NL 403: Jacob's Dream - Genesis 27:1-4, 15-23; 28:10-17
image: Pixabay
September 26, 2021
Genesis 27:1-4, 15-23; 28:10-17
Initial Thoughts
Strangely the story of Rebecca and Jacob stealing the blessing is not in the RCL - even though it is relatively well known
Jacob’s journey has two functions, one is to escape Esau’s anger. Another is to go to his uncle Laban’s house to find a wife.
At the end of the saga at Laban’s house (14 years and two wives later), Jacob wrestles with God before meeting Esau (Gen. 32:22-32, the lectionary reading for Pentecost +8A). Thus, both the trip to Laban’s house and the trip from Laban’s house is marked with a divine encounter.
Bible Study
Jacob and Esau
“We've come to think of the twins Jacob and Esau as yin and yang, good guy and bad seed. But if we read the story with more sensitivity, we will note that neither character plays strictly to type. For political reasons, our tradition demonized Esau and elevated Jacob.” (Rabbi David Segal, ReformJudaism.org)
“This interpretation [that Esau was inherently evil and deserved to be robbed of his inheritance], and the history of the persecution of Jews in the Christian West, highlights the bitterness borne from a zero-sum approach to God's blessing. In the biblical story, Jacob feels compelled to manipulate Esau because only one can possess the birthright and only one can receive the blessing of the firstborn.”(Rabbi David Segal, ReformJudaism.org)
Who are you? Gets at the center of the entire Jacob narrative. Who is Jacob? The trickster? The one who struggles with God? The cheat and liar? The father of a peoples? Despite claims that Jacob’s receiving a new name in Genesis 32 answers this question, his behavior immediately following shows that he remains a complex figure.
This is also paired with v. 23 - “he did not recognize him.”
Rebekah - While Jacob is often depicted as the trickster (and his name means the “tripper-upper” or “heel-grabber”), it is actually Rebekah who conspires and sets up the plan to defraud Esau of his blessing
This may be due to Esau marrying two Hittite women who “made life very difficult for Isaac and Rebekah” Gen 26:35. We do not know what they did to make life difficult, but we know Rebekah will fear that Jacob will marry a Hittite woman (Gen 27:46)
Rebekah is instrumental to this story and has far more agency than any of the men mentioned.
She is the one who overhears Isaac’s intent to bless Esau
She is the one who sets up Jacob to receive the blessing
She is the one who is told that Esau is planning to kill Jacob
She is the one who sends him to Laban
She is the one who says she will send for him to return
When Jacob meets Rachel he tells her he is Rebekah’s son with no mention of Isaac at all
Rebekah is “the most prominent matriarch” - for more on her see Wilda Gafney, Womanist Midrash: A Reintroduction to the Women of the Torah and the Throne, pp.50-52
Setting of the Dream
Jacob at his most vulnerable. There is no action of Jacob to initiate this encounter with God.
Exile from family.
No wife or property accumulated
Asleep - He’s not even conscious.
Jacob’s ladder probably “looked” more like a stairway than what we think of as a ladder (Led Zeppelin had it right).
“The news is that there is traffic between heaven and earth. The object described is probably a ramp rather than the conventional ladder. It refers to something like the Mesopotamian ziggurat, a land mass formed as a temple through which earth touches heaven. Such a ramp as a religious figure reflects the imperial religion of the culture. But now it has become a visual vehicle for a gospel assertion. Earth is not left to its own resources and heaven is not a remote self-contained realm for the gods. Heaven has to do with earth. And earth may finally count on the resources of heaven.” (Walter Brueggeman, Interpretation: Genesis, p. 243).
God appears to Jacob, and says nothing about the ways that he scammed Esau and tricked his father. God simply extends the promises that were once made to Abraham.
Promises of God
I will give to you the land on which you lie.
Your offspring will be like the dust of the earth, and shall be spread abroad.
All the families of the earth shall be blessed in you.
I am with you.
I will keep you wherever you go.
I will bring you back to this land.
I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised.
God is steadfast to Abraham’s descendants, namely to Isaac and then to Jacob. The promises to Jacob are similar to the ones made to Abraham. It is clear though, that it is Jacob who is favored over Esau - even though he has done nothing to deserve such favor.
Jacob’s Response
Response found in lectionary seems to be one of appropriate fear, awe, and reverence.
When he sought Isaac’s blessing, he said, “Because the Lord your God granted me success” (Genesis 27:20b, emphasis added)
When Jacob awoke, he declares “Surely the Lord is in this place- and I did not know it.”
Must read past lectionary to see that Jacob hasn’t really changed:
Even after the dream, Jacob is still conniving. He won’t call God “my God,” unless he has a little proof:
After the lectionary reading, Jacob says, “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God…” (Gen. 28:20-21) Refers to God as “my God,” but still this affirmation is set with conditions.
The stone
The use of the stone as a pillow is very unlikely - more likely is he rested near a large stone for shelter
The idea that he would later lift the stone and make a pillar out of it is consistent with ancient cultic practices, but would have taken “Herculean strength”, however, Jacob does this again in the next chapter when he moves a stone single handedly from the mouth of the well.
All of this is to say - the notion that Esau was the mighty man and Jacob the weakling is misguided.
Thoughts and Questions
“Could the struggle of Esau and Jacob be a Jungian struggle for personal integration? Scripture reports that Jacob was renamed Israel “for you have struggled with God and ‘persons’” (Gen.32), and in the next chapter, Jacob and Esau are reconciled. Might it be that in some way we, too, are each struggling to reconcile and integrate the competing forces within us – our own Esau and Jacob – striving to become our own Israel?” (Rabbi Harold Robinson, ReformedJudaism.org)
Did Jacob need Esau to become Israel?
How do we reconcile our own inner-battles?
Jacob did not seem to know God as he was brought up. Despite being the son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham, he did not know God. He has not acted as a righteous man, and clearly will have some scores to settle. Yet this is the man that God lays his promise on. God continues to go “all in,” with this disturbed family. What kind of God would put such a huge stake in such a faulted man?
“Jacob is a scoundrel who cheated the birthright and blessing out of his brother Esau. He is running away to save his life from his brother’s anger. Jacob is all alone, vulnerable with an indeterminate future. He stopped at a certain place for the night. There is no shelter. He sidles up to a stone and falls asleep. And here, Jacob had a dream that would be a game changer… This is a game changer because he has been hearing about God all his life from his grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac but never felt that God was real. Now Jacob knows God is real. Now Jacob is able to identify with God, not just as his grandfather’s God and his father’s God, but also as God of Jacob.” (Grace Pak, Abingdon Preaching Annual, 2020, p. 87)
Jacob responds to God’s promise with awe and reverence, but then quickly reverts back to bargaining. How do we bargain with God? Even though all is promised, how often to do we wait for proof or some kind of tests before we’ll really believe?
Opening music: Misirlou, One Man 90 Instruments by Joe Penna/MysteryGuitarMan at MIM
Closing Song by Bryan Odeen