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 30: Gen 31---Jacob's Exodus from Haran

 As Jacob continued to prosper, the attitude of Laban's family toward him soured.  They were jealous of his success.  God let Jacob know that it was time to return home to Canaan (Gen 31:3,13).  

Jacob made the case to Leah and Rachel that is was time for them to go.  Apparently Laban had also cheated them, and they wholeheartedly agreed with Jacob (vv 4-16).  

Jacob felt that the only way he would ever be extricate himself from Laban would be to just leave, without telling his father-in-law.  Like the Pharaoh of the Exodus, Laban always had a way to put off Jacob's departure a little longer.  

When Jacob and his family left Haran, Rachel took the teraphim (household gods) of Laban.  We don't know the precise appearance or significance of these objects, but they probably represented Laban's ancestors, or patron gods of his ancestors, and Laban probably believed that they provided protection and promoted prosperity.  

We are not told why Rachel took the teraphim.  It may be that she took them as a way to get back at her father, knowing how much he valued them.  A number of other possibilities have also been suggested by commentators:

• The objects could have included some valuable precious metals or gems.  Perhaps Rachel took them as partial payment toward the amount out of which that Laban had cheated them.
• One midrash suggests that Laban used the teraphim in divination, and Rachel took them so that he would not have extra help in determining the location of Jacob's family after they fled from him.
• Another midrash suggests that Rachel felt they might promote fertility.
• The interpretation most favorable to Rachel is one that says Rachel took the teraphim because she wanted her father to quit following false gods.

When Laban found out that Jacob had left, he set out in pursuit.  Here Laban is a precursor of the Pharaoh of the Exodus, who pursued the Israelites as they were leaving Egypt.  There are a number of ways in which Jacob's departure foreshadows the Exodus.  The Israelites left Egypt with great wealth, and Jacob left Laban with wealth.  Egypt's gods were defeated in the Exodus, and Jacob left with Laban's teraphim.  Laban overtook Jacob, as Pharaoh did the Israelites, but in both cases God provided protection.  

The subsequent confrontation between Jacob and Laban showed how much relations between them had broken down.  But they made a covenant and enjoyed a final covenant meal before parting for good.

Laban had been untrustworthy in dealing with Jacob, often deceiving the deceptive Jacob.  But God had been faithful to his promise to be with Jacob and bring him back home (Gen 28:15; 31:3).  God continued with his promise to Abraham and plan to bring blessing to the whole world through his family.

Seder 30: Psalm 142--- Help for the Tired and Lonely

 Psalm 142 is an individual lament psalm.  The psalmist, exhausted and lonely, knows God is the one to whom he can turn.  He has been struggling to know what to do, and he knows that God can lead him in the right way (v 3).  At a time when there is no person on his side, he knows God is there (vv 4-6).

The psalmist looks forward to a time when his trial is over and he can praise God publicly, supported by other believers (v 7).  

Psalm 142 is traditionally associated with the situation when David and his ragtag army were hiding in a cave at En Gedi while King Saul was pursuing them (1 Sam 24).  Rabbinic interpretation of the psalm looked for connections with this specific setting.  

For example, verse 1 uses parallelism:  "With my voice I cry out to the Lord, with my voice I plead for mercy to the Lord."  The sages asserted that the parallelism suggested David prayed for two things---to not fall into Saul's hands, and for Saul not to fall into his hands.  They also said that the "trap" in verse 3 might be the temptation to kill Saul.  

The sages were experts at connecting scriptures.  In verse 4, the psalmist says,

"Look to the right and see; there is none who takes notice of me."  

The rabbis noted that while there was no human who would help David, God was there.  They quoted  Psalm 109:31:  

"For he stands at the right hand of the needy one, to save him from those who condemn his soul to death."

This connection fits right in with the message of the psalm.  God is always there.