Rehoboth - the essence of home

After his neighbors disputed with Isaac over two earlier wells, Isaac dug another well, and no one quarreled over it. He named it Rehoboth, saying, "Now the LORD has given us room and we will flourish in the land." Genesis 26:22

In my last post I explored the story of Isaac and his neighbors in the northern Negev and the well which he named ‘Rehoboth’ in gratitude for the ‘wide-open space’ it gave him to enjoy good relations with his neighbors.

 

That story has personal significance because my home is named Rehoboth.

My wife Tiffany is a hydrogeologist, a well specialist. A few years ago, reading Isaac’s story she was struck by his choice of a name that enshrined the values of freedom, space and harmonious relations with neighbors. She named her house Rehoboth.

A year later she welcomed me into her life and now together we work to make our home a spacious place, to fulfill the meaning of its name.

Isaac also had a remarkable wife, Rebekah, who knew a thing or two about wells - and about hospitality.
Isaac’s father Abraham had sent his servant to find a wife for Isaac. He had prayed for success in his search and for God’s divine hesed - a rich word that means kindness, loyalty and special favor - in particular for Isaac. And before he finished praying, this marvelous young woman showed up.

In a land where hospitality was king, Rebekah excelled. When the servant asked for water, she quickly lowered the jar to her hands and gave him a drink. Then she volunteered to water the visitor’s camels. She emptied her jar, ran back to the well and didn’t stop until the thirsty camels were satisfied.

If a match-maker were looking for a get-the-job-done-with-a-cheerful-attitude kind of woman, Rebekah was a stellar find. There was some haggling by the relatives before she was released to fulfill her destiny, but by the end of the chapter, she was Isaac’s wife, comforting him after his mother’s death.

Isaac’s story is a tapestry of hesed and hospitality! . . . prayer and hard work. . . God’s gifts and human generosity. It focuses especially around wells and the gift of water, and the spacious living it makes possible.

But this gift hints as being something more than just the natural resource of water. It is symbolic of the universal human search for what ultimately satisfies, a search for beauty and meaning, for love, for God.

And like Isaac I can bear witness to the hesed of God in all these things.