Seder 30: Jeremiah 30---"For I am with you to save you...."

 When Jacob prepared to leave home and go to Haran, God conveyed an important message to him:  "Behold, I am with you and and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you" (Ge 28:15).  

Twenty years later, God repeated this assurance:  "Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred and I will be with you" (Ge 31:3).  And indeed, God guided Jacob and his family safely to Canaan.

Now fast forward over a thousand years to the time of Judah's defeat by the Babylonians in the early sixth century BC.  At that point a number of Jews were taken away to Babylon.  But Jeremiah had an important message for Israel and Judah:  God would one day reunite and restore the nation. As he had been with Jacob in the past, so he would be with Jacob's descendants in the future:  

"Then fear not, O Jacob my servant, declares the LORD, nor be dismayed, O Israel; for behold, I will save you from far away, and your offspring from the land of their captivity.  Jacob shall return and have quite and ease, and none shall make them afraid" (Jer 10:10-11).

Jeremiah's prophecy of restoration includes the promise of the Messiah and the coming of the messianic age (vv 21-22).    

Kyle Kettering gave a sermon on this motif at Church of the Messiah on July 6, 2024.  He carried the motif forward into the New Testament with Jesus' promise to his disciples before his ascension:  "And behold I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Mt 28:20).  

Seder 27: Genesis 28-29---Jacob Enters a Time of Growth

 At age 77, Jacob reached a critical juncture in his life.  He would be leaving the land of Canaan, where he had lived his whole life, and heading over 500 miles away to Haran, where his mother had grown up.  At this time God brought encouragement, appearing to Jacob in a dream to emphasize that he would be with him throughout his travels (Ge 28:12-15).  

We have not been told anything up to this point about Jacob's relationship with God.  There are a couple of details that may indicate this relationship was not yet well developed. One is the fact that God revealed himself to Jacob in a dream---as he did to people like Abimelech (Ge 20:3) and Pharaoh (41:1)---rather than in, say, a vision, as he had appeared to Abraham (15:1).  

Fifty three years later, God did appear to Jacob in a vision (Ge 46:2).  By that time Jacob had been walking with God for many years.  

A second detail is the vow that Jacob makes after his dream.  Jacob vows that if God is with him and brings him back home, then he will worship God and give him a tithe (verses 20-22).  At this point Jacob's relationship with God seems rather transactional; the wording of the vow suggests that Jacob is trying to "cut a deal" with God.  

After receiving reassurance from God, Jacob makes the long walk to Haran with spring in his step.  Genesis 29:1 says that he "lifted his feet" as he continued his journey.  He will have many lessons to learn during his sojourn with Laban.  Some of them he will learn the hard way.

In particular, Jacob the deceiver will be the victim of deception.  When Jacob believes he is marrying Laban's daugher Rachel, Laban subsitutes his older daughter Leah on the wedding night.  One midrash imagines a later conversation between Jacob and Leah.  When Jacob asks Leah why she posed as Rachel, she reminds Jacob that he had once posed as Esau.  He had received a classic "measure for measure" consequence of his actions.  (Whoever was being deceived in Genesis 27, Jacob's intent had been to deceive his father.)

Through this lesson and others, Jacob will grow through experience.  

Seder 25: An Alternate View of Genesis 27---Who is Being Deceived?

 The narrative of Genesis 25-27 raises lots of questions about Isaac and Rebekah and their sons.  For instance, does Rebekah share with Isaac the special revelation she receives about Jacob and Esau before their birth?  

If the answer is no, then this would be an example of the biblical motif of a parent "keeping a saying in mind" or "hiding it in one's heart." If Rebekah kept the revelation to herself, that could help explain why Isaac seems to want to act contrary to it in Chapter 27 in his desire to bless Esau above Jacob.

One standard way to interpret chapter 27 is to see Rebekah taking matters into her own hands to carry out what she is sure is God's will in securing the primary blessing for Jacob.  Isaac's poor eyesight is then viewed as a sign of a lack of spiritual insight in regard to his sons.  

I recently learned about an interestng alternate interpretation championed by David J. Zucker.  Zucker proposes that Isaac and Rebekah work together in Chapter 27 to deceive Jacob.  

