

Because Rebekah was barren, the Lord had a greater opportunity to demonstrate His power to fulfill His promise to Abraham over seemingly insurmountable odds (Gen 15:5; 22:17).

Jeremiah 32:27 “Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?” (NASB95)

Because of such odds, Isaac and Rebekah realized that theirs was not a natural, but a supernatural seed (Gen 11:30; 17:15-16; 18:1-15; 21:1-7).

The fact that Isaac’s intercessory prayer for his wife Rebekah solved her problem of infertility is just more evidence that prayer solves problems (Ki 17:1; 18:36-46; Acts 12:1-17; Phi 4:6).