Jacob Part 23: The Death of Rachel and Isaac

The Death of Rachel and Isaac

The last section was a bright spot in a pretty dark tunnel up to that point. We go back into the land, the family purifies itself, Yaaqov introduces his whole family to the Elohim that has been with him all along. And they leave behind their pagan identities of old to embrace the thing that God has for them. New humanity, blessing. There's kings coming. 

In terms of the melody, we're restarting a Genesis 1 and 2 new humanity moment. And what we're going to look at is this middle unit here, chapter 35:16 to 29, which is going to be all about the future of the family. And the future of the family is gonna be marked by, hope, but also more death and more loss, which has marked the Yaaqov story pretty much as a whole. So we're looking at 35:16 to 29.

Genesis 35:16–29 CJB

16 Then they traveled on from Beit-El, and while there was still some distance to go before arriving in Efrat, Rachel went into labor, and she had great difficulty with it. 17 While she was undergoing this hard labor, the midwife said to her, “Don’t worry, this is also a son for you.” 18 But she died in childbirth. As she was dying she named her son Ben-Oni [son of my grief], but his father called him Binyamin [son of the right hand, son of the south]. 19 So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Efrat (that is, Beit-Lechem). 20 Ya‘akov set up a standing-stone on her grave; it is the standing-stone of Rachel’s grave to this day. 21 Isra’el continued his travels and pitched his tent on the other side of Migdal-‘Eder. 22 It was while Isra’el was living in that land that Re’uven went and slept with Bilhah his father’s concubine, and Isra’el heard about it. Ya‘akov had twelve sons. 23 The sons of Le’ah were Re’uven Ya‘akov’s firstborn, Shim‘on, Levi, Y’hudah, Yissakhar and Z’vulun. 24 The sons of Rachel were Yosef and Binyamin. 25 The sons of Bilhah Rachel’s slave-girl were Dan and Naftali. 26 And the sons of Zilpah Le’ah’s slave-girl were Gad and Asher. These were Ya‘akov’s sons, born to him in Paddan-Aram. 27 Ya‘akov came home to his father Yitz’chak at Mamre, near Kiryat-Arba (also known as Hevron), where Avraham and Yitz’chak had lived as foreigners. 28 Yitz’chak lived to be 180 years old. 29 Then he breathed his last, died and was gathered to his people, an old man full of years; and his sons ‘Esav and Ya‘akov buried him.

"And so they journeyed on from Bethel, and it happened while they were a stretch of land from the entrance of Ephrata."  

Ephrata is the name of a region and a town. It's also spelled with the same letters as the Hebrew word "fruit" or "fruitful."

"While they were a stretch of land from the entrance of fruitfulness, Rakhel began to give birth." Great, an Eden blessing.

"But she had difficulty in giving birth.

And it came about while she was having difficulty in giving birth, her midwife said to her, 'Don't be afraid. This one also is for you, a son.'" Remember what she prayed for long ago. Give me one more. I want another one. This is a son.

"But it came about, her life was going out." The word life is Eve's name.

So Eve was going out.

She was dying. So the contrast, the new life and death. It's all, both happening at once here.

"She was dying, and she called his name Ben-oni, Son of My Grief, but his father called him Ben-yamin, Son of My Right Hand." Most favored son.

"And Rakhel, she died.

And she was buried on the road to fruitfulness.

Today, in Israel, we call this Bethlehem. Beyt Lekhem.

And Yaaqov stood up a standing stone, an Eden stone, on her burial. And you can actually still go there today to the standing stone at the burial of Rakhel.

After that, Yisrael journeyed on, and he set up his tent beyond Tower of the Flock, Migdal 'eder.

And it came about when Yisrael was dwelling in that land, Reuven," who's Reuven?

The firstborn.

Firstborn,  So the last of the 12 sons was just born. And he appoints the last of his sons as the son of my right hand.

