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10. When Yaaqov had left [yetze’] Beer-Sheva and was walking toward Haran,
Yaaqov was retracing his grandfather Avraham's steps, getting in touch with his heritage. The first leg of the journey brings him to a more recent part of his heritage, the place his father was offered up on the altar:
11. he reached the Place. He stopped there to spend the night, because the sun had gone [down]. And he took [one] of the stones of the place and established a resting-spot for his head. Then he lay down in that place.
"Place" appears here three times--a sign of great emphasis. These stones may have been from the very altar on which Yitzhaq was offered as an "ascending". Established…for his head: i.e., used it as a pillow, but the wording also hints at his laying the groundwork for YHWH to be forever the Ruler of His descendants. (See vv. 21-22) "The Place" is taken by some to be shorthand for "the Place where I have set My Name” (Deut. 12), the Temple Mount itself.
12. And he had a dream: there it was--a stairway established earthward, its top reaching the heavens—and lo and behold, the messengers of Elohim were ascending and descending on it!
Stairway: or ladder, based on the word for "raising up". It is what gets one closer to that which is higher—in this case El Elyon (the highest Elohim). The Torah is full of ladders in this sense, actions by which we can draw closer to YHWH. We need to recognize where He is giving us a step up. Reaching the heavens: This was the reality counterfeited at the Tower of Bavel. (11:4) That one was earth-based, but though this one was "fixed in place" onto the earth, it began in heaven, like the stairways that fold down from an airplane. The word for a “burnt offering”, which YHWH told Avraham to offer Yitzhaq as, also means “ascending”, so his family was actually forming this staircase, by which a people mediates between YHWH and the rest of humanity. Top: really the word for "head" here. In Jewish mysticism, the "body" of the reconstituted Adam (of which Messiah is the Head) is called "the stairway". This would give Yeshua authority to say he was such an approach to YHWH in Yochanan/John 1:51, and we must also be the same for others. Messengers: the priests are called YHWH’s messengers in Mal’akhi 2:7, and the
Levites took their turns ascending to the Temple to minister to
YHWH, then went back down into the rest of the Land to teach
the rest of the Nation. (cf. Matt. 22:37-40) So Yaaqov is seeing
ahead to the days when that would be taking place at this very site.
13. And there stood YHWH at its top, and He said, "I am YHWH, the Elohim of your ancestor Avraham, and the Elohim of Yitzhaq. I will give to you and your descendants the Land on which you are lying.
At its top: or, above him.
14. "And your descendants shall be as many as the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south, and into you and your descendants shall all the families of the earth be grafted.
Spread out: the term has the sense of a certain forcefulness. Families: Everywhere else this promise is given, except the first time YHWH spoke to Avram in ch. 12, it says "nations" instead. But here is the reason the descendants of the tribes of Israel should not be identified only with particular ethnic groupings, for every family on earth has to some extent been mixed with his seed. (Compare Yirmeyahu/Jeremiah 3:14.)
15. "And look: I am with you, and I will guard you in every place to which you may go, and I will bring you back to this Land, because I will not forsake you—not until I have done everything I have told you."
Compare 26:24. Until: up to and including that time, not that He will then abandon him.
16. Then Yaaqov awoke from his sleep and said, "Truly YHWH is in this place, and I did not know it!"
17. And he was awestruck, and said, "How awesome this place is! This is none other than the house of Elohim; this is the very gate of the Heavens!"
Awestruck: filled with the deepest respect. How awesome: The Aramaic targums say, “This is no ordinary place!” Yerushalayim, which some say this was just outside, is called "a city that is compact [joined] together" (Ps. 122:3), and thus is considered the "place where earth and heaven meet". A Midrash says the true heavenly temple always stood here, situated "opposite", above, or corresponding to, the ones later built there. The pattern Moshe saw on Sinai (Ex. 25:9, 40) was present in heaven first (Heb. 8:2-5). Elohim gave David the blueprints for Shlomo to build from. (1 Chron. 28:19) Scientists now speak of "layered space": several levels of reality existing at the same point in space. In another dimension, this correlates with the stairs leading to the Temple that may have later stood in this very place. Mount Sinai is another place He has put His ladder down. It too is called the “Mountain of Elohim” (Ex. 3:1) There is a connection visible only in Hebrew, for the numerical value of the words for both “stairway” and “Sinai” is 130. Both were places of coming higher than we were before and getting closer to YHWH’s presence. Another word with this value is moadi (“my appointed time”), and indeed His appointed times are when He would meet with Yaaqov’s descendants on that mountain. The 32 physical steps to the Temple remain to this day. Despite being constructed in the best architecture available at the time, the steps are of uneven height and depth. This was intentional, so no one would rush into YHWH’s presence. They had to think about each step, or they would get hurt. But many who have started to ascend have found a broad step and decided it was big enough to permanently set their tent on, though they had not reached the top. This is how denominations get started. Just as YHWH’s cloud camped in one place but then moved on because we were not yet in the Promised Land, we should not stop for long, for only the 32nd (top) step counts; 32 is the value of the word for “heart” (lev).
18. So Yaaqov got up early in the morning and took the stone that he had put in place for his head, set it up as a memorial pillar, and poured oil on top of it.
Memorial pillar: here, an unaltered stone, to mark the site but possibly also to symbolize the promise of what he could not yet finish building. For his head: The Levitical priests, who would also use this very site as their place of service, are YHWH’s choice as heads of Israel, even more fundamentally than the king, per Deut. 17:12.) The term for “Place” actually relates to “standing up”, so he stood the stone up. This was a common method of marking the place where a highly significant event took place, which may be one reason YHWH told Israel to knock down Kanaan’s such pillars.
19. And he named that place "The House of Elohim" [Beyth-El], though the city's original name had been Luz.
There was another Beyth-El (12:8; 13:3) several miles north of here already, which should not be confused with this.
20. And Yaaqov made a vow, saying, "If Elohim is indeed with me and keeps me safe on this journey on which I am walking, and gives me bread to eat and clothing to wear,
If Elohim is indeed with me: i.e., if this was not just a dream. Bread and clothing: He only asks for the most basic necessities, but they foreshadow his descendants who would be given "manna" on their journeyings, in which their clothing would not wear out. (Compare Yeshayahu/Isa. 61:10-11.) Tradition says the dowry he took for the wife he was to find was stolen on the way. But why does he not just say, “Bread and clothing”? What else would we do with bread but eat it and what would we do to clothes but wear them? Moshe and Dov Kempinski tell us that it is because too often people’s food “consumes” them. Obtaining our clothing “wears” us out. Our jobs devour us rather than being seen only as means to pay for higher pursuits that help us ascend another rung. He wanted to keep these things in the right perspective.
21. "and I return in well-being to my father's household, then YHWH shall be my Elohim,
It almost sounds as if he does not yet consider YHWH His Elohim, but YHWH has already promised to do just this for him. (v. 15) He is alluding to the blessing in 9:24ff in which Kanaan (who now owns this Land) will serve Shem. There YHWH is called the Elohim of Shem. He echoes this, saying that if he does indeed return with his descendants and they receive Kanaan’s possession, his family will be fulfilling Noakh’s prophecy by continuing Shem’s role.
22. "and this stone which I have set up as a memorial pillar shall indeed become the house of Elohim, and of all which You shall give me, I will tithe one tenth to You."
Become: Not by magic; he is saying that he or his descendants will build the house of YHWH, and that this standing stone will (at least symbolically) constitute its cornerstone. Tithe: to give back a tenth as a tribute. Non-agricultural tithes were never actually required, but if they come from the heart, they are a wonderful expression of thanks. All You shall give me: This includes his descendants.
CHAPTER 29
1. So Yaaqov lifted up his feet and went to the land of the sons of the east.
Lifted up his feet: They were lightened; what he had seen gave him a spring in his step and motivation to get through other difficulties. Yaaqov had just had a vision of a stairway, and he is thus lifting his feet for the purpose of ascending it. He had just “planted his feet” in the Promised Land with a vow, wanting to make sure he would return there. But to get back he had somewhere to go first, so he could have descendants who could build the House of which he prophesied. So he did not get stuck, even at the House of Elohim. He had spent his time in the tents of Shem—in school. Now he is away from what he is comfortable with. What he has seen has taught him that it is not only about sitting in the tent; there is also a ladder to climb so he can draw near to YHWH. But he does not remain in “dreamland”, where he could always talk with YHWH. Like the messengers he saw, he needed to come back down to teach others. He was not content to lie down, even where he had heard from YHWH. He knew he had not arrived, so he kept moving. There are seasons to slow down, but we must never stop ascending. Sons of the east: the phrase can just as well be read "Children of the ancient" or “of advancement/progress”. He revisits his past so he can move forward in the most effective way. To reach the highest step, we must address the first; to know where we are going we must know where we came from. These “sons of antiquity” were the descendants of Aram, the son of Shem, who had carried the righteous seed most fully since the beginning. Yaaqov is not going in circles, though it might seem that way to someone oriented to Greek-style “time lines”; he is ascending a spiral stairway. Like the festival calendar, it passes the same things over and over again, but on a higher level each time. Our experiences in the meantime have given us more perspective by which we can see more than we did last time around, if we choose to ascend. So he is making progress. When he awoke from his dream, he knew YHWH’s heart—His desire for His people to ascend. As a student in the tents of Shem, he had already put himself in a position to receive this message. He had the building stone in place (28:11), and was ready to build on what he already knew (28:18). (R. Webster)
2. And he looked, and noticed a well in the field. And lo and behold, three flocks of sheep were lying there beside it, because they would water the flocks from that well. Now the stone over the well's mouth was large.
A well and a field were both prominent features in his father’s life. He probably became excited when he saw the well, knowing the story of how his father's wife was found. This was probably the same well at which his grandfather’s servant had met his mother.
3. When all the flocks would be assembled there, they would roll the stone from the mouth of the well and water the sheep. Then they would put the stone back in place over the mouth of the well.
4. Yaaqov said to them, "My brothers, where are you from?" And they said, "We are from Haran."
My brothers: a Middle Eastern way of greeting strangers that creates rapport. But in this case, they literally were his relatives. And since they were shepherds at a well (what his father spent his life digging), he felt a special kinship with them.
5. He said to them, "Do you know Lavan the descendant of Nakhor?" And they said, "Yes, we know him."
6. So he asked them, "Is he well?" and they said, "[He is] well, but look, here comes his daughter Rakhel [right now] with the sheep!"
I.e., “She can tell you all about him herself!”
7. But he said, "Look, it's still broad daylight; it isn't time to gather the livestock in yet! [Why don't you] water the sheep and then take them to pasture?"
He seems to have been trying to get the other shepherds out of the way so he could have Rakhel’s full attention! But he shows that he knows something about shepherding. Rakhel had not arrived when the others did, showing that she had a better sense of when the sheep should eat.
8. But they said, "We can't do that until all the flocks are gathered and they roll the stone away from the mouth of the well; then we water the sheep."
The stone (mainly to keep anything from falling into and contaminating the water) was too heavy for any one of them to move, lest an enemy come along and try to steal from the well or poison it. It took a group to get to the water—an excellent picture of how community is meant to work.
9. While he was still speaking with them, Rakhel came with the sheep which were her father's, because she was a shepherdess.
