In yesterday’s reading Jacob’s sons kill all the men in town. Today, they are on the run.
There isn’t one word in the Bible scolding Jacob or his family for what they did. I wonder why that is? There’s no way that God would be pleased with their actions, but punishment isn’t mentioned. Maybe God was in the process of creating separation between Jacob’s family and the surrounding residents. The prince who molested Dinah was a Hivite. They were descended from Ham (Noah’s Son) whose grandson (Caanan) was cursed by Noah. Remember, Ham walked in on Noah drunk and laughed about it, making fun of him. Genesis 9:20-24. This account is proof that the curse is in effect. Jacob is descended from Shem, who is blessed. None of the sons of Ham will want anything to do with the sons of Shem now…maybe that was how God intended to keep the bloodline pure. In any case, we know from many other places in the Bible that taking revenge is wrong. Settling scores and meting out justice is God’s business, not ours. Leave it to Him.
The murders become the motivation for leaving town, and the whole clan goes to Bethel. This is significant, because it’s where Jacob heard from God years ago when he was running away from Esau the first time. Do you remember the vision of “Jacob’s Ladder”? That happened at Bethel. Read about it here. Bethel is south of Shechem, in the hill country closer to Jerusalem.
Sometimes we need to “go back” to where we heard from God in the past. If you’ve lost your way, then return to a place where you and God have history, and reopen communication there. In the ancient past, these places were incorrectly thought to be more holy than the land around them. Jacob had no concept of God being in all places at all times, He thought God came to and from the earth by means of “special places”. Maybe he considered them doorways.
Let’s skip over the long boring list of names of Esau’s descendants. I’m sure it’s important for some reason, maybe to help us understand where all these clans and nations came from. I’ve run into lots of people who didn’t realize that the land God gave to Israel belonged to others at the time God promised it to Abraham. Looking at the recent past, Israel isn’t going to give back the West Bank or any of the occupied territory, because they took it from others in the very beginning. That’s how they think. And by the way…we didn’t give any land back to the Indians when we took it from them, either.
What were we talking about? Oh yeah…Jacob and his family. In chapter 37 the story of Joseph begins. This is the last third of the book of Genesis, and perhaps the most important part. We see in the life of Joseph a foreshadowing of Jesus.
A couple of quick closing thoughts. Reuben has some issues, sleeping with his dad’s wife, etc. but his immorality seems to have boundaries. His brothers are even worse than him. It takes a special kind of wicked to allow an old man to think his beloved son was torn apart by wild animals…while you know that you sold him into slavery. We see in these boys the human condition. We are evil, and we do wicked things, things that we should be ashamed of. Things that hurt others.
But from our race is going to come one person who is going to rescue us all. And will we be happy about that? Surprisingly, no. We will eventually kill the person who was sent to save us. Just like Joseph’s brothers rejected him, we will reject Christ.
Hang in there, there’s good news coming.
Faithfully,
PR