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RebekahAid to Bible Understanding
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sister. This was when a famine in the land forced her family to take up residence for a time in Philistine territory ruled over by King Abimelech. Rebekah must have been well along in years, yet due to her great beauty Isaac, the designated heir of the Abrahamic covenant, was presumed to be in danger of being killed if it was known he was her husband.—Gen. 26:1-11.
When Isaac was preparing to bless Esau his firstborn, apparently being ignorant that Esau had sold his birthright to his brother, Rebekah took immediate steps to secure the desired blessing for Jacob, whom she dearly loved. (Gen. 25:28-34; 27:1-5) Whether Rebekah knew of Jacob’s legal right to the birthright through purchase is not stated, but she was well aware of what Jehovah had told her, namely, that the older would serve the younger. Rebekah was therefore duly authorized to see that Jacob secured for himself his father’s blessing. The success of the plan was evidence of divine direction in the matter.—Gen. 27:6-29.
Later, when Rebekah learned of Esau’s plans to kill Jacob, she influenced Isaac to send Jacob to her homeland in search of a wife for himself. It had grieved both her and Isaac very much that Esau had taken two wives from among the hated Canaanites.—Gen. 26:34, 35; 27:41-46; 28:1-5; 29:10-12.
Just when Rebekah died is not stated, but it may have been before Jacob returned home from Mesopotamia. (Gen. 35:27) She was buried in the family cave of Machpelah along with Abraham and Sarah, where later Isaac, Leah and Jacob were interred.—Gen. 49:29-31; 50:13.
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RebelliousnessAid to Bible Understanding
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REBELLIOUSNESS
Disobedience or resistance to and defiance of a superior authority. Pride, selfishness, outside pressures, disagreement with the judgment of a superior, and a desire to get out from under subjection or oppression, either real or imagined, have been among the leading causes for rebellion. In certain cases those who rebelled were not constantly rebellious persons. For example, Moses and Aaron faithfully served Jehovah God for many years. However, when subjected to the pressure of quarreling Israelites on one occasion, they lost self-control and rebelliously failed to give glory to God for a miraculous provision of water.—Num. 20:12, 24; 27:13, 14.
EARLY HISTORY
Rebellion against God had its start in the invisible realm. A spirit creature, who later became known as Satan the Devil, by means of a serpent, endeavored to get the first woman Eve to rebel against her Creator. He made rebellion attractive, presenting it as a course that would lead to enlightenment. Eve gave in to the selfish ambition to ‘be like God,’ in the sense of determining for herself what was good and what was bad rather than abiding by God’s judgment on this matter. (See TREES.) Imagining herself to be deprived of something that she had now come to view as rightfully belonging to her, Eve chose to transgress God’s command. Later her husband Adam yielded to her pressure and joined in this rebellion. He did so, not because he was deceived into thinking that the serpent was speaking the truth, but evidently because he selfishly chose the companionship of his sinful wife in preference to the approval of God.—Gen. 3:1-6; 1 Tim. 2:14.
For centuries afterward it appears that the majority of mankind did not want to submit themselves to God. From the time of Abel’s death until the birth of Noah, a period of more than 926 years, only Enoch is specifically mentioned as one who walked with God. (Gen. 5:22) Rebelliousness also continued to spread in the heavenly realm. In Noah’s day, angels, desiring sensual pleasure, disobediently forsook their heavenly posts, materialized human bodies, married women and fathered offspring.—Gen. 6:4; 1 Pet. 3:19, 20; 2 Pet. 2:4, 5; Jude 6.
By Noah’s time the spirit of rebelliousness had so saturated mankind that Jehovah God saw fit to destroy the human race by means of a flood. Only Noah and his immediate family, eight persons all together, were found worthy of preservation.—Gen. 6:5-8; 7:13, 23.
IN ISRAEL
Years later Jehovah God began to deal exclusively with the nation of Israel. Yet throughout Israel’s history there were numerous cases of rebellion against Jehovah and against his representatives, on a national, group or individual level. Ezekiel 44:6 even applies the name “Rebelliousness” to the house of Israel, as if the nation of Israel came to personify rebelliousness by its disobedient course of action.
Jehovah God did not leave such rebelliousness unpunished. (1 Sam. 12:15; 15:23; 1 Ki. 13:21, 22, 26; Ps. 5:10; Isa. 1:20; 63:10; Jer. 4:16-18; Ezek. 20:21; Hos. 13:16) His law demanded the death penalty for those persisting in rebellion against parents. (Deut. 21:18-21) Divine execution came upon proud and ambitious Korah, Dathan and Abiram and those associated with them in the rebellion against Moses and Aaron, God’s appointed representatives. When the Israelites disputed the rightness of this execution and manifested a rebellious spirit toward Moses and Aaron, fourteen thousand seven hundred more perished by a scourge from Jehovah. (Num. 16:1-3, 25-50) Often Jehovah let other nations serve as instruments to inflict punishment upon the Israelites when they yielded to the pressure to be like the surrounding nations and rebelliously abandoned true worship.—Judg. 2:3, 11-16; 3:4, 5; Neh. 9:26, 27.
King Zedekiah’s covenant-breaking rebellion
At the time King Nebuchadnezzar made Judean King Zedekiah a vassal king, he had Zedekiah make a covenant in Jehovah’s name. Therefore, when Zedekiah rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, wanting to be free from subjection to a foreign power, he also rebelled against Jehovah, in whose name he had obligated himself to be a loyal vassal king. Because of this rebellion, Jehovah decreed that Zedekiah would die as a captive in Babylon.—2 Ki. 24:17-20; 2 Chron. 36:11-21; Ezek. 17:12-18.
AMONG CHRISTIANS
Christians have also had to contend with rebellious persons. The apostle Paul foretold an apostasy or rebellion among professed Christians (2 Thess. 2:3) and, already in his time, apostates existed. (1 Tim. 1:19, 20; 2 Tim. 2:16-19) The disciple Jude wrote about those who spoke abusively of “glorious ones” in the Christian congregation. As the destruction of such rebellious ones was certain, Jude referred to that destruction as if it had already taken place, saying: “[They] have perished in the rebellious talk of Korah!”—Jude 8, 11; see APOSTASY.
Subjection to governmental authority proper
Rather than rebelling, those desiring to gain God’s approval as Christ’s followers are called upon to be obedient to those taking the lead inside the congregation (Heb. 13:17) and to government authorities outside the congregation. (Titus 3:1, 2) Rebellion against secular governmental authority constitutes a rebellion against God, for these authorities exist by God’s permission and it is his will that Christians be subject to them as long as what they require does not conflict with his law.—Rom. 13:1-7; Acts 5:29.
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RecahAid to Bible Understanding
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RECAH
(Reʹcah).
Apparently the name of a Judean site. It is mentioned along with genealogical information for the tribe of Judah.—1 Chron. 4:12.
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RechabAid to Bible Understanding
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RECHAB
(Reʹchab) [rider, horseman].
1. A Benjamite son of Rimmon the Beerothite. Rechab and his brother Baanah, both captains of marauding bands, murdered Ish-bosheth, the son and successor of Saul, and presented his head to David, expecting to win favor, but David had them both
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