Genesis 23-36

Genesis 23-36

Why, if God said that people would no longer live past 120, are people still living past 120 in Genesis? But I can only assume this is why they all marry so late.

So many of these stories have to do with sibling rivalry between brothers.

Hagar had almost died in the wilderness, but God rescues her and promises that Ishmael will also become a great nation. Ishmael's people settle in the area from Havilah to Shur "on the border of Egypt" and "lived in hostility toward all their brothers." Isaac is now grown up, and has married Rebekah (who is from Mesopotamia and has a nose ring! A nose ring! ) Isaac makes yet another peace treaty with the Philistines.

Rebekah is barren (why are so many of these women having trouble conceiving? Does anyone know?) but then she becomes pregnant with twins, who seem to be fighting with each other inside her.

"Two nations are in your womb, "God says. "And the two peoples from within you will be separated. One people will be stronger than the other and the older one will serve the younger one."

Esau (Edom) is the older one. He's red and hairy, while Jacob, the younger is smooth and comes out grabbing onto Esau's heel. Esau is the outdoorsy type, and Jacob apparently likes to stay and home and cook. One day Esau comes in starving and begs for some of Jacob's stew. Jacob won't give it to him until Esau hands over his birthright.

I don't think I like this guy. Later, when Isaac is dying, Rebekah and Jacob cover Jacob's arms in wool and bring some food into Isaac, who has failing eyesight. Isaac thinks he is talking to Esau, and hands over his entire estate. When Esau comes in later, and announces that Isaac has been deceived, his father gives him some vague promise about living by the sword.

Esau then tries to kill Jacob, who runs away. While on the run, he dreams of seeing a "stairway to Heaven".

God says "your descendants will be like the dust of the earth."

Which means they'll be everywhere and indispensable, but also that people will treat them like dirt. Jacob calls the place "Bethel" and offers a sacrifice. He finishes his journey in his grandfather's homeland and when he first meets his beautiful cousin Rachel, he kisses her and cries (that must have freaked her out, some dirty foreign guy grabs her and starts sobbing…) When Jacob asks to marry Rachel, Rachel's father tricks him into marrying Rachel's sister Leah too. Leah is not pretty like Rachel.

Poor plain Leah keeps having babies, hoping Jacob will love her because she is fertile where Rachel is barren. But then Rachel starts having kids too. And Jacob likes her kids more, because they're Rachel's and he loves Rachel, whereas he married Leah out of responsibility.

Jacob does a spell to get more money out of his father in law, and then claims God did it for him.

It's a prevailing misconception (IMO) that bible characters are always correct in everything they do. But that really doesn't seem to be the case, they are often just as human as anyone else is. Probably what makes them such enduring characters is that they are imperfect.

Jacob and Rachel are not nice people. Jacob cheated Esau out of his birthright. Now he is unsatisfied with the wages his father in law pays him (after he performed magic to try and manipulate things to his advantage) and so he and Rachel steal her father's household gods and take off in the middle of the night with their children. Her father catches them and has them searched. But he can't search Rachel, because she claims she's having her period and can't get up/let anyone touch her.

Her father then laments that if they'd just told him they were unhappy, he'd have understood. He wishes they'd waited so he could see them off properly.

Jacob returns to Esau and makes up with him. The rest of his family goes ahead, and leaves him to spend the night alone. He "wrestled with the man until daybreak". What man? This has got to be some kind of translation error because it just jumps right into the scene without even explaining the arrival of "the man". I'll have to wait until I can check some other sources… unless someone is reading this who can help me out, but maybe no one is reading this.

Jacob won't let the man go until he blesses him and tells him his name. But the man is God, and God renames Jacob "Israel" which means, "struggles with God."

Regarding OT women and their periods- modern feminists often complain that women back then couldn't be touched and had to go off and live in another tent. And no, it isn't fair to force someone to do it; it's not fair at all. But on the other hand, consider what having your period can be like for many women. In this modern era, we can go into any drugstore, supermarket or Wal-Mart esque store and see an aisle full of sprays, creams, powders, and pads and tampons of every size, shape, color, scent, expandability and absorbency. We have disinfectant sprays and powerful laundry detergents. But imagine what it was like in BCE, when the best a woman had, especially if she was a desert nomad, was a few rags. If she were lucky she'd be able to get some painkilling herbs. Would you even want to be around anyone else? Even today, in the most powerful, comfortable and advanced nation in the world, the best technolgy for dealing with menstruation that I can get my hands on is… a bottle of aspirin and what's essentially super absorbent wads of cotton. No, I don't want to go out, no, I don't want to be touched, no, I don't want to come out of my room and yes, I have discovered the value of voluminous black clothing. And am I looking forward to taking a long shower/bath? You bet.

The final story in Genesis is the story of Joseph (and his Technicolor Dreamcoat!). There are about five stories out of the Bible that everyone at least vaguely knows- the Garden of Eden, Noah, Moses, the Christmas story, and the Joseph story. So I don't think it needs summarization here, because there's not much that's controversial, confusing or worth debating in it. We'll see if anyone else comes up with something later.

The basic theme of Genesis, if I could sum it up, would be sibling rivalry. And along with that, the importance of recognizing that we're all brothers and sisters under the skin and it doesn't really matter who's on whose land. God loved everyone and he tried to give everyone a place to belong and a country to call their own.

BTW, Spellcheck insists that it's "Dreamboat" not "dreamcoat" and that Rebekah is spelled wrong.

(comments)
pepperjackcandy
2006-01-19 09:27 pm UTC
We'll see if anyone else comes up with something later.

How's this?

I think that Akhenaten was the Pharaoh of Joseph's time.

Because if Pharaoh believed that his dreams had been sent by one of the gods of the Egyptian pantheon, why would he listen to someone who specializes in one god of a different pantheon?

But Joseph's great-grandfather did the same thing Akhenaten did -- abandoned a pantheon in favor of one god.

Since both dropped out of their respective polytheisms (?), that'd give them a more common worldview, I guess.

babydraco
2006-01-19 09:50 pm UTC
That'd make some sense. And it corresponds to the famine that Joseph predicts-Akhenaton's administration totally ruined Egypt and a lot of people died. And I'd rather see that than see Moses made out to be a cowardly, incompetant king who was deposed by angry citizens.