Jacob Part 8: The Brother's Separate

Parting of the Brothers

Let's take our third and final step into this first part of the Yaaqov story. 

You can feel the tension has built to a climactic point here. 

The double deception. 

Now Jacob appears to be walking away with the blessing, the deceptive plan that he and his mother worked. 

But it's a good example of the narrator doesn't step in and say, “dear reader, what Yaaqov just did to his dad and brother was bad in the eyes of the Lord.” The narrator just lets the fallout happen in front of you and you are left to ponder and evaluate for yourselves, what we should think about the behavior of these characters. 

This step happens in a few parts. Part one is we zoom in to Esau and what happens with his response. 

Genesis 27:41–45 CSB

41 Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. And Esau determined in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” 42 When the words of her older son Esau were reported to Rebekah, she summoned her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Listen, your brother Esau is consoling himself by planning to kill you. 43 So now, my son, listen to me. Flee at once to my brother Laban in Haran, 44 and stay with him for a few days until your brother’s anger subsides—45 until your brother’s rage turns away from you and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send for you and bring you back from there. Why should I lose you both in one day?”

This is in Genesis 27, verse 41. "And Esau became opposed to Yaaqov." That seems like a natural response to what just happened. Do you just wanna guess what Hebrew word is underneath that one, opposed?

Satan.

It's the Hebrew verb "satam," which is a little dialect variation of satan. But you look in all the dictionaries, and it's the word "satan" is underneath it. He becomes a satan to Jacob. Which means he becomes one who's hostile to.

"Why? Well, because of that blessing with which his father blessed him. And so Esau said in his heart, 'The days of mourning for my father draw near, and then I'm gonna murder Yaaqov, my brother.'"

the younger one has gotten the blessing and the favor. The one who's on the outside,. Nurses that into a grudge. I'm going to murder my brother. "Now, this was reported to Rivqah. That is the words of Esau, her son, the greater one." How does that work? Now she can overhear.  Esau and Yitskhaq talking in the tent, but "he said in his heart," isn't that interesting? A little narrative puzzle there.

"So she sent and she called for Jacob, her son, the smaller one, and said, 'Look, Esau, your brother, he is providing comfort.'" He's sitting there, trying to console himself, "and he is about to murder you. So my son, listen to my voice." Hmm, how'd listening to her go last time?

He got A blessing. her schemed worked why wouldn’t he listen to her again

"Listen to my voice. Get up. Flee, exile yourself." Send yourself into exile. Look at the inversion here. 

Think of Cain and Abel in the story. Cain's the angry one. He murders his brother. And then he's the one who's exiled. And this case, it's swapped, where you have still have the older who's angry and wants to murder the younger, but it's the younger who gets the favor. He's the one who gets exiled. It's a good twist.

"Flee for yourself to Laban my brother, to Haran, and you will dwell with him, well, you know, one set of days, just a few days."  "One set of days until the hot anger of your brother turns away. And when the hot anger of your brother turns away and he forgets what you've done to him, I'll send for you and take you from there. Why should I lose," be bereaved "of the two of you in one day?"

Rebekah is going to send her beloved son.

Is it gonna be for, you know, just a set of days? She's gonna lose him for 20 years. 

Does she ever send and take him from there? No.

In fact, this is the last time they're ever gonna see each other. She's gonna die before he ever comes back.

So does the curse in fact come upon her?

That interesting? Her words are so ominous, let the curse be on me. And she ends up never seeing her beloved son ever again as a result of her own behavior. 

So the consequence of the curse is that she loses her son.

I don't wanna lose my son. And yet that's in fact what she's setting in motion right here. Her plan to save her son will save his life, but it will not save their relationship 'cause she'll die before they ever see each other again.

why should I be bereaved of the two of you? What she's trying to avoid is one son killing the other. With I guess the assumption being that that would so estrange Esau from her that it would be like losing the two sons. 

But think through the loss of the firstborn or the loss of the beloved son, has anyone else ever risked the life of their beloved son? So it's hard not to think of the story of Avraham and Yitskhaq going up to Mount Moriah.

Yaaqov is gonna have to wave goodbye to his two beloved favorite sons, Joseph and Benjamin. And he actually, what he says is exactly this. You have bereaved me. He says to Reuben and to the other sons, you've bereaved me of my beloved sons. So this is a whole theme in Genesis about the giving up of the beloved son over to death.

In Yitskhaq's case, it's to get back that son alive 'cause of the substitute. But in this case, it's a true sad loss for Rivqah.

Jacob just got the blessing, but now he is exiled, which was the same as the non-blessing. And the blessing was you will be mighty, nations will be your servants. What's he about to go do for 20 years? Become Laban's servant.  In fact, what he says is, all I came was with the cloak on my back and a staff in my hand. 

