Genesis Post 51 Jacob's Redemption (Chapter 32)

After his peace meal with Laban, Jacob heads out in the morning and is met by angels of God. These same angels, or malachim, are the ones that appeared to Jacob on his way out of the Promised Land, ascending and descending the stairs.  And they probably remain with him, unseen, the entire time he is gone.

Upon this second encounter with them, Jacob names the place Mahanaim.  What was Jacob seeing that he gave the place that name? Two companies of angels? The name means double camp.  

Jacob's life is about to change.

Jacob sends a message to Esau, telling his messengers exactly what to say to his brother in verses 4 and 5:
Speak thus to my lord Esau, ‘Thus your servant Jacob says: “I have dwelt with Laban and stayed there until now. I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, and male and female servants; and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in your sight.” 

Twice in his little speech, Jacob humbly refers to Esau as his lord, which means master.   He is assuring his brother that he has plenty of goods and has no wish to dispossess Esau of anything.

The messengers return with a simple message:

Esau is coming to meet you with 400 men.

Jacob freaks out.

He knows he has the covenant promise to him from God, but he doesn’t have the details.

He must be wondering, is this going to be a big fat war?

Immediately, he divides his camp into two camps.  Remember the prophetic name that Jacob had already given the area upon seeing the angelic messengers?  He formulates a double camp.

He separates the two groups, and puts one toward the front and one toward the back that way at least one of them would survive if Esau attacks.

We then have another biblical first: the first recorded prayer from man to God in verses 9-12.
Then Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the Lord who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your family, and I will deal well with you’: I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which You have shown Your servant; for I crossed over this Jordan with my staff, and now I have become two companies. Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and attack me and the mother with the children. For You said, ‘I will surely treat you well, and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’ ”

Jacob humbly professes his unworthiness, and he respectfully confesses to God his fear of his brother Esau and asks for deliverance from his brother. And twice, he gently reminds the LORD of His covenant promises to him and his offspring.

Don’t be afraid to talk to God about whatever is on your heart. He knows anyway, and yet he wants to hear from us.  I often remind God of His promises when I pray. I have an adult child who is wandering from God, and his name happens to mean the LORD remembers. So you bet I bring his name up to God!

So Jacob then assembles a little present for his brother - over 550 animals - and sends them on ahead in little groups, led by servants, and again tells them exactly what to say to Esau. But Jacob himself remains behind, overnight in the double camp.

Before going to bed, he gathers up his wives and sons and sends them over the ford of Jabbok.  Jabbok means emptying, or pouring forth.

Then what happens? It gets dark.  Verse 24 says,
Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day.

In Hebrew we see a word play that is not evident in the English.

Jacob wrestled with God at the Jabbok river, and they are all almost the same word in Hebrew. Jacob, wrestle, and Jabbok.  It almost sounds like Jacob Jacobed at Jacob.

So much is happening in this wrestling match.

First of all, we are told that the Man wrestles with Jacob, not the other way around.

Jacob wrestles all night with the Man, and is doing really well until the very end. At that point, he gets his hip knocked out of joint by his Opponent.  Ding.

And after wrestling, Jacob asks his Opponent for a blessing.  (Imagine you are a prizefighter, and you've just been knocked out by Mike Tyson.  Hey Mike, can I have a blessing from you?)

His Opponent asks him, what's your name?
(He already knows, of course.)

Can you imagine how Jacob feels when he has to answer?
My name is Jacob.  Heel grabber.  Supplanter.  Deceiver.  

Then the blessing follows in verse 28 with another first mention:
And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.”

His name was changed to Israel, mentioned for the first time here.  It is a name packed with meaning:  means struggles with God, contention, God prevails, and also prince with God.

What a name for Jacob, and for the nation of Israel as well.

Jacob names the place Peniel which means face to face with God.  Jacob is actually wrestling with Yeshua here, in a pre-incarnate appearance.

The Jewish rabbis really struggle with this passage, because if they say that Jacob wrestled with God, then they have to say that God could become a man, and that sounds like the gospel. So they say things like, it was a dream (even though you don’t limp for the rest of your life from just a dream), or that it was Esau‘s guardian angel that Jacob was wrestling with, or it was just an angel that Jacob wrestled with.

The struggling happens at night. It is a dark situation. Jacob wakes up ready to face Esau and his 400 men. Did you ever notice that everything looks better in the daytime?

This account is a picture of our struggles that we have against the flesh, and when we come to the end of ourselves, we surrender. Just a touch from God, and then we are in a position for His blessing!

