by Pastor Douglas Brauner

Looking Up!

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It’s funny how you can read a story and then find something new when you reread the account. I’m reading the narrative of Isaac for my morning devotions. I have taught classes on Isaac and read it numerous times. Yet, for the first time the words of Genesis 24:63 stood out to me:

“And Isaac went out to meditate in the field toward evening.”
Genesis 24:63a English Standard Version

Isaac is grieving the death of his mother and is yet to marry. Abraham sends his trusted, elderly servant to his relatives in Mesopotamia to acquire a wife for his son. God gives the servant success and Rebekah is about to meet her future husband, a man who is meditating.

There is debate among scholars on how best to understand the Hebrew word which the ESV translates as “meditate.” Some scholars prefer to translate it as “relax,” others as “walk,” and others join with the ESV translating it as meditate. Some even think that it refers to Isaac conversing with workers in the field. I prefer “meditate” not because it is the best translation, but because I love the picture of what Isaac might have been doing as he grieved and as he waited.

Do our eyes, filled with tears, look up when we grieve? Do our eyes look up as we wait for the next chapter in our lives to unfold? If we are gazing at the cross, we must turn our eyes up. We cannot see Jesus dying for us with eyes cast to the ground. Instead, we look to him. We meditate on his suffering as we suffer, as we wait.

Shortly after these words in Genesis we hear that Isaac took Rebekah as his wife and loved her. Jesus is about to come off the cross, rise from the dead, and bring his bride into his chamber. Easter is around the corner, the final Easter. Until that day, let’s keep looking up in meditation on Christ.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado