Old Testament for July 16, 2023

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Genesis 25:19-34
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

The generational torch is passed from Abraham to Isaac, and then to Isaac’s sons, Jacob and Esau:

This is the history of the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son. Abraham became the father of Isaac. Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Paddan Aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian, to be his wife.

However, in this family history, there is a crisis.  Rebekah was barren.  Given the promises of Yahweh to Abraham, that his descendants would be as many as the stars, this is serious.   But when Isaac intercedes with Yahweh, Rebekah finally conceives twenty years after their marriage, when Isaac is sixty.

Not only does she conceive, she is carrying twins!  But hers is a very difficult pregnancy.  Perhaps this is a premonition of the sibling rivalry that is to come:

The children struggled together within her. She said, “If it is so, why do I live?”

We are told that she goes to inquire of Yahweh — we aren’t told how or where she goes. But she does receive an answer, in the form of a prophecy:

Yahweh said to her,
“Two nations are in your womb.
Two peoples will be separated from your body.
The one people will be stronger than the other people.
The elder will serve the younger.”

These twins aren’t merely brothers who fuss the way brothers often do. They represent two nations — Esau becomes the ancestor of the Edomites, and Jacob will come to be known as Israel. And though Esau is the first-born, he will be overshadowed by Jacob.

Though they are twins, the two brothers couldn’t be more different.  Obviously, they are fraternal twins, not identical.  When Esau was born, he was covered with red hair.  And the wrestling match that began in Rebekah’s womb continues even as the boys are born:

After that, his brother came out, and his hand had hold on Esau’s heel. He was named Jacob.

Their extreme differences grew as they grew.  Esau grows up to be a robust and skillful hunter who loves the outdoors.  He was his father’s favorite because he brought him venison.  Rebekah was partial to her Jacob.  We get a picture of him as a contemplative man:

Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents.

The tension between the two brothers intensifies one day when Esau has been out in the field.  Perhaps he has been unsuccessful in a hunt, or he’s been working in the fields — he’s famished.  Jacob has been boiling a stew of lentils, and Esau asks for a bowl.  Jacob seizes the opportunity to take advantage of his older brother’s plight. (As an aside, the Biblical writer suggests that this red stew becomes the basis for Esau’s nickname Edom, or Red — although we might speculate that the fuzzy red hair that covered him at his birth might have something to do with it! Perhaps Esau was a redhead).

Jacob slyly says to Esau, in just the taunting way a brother might:

 “First, sell me your birthright.”

The birthright is the right of primogeniture ­— the right of the first-born son.  This is the right of inheritance Jacob is asking for!

The repartee between the two could have been playful, but not between these two brothers.  Esau is short-sighted, and perhaps a little naive about his brother’s intentions:

Esau said, “Behold, I am about to die. What good is the birthright to me?”

Jacob reveals just how earnest he is — he withholds the stew until Esau swears to him first.  In a culture where a man’s word is a contract, this is no light thing.

Esau swears, and gets his bowl of stew and some bread — and we are told:

He ate and drank, rose up, and went his way. So Esau despised his birthright.

APPLY:  

At its heart, this is a story that most of us can understand.  It is a family story.  A childless couple yearning for children.  A troubled pregnancy.  The sibling rivalry of two brothers who couldn’t be more different.

It is in and through such families that God chooses to work — to answer prayers, and make promises of a legacy to come, and even to fulfill his plans in spite of the character flaws of such brothers as Jacob and Esau.

What is refreshing about the Biblical record is its realism and honesty.  Isaac and Rebekah remind us of yearning couples that we know.  Jacob and Esau remind us of feuding brothers.  This reminds us that God works through families, and through people, just like ourselves!

RESPOND: 

Some years ago I took a course on Family Systems Theory.  I found it fascinating.  It was based on the theories of Dr. Murray Bowen.  He believed that human interactions are based on interlocking systems that reduplicate the traits of family interactions — whether they are biological families, clubs, churches, military platoons, or even larger political systems.

In the story of Jacob and Esau, I can identify some of the principles of Family Systems Theory that occurred long before Dr. Bowen’s theories.  One of those concepts is triangling — this is what happens when two members of a family seek to resolve the tensions they may have with one another by shifting their focus to a third member of the family.   The tension between Jacob and Esau is exacerbated by the enmeshment they experience from their parents — Jacob enmeshed by his mother Rebekah, and Esau enmeshed by his father Isaac.  These are triangles that interlock — and eventually result in what Bowen might call emotional cutoff ­— when Jacob is forced to leave his home altogether.  But — that’s another story for another Bible study.

