Click here to read Genesis 37
Jacob and his family are finally rooted in the land God promised them.
Many scholars believe Joseph's coat was a "full length coat", a "long sleeved coat", or a "richly ornamented coat", any of which would be the uniform of management in a business, rather than labour. Dad was probably putting Joseph in charge. In this case, coming back to Dad with a report would have been his job. Also, showing this kind of leadership early over his older brothers foreshadows a lifetime of second in command leadership.
Was Joseph sent to check on his brothers at Shechem because of the violence at Shechem from his brothers two decades before? Did his father still suspect his sons?
Joseph, the youngest of the sons, was a shepherd. Before he even had dreams, he gave his brothers reason to be hostile by giving his father a bad report about them.
Joseph had dreams. God's promises came when he was young. His brothers and Father were provoked to jealousy over his dreams.
Which mother was his dream about? His mother died when he was ten and his little brother was born. Was his mother's handmaiden his new mother?
Even though Joseph was not the oldest, he was still the firstborn of their father’s favourite wife. It may be that Rueben has expected his whole life to receive the birthright, but now Joseph may be seen as the “legitimate” firstborn ahead of even him. Just like Ismael and Isaac before them, the younger son of the preferred wife may be the next in line.
Joseph’s dreams would certainly have brought to mind the issue of birthright and family name to the brothers. This preferred son coming late into the game would have been annoying at best. For Rueben, Joseph’s dreams may have trampled his own. He probably had been preparing to be the next patriarch of the family. Joseph’s dreams and his father’s obvious preferences could have been shattering to him.
Just as Ishmael was sent away WITHOUT the birthright, so do these brothers try to send away Joseph. It is notable that Joseph is sent away with Ishmaelites.
With Rueben’s birthright in question, the other two firstborn of wife three and four, Dan and Gad, may also be vying for position. The atmosphere isn’t great for brotherly unity.
Rueben is ready to rescue Joseph, his competition for the birthright.
Jacob is fooled by his senses by deceptive sons just as he deceived his own father. Isaac ate stew and felt hairy arms, and believed he was blessing Esau. Jacob sees a bloodstained cloak and believes his son has died.
Jacob's (Israel's) sons were as deceptive toward him as he had been toward his own father. Jacob wore his brother’s clothes to deceive his father. Joseph’s coat is used by his brothers to deceive Jacob. The jealous brothers sold Joseph to the older brother not of the promise, Ishmael.
Is Joseph mourning the loss of his son only or the covenant as well?
Foreshadowing Jesus -
Sold by his brothers for twenty pieces of silver – mirrored in Christ being betrayed for thirty pieces of silver. Both are considered the cost of a slave in their time.
Also, they have a meal of bread before the betrayal. Joseph ends up being falsely accused and sentenced to prison. Through Joseph's life and suffering, his family is redeemed from the drought. Joseph's brothers are forgiven by Joseph for their betrayal. Joseph is glorified.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Friday, October 28, 2011
Jacob’s Epilogue and What became of Esau - Genesis 36
Click here to read Genesis 36
Esau and Jacob separate, amiably we presume. Like Abram and Laban and Isaac and Abimelech before them, they do not have enough room for both families.
This illuminates to the reader that the family of Israel did not mix with her neighbours, preserving the covenant.
Esau has twelve nations. After all the fighting over firstborn birthrights, it appears as though the comparison of two twin brother's families indicate equal blessing in land and family. Even if we know that history does not remain this way, the text does show a balancing of the scales at this point in history.
v28 - The land of Uz is Job's home. Job may have been a descendant of Esau.
Esau and Jacob separate, amiably we presume. Like Abram and Laban and Isaac and Abimelech before them, they do not have enough room for both families.
This illuminates to the reader that the family of Israel did not mix with her neighbours, preserving the covenant.
Esau has twelve nations. After all the fighting over firstborn birthrights, it appears as though the comparison of two twin brother's families indicate equal blessing in land and family. Even if we know that history does not remain this way, the text does show a balancing of the scales at this point in history.
v28 - The land of Uz is Job's home. Job may have been a descendant of Esau.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Jacob Returns to Bethel. The Rivalry of Jacob’s Sons. - Genesis 35
Click here to read Genesis 35
Jacob knows that only Yahweh is God, and that he will not abide his family also participating in idolatry.
God reminds Jacob to return to Bethel to fulfill the vow he made at the beginning of his journey. This will likely be a sacrificial offering of 10% of all he has, since there is no priest to give it too.
Jacob's vow in ch28:
1. YHWH is my God
Therefore, get rid of idols
2. Setting up a shrine
Therefore, return to it
3. Giving a tithe to God
We assume that his return to the shrine is to give God the tithe before he dies.
Also, the journey will bring Jacob's family back to Isaac before he dies.
The earrings - are these the spoils of Shechem?
Jacob does not destroy the idols. He hides them. This is the same word as when Achan hides the spoils of Jericho in Joshua 7:21-22.
His company must be large. No one wants to mess with them. Not to mention, of course, the terrible and ruthless reputation they must have by now after their "incident" with Shechem and Dinah.
Deborah's grave - The text does not say this land was purchased, but it is one more detail of describing Israel's claim on this land as home.
This is the second name change incident from Jacob to Israel.
God renews his covenant with Israel.
Rachel, Jacob's beloved wife, died while giving birth to his youngest son, Benjamin. Benjamin is decades younger than his other brothers.
Consider Gen 30:1 – Rachel says if she doesn't have children, she'll die. Here, she dies giving birth.
Jacob lifts one last stone, the fifth in his lifetime, in memory of Rachel. Remember, when he first saw Rachel, he responded by lifting a stone in front of her.
Rachel is buried on the road to Bethlehem.
"Rachel weeps for her children" when Herod kills the babies of Bethlehem after Jesus is born.
(The structure built near Bethlehem today called "Rachel's Tomb" is a crusader design and can only be traced back to 400 A.D.)
Israel's oldest son sleeps with his concubine. This is a huge slight culturally, and also really, really weird on several levels. Yup. It just gets more disturbing the more you think about it. Try not to.
As the firstborn, Rueben would have inherited his father's concubines. By sleeping with his concubine before death, it was like saying, "I'm top dog now". It was a grab at the authority at the head of the family. In a family with this many sons, a rivalry for who is next in line is probably to be expected. This is exactly what we see in the coming chapters, with Joseph. Jesus' 12 disciples acted the exact same way during his ministry.
There are twelve sons, but four are firstborn to four different mothers. Rueben is oldest, but Joseph is oldest of Rachel’s sons, the favourite wife. These twelve sons would have known the story of Grandpa Abraham and his firstborn son Ishmael, who was sent away. They would know that their own father, the younger son, tried to deceive his way into an inheritance. The birthright may not be entirely certain among them. At least four of them may expect to be the one special son who gets to carry on the family name. Rueben’s actions show a similar initiative to his father’s. He wants the birthright for himself. He’s trying to muscle his way in to top position.
The first born son of Israel dishonours his father with his concubine. The next two sons were the ones behind the pillaging of Shechem's family. The next oldest, Judah, is the father of Jesus.
The sons are listed in age order from first wife to last, instead of strict birth order.
Isaac dies. Jacob and Esau bury him together, just as Isaac and Ishmael buried their father together in the previous generation. Sibling rivalry is healed in both generations before the death of their father.
+
This chapter clearly illustrates the authority as a man of Yahweh that Jacob now holds. No matter how many failures he experience in his lifetime, he is now solidly Yahweh's man, no question. He is transformed. It took a lifetime.
Jacob knows that only Yahweh is God, and that he will not abide his family also participating in idolatry.
God reminds Jacob to return to Bethel to fulfill the vow he made at the beginning of his journey. This will likely be a sacrificial offering of 10% of all he has, since there is no priest to give it too.
Jacob's vow in ch28:
1. YHWH is my God
Therefore, get rid of idols
2. Setting up a shrine
Therefore, return to it
3. Giving a tithe to God
We assume that his return to the shrine is to give God the tithe before he dies.
Also, the journey will bring Jacob's family back to Isaac before he dies.
The earrings - are these the spoils of Shechem?
Jacob does not destroy the idols. He hides them. This is the same word as when Achan hides the spoils of Jericho in Joshua 7:21-22.
His company must be large. No one wants to mess with them. Not to mention, of course, the terrible and ruthless reputation they must have by now after their "incident" with Shechem and Dinah.
Deborah's grave - The text does not say this land was purchased, but it is one more detail of describing Israel's claim on this land as home.
This is the second name change incident from Jacob to Israel.
God renews his covenant with Israel.
Rachel, Jacob's beloved wife, died while giving birth to his youngest son, Benjamin. Benjamin is decades younger than his other brothers.
Consider Gen 30:1 – Rachel says if she doesn't have children, she'll die. Here, she dies giving birth.
Jacob lifts one last stone, the fifth in his lifetime, in memory of Rachel. Remember, when he first saw Rachel, he responded by lifting a stone in front of her.
Rachel is buried on the road to Bethlehem.
"Rachel weeps for her children" when Herod kills the babies of Bethlehem after Jesus is born.
(The structure built near Bethlehem today called "Rachel's Tomb" is a crusader design and can only be traced back to 400 A.D.)
Israel's oldest son sleeps with his concubine. This is a huge slight culturally, and also really, really weird on several levels. Yup. It just gets more disturbing the more you think about it. Try not to.
As the firstborn, Rueben would have inherited his father's concubines. By sleeping with his concubine before death, it was like saying, "I'm top dog now". It was a grab at the authority at the head of the family. In a family with this many sons, a rivalry for who is next in line is probably to be expected. This is exactly what we see in the coming chapters, with Joseph. Jesus' 12 disciples acted the exact same way during his ministry.
There are twelve sons, but four are firstborn to four different mothers. Rueben is oldest, but Joseph is oldest of Rachel’s sons, the favourite wife. These twelve sons would have known the story of Grandpa Abraham and his firstborn son Ishmael, who was sent away. They would know that their own father, the younger son, tried to deceive his way into an inheritance. The birthright may not be entirely certain among them. At least four of them may expect to be the one special son who gets to carry on the family name. Rueben’s actions show a similar initiative to his father’s. He wants the birthright for himself. He’s trying to muscle his way in to top position.
The first born son of Israel dishonours his father with his concubine. The next two sons were the ones behind the pillaging of Shechem's family. The next oldest, Judah, is the father of Jesus.
The sons are listed in age order from first wife to last, instead of strict birth order.
Isaac dies. Jacob and Esau bury him together, just as Isaac and Ishmael buried their father together in the previous generation. Sibling rivalry is healed in both generations before the death of their father.
+
This chapter clearly illustrates the authority as a man of Yahweh that Jacob now holds. No matter how many failures he experience in his lifetime, he is now solidly Yahweh's man, no question. He is transformed. It took a lifetime.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
The Rape Vengeance of Dinah at Shechem - Genesis 34
This is one of the more violent and horrible chapters in Genesis. Jacob’s daughter, Dinah, is raped by a prince from the tribe of Shechem. Like Jacob’s earlier life, we see manipulation and deception by both the Shechemites and Jacob’s sons. It is violent and vengeful.
(The text of Genesis 34 is in bold, my commentary in italics.)
1 Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the land. 2 When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of that area, saw her, he took her and violated her.
2 Samuel 13:12-14 uses the same word - rape. No question that this is what happened here.
3 His heart was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob, and he loved the girl and spoke tenderly to her.
He rapes her and then speaks tenderly? This guy is scum.
He's a prince. Maybe he isn't used to women saying no. Maybe he's use to getting away with things. Not this time, Shek!
4 And Shechem said to his father Hamor, “Get me this girl as my wife.”
Get me this girl as wife! - spoiled brat.
5 When Jacob heard that his daughter Dinah had been defiled, his sons were in the fields with his livestock; so he kept quiet about it until they came home.
6 Then Shechem’s father Hamor went out to talk with Jacob. 7 Now Jacob’s sons had come in from the fields as soon as they heard what had happened. They were filled with grief and fury, because Shechem had done a disgraceful thing in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter—a thing that should not be done.
Her brothers are filled with grief and fury. Completely understandable. They end their work day early and ready to break heads.
8 But Hamor said to them, “My son Shechem has his heart set on your daughter. Please give her to him as his wife. 9 Intermarry with us; give us your daughters and take our daughters for yourselves. 10 You can settle among us; the land is open to you. Live in it, trade in it, and acquire property in it.”
11 Then Shechem said to Dinah’s father and brothers, “Let me find favor in your eyes, and I will give you whatever you ask. 12 Make the price for the bride and the gift I am to bring as great as you like, and I’ll pay whatever you ask me. Only give me the girl as my wife.”
13 Because their sister Dinah had been defiled, Jacob’s sons replied deceitfully as they spoke to Shechem and his father Hamor. 14 They said to them, “We can’t do such a thing; we can’t give our sister to a man who is not circumcised. That would be a disgrace to us. 15 We will give our consent to you on one condition only: that you become like us by circumcising all your males. 16 Then we will give you our daughters and take your daughters for ourselves. We’ll settle among you and become one people with you. 17 But if you will not agree to be circumcised, we’ll take our sister and go.”
IMPORTANT - Jacob's sons are using the sign of God's covenant as a means to manipulate these people. They are taking the judgment of God into their own hands, and using the images of God's righteous favour in order to meet their own needs and ends. This is an abuse of God's covenant, and an abuse of the Shechemites. The intention of the covenant was to create a people who would reflect God's nature on earth. Jacob's sons are doing the opposite, perverting the image of the covenant to manipulate others, another manifestation of the Babel problem
18 Their proposal seemed good to Hamor and his son Shechem.
Their proposal seemed better than getting their faces broken.
19 The young man, who was the most honored of all his father’s household, lost no time in doing what they said, because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter.
Not a very smart family.
20 So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city to speak to their fellow townsmen. 21 “These men are friendly toward us,” they said. “Let them live in our land and trade in it; the land has plenty of room for them. We can marry their daughters and they can marry ours. 22 But the men will consent to live with us as one people only on the condition that our males be circumcised, as they themselves are. 23 Won’t their livestock, their property and all their other animals become ours? So let us give our consent to them, and they will settle among us.”
They're also deceitful, thinking the deal means that Jacob's things will become theirs.
24 All the men who went out of the city gate agreed with Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male in the city was circumcised.
