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The parasha
for this week is entitled Vayishlach, translated
“and he sent”. Jacob is returning from
Aram (Syria) to Eretz Canaan, and there is this
little unresolved matter – something about his
brother Esau wanting to kill him. They say ‘time
heals all wounds’, but Jacob wasn’t about to take
any chances. As the parasha opens, Jacob sends
messengers on ahead to tell Esau that he is returning,
that in his years of absence he has acquired family
and flocks and that he hopes Esau will receive
him favorably. The messengers come back to Jacob
and announce that Esau is coming out to meet him
– along with 400 men!
Jacob
is understandably frightened. He decides that
he’d better separate everyone into two camps,
so that if Esau’s “army” attacks one group the
other can make an escape. In addition to all his
preparations, Jacob offers up a marvelous prayer
to Adonai. It is an apt model of the proper sequence
and substance in prayer. Jacob acknowledges who
God is and how faithful God has been to him, admits
his own unworthiness and then presents his petition.
Jacob then arranges an extraordinarily generous
gift of various kinds of livestock to be sent
on ahead of him, hoping to appease his brother’s
anger. Gifts can do that. He also sent his family
on ahead of him, across the Jabbok River. That
left Jacob alone. Or so he thought. Next we read
one of the most enigmatic passages in all of the
Word of God.
“A man”
– that’s all we’re told about him initially, appears
out of nowhere and starts wrestling with Jacob
– a wrestling match that would persist through
the night until sunrise. Jacob seems to get the
upper hand, so the “man” touches Jacob at the
place of his thigh socket and instantly dislocates
his leg. But Jacob’s grip is firm. Just as he
held tenaciously to the heel of his older brother
at birth, he is not about to let go; not without
a blessing, anyway. Aware now of the supernatural
nature of his opponent, he insists on, and receives,
a blessing. An interesting blessing - it goes
like this:
Your
name will no longer be uttered as Jacob, but
Israel, for you have persisted with God and
with men and have prevailed.
Who is
the man? Moses doesn’t say it explicitly, shrouding
it in mystery. Jacob names the place Peniel –
‘the face of God’ saying, I have seen God face
to face, yet my life has been preserved. Many
years later, upon his death bed, Israel speaks
of having been delivered from harm by an angel.
Somehow this mysterious stranger was an angel,
and yet somehow regarded as God. Six hundred years
later the prophet Hosea echoed the mystery, writing
concerning Jacob, In the womb he took his brother
by the heel, and in his maturity he contended
with God. Yes, he wrestled with the angel and
prevailed; He wept and sought His favor. He found
Him at Bethel and there He spoke with us …
(Hosea 12:3-4). I believe that mysterious figure
to have been Messiah prior to His incarnation,
or what is commonly called a Christophany.
Israel
walked (actually, limped) away in the morning,
in some ways a new man. Perhaps the prospect of
the inevitable reunion with Esau seemed less daunting,
now that he’d prevailed with God and been blessed.
I believe we can learn much from this account.
Wrestling, as it were, in prayer with the God
of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, and yielding to
Him can give you an eternal perspective, making
those things that previously seemed overwhelming
a lot less so. You and I would also do well to
remember the circumstances and meaning behind
that name change. When, for example, you see the
names Israel and Jacob used interchangeably
in the early chapters of Isaiah, pay attention
to that detail. The choice of names is not arbitrary.
God may want you to connect something about Israel’s
present attitude or circumstance reminiscent of
Jacob’s experiences; whether a return from sojourning
eastward (2:6, 10:21, 14:1) or his face-to-face
Divine encounter (8:17).
In chapter
33 Jacob and Esau (Israel and Edom) are reunited
amicably. Esau is impressed, if somewhat puzzled,
by all the gifts and pageantry Jacob has sent
on ahead. He politely declines the gift, but Jacob
insists. Their reunion is brief, as Jacob, rather
than following his brother to Seir, returns instead
to Canaan (the land of promise), settling in the
vicinity of Shechem.
Chapter
34 records the rape of Dinah, Jacob’s daughter,
by Shechem the son of Hamor, one of the Hivite
princes. Shechem wants Dinah as a wife. Hamor
suggests that Jacob and his clan unite with them
and become one people, but Jacob’s sons
have revenge on their minds. Under the pretense
of only being allowed to intermarry with them
on condition of circumcision, they insist that
all the men of that city be circumcised. The men
of Schechem consent, and while they are in the
throes of pain and utterly helpless Simeon and
Levi go into the town and slaughter all the men.
Israel and the family are forced to leave the
area. It will have served God’s purposes
of keeping Israel a holy nation, but there is
no justification whatsoever for Simeon and Levi,
who by their murderous acts forfeited any blessing
their father would have given them (Gen. 49:5-6).
Jacob
returns to Bethel (so named by him after his great
dream there). God appears to him again, reiterating
His promise to give Israel and his descendants
the land and the attendant blessings of the Abrahamic
covenant. Rachel dies while giving birth to Benjamin,
and Jacob buries her in Bethlehem Efrat. Her tomb,
regarded as the third holiest site in Judaism,
has over the years been a source of contention
among Israelis and Palestinians, and occasional
outbreaks of violence have in the past caused
great damage to this archaeological treasure.
How paradoxical that the same town which represents
grief also has yielded the greatest hope the world
has ever known, for in Bethlehem (Micah 5:1) would
be born the Redeemer of all mankind, Yeshua, Jesus
the Messiah. Our weeping may endure for the night,
but joy cometh in the morning!
Chapter
35 includes the mention of the disgraceful actions
of Reuben with Bilhah, his father’s concubine,
which we later see disqualifies him from receiving
the patriarchal blessing (Gen. 49:3-4). We also
read of the reuniting of Jacob with his father
Isaac, and of Isaac’s death (at 180 years
of age!). Jacob and Esau together bury their father
and then part ways, as had Isaac and Ishmael.
Esau’s descendants, the Edomites, would
eventually be our adversaries. With the summary
of Esau’s descendants in chapter 36, the
Scriptures again take a selective genealogical
turn. We are meant to watch the line of Jacob
for that great Redeemer-To-Come. We are also meant
to recognize in these chapters the need to cultivate
a relationship with God. Jacob’s prayers
change perceptibly through his life as he learns
to trust God for himself, not merely as the son
of Isaac or grandson of Abraham. So it must be
for you – God must become your God!
Shalom,
Rabbi Glenn |