A fourth flock arrives. While he was still speaking: the same pattern as when the servant of Avraham found Rivqah before he finished his prayer. (Compare Yeshayahu 65:24) Yitzhaq and Moshe also found their brides tending flocks at wells. In a way, Yeshua did too, as the woman he spoke to at a well (Yochanan 4) was one of the first "lost sheep of Israel" to whom he revealed his role. A shepherdess: This is what Yaaqov’s children would need—one who knew how to “feed…and tenderly lead…”.
10. Now when Yaaqov saw Rakhel, the daughter of Lavan, his mother's brother, and the sheep belonging to Lavan, his mother's brother, it turned out that he came forward and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered the sheep of Lavan, his mother's brother.
Yaaqov was strengthened when he saw his beautiful bride approaching. But he noticed the sheep also. They mattered to him too, and they needed water. The dream he had while his head was on another stone gave him confidence that he was doing the right thing. In our day, three flocks of sheep waiting by the same water source (Torah) that is closed most of the time are Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. They are not together, but recognize the same water source. Yet excessive religious fences, fanaticisms, or men’s understandings and doctrines keep them from the pure water, the simplicity of the Torah. These “stones” get in the way of the flocks being properly watered. They are not removed until the fourth flock arrives. So who is the fourth flock? It is brought by the one who would become the mother of Yosef. The return of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, with its fresh perspective, is what the others are all waiting for. It has only been seen at a distance until now, but is now near enough to be recognizable. Rakhel’s children are coming back. (Yirmeyahu 31:15) When that was in place, the other shepherds turned out to not be needed after all. YHWH does not say that the “lost sheep of the House of Israel” have no shepherd, but that their shepherds have led them astray (Yirmeyahu 50:6) or muddied their drinking water (Y’hezq’el 34:1). In the prophets, “Yaaqov” often refers in particular to Yehudah (e.g., Hoshea 12:2), so in our own day when Yehudah, who, though leavened by the Pharisaical Rabbinic teachings, still preserved the Torah, festivals, Sabbath, etc., and have brought clarity to our flock, since turning Messiah (the “stone” that the builders rejected, and whose stone was taken out of the way) into the Greek “Christ”—making him too “heavy” (the Hebrew word for important)—had kept us from seeing many aspects of who he is and who we are. Only by reconnecting with the fact that Yaaqov is our forefather—and that we, as his seed, still “are” Yaaqov—can Yeshua come to serve his proper purpose and not stand in the way of access to the Torah. His mother's brother: Moshe does not use the simpler term “uncle”, because in Hebrew that also means “beloved”, and Lavan would not prove to fit that description.
11. Then Yaaqov kissed Rakhel and raised his voice and wept.
She was beautiful, but at this point it would probably be a Mideastern-style kiss of greeting for one’s relatives, accompanied by the intense emotion involved in rediscovering them, much as we are experiencing as we realize we truly are Hebrews too, after having previously seen the Bible as only someone else’s story.
12. And Yaaqov told Rakhel that he was a close relative of her father's—that he was Rivqah's son—and she ran and told her father.
Rivqah was known there; Yitzhaq was known only by name. Since the family had blessed Rivqah with the hope of fertility when she left (24:60), at least 60 years earlier, they were now seeing the first evidence that their blessing had taken root.
13. Now when Lavan heard the report about Yaaqov, his sister's son, he ran to meet him, embraced him and kissed him, and took him to his house. And he recounted all these events to Lavan.
The term for “embrace” here is not an open-handed pat on the back, but a “bear hug” as if to say, “You belong to me; I’ll never let you go!” There are many causes that try to embrace us as their own, but we must be careful what we embrace in return. Lavan indeed turned out to be interested in him not because he was a relative but because he could be “brought into his house” to serve his own purposes. “Lavan” means “the white one”, symbolic of purity all through Scripture. He seemed hospitable at first, but looks can be very deceiving. Leprosy is also white, so we must be discerning. Y’shua was betrayed with a kiss. (Mk. 14:44) The last time Lavan had seen his sister, she was leaving with ten camels loaded with wealth. (24:30) He expects to be able to gain some of that wealth back from her son. Yaaqov’s recounting of his experiences undoubtedly included the story of how he and his mother had deceived his father, but in thus telling Lavan too much, he set himself up to be taken advantage of by his uncle.
14. Then Lavan said to him, "You are indeed my bone and my flesh!" And he stayed with him for a whole month.
My bone and my flesh: This reminds us of what Adam said when he first saw Chavvah. (2:23) So on one hand, this is an oath to provide a bride for him. But both words “bone” and “flesh” in Hebrew emphasize the natural sameness with Lavan, who hopes Yaaqov will be simply an extension of himself. He assumes Yaaqov is there to work for him, rather than having a life of his own. It is obvious that Yaaqov cannot keep his eyes off Rakhel, and from his story Lavan knows Yaaqov will not return home without a wife. He knows he has what Yaaqov needs, and therefore has him “over a barrel”.
15. But then Lavan said to Yaaqov, "Just because you are my relative, should you work for me without pay? Name what your wages should be."
He sounds noble, but Yaaqov’s mother had only told him to stay a short time, and his father had told him to get a bride from there but then return. No one said anything about working for Lavan, but that seemed implied to Lavan when he “took him into his household”. (v. 13) He knows Yaaqov does not really belong there, but he is scheming to keep him there. He says “What’s in it for you?” while really meaning “What’s in it for me?”
16. Now Lavan had two daughters; the older one's name was Leah, and the younger's name was Rakhel,
Leah means "wild cow" or "weary". Rakhel means "ewe", but it is based on the word for "journeyer", possibly because the female of the flock is more capable of migration.
17. and Leah's eyes were delicate [and tender], but Rakhel was both shapely in form and lovely in appearance.
As Rivqah was Sarah's niece, so Rakhel was Rivqah's niece. If the pattern held, Leah, the elder, would be slated to marry Esau. Since we see evidence of additional communications between the two families (22:20), she had undoubtedly heard what kind of man he was, and she may have been crying, thinking Esau would come to claim her.
18. And Yaaqov loved Rakhel, and said, "I will work for you seven years in exchange for your younger daughter Rakhel!"
He had no other dowry to offer for her.
19. And Lavan said, "Well, it is better that I give her to you than to another man; stay here and live with me!"
The deity he had heard of had promised to bless Yaaqov, so he wants him there for his own sake. Like a hypnotizing snake, he pretends to be cool and aloof, accepting the offer, yet wraps himself around his prey.
20. So Yaaqov served seven years for the sake of Rakhel, but because of his love for her, they seemed to him like only a few days.
Y’shua, too, willingly dwelt "among the Gentiles", who were nonetheless his long-lost Israelite kinsmen, for a great length of time in order to procure his bride.
21. Then Yaaqov said to Lavan, "Give me my wife—since the days of my term have been completed—and let me go into her."
Yaaqov was keenly aware that he had been unfruitful for seven whole years, and knew he needed to have descendants to fulfill his covenant with YHWH. His sons have a job (chapter 28), so he has a sense of urgency.
22. So Lavan gathered all the men of the place and made a feast.
This word for "feast" really means a drinking party.
23. But when evening had come, he went and got his daughter Leah and brought her to him, and he went into her.
Lavan had gotten Yaaqov drunk, and Leah was thoroughly veiled in a dark room. Because of this, at every Jewish wedding the groom lifts the veil just to be sure before they are pronounced married! By marrying the elder sister, however, Yaaqov again has inherited Esau's position.
24. Lavan also gave Zilpah, his slavegirl, to his daughter Leah as a maidservant.
Lavan pays something into the deal to seal it; Yaaqov therefore cannot back out of it.
25. Now when the morning came, lo and behold, it was Leah there with him! So he said to Lavan, "What have you done to me? Didn't I serve with you for Rakhel? Then why have you tricked me?"
Lavan made sure there were enough strong men on hand (v. 22) so he would be prepared to handle the wrath of a man who had singlehandedly moved the stone from the well. The term for “tricked” is the root of the word used for what Yaaqov had done to obtain his father’s blessing. (27:35) What he had done was coming back on him, for as we measure, it will be measured to us. Does this mean he should not have claimed the birthright? No; that had to be done, for he was the right one for the position. But it could not be done without a price to pay. Like the command to his descendants to destroy all the people of Kanaan, it is not a question of right or wrong. It is what YHWH wanted done. We cannot allow theoretical morality to stand in the way of YHWH’s commands. In some cases, YHWH provided a concrete way to deal with the inevitable feelings of guilt, like the half-sheqel taken up from soldiers since they have inescapable blood guilt. (Ex. 30:13-15) Because the balance was upset with Adam, we cannot always put everything into neat categories in the process of bringing restoration. We cannot play it safe all the time and still accomplish this, and we must act honorably even when we know the risks are great. Still, Yaaqov could have avoided some of this grief had he not spilled so much information to someone who was not truly looking out for his best interests.
26. And Lavan said, "It is not done this way in our place—marrying off the younger before the firstborn.
Maybe not, but this was not why Lavan did this. Since Yaaqov had told him all that had taken place (v. 13), Lavan was insinuating, "Just because YOU have no regard for seniority in YOUR household, don't think you're going to get away with that here!" Now the slick Lavan comes out looking more honorable than Yaaqov. Lavan’s sweetness is artificial, yet he is so cordial in his conniving. He betrays him with the greatest hospitality. But Yaaqov will learn his lesson. YHWH uses these circumstances to make Yaaqov worth even more, because previously he was only studying; he has had little real-life experience. Now he is learning to be a shepherd like his fathers before him; he is no longer a “rich kid”. He is learning to be a servant, because that is the heritage of Israel. YHWH humbled him, because this is the way to learn how to lead—and how not to lead—YHWH’s people.
27. "But just fulfill this one's week, and then we will also give you that one—in exchange for the service you will render to me for yet another seven years."
Like a salesman, he performs a “bait and switch” because he has gotten used to Yaaqov working for him. This one…that other one: Notice the inhuman terms by which he refers to his own daughters. They would remember this. Week: the week of rejoicing with her husband, to which every bride is entitled. We will give you: yet he had to work for this "gift"--another indication of Lavan's sense of his own generosity. He gave him the equivalent of a credit card, so he would become indebted to him. By finishing the week with Leah, he lost the option of annulling the marriage, and he dangled Rakhel in front of him again as an incentive to accept Leah as well. What the Messiah really wanted was a united Israel. He longed to bring the real treasure (Yerushalayim) under His wings (Matt. 23:37). But he must wait until this "other flock" (Yochanan 10:16), the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Efrayim) who is called YHWH's firstborn, is gathered before that wedding can occur. The rivalry between the sisters that resulted is why Moshe would later forbid a man from marrying two sisters while both are still living. (Lev. 18:18)
28. So Yaaqov did so; he fulfilled the week of "this one", then Lavan gave him his daughter Rakhel to be his wife.
29. And Lavan gave his slavegirl Bilhah to Rakhel as a handmaid for her.
These women were “fertility insurance” in case his daughters could not become pregnant. But look at their names. Zilpah means “a trickle”—a tiny bit of water, but not the full force. Bilhah is an even scarier name: It means “to trouble or agitate”—as if Rakhel did not already have enough trouble.
