Grad school is wicked time consuming! This blog is currently on hold as the semester grinds on!

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Genesis 32.3-33.20

Jacob Returns Home / Jacob Wrestles at Peniel / Jacob and Esau Meet

Jacob Returns Home: Genesis 32.3-21

When last we left our patriarch, Jacob was heading back to his birth place.

Jacob sends some messengers before him to greet Esau and bring him up to date on what he has been up to. The messengers return, bearing chilling news: Esau is coming to meet Jacob, bringing with him four hundred men. A distressed Jacob divides his people and flocks and herds into two companies so that at least half of his people and possessions will survive an attack. This is the second time Jacob has been pursued in his journey home.

Jacob prays to the God of Abraham and Isaac, who told him to return home. He asks to be delivered from the hand of Esau, who he is afraid will kill him. The prayer serves to reiterate God’s promise of protection to Jacob as well as the patriarchal blessing of land and offspring.

In the morning Jacob prepares an extravagant present for his brother: “two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty milch camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys” (Gen. 32.14-15). He gives these to his servants, telling them to go ahead of him, probably as a presentation as much as for protection. Hopefully the long line of livestock will appease Esau before he sees his brother. Jacob then spends another night at the camp while the livestock pass on ahead.

Jacob Wrestles at Peniel: Genesis 32.22-32

The same night Jacob takes his two wives, two maids and eleven children across the Jabbok river with all of his possessions. Jacob stays on the other side, along, and a man wrestles with him until daybreak. The man, seeing he cannot win, strikes Jacob’s hip, dislocating it. The man then asks Jacob to let him go, for day is breaking. Jacob refuses unless the man blesses him. The man then renames Jacob Israel (“the one who strives with God” of “God strives”) “for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed” (Gen. 32.28). The man refuses to give his name when Jacob asks, but does bestow a blessing on Jacob instead.

Realizing he has wrestled God or an angel of God, Jacob names the place Peniel/Penuel (“the face of God”), “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved” (Gen. 32.30). Jacob limps away as the son rises. The chapter ends on an etiological note: “Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the thigh muscle that is on the hip socket, because he struck Jacob on the hip socket at the thigh muscle” (Gen. 32.32).

This is a nice etiological narrative of how the Israelites got their name. But there is also a very disconcerting element of the supernatural to it. Previously pursued by Laban and currently pursued by Esau, Jacob just cannot get a break in his trip homeward. But isn’t it strange that Jacob wrestles at night, when he cannot see the face of the man he wrestles with? Now, no one is allowed to see God’s face, not even Moses, but this could have been anyone. It could have been a false blessing. Allow me to present a Dan Brown conspiracy theory that I have to admit has been put forth by others before me: It was actually Esau that wrestled with Jacob. Not that this should actually be believed; it would falsify the religious belief in the blessing of Jacob and, well,that would be bad. Really this just reads an outsider’s sentiment into the story, creating a conspiracy where there is none. But it is interesting to think about in an Oliver Stone sort of way

Jacob and Esau Meet: Genesis 33.1-20

Having escaped Laban and wrestled with God, Jacob is a little on edge. Seeing Esau coming with four hundred men, he divides his children among his wives and their maids. He again creates a line of defense in greeting Esau: maids with their children in front, Leah and her children next, then Rachel and Joseph. But this time the general goes out to the front, bowing to the ground seven times until he reaches his brother.

Jacob is probably terrified as Esau runs up to meet him, but the birthright-less brother embraces Jacob, kisses him and weeps. Still, Jacob attempts to ingratiate himself as much as possible, referring to himself as a servant and Esau as his lord. When Esau looks up he asks who all those people are. Jacob replies: “The children whom God has graciously given your servant” (Gen. 33.5). They all approach and bow down before Esau. Esau asks what all the livestock was about. Jacob replies, “To find favor with my lord” (Gen. 33.8). Esau responds that he has enough, but the frightened Jacob insists.

Even after Esau agrees to receive the gift, Jacob is still nervous. Esau suggests walking together on their journey, to which Jacob replies that the children are frail and the flocks cannot be over-driven. “Let my lord pass on ahead of his servant, and I will lead on slowly, according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord in Seir” (Gen. 33.14). Esau suggests leaving behind some of his people to accompany Jacob, but Jacob replies, “Why should my lord be so kind to me?” (Gen. 33.15). So Esau returns home and Jacob journeys to Succoth (“booths”) where he builds a house for himself and booths for his cattle.

In a brief interjection of E-narrative (the previous narrative was primarily J), Jacob arrives safely at Shechem, in Canaan, and camps out there. He bies a plot of land there and pitches his tent. Jacob then erects an altar that he names El-Elohe-Israel (“God, the god of Israel)”.

Jacob’s response to his brother in Genesis 33.15 sums up very well his uneasiness:
Why should my lord be so kind to me?
Why indeed? Jacob stole Esau’s birthright and blessing, before running off. Esau once wanted to kill him! But now, twenty years later, Jacob has returned and Esau could not be happier. In fact, despite his lukewarm blessing (that seemed more a curse), Esau has done well for himself. He is awfully good-natured for a man from whom all was stolen. Esau, until now, seemed a very one-dimensional character: hot, impulsive, stupid, associated with the masculine elements. Now he forgives his brother and attempts to refuse his present, which Esau surely deserves (and more). Esau, despite all his shortcomings, is a kind person after all, able to forgive the trickster Jacob that robbed him of so much.

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