The wrestler came and blessed Jacob by putting his own name into the new name of Jacob.  In the same way, God in the form of the Holy Spirit, indwells us when we place our trust in Him.

In his life, Jacob contended with a lot of people - with Esau, with Isaac, with Laban, and eventually with his own sons. He usually wins, but this time, he does not come out ahead. Jacob is humbled, brought to the end of himself, and then he is blessed. He is a new creation after the LORD wrestles with him in the dark.

I think of the apostle Paul, and how the LORD wrestled with him on the road to Damascus and changed him. This wrestling and surrendering represents our own born-again experience.

Jacob walked with a limp the rest of his life.  We too walk differently after a touch from the LORD.  We walk for the rest of our life in His strength, not our own.  And yet, until He returns, we still struggle with the flesh.

I've heard people who don't believe in God say that religion is a crutch.  Hmm.  Frankly, they are not far off.  But it isn't religion that is our crutch.  It is the LORD Himself.

One online definition of the word crutch is this: something that a person depends on to help deal with problems.

Yes, He is that.  But He is much, much more than that, too!

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Genesis Post 50 - Jacob Heads Home (Chapter 31)

The last chapter wrapped up with the crazy story of the rods and the livestock.  Through it all, the LORD prospered Jacob.  Exceedingly prosperous, we are told.  The prosperity was not because of the rods, but because it was the LORD's plan.

So now that Jacob is wealthy as heck, the LORD is preparing to return to the Promised Land.

The impetus is the whining of his cousins, the sons of Laban.  They whine to their father that Jacob is basically stealing their inheritance.  (Have you ever noticed that historically speaking, successful Jews have always been hated?)

Alrighty then.  Jacob calls his wives into a meeting and tells them it's time to go.  He explains to them everything that has transpired with Laban and the livestock.  He tells them that the LORD has prospered him in spite of Laban working to the contrary.

Somehow, these ladies still feel like they are getting the short end of the stick in spite of Jacob's wealth in verses 14 and 15:
Then Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, “Is there still any portion or inheritance for us in our father’s house?  Are we not considered strangers by him? For he has sold us, and also completely consumed our money.

So while Laban is away shearing his sheep, Jacob prepares to exit the area.  He loads his wives and kids onto camels and sneaks away.

Three days later, Laban hears about it and is less than thrilled.  He chases Jacob for seven days, finally catching up with him at the mountains of Gilead, which is somewhere in modern day Jordan, east of the Jordan River.

Laban is careful though, because the LORD had sent him a dream, telling him not to speak either good or bad to Jacob (verse 24).

He carefully pitches a fit to Jacob, telling him that he would have thrown a party for him at his departure.

Something in me says, yeah, right.

Then he throws in something strange in verse 30:
And now you have surely gone because you greatly long for your father’s house, but why did you steal my gods?”

Here, then, is the evidence that Laban served both the LORD and idols.  Unholy mixing.

Who knew that Rachel had taken them?  Nobody.  Jacob would never have said what he did to Laban...  kill the person with whom you find them.

And why does Rachel take them?  Because she worships them, too?  No, she steals the household gods because she is ticked at her father for blowing her inheritance (even though they were leaving with great wealth).  We know this because she had just been whining about how her inheritance had been stolen.

Rachel Hides Her Father's Household gods,
by Marc Chagall

In that ancient culture, the household gods represented the leadership and the inheritance of the family. Whoever had possession of the idols was the possessor of this leadership and inheritance.  Archaeological evidence actually shows this.

Rachel is really poking her dad in the eye at this point.  She is getting even.

What Rachel does in regard to these idols showed some fast thinking on her part in verses 34 and 35:
Now Rachel had taken the household idols, put them in the camel’s saddle, and sat on them. And Laban searched all about the tent but did not find them. And she said to her father, “Let it not displease my lord that I cannot rise before you, for the manner of women is with me.” And he searched but did not find the household idols.

I can imagine Laban's reaction... oh, ew, no thanks!

What a picture we are given regarding the uncleanness of idols.  I am reminded of Isaiah 64:6, which says,
But we are all like an unclean thing,
And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags;
We all fade as a leaf,
And our iniquities, like the wind,
Have taken us away.

The Hebrew expression for filthy rags is a little more colorful... it means menstrual rags.

How ironic it is then, that blood of Yeshua makes us clean.  It is one of the great biblical paradoxes!

So what did Rachel ever do with those filthy idols?  We are not told, but I imagine she got rid of them pretty quickly after hearing Jacob's declaration of a death sentence.  And I doubt we will ever see an Indiana Jones movie in search of them.  But these days, you never know...