30. Thus he also went into Rakhel; moreover, he loved Rakhel more than Leah, so he served him yet another seven years.
31. But when YHWH saw that Leah was less favored, He opened her womb (while Rakhel remained childless).
Less favored: literally, hated, but the term does not always imply malice. Still, it made her feel unwanted, and YHWH knew that the fault was not hers, and compensated her for her pain. Childless: literally, sterile. The actual root word means "plucked up" like a field with nothing left to harvest.
32. So Leah conceived and gave birth to a son, and she named him Re'uven, because she said, "YHWH has indeed noticed my humiliation, because now my husband will love me!"
Re'uven: "Look! A son!" A wife who provided her husband with a male heir was more valued because it gave his name continuity.
33. Then she conceived again, and bore Yaaqov a second son, and said, "Surely YHWH has heard that I am unloved, and has given this one to me also." So she named him Shim'on.
Shim'on: An intensive form of "shema" (to hear or listen).
34. And she conceived yet again, and bore a son. And she said, "Now, this time my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” So he named him Levi.
Levi means "my joining" (attachment) or "confirmer of my companionship"; his tribe would "join" all Israel to Elohim, for they would include the priests. He named him—unlike the rest, whom the mothers named. This “he” may be Yaaqov--or YHWH Himself. He would not actually claim the sons of Levi for Himself until the Exodus, when He took them as substitutes for all the firstborn of Israel, and attached them to His Temple service.
35. And she conceived once more and gave birth to a son, and she said, "This time I am sure I will give thanks to YHWH." Therefore she named him Yehudah, and after that she stopped having children.
She learned her lesson. Yehudah means "thanksgiving" or "praise". His descendants are the part of Israel who are specifically called "Jews" (Yehudi). This is what Paul means when he says anyone who is a praiser of YHWH is a real Jew. (Rom. 2:28-29)
CHAPTER 30
1. When Rakhel saw that she was not bearing Yaaqov [any children], Rakhel was jealous of her sister. So she told Yaaqov, "Give me children; if not, I will die!"
It “kills” Rakhel to see how Yaaqov enjoys his sons. She thinks she is not pleasing him as much as Leah is. Polygamy is not forbidden in the Torah, as Elohim foresaw that in some circumstances, unmarried women who outnumbered men would be uncared for. But the accounts of where it did take place give us a fair warning of the detrimental “political” effects of some such arrangements. I will die: How ironic that she would die in giving birth to her second son. But she did leave a posterity.
2. Then Yaaqov's anger was kindled toward Rakhel, and he said, "Am I in the position of Elohim, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?"
I.e., “Why are you blaming me? I had nothing to do with it!” He is clearly fertile. Yet since she dare not blame YHWH, she takes it out on the one she loves most. We need to direct our anger where it belongs—or, better yet, ask YHWH for a solution. She came up with one that Yaaqov’s grandmother had used:
3. But she said, "Here's my maidservant Bilhah. Go into her and let her bear upon my knees. Then I too will be built up—through her!"
Upon my knees: she literally sat this way, so the child would symbolically be born from Rakhel as well, and thus she would adopt or take ownership of the child. Built up: the root meaning of the Hebrew word for “son”.
4. So she gave him her maidservant Bilhah as a wife, and Yaaqov went into her.
5. And Bilhah conceived and bore a son to Yaaqov.
6. So Rakhel said, "Elohim has given His ruling and has proven to have listened to my voice, and has given me a son!" So she named him Dan.
Dan means judgment or verdict. YHWH had accepted her prayer, thus “judging” in her favor.
7. Then Bilhah, Rakhel's maid, conceived again, and bore Yaaqov a second son,
8. so Rakhel said, "With wrestling contests of Elohim have I wrestled with my sister, and, indeed, I have succeeded!” So she named him Nafthali.
Of Elohim: i.e., Elohim-class wrestling. This idiomatic use of Elohim as something far bigger than normal can explain many Scriptures that otherwise seem mysterious. Nafthali means “My wrestling" (or maneuvering): based on a word for "twisting"; possibly "born by a roundabout way". She did not actually give birth, but Rakhel considered this her victory because she knows she will be judged more favorably since she did all that was in her power to provide Yaaqov with more children. These children had to live with the names that reflected their mothers' running feud. This animosity was unnecessary, because the sisters were taking things too personally. Rather than simply trying to please Yaaqov, each was trying to please him more than her sister. Yet if they had not cared whether they gave him sons, none of these children would have come forth. So there are advantages and disadvantages to competition; we need to keep it in the right perspective and it can help us be more productive if we do not allow it to make us bitter toward others who are also striving to do their best.
9. When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing children, she fetched Zilpah, her maidservant, and gave her to Yaaqov as a wife.
10. And Leah's slavegirl Zilpah bore a son to Yaaqov.
11. So Leah said, "What a stroke of luck!" So she named him Gad.
The firstborn of the slave-girl shares a name--and a philosophy--with a pagan god. We are commanded not to even have the names of pagan deities on our lips (Exodus 23:13), and Gad is listed as just that in Yeshayahu/Isaiah 65:11. He was known as Ba'al-Gad in Yehoshua 11:17. This is too close to “Lord God” for comfort. Gad’s feast-day, perpetuated through adoption of its practices in Christianized Europe when they could not rid the common people of their feast of Saturnalia, is what has become modern-day Christmas. Some believe the Norsemen and Germans, who count “Gud” or “Gott” as their deity, are descendants of Gad, and thus this name for the creator may have stemmed from a form of ancestor worship. Gad can mean "a troop", so she may have also been counting him as another “soldier” in her battle against her sister. Leah has acknowledged YHWH, but why should we assume she worships Him exclusively? She still lives in her father's house. Kharan is the half-way city--the family of Avram's stopping point between full-scale paganism and the Promised Land. “Luck" (including the terms fortune, opportunity, and even “per-haps”—by the permission of Hapi, an Egyptian deity) has nothing to do with YHWH, but is the philosophy of Amaleq, who believed everything “happened” by chance. YHWH's providence is very deliberate, and not random or accidental, as seen in 25:21.
12. Then Zilpah, Leah's slavegirl, bore a second son to Yaaqov,
13. and Leah said, "I am blessed! For the daughters [of Kanaan] will call me glad." So she named him Asher.
I am blessed: Literally, "In my happiness!" But Asher is based on a verb meaning to go straight ahead and make progress, which should shape our definition of what “happiness” really is--not based, as in English, on "happenstance", which is the same as "luck" (Gad). Our concepts should be based on Hebrew terminology.
14. Now in the days of the wheat harvest, Reuven went out and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. But Rakhel said to Leah, "Please give me some of your son's mandrakes."
She may have thought this time of celebrating fertility was an especially auspicious time to conceive, superstitious as she was. Mandrakes: or “love apples”, a fragrant nightshade plant thought to be an aphrodisiac since its roots resemble a phallus. The name in Hebrew is a dual form of the word for "beloved", i.e., meant to endear the "victim" to oneself. But verse 17 reveals the real source of her success.
15. But she asked her, "Is it a trivial thing that you took my husband? And now you want to take my son's mandrakes too?!" So Rakhel said, "Okay, so he'll lie with you tonight instead of me, in exchange for your son's mandrakes."
16. When Yaaqov came in from the field that evening, Leah went out to meet him, and she said, "You must come into me, because I have indeed hired you with my son's mandrakes.” So he lay with her during that night,
Each wife would have a separate tent for privacy, but their open jockeying for position defeated that purpose.
17. and Elohim listened to Leah; she conceived and bore Yaaqov a fifth son.
18. Then Leah said, "Elohim has given me what I earned when I gave my slavegirl to my husband." So she named her son Yissakhar.
Yissakhar means "There is recompense/reward" or "he was hired". The mandrakes had nothing to do with her womb being reopened. YHWH rewarded her for doing all that was within her power to please her husband even when she herself could not give him any more children, and also compensated her for not being his favorite wife.
19. Leah then conceived again and bore a sixth son to Yaaqov.
20. So Leah said, "Elohim has presented me with a fine endowment. This time my husband will dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons." So she named him Z’vulun.
Endowment: or dowry; "the better portion". Dwell with me: i.e., settle permanently in my tent, making me his favorite. Z’vulun thus means "Exalted dwelling".
21. And afterwards she also gave birth to a daughter, and named her Dinah.
Since there is no reference here to her conceiving again here, Dinah may have been Zevulun’s twin. Dinah is the feminine form of Dan, also meaning "judgment".
[c. Year 2201 from creation; 1799 B.C.E.]
22. And Elohim remembered Rakhel, and hearkened to her, and opened her womb,
Remembered: not that He had forgotten her, but now He proved He had not.
23. and she conceived and bore a son, and said, "Elohim has taken away my disgrace!"
Disgrace: reproach, taunt, but from a root word for “spend the winter”, for YHWH had now ended her “winter” and brought her into a season of fruitfulness.
24. So she named him Yosef ["May he add"], saying, "May YHWH add yet another son to me."
Rakhel saw that she was now capable of bearing children, so her ambition is to be even more fruitful. YHWH did indeed add another, but Yosef also added to the people of Israel by means of his two sons, which gave Yosef a second tribe, a double portion.
25. Now when Rakhel had borne Yosef, Yaaqov said to Lavan, "Send me off so that I may go to my place and my own land.
This takes place after 14 years (31:38) with Lavan, or slightly more, meaning these 12 children had all been born within about 7 years' time. Since Yaaqov had placed himself under Lavan’s authority, he could not leave without Lavan’s permission, though his contract was up. He honored his agreement, while Lavan would not. His parents were old and needed him. Why does he feel ready after Yosef is born? Because there is now a firstborn from his true wife, from whom the fullness of the nations (48:19) will come. Yaaqov feels he truly has a descendant. There is a son to carry on the promise to Avraham and Yitzhaq. Since Rivqah’s nurse is found with Yaaqov’s family in 35:8, though she had gone to Kanaan with Rivqah (24:59), it appears that this is the time Rivqah sent for him, having said she would do so when Esau’s anger subsided. (27:44-45)
26. "Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served you, and let me go. For you yourself know with what kind of service I have served you."
27. But Lavan said to him, "If I have found favor in your eyes, I have learned by divination that YHWH has blessed me on account of you."
His mindset is still that all of these things took place for his own benefit--they are all his! Yet though he gives credit to YHWH, he is still mixing religions when he uses divination, which is an abomination to YHWH.
28. Moreover, he said, "Propose to me whatever wage you want, and I will give it to you."
Propose: literally, stab or pierce: I.e., “Gouge me if you must! Tell me what the damages will be!” He is willing to sacrifice to keep Yaaqov from leaving him without a covering before YHWH.
29. But he replied, "You know how I have served you, and what has transpired, while your livestock have been with me,
30. "for you had little before I came, but now it has broken forth into a multitude, and YHWH has blessed you wherever I went. But when indeed shall I build up my own house?"
Wherever I went: literally, "at my foot". He is saying, " I've made you rich, so you can get along without me!" Or is he only a parasite? Build up my own house: stop working for someone else and amass an inheritance for my own family.
31. But still he said, "What shall I give you?" Yaaqov replied, "Don't give me a speck [of anything]. If you will just do this one thing for me, I will stay on, feed your flock, and pasture it:
Like Avram with the king of S’dom, Yaaqov had learned in the tents of Shem not to make himself indebted to anyone unworthy. Besides, he knows that what comes from Lavan will be tainted anyway.