The point is that the Biblical stories are our stories.  And the fulfillment toward which history moves is, at its heart, the story of becoming God’s family.

Lord, our families are dysfunctional — but you work out your plans and purposes within even our dysfunctional families.  And we look forward to the consummation of your kingdom — which is described as the ‘wedding supper of the Lamb.’  In heaven we will experience the perfection of your family. Thank you! Amen.

PHOTOS:
“Esau and Jacob” by Giovanni Andrea de Ferrari is in the public domain.

Old Testament for July 9, 2023

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

The Old Testament lesson for this week focuses on transitions and rites of passage.  The actual lectionary reading — Genesis 24: 34-38, 42-49, 58-67 — includes only a part of the whole story.

We must begin with the back story.  Sarah, the mother of Isaac, had died at the age of 127 years at Kiriath Arba (Hebron), when her son was about 37 years old (Genesis 23:1-4).  A few years later, Isaac hadn’t yet married, and this spurs Abraham to action.  He seems to be concerned about two things:

• His own advanced age and health — perhaps he wishes to see Isaac married before his own death.
• He is concerned that Isaac should not marry a “local girl” from among the Canaanites, perhaps because of their idolatry.

So, Abraham commissions his chief servant with a very important mission — he is to return to Mesopotamia and seek a wife from amongst Abraham’s own family (apparently the prohibition against “kissing cousins” was not yet in effect).

The servant (who may well have been the Eliezer named in Genesis 15:2 as Abraham’s chief servant and heir prior to the birth of Ishmael and Isaac) makes the long journey back from Canaan to Mesopotamia, bearing with him gifts loaded on the backs of a caravan of camels.  When he arrives, presumably at the city of Haran (although it is called here the city of Nahor because it is where Nahor lives), the servant rests at the water well outside the city.  The time is in the evening, when young women come to the well to draw water for the family.  The servant prays to Yahweh, Abraham’s God, and asks for direction in finding the girl to whom Isaac is to be married.  The sign for which he asks is fulfilled — she not only draws water for the servant, she also draws water for his camels!

Our passage begins after the servant has discovered that this young woman is in fact Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor (Genesis 24:15).  Nahor was the brother of Abraham!  God has brought the servant directly to Isaac’s cousin! He honors her with a gold ring for her nose, and gold bracelets for her wrists.

When Rebekah brings the servant back to her family’s tent, there is an awful lot of “catching up” to do.  The servant fills them in with updates on Abraham and Sarah — their blessing from God, their greatness and fame, and particularly their prosperity.  And then there is the clincher — the servant reveals that he has been sent to find a wife for the boss’s son.

Then the bargaining begins. The servant says to Rebekah’s brother and father:

Now if you will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me. If not, tell me, that I may turn to the right hand, or to the left.

Unfortunately, the lectionary editors have not included one of the more interesting interactions in this account (verses 50-56).  Bethuel, who is Rebekah’s father, and Laban her brother appear to be angling for a good “bride price.”  Although they admit that what the servant has told them seems to come from Yahweh, they appear to be bargaining with the servant.  After he gives jewels and gold and clothing to Rebekah, Laban and her mother, Laban and Bethuel delay the servant’s departure.  Is this sentimentality because they want to prolong the goodbye with Rebekah, or is this a way of milking more treasure from Abraham’s servant?  Given what we learn about Laban in subsequent accounts from Genesis, particularly his rather devious and sharp dealing with Rebekah’s son Jacob years later, we may have good reason to suspect Laban of ulterior motives.

The servant finally has to demand an answer:

 He said to them, “Don’t hinder me, since Yahweh has prospered my way. Send me away that I may go to my master.”

Astonishingly, in this patriarchal, male-dominated culture, they allow Rebekah to speak for herself:

They said, “We will call the young lady, and ask her.”

Rebekah reveals herself to be a person of adventurous faith.  She agrees to accompany the servant to a land she doesn’t know, in order to marry a man she has never met!

Rebekah is sent away with the family’s generous blessing:

Our sister, may you be the mother of thousands of ten thousands, and let your offspring possess the gate of those who hate them.

The journey south to Beer Lahai Roi (coincidentally, the location of the well at which Hagar was comforted by Yahweh’s Angel in Genesis 16:9-14.  Beer Lahai Roi describes the place as ‘where God lives and sees me.’) leads to one of the most romantic encounters in the Scriptures:

Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the evening. He lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, there were camels coming.  Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she dismounted from the camel. She said to the servant, “Who is the man who is walking in the field to meet us?”

