Tag Archives: Jacob

A Conversation Between God and Man(?!)

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Genesis 35:1, 6–7, 9–10, 15 (cp. 32:23–31), Elohim said unto Jacob. This account of the encounter between Elohim and Jacob is so matter-of-fact and is written in such a manner as to be familial, if not almost casual. There are no embellishments or hyperbole, just statement of literal fact. Again, the plain (peshat) meaning of the text seems clear: Elohim spoke with man face-to-face. This was not the only time Jacob had experienced such a divine encounter as we have previously noted in is encounter with Elohim in Genesis 32.

It could be said that Elohim spoke to Jacob in some sort of a vision form, until we come to verse 13 and 14, which states that “Elohim went up from [Jacob] where he talked with him. And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him.” These verses indicate that Elohim was literally there at that place and when finished “went up from [Jacob].” The word place in verse 13 is the Hebrew word maqowm, which is a “performative noun [which] represents the physical location where something is or ought to be … so it is translated place, home, room …” (TWOT, vol 2, p. 794). The well-respected Brown, Driver and Briggs lexicon, like TWOT, defines maqowm as a literally physical place, spot or locality (p. 879). The word maqowm is used 402 times in the Tanakh and only four times does it refer to YHVH’s heavenly dwelling place (1 Kgs 8:30; 2 Chr 6:21; Hos 5:15 and Mic 1:3); all other scriptural passages where the word is used is referring to literal or figurative place on earth including Genesis 35:13. The evidence is clear: YHVH Elohim was on this earth, speaking to Jacob in some form of diminished glory that man could see him and live.

 

The Law of Reaping and Sowing — Often Learned Through the School of Hard Knocks

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Genesis 28:22, I will surely give the tenth. To whom would Jacob ultimately tithe? We don’t know, but Jacob may have been making a prophecy about his descendants bringing their tithes and offerings to the house of El or the temple that would eventually be built on that exact spot.
Jacob’s dream in Genesis 28 was his first, life-changing personal encounter with the Elohim of his fathers (Gen 28:10ff). What is his response? It was to serve YHVH and to worship him by giving him one-tenth (a tithe) of his increase (verse 22).

What prompted this response on Jacob’s part? Why was such a response appropriate? When did you have your first encounter with your Heavenly Father and Master? Have you faithfully used the first fruits of your increase to honor, worship and express gratitude to him ever since? If not, why not? Scripture calls not tithing “robbing Elohim” and that as a result a curse may be on your finances (see Mal 3:8–11). Proverbs 3:9 lays out a solid truth about how tithing is a form of worshipping the Creator. “Honour [glorify] YHVH with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase, so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.”

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The Scriptures reveals the spiritual law of reciprocity: You reap what you sow (Gen 8:22; Gal 6:7–9). If you don’t sow you will not reap. If you sow evil or good you will reap the same. Jacob had to learn this law the hard way. In Job 4:8 we read, “Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.” Jacob gained the birthright through posing as Esau (a deception) and Laban in turn deceives Jacob by putting Leah under the veil posing as Rachel in Jacob’s marriage bed. It is very easy to see the principle of reaping and sowing Continue reading →

 

Isaac—A Man of Godly Character

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Isaac—A Character Sketch

  • He was successful and blessed. (Gen 26:12)
  • He was obedient to his father.

At age 37 Abraham bound Isaac to the altar (in Heb. called the akeidah, Gen 22).

Isaac was obedient to marry Rebekah, his parents’ choice, unlike Esau. He trusted and had faith in his parents even as he trusted his life with his father at the akeida.

Akeidah

  • He had a deep and personal relationship with YHVH.

Here we learn that obedience to and faith in and love for parents leads to devotion to YHVH. Honoring one’s parents is the key to honoring YHVH and entering into relationship with him. That is why the fifth commandment to honor one’s parents is placed after the commands to love Elohim. In Genesis 24:63 and 25:21, (see The Stone Tanach rendering of this verse in addition, The ArtScroll Beresheis, p. 1048, which says Isaac prayed abundantly and urgingly, i.e., persistent prayer, a penetrating prayer or request), we see that Isaac had a deep and personal relationship with his Creator. Continue reading →

 

The Front Cover of the National Geographic Is Here!

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Remember when body piercings, nose rings, ear discs and other forms of bodily mutilations including mass tattooing were something you saw only on half-naked indigenous peoples sporting on the front cover of the National Geographic?

How is it that these practices, once considered ridiculous, or even barbaric, savage and heathen, are now considered fashionable by many in our society?

Is this yet another bellwether of our society’s turning away from biblical values and a continued spiritual declension into godless heathenism and demonism?

Why would someone so mutilate their body and call it fashionable? What is mental-emotional status of a person given to expressing themselves in this manner?

Are those who engage in such practices simply evidencing their spiritual confusion about who they are? Is it an expression of self-dissatisfaction, self-rejection? Is it a cry-out for spiritual help, guidance—an expression of a need for love and acceptance? Or is it simply a “fashion statement” and an effort to be different from the societal norm only for difference’s sake?

Do you know any individuals who are “well-adjusted,”  have a healthy self-esteem, or are even biblically-grounded who mutilate their bodies for fashions’ sake?

What are your thoughts on this matter? Is this growing trend in our society a cause for alarm, or simply a current fad that has no further ramifications than that?

By the way, you might want to take a look at the following blog post I wrote a few months ago—

Genesis 35:4, Strange gods …earrings. For a discussion on the biblical view of men wearing earrings, see an earlier post I wrote on the subject at http://hoshanarabbah.org/blog/?s=earrings&submit=Search.