Jacob pitches his own fit right back at Laban after the futile idol search beginning in verse 36, reminding Laban of the years of service he had given him, and calling Laban on his deceptive practices during those years.

Laban acquiesces and calls for a covenant with Jacob.  They erect a heap of stones as a witness, and Laban covers his bases in verse 53. swearing by the God of Abraham, the god of Nahor, and the god of their father.  Jacob, however, swears by the Fear of Isaac - the LORD.  (Fear means awe or reverence).  Laban gives the heap an Aramaic name, and Jacob gives the heap a Hebrew name, but it means the same thing:  Heap of Witness.

Random heap of stones.  I love rocks.

Jacob then makes a sacrifice on the mountain, and all share in the fellowship meal together.  They remain on the mountain overnight

The chapter ends when Laban kisses all his relatives in the morning and departs with nothing - the very thing he had hoped to leave Jacob with - nothing.

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Genesis Post 49 - Jacob's Wages (Chapter 30)

About halfway through chapter 30, the childbearing saga takes a pause and we now come to the account of Laban and Jacob. and the flocks, beginning in verse 25.

Jacob puts in a transfer request after Joseph is born.  He wants to go home.  His additional seven years of labor has probably just been completed at this point.

Laban knows what side his bread is buttered on.  He knows that his prosperity is due to Jacob.

So he resorts to begging in verses 27-28:
And Laban said to him, “Please stay, if I have found favor in your eyes, for I have learned by experience that the LORD has blessed me for your sake.” Then he said, “Name me your wages, and I will give it.”

The expression learned by experience is actually the Hebrew word nachash, which means to practice divination, observe the signs or omens, or to hiss.  It is actually the same word used of the serpent in Genesis 3.  

Laban divined through magic that the LORD has blessed him.  Laban is mixing up his idols here and attributing them to God.  Scripture tells us that Laban is also a worshipper of idols.

Anyway, Jacob agrees with Laban that, yes, he is the reason Laban has prospered.  But Jacob wants to provide for his own house like any red-blooded man would.  So they work out a deal that really won't cost Laban anything.

Jacob's deal is this:  that he only receives sheep that are speckled, streaked, spotted, or solid dark brown/black, and only goats that are speckled or spotted.

In fact, Laban must think he is getting a sweet deal, as we can see in verse 34:
And Laban said, “Oh, that it were according to your word!” 

In other words, oh heck, yeah!

Speckled and spotted goats were rather rare in the Middle East, as were the dark lambs which were usually solid white.  

And then in verse 35, Laban walks through the flocks and separates all the speckled and striped animals and the brown lambs.  Sneaky Laban then puts these animals in the care of his own sons!  He is going to make sure that not many little spotty-speckly animals come to be via the genetics of their parents.  What a rip-off artist.  Too bad Laban didn't understand genetics and recessive genes, nor the will of the LORD.

Laban and his sons bolt with those animals that should have been Jacob's, putting three days' journey between themselves and Jacob, and leaving Jacob in charge of Laban's solid-color animals.

Then the story gets weird.

In verse 37, Jacob takes rods of trees:  fresh, new branches from white milky trees and almond trees, and then he peels white strips into the rods.  He then sets these strips before the solid flocks as they come to drink water.

In the Hebrew, we see that word for white again twice - Laban.  The same as Laban's name.  Remember how the word for white can mean both purity and deception?  Good grief - these two guys seem to keep going back and forth with their plans of deception.

Somehow Jacob thinks this will make them conceive and bear the spotty animals that he needs.  Was this another ancient superstitious custom, like the mandrakes?  Frankly, I don't know.

Of course, it is not the white strips that cause the animals to reproduce in a way to benefit Jacob, it is the will of God.

People have tried to scientifically reproduce this whole thing with white strips of bark to bring on spotted animals, and it doesn't work.

The word for speckled can also mean to mark by puncturing.

Do we see a prophetic picture here?

In verse 33, Jacob makes  this statement:
So my righteousness will answer for me in time to come, when the subject of my wages comes before you:

Hints of Yeshua are all over the place. 

Wages.  Righteousness.  Almond rod. Wood.  Marked.  Sheep and goats. White (meaning both pure and deception).

A few verses come to my mind.

Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Messiah Yeshua, our Lord.

Psalm 51:7b
Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.

Isaiah 53:5-6
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

The LORD provided a way for Jacob's livelihood, just as He provides a way for our eternal livelihood today through Yeshua, the pure, unspotted Lamb who took upon Himself the marks that we deserve.