Esau, Cain, and the Flood-Sending God

Somebody saying in their heart, I need to provide comfort or console myself about what has happened that's going to lead to an escalation or an intensifying of conflict. 

All of this language here is dipping into two key moments in Genesis 1 through 9. 

When Esau cries out a great cry. The last time you heard about anything out crying or making a great outcry, it was the innocent blood of Abel rising up. God says, your brother's blood is crying out against you. And it's come up to me. And that was right after Cain murdered his brother. 

It's all the exact same language here. Esau is about to murder his brother, and he's crying out because of his lost blessing. It's this weird inversion, but then this language of speaking in your heart and providing consolation for oneself, this is precisely what God does to himself before and after the flood.

Before the flood, what God notices is that every purpose of the human heart is raw. It's bad all the time. And Yahweh had to comfort himself of the fact that he even made these humans on the land. It's the same word, it's Noah's name as nakham.

And he was pained in his heart, and he says, I'm gonna send a flood. And so then what he says to Noah is, the end has come up before me. The word for "end" is spelled with three of the four letters of the word "outcry." So tse'aqah is outcry and haqqets is the word "the end." And then after Noah offers a sacrifice, Yahweh says in his heart, I'll never again curse humanity. 

So there's something happening here where Esau's anger and the outcry of the injustice done to him, the narrator wants to paint the portrait of Esau's anger as just anger. Like God's just anger at the outcry of bloodshed, at the murder of the brother. 

But do you see how it's all being recombined here in a portrait? 

So just tuck this away because the next time that we meet, this is the last thing we're gonna hear about Esau. And except for a little bit of his additional wives here, we're gonna wave goodbye to Esau for a long time. Jacob's 20 year exile, Esau's nowhere in the story. The moment he appears again, what we're gonna see is the story of Esau and Yaaqov's meeting is just riddled through with language of the flood story. And this is like the little hint of it here where Esau is painted as both Cain and as God.

Why would the author choose this language to paint Esau with the colors of how God felt about humanity's outcry and evil in the flood? 

I think is to, he's a complex character. So he is reacting in a way that's understandable, but we also sympathize with him too. 

Let's think through the melody. When you have a deception story, somebody set up for blessing. Isaac, right, Yitskhaq. And he inherits the blessing of his father. He plays the deceiver, that goes poorly, but eventually he reconciles with Abimelech and the nations come at peace. But then the blessed one's sons reduplicate, His treachery. 

And we just read through that whole long story. 

That deception leads to sibling rivalry, leads to an escalation and crisis of that rivalry until an outcry raises up. And then here you have Esau trying to console himself about what has done. So you see, we're walking through Genesis 1 through 9 here.

What is it that happens right after Genesis 1 through 9? Well, what you get is a replay of Noah, his failure in the tent, and then you get the division of his sons. And then one of the sons, the cursed non-chosen, has a descendant that goes and builds Babylon

Genesis 2, you got a garden, Eden. Genesis 3, a wife and a husband deceive each other. They are deceived and then deceive each other. And it all goes terribly wrong, leading to sibling rivalry, inappropriate taking of wives. The sons of Elohim, the outcry rises up to God, but he chooses to send his chosen one to safety in the refuge of the ark, Noakh. Noakh gets off the boat, and you get the journey of his descendants that go to the east. The descendants of Ham go to the east, and they build a city with a tower whose head is up in the skies. At least that's where they want it to be.

So look at where we've just gone in Genesis 26, you had the blessing on Yitskhaq. It ends with him worshiping with the nations in covenant of peace, by a tent at the altar, by the well of seven. Then a story of deception between husband and wife. And then that leads to sibling rivalry and the outcry. Are you guys tracking with me? We're just like tracking, tracking, tracking. So inappropriate taking of wives, Esau's wives, the plan reaches Yaaqov's mom, Yaaqov is sent away into the refuge of exile. 

And just try and guess what's gonna happen next. I wonder if there'll be a journey east, and I wonder if there will be an encounter with this really tall structure that unifies Heaven and Earth. I just wonder what's gonna happen next. 

This is on purpose. So we're walking through the sequence of Genesis 1 through 11 in order, and then what we're gonna see is the moment Yaaqov has this dream. It's we're going to, it's like a time inversion, and we're just gonna start the cycle all over again.

But it's another great example of how the rationale for why the stories are worded the way they are in the order that they are isn't always designed according to the same sensibilities we have about how you tell a story in a coherent way. But once you learn a different way that things can be coherent, the way these authors saw the world, then you can begin to see it. So this language about Esau might seem really random, but it actually is, we're walking through the melody of Genesis. And I think in the minds of the authors, they want you to learn the melodies so that you can begin to anticipate what will happen next. And so that then they can surprise you with ...