 

Nuggets from Genesis 32 — Jacob’s Dark Night of the Soul

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Genesis 32:24, Wrestled with him. Why did Elohim wrestle all night with Jacob? Why not just wound him early on and save the time and trouble? What does this teach us about the long-suffering nature of Elohim who will continue to strive with us and our fleshy tendencies and self-reliances until we finally submit to him and recognize that only through him can we have real strength and victory, though we might end up physically lame in the process?

Let’s break this story down.

Why the wrestling all night “till the breaking of the day”? What does night and breaking of day represent metaphorically with regard to our spiritual walk?

What does this teach us about faith, the struggles of this life and about not giving up until the very end when the blessings and dawning of a new day are about to break forth?

Jacob received the new name of Israel during this time (verse 28). Through this struggle, he took a quantum leap spiritually and became a new man with a new identity. Has this ever happened to you? Don’t we progress spiritually only out of crisis? “There is no gain where there is no gain,” as the saying goes.

What were the results of Jacob’s struggle? Verse 32 says of Jacob, “as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he limped upon his thigh.” Penuel means “faces of El.” Taking a little poetic license (at the drash/allegorical or third level of Jewish biblical interpretation) here, we could paraphrase this verse as follows:

“As Jacob emerged out of the darkness of self-reliance, the face of Elohim shined favorably upon him as he no longer relied on the flesh.”

Pause to reflect on this for a moment and take quick stock of your spiritual walk in the light of these words.

Who are some other notable Biblical characters besides Jacob who struggled with trying to achieve their divine mission through human means? How about Abraham with Hagar, Moses when he murdered the Egyptian, Samson, or Peter when he cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant? Can you think of some others? What did these men learn about walking in the Spirit versus walking in the flesh?

Genesis 32:28, Jacob but Israel. Jacob/Ya’acov means “heel snatcher/holder or supplanter,” while Israel/Yisra’el means “Prince of El or El Prevails/Prevailer with El.” What can we learn about the change of Jacob’s character as reflected in the changing of his name? Who is the focal point of the name and the initiator of the action in the first name … in the second name? What can we learn from this for our own faith walk?

Genesis 32:32, The muscle that shrank. Please notice that the sinew, representing the strength of the flesh, only shrank. It was not removed. What does this signify spiritually with regard to the redeemed man’s old sin nature?

At the point in one’s spiritual journey when one is regenerated by the Spirit of Elohim, a man doesn’t lose his identity, personality or soul (i.e., his mind, will and emotions). What then happens to a person’s soul? It must be transformed and renewed by the Spirit of Elohim to be conformed to YHVH’s perfect will (Rom 12:2). The soul-man will still try to assert dominance over the spirit-man, but man must learn to submit to the Spirit of Elohim.

Paul discusses the struggle between the soul and the spirit in ­Romans  7:14–25. This is the same struggle that Jacob faced in his dark night of the soul. There he died to his own will and finally submitted totally to that of his Heavenly King.

 

Come out of Babylon, My People!

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Genesis 31, Laban and Balaam. It is quite possible that the false prophet Balaam, who heard from YHVH and had a sense of righteousness, though was still steeped in paganism, was a descendant of Laban. Both were from Aram (part of greater Babylon) and only 280 years separated them. One of the Aramaic Targums (Targum Jonathan) equates Balaam with Laban, while other scholars view Balaam as Laban’s grandson.

Whatever the case, both Laban and Balaam were involved in a mixed-religious system—some truth and some error, some good and some evil.

This is the nature of religious Babylon (meaning “mixture” or “confusion”). A mixture of what? Of good and evil.

Remember the tree by that name in the Garden of Eden? Who was the one who enticed man to indulge in that fruit in rebellion to YHVH’s commands? Is not religious Babylon of today, out of which YHVH is calling his people (Rev 18:4), just that—a mixture of truth and pagan lies? How else, for example, do we account for the name of the Christian festival called Easter or Ishtar named after the Babylonian sex goddess of fertility? Or how else do we account for the Christmas tree phallus symbol that also originated from Babylonian sex worship? Or how about the Easter egg (an ancient Babylonian fertility or sex symbol) or the egg on the Jewish Passover Seder plate? All these are symbols of pagan sex worship.

As YHVH called Jacob away from Babylon back to Beth-el (the House of El), and as YHVH turned Jacob’s heart back to the ways of his fathers, is not the same YHVH likewise now calling his people to come out of religious Babylon (Rev 18:4), to separate themselves from that which is unclean or not kosher (2 Cor 6:17)? Yes, YHVH is now calling the modern descendants of Jacob (redeemed Israelites) to remember the Torah of Moses his servant and to listen to the spirit of Elijah as the children’s hearts turn back to the fathers (Mal 4:4–6).

 

Are You Really Free?

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Genesis 31:43, These daughters are my daughters. Laban claims that Jacob’s wives belonged to him. He was also steeped in the idolatry of Babylon having in his possession idols or images called teraphim (Gen 31:19, 34–35).

Is there a modern counterpart to this? Does modern Babylon want to control and possess wives and children of redeemed Israel, indoctrinate them in its pagan religious system, and keep Jacob’s modern descendants from returning to their spiritual and physical homeland and birthright inheritance, and from returning to the Torah-faith of their fathers?

Are modern governments (e.g., public education and Child Protective Services, welfare programs, various government regulations that have greatly diminished or eliminated many of our freedoms) and socio-political organizations (e.g. ACLU, UN) modern-day Labans? Revelation 18:13 says that Babylon the Great traffics in the souls of men. This speaks at some level of the modern day enslavement of men—of their religious expression, freedom of thought and action.