There is an interesting modern story regarding Jacob's sheep.  The breed disappeared completely from the Holy Land about 2000 years ago, vacating the land at around the same time the Jews were kicked out in 70 AD.  

A Jewish Canadian couple began raising these sheep on a whim in British Colombia (they were not farmers).  Long story short, God put it on their hearts to bring these sheep home to the Holy Land.  

On November 30, 2016, the first 119 of these sheep landed in Israel.  (How would you have liked to be on that flight?  Time for your meal... and out come bales of hay).  On the Hebrew calendar, the date was the 28th of Cheshvan, the day that Noah exited the ark.  Thirty of the ewes were pregnant.

The first offspring of these sheep were born in May of 2017, the first in the land in nearly 2000 years.

They're baaaaaaaack.

Click here for the continuing story.

Genesis Post 48 - Bring on the Babies! (Chapters 29 and 30)

Chapter 29 wraps up with the birth of Jacob's first four sons.

Verse 31 says, When the LORD saw that Leah was unloved, He opened her womb; but Rachel was barren. 

In verse 32, Leah gives birth to Reuben.  His name means behold, a son.  Poor Leah was crying out for her husband to love her and thought that producing Jacob's firstborn would make it happen.  It did not.

One verse later, she has another baby and calls him Shimon (Simeon), which means heard.  Leah admits that the LORD knows she's unloved by her hubby, and therefore He heard her and blessed her with another son with which to console her.

In verse 34, Leah has a third son, and she believes this will cause Jacob to attach to her.  She names the baby Levi, meaning joined to.  Once again, Leah is disappointed.  

In verse 35, she seems to come to terms with the situation and decides to praise the LORD anyway.  Another baby boy.  Welcome, Yehuda (Judah).

Can I just pause here and talk about the name of Yehuda?

There is a very special Hebrew word, which looks like this:

YHVH - Hashem - the name of the LORD

It is called the tetragrammaton, the very name of the LORD Himself.  Nobody knows how to pronounce it, so you will hear Yahweh, Jehovah, Yehovah, and so on.  If you consider the meanings of the Hebrew letters, it carries the meaning of behold the hand, behold the nail.

To form the name Yehuda, all you have to do is add the Hebrew letter dalet, which represents a door.  Chew on that for awhile.  Hint:  John 10:9.

Yehudah

I know I've said poor Leah numerous times.  But the LORD is faithful to her.  From her come the two tribes that are foundational to God's plan.  Judah and Levi - the kingship and the priesthood.

Leah experiences a pause in childbearing after she has Judah. Judah means praise. We see a picture here.  Sometimes we simply need to stop what we are doing and praise the Lord.

Chapter 30 opens with the exact opposite sentiment from Rachel. She is pitching a fit in verse 1:

Now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister, and said to Jacob, "Give me children, or else I die!"

Rachel is overcome with envy because her sister has babies and she does not. In her jealousy, she does not stop to consider that she is the wife that is loved and cherished by Jacob and that Leah was unloved.

I get it… Having children in that culture was a high honor indeed, especially among Hebrew women - all of whom hoped to give birth to the Seed that was promised back in Genesis 3:15.

But Rachel acts like a spoiled and jealous child.  She casts the blame solidly on Jacob, basically telling him that unless he gives her children, her life is not worth living.

Even he becomes irritated with his beloved wife. He yells at her, telling her that he is not God.

So she responds by giving her maid to Jacob so she can claim Bilhah’s child as her own. (Uh oh, remember Sarah?)

Poor Bilhah, she appears to have no choice in the matter. Her name means troubled.

She produces a son, and Rachel names him Dan, meaning judge. She claims that God has judged her case. 

Not content with one child from her maid, she goes for two.

Back to Jacob’s bed goes the maid Bilhah, and she conceives again.

This time, the gloves come off and Rachel names the child Naphtali, which means intense struggle. For she is now in a wrestling match with her sister.

Not to be outdone, Leah retaliates and gives her maid Zilpah to Jacob.

Is this a daytime soap opera, or what?

Leah names this child Gad, which means a troop comes. Leah means business with this retaliation.

Zilpah has one more child, and Leah names him Asher. Asher means happy, and Leah has decided to be happy because so many will call her blessed.

What I wouldn’t give to be a fly on the wall during conversations between Zilpah and Bilhah. What were their thoughts on this whole scenario?

Zilpah and Bilhah - Did they have any choice?

We now come to a weird story about mandrakes.