25 Three days later, while all of them were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and attacked the unsuspecting city, killing every male. 26 They put Hamor and his son Shechem to the sword and took Dinah from Shechem’s house and left. 27 The sons of Jacob came upon the dead bodies and looted the city where their sister had been defiled. 28 They seized their flocks and herds and donkeys and everything else of theirs in the city and out in the fields. 29 They carried off all their wealth and all their women and children, taking as plunder everything in the houses.
It only took two of them to kill Every Single Man.
They plundered everything. For the dishonour of their sister they took all of the other family's goods, their women, and their children.
30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me a stench to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people living in this land. We are few in number, and if they join forces against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.”
Jacob is afraid now that his son's actions will make him unsafe in the land.
31 But they replied, “Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?”
Jacob's sons believe they are entirely justified.
+
Dinah was treated like a prostitute because the prince raped her and then tried to pay for her.
Circumcision and covenant are not to be treated lightly. Neither are they to be treated as a means to gain, either relationship with God, or the blessings that come with it. God is not for hire. His covenant is based on his promises, and we belong to him.
What about other manipulations of God’s blessing? Simon the sorcerer in Acts? Buying indulgences? (The old Catholic ritual) What about money sent to televangelists to earn God’s favour?
Is this further reference to the Babel problem? Are all of our religious efforts little more than treating God as a divine prostitute?
God's love and blessings are not to be bought.
(The text of Genesis 34 is in bold, my commentary in italics.)
1 Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the land. 2 When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of that area, saw her, he took her and violated her.
2 Samuel 13:12-14 uses the same word - rape. No question that this is what happened here.
3 His heart was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob, and he loved the girl and spoke tenderly to her.
He rapes her and then speaks tenderly? This guy is scum.
He's a prince. Maybe he isn't used to women saying no. Maybe he's use to getting away with things. Not this time, Shek!
4 And Shechem said to his father Hamor, “Get me this girl as my wife.”
Get me this girl as wife! - spoiled brat.
5 When Jacob heard that his daughter Dinah had been defiled, his sons were in the fields with his livestock; so he kept quiet about it until they came home.
6 Then Shechem’s father Hamor went out to talk with Jacob. 7 Now Jacob’s sons had come in from the fields as soon as they heard what had happened. They were filled with grief and fury, because Shechem had done a disgraceful thing in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter—a thing that should not be done.
Her brothers are filled with grief and fury. Completely understandable. They end their work day early and ready to break heads.
8 But Hamor said to them, “My son Shechem has his heart set on your daughter. Please give her to him as his wife. 9 Intermarry with us; give us your daughters and take our daughters for yourselves. 10 You can settle among us; the land is open to you. Live in it, trade in it, and acquire property in it.”
11 Then Shechem said to Dinah’s father and brothers, “Let me find favor in your eyes, and I will give you whatever you ask. 12 Make the price for the bride and the gift I am to bring as great as you like, and I’ll pay whatever you ask me. Only give me the girl as my wife.”
13 Because their sister Dinah had been defiled, Jacob’s sons replied deceitfully as they spoke to Shechem and his father Hamor. 14 They said to them, “We can’t do such a thing; we can’t give our sister to a man who is not circumcised. That would be a disgrace to us. 15 We will give our consent to you on one condition only: that you become like us by circumcising all your males. 16 Then we will give you our daughters and take your daughters for ourselves. We’ll settle among you and become one people with you. 17 But if you will not agree to be circumcised, we’ll take our sister and go.”
IMPORTANT - Jacob's sons are using the sign of God's covenant as a means to manipulate these people. They are taking the judgment of God into their own hands, and using the images of God's righteous favour in order to meet their own needs and ends. This is an abuse of God's covenant, and an abuse of the Shechemites. The intention of the covenant was to create a people who would reflect God's nature on earth. Jacob's sons are doing the opposite, perverting the image of the covenant to manipulate others, another manifestation of the Babel problem
18 Their proposal seemed good to Hamor and his son Shechem.
Their proposal seemed better than getting their faces broken.
19 The young man, who was the most honored of all his father’s household, lost no time in doing what they said, because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter.
Not a very smart family.
20 So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city to speak to their fellow townsmen. 21 “These men are friendly toward us,” they said. “Let them live in our land and trade in it; the land has plenty of room for them. We can marry their daughters and they can marry ours. 22 But the men will consent to live with us as one people only on the condition that our males be circumcised, as they themselves are. 23 Won’t their livestock, their property and all their other animals become ours? So let us give our consent to them, and they will settle among us.”
They're also deceitful, thinking the deal means that Jacob's things will become theirs.
24 All the men who went out of the city gate agreed with Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male in the city was circumcised.
25 Three days later, while all of them were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and attacked the unsuspecting city, killing every male. 26 They put Hamor and his son Shechem to the sword and took Dinah from Shechem’s house and left. 27 The sons of Jacob came upon the dead bodies and looted the city where their sister had been defiled. 28 They seized their flocks and herds and donkeys and everything else of theirs in the city and out in the fields. 29 They carried off all their wealth and all their women and children, taking as plunder everything in the houses.
It only took two of them to kill Every Single Man.
They plundered everything. For the dishonour of their sister they took all of the other family's goods, their women, and their children.
30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me a stench to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people living in this land. We are few in number, and if they join forces against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.”
Jacob is afraid now that his son's actions will make him unsafe in the land.
31 But they replied, “Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?”
Jacob's sons believe they are entirely justified.
+
Dinah was treated like a prostitute because the prince raped her and then tried to pay for her.
Circumcision and covenant are not to be treated lightly. Neither are they to be treated as a means to gain, either relationship with God, or the blessings that come with it. God is not for hire. His covenant is based on his promises, and we belong to him.
What about other manipulations of God’s blessing? Simon the sorcerer in Acts? Buying indulgences? (The old Catholic ritual) What about money sent to televangelists to earn God’s favour?
Is this further reference to the Babel problem? Are all of our religious efforts little more than treating God as a divine prostitute?
God's love and blessings are not to be bought.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Jacob and Esau are Reconciled. Yahweh is God of Israel - Genesis 33
Click here to read Genesis 33
Jacob is more self-aware in this chapter than he has ever been. He clearly understands that he has done wrong to his brother, and that his brother should be angry. His twenty years of oppression from his uncle and his open eyes from the wrestling match the night before have given him an empathy and understanding of himself and others that he did not previously possess.
Jacob puts his family in most perceived danger, in order of preference.
vv5 and 11 acknowledge God as the giver of his wealth and blessing. He acknowledges God in his family
Esau is gracious, and affirms Jacob as his brother.
Jacob bows to his brother. In the blessing he stole, his father said his brother would bow to him. He says to Esau that he is servant and Esau is lord. His father's stolen blessing said that he would be Esau's lord. He gives Esau a blessing and begs him to accept it. He originally stole the blessing from his father.
Is Jacob trying to pay Esau back for his birthright and blessing?
Nothing that Jacob stole ever resulted in his final place of blessing and covenant he eventually experienced in God. It all came from God alone.
Esau accepts the gift after it becomes a gift of generous love from a brother, but not when it is defensive payment.
Jacob bought land. This is the second piece of land owned by Abraham's family. The other is Sarah's tomb.
Jacob makes an altar here. Up until now, he has always lifted stones to mark his religious practice. This was part of pagan religion. Here he builds an altar, just as Abraham always did as he moved from place to place. For the first time, he calls God HIS God, the God of Israel.
Jacob is more self-aware in this chapter than he has ever been. He clearly understands that he has done wrong to his brother, and that his brother should be angry. His twenty years of oppression from his uncle and his open eyes from the wrestling match the night before have given him an empathy and understanding of himself and others that he did not previously possess.
Jacob puts his family in most perceived danger, in order of preference.
vv5 and 11 acknowledge God as the giver of his wealth and blessing. He acknowledges God in his family
Esau is gracious, and affirms Jacob as his brother.
Jacob bows to his brother. In the blessing he stole, his father said his brother would bow to him. He says to Esau that he is servant and Esau is lord. His father's stolen blessing said that he would be Esau's lord. He gives Esau a blessing and begs him to accept it. He originally stole the blessing from his father.
Is Jacob trying to pay Esau back for his birthright and blessing?
Nothing that Jacob stole ever resulted in his final place of blessing and covenant he eventually experienced in God. It all came from God alone.
Esau accepts the gift after it becomes a gift of generous love from a brother, but not when it is defensive payment.
Jacob bought land. This is the second piece of land owned by Abraham's family. The other is Sarah's tomb.
Jacob makes an altar here. Up until now, he has always lifted stones to mark his religious practice. This was part of pagan religion. Here he builds an altar, just as Abraham always did as he moved from place to place. For the first time, he calls God HIS God, the God of Israel.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Jacob Wrestles with God - Genesis 32
Click here to read Genesis 32
Jacob may be hoping that his wealth will give him a way with his estranged brother.
He is afraid of his brother. But he does not prepare for a fight. He prepares to defend himself.
His prayer is more reverential and honest than any other in the story so far. Still, he does not call him "my God", and seems to still think he can manipulate, making a request as though collecting on a debt. In verse 10 he is closest to understanding his relationship to God as he acknowledges that everything he had is from him.
In the night before he meets his brother and confronts his broken relationships and life of deception, he wrestles all night with a stranger.
He had nothing left. He's sent it all to his brother. He's done everything he can do in his own strength and is exhausted. He is still afraid. In his fearful, vulnerable state, he is confronted by God.
The stranger called him Israel - God-wrestler. He has fulfilled his Supplanter name his whole life, but now his name is changed.
All his life, the story tells us of Jacob wrestling against God. This night is a climax to the struggle he’s experienced his entire life. The difference in this incident is that he finally submits. Jacob finally believes that God is God, and that he is not. He will not be manipulated. Only God is the name-giver. Only God can change who he is.
Jacob believes the stranger is God.
In receiving the name, he receives the stranger's authority over him.
Also, in receiving the name and the change in character it represents, Jacob lays down his deception, his greatest strength in how he deals with people and gets by in the world. He is a deceived no longer. He is God's man.
God wanted Jacob to return to Canaan, but not as Jacob. Jacob needed to submit. He needed to give up. That piece of him that always relied on his own strength and cunning needed to die before he could receive God's promises.
Jacob may be hoping that his wealth will give him a way with his estranged brother.
He is afraid of his brother. But he does not prepare for a fight. He prepares to defend himself.
His prayer is more reverential and honest than any other in the story so far. Still, he does not call him "my God", and seems to still think he can manipulate, making a request as though collecting on a debt. In verse 10 he is closest to understanding his relationship to God as he acknowledges that everything he had is from him.
In the night before he meets his brother and confronts his broken relationships and life of deception, he wrestles all night with a stranger.
He had nothing left. He's sent it all to his brother. He's done everything he can do in his own strength and is exhausted. He is still afraid. In his fearful, vulnerable state, he is confronted by God.
The stranger called him Israel - God-wrestler. He has fulfilled his Supplanter name his whole life, but now his name is changed.
All his life, the story tells us of Jacob wrestling against God. This night is a climax to the struggle he’s experienced his entire life. The difference in this incident is that he finally submits. Jacob finally believes that God is God, and that he is not. He will not be manipulated. Only God is the name-giver. Only God can change who he is.
Jacob believes the stranger is God.
In receiving the name, he receives the stranger's authority over him.
Also, in receiving the name and the change in character it represents, Jacob lays down his deception, his greatest strength in how he deals with people and gets by in the world. He is a deceived no longer. He is God's man.
God wanted Jacob to return to Canaan, but not as Jacob. Jacob needed to submit. He needed to give up. That piece of him that always relied on his own strength and cunning needed to die before he could receive God's promises.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Isn’t it Ironic (Don’t ya think?) - Jacob’s great reversals. The deceiver is deceived. - Genesis 28-31
(This sermon was first delivered on October 23, 2011 by Shawn Birss at Look to the Cross in Edmonton, Alberta. For a further study of the ideas within this sermon, see the posts from October 17-23 in this blog.)
Genesis Review:
Part 1 – Gen1-11 - Prehistory of God’s Covenant
Creation (Genesis 1-2): God created purpose out of the void. All of Creation is God’s temple. Man and Woman are priests in God’s temple.
The Fall (Genesis 3-11) and the Flood (Genesis 6-9): Sin entered the world through humanity’s choice. Sin grows until it takes hold of all society and finally perverts people's image of and relationship with God. Having been entirely perverted from God’s original purpose, it has returned to a state of void.
God uses a flood to recreate his temple as he originally intended. Still, humans no longer recognize the authority of God, Creation as God’s temple, and humanity’s place as priests made in God’s image. Humans instead elevate their own authority, build their own temples, make gods in their own image, and coerce their created gods to fulfill their needs. This was the tower of Babel.
Part 2 – Genesis 12-25 –Abraham and Covenant
Before God solved the Eden problem (sin) he was determined to solve the Babel problem (a perverted view of his identity). In his covenant with Abram, Abram sacrificed his family, gods, land, and inheritance. In return God began to reveal himself in humanity through Abram’s life, and later through Abram’s descendants, and finally through Abraham’s descendants, Jesus. Abram was blessed, Abram was a blessing, and through Abram, God revealed himself.
Abram becomes a priest of God on earth, interceding (which means praying) on behalf of all nations of the world for God’s blessing, mercy, and healing. Through Abraham’s life, God patiently reveals himself and the nature of obedience and faith.
Part 3 – Genesis 25-36 - Jacob, Redemption, and Reconciliation
Jacob is the son of Isaac, the promised son of Abraham. Though he is in line to be part of God’s covenant promise, he is a deceiver and a manipulator. His life and choices force him away from his father, his family, and his land. By his own will, he appears to lose everything that represents what God has promised to his blessed family. Still, we see God patiently offering gracious redemption and reconciliation to Jacob despite while he nearly destroys everyone around him as he tries to create his own life for himself by his own efforts.
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In Genesis 28, we find Jacob alone and on the run. His name means “deceiver”, and actually has its closest resemblance to the Hebrew word “crafty”, used of the snake that first tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Jacob has already been living up to his name. For a bowl of lentil soup, he manipulated the birthright from his older twin Esau. Later, he conspired with his mother to trick his blind and dying father into giving him the blessing of the firstborn that rightfully belonged to his brother.