The servant said, “It is my master.”

She took her veil, and covered herself. The servant told Isaac all the things that he had done.  Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife. He loved her. Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.

In this classically abbreviated Hebrew style, we see this young woman and man meet, fall in love and marry, all in just a few verses.  The phrase indicating that Isaac took her into Sarah’s tent suggests that Rebekah has filled the grief in his heart over his mother’s death.  Sarah’s empty tent, formerly a place of sadness, now becomes a place of joy.  And one wonders if this may be a part of the Jewish custom of the wedding tent even today.  Isaac was 40 when he married Rebekah (Genesis 25:20).

APPLY:  

There is an old expression — “theirs is a marriage made in heaven.”  We may wonder, in these modern times when divorce seems rampant, if heaven has anything to do with marriage.

We find in the account of the relationship between Rebekah and Isaac that even a marriage “made in heaven” requires human as well as divine initiative.  We see evidence of a divine/human synergism in this account. Perhaps another way of saying this is that God plays matchmaker — but human beings must cooperate!

Abraham sees that the eligible women in Canaan are not suitable for his son Isaac — this is probably not because of ethnicity but because of their idolatrous religion. So he takes action and sends his servant back to the “home country” to find a woman.

The servant prays for a sign from Yahweh which is promptly confirmed when Rebekah appears.  But she must also exercise her own free will in order to become a part of this Abrahamic dynasty and the salvation history of Israel.

And Isaac also must consent to this “arranged marriage” and choose to love Rebekah — even when her coming was not originally his idea!

Perhaps we have a partial answer to the increase of rocky marriages today.  A common faith, prayer, and the choice to love one another are critical in strong marriages.

RESPOND: 

In some ways, this account of the arranged marriage of Isaac and Rebekah, with a servant as the yenta (the “matchmaker”), seems to come right out of the pages of a book with a title like The Art of the Deal.  It all seems so “transactional.”

The servant brings camels laden down with treasure, and then asks for the lady’s hand on behalf of his boss’s son.  It’s about a business arrangement.  And it’s about the family business.

But I wonder — is our “romantic” ideal, based on “falling love,” a preferable model?  Divorce rates suggest that many marriages based solely on “romance” don’t last very long.

As a father of two I can understand Abraham’s efforts to intervene by arranging a marriage for his son Isaac.  I joke that marriage is too important to be left to hormonal kids!  The truth is, the prayer of the servant may be the most important and most easily overlooked feature of this story.  Without deep and earnest prayer, no marriage should ever be solemnized.  It is prayer, and a strong faith in God that keeps Christian marriages together.

Lord, marriage is ultimately your idea — bringing two people together for the purpose of love, comfort, and, yes, for a legacy that will outlive that man and woman.  We pray for strong, loving, faithful marriages that bring honor to you. Amen.

PHOTOS:
“Terah’s family” by Martin LaBar is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for July 12, 2020

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Genesis 25:19-34
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

The generational torch is passed from Abraham to Isaac, and then to Isaac’s sons, Jacob and Esau:

This is the history of the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son. Abraham became the father of Isaac. Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Paddan Aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian, to be his wife.

However, in this family history, there is a crisis.  Rebekah was barren.  Given the promises of Yahweh to Abraham, that his descendants would be as many as the stars, this is serious.   But when Isaac intercedes with Yahweh, Rebekah finally conceives twenty years after their marriage, when Isaac is sixty.

Not only does she conceive, she is carrying twins!  But hers is a very difficult pregnancy.  Perhaps this is a premonition of the sibling rivalry that is to come:

The children struggled together within her. She said, “If it is so, why do I live?”

We are told that she goes to inquire of Yahweh — we aren’t told how or where she goes. But she does receive an answer, in the form of a prophecy:

Yahweh said to her,
“Two nations are in your womb.
Two peoples will be separated from your body.
The one people will be stronger than the other people.
The elder will serve the younger.”

These twins aren’t merely brothers who fuss the way brothers often do. They represent two nations — Esau becomes the ancestor of the Edomites, and Jacob will come to be known as Israel. And though Esau is the first-born, he will be overshadowed by Jacob.

Though they are twins, the two brothers couldn’t be more different.  Obviously, they are fraternal twins, not identical.  When Esau was born, he was covered with red hair.  And the wrestling match that began in Rebekah’s womb continues even as the boys are born:

After that, his brother came out, and his hand had hold on Esau’s heel. He was named Jacob.