32. "I will pass through your whole flock today, taking from there every speckled and spotted sheep, and every black sheep among the lambs, and those that are speckled or spotted among the young goats—these will be my wages.
Since he sees that Lavan does not plan to release him, he realizes he has to start doing something about what is supposed to be his own. As David says, to the devious YHWH shows Himself also able to connive. (2 Shmu’el 22:26-27; Psalm 18:24) He had to use his “left hand” on one who wanted what should have belonged to Israel. But why did he choose the animals whose wool would be less valuable on the market? They were the ones he knew nobody else wanted anyway, and Lavan would not be upset to lose them. As Yeshua has gathered his flock, it has often been made up mostly of societal outcasts of one kind or another, to which he has given a new sense of being valued.
33. "This way my honesty will be self-evident in the days to come: whenever you go over my wages, right in front of your eyes, every one with me that is not speckled or spotted among the young goats, or black among the lambs, you can consider stolen."
The fruit would speak for itself. How could Lavan resist a deal with a built-in safeguard? Yaaqov may have been trying hard to turn over a new leaf himself but also subtly reminding Lavan to be honest in his dealings as well.
34. So Lavan said, "Okay! Let it be as you say."
He struck the deal very quickly, possibly being unable to believe Yaaqov would make such a ridiculous choice.
35. And on that same day he removed all the streaked and spotted he-goats, every one with white in it, and every black one among the lambs, and he put them in the care of his sons.
He: Lavan. He separates Yaaqov’s flocks from his own so they will not interbreed—the most likely way to create more of the type of sheep Yaaqov asked for. So again he gives Yaaqov a disadvantage from the start.
36. And he put three days' journey between himself and Yaaqov, while Yaaqov was still pasturing Lavan's remaining flocks.
Lavan kept Yaaqov’s flocks far from his own, still thinking Yaaqov might attempt to cheat him, though he never had done so, since that was his way of thinking. It appears, then, that Lavan kept his daughters and their children with Yaaqov’s flocks, his own flocks under Yaaqov’s care in another place, while he lived in yet a third place.
37. But for himself, Yaaqov took white rods of a fresh poplar tree, as well as the hazel and laurel, and he peeled white strips in them, laying bare the white part of the rods.
38. And he set the rods which he had peeled by the gutters—by the troughs where the flocks came to drink—opposite [facing] the flocks, and they became stimulated when they came to drink.
Exposing the interior of the branches might have released an aphrodisiac chemical, and the appearance of the rods would have also been streaked or spotted, possibly predisposing the rams to look for ewes that were a different color than themselves, thus again providing a mix, though Lavan had removed those already mixed. Z’kharyah 11:4ff also juxtaposes the imagery of broken rods, feeding the flock, wages, and the reclaiming of all that is rightfully Yaaqov's.
39. When the sheep mated in the direction of the rods, the flocks bore striped, speckled, and spotted offspring!
The additional animals that were born fitting the categories he had selected would also be his. The prophetic “spirit of Yaaqov” is now setting up these rods, because we see many churches (Lavan’s flocks) beginning to teach the festivals and even turn to observing the Sabbath and using YHWH’s true name. This will bring about a separation in which some recognize they are Israel and leave. Yaaqov does not reveal to Lavan what he is doing.
40. Then Yaaqov separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flock toward the striped ones and toward every black one in Lavan's flocks. And he set his own herds by themselves, and did not set them among Lavan's flock.
Though there was still a place for Lavan’s flocks in YHWH’s overall plan (ch. 31), Yaaqov would not allow the two to mingle, lest they be lost in the wrong crowd. The purity of the first harvest must be preserved for the best results.
41. And whenever the robust flocks were mating, Yaaqov would set the rods in front of the eyes of the flock at the troughs, so that they would mate by the rods.
By Yaaqov’s wisdom, the less desirable are thus made the strongest, because the unity he breeds makes them more than they could be as individuals; Yaaqov cares for the “little guy”, seeking to make him stronger, so he is blessed. (2 Shm. 22:17-32)
42. But he did not set them in front of the weak flocks, so it turned out that the weak ones became Lavan's, whereas the strong became Yaaqov's.
No plain animals are being born anymore. Yaaqov therefore used Lavan’s desire to have the best for himself against him.
43. And the man grew very much wealthier, and he had many flocks, and slavegirls, and male slaves, and camels, and donkeys.
CHAPTER 31
1. But he overheard Lavan's sons saying these words: "Yaaqov has taken away everything that belonged to our father, and he has gotten all this wealth from what was our father's!"
This same accusation was made by Hitler, and is still made of Yaaqov's descendants (Yehudah/the Jews in particular, since they are more recognizable). But like the Gentiles who forced the Jews to be moneylenders, by which they became wealthy, all this was really Lavan’s fault, not Yaaqov’s doing.
2. Yaaqov also noticed that Lavan's disposition toward him was indeed not like it had been in earlier days.
3. Then YHWH said to Yaaqov, "Go back to the land of your ancestors, and to those to whom you were born, and I will be with you."
It had already become obvious to Yaaqov that it was time to leave since he could no longer trust Lavan. This is the first time YHWH has spoken directly to him since he left the Land of Kanaan 20 years before, and the first word is “go back”! Land of your ancestors: Was he not already there? He had been living with distant cousins, but YHWH narrowed the focus of which relatives he was most responsible to: the Hebrews, who are willing to cross over. That is his real family. Two generations of ancestors had already lived there, and his father never left. So his birthright is connected with the Land of Kanaan. He had gotten what he needed from Paddan-Aram. Yet by telling him to do what he had already thought might be best, YHWH gave him objective and authoritative assurance that it was not just his own idea, and courage to make a move that was not without danger. YHWH also showed that His attention to our needs is “up to the minute”.
4. So Yaaqov sent and summoned Rakhel and Leah to the field where his flocks were,
His wives were still living with Lavan, and had to be called to come join Yaaqov where he was with his sons.
5. and said to them, "I can see that your father's disposition is not the same toward me as it was in days past. But the Elohim of my father has been with me.
Disposition: literally, face. Lavan was no longer prospering, so he was not pleased, but YHWH had made Yaaqov prosper.
6. "And you know that I have worked for your father with all my might,
7. "yet your father has tricked me, changing my wages ten times. But Elohim has not let him do me wrong.
Tricked: or cheated. Changing my wages: finding loopholes in his promises. Ten times (literally ten weighings-out) was the last straw for Yaaqov; compare those who put YHWH to the test ten times. (Numbers 14:22-23)
8. "If he would stipulate: 'The speckled animals shall be your wages', then the whole flock gave birth to speckled offspring; but if he would say, 'The striped ones shall be your wages', then all the flocks gave birth to striped.
9. "Thus Elohim has taken away your father's livestock and given them to me.
I have heard it said in more places than one that those who were most fruitful and hard-working in the Church have been called back into the ranks of Israel.
10. "And once when the flocks were in heat, I raised my eyes and saw in a dream that, lo and behold, all the rams that were mounting the flocks of ewes were striped, speckled, and dappled.
11. "And the messenger of Elohim said to me in a dream: 'Yaaqov!' So I said, 'Here I am!'
12. "And he said, 'Please raise your eyes and notice all the rams mounting the flock: they are striped, speckled, and dappled, because I have noticed all that Lavan has been doing to you.
YHWH was showing him how to weaken the one who has been cheating him, but that was not the goal; it was only to build his own house (30:30). This, rather than assault and vengeance, is how we can prosper though the wicked inevitably take advantage of our desire to be righteous: do not focus on the cheater, but do what YHWH leads you to do and be what He leads you to be, and the blessing will follow, whether at the other person’s expense or not; what He chooses to do to or for others is up to Him.
13. "'I am the El of Beyth-El—the place where you anointed the pillar and vowed a vow to Me. Now then, arise and get out of this land, and go back to the land of your relatives."
Yaaqov promised that the anointed stone would become YHWH’s house, and, though the place would not be in Israel’s possession until the time of David, YHWH is already calling special attention to this spot. As in his dream at that site, it is now time to ascend again along with those who descended from him. He also does not identify Himself as “the Elohim of your fathers” this time, but called Himself by Yaaqov’s own experience of Him, for Yaaqov had said at that place that if YHWH brought him back safely, He would be known as his Elohim as well. (28:21) Now that he has begun his journey back, YHWH is telling him that He, too, is not ashamed to be known as Yaaqov’s Elohim.
14. Then Rakhel and Leah answered, saying to him, "Do we still have any share or inheritance in our father's household?
Our father's household: This was the family that started to become Hebrews, but settled down before the journey was complete, while Avraham traveled on. They represent those who think the church was meant to be something permanent rather than a temporary shelter during our exile. It was Yaaqov’s job to take them the rest of the way. He assumed it would be hard to convince them to leave, but they were ready, even if it was for pragmatic reasons. (Compare Yirmeyahu 16:19.) Their father was no longer one they were proud to be associated with.
15. "Aren't we counted by him as if we were foreigners [anyway], since he has sold us and even used up all our money,
The more we look at the evidence, the more we see that the “white one” robbed us of our inheritance. We were taught there to leave the “Old Testament” alone; it was “not for us”. We are not in a position to receive the promises made to Israel while still in the house of Lavan. YHWH protected us while we had no other option, but it is time to move on.
16. "and since all the wealth that Elohim has taken from our father is going to us and our sons anyway? So now do everything Elohim has told you!"
I.e., There is nothing left for us here. After having used us to drive a hard bargain and extract 14 years of free labor from you, he could have at least used the value of your work as our dowry (the bride’s security in case she should become a widow without sons to care for her). Their bride price was the fruit of Yaaqov’s labors, and so should have been given to them rather than to Lavan; it is really the return on their investment. But that never entered his mind. Instead, he squandered it, thinking Yaaqov was there for his sake. What kind of father is that?
17. So Yaaqov rose up and lifted his sons and wives onto the camels.
Rose up: Yaaqov was now finally “building his own house” (30:30) and not that of another.
18. And he drove ahead of him all the livestock and took all the property that he had acquired in Paddan-Aram, and set off for the land of Kanaan—to come back to his father Yitzhaq.
The Torah would later stipulate that a slave is to go free after six years of service. Yaaqov's first 14 years were the dowry for his wives, but the last six had been servitude to Lavan. So YHWH tells him his time has been served. The Sabbatical year was coming; if he did not leave now, how many more cycles might he have to endure there? But if a slave is given a wife by his master, he cannot take her or their children with him when he goes free. (Ex. 21:2-4) This may have been a custom throughout the entire region. He could see that a slave is what Lavan thought he was, so Yaaqov felt he had to sneak away to take his family along. (Lavan still considered them his property--v. 43.)
19. (Now when Lavan had gone off to shear his sheep, Rakhel had carried away the household idols that belonged to her father.)