In Zucker's reading Rebekah has shared the revelation of Genesis 25:23 with Isaac, and the two agree that Esau is not qualified to be spiritual leader of the next generation of the family.  Esau has shown this in the lack of value he places in the family birthright, as well as in his taking two Hittite wives (26:34), a course of action that greatly disappoints his parents (v 35).  The two had worked closely together in addressing their fertility problems, and they continue to work together.  Their twins have reached age 77, and they would like Jacob to go out in the world to prove himself, and in particular to take a wife from their clan back in Haran.  If Jacob appears to steal a blessing from Esau, Esau's anticipated reaction will force Jacob to go out on his own.  

If Rebekah and Isaac plan the deception together, they are counting on Jacob being willing to deceive Isaac for a chance at a better blessing.  And indeed, Jacob seems to be less worried about the ethics of tricking his father than about the possibility of getting caught (27:11-12).  Jacob says that he is a "smooth man," which can be taken in more than one way.  The word for "smooth"---chalaq---is elsewhere used for smooth or flattering speech (Pr 5:3; 26:28; Eze 12:24).  Jacob's intent is to deceive, whether or not he is actually doing so.  

I do not know whether Zucker's reading is correct, but I confess that I would like it to be.  I do not think it contradicts the biblical account in any way, and it fits well with a number of things in the text, including:

• the fact that the text does not mention any damage to the relationships among Isaac, Rebekah, and Jacob.  Isaac does not seem to get angry at either Rebekah or Jacob, for example, when the deception is revealed.
• the fact that Isaac seems to basically know that the one who has come to him for a blessing isn't Esau, but he goes ahead with the blessing anyway.
• the verses in Chapters 24-26 that imply a close relationship between Isaac and Rebekah.
• the blessing that Isaac gives to Jacob seems to be a better fit for a herdsman/farmer than for a hunter.  

Whoever was being deceived, the blessing Isaac gives to Jacob in chapter 27 is not the full covenant blessing.  Isaac conveys that to Jacob in Ge 28:1-4.  Perhaps he had planned to give that to Jacob all along, regardless of his intentions for the blessing of chapter 27.  

It is also notable that the blessing of chapter 27 has messianic implications.  Since Jacob only has one brother, the plural in verse 29 seems to look ahead to a descendant or descendants of Jacob.  Kevin Chen, for example, argues that this is a messianic prophecy.

Seder 14: Isaiah 54---The Barren Woman Gives Birth

 An important biblical motif is that of the woman who has been unable to give birth and is finally granted a child.  This theme starts with Sarah and continues with Rebekah, Rachel, the mother of Samson, Hannah, and Elizabeth.  

In the prophecies of Isaiah, the experiences of these individual women represent the experience of Israel as a whole.  The nation would endure hard times of exile, but God would one day make them fruitful again.  For example, we read in Isaiah 49:21, "Then you will say in your heart:  'Who has borne me these? I was bereaved and barren, exiled and put away, but who has brought up these?  Behold, I was left alone; from where have these come?' "

There is similar imagery in Isaiah 54, a song of rejoicing that comes immediately after the sacrifice and triumph of the Servant in Isaiah 53.  It is the work of the Servant that is the basis for this rejoicing.  The chapter begins,  "Sing, O barren one, who did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who have not been in labor!" 

The promise in verse 3 ("For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left, and your offsptring will possess the nations and will people the desolate cities.") reminds us of the blessing of Jacob in Gen 28:13-14.  Israel is pictured as a bride who has endured "the shame of her youth" (slavery in Egypt) and "the reproach of her widowhood" (later exile).  But she has a powerful husband---the creator and ruler of the whole world (v 5).  And that husband is faithful to his commitments (vv 9-10).  

Verses 11-12 describe the restoration of Zion in terms that anticipate the description of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21.  The New Jerusalem comes down from heaven "prepared as a bride adorned for her husband" (Rev 21:2).  All the sufferings of the past will be forgotten in a time of blessing (Rev 21:4).  

Seder 10: Genesis 12:1-9---"...The Land that I Will Show You"

 God directed Abram to go "to the land that I will show you" (Ge 12:1).  We are not told how much advance information Abram was given about his destination.  Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik suggests that the journey was meant to develop Abram's "spiritual radar" for detecting holiness.  In this scenario, Abram followed the lead of this radar until he reached the intended destination, and then God appeared to him and confirmed his choice (Gen 12:7).  

