Vayetze 5785: Rolling Stones

Introduction

What’s your stone (impasse)?

Let me start by inviting you to reflect on what you think is the biggest obstacle in your life. Do you have in impasse? What obstruction is stopping you from going forward in a key aspect of your life? Keep that question in mind as we examine today’s portion, and think about what hurdles were too high for the characters to jump and how they got over them. Perhaps you can even find yourself in the story.

Overview: Genesis 28:10-32:2

Vayetze (from יצא): And he departed/went out, referring to Yaakov/Jacob departing from the Land

Jacob’s flight—Stairway to Heaven—covenant promises; stone pillar/ standing stone

Haran, Rachel, Laban

Trickery and two wives; 14 years

The childbearing contest [who will bring forth Messiah?]

Changing wages; poplar, almond, and plain tree branches at the water troughs to get speckled, spotted, and streaked sheep

On the run again, heading home to Canaan with 2 (4?) wives, 11 sons, at least one daughter, servants, flocks, goods and some gods (teraphim)

Laban’s pursuit, encounter with “the God of your father”

Face-off at Galed/Mitspah—another standing stone and a heap of stones to mark the covenant

Jacob’s angelic encounter: Machanayim (Two Camps: one human, one angelic)

Last Year: Reading the Narrative as Drama

The purpose of Genesis is to establish the foundation for God’s covenant with Israel, ultimately to save the world.

The patriarchal narratives can be taken as dramatic histories; they are dramas!

Key ingredients of any drama are: setting, characters, and plot

in which we have a series of climaxes and anticlimaxes.

Keyword: eh-ven אֶבֶן: stone

hence the Afrikaans name Eben

Rachel’s motive: “Follow the money!” Genesis 31:14–15 “Then Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, “Is there yet a portion for us, and an inheritance in the house of our father? Are we not regarded as foreigners by him, because he has sold us and completely consumed our money?”

A good exercise is to trace the story through Rachel’s eyes, or Leah’s. One can learn much from doing so, especially women. Think of Hagar, Hannah, Miriam, Batsheba and others.

Finally, what makes it this ancient story relevant for us today?

It’s all about relationships!

Initial Study

The Shape of the Narrative

“The writer of Genesis selected and molded the events of Jacob’s life to form a circular, three-part movement in which an opening appearance by God foreshadows each phase.” ESV Literary Study Bible

What were the encounters and phases?!

Gen 28: dream of a stairway to heaven, in which he was given the covenant of Abraham and Isaac, before leaving the Land

Gen 32: wrestling with God at the Jabbok River, where he was given the name Israel, before encountering Esau

Gen 35: another theophany, where his new name, Israel, and his inheritance of the covenant promises are reaffirmed

Russ Resnik: “After Jacob raises the stone as his pillar to God, he can depart from the Land in confidence; he leaves his parents’ tents to enter his own spiritual journey.” (Gateways to Torah)

The Orbit and Apogee of Jacob’s Journey

So, the TP begins with Jacob’s departure from the Land and divine encounter at Bethel, and ends with his return and an angelic encounter at Machanayim. Haran was the furthest point of his journey geographically, but what was the turning point of his story? When did his life turn around? One could argue that it was his wedding, when he married the wrong woman, or perhaps he and his wives’ decision to flee from their father, but I’m going to suggest it was his meeting Rachel for the first time, at the well. The agonizing events that followed are important parts of the plot, but the main point is that he found the woman he set out to acquire; that’s the climax of the drama.

Key Passage

Let’s read the passage and then take a look at some details:

Genesis 29:1–12 LEB

1 And Jacob continued his journey and went to the land of the Easterners. 2 And he looked, and behold, there was a well in the field, and behold, there were three flocks of sheep lying beside it, for out of that well the flocks were watered. And the stone on the mouth of the well was large. 3 And when all the flocks were gathered there, they rolled away the stone from the mouth of the well. And they watered the sheep and returned the stone upon the mouth of the well to its place. 4 And Jacob said to them, “My brothers, where are you from?” And they said, “We are from Haran.” 5 And he said to them, “Do you know Laban, son of Nahor?” And they said, “We know him.” 6 And he said to them, “Is he well?” And they said, “He is well. Now look, Rachel his daughter is coming with the sheep.” 7 And he said, “Look, it is still broad daylight; it is not the time for the livestock to be gathered. Give water to the sheep and go, pasture them.” 8 And they said, “We are not able, until all the flocks are gathered. Then the stone is rolled away from the mouth of the well, and we water the sheep.” 9 While he was speaking with them, Rachel came with the sheep which belonged to her father, for she was pasturing them. 10 And it happened that, when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother’s brother, Jacob drew near and rolled away the stone from the mouth of the well and watered the sheep of Laban, his mother’s brother. 11 And Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice and wept. 12 And Jacob told Rachel that he was the relative of her father, and that he was the son of Rebekah. And she ran and told her father.

