Seder 34: Genesis 37:3----Jacob's Favoritism; Joseph's Precocity

 One source of tension in Jacob's family was the favoritism he showed toward the sons of Rachel, his favorite wife.  Jacob's special treatment of Joseph fueled the resentment of Joseph's brothers.  

Genesis 37:3 explains that Jacob had a special coat made for Joseph.  The traditional translation for the coat is "robe of many colors," but that may not be the best translation.  The ESV offers the alternate translation "robe with long sleeves."  Whatever the translation, the coat connoted status as well as favoritism.  As commentator John Walton puts it, the coat signified that Joseph was "management, not labor."  Jacob was grooming Joseph to be the future CEO of Israel Enterprises.  

There were reasons, beyond favoritism, for Joseph to train for this position.  He must have had obvious organizational skills, based on what happened later in Egypt.  Whatever enterprise he was involved in, Joseph soon ended up in charge.  Sharon Rimon suggests that this quality of Joseph's is reflected in his name, which means "may he add."  For Rachel, the name expressed her desire for additional sons.  For Joseph, it may mean that abundance and prosperity were added to those around him.  Joseph's fruitfulness is expressed in Jacob's blessing to his tribe in Genesis 49.

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 29: Genesis 30, 1 Samuel 1-2---Rachel and Hannah

 After about seven years of infertility, Jacob's wife Rachel gave birth to a son, Joseph.  We are not told what use she might have made of the mandrakes she obtained from her sister.  The implication is that this detail is irrelevant.  Genesis emphasizes that it was God who "opened her womb" (Ge 30:22).  

Joseph is one of a series of special sons, miraculously given to couples struggling with infertility, who have important roles to play in salvation history.  Others include Isaac, Jacob and Esau, Samson, Samuel, and John the Baptist.  

These sons were answers to prayer.  Genesis 30:22 notes that God "listened to" Rachel.  In the case of Samuel's mother Hannah, we are given some details about one of those prayers.  Hannah vowed to God that she would dedicate a son to his service "if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me..." (1 Sa 1:11).  Her language is very similar to that of Exodus 3;7, where God states, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people."  Hannah asked God to deliver her from infertility as he had always delivered his people.

When Hannah brought young Samuel to the tabernacle, she gave a beautiful prayer of thanksgiving (1 Sa 2:1-10).  Walter Kaiser, in his book on great prayers in the Hebrew Scriptures, divides the prayer into three parts:

• In verses 1-3, Hannah expresses her great joy and praises God's greatness and incomparability.  In verse 3, when she says, "Talk no more so very proudly..," we can imagine that she has her personal tormentor Peninnah in mind, but the word for "your" in this verse is in plural form. 
• In verses 4-8, Hannah describes how God watches out for those in need, stepping in to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.  "The barren has borne seven," she declares in verse 5, and she would go on to have at least six children in all (verse 21).  
• In verses 9-10, Hannah looks ahead to the culmination of God's plan, when God will judge the world and send his Messiah.  Samuel would later anoint the first two kings of Israel, contributing to the fulfillment of this prophecy.

Her prayer expressed the thanksgiving of all the barren women who had been granted children.  It also became a template for future songs of praise.  Mary's prayer in Luke 1:46-55 has similiar structure and content.  A psalm of David recorded in both 2 Samuel 2 and Psalm 18 has several parallels with Hannah's prayer:

• In verse 1, Hannah says that God exalts her "horn"---that is, lifts her up and gives her strength---as does David in Psalm 18:2.
• In verse 2, Hannah refers to God as her "rock," as does David in Psalm 18:2.
• In verse 10 Hannah pictures God "thundering," as David does in Psalm 18:13.  In Hannah's case God answers the taunts of Peninnah.  In 1:6, the verb for thundering is used to describe Peninnah "irritating" Hannah.  
• Hannah ends her prayer with an assertion of God's faithfulness to his anointed king, as does David in Psalm 18:50.  

Seder 28: Gen 29:31-30:21---A Competition for Sons

Sibling rivalry is a major theme in Genesis.  The rivalry between Jacob and Esau is featured in Genesis 25 and 27.  The theme continues in Genesis 29 when Jacob marries two sisters, Rachel and Leah.  Leviticus 18:18 will tell us that this is a bad idea, and we see concrete examples of the problems that can arise with "sister wives" as we study the Genesis narrative.  