Their extreme differences grew as they grew.  Esau grows up to be a robust and skillful hunter who loves the outdoors.  He was his father’s favorite because he brought him venison.  Rebekah was partial to her Jacob.  We get a picture of him as a contemplative man:

Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents.

The tension between the two brothers intensifies one day when Esau has been out in the field.  Perhaps he has been unsuccessful in a hunt, or he’s been working in the fields — he’s famished.  Jacob has been boiling a stew of lentils, and Esau asks for a bowl.  Jacob seizes the opportunity to take advantage of his older brother’s plight. (As an aside, the Biblical writer suggests that this red stew becomes the basis for Esau’s nickname Edom, or Red — although we might speculate that the fuzzy red hair that covered him at his birth might have something to do with it! Perhaps Esau was a redhead).

Jacob slyly says to Esau, in just the taunting way a brother might:

 “First, sell me your birthright.”

The birthright is the right of primogeniture ­— the right of the first born son.  This is the right of inheritance Jacob is asking for!

The repartee between the two could have been playful, but not between these two brothers.  Esau is short-sighted, and perhaps a little naive about his brother’s intentions:

Esau said, “Behold, I am about to die. What good is the birthright to me?”

Jacob reveals just how earnest he is — he withholds the stew until Esau swears to him first.  In a culture where a man’s word is a contract, this is no light thing.

Esau swears, and gets his bowl of stew and some bread — and we are told:

He ate and drank, rose up, and went his way. So Esau despised his birthright.

APPLY:  

At its heart, this is a story that most of us can understand.  It is a family story.  A childless couple yearning for children.  A troubled pregnancy.  The sibling rivalry of two brothers who couldn’t be more different.

It is in and through such families that God chooses to work — to answer prayers, and make promises of a legacy to come, and even to fulfill his plans in spite of the character flaws of such brothers as Jacob and Esau.

What is refreshing about the Biblical record is its realism and honesty.  Isaac and Rebekah remind us of yearning couples that we know.  Jacob and Esau remind us of feuding brothers.  This reminds us that God works through families, and through people, just like ourselves!

RESPOND: 

Some years ago I took a course on Family Systems Theory.  I found it fascinating.  It was based on the theories of Dr. Murray Bowen.  He believed that human interactions are based on interlocking systems that reduplicate the traits of family interactions — whether they are biological families, clubs, churches, military platoons, or even larger political systems.

In the story of Jacob and Esau, I can identify some of the principles of Family Systems Theory that occurred long before Dr. Bowen’s theories.  One of those concepts is triangling — this is what happens when two members of a family seek to resolve the tensions they may have with one another by shifting their focus to a third member of the family.   The tension between Jacob and Esau is exacerbated by the enmeshment they experience from their parents — Jacob enmeshed by his mother Rebekah, and Esau enmeshed by his father Isaac.  These are triangles that interlock — and eventually result in what Bowen might call emotional cutoff ­— when Jacob is forced to leave his home altogether.  But — that’s another story for another Bible study.

The point is that the Biblical stories are our stories.  And the fulfillment toward which history moves is, at its heart, the story of becoming God’s family.

Lord, our families are dysfunctional — but you work out your plans and purposes within even our dysfunctional families.  And we look forward to the consummation of your kingdom — which is described as the ‘wedding supper of the Lamb.’  In heaven we will experience the perfection of your family.  Thank you! Amen.

PHOTOS:
“Esau and Jacob” by Giovanni Andrea de Ferrari is in the public domain.

Old Testament for July 5, 2020

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

The Old Testament lesson for this week focuses on transitions and rites of passage.  The actual lectionary reading — Genesis 24: 34-38, 42-49, 58-67 — includes only a part of the whole story.

We must begin with the back story.  Sarah, the mother of Isaac, had died at the age of 127 years at Kiriath Arba (Hebron), when her son was  about 37 years old (Genesis 23:1-4).  A few years later, Isaac hadn’t yet married, and this spurs Abraham to action.  He seems to be concerned about two things:

• His own advanced age and health — perhaps he wishes to see Isaac married before his own death.
• He is concerned that Isaac should not marry a “local girl” from among the Canaanites, perhaps because of their idolatry.

So, Abraham commissions his chief servant with a very important mission — he is to return to Mesopotamia and seek a wife from amongst Abraham’s  own family (apparently the prohibition against “kissing cousins” was not yet in effect).