Taking the Wrong Wives

Genesis 27:46–28:9 CSB

46 So Rebekah said to Isaac, “I’m sick of my life because of these Hethite girls. If Jacob marries someone from around here, like these Hethite girls, what good is my life?” 1 So Isaac summoned Jacob, blessed him, and commanded him, “Do not marry a Canaanite girl. 2 Go at once to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel, your mother’s father. Marry one of the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. 3 May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you so that you become an assembly of peoples. 4 May God give you and your offspring the blessing of Abraham so that you may possess the land where you live as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.” 5 So Isaac sent Jacob to Paddan-aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau. 6 Esau noticed that Isaac blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram to get a wife there. When he blessed him, Isaac commanded Jacob, “Do not marry a Canaanite girl.” 7 And Jacob listened to his father and mother and went to Paddan-aram. 8 Esau realized that his father Isaac disapproved of the Canaanite women, 9 so Esau went to Ishmael and married, in addition to his other wives, Mahalath daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son. She was the sister of Nebaioth.

This is what happens after the plan to send Yaaqov away. This is from verse 46.

"Rivqah said to Yitskhaq" ...

So remember this is she's told Yaaqov, her son, her real plan. Now this is how she's gonna present her plan to her husband. 

And we already know they're not very good communicators with each other. They're not very honest with each other. 

"So Rivqah said to Yitskhaq, 'You know, I hate my life because of those Hittite daughters. You know, if Jacob took a wife from the daughters of the Hittites, like these, from the daughters of the land, oh, why should I even go on living?'

So Yitskhaq called to Yaaqov, and he blessed him," double blessing. "He commanded him saying, 'You will not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. Get up, go to Paddan-aram, you know, to the house of Bethuel, the father of your mother. 

Find for yourself there a wife from the daughters of Laban. You know, your uncle, the brother of your mother, and El Shadai, may he bless you, may he make you fruitful. May he bless you. May you become an assembly of peoples. May he give to you the blessing of Avraham. To you, to your seed after you, so that you can come back here and possess the land of your migrations, which Elohim has given to Avraham.' So Yitzhak sent Jacob away. He went to Paddan-aram, to Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramean, brother of Rivqah, mother of Yaaqov and Esau." So this is where Avraham came from, from the city of Haran.

Bethuel was, this is all like the house of Avraham's family that he left behind when he came. So the family's going back again to its place of origins and Yaaqov is going to himself undergo a whole new series of events that's gonna make him like another Abraham 2.0.

So that's where he goes.

"But Esau, he saw that Yitskhaq blessed Yaaqov, and he saw that he sent him to Paddan-aram to take for himself a wife there when he blessed him. And that he commanded him, saying, 'Don't take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.' And he saw that Yaaqov listened to his mom and his dad, and he went to Paddan-aram. And Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan were bad in the eyes of Yitskhaq, his father.

So Esau went to Yishmael and he took Mahalath, daughter of Yishmael, son of Avraham, sister of Nebaioth, in addition to his wives for himself as a wife."

So notice we have this, there's another blessing, and it's another blessing that sets the brothers at odds with each other. But this time, it's all about the future of the seed. So they want to make sure that the promised seed stays within the immediate family. So we're back to that theme again, that we began with a couple sections ago, in contrast to Esau, who is going to marry outside of the family line.

What Yitskhaq doesn't say is don't take a wife from the daughters of Canaan because you'll end up worshiping their gods. That's where this theme is gonna go, developing. And so it seems like that's what's assumed here, but it's not explicit on the surface. 

So here it's the splitting of the two lines. 

One gets the blessing and goes into exile, and Esau continues this habit of accumulating wives, which Yaaqov is also gonna do for a whole set of other reasons that we'll get to. But that's how the story of the two brothers ends for the moment.

Jacob’s Exile

Bibliography

https://bibleproject.com/classroom/jacob

Freedman, David Noel, Gary A. Herion, David F. Graf, John David Pleins, and Astrid B. Beck, eds. in The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary. New York: Doubleday, 1992.

Freedman, David Noel, Allen C. Myers, and Astrid B. Beck. in Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 2000.

Mathews, K. A. Genesis 11:27–50:26. Vol. 1B of The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2005.

Brannan, Rick, and Israel Loken. The Lexham Textual Notes on the Bible. Lexham Bible Reference Series. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014.

Barry, John D., Douglas Mangum, Derek R. Brown, Michael S. Heiser, Miles Custis, Elliot Ritzema, Matthew M. Whitehead, Michael R. Grigoni, and David Bomar. Faithlife Study Bible. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016.

Cotter, David W. Genesis. Edited by Jerome T. Walsh, Chris Franke, and David W. Cotter. Berit Olam Studies in Hebrew Narrative and Poetry. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2003.

https://hebrew4christians.com/Scripture/Parashah/Summaries/Vayetzei/Leah_s_Eyes/leah_s_eyes.html

https://biblepure.com/tender-eyed-meaning-in-the-bible/

https://www.logos.com/grow/tender-eyed-leah-meaning/