(Click here to read Genesis 28)
Isaac repeats Abraham's covenant to Jacob.
YHWH confirms the covenant again.
Jacob believes God and responds first in worship and them by committing to tithe, just as Abraham did with Melchizedek.
Isaac directs Jacob toward his Uncle, Laban, just as his mother did. He also specifically ascribes the covenant blessings of Abraham to him, which he had not yet done in the previous blessing.
Isaac is not afraid to let Jacob leave the land, as his father had been afraid for him. The family now has a gravesite in the Promised Land. This means that it is home. There is little likelihood that someone from the family would not one day return.
Esau learned through this the value of the birthright he'd previously despised, the blessing he lost, and his parent's desire that he marry from the line of Abraham. In these three things he had lost the line of the covenant given to Abraham. Because of his realization of the importance to his parents, he marries an Ishmaelite woman. This is also an example of one of the times the Old Testament includes the line of Ishmael in the blessing of Abraham.
Isaac's wish that Jacob would inherit the promise is confirmed to Jacob in a dream.
God promises to be with Jacob personally.
The stairway in this story is the same sort of stairway as was built on the side of a ziggurat. It was a passage between heaven and earth. Just as God spoke to Abraham with a Canaanite ritual and imager in Genesis 15, he now also speaks to Jacob using his own cultural context.
The ziggurat is also the structure described in Genesis 11 called the Tower of Babel.
(Click here for more on Babylonian ziggurats and the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11.)
Jacob's response to God is very immature and arrogant:
“Thanks for letting me know that you've got a plan for me and my descendants. I'm pretty impressed by this dream, and it sounds like you're offering a good deal. How about this: I'll build this altar here, and if you be good and fulfill your side of the bargain, I'll give you a tenth of all you give me. Now, let's wait and see if you're as good as you claim.”
Jacob is treating tithe as payment to God, as though God needs anything. This is foolishness.
Imagine a teacher telling a talented student that they are a good writer, and then the student responding by demanding the teacher teach them certain ways because they're so fortunate to be teaching someone with such potential.
God did not pick Jacob, or Isaac, or Abraham because they were powerful or impressive, or mature enough to be patriarchs of the faith. Like he had with the formless void of Genesis 1, he made of them his nation, with his form and function, for his purpose. Their worth and worthiness were ascribed by the one who has all the worth. Their purpose was given by the one who directs all purpose.
No comments:
Post a Comment