And the son of his who culturally would have the position of son of my right hand, that is Reuven, "he went and he laid with Bilhah, the concubine of his father, and Yisrael heard about it. Kind of just drops that one. lets come back to that

Now, the sons of Yaaqov were 12.

The sons of Leah, the firstborn of Yaaqov, was, just in case you forgot, Reuven. Then Shimon and Levi and Yehudah and Yisakar and Zebulun.

The sons of Rakhel, Yoseph, and Binyamin.

The sons of Bilhah, don't forget, Bilhah, she was the female slave of Rakhel, Dan and Naphtali. The sons of Zilpah, female slave of Leah, Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Yaaqov who were born to him in Paddan-aram.

So Yaaqov finally gets back to Yitskhaq, his father." It's been a long time.

"His father was at Mamre, Kiriath-arba, which means City of Four. Oh, today in Israel, we call this Hebron.

That's where Avraham and Yitskhaq had migrated. And the days of Yitskhaq were 180 years. Yitskhaq expired, and he died. He was gathered to his fathers, old and full of days, and they buried him, that is, Esau and Yaaqov, his sons."

Let's notice the design of the section that we just read. It begins with the story of birth that leads to death. And that story is about the birth of the last son.

Then we get a story about the first son and how he does something really terrible to Bilhah. We'll talk about the significance of that. But notice the first and the last born. So what happens with Rakhel and the birth and the death of Benjamin seems closely connected to what happens next with Reuben. And just in case you didn't remember the birth order and who belonged to who, you get this list of the descendants.

why is that there? It helps the reader know that, remember, Reuven was the firstborn, even though the last-born is being treated like the firstborn.

Also, it reminds you that Bilhah was the concubine. I mean, she's now a wife to Yaaqov, but she was associated with Rakhel. So you have a son of Leah doing something, maybe sexually abusing, but decently sex with the female servant of Rakhel, who just died. 

All the pieces are threading together. And then matching the loss of the beloved wife Rakhel, he returns back home only to have his father die. It's like however long the reunion lasted, narratively, he comes back (snaps) and then- It's like the return to the land is marked by the New Eden stuff of the last section, but it's also marked by all of this loss and death of the things that would matter most to him, his beloved wife and his father.

So it's a blessing, and now we're experiencing the effects of the curse outside of Eden.

A woman struggling in childbirth.

So there's very interesting echoes of Genesis 3.

Think what all these women have had to endure because of Yaaqov's power over them. And that, the cryptic line of Genesis 3:15.

Genesis 3:15 CSB

15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.

"I will put enmity between you, snake, and the woman, your seed and her seed. He, the seed of the woman, will bruise you, snake, on the head. You, snake, will strike him on the heel."

Genesis 3:16 CSB

16 He said to the woman: I will intensify your labor pains; you will bear children with painful effort. Your desire will be for your husband, yet he will rule over you.

And then when God addresses the woman, what he brings up is precisely the thing that ought to be a blessing. Fruitful and multiply. 

But the point to note here is this, what God says is often translated, "your pain in childbirth, in pain you will bring forth children." Almost all of the English translations translate this "childbearing," referring to labor, like labor and delivery.

The problem with that translation is that the Hebrew word used does not mean childbirth, nor does it mean labor pains. It's the Hebrew word "heron," which means conception.

And the pain, the word "pain" here is used exactly to describe what the man is going to face in the following line because it's the same word used to describe what the man does to get fruitfulness out of the ground. So in 'etsev, pain, pain's not a good translation. In hardship and grief, it's the mental and emotional grief.

In grief, you will eat from the ground because the ground is slowly going to kill you by wearing out your body over time and returning you to the dust.

And equally or parallel to that is the grief and hardship in the conception of children is how we'll mark the woman's fruitfulness. Does that make sense? So in other words, the getting fruitfulness out of the ground will be fraught with complexity and difficulty. Famines. Think through Genesis. Famines.

And think through for the woman. Infertility.

It's all about conception. How do we be fruitful and multiply? So you have famines and barrenness. We already saw that pair earlier in the story. But then you're going to have all of these debates over resources, who gets the land, fighting over land, fighting over water. And you're going to have all these men fighting or competing for access to women.