Reuben find some mandrakes and Rachel asked Leah for them. Mandrakes were considered a fertility herb, And were also known as love apples. In fact the Hebrew word for mandrake is the same is beloved in the song of Solomon: dodi. It’s the same root word as David, which means beloved. 

Mandrake roots basically look like naked people, thus the folklore that surrounded them in ancient times (and actually continues today among modern pagans). Total superstition.

Mandragora (mandrake) roots

Leah gives Rachel a catty reply in verse 15:

But she said to her, "Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son's mandrakes also?" And Rachel said, "Therefore he will lie with you tonight for your son’s mandrakes.”

(Um, first of all, what the heck does Reuben want with them??)

The plan backfires on Rachel. Leah buys Jacob for the night in exchange for the mandrakes, and it’s Leah that gets pregnant.

Superstition doesn’t work.  God makes babies, mandrakes do not.

Leah names him Issachar, which means wages. She reckons that her new baby is her payment for giving Zilpah to Jacob.

Leah isn’t done. She then bears boy number six in verse 19, and thinking this will cause Jacob to dwell with her, gives him a name that means dwelling: Zebulun.

In verse 21, Leah has her seventh and last baby, and it’s a girl! Her name is Dinah, which I just learned is the feminine form of Dan and means judgment.

Seven babies = completeness for Leah.

Finally, God remembers Rachel and listens to her.  She optimistically names him Yosef (Joseph), which means he will add. She fully expects to have another child, and she will.   Ironically, the root word of Yosef carries a double meaning:  he will add, and he will remove.  Through the birth of Yosef, the LORD has taken away Rachel's reproach.

Whew, that was a whirlwind. In just 28 verses, Jacob has twelve children with four different mothers. Busy guy.

Jacob now has many kids, but he does not have the covenant land which was promised. He needs to get back to the land!

But first, God is going to make him rich. Stay tuned for adventures in prosperity.

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Genesis Post 47 - Family Feuds and Weddings (Chapter 29)

Chapter 29 covers about 20 years and contains a whole lot of action.

It opens up with Jacob departing the place of his dream.  The Hebrew literally says that he lifts his feet, which means that he is quite joyous... he has a spring in his step.  He has just been given the Abrahamic Covenant by the LORD Himself, and now he needs a wife to carry on that covenant.

So what happens next?  Just like his forebears, he comes to a well.  And we have a throwback to a girl showing up at the well, just like Jacob's mother did years before this.

(Side note:  There is a well in modern Nablus - biblical Shechem -  called Jacob's Well.  This is a well that Jacob will give to his son Joseph later on, and not the well where he meets Rachel.  Jacob's Well is not easy to visit today.  It is currently under the control of the Palestinian Authority, and a Greek Orthodox church is built over the well.  I was blessed to visit that well with an Arab pastor and take a drink of water from it.  This particular well shows up later in Scripture when Yeshua meets with the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4.)

Jacob's well today

Anyway, at the other well there are shepherds and sheep waiting, because the well is covered by a huge stone and it takes a community effort to move it.  Jacob chats with them awhile, learning about his relatives from the shepherds, and suddenly they say, "Look, there is his daughter Rachel!"

Jacob continues chatting with the shepherds, trying to get rid of them in verse 7 so that he could meet this Rachel all by himself. They do not comply.  They know they need to help with that stone.

Cue the romantic music here at verse 9:
Now while he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess.

When Jacob sees Rachel daughter of his uncle Laban, and Laban’s sheep, he thinks to himself, hubba hubba!  He immediately goes over and rolls the stone away from the mouth of the well and waters her sheep.  Somehow, he is able to muster superhuman strength to move that stone after he lays eyes on her.

Is this simply a case of a smitten man?  Or is there something else here?

How about a prophetic picture?  (Have you noticed yet that Genesis is full of them?) There is a big stone over the water, there are thirsty sheep who need the water to live, and there is a supernatural rolling away of a stone.  Hmm.

It is interesting to note here that Jacob only watered Rachel's sheep, not the other sheep that were waiting for water.  But the well was left wide open for those other sheep.

Here we have yet another prophetic picture - the gospel going to the Jew first, and then to the nations.

Listen to Yeshua's words in John 10:4-16:
“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.

Jacob then does something shocking:  he kisses Rachel and weeps in verse 11.  This is a break from the tradition of women hiding behind their veils, as Rebekah did when she first saw Isaac.

But what a lovely picture:  Our Messiah waters the sheep, kisses His bride, and there are tears of joy.