Because of his lies and manipulations, Jacob now finds himself running from his own family. His brother has vowed to kill him. He is thrust from the land that was promised in the covenant, and from the family through which the covenant will be fulfilled. Like Adam and Eve or Cain before him, he is now alone and in the wilderness because of his sin. Abraham his grandfather found himself a stranger in the land of promise because of his obedience. Jacob is a stranger outside of the promise because of his sin.
Genesis 28:10-22
10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. 11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 There above it stood the LORD, and he said: “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. 15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”
18 Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. 19 He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz.
20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear 21 so that I return safely to my father’s house, then the LORD will be my God 22 and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”
Jacob’s Ladder – the Ziggurat - Genesis 28
God’s method of revelation and communication with Jacob is very interesting. 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.
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.
So the use of the ziggurat imagery on God’s part shows us something about how Jacob understands God. Jacob the schemer recognizes God as the builders of the ziggurats did. God is a god who can be controlled and manipulated. The ziggurat was built as a means to earn the favour of the gods, and pay them for their good works on behalf of humanity. Jacob’s response to God after the dream reveals this Babel problem. Unlike Abraham who chose to obey God in Genesis 22, withholding not even his only son, Jacob is testing God, promising to reward him if what he says will come to pass.
When Abraham tithed to Melchizedek, it was an image of surrender. Jacob doesn’t yet know Yahweh as his grandfather did. The events of his life show God’s patient revelation of his nature despite Jacob’s stubborn resistance.
Before Jacob left home, his father Isaac repeated Abraham's covenant to Jacob. Here, YHWH confirms the covenant again. God even promises to be with Jacob personally.
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.
The next three chapters show an awkward and shocking reverse of Jacob’s fortunes. His life is a wrestling against and with the sovereign God of covenant. Though he is determined to make it on his own, God graciously and patiently frustrates his attempts at every turn, eventually driving him into the hands of his loving Creator.
A MidGenesis Night’s Sex Comedy - Genesis 29-31
Genesis 29:13-30
13 As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he hurried to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his home, and there Jacob told him all these things. 14 Then Laban said to him, “You are my own flesh and blood.”
(note – This is probably a foreshadowing wink to the audience. Laban admits he is just like Jacob.)
After Jacob had stayed with him for a whole month, 15 Laban said to him, “Just because you are a relative of mine, should you work for me for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be.”
16 Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. 17 Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel was lovely in form, and beautiful. 18 Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, “I’ll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel.”
19 Laban said, “It’s better that I give her to you than to some other man. Stay here with me.” 20 So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.
21 Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife. My time is completed, and I want to lie with her.”
22 So Laban brought together all the people of the place and gave a feast. 23 But when evening came, he took his daughter Leah and gave her to Jacob, and Jacob lay with her. 24 And Laban gave his servant girl Zilpah to his daughter as her maidservant.
25 When morning came, there was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn’t I? Why have you deceived me?”
26 Laban replied, “It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older one. 27 Finish this daughter’s bridal week; then we will give you the younger one also, in return for another seven years of work.”
28 And Jacob did so. He finished the week with Leah, and then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. 29 Laban gave his servant girl Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her maidservant. 30 Jacob lay with Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years.
Let the soap opera begin!
All of the elements of Jacob’s story are turned around on him in the next few chapters. In an almost comedic parody of his life so far, he experiences the deceptions and traps that he has so far been inflicting on others.
Jacob deceived his father by pretending to be his brother. He is deceived by Leah, who is pretending to be her sister. Yikes.
Against tradition, Jacob was given preference as the younger son because of his deception. According to tradition, but against expectation, Leah is given preference over Rachel as the older daughter.
Jacob’s preferential treatment by his mother over his brother was to his advantage. Now he has two wives, sisters to each other, and he shows preference between them. Because of his preferential treatment, they come to covet his . . . attention. The story reads like he’s being torn in half.
Inability to conceive becomes important to the story again.
Jacob and Esau were each favourites of different parents. Now Jacob has a favourite of his wives.
Leah is obviously very distressed by her husband's preference of her sister. Still, God allows Leah to conceive four times while the favourite wife remains childless. It could have taken no less than four years to have these four sons (assuming no daughters), and she is no closer to confidence in her husband's affections by the end then at the beginning.
Rachel is hurt in her childlessness. In her story, we are reminded of Sarah, who perceived herself as treated poorly by Hagar when she conceived a child by her husband before her. She approached Jacob with a demand that he make her pregnant, saying she will die if she doesn’t have a child.
Abraham and Sarah were patient for children when childless. Isaac prayed for children when he and his wife could not conceive. Jacob is angry. His wife is being as manipulative as him.
Rachel’s demand in Genesis 30:1, that she be given children or die, is a dark foreshadowing. It remains as ironic as the rest of Jacob’s story. Eventually, she will die while giving birth to Jacob’s youngest, Benjamin.
Both of Jacob’s wives think that having children is a sign of the Lord's favour, and will heal their marriage.
This whole story is very strange. Jacob seems like a pawn in a game his wives are playing.
Jacob's wife hires him to sleep with her, like a male prostitute, and he does. Her son brought home mandrakes, commonly believed to be an aphrodisiac, or to encourage fertility. She gives the mandrakes to her sister while Jacob is working, saying she wants to sleep with him tonight. When he comes home, she informs her husband that he has been bought. He complies. Leah is as manipulative as Rachel, as manipulative as Jacob.
This is another turnaround. Just as Jacob manipulated his brother for his birthright with soup as he came in from the fields, his wife now manipulates him for his seed while he is out in the fields. Everything keeps coming back around for him.
Jacob manipulates the breeding of the sheep – Gen 30
Jacob is trying to lay the foundation of being able to leave Laban’s household without losing all he has. He hatches a scheme to earn some of Laban’s sheep, and tries to manipulate the breeding to do so.
Jacob is involved in some sort of genetic manipulation combined with witchcraft, or perhaps just witchcraft. Either way, it is more manipulation. Whatever Jacob thought he was doing, the simple breeding details would have worked out as he hoped, without the superstition. Later, God reveals that it was he who directed the process.
The chiastic structure is used again in Jacob’s story, just as it had been in Abraham’s. The beginning and end events in Jacob’s life match each other. The second and second last match, etc, until a central event in the middle of his story. This story of manipulating the breeding of the sheep matches his marriages to Rachel and Leah, whose names sound the same as the Hebrew for “Ewe” and “Cow”.
Karma’s a Bitch - Genesis 31
Jacob finally manages to escape work under Laban. When he’s caught later, he claims that Laban changed his wages ten times. This is probably why Jacob has remained with Laban all this time.
The trickery Laban used with his daughters to keep Jacob there the first time, it seems he kept up. The switch with Rachel and Leah was just the beginning. In that case, Jacob has probably been something like a slave. Laban has prospered because of his oppression of Jacob.
Jacob accuses Laban of spending the bride price of Rachel and Leah. Laban was obligated to hold onto the bride price of his daughters, presumably a garnishing of fourteen years wages, as an insurance in case they ever needed it. If Jacob were to die, for example, Laban would have the means to support his wives after death. If the "money" was never used, it would go to Rachel and Leah after his death. Since he spent it, they lost their inheritance.
This loss of inheritance is yet another example of Jacob receiving his comeuppance. Just as he swindled Esau out of his inheritance, so also has his family lost theirs by deception.
Jacob deceived Laban in order to get away. He ran from his brother, and now he is running from his uncle. He manipulated his brother out of his inheritance and ran. His family has been manipulated out of theirs, and he runs.
Rachel stole the household gods. These were probably important to them. They are a manipulative, paganistic family. Many of the gods at this time were used to manipulate fertility. Considering the importance of fertility and childbearing in this family, it’s very likely that these are the idols she stole.
Rachel sat on the gods and said she was having her period. This is likely another slightly comedic moment in the narrative of Joseph, giving the reader a nudge and a wink on the impotence of these gods.
In his twenty years with Laban, Jacob experienced a deceptive masquerade (Leah for Rachel), a manipulative food swap (mandrakes), and a loss of inheritance (Laban spent his wife's bride price. All he had done to his family was done to him.
Two things are notable in the reversal.
First, though Laban attempted to swindle payment and inheritance from Jacob, Jacob still made off quite well. Later, God makes it clear to Jacob that this is because of his blessing, not because of Jacob's cunning.
Secondly, Jacob deceived Laban as he ran away. The story shows Jacob unchanged in twenty years, even after experiencing all he had. He continues to live as a deceiver and a sneak. His wife steals gods from her father. His family lives in lies, theft, and manipulation.
This is the story of Jacob’s life. He is a sneak and a liar, and every lie he makes only causes his life to turn out worse. Though he is consistently given opportunities to give up and place his life in God’s hands, he spends his life striving to make good for himself. And failing.
As far as Jacob’s character goes, the arc of this story is completely flat. Jacob is exactly where he was at the beginning. He is a lying, deceptive , manipulative man, running from his family. The only difference is that this time he is not alone. He is weighed down by blessing and family, all of which God says he received because of God’s blessing and God’s goodness.
He is blessed despite his craftiness, not because of it. Though he has spent his life running from the source of all goodness and blessing, still blessing has tracked him down.
CONCLUSIONS
Conclusion 1 – The Chessmaster - The Hound of Heaven
(click here to read “The Hound of Heaven")
Jacob’s story is not just a story of running. Jacob’s story is a chase. God is tenaciously pursuing him, determined to reveal himself to Jacob and to the world through Jacob, as he had through Abraham.
I enjoy chess. I have chessmaster on my computer, and I enjoy playing very much. Besides all the cool graphics, animated pieces, and interesting environments you can choose to load up and play, there are also hundreds of virtual computer players to choose from. Each one has a little photo avatar of a person, a name, and a description of their style of play.
At the very top of the list are virtual players with names like Herzog, Amelia, and Klaus. Their avatars are wizened elderly men and women with white hair, usual with their fingertips pressed together, and their brows furrowed.
They’re usually described as geniuses that need not sleep and do nothing but play chess all day. They only stop playing in order to invent new scientific methods to lengthen their lives so they can continue playing chess. Their chess player ratings are over 2600 points.
I don’t usually play these virtual players. In fact, most of them have to be unlocked by playing lower level characters. It’s almost as though the program just wants to save me the embarrassment.
I play characters with names like “Billy-Joe” or “Kenzee”. Their avatars are pictures of precocious young children. I don’t remember how they’re described, but it’s probably something like, “Billy picks pieces to move at random. He likes the horsey piece best”.
They’re usually rated in the six hundreds or so. I usually win when I play them. I like winning. And I like the horsey piece best, too.
But I also like to challenge myself. I think I’m rated around 700. I like to play characters rated around 800-1000, (usually with names like Susan or Frank).
I never win, but playing these characters is where I learn, and actually improve my game.
But here is my experience: No matter what I do, the computer will always find a way to elegantly turn the game in its’ own favour. If I make a mistake, the computer takes full advantage, changing its’ strategy to bring me to checkmate sooner.
If I make a perfect move, discerning the computer’s strategy and blocking it somehow, I’ll find myself full nelsoned into its’ contingency plan.
The computer anticipates my own strategies, and has five alternate moves it could take depending on how well I anticipate its strategies. No matter what I do, I’m duped.
In Jacob’s story, God is the chessmaster. God’s promise to Jacob at Bethel is sure. He will bring it about. He will patiently pursue Jacob to the edge of Hell if necessary. No matter what move this clever man makes, God is on his heels ready to expose it. Of course, in Jacob’s story, when God wins, so will Jacob.
At the turn of the century, poet Francis Thompson called God “The Hound of Heaven”. An opium addict and self-professed frequent sinner, Thompson saw in his life a chase and pursuit like Jacob’s. He ran from God as hard as he was able, yet at every turn he was pursued and but one inch from caught. The freedom and peace and justice were in the arms of his loving God, though he did all he could to refuse submission to it. In the end, God won the chase, and Thompson relented, receiving an infinite love.
Psalm 139:7-12
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
From this conclusion, I see two applications.
The first is in our relationship to God. The second is in our relationship to others.
First, let’s give God more credit. We’re not going to surprise God. We’re not going to trip and fall out of God’s grace and love. If you’ve given up like Thompson or the Psalmist and have experienced the fullness of the grace of God, you’re not getting let go. God is fully aware of your faults and your weaknesses. God is not surprised by your fears and concerns. He knows you better than you know yourself.
Whatever happens, wherever we go, whatever is ever done by us or to us, God is ready with his contingency plan for grace, mercy, and reconciliation. We’re not going to screw up God’s plan. Greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world. The gates of hell will not prevail against Jesus’ church.
Secondly, let’s show this same grace, patience, and mercy to others.
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.
God did not wait until Jacob was perfect and ready. Abraham was a racist, sexist bigot, yet God condescended to use him.
No one is so far gone that they are beyond grace. We have an opportunity in every person we meet to display God’s mercy by believing in them, as God does, for wholeness, for justice, for reconciliation with God and others. Let us seek to see in others the Imago Dei.
Every one of us was created Imago Dei – in the image of God. No matter what ethnicity, background, religion, or perceived sin in any person on earth, they are all marked with the Image of God, and infinitely loved by their Creator. Let us be willing to love as God does, as patiently as God does.
Let us seek the blessing and justice of God for every person on earth, those of us and those not of us, without judgment.
Conclusion 2 – Reconciliation
(Click here to read “Our Story" - Our experience with reconciliation, offence, forgiveness and submission in family)
I am convinced that reconciliation, forgiveness, and grace are better than offense and division, even when they are costly. Reconciliation, forgiveness, and grace often mean we need to humble ourselves before others. We cannot manipulate our way into other’s graces. We cannot manipulate our way into the grace of God.
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.
God reconciles the world to himself. It is by God’s word and by God’s work that he makes something of any life. When we place our lives humbly into his hands, he can make good of any mess we’ve made, or of any mess that has been made of us. Through us, he ministers reconciliation in the world, with God, and between people.
2 Corinthians 5:14-21
14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
It is the life of a Christian to minister reconciliation to the world. To minister means to serve. Reconciliation is the restoration of broken relationship.
This service in the world is to all and for all. We live as those who have been reconciled to God, demonstrating a changed life to those around us. Since we carry the spirit of God in us, we seek to live humbly with everyone.
We also speak of reconciliation, and offer the opportunity to be reconciled to others. We do not prejudge anyone. Jesus died for everyone, and all are equally loved by God. There is no one that has not been called, no one to whom the life of Christ has not been offered. We see people through the eyes of Jesus, dearly loved and dearly valued by their Creator and Redeemer.