At first it might not have seemed unnatural that Yaaqov’s children were moving his flocks, for they would be expected to be sheared at that time as well. They would not be sheared in their normal fields of pasture. Lavan probably did not even want Yaaqov nearby to see how much profit he was making from the flocks Yaaqov had raised. But all was going well for Yaaqov’s departure until this act of Rakhel’s. Ownership of the household idols, in that society, implied leadership of the family. They assured the husband of a married daughter of the right to her father's property; they implied conferrance of title. "Idols" here is trafim, which means "healers". Lavan recognized YHWH, but still relied on other things as a back-up. Whatever we trust in assumes a power over us because we allow it to. Yet idols simply rob us and do not provide anything in return. That is why the prophets call them "things of vanity". She was willing to leave, but she took along the worst reminder of her father’s house. In 1 Shmu’el 19:12 we see that trafim were in the image of a man. It may have been like a favorite doll to Rakhel--something she was simply fond of, but because Rakhel is our mother, we in Efrayim must be especially watchful of the latent idolatry we are still prone to.
20. Thus Yaaqov outwitted the heart of Lavan the Aramean, because he had not told him that he was about to “bolt”.
Six years earlier he had made the mistake of telling him he wanted to leave; this time he does not give him the upper hand. He left before Lavan could do anything about it; no explanation was necessary. Aramean means “exalted one”; Moshe is highlighting the humor in Yaaqov’s outsmarting him nonetheless.
21. Then he and all that were his made their escape: he got up and crossed the River, and set his face to the hills of Gil'ad.
Gil'ad: just this side of the Yarden River, southeast of the Sea of Galilee, it was not technically part of the Promised Land, but the tribe of Gad did claim it under Yehoshua's conquest. Notice that he made a series of crossings. The Euphrates(“the River”) represented the break from Lavan, but still he was not home yet. His real goal was Beyth El.
22. Now on the third day word reached Lavan that Yaaqov had fled.
Lavan’s sons, whom he had put in charge of Yaaqov’s sheep (30:35), would have been the ones to bring the message to him where he was, three days’ journey away. (30:36)
23. And he took his relatives with him and pursued him seven days' journey, and overtook him in the hills of Gil'ad.
So Yaaqov had traveled ten days, having had a three-day head start since Lavan had gone away in the opposite direction. Yaaqov could not travel as quickly as he with young children and so many flocks.
24. But Elohim came to Lavan the Aramean that night in a dream, and said to him, "Be careful not to speak to Yaaqov either for better or for worse."
Elohim: the name emphasizing His justice, for He appeared to Lavan as judge. He was neither to try to persuade him to stay nor revile him for leaving, for, as he had said about the decision to allow his sister to marry Yitzhaq, the choice was not his, but YHWH’s.
25. Now Yaaqov had pitched his tent in the hills when Lavan caught up with him, so Lavan and his relatives pitched their tents in the hills of Gil'ad.
26. Then Lavan said to Yaaqov, "What have you done? You have outwitted my heart and driven my daughters like prisoners of war!
27. "Why did you have to run away stealthily, and trick me? Had you but told me, I would have even sent you off with festivity and singing, with tambourine and harp!
This is what he says when he does not have the upper hand, but we already saw him persuade Yaaqov to stay once, and Yaaqov knew he could not put himself at the disadvantage while in Lavan’s house again.
28. "And you haven't let me kiss my grandsons and daughters [in farewell greeting]. Now you realize you have been foolish to do this!
29. "It is well within the power of my hand to do harm to all of you, but the Elohim of your fathers spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful that you don’t speak to Yaaqov either for better or for worse.'
Your fathers: He forgets that his own grandfather was actually called out with Avram as well, but he no longer identifies with YHWH as his own. YHWH tells him to neither bless Yaaqov nor curse him (for even his blessing would undoubtedly be full of trickery), ut to keep the conversation strictly neutral. Yet though he does not want to be killed for trying to take Yaaqov’s family back, he still makes it clear that he believes they really belong to him.
30. "And now I am sure you left because you yearned longingly for your father's home. But why did you have to steal my gods?"
The thought never even crosses Lavan’s mind that a more immediate reason for Yaaqov’s wanting to leave was that he himself had mistreated Yaaqov. But his question is fair: If you have such a powerful Elohim already, why steal mine?" This robbery of something highly prized in his household kept Yaaqov connected to Lavan and gave Lavan the right to pursue him and learn all of his private business.
31. And Yaaqov answered, saying to Lavan, "I left secretly because I was afraid, because I thought you might take your daughters away from me by force.
32. "But as for the household idols, whoever you find them with shall not live. In the presence of our relatives, search [to see] if anything of yours is here with me, and take it back for yourself." (Now Yaaqov did not know that Rakhel had stolen them.)
Shall not live: The prophetic spirit passes to the one with the right of the firstborn (Yosef was the next seer in the family). So he unwittingly placed a curse on his favorite wife.
33. So Lavan went into Yaaqov's tent, then into Leah's tent, and into the tent of the two slavegirls, but he found nothing.
34. But Rakhel had taken the household idols and put them into the camel's packsaddle, and sat down on top of them. So Lavan groped around the whole tent, but still he found nothing.
35. And she said to her father, "Don't let there be anger in the eyes of my master because I cannot rise in your presence, for the way of women is upon me." So he searched but could not find the idols.
Rise: in respect for her father. (Lev. 19:32) She got out of an impossible situation by claiming to be in her monthly time of purgation. Letting camel saddles double as chairs also gave the travelers fewer things to carry. She desecrated the idols by sitting on them, though they were already defiled by their very nature. She may not have perceived this as disloyalty to YHWH, but it would have an ill effect until it was eradicated.
36. Then Yaaqov became angry, and he complained to Lavan. Yaaqov responded by saying to Lavan, "How have I wronged you, and what is my sin, that you have pursued after me so hotly?
37. "For you have rummaged through all my furniture. Have you found any of the articles from your house? If so, set it here in front of my relatives and yours, and let them adjudicate between the two of us!
38. "Look here! I was with you for twenty years! Your ewes and your she-goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten any of the rams of your flock.
39. "What was torn by the beasts of the field I did not bring to you [as food]; I replaced it. You exacted it from me, whether it was stolen by day or at night.
At night: when I could not have reasonably been considered at fault. I went beyond what should have been expected of me.
40. "I stayed [on guard] in the field by day and the heat consumed me, and the frost did too by night, and my sleep fled from [and eluded] my eyes.
41. "This was how it was for my twenty years in your household: I served you fourteen years in exchange for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times!
Now that Lavan has crossed the line with such rude behavior, Yaaqov comes out and makes it clear that he wants no further relationship with Lavan, for he has proven not to be his friend despite all his flowery speech; he is a thief.
42. "Unless the Elohim of my father—the Elohim of Avraham and the 'Fear of Yitzhaq'—had been for me, you would certainly have sent me away empty-handed indeed. My affliction and the toil of my palms Elohim has noticed, and last night He delivered the verdict."
Fear: or Awesome One. Yaaqov reminds Lavan that YHWH is the one who controls life and death. Otherwise he would have cheated Yaaqov even more.
43. But Lavan answered by saying to Yaaqov, "The daughters are my daughters! Your sons are my descendants, too, and the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see, it belongs to me or my daughters! What could I do to these women today, or to the offspring they have borne?
I.e., "Why would I be interested in harming them? Yes, I'd rather have them back! But to injure them would be my own loss too!” He is left without a leg to stand on, Yaaqov having been given the leverage, yet stubbornly sticks to his story. The children and flocks belong to Israel, and he should really be a part of it too, but he is too proud to lower himself to become Yaaqov’s student.
44. "So come now, let's you and me make a treaty, and let it be for a witness between you and me."
45. So Yaaqov took a stone, and erected it as a memorial.
46. And Yaaqov said to his kinsmen, "Gather up stones." So they got stones and made a heap, and they ate there on the heap.
In Middle Eastern culture, no one eats together unless they are at peace; this symbolized a truce, if an uneasy one.
47. And Lavan called it Yeghar-Sahedutha, while Yaaqov called it Gal-Ed,
Both names they gave mean "Mound of the Testimony". But note that although they are talking about the same thing, and they have lived together so long, they are speaking a different language. Lavan sees it as a way to retain some claim to his daughters, as if it represents what they have in common; Yaaqov sees it as emphasizing what separates them. Israelites and Christians still manage to get completely different meanings from the same Scriptures. One is satisfied with the Greek view, while the other, once he remembers who he is, and to whose household he really belongs, must do everything in Hebraic terms: Y’shua, not Jesus, YHWH, not God, etc. To the Christian, it makes no difference which names are used, for they think they are all the same. Yaaqov’s grandfather Avraham built such mounds of testimony, but to Lavan the concept seems foreign, and he has to say it by way of a long, roundabout explanation. The church has derived much of its power and authority from its spiritualization of what are really just simple commands to carry out tangible, physical acts. The church’s initiates seem to have an insider’s influence over these mystified forces. YHWH wants to walk with us and dwell among us. That is an awesome thing, but there is nothing complicated about it. The word is not far away, up in heaven or across the sea, but very near to us. (Deut. 30) Yaaqov, called home after twenty years, prefigures Y’shua bringing his "twofold bride" (the two houses of Israel) back home, though he has been thought of as "ruler of the Gentiles" for twenty centuries.
48. And Lavan said, "This mound is a witness between you and me today"; that is why he named it "Gal-Ed"
It was common to call any nearby object as a witness when making a covenant--even the sun and moon--as guarantors, with the idea that they would bring retribution on a party who broke the treaty.
49. and also Mitzpah ["Observation post"], for he said, "May YHWH be on the lookout between you and me, though each of us be out of his fellow [covenanter]'s sight.
A vineyard is not to be planted with two kinds of seed. (Deut. 22:9-11) They will do better separately. Lavan would have to use his own resources now instead of Yaaqov’s, which would develop his strengths as well.
50. "If you will not mistreat my daughters, nor take other wives in addition to them—not a man is with us; but remember, Elohim is a witness between me and you."
Not a man is with us: i.e., even when there is no one nearby to ensure that they would not harm each other.
51. Moreover, Lavan said to Yaaqov, "Behold this heap, and behold this pillar which I have set down between you and me.
Again he tries to take credit for what Yaaqov actually accomplished! (v. 45) And Christians likewise still consider Avraham, David, Eliyahu, Y’shua, etc. to have been part of the “church”, though this is anachronistic and their theology was very different. He insists that he will let them go, but they are really his. Let him talk; the proof is in the walk.
52. "This heap is a witness, and the pillar is also a witness. As for me, I will not cross over beyond this heap to you, and as for you, you will not cross over this heap or this pillar to me for any evil purpose;
The only way to have peace between the two was to never come near each other again. This is why the Holy Land has borders: it must be defined. The less-than-holy may be tolerated in other places, but here it is not acceptable.
53. "Let the Elohim of Avraham—the Elohim of Nakhor, and the Elohim of their father— be the judge between us." But Yaaqov swore by the Fear of his father Yitzhaq.