Abram would have entered the Promised Land in the north, the most fertile region, but he continued on to the arid southern part of the land (v 9).  This raises the question of why Abram didn't stay in the north.  One proposed answer is that the holiness of Jerusalem drew him to continue southward.  

On his journey Abram came "to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh" (v 6).  Soloveitchik notes that in the patriarchal narrative, the word for place (makom) sometimes refers to a place of prayer (e.g., Ge 19:27; 28:11).  Perhaps Abram prayed  that his great-grandchildren would resist the possibility of assimilation with the Shechemites raised by Hamor's proposal (Ge 34:9-10). Perhaps he also prayed that his descendants would come again safely to the oak of Moreh (Dt 11:30) to confirm the covenant there. 

Seder 35: Gen 38---Who Did Jacob's Sons Marry?

 For Abraham, it was very important that Isaac marry a woman in Abraham's clan (Gen 24).  For Isaac and his wife Rebekah, it was important that her son Jacob marry someone from that same clan (Gen 28:1-2).  

But the book of Genesis never raises the subject of who Jacob's twelve sons were supposed to marry.   There are at least a couple of reasons why this apparently ceased to be an issue.  For one thing, Jacob and his father-in-law Laban had parted on less-than-amicable terms (Gen 31:51-54), so Jacob would not have been likely to send any of his sons back to Haran in search of wives.  

Also, by this point the identity of the covenant family may have become well enough established that assimilation into the surrounding Canaanite culture was no longer such a danger---at least after the destruction of Shechem.  Jacob's family was not absorbed into Shechem, but it's possible that some of the women captured from Shechem (Gen 34:29) married sons of Jacob.

We are given information about the wives of three of those sons.  Judah married the daughter of a Canaanite named Shua (Gen 38:2).  We are not told her name, and she is referred to in 1 Chron 2:3 simply as Bath-shua ("daughter of Shua").  Simeon also married a Canaanite (Gen 46:10), and Joseph married Asenath, the daughter of an Egyptian priest (Gen 41:45). 

Ancient readers of Genesis were curious and concerned about the lack of information given on this subject.  Some sought to fill in the gaps.  For example, the book of Jubilees (second century BC) lists names of wives of Jacob's sons in verses 20-21 of chapter 34:

"And after Joseph perished, the sons of Jacob took unto themselves wives. The name of Reuben's wife is 'Ada; and the name of Simeon's wife is 'Adlba'a, a Canaanite; and the name of Levi's wife is Melka, of the daughters of Aram, of the seed of the sons of Terah; and the name of Judah's wife, Betasu'el, a Canaanite; and the name of Issachar's wife, Hezaqa: and the name of Zabulon's wife, Ni'iman; and the name of Dan's wife, 'Egla; and the name of Naphtali's wife, Rasu'u, of Mesopotamia; and the name of Gad's wife, Maka; and the name of Asher's wife, 'Ijona; and the name of Joseph's wife, Asenath, the Egyptian; and the name of Benjamin's wife, 'Ijasaka.  And Simeon repented, and took a second wife from Mesopotamia as his brothers."

Notice that Jubilees, in its desire for Jacob's sons not to have mixed too much with the Canannites, has some of them going back to Haran to marry women from Abraham's clan.  

Seder 34: Gen 37:11----What Child is This?

 Jacob loved his son Joseph, the older son of his favorite wife Rachel.  He was grooming Joseph to one day be a leader in the family, as evidenced by the special coat that he had made for him.  Still, he was taken aback by the dreams that the 17-year-old was having.  Joseph summarized one of the dreams this way:  "Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me" (Gen 37:9).  

Since Joseph had 11 brothers, Jacob could see what the dream symbolized.  This was a bit too much, even coming from his talented son.  "What is this dream that you have dreamed?"  he asked Joseph.  "Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?" (v 10)

Still, Jacob had experience with messages from God that came in dreams (Gen 28:12-15; 31:11-13), so he "kept the saying in mind" (v 11).  Its meaning probably would become clear later.  

Genesis 37:11 is one example of a motif that runs through ancient Jewish literature, and through the Scriptures in particular.  A person hears a remarkable saying, a prophecy or something said by and/or about a precocious child.  In that situation, the person will "keep the saying in mind" or "hide it in their heart" to see what might happen later.