We demonstrate this reconciled life by seeking reconciliation with people in this lifetime.
We have been forgiven. We forgive.
Next Week – Jacob’s Life in God’s Hands Brings Reconciliation and Healing
Genesis Review:
Part 1 – Gen1-11 - Prehistory of God’s Covenant
Creation (Genesis 1-2): God created purpose out of the void. All of Creation is God’s temple. Man and Woman are priests in God’s temple.
The Fall (Genesis 3-11) and the Flood (Genesis 6-9): Sin entered the world through humanity’s choice. Sin grows until it takes hold of all society and finally perverts people's image of and relationship with God. Having been entirely perverted from God’s original purpose, it has returned to a state of void.
God uses a flood to recreate his temple as he originally intended. Still, humans no longer recognize the authority of God, Creation as God’s temple, and humanity’s place as priests made in God’s image. Humans instead elevate their own authority, build their own temples, make gods in their own image, and coerce their created gods to fulfill their needs. This was the tower of Babel.
Part 2 – Genesis 12-25 –Abraham and Covenant
Before God solved the Eden problem (sin) he was determined to solve the Babel problem (a perverted view of his identity). In his covenant with Abram, Abram sacrificed his family, gods, land, and inheritance. In return God began to reveal himself in humanity through Abram’s life, and later through Abram’s descendants, and finally through Abraham’s descendants, Jesus. Abram was blessed, Abram was a blessing, and through Abram, God revealed himself.
Abram becomes a priest of God on earth, interceding (which means praying) on behalf of all nations of the world for God’s blessing, mercy, and healing. Through Abraham’s life, God patiently reveals himself and the nature of obedience and faith.
Part 3 – Genesis 25-36 - Jacob, Redemption, and Reconciliation
Jacob is the son of Isaac, the promised son of Abraham. Though he is in line to be part of God’s covenant promise, he is a deceiver and a manipulator. His life and choices force him away from his father, his family, and his land. By his own will, he appears to lose everything that represents what God has promised to his blessed family. Still, we see God patiently offering gracious redemption and reconciliation to Jacob despite while he nearly destroys everyone around him as he tries to create his own life for himself by his own efforts.
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In Genesis 28, we find Jacob alone and on the run. His name means “deceiver”, and actually has its closest resemblance to the Hebrew word “crafty”, used of the snake that first tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Jacob has already been living up to his name. For a bowl of lentil soup, he manipulated the birthright from his older twin Esau. Later, he conspired with his mother to trick his blind and dying father into giving him the blessing of the firstborn that rightfully belonged to his brother.
Because of his lies and manipulations, Jacob now finds himself running from his own family. His brother has vowed to kill him. He is thrust from the land that was promised in the covenant, and from the family through which the covenant will be fulfilled. Like Adam and Eve or Cain before him, he is now alone and in the wilderness because of his sin. Abraham his grandfather found himself a stranger in the land of promise because of his obedience. Jacob is a stranger outside of the promise because of his sin.
Genesis 28:10-22
10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. 11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 There above it stood the LORD, and he said: “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. 15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”
18 Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. 19 He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz.
20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear 21 so that I return safely to my father’s house, then the LORD will be my God 22 and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”
Jacob’s Ladder – the Ziggurat - Genesis 28
God’s method of revelation and communication with Jacob is very interesting. 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.
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.
So the use of the ziggurat imagery on God’s part shows us something about how Jacob understands God. Jacob the schemer recognizes God as the builders of the ziggurats did. God is a god who can be controlled and manipulated. The ziggurat was built as a means to earn the favour of the gods, and pay them for their good works on behalf of humanity. Jacob’s response to God after the dream reveals this Babel problem. Unlike Abraham who chose to obey God in Genesis 22, withholding not even his only son, Jacob is testing God, promising to reward him if what he says will come to pass.
When Abraham tithed to Melchizedek, it was an image of surrender. Jacob doesn’t yet know Yahweh as his grandfather did. The events of his life show God’s patient revelation of his nature despite Jacob’s stubborn resistance.
Before Jacob left home, his father Isaac repeated Abraham's covenant to Jacob. Here, YHWH confirms the covenant again. God even promises to be with Jacob personally.
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.
The next three chapters show an awkward and shocking reverse of Jacob’s fortunes. His life is a wrestling against and with the sovereign God of covenant. Though he is determined to make it on his own, God graciously and patiently frustrates his attempts at every turn, eventually driving him into the hands of his loving Creator.
A MidGenesis Night’s Sex Comedy - Genesis 29-31
Genesis 29:13-30
13 As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he hurried to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his home, and there Jacob told him all these things. 14 Then Laban said to him, “You are my own flesh and blood.”
(note – This is probably a foreshadowing wink to the audience. Laban admits he is just like Jacob.)
After Jacob had stayed with him for a whole month, 15 Laban said to him, “Just because you are a relative of mine, should you work for me for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be.”
16 Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. 17 Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel was lovely in form, and beautiful. 18 Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, “I’ll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel.”
19 Laban said, “It’s better that I give her to you than to some other man. Stay here with me.” 20 So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.
21 Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife. My time is completed, and I want to lie with her.”
22 So Laban brought together all the people of the place and gave a feast. 23 But when evening came, he took his daughter Leah and gave her to Jacob, and Jacob lay with her. 24 And Laban gave his servant girl Zilpah to his daughter as her maidservant.
25 When morning came, there was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn’t I? Why have you deceived me?”
26 Laban replied, “It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older one. 27 Finish this daughter’s bridal week; then we will give you the younger one also, in return for another seven years of work.”
28 And Jacob did so. He finished the week with Leah, and then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. 29 Laban gave his servant girl Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her maidservant. 30 Jacob lay with Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years.
Let the soap opera begin!
All of the elements of Jacob’s story are turned around on him in the next few chapters. In an almost comedic parody of his life so far, he experiences the deceptions and traps that he has so far been inflicting on others.
Jacob deceived his father by pretending to be his brother. He is deceived by Leah, who is pretending to be her sister. Yikes.
Against tradition, Jacob was given preference as the younger son because of his deception. According to tradition, but against expectation, Leah is given preference over Rachel as the older daughter.
Jacob’s preferential treatment by his mother over his brother was to his advantage. Now he has two wives, sisters to each other, and he shows preference between them. Because of his preferential treatment, they come to covet his . . . attention. The story reads like he’s being torn in half.
Inability to conceive becomes important to the story again.
Jacob and Esau were each favourites of different parents. Now Jacob has a favourite of his wives.
Leah is obviously very distressed by her husband's preference of her sister. Still, God allows Leah to conceive four times while the favourite wife remains childless. It could have taken no less than four years to have these four sons (assuming no daughters), and she is no closer to confidence in her husband's affections by the end then at the beginning.
Rachel is hurt in her childlessness. In her story, we are reminded of Sarah, who perceived herself as treated poorly by Hagar when she conceived a child by her husband before her. She approached Jacob with a demand that he make her pregnant, saying she will die if she doesn’t have a child.
Abraham and Sarah were patient for children when childless. Isaac prayed for children when he and his wife could not conceive. Jacob is angry. His wife is being as manipulative as him.
Rachel’s demand in Genesis 30:1, that she be given children or die, is a dark foreshadowing. It remains as ironic as the rest of Jacob’s story. Eventually, she will die while giving birth to Jacob’s youngest, Benjamin.
Both of Jacob’s wives think that having children is a sign of the Lord's favour, and will heal their marriage.
This whole story is very strange. Jacob seems like a pawn in a game his wives are playing.
Jacob's wife hires him to sleep with her, like a male prostitute, and he does. Her son brought home mandrakes, commonly believed to be an aphrodisiac, or to encourage fertility. She gives the mandrakes to her sister while Jacob is working, saying she wants to sleep with him tonight. When he comes home, she informs her husband that he has been bought. He complies. Leah is as manipulative as Rachel, as manipulative as Jacob.
This is another turnaround. Just as Jacob manipulated his brother for his birthright with soup as he came in from the fields, his wife now manipulates him for his seed while he is out in the fields. Everything keeps coming back around for him.
Jacob manipulates the breeding of the sheep – Gen 30
Jacob is trying to lay the foundation of being able to leave Laban’s household without losing all he has. He hatches a scheme to earn some of Laban’s sheep, and tries to manipulate the breeding to do so.
Jacob is involved in some sort of genetic manipulation combined with witchcraft, or perhaps just witchcraft. Either way, it is more manipulation. Whatever Jacob thought he was doing, the simple breeding details would have worked out as he hoped, without the superstition. Later, God reveals that it was he who directed the process.
The chiastic structure is used again in Jacob’s story, just as it had been in Abraham’s. The beginning and end events in Jacob’s life match each other. The second and second last match, etc, until a central event in the middle of his story. This story of manipulating the breeding of the sheep matches his marriages to Rachel and Leah, whose names sound the same as the Hebrew for “Ewe” and “Cow”.
Karma’s a Bitch - Genesis 31
Jacob finally manages to escape work under Laban. When he’s caught later, he claims that Laban changed his wages ten times. This is probably why Jacob has remained with Laban all this time.
The trickery Laban used with his daughters to keep Jacob there the first time, it seems he kept up. The switch with Rachel and Leah was just the beginning. In that case, Jacob has probably been something like a slave. Laban has prospered because of his oppression of Jacob.
Jacob accuses Laban of spending the bride price of Rachel and Leah. Laban was obligated to hold onto the bride price of his daughters, presumably a garnishing of fourteen years wages, as an insurance in case they ever needed it. If Jacob were to die, for example, Laban would have the means to support his wives after death. If the "money" was never used, it would go to Rachel and Leah after his death. Since he spent it, they lost their inheritance.
This loss of inheritance is yet another example of Jacob receiving his comeuppance. Just as he swindled Esau out of his inheritance, so also has his family lost theirs by deception.
Jacob deceived Laban in order to get away. He ran from his brother, and now he is running from his uncle. He manipulated his brother out of his inheritance and ran. His family has been manipulated out of theirs, and he runs.
Rachel stole the household gods. These were probably important to them. They are a manipulative, paganistic family. Many of the gods at this time were used to manipulate fertility. Considering the importance of fertility and childbearing in this family, it’s very likely that these are the idols she stole.
Rachel sat on the gods and said she was having her period. This is likely another slightly comedic moment in the narrative of Joseph, giving the reader a nudge and a wink on the impotence of these gods.
In his twenty years with Laban, Jacob experienced a deceptive masquerade (Leah for Rachel), a manipulative food swap (mandrakes), and a loss of inheritance (Laban spent his wife's bride price. All he had done to his family was done to him.
Two things are notable in the reversal.
First, though Laban attempted to swindle payment and inheritance from Jacob, Jacob still made off quite well. Later, God makes it clear to Jacob that this is because of his blessing, not because of Jacob's cunning.
Secondly, Jacob deceived Laban as he ran away. The story shows Jacob unchanged in twenty years, even after experiencing all he had. He continues to live as a deceiver and a sneak. His wife steals gods from her father. His family lives in lies, theft, and manipulation.
This is the story of Jacob’s life. He is a sneak and a liar, and every lie he makes only causes his life to turn out worse. Though he is consistently given opportunities to give up and place his life in God’s hands, he spends his life striving to make good for himself. And failing.
As far as Jacob’s character goes, the arc of this story is completely flat. Jacob is exactly where he was at the beginning. He is a lying, deceptive , manipulative man, running from his family. The only difference is that this time he is not alone. He is weighed down by blessing and family, all of which God says he received because of God’s blessing and God’s goodness.
He is blessed despite his craftiness, not because of it. Though he has spent his life running from the source of all goodness and blessing, still blessing has tracked him down.
CONCLUSIONS
Conclusion 1 – The Chessmaster - The Hound of Heaven
(click here to read “The Hound of Heaven")
Jacob’s story is not just a story of running. Jacob’s story is a chase. God is tenaciously pursuing him, determined to reveal himself to Jacob and to the world through Jacob, as he had through Abraham.
I enjoy chess. I have chessmaster on my computer, and I enjoy playing very much. Besides all the cool graphics, animated pieces, and interesting environments you can choose to load up and play, there are also hundreds of virtual computer players to choose from. Each one has a little photo avatar of a person, a name, and a description of their style of play.
At the very top of the list are virtual players with names like Herzog, Amelia, and Klaus. Their avatars are wizened elderly men and women with white hair, usual with their fingertips pressed together, and their brows furrowed.
They’re usually described as geniuses that need not sleep and do nothing but play chess all day. They only stop playing in order to invent new scientific methods to lengthen their lives so they can continue playing chess. Their chess player ratings are over 2600 points.
I don’t usually play these virtual players. In fact, most of them have to be unlocked by playing lower level characters. It’s almost as though the program just wants to save me the embarrassment.
I play characters with names like “Billy-Joe” or “Kenzee”. Their avatars are pictures of precocious young children. I don’t remember how they’re described, but it’s probably something like, “Billy picks pieces to move at random. He likes the horsey piece best”.
They’re usually rated in the six hundreds or so. I usually win when I play them. I like winning. And I like the horsey piece best, too.
But I also like to challenge myself. I think I’m rated around 700. I like to play characters rated around 800-1000, (usually with names like Susan or Frank).
I never win, but playing these characters is where I learn, and actually improve my game.
But here is my experience: No matter what I do, the computer will always find a way to elegantly turn the game in its’ own favour. If I make a mistake, the computer takes full advantage, changing its’ strategy to bring me to checkmate sooner.
If I make a perfect move, discerning the computer’s strategy and blocking it somehow, I’ll find myself full nelsoned into its’ contingency plan.
The computer anticipates my own strategies, and has five alternate moves it could take depending on how well I anticipate its strategies. No matter what I do, I’m duped.
In Jacob’s story, God is the chessmaster. God’s promise to Jacob at Bethel is sure. He will bring it about. He will patiently pursue Jacob to the edge of Hell if necessary. No matter what move this clever man makes, God is on his heels ready to expose it. Of course, in Jacob’s story, when God wins, so will Jacob.
At the turn of the century, poet Francis Thompson called God “The Hound of Heaven”. An opium addict and self-professed frequent sinner, Thompson saw in his life a chase and pursuit like Jacob’s. He ran from God as hard as he was able, yet at every turn he was pursued and but one inch from caught. The freedom and peace and justice were in the arms of his loving God, though he did all he could to refuse submission to it. In the end, God won the chase, and Thompson relented, receiving an infinite love.
