Читать книгу Blessed to Bless - Tim Sean Youmans - Страница 28
ОглавлениеRachel, Leah, Bilhah, and Zilpah
Read Genesis chapters 28, 29, and 30.
Notice how chapter 27 ends and chapter 28 begins. Rebekah said to Isaac, “I’m sick and tired of these local Hittite women! I would rather die than see Jacob marry one of them.” It is that tribal mentality again, but with a strongly xenophobic (fear of people who are different) tone. Because of this, Jacob will marry cousins within their immediate tribe, and Esau will marry descendants of Ishmael (a Canaanite woman), further deepening the cultural division between the brothers. There is some sad irony later in chapter 28. His parents send Jacob off to find a wife, but they implore him to not marry a Canaanite. To ensure he does not, they send him to his Uncle Laban’s house to marry someone within his tribe.
On the way to his Uncle Laban’s land, Jacob has a dream where he sees a ladder from heaven (aka Jacob’s Ladder), with angels ascending and descending. The promise to his grandparents is repeated to him in a dream: “And all people will be blessed through you.” How can you dislike Canaanites and at the same time be charged with blessing all the people of the earth? It is setting up one of the big tensions in the entire Bible. It is a tension that I believe is eventually resolved, but not at this point.
Jacob arrives in Padam Arran and falls in love at first sight with his cousin Rachel (he weeps after their first kiss), but he is deceived by his Uncle Laban, a polytheist (many gods), into working for him double-time to marry both of his cousins: Rachel and Leah. There are some tense family dynamics between Jacob, his two cousin-wives, and their slave women. It is important to note that the only one he is truly in love with is Rachel, who has trouble conceiving children (just like her mother-in-law Rebekah and grandmother-in-law Sarah). Rachel eventually gets pregnant and gives birth to Joseph and Benjamin, who will be important in stories around the corner.
Through Rachel and Leah and their two slave women, Bilhah and Zilpah, Jacob ultimately has twelve sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin, and one daughter, Dinah. In addition, Jacob eventually adopts the two sons of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, into the tribe, making them part of his inheritance. More on that in a later chapter.
polygamy. Having more than one wife, a practice not uncommon in the period of the biblical stories, especially in the Old Testament.
Jacob grows incredibly wealthy working for his Uncle Laban. (Did you read the peculiar genetic goat breeding he did by using color charts in 31:10–12? Weird “science.”) Eventually he must go back and take over the tribal headship. Remember, he has a deep sense of responsibility to fulfill the Vision Quest of his grandparents—stars of the sky, grains of dust on the ground, a blessing to all the nations of the earth.
Questions for Reflection or Discussion
1. Does your family put pressure on you to succeed? Somebody else in your family? How or why?
2. Does your family have a mission or a Vision Quest?
