Alastair's Adversaria

One of the most significant benefits of our study of exodus patterns in the book of Genesis to this point is that it frames the Exodus from Egypt as something other than an absolute and definitive datum of meaning, to which all else is rendered relative, but suggests that the Exodus from Egypt needs to be interpreted relative to previous and subsequent ‘exodus’ accounts, and as a variation of existing themes in the sacred history. In other words, although within the Old Testament the Exodus from Egypt is by far the greatest of all of the exoduses, exerting an immense force of typological gravity on all other exoduses in its textual and theological proximity, the ‘exodus pattern’ is something that has independent sources and existence of it and thus provides a more contingent and relative, and less absolute, meaning to each concrete ‘exodus’.

It would be possible to devote a few posts to studying the various exodus themes within the life of Joseph. It is in the story of Joseph that the great and most developed Exodus narrative of the Old Testament begins. However, I plan to cover the story of Joseph within a single post, hopefully giving some impression of the key exodus themes present in the narrative in the process.

Joseph’s Descent into Slavery

There are several motifs within the Joseph narrative that should be familiar to us. Joseph is sent away from his father’s house (37:13). Like in the case of Moses, Joseph is set apart from his brothers. Moses is set apart from his brothers by becoming the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, Joseph by being the particularly beloved son of his father. Like Moses, Joseph goes out to visit his brothers (cf. Exodus 2:11). The scene in which Jacob sends Joseph out to his brothers takes a form similar to those in which God commissions or sends a person from one place to another (Genesis 22:1; Exodus 3:4; 1 Samuel 3:4).

Joseph has an encounter on the way, with the man in Shechem (37:14-17). The encounter along the way parallels with Jacob’s encounter with YHWH on the way to Haran in Bethel. When Joseph meets his brothers, they play the part of violent shepherds, who throw him into an empty well in the wilderness (v.22). I have already drawn attention to the importance of wells, cisterns, and springs, and their connection to sheep and shepherds. In Exodus 2, for instance, we see Moses, fleeing from Egypt (in the passage which began with him going out to visit his brothers – v.11), encountering some violent shepherds at a well (vv.16-17).

The fact that the empty well is described as being ‘in the wilderness’ might also be worthy of notice. At this point, the wilderness – and especially the site of water in the wilderness – is associated with Hagar and Ishmael (Genesis 16:7; 21:14-21). Later on, Moses will be a shepherd in the wilderness for his Midianite father-in-law, Jethro (Exodus 3:1). Unsurprisingly given the connection, some Midianite and Ishmaelite traders turn up. Joseph is drawn out of the ‘dead’ well and sold for silver to the traders to take to Egypt along with their healing spices.

The traders sell Joseph to Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh’s guard, where YHWH is with him and causes everything that he does to prosper (39:2-6). The initial position reception is like the reception that Jacob received at the house of Laban. There is a sort of fall/attack of the serpent theme in the story of Potiphar’s wife, who see that Joseph is desirable and reaches out and catches him, revealing nakedness. Potiphar is like God in the Fall scene, coming to the scene after the sin, questioning, and judging the parties. The words of Potiphar’s wife are very similar in character to those of Adam: ‘The Hebrew servant whom you brought to us…’; ‘The woman whom You gave to be with me…’ Potiphar’s wife accuses Potiphar: Adam accuses God. Although Potiphar places Joseph in prison, his wrath is primarily aroused against his wife and her attempt at falsely accusing him and getting his house to rebel against him (cf. v.14). Potiphar is the captain of Pharaoh’s guard, so presumably he is in charge of the royal prison, giving him the opportunity to mitigate Joseph’s punishment. Like the Fall, the situation leads to expulsion.

The theme of an attack upon the beautiful seed ties in with a dimension of the exodus patterns that we have already witnessed. Most of the earlier attacks focused on the woman, although in the story of Rebekah and Jacob we see the threat gradually refocusing upon the seed. We already know from the beginning of chapter 37 that Joseph is set apart for rule and leadership of the covenant people. Unsurprisingly, he comes under attack, first from his brothers, and then in Egypt.

Like Jacob and the other patriarchs before him, even when taken captive, reduced in status, or oppressed, Joseph still prospers, being put over all under the keeper of the prison. While the seed is being held captive, prophetic dreams are received, first from the chief butler and baker (Joseph later becomes the ‘cupbearer’ – chapter 44 – and the bread-giver of Egypt – 41:56-57), and then later by Pharaoh himself.