Psalm 139:7-12
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
From this conclusion, I see two applications.
The first is in our relationship to God. The second is in our relationship to others.
First, let’s give God more credit. We’re not going to surprise God. We’re not going to trip and fall out of God’s grace and love. If you’ve given up like Thompson or the Psalmist and have experienced the fullness of the grace of God, you’re not getting let go. God is fully aware of your faults and your weaknesses. God is not surprised by your fears and concerns. He knows you better than you know yourself.
Whatever happens, wherever we go, whatever is ever done by us or to us, God is ready with his contingency plan for grace, mercy, and reconciliation. We’re not going to screw up God’s plan. Greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world. The gates of hell will not prevail against Jesus’ church.
Secondly, let’s show this same grace, patience, and mercy to others.
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.
God did not wait until Jacob was perfect and ready. Abraham was a racist, sexist bigot, yet God condescended to use him.
No one is so far gone that they are beyond grace. We have an opportunity in every person we meet to display God’s mercy by believing in them, as God does, for wholeness, for justice, for reconciliation with God and others. Let us seek to see in others the Imago Dei.
Every one of us was created Imago Dei – in the image of God. No matter what ethnicity, background, religion, or perceived sin in any person on earth, they are all marked with the Image of God, and infinitely loved by their Creator. Let us be willing to love as God does, as patiently as God does.
Let us seek the blessing and justice of God for every person on earth, those of us and those not of us, without judgment.
Conclusion 2 – Reconciliation
(Click here to read “Our Story" - Our experience with reconciliation, offence, forgiveness and submission in family)
I am convinced that reconciliation, forgiveness, and grace are better than offense and division, even when they are costly. Reconciliation, forgiveness, and grace often mean we need to humble ourselves before others. We cannot manipulate our way into other’s graces. We cannot manipulate our way into the grace of God.
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.
God reconciles the world to himself. It is by God’s word and by God’s work that he makes something of any life. When we place our lives humbly into his hands, he can make good of any mess we’ve made, or of any mess that has been made of us. Through us, he ministers reconciliation in the world, with God, and between people.
2 Corinthians 5:14-21
14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
It is the life of a Christian to minister reconciliation to the world. To minister means to serve. Reconciliation is the restoration of broken relationship.
This service in the world is to all and for all. We live as those who have been reconciled to God, demonstrating a changed life to those around us. Since we carry the spirit of God in us, we seek to live humbly with everyone.
We also speak of reconciliation, and offer the opportunity to be reconciled to others. We do not prejudge anyone. Jesus died for everyone, and all are equally loved by God. There is no one that has not been called, no one to whom the life of Christ has not been offered. We see people through the eyes of Jesus, dearly loved and dearly valued by their Creator and Redeemer.
We demonstrate this reconciled life by seeking reconciliation with people in this lifetime.
We have been forgiven. We forgive.
Next Week – Jacob’s Life in God’s Hands Brings Reconciliation and Healing
The Hound of Heaven - Poem by Francis Thompson
The Hound of Heaven
by Francis Thompson
(1859 - 1907)
A failure for so long; a one-time opium addict; died of tuberculosis.
I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter;
Up vistaed hopes I sped;
And shot, precipitated,
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
But with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbed pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat — and a Voice beat
More instant than the Feet—
"All things betray thee, who betrayest Me."
I pleaded, outlaw-wise,
By many a hearted casement, curtained red,
Trellised, with intertwining charities
(For, though I knew His love Who followed,
Yet was I sore adread
Lest, having Him, I must have naught beside);
But, if one little casement parted wide,
The gust of His approach would clash it to.
Fear wist not to evade as Love wist to pursue.
Across the margent of the world I fled,
And troubled the gold gateways of the stars,
Smiting for shelter on their clanged bars;
Fretting to dulcet jars
And silvern chatter the pale ports o' the moon.
I said to dawn: Be sudden; to eve: Be soon;
With thy young skiey blossoms heap me over
From this tremendous Lover!
Float thy vague veil about me, lest He see!
I tempted all His servitors, but to find
My own betrayal in the constancy,
In faith to Him their fickleness to me,
Their traitorous trueness, and their loyal deceit.
To all swift things for swiftness did I sue;
Clung to the whistling mane of every wind.
But whether they swept, smoothly fleet,
The long savannahs of the blue;
Or whether, Thunder-driven,
They clanged His chariot 'thwart a heaven,
Plashy with flying lightnings round the spurn o' their feet—
Fear wist not to evade as Love wist to pursue.
Still with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbed pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
Came on the following Feet,
And a Voice above their beat—
"Naught shelters thee, who wilt not shelter Me."
I sought no more that after which I strayed
In face of man or maid;
But He still within the little children's eyes
Seems something, something that replies,
They at least are for me, surely for me!
I turned me to them very wistfully;
But, just as their young eyes grew sudden fair
With dawning answers there,
Their angel plucked them from me by the hair.
"Come then, ye other children, Nature's-share
With me" (said I); "Your delicate fellowship;
Let me greet you lip to lip,
Let me twine with you caresses,
Wantoning
With our Lady-Mother's vagrant tresses, Banqueting
With her in her wind-walled palace,
Underneath her azured dais,
Quaffing, as your taintless way is,
From a chalice
Lucent-weeping out of the dayspring."
So it was done:
I in their delicate fellowship was one—
Drew the bolt of Nature's secrecies.
I knew all the swift importings
On the wilful face of skies;
I knew how the clouds arise,
Spumed of the wild sea-snortings;
All that is born or dies
Rose and drooped with; make them shapers
Of mine own moods, or wailful or divine—
With them joyed and was bereaven.
I was heavy with the even,
When she lit her glimmering tapers
Round the day's dead sanctities.
I laughed in the morning's eyes
I triumphed and I saddened with all weather,
Heaven and I wept together,
And its sweet tears were salt with mortal mine;
Against the red throb of its sunset-heart
I laid my own to beat,
And share commingling heat;
But not by that, by that, was eased my human smart.
In vain my tears were wet on Heaven's grey cheek.
For ah;
we know not what each other says.
These things and I;
in sound I speak—
Their sound it but their stir, they speak by silences.
Nature, poor stepdame, cannot slake my drouth;
Let her, if she would owe me,
Drop yon blue bosom-veil of sky, and show me
The breasts o' her tenderness:
Never did any milk of hers once bless
My thirsting mouth.
Nigh and nigh draws the chase,
With unperturbed pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
And past those noised Feet
A Voice comes yet more fleet—
"Lo! naught contents thee, who contents not Me."
Naked I wait Thy love's uplifted stroke!
My harness piece by piece Thou hast hewn from me,
And smitten me to my knee;
I am defenceless utterly.
I slept, methinks, and woke,
And, slowly gazing, find me stripped in sleep.
In the rash lustihead of my young powers
I shook the pillaring hours
and pulled my life upon me; grimed with smears,
I stand amid the dust o' the mounded years—
My mangled youth lies dead beneath the heap.
My days have crackled and gone up in smoke,
Have puffed and burst as sun-starts on a stream;
Yea, faileth now even dream
The dreamer, and the lute the lutanist;
Even the linked fantasies, in whose blossomy twist
I swung the earth a trinket at my wrist,
Are yielding; cords of all too weak account
For earth, with heavy griefs so overplussed.
Ah; is Thy love indeed
A weed, albeit an amaranthine weed,
Suffering no flowers except its own to mount?
Ah; must—
Designer infinite! —
Ah; must Thou char the wood ere Thou canst limn with it?
My freshness spent its wavering shower i' the dust;
And now my heart is as a broken fount,
Wherein tear-drippings stagnate, spilt down ever
From the dank thoughts that shiver
Upon the sighful branches of my mind;
Such is; what is to be?
The pulp so bitter, how shall taste the rind?
I dimly guess what Time in mists confounds;
Yet ever and anon a trumpet sounds
From the hid battlements of Eternity;
Those shaken mists a space unsettle, then
Round the half-glimpsed turrents slowly wash again.
But not ere him who summoneth
I first have seen, enwound
With glooming robes purpureal, cypress-encrowned;
His name I know, and what his trumpet saith.
Whether man's heart or life it be which yields
Thee harvest, must Thy harvest fields
Be dunged with rotten death?
Now of that long pursuit
Comes on at hand the bruit;
That Voice is round me like a bursting sea:
"And is thy earth so marred,
Shattered in shard on shard?
Lo, all things fly thee, for thou fliest Me!
Strange, piteous, futile thing,
Wherefore should any set thee love apart?
Seeing none but I makes much of naught" (He said),
"And human love needs human meriting:
How hast thou merited—
Of all man's clotted clay the dingiest clot?
Alack, thou knowest not
How little worthy of any love thou art!
Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee,
Save Me, save only Me?
All which I took from thee I did but take,
Not for thy harms,
But just that thou might'st seek it in My arms.
All which thy child's mistake
Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home:
Rise, clasp My hand, and come."
Halts by me that footfall:
Is my gloom, after all,
Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly?
"Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,
I am He Whom thou seekest!
Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me."
by Francis Thompson
(1859 - 1907)
A failure for so long; a one-time opium addict; died of tuberculosis.
I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter;
Up vistaed hopes I sped;
And shot, precipitated,
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
But with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbed pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat — and a Voice beat
More instant than the Feet—
"All things betray thee, who betrayest Me."
I pleaded, outlaw-wise,
By many a hearted casement, curtained red,
Trellised, with intertwining charities
(For, though I knew His love Who followed,
Yet was I sore adread
Lest, having Him, I must have naught beside);
But, if one little casement parted wide,
The gust of His approach would clash it to.
Fear wist not to evade as Love wist to pursue.
Across the margent of the world I fled,
And troubled the gold gateways of the stars,
Smiting for shelter on their clanged bars;
Fretting to dulcet jars
And silvern chatter the pale ports o' the moon.
I said to dawn: Be sudden; to eve: Be soon;
With thy young skiey blossoms heap me over
From this tremendous Lover!
Float thy vague veil about me, lest He see!
I tempted all His servitors, but to find
My own betrayal in the constancy,
In faith to Him their fickleness to me,
Their traitorous trueness, and their loyal deceit.
To all swift things for swiftness did I sue;
Clung to the whistling mane of every wind.
But whether they swept, smoothly fleet,
The long savannahs of the blue;
Or whether, Thunder-driven,
They clanged His chariot 'thwart a heaven,
Plashy with flying lightnings round the spurn o' their feet—
Fear wist not to evade as Love wist to pursue.
Still with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbed pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
Came on the following Feet,
And a Voice above their beat—
"Naught shelters thee, who wilt not shelter Me."
I sought no more that after which I strayed
In face of man or maid;
But He still within the little children's eyes
Seems something, something that replies,
They at least are for me, surely for me!
I turned me to them very wistfully;
But, just as their young eyes grew sudden fair
With dawning answers there,
Their angel plucked them from me by the hair.
"Come then, ye other children, Nature's-share
With me" (said I); "Your delicate fellowship;
Let me greet you lip to lip,
Let me twine with you caresses,
Wantoning
With our Lady-Mother's vagrant tresses, Banqueting
With her in her wind-walled palace,
Underneath her azured dais,
Quaffing, as your taintless way is,
From a chalice
Lucent-weeping out of the dayspring."
So it was done:
I in their delicate fellowship was one—
Drew the bolt of Nature's secrecies.
I knew all the swift importings
On the wilful face of skies;
I knew how the clouds arise,
Spumed of the wild sea-snortings;
All that is born or dies
Rose and drooped with; make them shapers
Of mine own moods, or wailful or divine—
With them joyed and was bereaven.
I was heavy with the even,
When she lit her glimmering tapers
Round the day's dead sanctities.
I laughed in the morning's eyes
I triumphed and I saddened with all weather,
Heaven and I wept together,
And its sweet tears were salt with mortal mine;
Against the red throb of its sunset-heart
I laid my own to beat,
And share commingling heat;
But not by that, by that, was eased my human smart.
In vain my tears were wet on Heaven's grey cheek.
For ah;
we know not what each other says.
These things and I;
in sound I speak—
Their sound it but their stir, they speak by silences.
Nature, poor stepdame, cannot slake my drouth;
Let her, if she would owe me,
Drop yon blue bosom-veil of sky, and show me
The breasts o' her tenderness:
Never did any milk of hers once bless
My thirsting mouth.
Nigh and nigh draws the chase,
With unperturbed pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
And past those noised Feet
A Voice comes yet more fleet—
"Lo! naught contents thee, who contents not Me."
Naked I wait Thy love's uplifted stroke!
My harness piece by piece Thou hast hewn from me,
And smitten me to my knee;
I am defenceless utterly.
I slept, methinks, and woke,
And, slowly gazing, find me stripped in sleep.
In the rash lustihead of my young powers
I shook the pillaring hours
and pulled my life upon me; grimed with smears,
I stand amid the dust o' the mounded years—
My mangled youth lies dead beneath the heap.
My days have crackled and gone up in smoke,
Have puffed and burst as sun-starts on a stream;
Yea, faileth now even dream
The dreamer, and the lute the lutanist;
Even the linked fantasies, in whose blossomy twist
I swung the earth a trinket at my wrist,
Are yielding; cords of all too weak account
For earth, with heavy griefs so overplussed.
Ah; is Thy love indeed
A weed, albeit an amaranthine weed,
Suffering no flowers except its own to mount?
Ah; must—
Designer infinite! —
Ah; must Thou char the wood ere Thou canst limn with it?
My freshness spent its wavering shower i' the dust;
And now my heart is as a broken fount,
Wherein tear-drippings stagnate, spilt down ever
From the dank thoughts that shiver
Upon the sighful branches of my mind;
Such is; what is to be?
The pulp so bitter, how shall taste the rind?
I dimly guess what Time in mists confounds;
Yet ever and anon a trumpet sounds
From the hid battlements of Eternity;
Those shaken mists a space unsettle, then
Round the half-glimpsed turrents slowly wash again.
But not ere him who summoneth
I first have seen, enwound
With glooming robes purpureal, cypress-encrowned;
His name I know, and what his trumpet saith.
Whether man's heart or life it be which yields
Thee harvest, must Thy harvest fields
Be dunged with rotten death?