Observations

Note the suspense, brought forward from the oral transmission of this story:

The Search for a Bride

And he looked [c.f. …, Rev visions]

And behold!

Q&A narrowing the focus to Laban then pointing to Rachel

Jacob’s attempt to get rid of the shepherds

The problem/obstacle: The stone in the way

The woman at the well

Repetition:

“the brother of his mother” x 2

“drew near” x2

Jacob the hero

Satisfaction and wonder: kiss, wail, and weep.

Anticlimax, yet with progression (v. 12)

Digging Deeper

Keywords and Climax

Genesis 29:11 LEB

11 And Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice and wept.

Is verse 11 not the climax of Jacob’s saga, the turning point of his life? His whole story pivots on his meeting with Rachel.

Middle Eastern expression is more demonstrative than our western custom.

JPS Torah Commentary: “The association between his watering of her flock and his show of affection is subtly expressed through the assonance of the two verbs va-yashk and va-yishak.” The verbs are spelled identically: וישק but vocalized differently:

Vayashk (וַיַּשְׁקְ) is from shakah (שׁקה): to water (a plant or animal).

Vayishak (וַיִּשַּׁק) is from nashak (נשׁק): to kiss

This is a kiss of greeting a relative as we might do today.

The vocalization assumes the Masoretes got it right when they added the vowel points and I wouldn’t presume to know better, but I ask you, Did Jacob kiss Rachel, or did he give her water? The scroll can be read both ways. Given that he is willing to water her flock, there’s no reason he wouldn’t give her water too.

And I wonder if the text isn’t hinting at something deeper. In this verse, Jacob appears to experience a great relief: He “lifted up his voice and wept!” It’s almost as though his own well was unstopped and a fountain sprang out from his soul, which had been blocked within him. All his adult life he’s been expecting to find a wife; now he’s traveled long and dangerous journey alone and, quite suddenly, there she appears and he knows it at once. To me, there is a parallel between his opening of the well and an opening of a fountain of life inside him, one that flows out to Rachel, thereby “watering” her at least in an emotional sense, if not spiritual.

Jacob was earlier described as “a peaceful man, staying in the tents.” Was he really so strong, even at 77 years old, that he could roll away a stone that normally took several young men to move? Or was something supernatural going on? Did he experience divine power in that moment to move that stone? I think so. When he received the revelation that Rachel was the bride he was looking for, he also received supernatural strength to lift the stone and water the flock.

And so, I believe this to be the turning point of Jacob’s journey and also of his whole life. This is the apogee of his orbit, even if his return to the Land is delayed.

Going back to the question: What is blocking you from going forward in life? What is the stone stopping up your well?

Now let’s look at another keyword,

nagash נגשׁ: to draw near

the initial letter nun drops off in some conjugations

Gen 27:22 Jacob drew near to Isaac for the blessing

Gen 44:18 Judah drew near to Joseph (hence the Torah portion, Vayigash)—the big test for Judah

JPS Torah Commentary: “The two verbs [nagash & nakash] are identical with those employed in 27:26–27 in the fateful scene that precipitated Jacob’s flight, which now ends with the encounter with Rachel. Their use here acts to draw the curtain on that phase in his life while simultaneously intimating that the next scene is retributive justice for his offence in the previous one, for Laban too will use the kiss as a greeting.”

Type Scenes: I’ve “scene” this before!

As we progress through Genesis, we can’t help noticing some repeating patterns. They aren’t identical but similar. For example:

“She is My Sister” Type Scene

Gen 12:13; Gen 20:2; Gen 26:7

Some scholars think this kind of repetition is the result of poor narration: the author got confused. Others would say it’s a result of the stories coming down through centuries of oral tradition, getting a bit mixed up on the way. Conservative scholars, on the other hand, say that the stories are simply conveying what actually happened; there really was this repetition in history. Only recently did I discover another way to understand the text: It’s using a literary device called a type scene.

Claude Debussy

Type scenes are formed when one recounts a similar story to one that came before. The scenes of the stories match to a such a degree that one thinks, “I’ve seen (scene!) this before.” But the plot unfolds differently in ways that make it all the more striking. Based on the first story, you think you know how the second will unfold but, the moment you recognize the scene and formulate an expectation, something different happens—something unexpected. It’s the similarities that make the contrasts stand out. Otherwise you might not have particularly noticed something that the author wanted to draw your attention to.