"Your conception will be fraught with grief and hardship." So it's not referring to child labor pains, it's referring to the fraught circumstances and difficult environments in which the man and the woman will struggle to conceive and bring forth fruitfulness. Does that make sense? 

And then think through, what is the whole book of Genesis? 

It's men and women fighting for fertility.  think what the whole Yaaqov story has been about. And the story of Rakhel and Leah, and so on. And so once again, what ought to be a cause for celebration is in fact marked by the ultimate grief and loss. It's the contradiction of life and death in one event.

And so Rakhel becomes like, she begins to live the situation of Genesis 3:16.

So that is interesting. And then that's followed by the moment Rakhel dies.

Reuven, he sees a moment.

He sees a moment.

So this was kind of puzzling to me for a long time. It's like, first of all, it's one verse to describe what Reuven does here. 

Yisrael heard about it.

And you're like, okay, all right. So has he heard about something and been silent before? Okay, got it. So think about this, you guys.

So in chapter 35, we're told that Yaaqov just pitched his tent by the Tower of the Flock, Migdal 'eder.

In chapter 33, he had just pitched his tent by the town of Shechem and set up an altar there.

Right after the Shechem story is the story of Shechem, the exalted one, of raping Jacobs daughter. And he's kept silent. He heard about it, but he kept silent. So also here, his firstborn son goes and rapes the female servant of his favored wife, who just died. And he hears of it, and then he does nothing.

So what's interesting, when we go to the end, Jacob's deathbed words in Genesis 49, his firstborn son is going to get a curse.

And why does he get a curse? Because of the thing that he just did.

Then right after that, Reuben's two brothers, Simeon and Levi, bring a curse down upon themselves for what they did.

So in other words, what Reuben is doing here, it's described with very, very few words. But the few words that are used all set them on analogy to what his brothers just did in the previous chapter, which was described at length. 

So the narrative hyperlinks are actually giving you all the information you need to evaluate Reuben's actions.

And you're gonna see that it all results in curse and loss of blessing by the end. And so the firstborn, the second-born, the third-born are all, get cursed instead of blessing for their behavior. And that leaves the fourth-born left to inherit the firstborn blessing, and that is Judah, the fourth-born. 

The Many Burials

So we bury the idols under a tree. And where did the idols come from? The house of Lavan. Then we bury Devorah under the tree. Where did she come from? From the house of Lavan. Then we bury Rakhel.

And then we bury Yitskhaq. So what's interesting, you just kind of ponder all of them. So Devorah's death reminds us of how Rivqah said, "Let your curse be upon me, my son." And she never sees or hears from her son again. And her death and her name are erased from the book of Genesis.

Rakhel dies. And both of those events remind us of a mother or a woman having a curse down on them. And these foreign, the foreign gods buried under the tree are the ones that she stole. 

when you start meditating on these four burials, they're all actually connected to each other.

And then the fact that he goes back to his dad, and then the moment he gets back to his dad, he dies. So it's just loss after loss after loss. It's like the sad fruition, at Ephrata, fruition of, is catching up with him. 

“Genesis also tells us about the death and burial of each patriarch’s favorite wife (Sarah, Gen. 23:1-20; Rachel, Gen. 35:19). The exception is Rebekah, apart from the summarizing statement in 49:31. Presumably she died and was buried before Jacob returned from Aram-naharaim, for there is no reference to Jacob being reunited with Rebekah. Rebekah is gone, though survived by her nurse, but only until Jacob arrives. He not only does not get to see his mother, but he is forced to become undertaker for his late mother’s nurse. Thus, one of Jacob's first experiences after coming back home is confronting death. By including the name Rebekah, the author helps his reader recall her character, she who instigated the deception of Isaac. Her punishment (implied at least) is that she will never get to see her son again.”

Hamilton, Victor P. (1995). The Book of Genesis, Chapters 18–50. Eerdmans. 378.