The servant (who may well have been the Eliezer named in Genesis 15:2 as Abraham’s chief servant and heir prior to the birth of Ishmael and Isaac)  makes the long journey back from Canaan to Mesopotamia, bearing with him gifts loaded on the backs of a caravan of camels.  When he arrives, presumably at the city of Haran (although it is called here the city of Nahor because it is where Nahor lives), the servant rests at the water well outside the city.  The time is in the evening, when young women come to the well to draw water for the family.  The servant prays to Yahweh, Abraham’s God, and asks for direction in finding the girl to whom Isaac is to be married.  The sign for which he asks is fulfilled — she not only draws water for the servant, she also draws water for his camels!

Our passage begins after the servant has discovered that this young woman is in fact Rebekah,  the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor ( Genesis 24:15).  Nahor was the brother of Abraham!    God has brought the servant directly to Isaac’s cousin! He honors her with a gold ring for her nose, and gold bracelets for her wrists.

When Rebekah brings the servant back to her family’s tent, there is an awful lot of “catching up” to do.  The servant fills them in with updates on Abraham and Sarah — their blessing from God, their greatness and fame, and particularly their prosperity.  And then there is the clincher — the servant reveals that he has been sent to find a wife for the boss’s son.

Then the bargaining begins. The servant says to Rebekah’s brother and father:

Now if you will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me. If not, tell me, that I may turn to the right hand, or to the left.

Unfortunately, the lectionary editors have not included one of the more interesting interactions in this account (verses 50-56).  Bethuel, who is Rebekah’s father, and Laban her brother appear to be angling for a good “bride price.”  Although they admit that what the servant has told them seems to come from Yahweh, they appear to be bargaining with the servant.  After he gives jewels and gold and clothing to Rebekah, Laban and her mother, Laban and Bethuel delay the servant’s departure.  Is this sentimentality because they want to prolong the goodbye with Rebekah, or is this a way of milking more treasure from Abraham’s servant?  Given what we learn about Laban in subsequent accounts from Genesis, particularly his rather devious and sharp dealing with Rebekah’s son Jacob years later, we may have good reason to suspect Laban of ulterior motives.

The servant finally has to demand an answer:

 He said to them, “Don’t hinder me, since Yahweh has prospered my way. Send me away that I may go to my master.”

Astonishingly, in this patriarchal, male-dominated culture, they allow Rebekah to speak for herself:

They said, “We will call the young lady, and ask her.”

Rebekah reveals herself to be a person of adventurous faith.  She agrees to accompany the servant to a land she doesn’t know, in order to marry a man she has never met!

Rebekah is sent away with the family’s generous blessing:

Our sister, may you be the mother of thousands of ten thousands, and let your offspring possess the gate of those who hate them.

The journey south to Beer Lahai Roi (coincidentally, the location of the well at which Hagar was comforted by Yahweh’s Angel in Genesis 16:9-14.  Beer Lahai Roi describes the place as ‘where God lives and sees me.’) leads to one of the most romantic encounters in the Scriptures:

Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the evening. He lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, there
were camels coming.  Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she dismounted from the camel.  She said to the servant, “Who is the man who is walking in the field to meet us?”

The servant said, “It is my master.”

She took her veil, and covered herself. The servant told Isaac all the things that he had done.  Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife. He loved her. Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.

In this classically abbreviated Hebrew style, we see this young woman and man meet, fall in love and marry, all in just a few verses.  The phrase indicating that Isaac took her into Sarah’s tent suggests that Rebekah has filled the grief in his heart over his mother’s death.  Sarah’s empty tent, formerly a place of sadness, now becomes a place of joy.  And one wonders if this may be a part of the Jewish custom of the wedding tent even today.  Isaac was 40 when he married Rebekah (Genesis 25:20).

APPLY:  

There is an old expression — “theirs is a marriage made in heaven.”  We may wonder, in these modern times when divorce seems rampant, if heaven has anything to do with marriage.

We find in the account of the relationship between Rebekah and Isaac that even a marriage “made in heaven” requires human as well as divine initiative.  We see evidence of a divine/human synergism in this account. Perhaps another way of saying this is that God plays matchmaker — but human beings must cooperate!

Abraham sees that the eligible women in Canaan are not suitable for his son Isaac — this is probably not because of ethnicity but because of their idolatrous religion. So he takes action and sends his servant back to the “home country” to find a woman.

The servant prays for a sign from Yahweh which is promptly confirmed when Rebekah appears.  But she must also exercise her own free will in order to become a part of this Abrahamic dynasty and the salvation history of Israel.