There is another example in Daniel 7, after Daniel had a dream vision about four beasts, representing four kingdoms.  Those kingdoms would be followed by an eternal divine kingdom ruled by "one like a son of man" (vv 13-14).  After this dream, Daniel says, "My thoughts greatly alarmed me, and my color changed, but I kept the matter in my heart" (v 28).  

There are further examples in Jewish literature of the Second Temple period.  Two of them involve Levi, another one of Jacob's sons.  One comes from the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, a fictional work from the first or second century BC that pictures the deathbed advice of the sons of Jacob to their descendants.  In his testimony, Levi describes a heavenly vision in which he is told by the Most High, "I have given thee the blessings of the priesthood until I come and sojourn in the midst of Israel (T Levi 5:2-3).  After the vision Levi says, "And I kept these words in my heart" (T Levi 6:2-3).  

A similar statement appears in the Aramaic Levi Document, a text that may have been used by the author of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.  Fragments of this document have been found in the Cairo Genizah and in Caves 1 and 4 at Qumran.     

An additional example comes from another Dead Sea Scrolls text, the Genesis Apocryphon (1Q20).  In column 6 of this document, Noah receives a vision and afterward says, "And I hid this mystery in my heart, and did not make it known to anyone." 

This motif appears in the New Testament twice in Luke 2.  Shepherds near Bethlehem are told by an angel, "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11).  When the shepherds told Mary, the mother of the baby, what the angel had said, "Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart" (v 18).  

Later, when Jesus was 12, he stayed in Jerusalem for a few days after the Days of Unleavened Bread and became separated from his parents.  When they finally found him at the Temple, engaging in discussions with the sages, he asked his parents, "Why were you looking for me?  Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" (v 49)  

Mary, like Jacob, did not understand then what he was saying, but again, she "treasured up all these things in her heart" (v 51).

This is one of a number of ways in which we will see events in the life of Joseph pointing forward to Jesus.

Seder 32/33: Gen 35---Promises Affirmed, Deaths Mourned

 At some point God called upon Jacob to appear before him at Bethel and carry out the vow that he had made before leaving Canaan many years before (Gen 35:1; 28:20-22).  

As part of an appropriate purification in preparation for this divine encounter, Jacob asked his household to get rid of any idols they possessed (v 2).  This would have certainly included the household gods that Rachel had taken from Laban.  

Verse 4 reports, "So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears."  There is some pronoun ambiguity in this verse.  Were the rings in the ears of the people or the idols?  A good case can be made for the latter interpretation, since idols often did have earrings made of precious metals.  Burying those items would mean that they couldn't be used to make more idols.

Verse 8 mentions that on the trip, Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died.  There are two interesting pieces of information in this verse.  First, the name of Rebekah's nurse had not been mentioned in Gen 24:59, where we learn that she accompanied Rebekah on her trip to Canaan to marry Isaac.  Second, we have not previously heard that Deborah was with Jacob rather than with Rebekah.  

There have been a number of speculations about when Deborah might have joined Jacob.  Perhaps Rebekah had sent her to Jacob at Haran with the news that it was safe to return to Canaan, as she had said she would send someone to do (Gen 27:45). Or perhaps Rebekah had sent her to Jacob after he returned to Canaan.  Or perhaps Rebekah had died, and Deborah then joined Jacob's family.     

In any case, there was a time of mourning for Jacob and the family after Deborah's death.

At Bethel God appeared to Jacob and affirmed both Jacob's new name and the blessing imparted by Isaac (Gen 28:3-4) that the Abrahamic promises would continue through Jacob (Gen 35:9-12).  

Genesis 35 goes on to record that Jacob's beloved wife Rachel died not far from Bethlehem while giving birth to her son Benjamin (vv16-21).  Her grave was not far from a road on which, much later, descendants of Judah and Benjamin would travel on their way to exile in Babylon.  Jeremiah pictures Rachel weeping for her descendants at that point (Jer 31;15).  Jeremiah goes on to prophecy an eventual return from exile (vv 16-17).  

