Parallel Guide 10 - The Jacob Saga

Gen 25-36

• main characteristics Israel essential to national life thru lens of Jacob, the symbol for Israel
  
  
  • only that the one chosen by God will prevail, despite his thoroughly despicable and sacrilegious nature.
• meaning of the dream about the ladder
  
  
  • this is where God and man meet, at a particular point in the cosmos where the heavens open up and God's representatives (angels) ascend and descend a ziggurat
  • the symbolic meaning: God and his angels are working constantly, God can speak to us and we dont even know it
    
    
    • Gen 28:16. "Surely the LORD is in this place--and I did not know it!"..."How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."
    • Jacob's conditional acceptance of God's blessing. "If God will be with me..., then the LORD shall be my God." (not typical when God talks directly to men.)
• meaning of the wrestling match
  
  
  • JMS: it was another dream, a vision
  • others:
    
    
    • it was an encounter with a river demon
    • ritual dance
    • symbolic of the whole saga of the relations of God and its chosen people Israel
  • only place where this dietary restriction is mentioned
• four mothers of Israel


• Sarah (first wife of Abraham)
• Rebekah (first wife fo Isaac)
• Rachel (first wife of Jacob)
• Leah (second wife of Jacob ??)

• The Christian church: "good" or "faithful"?
• medidate on Gen 28:10-22
• plot Jacob's parcours
• deceit motif - the meaning of deceit for those trying to be faithful
• relate Jacob as symbol of Israel and national life to our leaders
• Issue: I want to be faithful AND I want to be good/right

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Notes on Reading

• first mention of a man, Abraham, with a concubine (Gen 25:6)
• Gen 25:34 "Thus Esau despised his birthright."
  ie, E. regarded it as unworthy of interest or concern, not necessarily hateful = he trivialized it
• importance attached to attractiveness. Esau was not handsome, Rebekah was beautiful, Moses was handsome, David was handsome.
• Facets of deception


• deception was thorough. Jacob thought of every possible angle to get the double blessing.
  Gen 27:12
  Rebekah offers to take the curse on herself (legit?)
• deception was blasphemous. Called on the LORD as secret of his success in getting the meal ready for Isaac so quickly
• Isaac even suspected that Jacob would try to deceive him (he knew his son), so asked for a test.


• a lot of going into and conceiving going on over a span of many years.
• Gen 30:16 (Leah to Jacob)
  "You must come in to me; for I have hired you with my son's mandrakes." hehe
• ?? about the speckled and spotted and striped goats and sheep ??
  the purer ones were bigger cash cows? NOAB says that it was believed that ewe's ability to conceive successfully were influenced by not seeing spotted (or striped - as in sticks) animals.
  
  
  • Isaiah 53:5
    But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
  
  
• Jacob set his wives and children on CAMELS (which weren't domesticated at the time ;)
• Gen 31:35
  "Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the way of women is upon me."
• about the defilement of Dinah
  Gen 34:7 "...for such a thing ought not to be done. " but there were no laws officially on the books, and the convention of blood revenge was carried out, one mistake demands punishment for all. not lex talionis.
• Gen 34:34: (Simeon and Levi to Jacob) "Should our sister be treated like a whore?"
• Gen 35:14 Jacob poured out a drink offering
• wells as meeting places for men and women in the middle east. like bars today!

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Notes on Notes

• pottage = A thick soup or stew of vegetables and sometimes meat.
• Isaac's stories were to illustrate geneology and heritage between tribes.
• God's favor, his grace comes to humankind for no discernible reason. Why? no questions of fairness are relevant, God chooses not on the basis of human merit, but basis of purpose for redemption. This goes against the works approach to salvation.
  
  
  
  • ancient texts teaching polarized morality stand in contrast to this notion of election
  • a continually developing relationship between morality and election
  
  
• the church considers all of the Bible to be a complete work, though through textual criticism, it can be seen as assembled from various sources and in a radically different time and culture
• the kiss of betrayal
• Jacob's schemes to gain what God has already granted freely is a failure in trust and understanding of God's faithfulness and promise-worthiness
• in desperation, Esau marries one of Ishmael's daughters, but it is pathetic because Ish is excluded from the blessing
• surrogate motherhood, where Leah's and Rachael's maids bear children legally belonging to Jacob.
• monotheists vs polytheists.
  Rachael sitting on the household gods while on her period. how powerful must a "god" be if that can happen.
• then when Jacob meets Esau in desert and says he will follow him to Seir, Jacob lags behind and changes his path, perhaps still fearing retribution.
• cairn = A mound of stones erected as a memorial or marker.
• Gen 31:49
  It was also called Mizpah, because he said, "May the LORD keep watch between you and me when we are away from each other."
• Hittite = canaanite
• Perizzite = ethnic group or inhabitant of unwalled village
• WOMEN named their children, though men had veto

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Notes on Class

• theological reflection
  
  
  • i am related to my biological family
  • AND i am related to my spiritual family
    
    
    • promises and costs
      
      
      • promises - reduced to a matter of choices or lack of choices
  • i need to be independent
  • AND i want to be part of a family
    
    
    • promises and costs
• Ariel Sharon:Abraham::George W.Bush:Founding Fathers - Bob Spalding
• Jacob's wrestling with God was a pivotal point in the saga for some. Israel emerged a "changed" man. (?)
• The faith of Abraham to go out and trust God vs the scandalous behavior of Jacob, Rebecca, Laban, et al.
• morality vs election
  
  
  • we are in trouble if we look up to the patriarchs as role models for righteous behavior. we can only consider how God uses these figures to work out his mysterious purposes.
• can we even believe some of these Genesis stories?
  
  
  • if we try to believe them literally, then we get into trouble
  • if we look at them in the historical/literary context, then it starts to make sense
    
    
    • one explanation is that Genesis is a retrofitted prologue to the rest of the OT, where stories are told/manufactured to explain why events happen/nations war against each other in later books of the penta/hextateuch, and this is because the story of the exodus is central to the Hebrews' life.
  • if we are still inspired by the stories and draw lessons about moral/immoral behavior and God's mysterious plan for the elected, then Genesis is still valid