And Isaac also must consent to this “arranged marriage” and choose to love Rebekah — even when her coming was not originally his idea!

Perhaps we have a partial answer to the increase of rocky marriages today.  A common faith, prayer, and the choice to love one another are critical in strong marriages.

RESPOND: 

In some ways, this account of the arranged marriage of Isaac and Rebekah, with a servant as the yenta (the “matchmaker”), seems to come right out of the pages of a book with a title like The Art of the Deal.  It all seems so “transactional.”

The servant brings camels laden down with treasure, and then asks for the lady’s hand on behalf of his boss’s son.  It’s about a business arrangement.  And it’s about the family business.

But I wonder — is our “romantic” ideal, based on “falling love,” a preferable model?  Divorce rates suggest that  many marriages based solely on “romance” don’t last very long.

As a father of two I can understand Abraham’s efforts to intervene by arranging a marriage for his son Isaac.  I joke that marriage is too important to be left to hormonal kids!  The truth is, the prayer of the servant may be the most important and most easily overlooked feature of this story.  Without deep and earnest prayer, no marriage should ever be solemnized.  It is prayer, and a strong faith in God that keeps Christian marriages together.

Lord, marriage is ultimately your idea — bringing two people together for the purpose of love, comfort, and, yes, for a legacy that will outlive that man and woman.  We pray for strong, loving, faithful marriages that bring honor to you. Amen.

PHOTOS:
“Terah’s family” by Martin LaBar is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for July 16, 2017

Start with Scripture:

Genesis 25:19-34

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

The generational torch is passed from Abraham to Isaac, and then to Isaac’s sons, Jacob and Esau:

This is the history of the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son. Abraham became the father of Isaac. Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Paddan Aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian, to be his wife.

However, in this family history, there is a crisis.  Rebekah was barren.  Given the promises of Yahweh to Abraham, that his descendants would be as many as the stars, this is serious.   But when Isaac intercedes with Yahweh, Rebekah finally conceives twenty years after their marriage, when Isaac is sixty.

Not only does she conceive, she is carrying twins!  But hers is a very difficult pregnancy.  Perhaps this is a premonition of the sibling rivalry that is to come:

The children struggled together within her. She said, “If it is so, why do I live?”

We are told that she goes to inquire of Yahweh — we aren’t told how or where she goes. But she does receive an answer, in the form of a prophecy:

Yahweh said to her,
“Two nations are in your womb.
Two peoples will be separated from your body.
The one people will be stronger than the other people.
The elder will serve the younger.”

 These twins aren’t merely brothers who fuss the way brothers often do. They represent two nations — Esau becomes the ancestor of the Edomites, and Jacob will come to be known as Israel. And though Esau is the first-born, he will be overshadowed by Jacob.

Though they are twins, the two brothers couldn’t be more different.  Obviously, they are fraternal twins, not identical.  When Esau was born, he was covered with red hair.  And the wrestling match that began in Rebekah’s womb continues even as the boys are born:

After that, his brother came out, and his hand had hold on Esau’s heel. He was named Jacob.

Still, the boys couldn’t be more different.  Esau grows up to be a robust and skillful hunter who loves the outdoors.  Esau was his father’s favorite because he brought him venison.  Rebekah was partial to her Jacob.  We get a picture of him as a contemplative man:

Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents.

The tension between the two brothers intensifies one day when Esau has been out in the field.  Perhaps he has been unsuccessful in a hunt, or he’s been working in the fields — he’s famished.  Jacob has been boiling a stew of lentils, and Esau asks for a bowl.  Jacob seizes the opportunity to take advantage of his older brother’s plight. (As an aside, the Biblical writer suggests that this red stew becomes the basis for Esau’s nickname Edom, or Red — although we might speculate that the fuzzy red hair that covered him at his birth might have something to do with it! Perhaps Esau was a redhead).

Jacob slyly says to Esau, in just the taunting way a brother might:

 “First, sell me your birthright.”

The birthright is the right of primogeniture ­— the right of the first born son.  This is the right of inheritance Jacob is asking for!

The repartee between the two could have been playful, but not between these two brothers.  Esau is short-sighted, and perhaps a little naive about his brother’s intentions:

Esau said, “Behold, I am about to die. What good is the birthright to me?”

Jacob reveals just how earnest he is — he withholds the stew until Esau swears to him first.  In a culture where a man’s word is a contract, this is no light thing.

Esau swears, and gets his bowl of stew and some bread — and we are told:

He ate and drank, rose up, and went his way. So Esau despised his birthright.