Now of that long pursuit
Comes on at hand the bruit;
That Voice is round me like a bursting sea:
"And is thy earth so marred,
Shattered in shard on shard?
Lo, all things fly thee, for thou fliest Me!
Strange, piteous, futile thing,
Wherefore should any set thee love apart?
Seeing none but I makes much of naught" (He said),
"And human love needs human meriting:
How hast thou merited—
Of all man's clotted clay the dingiest clot?
Alack, thou knowest not
How little worthy of any love thou art!
Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee,
Save Me, save only Me?
All which I took from thee I did but take,
Not for thy harms,
But just that thou might'st seek it in My arms.
All which thy child's mistake
Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home:
Rise, clasp My hand, and come."
Halts by me that footfall:
Is my gloom, after all,
Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly?
"Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,
I am He Whom thou seekest!
Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me."
Family, Humility, Love, and Forgiveness - 1 John 3, 2 Corinthians 5
Click here to read 1 John 3
(The text also appears in bold at the end of this entry)
The love that we have for our brothers is the evidence of our faith in Jesus. If we truly belong to God, that will be evidenced in our life by the way we treat our brothers and sisters.
This passage is clearly talking about a spiritual brother and sisterhood. Since the writer refers to us as brothers, and distinguishes us from the world, we are clearly speaking of the unity of faith. However, the example given is that of Cain, and his hatred of his brother. The unity between those of faith is literally compared to that of an actual family relationship. Disunity is shown as a literal example of murder of a brother by a brother.
The writer tells us not to be surprised if the world hates us, saying that Cain hated Abel for his righteousness. However, it also turns that example on its head, and reminds us that it is that relationship that is the very evidence of whether our faith is true. Those who love the brothers and sisters in the church share in their faith. Those who do not are of the world. There is no way around it. If we claim to love Jesus, we must love each other.
Finally, the evidence of the love that is the evidence of our faith is demonstrative. It is generous. It is real. To simply say that we love each other is not enough. We help one another when we are in need. If we do not, we’re blowing smoke.
Love undemonstrated is not love. Faith in a God of love without mutual love for others is not faith.
If we are not demonstrably and generously loving, we are not actual following Jesus. Without evidence of Jesus’ love in our lives, we cannot claim to be Christians.
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Click here to read 2 Corinthians 5
(The text also appears in bold at the end of this entry)
It is the life of a Christian to minister reconciliation to the world.
To minister means to serve. Reconciliation is the bringing back together of two parties for the restoration of their broken relationship.
This service in the world is to all and for all. We live as those who have been reconciled to God, demonstrating a changed life to those around us. Since we carry the spirit of God in us, we seek to live humbly with everyone. We demonstrate this reconciled life by seeking reconciliation with people in this lifetime. We have been forgiven. We forgive.
We also speak of reconciliation, and offer the opportunity to be reconciled to others. We do not prejudge anyone. Jesus died for everyone, and all are equally loved by God. There is no one that has not been called, no one to whom the life of Christ has not been offered. We see people through the eyes of Jesus, dearly loved and dearly valued by their Creator and Redeemer.
We speak and act on behalf of Jesus, so that those who do not know him can come to know him through us.
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1 John 3 (New International Version 1984)
1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. 9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.
11 This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15 Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.
16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 19 This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20 whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.
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2 Corinthians 5 (New International Version 1984)
1 Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, 3 because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7 We live by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
11 Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. 12 We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. 13 If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
(The text also appears in bold at the end of this entry)
The love that we have for our brothers is the evidence of our faith in Jesus. If we truly belong to God, that will be evidenced in our life by the way we treat our brothers and sisters.
This passage is clearly talking about a spiritual brother and sisterhood. Since the writer refers to us as brothers, and distinguishes us from the world, we are clearly speaking of the unity of faith. However, the example given is that of Cain, and his hatred of his brother. The unity between those of faith is literally compared to that of an actual family relationship. Disunity is shown as a literal example of murder of a brother by a brother.
The writer tells us not to be surprised if the world hates us, saying that Cain hated Abel for his righteousness. However, it also turns that example on its head, and reminds us that it is that relationship that is the very evidence of whether our faith is true. Those who love the brothers and sisters in the church share in their faith. Those who do not are of the world. There is no way around it. If we claim to love Jesus, we must love each other.
Finally, the evidence of the love that is the evidence of our faith is demonstrative. It is generous. It is real. To simply say that we love each other is not enough. We help one another when we are in need. If we do not, we’re blowing smoke.
Love undemonstrated is not love. Faith in a God of love without mutual love for others is not faith.
If we are not demonstrably and generously loving, we are not actual following Jesus. Without evidence of Jesus’ love in our lives, we cannot claim to be Christians.
+
Click here to read 2 Corinthians 5
(The text also appears in bold at the end of this entry)
It is the life of a Christian to minister reconciliation to the world.
To minister means to serve. Reconciliation is the bringing back together of two parties for the restoration of their broken relationship.
This service in the world is to all and for all. We live as those who have been reconciled to God, demonstrating a changed life to those around us. Since we carry the spirit of God in us, we seek to live humbly with everyone. We demonstrate this reconciled life by seeking reconciliation with people in this lifetime. We have been forgiven. We forgive.
We also speak of reconciliation, and offer the opportunity to be reconciled to others. We do not prejudge anyone. Jesus died for everyone, and all are equally loved by God. There is no one that has not been called, no one to whom the life of Christ has not been offered. We see people through the eyes of Jesus, dearly loved and dearly valued by their Creator and Redeemer.
We speak and act on behalf of Jesus, so that those who do not know him can come to know him through us.
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1 John 3 (New International Version 1984)
1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. 9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.
11 This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15 Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.
16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 19 This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20 whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.
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2 Corinthians 5 (New International Version 1984)
1 Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, 3 because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7 We live by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
11 Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. 12 We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. 13 If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
On Jacob - The hardest decision I ever made - Personal thoughts on family, humility, forgiveness, and reconciliation
Jacob's story of betrayal, travel, manipulation, and family tension reminds me of when Kate and I were first engaged. Soon after we’d announced our engagement, Kate was living back with her parents in Tennessee, while I prepared for our wedding here in Canada. Completely unexpectedly, Kate’s parents presented us with a very serious letter saying that they did not think we were ready to be married, reversing their previous blessing. They asked us to wait at least a year, each of us going to school or working on our separate sides of the continent. They told us that if we were going to get married before this, they would not approve, and would not attend the wedding.
We were crushed. A year is a very long time to be separated from a fiancée. We had been more sure of our plans to wed than either of us had ever been of anything in our life before that time.
Still, we decided to wait.
Two things affected our decision. The first was a recognition that marriage really is a huge decision with life altering consequences. We knew that we were young and in love. We decided to interpret very conservatively the scriptural directives for children to obey their parents. We decided that as long as Kate was living at home, and receiving the benefit of her parent’s support, she could legitimately be considered a child. If not, to listen to her parent’s advice certainly honoured them, another scriptural direction given to all, not just children. We decided that even though we were sure, it was entirely possible that Kate’s parents were seeing something we did not. If they were wrong, it was a year of pain to follow their direction. If they were right, it was a lifetime of misery to disobey.
The second reason we decided to wait was because of our desire for a continued growing and healthy relationship with the grandparents of our children. We knew that the rift that could be created by having a wedding without their involvement could take years to heal, or may never heal at all. Considering the physical distance Kate was already prepared to put between herself and her parents in order to marry me, we did not want to compound the difficulty with an emotional distance as well.
We were in complete and total agreement on this decision. We were convicted. This was probably the hardest decision that we’ve ever had to make in our entire lives. Yet, there is hardly a single decision in our lives that we are more sure was the right one. Even if it had gone badly, even if it had not had a good result, it was right for us to do.
Fortunately, within ten days of our agreement, Kate’s parents relented. It was a very long week for us, because as far as we knew it was just the first ten days of 365. In hindsight, it was a blink. Kate’s parents admitted that it was our firm resolve to listen to their advice that largely resulted in their change of mind. Our decision had been so mature, and our willingness to delay gratification so dramatic, that they recognized we were probably more ready for marriage than they had first thought. They blessed our marriage, and attended the ceremony.
To this day, I still think of how this may have all turned out differently. I believe that the consequences of disregarding Kate’s parents would have still been felt in our lives today. This was a hinge in time, a significant moment for us, where everything could have changed.
This is the story of Jacob’s life. He is a sneak and a liar, and every lie he makes only causes his life to turn out worse. Though he is consistently given opportunities to give up and place his life in God’s hands, he spends his life striving to make good for himself. And failing.
I am convinced that reconciliation, forgiveness, and grace are better than offense and division, even when they are costly.
We were crushed. A year is a very long time to be separated from a fiancée. We had been more sure of our plans to wed than either of us had ever been of anything in our life before that time.
Still, we decided to wait.
Two things affected our decision. The first was a recognition that marriage really is a huge decision with life altering consequences. We knew that we were young and in love. We decided to interpret very conservatively the scriptural directives for children to obey their parents. We decided that as long as Kate was living at home, and receiving the benefit of her parent’s support, she could legitimately be considered a child. If not, to listen to her parent’s advice certainly honoured them, another scriptural direction given to all, not just children. We decided that even though we were sure, it was entirely possible that Kate’s parents were seeing something we did not. If they were wrong, it was a year of pain to follow their direction. If they were right, it was a lifetime of misery to disobey.
The second reason we decided to wait was because of our desire for a continued growing and healthy relationship with the grandparents of our children. We knew that the rift that could be created by having a wedding without their involvement could take years to heal, or may never heal at all. Considering the physical distance Kate was already prepared to put between herself and her parents in order to marry me, we did not want to compound the difficulty with an emotional distance as well.
We were in complete and total agreement on this decision. We were convicted. This was probably the hardest decision that we’ve ever had to make in our entire lives. Yet, there is hardly a single decision in our lives that we are more sure was the right one. Even if it had gone badly, even if it had not had a good result, it was right for us to do.
Fortunately, within ten days of our agreement, Kate’s parents relented. It was a very long week for us, because as far as we knew it was just the first ten days of 365. In hindsight, it was a blink. Kate’s parents admitted that it was our firm resolve to listen to their advice that largely resulted in their change of mind. Our decision had been so mature, and our willingness to delay gratification so dramatic, that they recognized we were probably more ready for marriage than they had first thought. They blessed our marriage, and attended the ceremony.
To this day, I still think of how this may have all turned out differently. I believe that the consequences of disregarding Kate’s parents would have still been felt in our lives today. This was a hinge in time, a significant moment for us, where everything could have changed.
This is the story of Jacob’s life. He is a sneak and a liar, and every lie he makes only causes his life to turn out worse. Though he is consistently given opportunities to give up and place his life in God’s hands, he spends his life striving to make good for himself. And failing.
I am convinced that reconciliation, forgiveness, and grace are better than offense and division, even when they are costly.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Karma's a Bitch - Genesis 31
(Click here to read Genesis 31)
Karma’s a Bitch - Genesis 31
"Changing my wages ten times" - there we go. This is probably why Jacob has remained with Laban all this time.
Whatever trickery he used to keep Jacob there the first time, it seems he kept it up. The switch with Rachel and Leah was just the beginning. In that case, Jacob was probably something like a slave. Laban has prospered because of his oppression of Jacob.
Laban was obligated to hold onto the bride price of his daughters, presumably a garnishing of fourteen years wages, as an insurance in case they ever needed it. If Jacob were to die, for example, Laban would have the means to support his wives after death. If the "money" was never used, it would go to Rachel and Leah after his death. Since he spent it, they lost their inheritance.
This loss of inheritance is yet another example of Jacob receiving his comeuppance. Just as he swindled Esau out of his inheritance, so also has his family lost theirs by deception.
Jacob deceived Laban in order to get away. He ran from his brother, and now he is running from his uncle.
Rachel stole the household gods. These were probably important to them. They are a manipulative, paganistic family. Many of the gods at this time were used to manipulate fertility. Considering the importance of fertility and childbearing in this family, it’s very likely that these are the idols she stole.
Rachel sat on the gods and said she was having her period. This is likely another slightly comedic moment in the narrative of Joseph, giving the reader a nudge and a wink on the impotence of these gods.
Jacob made another marking stone. Jacob lifts a lot of stones in his lifetime.
Gen 28:18,35:20
In his twenty years with Laban, Jacob experienced a deceptive masquerade (Leah for Rachel), a manipulative food swap (mandrakes), and a loss of inheritance (Laban spent his wife's bride price. All he had done to his family was done to him.
Two things are notable in the reversal.
First, though Laban attempted to swindle payment and inheritance from Jacob, Jacob still made off quite well. God makes it clear to Jacob that this is because of his blessing, not because of Jacob's cunning.
Secondly, Jacob deceived Laban as he ran away. The story shows Jacob unchanged in twenty years, even after experiencing all he had. He continues to live as a deceiver and a sneak. His wife steals gods from her father. His family lives in lies, theft, and manipulation.
What instead if he were to learn to put his life in God's hands?
Karma’s a Bitch - Genesis 31
"Changing my wages ten times" - there we go. This is probably why Jacob has remained with Laban all this time.
Whatever trickery he used to keep Jacob there the first time, it seems he kept it up. The switch with Rachel and Leah was just the beginning. In that case, Jacob was probably something like a slave. Laban has prospered because of his oppression of Jacob.
Laban was obligated to hold onto the bride price of his daughters, presumably a garnishing of fourteen years wages, as an insurance in case they ever needed it. If Jacob were to die, for example, Laban would have the means to support his wives after death. If the "money" was never used, it would go to Rachel and Leah after his death. Since he spent it, they lost their inheritance.
This loss of inheritance is yet another example of Jacob receiving his comeuppance. Just as he swindled Esau out of his inheritance, so also has his family lost theirs by deception.
Jacob deceived Laban in order to get away. He ran from his brother, and now he is running from his uncle.
Rachel stole the household gods. These were probably important to them. They are a manipulative, paganistic family. Many of the gods at this time were used to manipulate fertility. Considering the importance of fertility and childbearing in this family, it’s very likely that these are the idols she stole.
Rachel sat on the gods and said she was having her period. This is likely another slightly comedic moment in the narrative of Joseph, giving the reader a nudge and a wink on the impotence of these gods.
Jacob made another marking stone. Jacob lifts a lot of stones in his lifetime.
