Repentance in anOdd Place (Genesis 24:67)

Genesis 24:67

Then Isaac brought her into the tent of Sarah his mother and took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.

                Sometimes we can learn something important about what a word means by seeing how it is translated in other settings. I’m not a scholar here, so understand that I do not consider myself to be an expert. Yet, I do think there is something that we can learn here that will help us in our understanding of a biblical concept.

                In the verse above, the word “comforted” is a Hebrew word that is used multiple times in the Old Testament. In fact, that word is often translated “repent” in other settings

                In context, this verse tells us of how Isaac and Rebekah met and were married. The overall passage shows us how God, by his sovereign power, preserved his promise to Abraham and his family. But, most immediately, the verse shows how marrying Rebekah comforted the heart of Isaac after his mother’s death.

Why then would a word that means “repent” be used here? It is because part of what it means to repent is to have a genuine change of heart. Your heart feels one way about what you are doing. When you repent, that changes and your heart feels completely different. If one were to “repent” of grief, one would be comforted. This is at the heart of what it means to repent.

                Why cover all this here so inexpertly? I want us to see a key to the word “repent” that we do not often grasp. Repentance is more than a change of direction. Repentance includes a change of thinking and feeling that leads to a change of direction. Genuine, biblical repentance includes a heart change. When you repent, you do not merely stop doing something, your heart changes toward that thing.

                Consider, as you look at your own sin, what it would take for your heart to genuinely change. Consider what it means to actually feel differently toward the evil that your heart used to love. Repentance requires the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart to make you feel genuinely differently than before. And this must be a major part of our pursuit of sanctification for the glory of Christ.