Their father: Avraham’s and Nakhor’s—that is, Terakh, who actually took Avram with him when he departed from Ur, but could not be persuaded to go any further than where his son died. Lavan knows how to get under one’s skin without appearing to say anything wrong. He is saying, “How dare you insinuate that YHWH is Avraham’s Elohim? That is not what HIS fathers worshipped!” He may be alluding again to the stolen idols, which were probably family heirlooms. But Yaaqov appeals to Yitzhaq, who never worshipped anything but YHWH. And he emphasizes the “fear” (v. 42), to remind Lavan of the dream he made the mistake of telling Yaaqov about. He is reminding Lavan, the highly-intelligent manipulator, that he needs to be careful. Yaaqov, the heel-grabber, who has much in common with him but whose purpose is entirely different, turns his own words against him. He knows that if you can get your enemy to fear, you have beaten him. He implies that Lavan’s idols must have run away on their own! He is shrewd, not toward his true neighbors, but toward the conniving of the world, and it will benefit his descendants to be the same way. (Luke 16:8)
54. And Yaaqov slaughtered an offering on the mountain, and called his kinsmen to eat a meal, so they ate together on the mountain.
There is still some measure of kinship expressed by the fact that they eat a meal together. There are deeper things that do join them together that Lavan needs to recognize, but note well that it is the food provided and prepared by Yaaqov that they can both eat from; Lavan’s would not be acceptable.
55. [32:1 in Hebrew] And Lavan got up early in the morning and kissed his sons and daughters [in farewell greeting] and blessed them. Then Lavan departed and returned to his own place.
CHAPTER 32
1. Yaaqov also went on his way, and the messengers of Elohim met him.
His road is now one of return. It leads away from Lavan, his paganism, and the place Yaaqov had acquired his wealth, and toward the Land promised him by YHWH. Only those who belonged to him remained. It had become very clear that he and Lavan could not dwell together. Each left the other in YHWH's hands, and YHWH showed that He was in support of Him. It was as if they were the advance party sent out to welcome him back home. We will encounter many strange things along the way as Yaaqov did, as well as many joys and experiences of YHWH’s mercy and other traits that will help us to know Him, for that is the real goal. Home is where He is.
2. And when he saw them, Yaaqov said, "This is the camp of Elohim!” So he called that place Makhanayim.
Makhanayim: “pair of camps”. Yaaqov had already named another place the “House of Elohim”. (28:12) There he had seen the messengers of Elohim—the same thing he sees again here. Since they are out on the road, he does not call this a place, but a camp, which can move. He had come to the realization that those who are traveling with him—his descendants--are the messengers his dream had prophesied. (R. Webster) They did not yet exist when he saw the vision, but now he recognizes who they are. He realizes there was more to his vision on Moryah: it was not only about him, but about his entire camp. Without descendants, there would be no one to build the House he foresaw. They have to accompany him back to ensure that the seed of Avraham will inherit the Land. They are the building materials. For a long time the seed of Avraham had focused on only one individual; now it expands outward, for Yaaqov is now twelve men, and there will soon be thirteen. The promises are to a plural, not a singular, “you”.
Portion VaYetze'
("When he left")
Genesis 28:10 - 32:2
INTRODUCTION: This is the portion in which Yaaqov is given a glimpse of a reality bigger than he realized was there, and recognizes that he has a house to build—the House of Elohim. He anchors his stake in it with a cornerstone before he leaves to go get the other necessary building-block for his own house, and although he is very fruitful in this regard, 14 years later he realizes he is spinning his wheels, because his house is part of another’s household, which is using up all of his resources. Still, he focuses on the right things, choosing, like his grandfather, to take the humbler share for himself, and finding, as his grandfather did, that YHWH has turned the tables in spite of his rival’s apparent advantage. The latter focused on his life and lost it; the other, at some point, realized that his house existed for the sake of the other house, and that by seeking that House—and righteousness (30:33)--first, “all these things would be added to him” (30:43; 31:6-9) and his own house was built in the process. All the down-to-earth, this-worldly bickering and competing by his wives had still turned out to serve a higher purpose, giving him raw materials with which to start the nation that would finish the job of building YHWH’s House—and themselves become His dwelling place. There is a clear parallel with our own day, when, after 20 centuries, the House of Israel is recognizing that neither the world nor the church will give us the inheritance that we need, but that our heritage is bound up with the Land of our ancestors, and the part of our family that remains there. As individuals we have had YHWH living within us, but again we are being called to be a corporate “camp” in whose midst He can set up His permanent dwelling among men. Read the details of the story with the recognition that it is also a blueprint for how to do this.
“The Elohim Who Notices”
Yaaqov was in a bad position when he started out his journey. His brother was out to kill him. He must have wondered if he had done the wrong thing, overstepped his limits, and messed up the plan that he had been studying about. He was a man of tents—a student of the ways of the Elohim of Shem--but now he was forced out of his “ivory tower” and into the harsh reality of being all alone on a dangerous journey. Life wasn’t supposed to be this way. He must have been apprehensive not only about what might befall him on the road, but whether he was even on the right track at all, since it didn’t seem like a deliberately-chosen path, but “emergency mode”.
When he finally found a safe place to spend the night (28:11ff), he was treated to a spectacle that the builders of the Tower of Bavel had tried to steal a peek at—the gate of the heavens! And not only did he see it, but he received a personal message. It startled him, but also brought him serious relief and comfort, because the One at the top spoke directly to his deepest fears. Not only would YHWH accompany him on his journey and never leave him alone; he would indeed get to return home again, and the same blessings promised to his righteous grandfather would flow down to and through him as well.
YHWH didn’t even ask anything from Yaaqov. Yaaqov volunteered to give Him a tithe because he felt so blessed to receive personal attention from this awe-inspiring Elohim who singled him out and let him know that he had not been just having delusions of grandeur when he realized that he would be a better steward of the birthright than his brother would have been.
What could have given him a deeper sense of shalom (total well-being)? He couldn’t help but travel on with a spring in his step. (29:1)
But YHWH’s dealings with Yaaqov didn’t stop there. Again, relatives who should have been looking out for his interests were taking advantage of him instead. And Yaaqov’s wives felt mistreated as well—whether intentionally or not, but to them it was real, so YHWH addressed their deepest longings as well, compensating for the shortcomings even of Yaaqov in the life of Leah (29:31-33) and Rakhel (30:22, 23). They credited Him with noticing the desires of their hearts and answering them.
YHWH noticed when men were not treating Yaaqov well (31:3), and gave him clear authorization to do what had been in his heart six years earlier, even giving him an idea by which he could have leverage over the one who had thwarted him (31:10-13; 19-23, 43) without losing integrity—something he strove for after being known in his youth as a cheater. (30:33)
YHWH—and not some other, unsympathetic third party—is named as witness to ensure that Yaaqov would not do what he did not want to do anyway (31:50), and afterward YHWH gave him the reassurance he needed that, after such a radical move, he was still on the right track. (32:1-2)
YHWH noticed—and cared. Do we pay such close attention to our children or others who are under our care with the same compassion and sympathy?
Study questions:
1. Yaaqov sees messengers of Elohim in Genesis 28:1. Who might they be, in light of Mal’akhi 2:7? Why would they go up and down a stairway? What “place” (28:11) was this? (Compare 28:16-17)
2. What previous verses in chapter 28 are verses 13-15 a follow-up to? What remains the same and what is added to the initial ideas expressed?
3. What do you think gave Yaaqov the strength to roll the stone from the well’s mouth single-handedly? (29:10) Why was the encounter that followed such an emotional meeting for him?
4. How is YHWH’s hand in the whole process of maintaining the covenant alluded to in 29:14?
5. Why do you think Yaaqov chose seven years as his time frame (29:18)? Did he expect Esau’s wrath to take that long to subside?
6. How does Yaaqov’s need to remind Lavan to “pay him his wages” foreshadow events later in the Torah portion? (29:21) Can you think of a Torah command that Moshe may have had this event in mind when he wrote it?
7. Even if Lavan had never been a better person, what else could have precluded the fiasco in 29:25? (There is a hint in 28:8.)
8. How is YHWH’s compassion for the “underdog” evident in chapters 29 and 30? What additional Torah laws can you see the roots for here?
9. What reasons can you find in 29:30-30:23 for the command in Leviticus 18:18?
10. Does 31:1 sound like anything you have heard in modern times?
11. What later event in Israel’s national life does 31:1-9, 20-23 foreshadow?
12. After what Yaaqov said in 31:5, why do you think Rakhel still took idols with her? (31:19)
13. What later command in the Torah is based on the idea in 31:50?
The site of the other Beyth-El
Companion Passage:
The Sidewalk
for kids
Has anybody ever really tricked you? How did it make you feel? Did you ever trust that person again?
Our story today describes how our ancestor Yaaqov got tricked big-time. Lavan sneaked the wrong bride into his tent when he had given him too much to drink and under cover of darkness. He even had all the men of the town there in case Yaaqov might try to attack him because he knew he was doing something that would deserve just that.
At first it would seem that Yaaqov was just reaping what he sowed—that is, he harvested the same kind of thing he planted. That’s an idea that we see all through Scripture: we get back the same kind of thing we have done to other people.
But does that excuse what Lavan did? YHWH didn’t think so. Now, He used he things Lavan did to make Yaaqov’s family very big—the first step to becoming the nation He had promised he would have—a lot faster than if he had only gotten to marry Rakhel, which was all he wanted, but who couldn’t even have children for a long time.
But all the squabbling that came because of it made Moshe recognize many years later that it wasn’t a good idea for two sisters to be married to the same man. Yaaqov didn’t disobey the Torah, because that part of it wasn’t there yet. But his life showed us why the rules YHWH gives us are for our good.
When Lavan wanted Yaaqov to stay, Yaaqov made sure that what he paid him was something he could tell apart from Lavan’s animals, so it would be perfectly clear that he was always honest about what was his. (30:33) But Lavan still tried to be sneaky, so YHWH gave Yaaqov some ideas in a dream about how to beat Lavan at his games—but again, honestly. No tricks. That was the real Yaaqov and he wanted everybody to know it.
And YHWH did bless him—so much so that Lavan’s sons and servants started to get suspicious of him, thinking that he had stolen the animals from Lavan, even though the evidence was there for any one of them to check that he was only keeping his agreement. It was YHWH who was doing the tricking this time, if anybody was.
And if we think back to how Yaaqov tricked his father—was it really his own idea? He really didn’t want to do it; his mother told him to. But where did she get the idea that Yaaqov had to have the blessing? From YHWH Himself, who had told her that her older son would serve her younger son.
He didn’t tell her to lie and deceive to make that come true. But she knew that neither Esau nor Yitzhaq were seeing things very clearly, and she thought that was the only way it would. We can only guess whether YHWH would have worked it out some other way. I think it is safe to say He would have, and it might not have been so difficult. But what was done was done already, and YHWH also has ways of bringing good out of bad situations.
YHWH told Yaaqov it was time to leave, and, knowing what kind of man Lavan was—that he would find some reason again not to let him go—he used his trickiness one last time to get away while he could. And again, YHWH kept Lavan from hurting him.
So what is the difference between Yaaqov’s tricks and Lavan’s? Lavan was tricky for selfish reasons; Yaaqov, every time, was thinking of the big picture and what was better for more people—his whole family, and eventually the whole world. Maybe he couldn’t see any other way than to be tricky because people kept making themselves his enemies. That wasn’t what he wanted; he loved being at peace with everyone, as we will see again later. But just like the people who hid his descendants from the Nazis, you can’t always avoid having to trick your enemies if they are trying to keep you from doing the right thing.
And that has been the story since someone made himself YHWH’s enemy even before Adam and Chawwah existed. That snake that tricked them had been around a lot longer than they had.