Gen 28:18,35:20
In his twenty years with Laban, Jacob experienced a deceptive masquerade (Leah for Rachel), a manipulative food swap (mandrakes), and a loss of inheritance (Laban spent his wife's bride price. All he had done to his family was done to him.
Two things are notable in the reversal.
First, though Laban attempted to swindle payment and inheritance from Jacob, Jacob still made off quite well. God makes it clear to Jacob that this is because of his blessing, not because of Jacob's cunning.
Secondly, Jacob deceived Laban as he ran away. The story shows Jacob unchanged in twenty years, even after experiencing all he had. He continues to live as a deceiver and a sneak. His wife steals gods from her father. His family lives in lies, theft, and manipulation.
What instead if he were to learn to put his life in God's hands?
Ironic - Alanis Morissette - Video and Lyrics
Before you begin (IMPORTANT)
Anyone tempted to argue about the meaning of the word IRONIC, must first go to this link and read the Oatmeal's entry on the common uses of the word.
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Jacob, the younger son, poses as his brother and deceives his father.
Years later, he wakes up next to the older sister of the woman he'd thought he'd married the day before.
He manipulates his brother with a bowl of soup to purchase his birthright.
Later, his services are bought by his wife for a handful of mandrakes.
He steals his brother's inheritance.
His wife's inheritance are stolen from them.
And on. And on.
An old man turned ninety-eight
He won the lottery and died the next day
It's a black fly in your Chardonnay
It's a death row pardon two minutes too late
And isn't it ironic... don't you think
It's like rain on your wedding day
It's a free ride when you've already paid
It's the good advice that you just didn't take
Who would've thought... it figures
Mr. Play It Safe was afraid to fly
He packed his suitcase and kissed his kids goodbye
He waited his whole damn life to take that flight
And as the plane crashed down he thought
"Well isn't this nice..."
And isn't it ironic... don't you think
It's like rain on your wedding day
It's a free ride when you've already paid
It's the good advice that you just didn't take
Who would've thought... it figures
Well life has a funny way of sneaking up on you
When you think everything's okay and everything's going right
And life has a funny way of helping you out when
You think everything's gone wrong and everything blows up
In your face
A traffic jam when you're already late
A no-smoking sign on your cigarette break
It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife
It's meeting the man of my dreams
And then meeting his beautiful wife
And isn't it ironic...don't you think
A little too ironic...and, yeah, I really do think...
It's like rain on your wedding day
It's a free ride when you've already paid
It's the good advice that you just didn't take
Who would've thought... it figures
Life has a funny way of sneaking up on you
Life has a funny, funny way of helping you out
Helping you out
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
A MidGenesis Night’s Sex Comedy - Genesis 29 and 30
(Click this link for a more thorough exploration by Kate Birss of what Genesis 29 and 30 say about the relationships of Jacob and his wives and his sons.)
Let the soap opera begin!
All of the elements of Jacob’s story are turned around on him in the next few chapters. In an almost comedic parody of his life so far, he experiences the deceptions and traps that he has so far been inflicting on others.
Jacob deceived his father by pretending to be his brother. He is deceived by Leah, who is pretending to be her sister. Yikes.
Against tradition, Jacob was given preference as the younger son because of his deception. According to tradition, but against expectation, Leah is given preference over Rachel as the older daughter.
Jacob’s preferential treatment by his mother over his brother was to his advantage. Now he has two wives, sisters to each other, who covet his . . . attention. The story reads like he’s being torn in half.
+
IMPORTANT - Click here to read Genesis 29
Jacob liked Rachel immediately. She was his mother's niece. Maybe she was as beautiful as his mother.
The shepherds explained that everyone needed to be present to move the stone, probably because it was very heavy. But when Jacob saw Rachel, he was suddenly "inspired", and moved the rock himself. He then boldly moves in for a kiss. Smooth.
Then he cries. Not so smooth.
Uncle Laban received Jacob warmly.
Leah had weak eyes - Leah wasn't easy on the eyes.
OR
Leah had delicate eyes, which was nice enough, but RACHEL, she had a lovely form all over.
After seven years of labour, he was ready to make love to his wife, and was eager to do so.
IMPORTANT – “It is not our custom to put the younger before the elder”
How would Jacob have heard this, as the younger son living with the stolen blessing and inheritance of the elder? Is Laban’s character aware of this irony, or only the readers?
He only had to wait another seven days for Rachel, but he had to work another seven years in debt to pay for her.
Barrenness becomes important to the story again.
Jacob and Esau were each favourites of different parents. Now Jacob has a favourite of his wives.
Leah is obviously very distressed by her husband's preference of her sister. It could have taken no less than four years to have these four sons (assuming no daughters), and she is no closer to confidence in her husband's affections by the end than at the beginning.
+
IMPORTANT - Click here to read Genesis 30
Abraham and Sarah were patient for children in barrenness. Isaac prayed for children. Jacob is angry.
Rachel’s demand in verse one, that she be given children or die, is a dark foreshadowing. It remains as ironic as the rest of Jacob’s story.
Both of Jacob’s wives think that having children is a sign of the Lord's favour, and will heal their marriage.
This chapter is weird, again. Jacob seems like a pawn in a game his wives are playing.
Isaac's wife hires him to sleep with her, like a male prostitute, and he does. Leah is as manipulative as Jacob.
Laban uses divination, another manipulation, like his daughter Leah.
Why is Jacob still around and working for him? Has he continued manipulating him to stay this long?
If Jacob had tried to leave before Rachel had had a child, Laban may have still had some right to her as his daughter. Jacob may have lost her. Once she had Joseph, he was free to go with all his wives and children, without fear that Laban would take them. The text shows that the fear was real, since even when he did go, he left secretly.
Jacob is involved in some sort of genetic manipulation combined with witchcraft, or perhaps just witchcraft. Either way, it is more manipulation. Whatever Jacob thought he was doing, the simple breeding details would have worked out as he hoped, without the superstition. Later, God reveals that it was he who directed the process.
The chiastic structure is used again in Jacob’s story, just as it had been in Abraham’s. The beginning and end events in Jacob’s life match each other. The second and second last match, etc, until a central event in the middle of his story. This story of manipulating the breeding of the sheep matches his marriages to Rachel and Leah, whose names sound the same as the Hebrew for “Ewe” and “Cow”.
Let the soap opera begin!
All of the elements of Jacob’s story are turned around on him in the next few chapters. In an almost comedic parody of his life so far, he experiences the deceptions and traps that he has so far been inflicting on others.
Jacob deceived his father by pretending to be his brother. He is deceived by Leah, who is pretending to be her sister. Yikes.
Against tradition, Jacob was given preference as the younger son because of his deception. According to tradition, but against expectation, Leah is given preference over Rachel as the older daughter.
Jacob’s preferential treatment by his mother over his brother was to his advantage. Now he has two wives, sisters to each other, who covet his . . . attention. The story reads like he’s being torn in half.
+
IMPORTANT - Click here to read Genesis 29
Jacob liked Rachel immediately. She was his mother's niece. Maybe she was as beautiful as his mother.
The shepherds explained that everyone needed to be present to move the stone, probably because it was very heavy. But when Jacob saw Rachel, he was suddenly "inspired", and moved the rock himself. He then boldly moves in for a kiss. Smooth.
Then he cries. Not so smooth.
Uncle Laban received Jacob warmly.
Leah had weak eyes - Leah wasn't easy on the eyes.
OR
Leah had delicate eyes, which was nice enough, but RACHEL, she had a lovely form all over.
After seven years of labour, he was ready to make love to his wife, and was eager to do so.
IMPORTANT – “It is not our custom to put the younger before the elder”
How would Jacob have heard this, as the younger son living with the stolen blessing and inheritance of the elder? Is Laban’s character aware of this irony, or only the readers?
He only had to wait another seven days for Rachel, but he had to work another seven years in debt to pay for her.
Barrenness becomes important to the story again.
Jacob and Esau were each favourites of different parents. Now Jacob has a favourite of his wives.
Leah is obviously very distressed by her husband's preference of her sister. It could have taken no less than four years to have these four sons (assuming no daughters), and she is no closer to confidence in her husband's affections by the end than at the beginning.
+
IMPORTANT - Click here to read Genesis 30
Abraham and Sarah were patient for children in barrenness. Isaac prayed for children. Jacob is angry.
Rachel’s demand in verse one, that she be given children or die, is a dark foreshadowing. It remains as ironic as the rest of Jacob’s story.
Both of Jacob’s wives think that having children is a sign of the Lord's favour, and will heal their marriage.
This chapter is weird, again. Jacob seems like a pawn in a game his wives are playing.
Isaac's wife hires him to sleep with her, like a male prostitute, and he does. Leah is as manipulative as Jacob.
Laban uses divination, another manipulation, like his daughter Leah.
Why is Jacob still around and working for him? Has he continued manipulating him to stay this long?
If Jacob had tried to leave before Rachel had had a child, Laban may have still had some right to her as his daughter. Jacob may have lost her. Once she had Joseph, he was free to go with all his wives and children, without fear that Laban would take them. The text shows that the fear was real, since even when he did go, he left secretly.
Jacob is involved in some sort of genetic manipulation combined with witchcraft, or perhaps just witchcraft. Either way, it is more manipulation. Whatever Jacob thought he was doing, the simple breeding details would have worked out as he hoped, without the superstition. Later, God reveals that it was he who directed the process.
The chiastic structure is used again in Jacob’s story, just as it had been in Abraham’s. The beginning and end events in Jacob’s life match each other. The second and second last match, etc, until a central event in the middle of his story. This story of manipulating the breeding of the sheep matches his marriages to Rachel and Leah, whose names sound the same as the Hebrew for “Ewe” and “Cow”.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Genesis, Jesus, and the New Covenant - Hebrews 12 and Romans 9
HEBREWS 12 - OUR GREATER PROMISE
(Read Hebrews 12)
We have a hope and a future in Jesus. His promise is sure. His covenant is marked in his own blood.
At the sound of the blood of Abel calling from the ground, God turned his face and approached his murderer with justice and mercy. Abel’s blood was spilled in rage and jealousy. God responded swiftly, and his brother the murderer found himself both banished and marked for his crime.
Our brother, Jesus Christ, died unjustly at the hands of evil men. It was for our sin that he went willingly to the cross. Our hands are stained as red as Cain’s. Jesus blood cries out for justice for this crime. But for us, he receives the banishment. His voice cries to God in anguish for being abandoned. The mark is placed on us, the mark of Christ that says that we will not be judged for our sin. His blood was shed so ours doesn’t need to be.
So now, we walk in faith in the promise of God’s completed work in us. We have heaven ahead, and his presence with us guiding our steps. We share in the birthright of the only begotten son of God, our brother. The world is as temporary and meaningless as a bowl of lentil stew consumed in fifteen minutes and forgotten. The birthright is ours, but the temptation to trade it is the same as it was for Esau. We must persevere.
His promise is sure. We walk in faith. Christ endured the cross for the joy set before him. We scorn the entanglements of this world for the joy he’s promised us.
ROMANS 9 - THE SPIRITUAL DESCENDANTS OF ABRAHAM
(Read Romans 9)
Paul, the writer of this passage, loves the people of Israel deeply. He is descended from Abraham, as is Jesus. He is heartbroken for those who would have God revealed so clearly to them for so many years, yet reject the promise when the Promised one comes. He recognizes the beauty and the heritage of his own faith, the laws, the traditions, the stories of the patriarchs in Genesis, which all beautifully illustrate the character and nature of God that was finally revealed in Jesus.
Two examples from Genesis are given for what it means to be a child of Abraham. Though both Ishmael and Isaac are children of Abraham, Isaac is the child of promise born from the power of God, and Ishmael the child born by Abraham’s own efforts. Therefore, it is not by someone’s effort that they are a child of Abraham and inheritor of the promises, but by the power of God. It is the work of the Holy Spirit that regenerates someone to Salvation, not their efforts or good deeds.
More surprising is the second example, of Jacob and Esau. Like Ishmael and Isaac, both are the seed of Abraham. Like Ishmael and Isaac, the second son is preferred before the first. In their case, this chapter says that it is God’s Sovereign choice that preferred Jacob over Esau. When we consider the story in Genesis, it is clear that Esau did despise his own birthright by his own choices and desires. He sold his birthright for stew, and married outside of the family against his parent’s wishes. However, Jacob wasn’t much better. For most of his life, Jacob was a sneaky and deceptive man, gaining wealth and blessing by his own efforts. However, the story of his life was one of God pursuing him relentlessly, chasing him down and revealing himself again and again until Jacob finally walked away limping, body torn but spirit whole.
In the case of Jacob and Esau, we don’t need to ask why God rejected Esau, but why he chose either of them at all. The story is the same as his calling of Abraham. Genesis certainly gives us no reason why God would do so. He wanted to reveal himself to the world, and Abraham was the one who was the first to begin receiving this revelation by God’s covenant. There wasn’t anything particularly special about him. What made him special was God’s covenant, made in God’s power.
We must be careful to remember the entire context of this chapter. The writer begins by mourning the lack of faith of one group of people, and celebrating the universality of God’s redemption at the end. Yes, God has the sovereign will to choose whoever he will. However, the opportunity to respond in faith to God’s redemptive covenant in Jesus is offered to everybody.
Abraham had faith in God. Isaac had faith in God. Jacob had faith in God. The path of faith for each of them was messy and long, but in every case, they put their trust in God, they put action to their faith, and God established his covenant with each of them. So it is not the genetic material that makes a child of Abraham. Jesus is Abraham’s seed, and every person on earth can now be adopted into that family, no matter who their parents may be.
Whether Ishmael, Esau, or Israel, all come to God on equal ground. We are equally made in God’s image, equally fallen, equally loved unconditionally.
(Read Hebrews 12)
We have a hope and a future in Jesus. His promise is sure. His covenant is marked in his own blood.
At the sound of the blood of Abel calling from the ground, God turned his face and approached his murderer with justice and mercy. Abel’s blood was spilled in rage and jealousy. God responded swiftly, and his brother the murderer found himself both banished and marked for his crime.
Our brother, Jesus Christ, died unjustly at the hands of evil men. It was for our sin that he went willingly to the cross. Our hands are stained as red as Cain’s. Jesus blood cries out for justice for this crime. But for us, he receives the banishment. His voice cries to God in anguish for being abandoned. The mark is placed on us, the mark of Christ that says that we will not be judged for our sin. His blood was shed so ours doesn’t need to be.