Rachel runs and tells her father what just happens, and Laban rushes to the scene and plants a kiss on Jacob.  Jacob then goes to the house of Laban.

Interjection:  Laban means white.  The idea of the color white in scripture can mean purity, but it can also mean deception.

(A couple things with the same name come to mind... Lebanon, named for the white peaks of Mount Hermon on its southern border.  And labneh - a yummy Lebanese white strained yogurt.)

Anyway, the Abrahamic Covenant continues to unfold. And what we see next is the deceiver being deceived.

Deception, in order to work, has to look white. It has to look like righteousness. Even the devil, that father of lies, is a deceiving angel of light.

Laban too is a deceiver. Biblically, white and deception occasionally have a connection. The white horse of Revelation 6 goes out to deceive the world. Matthew 24:4-5 warns us regarding the last days, do not be deceived.

In the next chapter, we will see the color white being used in deception once again.

So Jacob goes and lives at the home of Laban for a month.  Laban knows a good thing when he sees it, so he gives him a job and negotiates for the wages.

We are now formally introduced to Laban's daughters.  The older one, Leah (meaning weary), has weak eyes - a Jewish euphemism for being somewhat unattractive.  The younger one, Rachel (meaning ewe, or female lamb) is gorgeous.

Jacob develops a major crush on Rachel, so he offers to work seven years just so he can marry her.

Laban knows a good deal when he hears one, so he seals the deal.

And after seven years, Laban sneaks Leah into the wedding instead of Rachel.

I have questions about this.  Does Laban think that Leah would be spoken for in the meantime?   Does Rachel go along with this wedding?  Why is she silent? Or do they perhaps send her away during the wedding?  Does Jacob really not notice that it was Leah in the dark?  How does Leah feel about all this?  I look forward to asking them all about it someday.

Jacob wakes up, sees Leah, and is spitting mad.

Poor Leah.

This is what he said to Laban in verse 25:
So it came to pass in the morning, that behold, it was Leah. And he said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served you? Why then have you deceived me?”

Jacob uses the word ramah here; another word that means deception or betrayal.  Perhaps he didn't want to use his own name?

Laban plays the it's our custom card.  He then connives to get seven more years of labor out of Jacob by giving him Rachel, but only after he fulfills his wedding week with Leah.

Jacob acquiesces.  Not that he has much choice.

By the way, it remains a Jewish custom today that at every wedding, the groom ceremoniously peeks under the veil before the ceremony begins.

Just checking!

There are two more details that are mentioned here in this section:  Zilpah and Bilhah, two female servants who are Laban's wedding gifts to his daughters.  They are mentioned because as we know, they too have a role to play.

This little section wraps up with verse 30:
Then Jacob also went in to Rachel, and he also loved Rachel more than Leah. And he served with Laban still another seven years.

Poor Leah.  I cannot imagine.  But it sets the stage for what is to follow.

It’s time to build that assembly of people, as prophesied to Jacob by his father in Genesis 28:3.

Children are the building blocks of a nation.  Stick around to watch the family of Jacob unfold!

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Genesis Post 46 - A Journey and a Dream (Chapter 28)

The story that began in chapter 27 continues here.

Jacob's life is about to change.  God is going to do an amazing, transformational work in Jacob.  The journey starts here.

So apparently, Rebekah has convinced Isaac that Jacob needs to leave right now and find a wife, because Isaac tells him to go to Padan Aram and find a wife from among their people.  He gives Jacob a beautiful send-off blessing (prophecy) in verse 3:
“May God Almighty bless you,
And make you fruitful and multiply you,
That you may be an assembly of peoples;
And give you the blessing of Abraham,
To you and your descendants with you,
That you may inherit the land
In which you are a stranger,
Which God gave to Abraham.”

The Abrahamic Covenant is clearly prophesied here by Isaac to Jacob.  And it all hinges on the land which Jacob is about to leave behind. It is always linked to the land.  Never forget.

There is another word here that flies off the page to me - assembly.  The Hebrew word is kahal, and this is the first place in scripture where it shows up.  In the Septuagint (the Hebrew scriptures translated into Greek by scholarly Jews about 200 years before Yeshua), the word kahal is translated as ekklesia.

The New Covenant translators often render that word ekklesia into church, but a better translation would be congregation or assembly.  The Assembly of God's people begins with Jacob.

Many people think that Pentecost in the book of Acts is the birth of the church.  Not so, according to what we read right here in Genesis.

Take that, Replacement Theologians.