David says something interesting about YHWH in 2 Shmu’el 22:27: “With the pure You prove Yourself to be pure, but to the crooked, You show that You can wind your way around them.” In other words, He can outsmart the crooked by twisting in a different kind of way—a good one, not a bad one. (The two times it says “pure”, it’s the same word in Hebrew, but the two kinds of “twisting” are different Hebrew words.)
He did that many times in this war that has been going on ever since, so that those who would only abuse the truth would not know what He was doing until it was already safely done. (See 1 Corinthians 2:7-8)
Sometimes we’re just in a place where we have to lean too far in the other direction like when we need to keep a bike or a ship from turning over. But there’s a good kind of tricky and a bad kind. We have to make sure we’re doing it for the right reason, like Yaaqov and YHWH, not like Lavan.
The Renewal of VA-YETZE'
Yaaqov now “reached the Place” (Gen. 28:11) identified a few weeks ago in the account of his father’s being offered up to YHWH. (Though not burnt up, he was made an “ascending”, and this made him holy to YHWH. What was brought to the altar was never to be taken outside the Temple precinct again, which is why Yitz’haq was never permitted to leave the borders of the Holy Land, per 26:2.) Yaaqov overtly recognized that what Avraham had called “the mountain of YHWH” (22:14; compare Isaiah 2:2) was indeed the site of Elohim’s house. (28:16-19; the book of the Yashar 30:1 states explicitly that it was Mt. Moriyah, lest we confuse his Beyth-El with the Beyth-El where Avraham had camped further north.) Mal’akhi 2:7 says the priests are YHWH’s messengers, so the messengers Yaaqov saw (28:12) going up and down its staircase may have been none other than his own son Levi’s descendants going up to and down from the Temples that would stand there later in time!
But, using the same terms, Yeshua said, “We have One greater than the Temple in this Place.” (Mat. 12:6) It was YHWH’s own presence there that made the Place especially awe-inspiring to Yaaqov. (28:16)
Yashar 29 gives us the added detail that just before this, Esau’s son had followed Yaaqov with the intent of killing him, but he settled for stealing all the wealth that Yitz’haq and Rivqah had given Yaaqov as the dowry for the wife he was going back east to seek. Now he was left with nothing, so he promised that if YHWH would provide for him simply food, clothing, and protection, he too would be loyal to the Elohim of his fathers. YHWH now renewed the covenant of Avraham and Yitz’haq with Yaaqov as well.
No wonder Yaaqov had a spring in his step again (Gen. 29:1) despite having lost everything else. He had what really mattered. As YHWH told Avraham in a similar circumstance (after he had forfeited the wealth offered him by the king of S’dom), “Don’t worry; I Myself am your shield and your extremely great reward.” (Gen. 15:1) Whether or not we have the other trappings, having YHWH is what counts. No matter how architecturally grand, the Temple would mean nothing if it was not His Temple.
Yaaqov had nothing but his vision to carry him forward; the Temple he saw was yet far off. But he had YHWH Himself through those next 20 years of exile. In this Torah portion, we see YHWH interacting with his family, noting who was at a disadvantage and giving them compensating advantages, opening this womb, closing that one, and then reopening the ones He had closed.
This can help us understand how the letter to the Hebrews fits with the rest of Scripture. If we read it too quickly it sounds like it’s contradicting the other Scriptures, almost as if it is saying we shouldn’t pay attention to the Torah anymore because now we have something better! But remember: the recipients of that letter were in an existential crisis. Not only was the whole Levitical system about to be shut down by the Romans; even before that, many who were holding fast to Yeshua’s take on the Torah and telling the truth about having seen him alive again were being excluded from both Temple and synagogue. If that was the only way they had of relating to YHWH, what were they to do when barred from it? They could not deny what they knew was real. But if sins could not be forgiven without access to the altar, how were they ever to deal with them?
The fact that there will be a larger Exodus (Yirmeyahu 16:14-15) does not diminish the validity or significance of the earlier one. It can’t help but supersede it in the minds of those who experience it, but that does not mean YHWH was not in the first one!
It is the same with the covenants. If YHWH has said something is valid forever, it is. It always retains its meaning. But He also provided for the times when we do not have the ideal. That is a big part of why Paul says we need “grace”. We have extenuating circumstances in which the neatest, cleanest, most complete expressions of what is clearly right are not always available. But does that mean YHWH is caught off guard, having left us with nothing?
YHWH said He Himself would be a “little sanctuary” to us while we, Yaaqov’s descendants, were scattered throughout the world, again without access to Jerusalem. (Yeshayahu/Isa. 8:13-14; Y’hezq’el/Ez. 11:16) In one sense this exile is a consequence of our neglecting to treat the things He entrusted to us with the honor they deserved. (Mal’akhi 1:6-13) But He also anticipated the problem and provided for it ahead of time with something even better than a physical Temple—His very own presence and nearness to us, no matter where this hostile world might send us reeling.
That presence may not be as concentrated as it is when He shows up above the Tent of Appointment and speaks from above the Ark of the Covenant. It may not be as complete as when all of Israel is gathered together as one bride for Him to interact with. But is it not fair to describe as “better” in some respect the kind of presence that is available to us wherever we are, whenever we need Him, even if we are in prison or marooned at sea, racked by disease, in far from ritually-pure condition, or so impoverished that we have no hope of ever catching up on our tithes and offerings? Does the fact that there is grace mean the normal, fuller obedience is no longer important? Of course not! Does it mean the standard is lowered? No. He is still holy and perfect and does not tolerate impurity in His presence.
Yet, as the psalmist said, “Though YHWH is high, yet He has respect for the lowly (while the ‘high and mighty’ He recognizes only from a distance).” (Psalm 138:6) As the prophet wrote, “Thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity…: ‘I dwell in a high and holy place—and also with the one who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of those who are brought low…’”
How can these seemingly mutually-exclusive concepts match up? It’s not that He accepts the imperfect by looking the other way as if wrong was not really being done. That may be a human solution, but He does not compromise, because then true guilt would not be remedied. Rather, He has made provision for all the exceptions of this “present evil age”. The first to receive it called it simply “the Way”, for it truly is the only way out if our own record no longer covers us. Instead of terminating the relationship when we, for whatever reason, failed (and we all have, one way or another), YHWH has renewed the covenant with terms that can outlast any cloth or building, override any physical shortcoming, outdistance any length to which we are strewn—especially when the reason we must forego some ideals is the need to take His provision to others who desperately need it but are outside the boundaries of what was supposed to have been.
David could eat the bread set apart for only the priests when he was doing YHWH’s business; priests could still work—harder than ever, in fact—on the Sabbath because they were serving Him. That is the context in which Yeshua said there was something greater than the Temple. (Mat. 12) The good is superseded only where redemption requires more—because, to our shame, we have broken something we cannot fix. It is not as if we were really “all right” all along—as if our excesses would have been excusable if YHWH had not provided His own Lamb. But that He has is something to be very grateful for.
If we understand YHWH’s preference for mercy over offerings, Yeshua says, we will not condemn the innocent. (Mat. 12:7) That may even apply to Yaaqov’s seemingly-guilty ways of obtaining the birthright or getting around his uncle’s cheating. Do you think he wanted to operate that way? But they “worked together for good” and the right things were kept in place so that one day everything can be renewed and a perfection more real than any we’ve ever seen can transform not just individuals but the whole world.
Worn Down and Vexed
The very particular land on which Yaaqov lay (28:13) was given to his Seed--singular as well as plural. (Yeshua’s throne will one day be right at that same spot, per Ezekiel’s description of the Temple that has yet to be built.)
Yet for all the amazing promises given to Yaaqov (28:13-15), thousands more have been given to us, his descendants, since then—so in a sense we are far more blessed than even he was.
Yet Yaaqov only vowed to return YHWH’s love if the promises were all kept. (28:20-22) He went on to the land of the “sons of antiquity”. (29:1) It was “the old country” for him—and for everyone, really, since it was the first region settled after the Flood. (11:2) But, much as Avraham and Yitzhaq did not want their sons to get wives from Canaan, it seems as if, once Yaaqov had what he considered his first son (the only one by the wife he actually asked for), he did not want him to grow up in the Paddan-Aram environment. (30:25-26) He tried to leave Lavan then, but was persuaded to stay to actually gain some possessions to sustain this huge family. But there was no more fruitfulness for him (only for his flocks) that whole additional six years he stayed on. It is almost as if, on some level, those years did not exist.
We see that concept elsewhere in Scripture. There is a discrepancy of 93 years between 1 Kings 6:1 and Acts 13:17-22 when David’s 40 years and the first 3 of Solomon are taken into account as well. But not to fear: discrepancies always turn up very special truths to those who search them out.
“During the period of Judges, Israel went through several cycles of following after false gods; being oppressed by foreign powers; calling out to [YHWH] who sent a deliverer. 5 of the periods were so bad, [YHWH] sold, or gave His people over to someone else. (Judges 3:8; 4:2-3; 6:1; 10:7-8; 13:1) These periods add up to 93 years . The missing 93 years can be reconciled by subtracting the years the Israelites ‘belonged’ to someone else because [YHWH] had sold them or given them to over another king or people. Apparently, [YHWH] only counted those years during which the nation was counted as solely His and ‘overlooked’ those years which could be counted as serving other than [YHWH] because of the actions He took.”
Our present story may not be as severe a case as that, but Yaaqov’s own soul seems to have been affected by remaining in that deceptive environment. He found himself getting competitive, needing to out-trick the trickster. It had to wear away at his spirit. YHWH was with him through it all and in spite of it all, even directly helping him outsmart his uncle’s wiles. But finally, after twenty years, he had had enough. And YHWH even endorsed—no, even commanded—his escape from those clutches. (31:3)
YHWH has left His redeemed in the realm of another trickster for twenty centuries, and the last straw seems to be when, again, the “fourth king”, through his blasphemy and harassment, “wears out the holy ones of El Elyon” (Dan. 7:25), much like when Lot’s “righteous soul” was “vexed” by the “lawless deeds” of those in S’dom. (2 Peter 2:8) We are definitely feeling this in a way that even two years ago we did not. We seem to be fast approaching what Scripture calls “the time of Yaaqov’s trouble”. (Yirmeyahu/ Jer. 30:7)
What? Wasn’t that what this Torah portion was about? You mean it isn’t over already?
It seems that Yaaqov’s own experience is a microcosm or foreshadowing of what will be the experience of his people as a whole—not just one tribe, as in the Holocaust, but all of us. But, just as we see when the suspense builds here, so it will be in the days to come: the rest of the verse in Yirmeyahu says “…but he will be saved/delivered out of it.” That is part of our “blessed hope”, and when anxious—or “vexed”—we can rest in YHWH, who will accomplish for us what He did for our ancestor.
Evening Up the Score?
(or,
Equity is not Equality)
At the “stairway to Heaven”, Yaaqov made a deal to give back a tithe of all that YHWH would give him. (Gen. 28:20-22) YHWH allowed him to defer payment, understanding that he had not yet had much experience of YHWH’s dealings, and respected his hesitancy to trust—especially considering how he had undermined his family’s own trust! But his voluntary gesture of wanting to give back is more than noble.