Joseph’s Exodus and the ‘Plague’

As Joseph is brought before Pharaoh to interpret his dreams we see the captive in Pharaoh’s house being released (remember that Joseph is in the royal prison with other members of the royal household who have fallen into ill-favour). Being in Pharaoh’s house should be related to the state of Sarai in Genesis 12:15, or the beautiful child Moses as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, for instance.

The dreams of Pharaoh should be related back to the dream received by Abimelech in 20:3-7. Perhaps we are to relate this to the fact that the seed of the woman has been attacked, by the people of God and by the Gentiles, and see that the whole world will face a famine as a result. The famine is thus a sort of ‘plague’ faced by Egypt and the wider world (cf. 41:57): it is something that God is about to do, a fact that is stressed (41:25, 28, 32). Just as Abimelech is told to ask the prophet Abraham to pray for him to relieve the plague on his house (20:7), gives great gifts to Abraham (vv.14-16), and seeks to be blessed through blessing and allying himself with Abraham (21:22-24), so Pharaoh seeks the counsel of the prophetic dream-interpreter Joseph, gives him great gifts, and establishes a close relationship with him.

Throughout this passage we see the supremacy of YHWH over the gods of the Egyptians being demonstrated. YHWH can destroy the life-giving power of the Nile and the Sun, and Pharaoh must recognize the authority and power of this Most High God over all of the gods of his people. It is a judgment upon mankind, but also a judgment upon Egypt’s gods.

A reference to a certain divine judgment with an advance warning should remind us of the exodus of Lot, but far more importantly, of the exodus of the Flood, where a forewarned righteous man prepares the way for the people of God to pass through a worldwide judgment. Through Joseph, YHWH is preparing Egypt as an ark for Israel. However, this ark will also include the Gentile nation of Egypt. This is also the reversal of the Babel project, a human attempt to render themselves immune to divine judgment, where Shemites worked under the guidance of a Hamite (Nimrod).

We have already seen the development within various exodus stories towards the increasing spread of the influence of the Abraham’s seed in fulfilment of the promise made to him that all of the nations of the earth would be blessed through him (12:1-3) and the blessing on Jacob, declaring that nations would bow down to him (27:29). In the story of Joseph, this theme reaches a climax. Joseph exercises rule over the greatest empire of his day, showing wisdom and divine blessing (we will probably show the relationship between Joseph and Daniel in a later post).

Two Stages

The story of Joseph began with Joseph going to his brothers: now his brothers come to him. Joseph puts his brothers into the same sort of position in which they sinned earlier, to ascertain whether they have repented. He also gives them an experience like his own. They are thrown into prison (42:16-17), before all except Simeon being returned to bring Benjamin back with them. Their money is returned in their sacks. Returning home without a brother, but with unexplained silver in their possession was a situation that would be painfully familiar to both the brothers and their father, who clearly suspected them of orchestrating Joseph’s apparent death (v.36).

The brothers must later return to Egypt, as the famine grows more severe. They are sent with gifts, including the same three items that the Ishmaelite traders were bringing to Egypt with Joseph (43:11; cf. 37:25). Benjamin accompanies them this time. Like Joseph, they don’t have much choice in the matter. Their experience is being conformed to that of Joseph’s.

After being entertained by Joseph as his subordinates and guests and Simeon being returned to them, they are sent back, but Joseph places the money for the grain in each man’s sack, and his silver cup in Benjamin’s sack. Silver, grain/bread, and wine are recurring themes in the Joseph narrative, much as clothing is. Joseph was sold for silver to Egypt and so giving them silver that is not rightfully theirs from Egypt is a very significant act. The bread and wine are associated with the baker and cupbearer, but also now with the silver for the grain and the silver cup. As already observed, Joseph has become the bread-giver and cupbearer of Egypt.

The wrongfully taken cup represents Joseph. The brothers are told that the person with whom the cup is found must become Joseph’s slave (44:9-10): the scene is set up for them to make Benjamin another Joseph. However, like Jacob, they tear their clothes (44:13; cf. 37:34) and offer themselves all as slaves (44:16), all accepting the destiny of Joseph, rather than abandoning Benjamin to face it alone. When Joseph insists that only the guilty party shall remain, Judah (who is compared and contrasted with Joseph throughout the narrative, forming a pair akin to Abram-Lot, Ishmael-Isaac, Esau-Jacob) intercedes for Benjamin, offering himself in his stead. It is worth recognizing that the brothers did not necessarily know that Benjamin was innocent. For all they knew, Benjamin was another upstart younger brother who wanted to practice divination and have dreams and that he stole the cup of divination for that reason. It is at this point that Joseph reveals himself to his brothers.