Jeremiah's prophecy was later recalled by Matthew when he reported the murder of infants in Bethlehem by the ruthless Herod the Great (Matt 2:16-18).  Herod, of course, failed in his goal to kill the infant Jesus, whose family had already fled to Egypt (vv 13-15).  

Genesis 35 concludes by mentioning Isaac's death at age 180 (vv 27-29), twelve years after Joseph was sold into slavery and 23 years after Jacob's return to Canaan. Chapters 34-35 give just a few snapshots of Jacob's life during those 23 years and raise lots of questions for readers.  For example, when did Rebekah die?  Did she see Jacob again?  What kind of interaction did Jacob have with his parents and with Esau during those years?  The text does not tell us, and later writers have imagined different answers.  The Book of Jubilees (second century BC), which emphasizes the piety of the patriarchs, pictures Jacob in regular contact with his parents (Jubilees 29:15-20).  

Seder 27: Genesis 28---Jacob's Ladder Dream

 At age 77 Jacob leaves home to travel to the family of his mother Rebekah.  His journey has two purposes.  He is fleeing Esau's anger and seeking a wife from his own clan.  

When he settles down for the night at a location near the border of the Promised Land, Jacob has a special dream:  "And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven.  And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it!" (Gen 28:12)

There are a number of Jewish traditions about the significance of the ascending and descending angels.  One is that the angels were "changing shifts."  A group of angels had accompanied Jacob to the border of the Promised Land.  That group ascended the ladder, while another group that would guide Jacob to Haran now descended the ladder.  People of my generation are reminded of the sheepdogs and wolves changing shifts in an old Warner Bros cartoon.  

A second tradition says that the angels were ascending and descending the ladder because they wanted to see Jacob.  In this tradition there was a picture of Jacob on the divine throne, and the angels were comparing that image with the real thing that was sleeping at Luz.  

A third tradition says that the angels were acting out a prophecy about future enemies of Jacob's descendants.  An angel representing Babylon goes up seventy steps (standing for the 70 years of the Babylonian captivity), then goes back down.   An angel representing Greece goes up 180 steps, representing 180 years of future Greek domination, and then goes back down.  An angel representing Rome goes up and up and up and up.  Jacob asks God if this angel will go up indefinitely, and God assures Jacob that no, the angel will eventually come back down.  

These traditions are fanciful, but they all back up the point of the dream.  God is control, and he is going to be with Jacob throughout his journey (Gen 28:12-15), consistent with his promise to Abraham.  In a sermon at Church of the Messiah on Sept 26, 2020, David Waddle emphasized these points. 

 Jesus later compared himself to the ladder in Jacob's dream (John 1:43-51).  Through him the divine realm would be opened to his disciples.  

Seder 26: Genesis 27---Isaac's Prophetic Blessing on Jacob

 The ruse planned by Rebekah and Jacob was successful.  Isaac laid his hands on Jacob (thinking he was Esau) and pronounced the following blessing:

"May God give you the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine.  Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you.  Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you.  Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!" (Gen 27:28-29)

One detail that catches our attention in verse 29 is Isaac's reference to "your brothers" and "your mother's sons"---both plural, when Jacob had only one brother, and his mother had only one other son.  This detail suggests the possibility that Isaac was referring not just to Jacob himself, but also looking ahead to a special descendant of Jacob whom peoples would serve and to whom nations would bow down---the future Messiah!  (A similar blessing is given to Solomon---and ultimately to the Messiah---in Ps 72:11.)  

 Christian scholar Kevin Chen discusses Gen 27:28-29 as a Messianic prophecy in his recent book The Messianic Vision of the Pentateuch (IVP 2019).

Even though Isaac had intended the blessing for Esau, he and his family were confident that God would confirm this blessing upon Jacob.  "Yes, and he shall be blessed," Isaac says of Jacob in v. 33.

Looking back, it appears in hindsight that God's will was worked out by a circuitous means in Gen 27.  Esau did not seem to value or be in tune with his family's special mission, as evidenced by his lack of concern for the family birthright.  

This does not mean, however, that Esau did not figure in God's plan.  Esau and his descendants would have much to contribute, and Esau would have additional time to learn and grow.  His choice of wives changed when he finally became aware of his parents' preferences in the matter (Gen 28:6-9).  

In a sermon at Church of the Messiah on Sept 12, 2020, Kyle Kettering reflected on Esau's life.