APPLY:  

At its heart, this is a story that most of us can understand.  It is a family story.  A childless couple yearning for children.  A troubled pregnancy.  The sibling rivalry of two brothers who couldn’t be more different.

It is in and through such families that God chooses to work — to answer prayers, and make promises of a legacy to come, and even to fulfill his plans in spite of the character flaws of such brothers as Jacob and Esau.

What is refreshing about the Biblical record is its realism and honesty.  Isaac and Rebekah remind us of yearning couples that we know.  Jacob and Esau remind us of feuding brothers.  This reminds us that God works through families, and through people, just like ourselves!

RESPOND: 

Some years ago I took a course on Family Systems Theory.  I found it fascinating.  It was based on the theories of Dr. Murray Bowen.  He believed that human interactions are based on interlocking systems that reduplicate the traits of family interactions — whether they are biological families, clubs, churches, military platoons, or even larger political systems.

In the story of Jacob and Esau, I can identify some of the principles of Family Systems Theory that occurred long before Dr. Bowen’s theories.  One of those concepts is triangling — this is what happens when two members of a family seek to resolve the tensions they may have with one another by shifting their focus to a third member of the family.   The tension between Jacob and Esau is exacerbated by the enmeshment they experience from their parents — Jacob enmeshed by his mother Rebekah, and Esau enmeshed by his father Isaac.  These are triangles that interlock — and eventually result in what Bowen might call emotional cutoff ­— when Jacob is forced to leave his home altogether.  But — that’s another story for another Bible study.

The point is that the Biblical stories are our stories.  And the fulfillment toward which history moves is, at its heart, the story of becoming God’s family.

Lord, our families are dysfunctional — but you work out your plans and purposes within even our dysfunctional families.  And we look forward to the consummation of your kingdom — which is described as the ‘wedding supper of the Lamb.’  In heaven we will experience the perfection of your family.  Thank you! Amen.

PHOTOS:
“Esau and Jacob” by Giovanni Andrea de Ferrari is in the public domain.

Old Testament for July 9, 2017

Start with Scripture:

Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67

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OBSERVE:

The Old Testament lesson for this week focuses on transitions and rites of passage.  The actual lectionary reading — Genesis 24: 34-38, 42-49, 58-67 — includes only a part of the whole story.

We must begin with the back story.  Sarah, the mother of Isaac, had died at the age of 127 years at Kiriath Arba (Hebron), when her son was  about 37 years old (Genesis 23:1-4).  A few years later, Isaac hadn’t yet married, and this spurs Abraham to action.  He seems to be concerned about two things:

• His own advanced age and health — perhaps he wishes to see Isaac married before his own death.
• He is concerned that Isaac should not marry a “local girl” from among the Canaanites, perhaps because of their idolatry.

So, Abraham commissions his chief servant with a very important mission — he is to return to Mesopotamia and seek a wife from amongst Abraham’s  own family (apparently the prohibition against “kissing cousins” was not yet in effect).

The servant (who may well have been the Eliezer named in Genesis 15:2 as Abraham’s chief servant and heir prior to the birth of Ishmael and Isaac)  makes the long journey back from Canaan to Mesopotamia, bearing with him gifts loaded on the backs of a caravan of camels.  When he arrives, presumably at the city of Haran (although it is called here the city of Nahor because it is where Nahor lives), the servant rests at the water well outside the city.  The time is in the evening, when young women come to the well to draw water for the family.  The servant prays to Yahweh, Abraham’s God, and asks for direction in finding the girl to whom Isaac is to be married.  The sign for which he asks is fulfilled — she not only draws water for the servant, she also draws water for his camels!

Our passage begins after the servant has discovered that this young woman is in fact Rebekah,  the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor ( Genesis 24:15).  Nahor was the brother of Abraham!    God has brought the servant directly to Isaac’s cousin! He honors her with a gold ring for her nose, and gold bracelets for her wrists.

When Rebekah brings the servant back to her family’s tent, there is an awful lot of “catching up” to do.  The servant fills them in with updates on Abraham and Sarah — their blessing from God, their greatness and fame, and particularly their prosperity.  And then there is the clincher — the servant reveals that he has been sent to find a wife for the boss’s son.

Then the bargaining begins. The servant says to Rebekah’s brother and father:

Now if you will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me. If not, tell me, that I may turn to the right hand, or to the left.