Lavan was the opposite; he wanted to squeeze out of people all that he could for his own benefit. Sure, he did not make Yaaqov work for him for free just because he was a relative (29:15), but he found many ways to take advantage of him. (30:26, 35-36; 31:38-41, etc.) He probably assumed Leah would marry someone else before the seven years were up, but since there were no offers, he made profitable use of “bait-and-switch”, and Yaaqov’s nascent daring to risk trusting was dealt a setback. (29:23-27)
Was this a consequence he had to endure because of what he had done to his brother and father? He did reap what he sowed, and it is fair to wonder if Rivqah did too, for her part in the ruse. I suspect a better way to fulfill YHWH’s forecast that “the elder [son] would serve the younger” (25:23) would have come, by which they might have avoided the payback that was now necessary to restore a cosmic balance of justice. Might the rest of Scripture provide hints as to what it could have been? Search, and you may find them.
Yaaqov “loved Rakhel more than Leah… YHWH saw that Leah was less-loved, so He opened her womb, while Rakhel was barren.” (29:30-31) YHWH balanced things out and had compassion on their emotional side, though He was not obligated to. It is often His way when the fault is not ours, and even when it is. Yeshua was born from Leah’s line (29:35), not Rakhel’s—a much greater privilege, had Leah known. Our tribal fathers’ names kept alive more reminders of the intra-familial “feud” than there should have been.
Rakhel wanted the honor of bearing children too—a good thing, but it became an obsession, to the point of thinking she would die if she was denied it. (30:1) Ironically (or was it built into the coveting?), bearing her second son—fulfilling Yosef’s name—would be the cause of her death. She might have given Yaaqov happier memories of his favorite wife, had she not focused only on the sole outcome of keeping up with a sister whom YHWH gave different gifts, and enjoyed the short life that was allotted to her. Instead she made her whole married life only a bitter rivalry with one she’d once loved.
She was not granted equality; that would have been a disservice. She had strong points; her sister had others. When we measure our worth by our ability to keep up with someone else’s accomplish-ments, we neglect our duty to bloom where YHWH has planted us and glorify Him by honing the calling that He did give us—and only us—and thus we impoverish not just ourselves but many others who depend on the gifts He has given us. YHWH, who knows all, has a right to even up the score, but we have neither right nor duty to try to ensure that we get the same treatment someone else gets--and is meant to get.
Obeying the ninth commandment (“Don’t covet”) precludes violation of many other commands. It is an invaluable gift that teaches that what YHWH has endowed us with is exactly what we need to fulfill the special role He created us for.
That doesn’t mean it’s wrong to enhance the means by which we can fulfill that calling even better (30:37ff), for there are many ways to do that without taking away from what He’s given others. It’s not a zero-sum world; more resources can be developed that don’t detract in the least from those already in circulation. That’s why it’s a sin to want exactly what someone else has (unless we fairly compensate him for it as Rakhel did when she wanted something of Leah’s for her own benefit—30:14-15), for YHWH’s resources are not exhaustible as ours are. Set your expectation on Him (31:42), not on visible means He may use, and you’ll achieve equity in a far more beautiful way.
A "ballad" about the remainder of this story set to a tune you will recognize can be found here!
Ephraim’s Two Biggest Problems
The haftarah (Hosea 12:12ff in English numbering) is very personal to us, being all about Ephraim after opening with a quick review of this Torah portion itself, probably because in it Yaaqov promised to give YHWH a tithe of all YHWH would give him. (Gen. 28:20-22) Part of what he was given is us, his descendants. We belong to Him because Yaaqov vowed us (and what we own) to Him.
Yet of Ephraim, Hosea (Hoshea) says, “When they were given pasture, they were satisfied; they ate their fill. That is why they have forgotten Me.” (13:6; v. 7 in Hebrew)
This week in the nation in which I live, we have a national day dedicated to thanking YHWH for His blessings. I don’t know how many other nations have such a thing, and it is a beautiful heritage for which I am grateful. It may hold echoes of the ancient Sukkoth, which existed, in part, to thank Him for the harvest each year. (Ex. 34:22) It does include this theme, especially at the time of year it finally became a regular fixture, but was more overtly instituted (repeatedly) by presidents grateful for the victorious end of just but deadly wars.
Nowadays, however, at the popular cultural and media level, even the commercial aspects this holiday once held are glossed over and people are already decorating for the more commercially-lucrative holiday that falls a whole month later. Even the dubious religious context the latter once held is no longer even acknowledged by many.
But why would it matter if secular culture forgot the connections with the sacred? Considering that there are around 14 million Jews in the world now after the Holocaust destroyed 1/3 of the tribe of Judah, plus many who have forgotten their identity, it would not be unreasonable to guess there are easily 250 million descendants of the Northern Kingdom’s 10 tribes alive today--probably a very low estimate. And Yair Davidiy, who has been writing for several decades about where the people of Ephraim (whom Hoshea addresses in particular) have ended up settling, believes that 50% of Ephraim is probably now in this American nation. That would be well over 1/3 of the U.S.’s 340 million, in addition to 7.5 million Jews. So at least this many people dare not forget Him.
Another of Ephraim’s problems that Hoshea dresses is idolatry. Now, apart from some Catholics and Orthodox, most of us don’t overtly bow down to images anymore. But there are other things we might worship—like bank accounts, a reputation (also called “image”), or our own plans—anything that comes before YHWH in our lives.
And even things YHWH initiates can become idols if we put them in too high a position. Remember what became of the bronze serpent He told Moshe to build so the people being bitten by fiery serpents could “look and live”? Hezekiah later had to destroy it (2 Kings 18:4), for, in Michael Card’s words, “In time the brazen serpent became an idol in the land, and they left the living God to worship clay…So some idolize a brazen cross today.” Especially a crucifix. Yeshua did liken himself to that bronze serpent. (Yochanan 3:14-15) So must we be careful not to idolize him?
Moshe put the focus right when he changed the name of Hoshea’s namesake (which means “salvation”) to Y’hoshua, Yeshua’s namesake (which means “YHWH is the One who saves”). The Hebrew word for worship simply means bowing prostrate before someone, and is constantly used in Scripture of righteous people bowing before those they revered, especially kings, and Yeshua is the king YHWH has set on his throne (Psalm 2:6), so to bow the knee to him does honor his Father. (Phil. 2:10-11) That type of worship is acceptable toward YHWH’s messenger.
We cross a line if we pray to him as if he were the Father (worship as we think of it today), rather than praying to the Father in his name, as he taught (Mat. 6:9), for though he is in the broader category of elohim (Yoch. 1:2)—above what we think of as ordinary humans today, though they are really subhuman--the same context says no one has ever seen YHWH. (1:18) But many people saw Yeshua, who prayed to YHWH just as we must (John 17, Luke 5, 9, 22, et al) and called Him “my Elohim and your Elohim” (Yoch. 20:17). The Renewed Covenant makes a clear distinction in the original. Yeshua is YHWH’s word (Yochanan 1) and His image (Col. 1:15)—the only image He has allowed for Himself since Adam lost the likeness of Elohim, for he was the image restored—a real normal human again.
But we too are meant to be changed into that image (2 Cor. 3:18) as members of his revived human race, for our calling is to be like him (1 Yochanan 3:2), but none of us will ever be YHWH. So don’t let this wonderful gift of YHWH be lost to abuse too.
Living in
Parallel Worlds
Some of the life lessons we learn from the Patriarchs YHWH even codified into law. The history of the mutual envy that turned Rakhel and Leah into rivals is undoubtedly why He later prohibited a man from marrying two sisters while they are both alive (Lev. 18:18). Pay attention to what else they learned the hard way, and spare yourself much grief.
They also got glimpses into a larger reality “behind the seen”. When the “reveal codes” button was pressed and Yaaqov saw what was really going on both in a heavenly dimension and later in time at the very place where he passed the night (Gen. 28:12-13), he was overcome with awe at this genuine realm that is more real than the seemingly-solid world we live in every day.
YHWH later met him with a direct reference to this encounter that no one else experienced or would know about, and it unmistakably proved He was the same One still guiding him 20 years later, with, so there was no question that, though unseen, He had also shared every experience he had between those overt visits, and kept His promises. (31:13) Soon after that, some of those messengers met him again, and he recognized how his own camp paralleled that of Elohim (32:1-2), and learned to bring his camp into step with His.
With the cornerstone he laid for the Temple that was to come nearly a thousand years later, Yaaqov also established “a resting-place for his head”. (Gen. 28:11) Yeshua is the head of Israel, who will indeed sit to rule at that spot. (Ezek. 44:3) A stairway was established from heaven toward earth, literally “with its head in the heavens”. (28:12) This not only sounds like the reality the Tower of Bavel attempted to counterfeit; Yeshua also describes these messengers of YHWH ascending and descending on himself—the “Ben Adam”, the second Adam. (Yochanan 1:51) Appropriately, in Jewish mysticism, the "body" of the reconstituted Adam (of which Messiah is the Head) is also called "the stairway". Whatever Led Zeppelin’s lady may buy, Yeshua built and became that stairway to heaven, and we can now “climb” it.
But doesn’t the haftarah to this very Torah portion say, “Besides Me you will not know an elohim, and without Me there is no savior”? (Hos. 13:4) It is not saying Yeshua is not a savior, as if none but YHWH can be called by that title, for Neh. 9:27 and Ovadyah 21 both speak of multiple saviors sent by Him, especially when, in tandem with Him, they reclaim His world for Him and establish His Kingdom. Rather, He is saying scattered Ephraim will not experience deliverance until YHWH Himself saves us—which He did through the instrumentality of Yeshua, His physical agent of deliverance. He did heal our apostasy by loving us so freely (Hos. 14:4) He didn’t even spare His own Son (Rom. 8:32).
When Yosef came on the scene, Yaaqov was ready to go back home. (Gen. 30:25) But he was delayed. Those who knew they were blessed only on account of him did not want to let him go. In fact, if he had left then, he would have had nothing to bequeath to his own household; THAT “house of Elohim” had to be built up much further, so the delay was actually a blessing. We have to learn to think that way when we have obstacles come up. Even the biggest delay—when most of Israel was scattered to the ends of the earth—was necessary to make a way for “all the families of the earth be grafted” into Yaaqov’s descendants (Gen. 28:14) who’d otherwise have been inaccessible to them.
At first it seems to say Yaaqov himself came up with the idea of how to outsmart the conniver (30:37-42), but when he recounts it to his wives, we find out it was actually YHWH Who showed him the plan. (31:10-12) Like Yeshua, he did what he saw the Father doing. (John 5:19, 30) He looked into the parallel realm and walked out here what he saw there. He drew from that “universe” and brought the same into this one. His will was done “on earth as… in heaven”.
His wives’ response? “Do we still have any share or inheritance in our father's household? Aren't we counted by him as if we were foreigners…?” (31:14-15) If current trends continue, every day we have less and less in common with the nations in which we’ve grown up, and more in common with the Land our Bridegroom came from. By choosing to return to Yeshua’s original heritage with him, we too can go back and meet his Father (“whom having not seen we love”—1 Kefa/Peter 1:8) in His own most “natural habitat” (31:18), where He is most at home, and thereby know Him the way He most wants to be known.
By thus joining Yaaqov’s camp, we can get in step with Elohim’s own camp and follow it back to our true inheritance—“where righteousness is at home” (2 Kefa/Peter 3:13).
