If you've read Genesis 25-36, here's your chance to comment on it. Many questions came to my mind as I read it, and here's some of them. Curious as to your thoughts.
First and probably foremost, what is the deal with the constant polygamy, adultery, and general lewdness of these Bible characters? We see more women sleeping with their fathers or brother in laws than I care to count. Wives suggest that their husbands should sleep with the slave girl. Women pose as prostitutes to seduce their father in law, and men fear they will be butchered if their favorite wife is attractive. I especially liked the part where Rachel lets Leah sleep with Jacob that night in exchange for some mandrakes. Strange stuff, huh?
When I read all this, I have to constantly keep in mind that this is a really old text, giving us a view of an ancient world very, very different from ours. In that world, everything rose and fell on the birth of children. A woman with no children was considered cursed by the gods, the scum of the earth. And if you had children but no sons, as a woman you couldn't work to provide for yourself, so you would literally starve to death. In that case, you'd have desperate women sleeping with their father in law, their brother, anyone to provide children for them. When we keep this in mind, I think many of these details make a bit more sense.
Maybe even more importantly, what about the part where Jacob wrestles with God? Why does God physically wrestle with him? Why must He leave before the sun comes up? Why will he not tell Jacob his name? What's the significance of Jacob walking with a limp from then on? I'm throwing that out to you to get your thoughts- I don't know if I have an answer.
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Maybe one way to read the sections about the women scheming to concieve is in light of the place in Gen 3:16 where God tells Eve that her desire will be to control her husband. Women didn't really have any rights or powers in those days except for that of producing heirs, so maybe a lot of this is women acting out their "curse" after the fall.
ReplyDeleteAs for the part about Jacob wrestling with God, I prefer to read this section more allegorically. Whether or not it truely took place that Jacob physically wrestled with a man that night, doesn't really matter when were trying to apply this to our lives today. I like to imagine that when Jacob met back up with his family after his night in the desert his family noticed a change in him and the only way he could really put it to words was to tell them he had met God that night and it was as if they had wrestled all night. So maybe they really had that wrestling match in the desert or maybe that was Jacob's way of relating a very personal experience to his friends and family when they asked him why he suddenly decided he was changing his name.
And as for walking with a limp, couldn't we compare this story to a typical story of conversion to a life following Christ. I don't know how many of us have had that kind of experience when coming to chritianity, and I can't say mine was as dramatic as Jacob's, but there was a long period where I tried to best God myself, as convincing as He was I didn't want to let go of my ego, which is how I interpret the first half of the wrestling match. God was just wearing Jacob down, we all know whether this was a physical wrestling match or just a long night of prayer that God was going to win. Obviously God was taking Jacob to the breaking point, and maybe Jacob was even more wilfull than God had guessed and that's why it says "the man saw he could not defeat Jacob so he..." put his hip out of place, basically. No matter what a person's "conversion" process is like, everyone has to have that moment where they feel completely broken and humbled by God and after that they stop trying to best God and start clinging to him begging for his grace much like Jacob did at sunrise that night. and so after he walked with a limp, as a sign of his brokeness. He was lucky he even walked away from the match at all!
I agree with your assessment, Jess. Was it a real or an allegorical "wrestling match"? We will never know, but I think we get the point. Maybe the point is exactly that; it's vague, and we have to wrestle with the passage ourselves! Perhaps the vagueness and overall weirdness of the account is the very point of the account itself - we too must wrestle! But there's no denying that this event is the pivotal one in Jacob's life.
ReplyDeleteFrom Jennifer Jasensky:
ReplyDeleteRight now I find it very interesting that Jacob's name goes back and forth from Israel to Jacob several times. I am not done reading yet, but I am trying to see if there is a pattern for the times in his life he is called Jacob vs. Israel.
Anyone know anything about this?