When God Is in the Midst

After he had told them how he stood at the spring, how he asked the young woman, how she gave more than he requested, how God became the mediator, and after he had related everything carefully, he brought his account to an end. When they heard all this, they no longer hesitated or neglected the matter. As though God Himself had moved their minds toward it, they immediately promised him the daughter. “Laban and Bethuel answered and said, ‘This matter has come from God. We therefore cannot speak against you unfavorably. Behold, Rebekah is before you. Take her and go, and let her be the wife of your master's son, just as the Lord has spoken.’”

Who would not be astonished? Who would not marvel at how many great obstacles were removed in so short a time? He was a foreigner, a servant, and a stranger; the journey was long; neither the prospective father-in-law nor the bridegroom nor anyone belonging to that household was known to them. Any one of these things could have prevented the marriage. Yet nothing prevented it. All the obstacles were made easy. They trusted him and entrusted the bride to him as though he were an acquaintance, a neighbor, and someone they had known from the first day. The reason was that God stood in the midst of the matter.

For just as, when we do something without Him, even if everything seems smooth and easy, we find pits, cliffs, and countless failures in it, so when He is present and takes hold of the work with us, even if what lies before us seems more difficult than anything else, everything becomes smooth and easy. Therefore let us neither do nor say anything before calling upon God and asking Him to take hold with us of everything that lies in our hands, just as this servant did.