The Woman at the Well Type Scene

Servant & Rivkah: Genesis 24:16-20

Jacob meets Rachel, Genesis 29:10-11

Moses & Zipporah: Exodus 2:16-22

Yeshua and the Samarian woman at Jacob’s well: John 4:1-26

How does the type scene work in our key passage? Russ Resnik explains one way: “We might compare Jacob’s journey, which involves his quest for a bride, with Isaac’s quest for a bride. Isaac had already passed through testing at the Akedah (binding, in Gen. 22), and simply received the bride whom God provided. Jacob is untested; he still must suffer the consequences of his deception. God has been watching over him all along and will continue to do so. Only now in his poverty and need can Jacob begin to appreciate this truth.”

So much for type scenes. Now let’s look at...

Symbols and Symbolism

Stones

Resnik: “Two encounters; two stones. One stone becomes the pillar that marks the place of encounter with God, and the limits of our own resources. The other stone protects the well, the proven sources of spiritual life and the example of those who went before us. The journey requires both encounters, both departure and return.”

Stone - hard, immovable, heavy, unsympathetic—a motif characterizing Jacob’s life. He dreamed of a stairway to heaven as his head rested on a stone, so he made it a standing stone. He rolled away the stone from the mouth of the well for Rachel and her father’s flock.

Stones and Circumcision, Wells and ... Tombs

The shepherds could not water the flock until the stone was rolled away. It was an obstacle blocking access to life-giving water. It was not lifted; it was rolled (galal). The same term is used at Gilgal, which means “rolling.” Israel had crossed over into the Promised Land but not taken it yet; they could not, because there was, virtually, a stone blocking the way: their reproach/disgrace of Egypt. Hashem instructed Joshua to have the Israelite men circumcised because that was the sign of the covenant that he had made with Abraham; since the exodus from Egypt, while they wandered in the wilderness, they had suspended the practise of circumcision. But now they had crossed the Jordan River, they were ready to fight for the Land. Yet God wasn’t having any of it—not until the shame of their slavery in Egypt had been rolled away. One would expect him to say that their shame must be “cut off” to play off the word circumcise, but no.

Joshua 5:9 LEB

9 And Yahweh said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the disgrace of Egypt from you.” Therefore, the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day.

The stone is a symbol of obstruction. The foreskin is a symbol of impurity. The “foreskin of the heart” in Deuteronomy 10:16 symbolizes stubborn resistance to the instruction of God, unwillingness to undertake his mitzvot which follow, including treating the weak in society fairly, and even loving the alien—the foreigner—for you were aliens in the land of Egypt” (v. 19).

So whether it’s a stone blocking your well, or stubbornness in your heart, it must be removed for one to move forward in God’s agenda. Perhaps some past impurity is obstructing you in the present. Shame of the past may be blocking you from going forward to take hold of the blessings or promises of God. Each of us is like the shepherds, the men and Rachel: unable to roll away the stone. We need a Jacob—one sent by God—to roll away our iniquity and shame, and to open up the well and supply our need for spiritual water.

Jacob’s name was changed to Israel—one who wrestles with God. What for? For the blessing. Our Father in heaven has sent us his Son; he is able to roll away the stone and give us living water. He wrestled God to secure blessing for all who will join themselves to him in a spiritual union. He sends the Ruach Hakodesh who performs the spiritual surgery, cutting off the impurity of our hearts slaking our thirst with his presence.

Whether for the first time or the fiftieth time, let us come to Yeshua again and ask him to roll away our reproach, to excise impurity from our hearts, to fill us with his breath.

In the biblical narrative, stones didn’t only cover wells—the symbol of life; they also covered tombs, the abodes of the dead.

John 11:32-44; Mark 16:2-4

Matthew 28:2 LEB

2 And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came up and rolled away the stone and sat down on it.

John 20:1 LEB

1 Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw the stone had been taken away from the tomb.

Do you see how the stone was a seal over the tomb and how, when the stone was rolled away from the mouth of the tomb—the very symbol of death—it became the place from which a fountain of life sprang forth?!

Finding Yourself in the Story

I don’t know who is going to listen to this recording but I can assure you that there is only one person who can roll away the stone over our lives and release us into true, abundant life. There is only one person who will give us living water for our souls: Messiah Yeshua! Has he rolled away your stone?

If he has, have we shared the news like Rachel ran to tell her father?

And again, for those of us who have had that stone, that barrier to divine life, rolled away, don’t think that there are no more hurdles to jump. Life is full of stones that need a-rolling, but we know the one who can move them—or give us the strength to do so. I challenge you to think about the barriers you are facing and to talk to other believers about them. And let’s pray for Hashem to help us overcome them, to roll away the stones of our lives.