Anyway, it occurred to me:  wasn't Isaac on the verge of death in the previous chapter when he decides to put his affairs in order?  After doing a bunch of biblical gymnastics, I discovered that Isaac lives another 50 years after he blesses his sons.  He will die in a future chapter at the ripe old age of 180.  (See what I did there? Literary foreshadowing...)

The death of Rebekah, on the other hand, is not mentioned. In fact, she is not mentioned again in Genesis until the very end when she is spoken of in the past tense.  It is quite possible that Jacob never saw his mom again on earth.

Anyway, back to this crazy chapter.

First, a mention of Esau.  He has seen how his Canaanite wives have irritated his parents, so he thinks, aha!  I'll marry a cousin!  So he adds Mahalath, a daughter of Ishmael, to his harem, perhaps further underscoring the fact that the Abrahamic Covenant will not proceed through him and his progeny.  I doubt that Isaac and Rebekah were pleased with this addition.

Interesting depiction of Esau and his wives, by Avi Katz

We switch now to Jacob, who is enroute to Haran and the house of Laban.  Partway there, he has his famous dream - Jacob's ladder.

(Jacob's Ladder shows up everywhere in pop culture - as exercise equipment, children's toys and games, book and movie titles, and songs - even a Led Zeppelin song.  It seems that everyone wants to connect heaven and earth.)

The first thing Jacob does is he puts a rock under his head as a pillow.  I have often wondered about that.  Ouch!  Who would use a rock as a pillow, for crying out loud?  However, I believe it had less to do with comfort and much more to do with a prophetic picture.

The word for stone is eben.  In Psalm 118 and Isaiah 28 we read that the eben that the builders rejected has become the rosh pinna -  head cornerstone! This scripture is quoted six times in the New Covenant!

I believe that Jacob was sleeping on the Mount of Olives itself, in the exact spot where the chief cornerstone, Messiah our Rock, would be someday crucified.  The ladder that shows up in Jacob's dream (really a staircase) probably appears over Mount Moriah, the exact place of the future temple.  It is a beautiful picture of heaven coming down to earth, which is of course what happens when Yeshua comes and someday rules from His temple in this very spot.

Yeshua refers to this dream in the gospel of John, clearly linking the vision to Himself.  It happened during the calling of Nathanael - which is an amazing thing in itself - and you can read about here if you need a refresher.  In the last verse of John 1, Yeshua says,
“Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.”

In this amazing dream, the LORD reiterates the Abrahamic Covenant in verses 13-15.  The Land, the Seed, the Blessing.  The same promises made to Abraham and Isaac are now repeated to Jacob by the LORD Himself.

Jacob awakes in absolute  awe.  Verses 16-17 say,
Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.” And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!”

What Jacob does next is this:  He takes his stone pillow, sets it up as a pillar, and pours oil all over it.  This brings to mind the word mashiach, (Messiah), which means anointed.  To be anointed in the Bible means to be chosen and set apart for a specific purpose, and is set in motion through the pouring on of oil.

Many were anointed in the scriptures, but there is only one HaMashiach - The Anointed One.

In verse 19, he calls the name of the place Bethel, which means House of God.  There are numerous Bethels in scripture, but this particular one, we are told, had formerly been called Luz.  Luz means almond tree.  There is great symbolism and significance in the almond tree, and if you want a bunny trail, you can click here.

Suffice it to say that God's patterns are everywhere in scripture.

Jacob wraps up chapter 28 with this declaration:
Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God. And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.”

Interesting.  Basically, Jacob is saying, if YHVH does all this for me, then I will follow Him.  How many of us do that to God?  If You do X, then I will Y.  Bargaining with God.  LOL.

And then Jacob promises to tithe.  This actually makes me giggle.  When my husband and I were buying our first house, we needed to borrow money from his dad for the downpayment.  So to be responsible, we came up with a budget and showed it to him.  Of course it included a tithe for the church, even though neither one of us had ever tithed before, nor were following the Lord yet.  

But we never stopped tithing.  In fact, once we finally did submit our lives to the Lord, tithing became a mere springboard for giving more.  We discovered that you cannot out-give God, no matter how hard you try.

Anyway, in spite of the bargaining that Jacob tries to do with the LORD, the LORD is faithful to the covenant.  But before Jacob has his final reckoning with God, he has a long journey to take.

Click here for the continuing story.

Genesis Post 45 - A Father's Blessing (Chapter 27)

Chapter 27 is another explosive chapter, showing the unfolding plan of God in the midst of human foibles.