Unfortunately, the lectionary editors have not included one of the more interesting interactions in this account (verses 50-56).  Bethuel, who is Rebekah’s father, and Laban her brother appear to be angling for a good “bride price.”  Although they admit that what the servant has told them seems to come from Yahweh, they appear to be bargaining with the servant.  After he gives jewels and gold and clothing to Rebekah, Laban and her mother, Laban and Bethuel delay the servant’s departure.  Is this sentimentality because they want to prolong the goodbye with Rebekah, or is this a way of milking more treasure from Abraham’s servant?  Given what we learn about Laban in subsequent accounts from Genesis, particularly his rather devious and sharp dealing with Rebekah’s son Jacob years later, we may have good reason to suspect Laban of ulterior motives.

The servant finally has to demand an answer:

 He said to them, “Don’t hinder me, since Yahweh has prospered my way. Send me away that I may go to my master.”

Astonishingly, in this patriarchal, male-dominated culture, they allow Rebekah to speak for herself:

They said, “We will call the young lady, and ask her.”

Rebekah reveals herself to be a person of adventurous faith.  She agrees to accompany the servant to a land she doesn’t know, in order to marry a man she has never met!

Rebekah is sent away with the family’s generous blessing:

Our sister, may you be the mother of thousands of ten thousands, and let your offspring possess the gate of those who hate them.

The journey south to Beer Lahai Roi (coincidentally, the location of the well at which Hagar was comforted by Yahweh’s Angel in Genesis 16:9-14.  Beer Lahai Roi describes the place as ‘where God lives and sees me.’) leads to one of the most romantic encounters in the Scriptures:

Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the evening. He lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, there were camels coming.  Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she dismounted from the camel.  She said to the servant, “Who is the man who is walking in the field to meet us?”

The servant said, “It is my master.”

She took her veil, and covered herself. The servant told Isaac all the things that he had done.  Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife. He loved her. Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.

In this classically abbreviated Hebrew style, we see this young woman and man meet, fall in love and marry, all in just a few verses.  The phrase indicating that Isaac took her into Sarah’s tent suggests that Rebekah has filled the grief in his heart over his mother’s death.  Sarah’s empty tent, formerly a place of sadness, now becomes a place of joy.  And one wonders if this may be a part of the Jewish custom of the wedding tent even today.  Isaac was 40 when he married Rebekah (Genesis 25:20).

APPLY:  

There is an old expression — “theirs is a marriage made in heaven.”  We may wonder, in these modern times when divorce seems rampant, if heaven has anything to do with marriage.

We find in the account of the relationship between Rebekah and Isaac that even a marriage “made in heaven” requires human as well as divine initiative.  We see evidence of a divine/human synergism in this account. Perhaps another way of saying this is that God plays matchmaker — but human beings must cooperate!

Abraham sees that the eligible women in Canaan are not suitable for his son Isaac — this is probably  not because of ethnicity but because of their idolatrous religion. So he takes action and sends his servant back to the “home country” to find a woman.

The servant prays for a sign from Yahweh which is promptly confirmed when Rebekah appears.  But she must also exercise her own free will in order to become a part of this Abrahamic dynasty and the salvation history of Israel.

And Isaac also must consent to this “arranged marriage” and choose to love Rebekah — even when her coming was not originally his idea!

Perhaps we have a partial answer to the increase of rocky marriages today.  A common faith, prayer, and the choice to love one another are critical in strong marriages.

RESPOND: 

In some ways, this account of the arranged marriage of Isaac and Rebekah, with a servant as the yenta (the “matchmaker”), seems to come right out of the pages of a book with a title like The Art of the Deal.  It all seems so “transactional.”

The servant brings camels laden down with treasure, and then asks for the lady’s hand on behalf of his boss’s son.  It’s about a business arrangement.  And it’s about the family business.

But I wonder — is our “romantic” ideal, based on “falling love,” a preferable model?  Divorce rates suggest that  many marriages based solely on “romance” don’t last very long.

As a father of two I can understand Abraham’s efforts to intervene by arranging a marriage for his son Isaac.  I joke that marriage is too important to be left to hormonal kids!  The truth is, the prayer of the servant may be the most important and most easily overlooked feature of this story.  Without deep and earnest prayer, no marriage should ever be solemnized.  It is prayer, and a strong faith in God, that keeps Christian marriages together.

Lord, marriage is ultimately your idea — bringing two people together for the purpose of love, comfort, and, yes, for a legacy that will outlive that man and woman.  We pray for strong, loving, faithful marriages that bring honor to you. Amen.

PHOTOS:
“Terah’s family” by Martin LaBar is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.