Jacob "loved Rachel more than Leah" (Ge 29:30), leading Leah to compete with Rachel for Jacob's love.  She hoped that Jacob would be drawn to her as she gave birth to four sons---Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah  (29:31-35).  

Meanwhile Rachel, who did not immediately give birth, felt left behind, and she competed with her sister in a kind of baby contest.  On one side were Rachel and her servant Bilhah.  On the other side were Leah and her servant Zilpah.  

When Bilhah gave birth to two sons, Rachel proclaimed, "With mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister and have prevailed" (30:8).  Team Rachel had narrowed the lead of team Leah to 4-2.  

Team Leah responded by getting Zilpah involved in the action.  They extended their lead to 6-2 when Zilpah gave birth to Gad and Asher.  

Competitions between teams often involve trades as the season progresses, and that actually is the case here as well.  At one point Leah's young son Reuben found some mandrakes, plants believed to promote fertility.  Rachel traded a night with Jacob for the mandrakes.  

Rachel's strategy apparently backfired, however.  Leah went on to have two more sons, Issachar and Zebulun, making the score 8-2.  

Jacob, an essential player, does not appear often in the Genesis account of the game.  His role is to occupy the tent to which his wives direct him each night.  When Rachel demands that he give her sons, we see the frustration in his response:  "Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?"  (Ge 30:2)  Jacob is strong, diligent, and resourceful, but he cannot grant Rachel's request on his own.  

Despite the strife in Jacob's family, God worked with the situation to fulfill his promise to grant many descendants to Abraham (Ge 15:5; 17:4-6).   

Commentators often point out that Jacob's question in Genesis 30:2 was repeated by his son Joseph many years later in Genesis 50:19.  In that case Joseph stated that it was not his prerogative to judge the brothers who had sold him into slavery.  

Genesis 30:2 and 50:19 highlight God's roles as lifegiver and judge.  Those roles comes together in Jesus of Nazareth, as Philip H. Kern points out in chapter 5 of his book, Jacob's Story as Christian Scripture.  One place where these roles are mentioned together is in John 5:21-22.  

Seder 29: Gen 30---Jacob Prospers under his Agreement with Laban

 After working for his uncle Laban for 14 years, Jacob expresses to Laban his intention to head back home to Canaan.  "Send me away, " Jacob says to Laban, "that I may go to my own home and country" (Ge 30:25).  Commentator Nahum Sarna notes that the expression "send away" in this verse is the same one used when an indentured servant is freed after the agreed-upon time is finished.  Laban has treated Jacob more like a hired servant than like a family member.  

Laban, who has prospered  through Jacob's work with his flocks, hopes that Jacob will stay longer. When he asks Jacob what wages will induce him to remain, Jacob replies, "You shall not give my anything."  His response has been compared to the one that Abraham gave to the king of Sodom in Genesis 14:22-24.  Jacob does not want Laban to be able to say that he made Jacob rich.  They agree to a plan where Jacob will stay, taking as his wages all the black sheep and spotted goats born in the flock after that (verse 32).  That way it will be easy to determine which animals belong to Jacob.  

Laban immediately took away all the black sheep and spotted goats from the flock.  He wanted to minimize Jacob's share.  Jacob, meanwhile, practiced a mixture of superstition and selective breeding to try to maximize his share.  In particular, he hoped that if animals mated in front of striped sticks, they would give birth to striped goats and black sheep.  

This superstition reminds us of the supposedly fertility-promoting mandrakes and was just as far-fetched.  The important thing, though, is that is was God's will to bless Jacob.  Jacob became very properous (Ge 30:43), and unfortunately, friction with Laban and his family followed (31:1-2).  

Seder 28: Gen 29-30---Tensions in Jacob's Growing Family

 After working for his uncle Laban for seven years, Jacob became the husband of both Leah and Rachel, Laban's daughters.  

There was lots of tension between the two sisters.  Leah longed for Jacob to love her more, and hoped that the sons to whom she was giving birth---Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah---would draw Jacob closer to her.  

Rachel, who was not initially able to have children, was jealous of her sister.  In one comic incident, young Reuben one day brought home some dudaim (a.k.a. mandrakes), plants believed to promote fertility.  Rachel wanted the mandrakes, and Leah traded them to her for a night in bed with Jacob.  The result was that Rachel got the mandrakes, but Leah conceived Issachar, another son.  Despite all of the scheming, it was still God who was in charge of fertility.