The chapter opens up with Isaac fixing to get his affairs in order before he dies.  He is old and blind and wants to settle things with his favorite kid.

He says to Esau, go make me my favorite goat stew, which I love.  And then I'll bless you and then die.

Isaac doesn't know that Rebekah overhears everything.  He is simply doing what people did in the ancient world.  And remember, the LORD had given the prophecy about the twins to Rebekah, and not to Isaac.  It is quite possible that she had never told him that the older would serve the younger.  

(But maybe Isaac did know the prophecy. In that case, was it not Isaac who was trying to be deceptive, to force his own will so that his favorite son would prevail?)

So anyway, Rebekah takes action, probably knowing what she must do.

She approaches Jacob, tells him what to do, and insists that he obey her.  Dress up like your brother, impersonate him, feed your dad, and get that blessing.

Jacob even argues with her a bit, afraid it may end up as a curse for him, but his mom convinces him to do it. She assures him that any curse will be upon her, and not him.  In other words, she is willing to take all the blame.

Man, these matriarchs!  They sure know how to take charge.  Sarah sending Ishmael and Hagar away, and now this.  I just went and looked up the meaning of Rebekah... it means ensnarer.  Hmm.

Jacob runs to the flock, brings his mom an animal, and she gets cooking.  Meanwhile, she dresses Jacob up in Esau's clothes, and then covers him with the skins of the very animal she is cooking up.

I wonder if Jacob feels nervous as he approaches his father.  This blessing from a father is kind of a big deal.  

Here is the dialogue between them, recorded in scripture for all the world to see:

So he went to his father and said, “My father.”
And he said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?”
Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn; I have done just as you told me; please arise, sit and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me.”
But Isaac said to his son, 
“How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?”
And he said, “Because the LORD your God brought it to me.”
(Ooooh, Jacob plays the God card here)

Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.”  So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, and he felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”  And he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him.

Then he said, “Are you really my son Esau?”
He said, “I am.”

(Jacob the Liar)

Isaac is convinced, and gives Jacob a lovely blessing that he intends for his firstborn beloved son.   

The blessing, which is really a prophecy, wraps up with a reference to the Abrahamic Covenant:
Let peoples serve you,
And nations bow down to you.
Be master over your brethren,
And let your mother’s sons bow down to you.
Cursed be everyone who curses you,
And blessed be those who bless you!”

With that, Jacob departs from the presence of his father, and in comes Esau.

Isaac realizes then what just went down.  In verse 33 he says,

Then Isaac trembled exceedingly, and said, “Who? Where is the one who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it before you came, and I have blessed him—and indeed he shall be blessed.”

Isaac trembles greatly because he now knows this was the will of the LORD.  He says that it cannot be changed.

What does Esau do?  He tells a couple lies of his own. Jacob? That deceiver of apt name?  He has now deceived me two times, taking away my birthright and my blessing!

Esau is annoyed

Number one:  Jacob did not deceive Esau out of his birthright.  Esau cared little about it, willingly giving it up because of his greedy stomach.

Number two:  Jacob deceived Isaac regarding the blessing, not Esau.

(The blessing also differs from the birthright in that the blessing establishes the double portion of the father's inheritance, usually reserved for the oldest.  As we will soon see, one of Jacob's children will receive the blessing, and another the birthright, and in neither case is it the oldest son.  God's sovereignty is what matters - what He says, goes.).

Esau whines and begs for a blessing of his own. Isaac can only bless Esau with prophetic words given to him from the LORD:
“Behold, your dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth,
And of the dew of heaven from above.
By your sword you shall live,
And you shall serve your brother;
And it shall come to pass, when you become restless,
That you shall break his yoke from your neck.”

Esau is NOT HAPPY with his blessing, to put it mildly.  We are told that Esau now hates his brother and that he plans to kill him as soon as his father dies.  

Rebekah finds out Esau's plan.  She tells Jacob to flee in order to save his life.  But this is not what she says to Isaac.  No, instead she brings up Esau's annoying wives, saying that she does not want Jacob to end up with one like that.  I wonder why she didn't tell Isaac the truth?  Perhaps she knew that Isaac would just shrug it off as a sibling quarrel.  However, she is a woman of action.

Thus ends chapter 27, filled with drama and deception.  How does God allow His covenant to continue amidst it of this craziness?

Because He has grace.  He continues to love us and use us in His kingdom in spite of our mess-ups and hang-ups.  None of this came to Him as a surprise, and He allowed it to pan out the way it did.  His plan continues not because we are righteous, but because He is righteous.  

For the next post, click here.