So now, we walk in faith in the promise of God’s completed work in us. We have heaven ahead, and his presence with us guiding our steps. We share in the birthright of the only begotten son of God, our brother. The world is as temporary and meaningless as a bowl of lentil stew consumed in fifteen minutes and forgotten. The birthright is ours, but the temptation to trade it is the same as it was for Esau. We must persevere.
His promise is sure. We walk in faith. Christ endured the cross for the joy set before him. We scorn the entanglements of this world for the joy he’s promised us.
ROMANS 9 - THE SPIRITUAL DESCENDANTS OF ABRAHAM
(Read Romans 9)
Paul, the writer of this passage, loves the people of Israel deeply. He is descended from Abraham, as is Jesus. He is heartbroken for those who would have God revealed so clearly to them for so many years, yet reject the promise when the Promised one comes. He recognizes the beauty and the heritage of his own faith, the laws, the traditions, the stories of the patriarchs in Genesis, which all beautifully illustrate the character and nature of God that was finally revealed in Jesus.
Two examples from Genesis are given for what it means to be a child of Abraham. Though both Ishmael and Isaac are children of Abraham, Isaac is the child of promise born from the power of God, and Ishmael the child born by Abraham’s own efforts. Therefore, it is not by someone’s effort that they are a child of Abraham and inheritor of the promises, but by the power of God. It is the work of the Holy Spirit that regenerates someone to Salvation, not their efforts or good deeds.
More surprising is the second example, of Jacob and Esau. Like Ishmael and Isaac, both are the seed of Abraham. Like Ishmael and Isaac, the second son is preferred before the first. In their case, this chapter says that it is God’s Sovereign choice that preferred Jacob over Esau. When we consider the story in Genesis, it is clear that Esau did despise his own birthright by his own choices and desires. He sold his birthright for stew, and married outside of the family against his parent’s wishes. However, Jacob wasn’t much better. For most of his life, Jacob was a sneaky and deceptive man, gaining wealth and blessing by his own efforts. However, the story of his life was one of God pursuing him relentlessly, chasing him down and revealing himself again and again until Jacob finally walked away limping, body torn but spirit whole.
In the case of Jacob and Esau, we don’t need to ask why God rejected Esau, but why he chose either of them at all. The story is the same as his calling of Abraham. Genesis certainly gives us no reason why God would do so. He wanted to reveal himself to the world, and Abraham was the one who was the first to begin receiving this revelation by God’s covenant. There wasn’t anything particularly special about him. What made him special was God’s covenant, made in God’s power.
We must be careful to remember the entire context of this chapter. The writer begins by mourning the lack of faith of one group of people, and celebrating the universality of God’s redemption at the end. Yes, God has the sovereign will to choose whoever he will. However, the opportunity to respond in faith to God’s redemptive covenant in Jesus is offered to everybody.
Abraham had faith in God. Isaac had faith in God. Jacob had faith in God. The path of faith for each of them was messy and long, but in every case, they put their trust in God, they put action to their faith, and God established his covenant with each of them. So it is not the genetic material that makes a child of Abraham. Jesus is Abraham’s seed, and every person on earth can now be adopted into that family, no matter who their parents may be.
Whether Ishmael, Esau, or Israel, all come to God on equal ground. We are equally made in God’s image, equally fallen, equally loved unconditionally.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Jacob’s Ladder - Genesis 28
(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.
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.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Jacob steals Esau's Blessing - Masquerades, Reversals, and Wordplays - Genesis 27
(Click here to read Genesis 27)
There is so much deception in this family. All this distrust is nearly tearing them apart. Covetousness has led to scheming has led to hostility has led to fear has led to a breakdown of the family.
In this chapter, Rebekah schemes with her favourite son Jacob, against her husband, Isaac, to help Jacob by deception to steal the blessing of his older twin brother, Esau.
Isaac thinks he is going to die soon. He's actually going to live to be 180, at least another fifty years.
Isaac is blind. His blindness reminds us also of how he has been so deceived by his own family. He has been made blind.
The impotence of this patriarch is juxtaposed with his wife, Rebekah, who is always described as very busy and, productive, and energetic.
Isaac intended to give Esau his blessing.
Rebekah is the one behind the deception. Lady Macbeth.
Jacob is reluctant to participate in the deception, but not for moral reasons. He is afraid of a curse.
"Just the way his father liked it" – this is repeated three times.
The blessing of the father was very highly valued.
Esau arrives just on Jacob's heels, a reversal of their birth.
Rebekah sends Jacob away for his safety.
Rebekah clearly is distressed because of Esau's wives. This may have been a motivator in her deception.
The ethnicity of the children of Abraham is always important in the text.
Reversals of fortune and wordplays on names are common clever literary tricks used in Jacob’s story.
In the last chapter, Isaac put on a false identity, but was discovered when he was seen "Isaac-ing" (playing, caressing, laughing) with his wife.
In this chapter, Jacob put on a false identity, but is discovered when he is caught "Jacob-ing" (deceiving, supplanting) against his brother.
In chapter 29, Leah will masquerade as Rachel, another reversal in Jacob’s life. Everything he does is shown being done to him.
There is so much deception in this family. All this distrust is nearly tearing them apart. Covetousness has led to scheming has led to hostility has led to fear has led to a breakdown of the family.
In this chapter, Rebekah schemes with her favourite son Jacob, against her husband, Isaac, to help Jacob by deception to steal the blessing of his older twin brother, Esau.
Isaac thinks he is going to die soon. He's actually going to live to be 180, at least another fifty years.
Isaac is blind. His blindness reminds us also of how he has been so deceived by his own family. He has been made blind.
The impotence of this patriarch is juxtaposed with his wife, Rebekah, who is always described as very busy and, productive, and energetic.
Isaac intended to give Esau his blessing.
Rebekah is the one behind the deception. Lady Macbeth.
Jacob is reluctant to participate in the deception, but not for moral reasons. He is afraid of a curse.
"Just the way his father liked it" – this is repeated three times.
"The patties are cut square, so the meat hangs over the edge of the bun. People like that." – Dave Matthew, founder of Wendy’s. Repeated way more than three times.
I can’t read this chapter without imagining Rebekah explaining to her sons that they need to cut their father’s meat square, so it hangs over the bun.
The blessing of the father was very highly valued.
Esau arrives just on Jacob's heels, a reversal of their birth.
Rebekah sends Jacob away for his safety.
Rebekah clearly is distressed because of Esau's wives. This may have been a motivator in her deception.
The ethnicity of the children of Abraham is always important in the text.
Reversals of fortune and wordplays on names are common clever literary tricks used in Jacob’s story.
In the last chapter, Isaac put on a false identity, but was discovered when he was seen "Isaac-ing" (playing, caressing, laughing) with his wife.
In this chapter, Jacob put on a false identity, but is discovered when he is caught "Jacob-ing" (deceiving, supplanting) against his brother.
In chapter 29, Leah will masquerade as Rachel, another reversal in Jacob’s life. Everything he does is shown being done to him.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Isaac, Rebekah, and Abimelech – Deception Runs in the Family - Genesis 26
(Read Genesis 26)
(Read about Abraham, Sarah, and Abimelech here.)
The freaky and weird story so far:
In Genesis 12, Abraham (Abram at the time) makes the dubious decision to enter Egypt with the half-true story that his attractive wife Sarah (Sarai at the time) is his sister, not his wife. The king takes her in as his wife, finds out the truth, and sends the couple away rich. In Genesis 20, Abraham and Sarah pull the same ruse on Abimelech, king of the Philistines. This time, God closes the wombs of all of Abimelech’s household, and doesn’t allow him to consummate his unlawful relationship with Sarah. Angry at the deception and afraid of its consequences, Abimelech asks Abraham to pray for him, and sends the couple away with blessing.
Now we see Abraham’s son attempting the same trick again with his wife in this chapter.
Comparisons to Abraham:
Abraham was told to GO to the land God showed him. Isaac is told to STAY.
In chapter 24, Abraham had made his servant swear an oath because Isaac was not to ever leave the land God promised.
Abraham left the Promised Land for Egypt during a famine.
Isaac is told not to go to Egypt during a famine.
Abraham approaches the king of Egypt for help in a famine. Isaac approaches the king of the Philistines during a famine.
Abraham lied to the Egyptian king (during a famine), and the Philistine king (not during a famine), about his wife being his sister. Isaac lied to the Philistines (during a famine) about his wife being his sister.
God touched the first king with a plague.
God did not allow the second king to touch Sarah.
The third king (same king, second time), did not allow anyone to touch Isaac or Rebekah.
Sarah was taken by two kings because of her husband's lie. Rebekah was not.
Abraham's wealth and the size of his family made him have to separate from his relative Lot because of disputes over land. Isaac's wealth and family size made him have to separate from Abimelech because of disputes over water.
Abraham and Sarah were half siblings. Isaac and Rebekah are cousins.
Right after God made his promise to Isaac, he is too afraid of the Philistines to tell them the truth about Rebekah. Or was he hoping to get rich on the lie, as his father had?
Abimelech watches Isaac and Rebekah. He didn't take Rebekah in. Had he learned his lesson after Sarah? Had this family gained a reputation for this lie?
Abimelech takes protecting Isaac and Rebekah very seriously. You can hear echoes of the previous engagement in the urgency of his words. He knows not to mess with children of Abraham.
Isaac became wealthy, just like his father.
Isaac pretends that he and Rebekah are people that they are not, but are discovered when he is caught "playing" with her. This is another wordplay with names, like Jacob with Deceiver, and Esau with Red Stew. Isaac’s name is similar to “play” and “sport”. Remember that he was names for laughter. This is also comparable to the use of the word “laughing”, “sporting” or mocking” used of Ishmael before he is sent away.
The Covenant
vv3-6 - God affirmed to Isaac the covenant he made with Abraham, in their fullest and latest form, including that it was because of Abraham's obedience, which was added after his willingness to sacrifice Isaac.
The addition to this covenant is that it is dependent on obedience to commands, decrees, and laws. This refers to the law given at Sinai, and that is how the readers would have understood it. The word Law in this passage means Torah.
However, in this sentence, the word uses the plural form, which is unusual, and does not specifically refer to the Mosaic Law alone. The writer is probably sending a message to the Israelite readers regarding the law, but another less specific message to Abraham in the story, like a double entendre.
Isaac was willing to dig three wells and only use the third rather than fight with his neighbours.
God's blessing on Isaac leads him to peace with his neighbours where there could have been hostility.
Isaac sought peace. He did not return evil for evil.
Esau married two women who were not of the promise. This had been very important in Isaac's story.
The text is laying a foundation for Esau to lose the covenant blessing. He despised his birthright (chapter 25). He married women who were not of the promise. Likely, he did not believe in the covenant at all.
(Read about Abraham, Sarah, and Abimelech here.)
The freaky and weird story so far:
In Genesis 12, Abraham (Abram at the time) makes the dubious decision to enter Egypt with the half-true story that his attractive wife Sarah (Sarai at the time) is his sister, not his wife. The king takes her in as his wife, finds out the truth, and sends the couple away rich. In Genesis 20, Abraham and Sarah pull the same ruse on Abimelech, king of the Philistines. This time, God closes the wombs of all of Abimelech’s household, and doesn’t allow him to consummate his unlawful relationship with Sarah. Angry at the deception and afraid of its consequences, Abimelech asks Abraham to pray for him, and sends the couple away with blessing.
Now we see Abraham’s son attempting the same trick again with his wife in this chapter.
Comparisons to Abraham:
Abraham was told to GO to the land God showed him. Isaac is told to STAY.
In chapter 24, Abraham had made his servant swear an oath because Isaac was not to ever leave the land God promised.
Abraham left the Promised Land for Egypt during a famine.
Isaac is told not to go to Egypt during a famine.
Abraham approaches the king of Egypt for help in a famine. Isaac approaches the king of the Philistines during a famine.
Abraham lied to the Egyptian king (during a famine), and the Philistine king (not during a famine), about his wife being his sister. Isaac lied to the Philistines (during a famine) about his wife being his sister.
God touched the first king with a plague.
God did not allow the second king to touch Sarah.
The third king (same king, second time), did not allow anyone to touch Isaac or Rebekah.
Sarah was taken by two kings because of her husband's lie. Rebekah was not.
Abraham's wealth and the size of his family made him have to separate from his relative Lot because of disputes over land. Isaac's wealth and family size made him have to separate from Abimelech because of disputes over water.
Abraham and Sarah were half siblings. Isaac and Rebekah are cousins.
Right after God made his promise to Isaac, he is too afraid of the Philistines to tell them the truth about Rebekah. Or was he hoping to get rich on the lie, as his father had?
Abimelech watches Isaac and Rebekah. He didn't take Rebekah in. Had he learned his lesson after Sarah? Had this family gained a reputation for this lie?
Abimelech takes protecting Isaac and Rebekah very seriously. You can hear echoes of the previous engagement in the urgency of his words. He knows not to mess with children of Abraham.
Isaac became wealthy, just like his father.
Isaac pretends that he and Rebekah are people that they are not, but are discovered when he is caught "playing" with her. This is another wordplay with names, like Jacob with Deceiver, and Esau with Red Stew. Isaac’s name is similar to “play” and “sport”. Remember that he was names for laughter. This is also comparable to the use of the word “laughing”, “sporting” or mocking” used of Ishmael before he is sent away.
The Covenant
vv3-6 - God affirmed to Isaac the covenant he made with Abraham, in their fullest and latest form, including that it was because of Abraham's obedience, which was added after his willingness to sacrifice Isaac.
The addition to this covenant is that it is dependent on obedience to commands, decrees, and laws. This refers to the law given at Sinai, and that is how the readers would have understood it. The word Law in this passage means Torah.
However, in this sentence, the word uses the plural form, which is unusual, and does not specifically refer to the Mosaic Law alone. The writer is probably sending a message to the Israelite readers regarding the law, but another less specific message to Abraham in the story, like a double entendre.
Isaac was willing to dig three wells and only use the third rather than fight with his neighbours.
God's blessing on Isaac leads him to peace with his neighbours where there could have been hostility.
Isaac sought peace. He did not return evil for evil.
Esau married two women who were not of the promise. This had been very important in Isaac's story.
The text is laying a foundation for Esau to lose the covenant blessing. He despised his birthright (chapter 25). He married women who were not of the promise. Likely, he did not believe in the covenant at all.
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