Tag: Jacob

Paying for the Birthright

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Jacob said, “First sell me your birthright.”
And Esau said, “I am at the point of death, so of what use is my birthright to me?”
Genesis 25:31-32 (The Contemporary Torah, JPS 2006)

Regarding Esau selling his birthright, there’s a fascinating story in Jewish tradition.

When Esau says “I am at the point of death,” we often think he’s being dramatic about being hungry. But some have suggested that something *happened* to him — perhaps an injury.

One teaching says that this may describe a hunting accident; Esau is bleeding out, linking his nickname and the soup and his blood together – all red.

In which case, Jacob isn’t swindling Esau out of his birthright. He is offering to pay a price for it, even though he would naturally obtain the birthright anyway if Esau died.

Jacob nurses Esau back to health, but maintains the birthright because he rightly paid for it.

A Man of the Curse

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And Esau said to Jacob, “Please let me have a mouthful of that [a]red stuff there, for I am exhausted.” Therefore he was called [b]Edom by name.
Genesis 25:30 (NASB)

[a] Lit the red, this red
[b] I.e. red

The shared root is א-ד-מ (A-D-M), and it carries the meaning of earth, flesh, red, blood.

We’ve learned that the earth is cursed (Gen 3: the Fall), and that all flesh is doomed to die (Gen 7: the Flood)…

So when we encounter a man whose very name links back to earth and flesh and blood, we should know that a picture is being painted of what this man is like. This man represents the curse.

Jacob represents his opposite.

Tricking Isaac

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Now Isaac loved Esau because [a]he had a taste for game; but Rebekah loved Jacob.
Genesis 25:28 (NASB)

[a] Lit game was in his mouth.

Genesis 25:28 convinces me that Esau is a parallel to Cain, but it’s almost impossible to see this in the English.

First, the previous verse states that Esau was a “cunning hunter.” He’s crafty. Tricky. How tricky is he?

The text literally says that Isaac had “game in his mouth.” Perhaps we’re meant to see that Esau figured out that his dad loved venison, so he was constantly giving it to him to win his favor.

For Jacob, no such condition is given. He isn’t doing anything.

But furthermore, in the Hebrew, two different forms of “love” are given to us. It’s not like the Greek where we’re talking about different forms of love; instead, we have different tenses.

Isaac וַיֶּאֱהַב (vaye’ehav), or “loved” Esau. This is a past-tense word.

Rebekah אֹהֶבֶת (ovehet) Jacob. Part of the difference is the feminine pronoun (she), but the other, more critical, difference is that this is not a past-tense word. This is a present-tense word!

The text isn’t saying that Isaac loved Esau and then stopped loving him. It’s showing us that the love we’re talking about was linked to the way that Esau was winning favor.

God doesn’t look at this offering, just like with Cain. But Isaac is just a man, and can be tricked.

Isaac favored Esau because Esau knew exactly how to appease him. Esau was tricking him.

We tend to call Jacob the trickster (birthright, blessing, sheep), but I don’t know that the text supports that position.

Cunning verses Simple

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And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents.
Genesis 25:27 (KJV)

The King James does the best job capturing the meaning of Genesis 25:27, giving us the difference between Jacob and Esau:

Esau is tricky. He is crafty and clever, knowing how animals think and behave.

Jacob is plain. Simple. Perhaps… not crafty at all.

Two Nations

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וַיֹּ֨אמֶר יְהֹוָ֜ה לָ֗הּ שְׁנֵ֤י (גיים) [גוֹיִם֙] בְּבִטְנֵ֔ךְ וּשְׁנֵ֣י לְאֻמִּ֔ים מִמֵּעַ֖יִךְ יִפָּרֵ֑דוּ וּלְאֹם֙ מִלְאֹ֣ם יֶֽאֱמָ֔ץ וְרַ֖ב יַעֲבֹ֥ד צָעִֽיר׃

And יהוה answered her,
“Two nations are in your womb,
Two separate peoples shall issue from your body;
One people shall be mightier than the other,
And the older shall serve the younger.”
Genesis 25:23 (The Contemporary Torah, JPS 2006)

Genesis 25 mentions two “nations,” but the word is written in a strange way. Notice the Hebrew spelling in the highlighted section of the image.

It’s [גוֹיִם֙] and (גיים). גוֹיִם֙ is the normal spelling.

The rabbis say the normal spelling (גוֹיִם֙) means “nation.” When you spell it with no vav, two yods, and a final mem, it means “noble or powerful individuals.” It’s very different.

In paleo-Hebrew (pictograph form), the “vav” is a nail or hook, and it symbolizes binding together. The “yod” is a hand, denoting action or power. The final version of “mem” means final and established.

Symbolically, if you remove the “vav,” you’ve removed the binding-together element. It’s not people – it’s two distinct elements. Add a second “yod” and we’re talking about greater power and influence. Change the “mem” and we have something concrete and established.

I believe Rebekah is being told about the struggle of good and evil, spirit and flesh, within her. In all of us – all of humanity. This is our existential battle that’s rooted in our hearts; our actions give birth to both.

But the older (flesh) will one day serve the younger (spirit)

Rebekah’s Distress

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But the children struggled in her womb, and she said, “If so, why do I exist?” She went to inquire of יהוה,
Genesis 25:23 (The Contemporary Torah, JPS, 2006)

The Hebrew word used to express Rebekah’s distress in Genesis 25:22 is of uncertain meaning. It’s אָנֹכִי (anokhi), and it carries a sense of “why me?” and “it shouldn’t be this way,” but it also carries a meaning of existential crisis: “Why do I exist?”