But at least this meditation on, you can think that the water has gone under the bridge and that, you know, it's like the Apostle Paul says, just your past failures, if you think that you can just leave it in the past, they just have a way of finding us out. And we, if we don't reckon with them now, we will almost certainly have to reckon with them later. And this chapter feels like, this is a heavy chapter.

Reuben’s Lust for Power

And you have a firstborn, Reuben, who sees the moment. It's a moment for a power play. Okay, sorry. This is one other thing, too. Can I think of stories when someone wants the position of the firstborn, and so they will sexually abuse whoever they need to to make it happen?

While Reuben’s motives are not stated, the reader is invited into a whole network of narrative patterns where illicit sex is a way of challenging one’s rival.

The sons of() Elohim Gen. 6:1-4

Ham “seeing the nakedness of his father” ()Gen. 9:18-23

Lot’s daughters having drunk sex with their father in the cave ()Gen. 19:30-38

Leah attempting to buy the conjugal rights of Yaaqov ()Gen. 30:14-16

Abner sleeping with Saul’s concubine ()2 Sam. 3:7-8

Absalom raping David’s concubines (and)2 Sam. 15:16  16:22

Adoniyah’s request to sleep with David’s concubine ()1 Kings 2:13-25

This isn't just like he was aroused some day. This is a power play. This is an attempt to take the position. He's attempting to take the position of the female slave and assuming power over her after Rachel's death. And there's no coincidence it's right after Rachel's death.

So here's the son of Leah trying to make a power play. So these are all power plays.

And that's precisely what kicks into gear here. And it's like, just in case you forgot who Reuven is and who Bilhah is, you get that little genealogy that's totally unnecessary. Like, there's no reason. You already know who everybody is from earlier in the story, but it like reminds you of all the dynamics in the family.

“This incident is directly linked to the foregoing because it is Rachel's demise that presents the occasion for Reuben’s act. By violating Bilhah, Reuben makes sure that she cannot supplant or even rival his mother's [Leah’s] position of chief wife now that Rachel is dead ... In this connection, it is interesting that Reuben had earlier been involved in the attempt to get his father to restore the conjugal rights of his mother (30:14–16). As a result of Reuben’s cohabitation with Bilhah, she would thereby acquire the tragic status of 'living widowhood ...' All this leads to the conclusion that Reuben’s bid to promote his mother’s rights is at the same time a calculated challenge to his father’s authority. His move is more political than lustful. The summary account in this verse hides an attempt to usurp the leadership of the Israelite tribes. Its failure is reflected in Jacob's rebuke of 49:3–4, in which he removes Reuben from hegemony over the tribes.”

Sarna, Nahum M. (2001). Genesis, The JPS Torah Commentary. JPS. 245.

So this is a good example of meditation literature. This odd little story is both compared to what his brothers did the chapter before, but then fits into this pattern going all the way back to the sons of Elohim. What the sons of Elohim did was an illegitimate use of their power as the rulers above, trying to usurp the power of the rulers below, the images. You have Ham pulling his move.  Lot's daughters with their dad, Leah with the mandrakes, and then this theme goes off in the book of Samuel and Kings as well.

Another sad story that tells the truth about what humans do. And what's interesting is it's linked back to one of the sad consequences of Genesis 3:16.

When human communities and when male and female have a different vision of what is good in their eyes, you have grief when it comes to the fruitfulness of the land. Who gets to control production in the land? And who gets to control the production of children? And these all of a sudden, this is all reduced to power dynamics, which is living outside of Eden.

Romans 8:20–23 CSB

20 For the creation was subjected to futility—not willingly, but because of him who subjected it—in the hope 21 that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage to decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now. 23 Not only that, but we ourselves who have the Spirit as the firstfruits—we also groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.

Redemption

Because in Paul's mind, our experience in the world looks like everything's dying. And what he would invite us to see is that death is in fact the step into the liberation. What he's gonna call "the freedom of the honor of the children of God."

Jacob and Esau Part Ways

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