At this point in the story, she doesn’t know that she’s having twins. She’ll learn about this in the next verse, where she’s told about the two nations that will emerge from her: one that God will love, and one that God will hate.

There are layers to the meaning.

If you believe God loves Jacob and hates Esau, the individuals, you’ll describe a God whose dedication to you is arbitrary: Maybe God will love you, and maybe not.

If Jacob and Esau are viewed as nations, the text describes a God who sees race and bloodlines. This is also abitrary and… racist? Does God love some nations and hate others, regardless of their actions?

But there’s another view.

Jacob/Esau are an echo:

Consider –

Abel/Cain
Isaac/Ishmael
(Perhaps Abraham/Nahor, the idolator?)

These are stories about brothers, one of which walks by the Spirit and trusts God, vs the other who walks by the Flesh and trusts works. But we’ve already learned that the flesh is cursed to die. Works will not work.

This is not merely a story about the people. These are parables.

This parable is about Rebekah’s internal and existential crisis: Why do I exist? Why me? Why is this happening?

This is the struggle in all of us: to walk by the Spirit or to walk by the Flesh. How will it end? Which “child” inside of us wins?

“The older will serve the younger.”

This is our hope.

Weeping for Ishmael

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And Abraham resided in the land of the Philistines for many days.
Genesis 21:34 (NASB)

In Genesis 21, Abraham heeds his wife’s words at the instruction of God: he removes Ishmael from their home. The text says Abraham was deeply troubled.

The chapter ends with this ambiguous phrase: יָמִים רַבִּים (yamim rabbim): “for many days.”

It doesn’t seem like Abraham is too upset, as the text doesn’t seem to say much else about Abraham’s response, other than sending them off with some extra bread and water.

But there may be a clue hidden in here in the words.

You’d think a phrase like “many days” would appear all over the text, but in this exact form יָמִים רַבִּים, the phrase only appears twice in Genesis. Here, and then in Genesis 37. Look closely. It’s the same story.

So Jacob tore his clothes, and put on a sackcloth undergarment over his waist, and mourned for his son many days. Then all his sons and all his daughters got up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. And he said, “Surely I will go down to Sheol in mourning for my son.” So his father wept for him.
Genesis 37:34-35 (NASB)

Perhaps this teaches us how God felt about Adam when sin entered the world and doomed him to die, too.

And perhaps this teachs us how God views all of us.

Caught in a Lie

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Besides, she actually is my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife;
Genesis 20:12 (NASB)

When you read this plainly, it appears that Abraham and Sarah are half-siblings. However, the Hebrew is full of people using familial words to describe both close and more-distant relationships.

Much later, we’ll see that Jacob refers to his “father Abraham,” but he is talking about his grandfather, so this feels legitimate.

Then Jacob said, “God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, Lord, who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’
Genesis 32:9 (NASB)

So is Abraham really being honest here?

In a previous post, I said Sarah is described oddly at the top of the chapter; we can link the Abraham->Sarah relationship with Israel->Ark, where the ark is merely being used for victory. A stolen blessing.

Look closely at this next instance of misrepresentation to gain a blessing…

Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn; I have done as you told me. Come now, sit and eat of my game, so that you may bless me.”
Genesis 20:19 (NASB)

Blessings for All Y’all

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Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.
Genesis 9:1 (NIV)

As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.”
Genesis 9:7 (NIV)

Not only does Genesis 9 start with a blessing, the blessing is repeated in verse 7: “be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth.”

Verse 1 says “them,” so it’s clear that it’s plural.

Verse 7 says “as for you,” but in Hebrew, this is the plural “you.” It’s “ya’ll.”

This is important, because Noah individually does *not* go and become fruitful or multiply (unless you’re seeing a pun, and think the grapes that follow are the multiplied fruit!)

God’s blessings are not merely for individuals. They are for community.

For folks who wish to bear children but can’t, this must feel like a curse. To be told “children are God’s blessing” and then not experience it personally must feel like a double-curse: missing out on the blessing and then experiencing the shame of failure.

In scripture, we see this barrenness: Sarai (Genesis 11:30), Rebekah (Genesis 25:21), Rachel (Genesis 29:31) – wives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They’re all barren at first, but God says they will be a great nation.

Why does it start this way? Perhaps this is an echo of Genesis 1:2.

Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
Genesis 1:2 (NIV)

For reasons unknown, Noah does not have any more children with his wife, even though he is included in the “ya’ll” in Genesis 9:7.

Perhaps Noah failed to count the three blessings he already had. Perhaps the wine blurred his vision.

But he was blessed by God. Twice.

And God has blessed you as well, and God intends to make you fruitful and multiply you in ways you may not yet realize. This seems to be the nature of God: blessings and promises. Fruitfulness.

For all ya’ll.

Long Lives

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The Rabbis debate over the ages in Genesis 5 regarding whether or not the long lives were attributed to all humans prior to the flood, or if they pointed to the remarkable ages of the lineage from Adam to Noah.

There is reason for this. They look here:

Pharaoh asked him, “How old are you?”
And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty. My years have been few and difficult, and they do not equal the years of the pilgrimage of my fathers.”
Genesis 47:8-9 (NIV)