Within this story we see two ‘visitations’, a theme that Stephen explores in his address to the council in Acts 7. The first time Joseph is rejected and sold into slavery. At the second visitation, he delivers good news to them and they are brought into Egypt. The same pattern occurs in Moses’ life. His first ‘visitation’, when he goes out to see his brothers in Genesis 2 is rejected. He later returns for a second visitation after forty years in Midian to deliver them.

There is also a two stage ‘exodus’ experience. The destiny-bearer of the covenant – in this case Joseph, and later Moses – undergoes the exodus before anyone else. Through the destiny-bearer’s exodus, all others will be saved, as their experience is conformed to his and they are united to him. We see the same pattern in the New Testament: Christ’s exodus precedes ours and we are saved as we are conformed and united to him. Joseph, Moses, and Jesus are the ones who set the pattern for everyone else to follow.

A further thing to observe here is that the kingdom comes first to the Gentiles and only after the Gentiles are saved that the brothers repent. Once the brothers repent, the blessing flows out further. Tim Gallant has suggested a possible connection between this theme and Paul’s argument in Romans 11: the bearer of the Jewish covenant destiny is rejected by his people, bringing the riches of the covenant to the Gentiles. The Jews are then made jealous of those riches and repent, entering into them too, leading to greater blessing for all.

Exodus INTO Egypt

Peter Leithart makes some incredibly helpful remarks concerning the parallels between the entry into Egypt and the land of Goshen and the later Exodus. My comments below follow his closely. Both in Canaan in Joseph’s day and in Egypt in Moses’, Israel faces a threat that means that they need to leave the land. The land of Goshen is, like Canaan, described as a rich and beautiful land, the very best of the land of Egypt (Genesis 45:18; 47:11). As already observed, Joseph is like Moses (recall the parallels between the stories of their visitations and rejections by their brothers, encounters at wells, etc.), both princes of Egypt, who lead the Israelites in and out of the land.

During Joseph’s rule he establishes a feudal state, bringing the entire people of Egypt under his and Pharaoh’s direct rule. He ransoms their lives. All of Egypt become the slaves of Pharaoh. We will see a similar thing in the Exodus: the Israelites were claimed by God as his servants and liberated from slavery to Pharaoh in such a manner. This isn’t a negative development, but one that saves people from death and brings them under the godly, prudent, and provident rule of a wise and blessed leader, under incredibly generous terms of service (47:24-26). This theme of releasing dependent people through a benevolent slavery/servanthood is one that we have already observed and will return to again in time.

As Leithart observes, there is a numbering of the people when they first leave Egypt (in the book of Numbers), and a numbering when they leave Canaan in Genesis 46:8-27. There is a blessing of them as they enter Goshen in Genesis 47 and a parallel blessing of the children of Israel just before they enter Canaan (Deuteronomy 33).

The experience of the Exodus is also bookended. Israel is welcomed into Egypt with chariots and wagons of gifts (Genesis 45:21-23) and they leave with gifted plunder (Exodus 12:35-36). They are welcomed in with chariots, and they are driven out with chariots (for more on the symbolism of chariots, see this post).

All of this presents us with an exodus into Egypt, before there is ever an Exodus out. Egypt was a place where Israel would grow and mature, waiting for the time when, through great birth pangs, it would be born as a great nation. It was the site of rescue from the worldwide judgment, the ark within which Israel would be protected and prepared for new creation.

Promise of Exodus

Just as we saw Joseph as the pioneer of the entry into Egypt, so we can see Jacob as the one who is the beacon sent on ahead into Canaan. As James Jordan has observed, Jacob’s burial involves a ‘going up’ (50:5, 6, 7, 9, 14): it is an exodus and an ascension. Jacob is buried in the ‘firstfruits’ of the land of Canaan, the field and the cave purchased from the sons of Heth in Genesis 23 (49:29-32; 50:5). Israel’s burial is thus the firstfruits of the later exodus of his children.

Joseph’s burial, on the other hand, is different. Joseph was put in a coffin (50:26) and made the children of Israel swear to carry up his bones from Egypt when God visited them (v.25). In this respect, Jacob is like Christ, who is the firstfruits of the resurrection, while Joseph like the Spirit, the one who tarries with us, guaranteeing that we will follow.

Summary

In the story of Joseph we see the pattern of exodus recurring again, even as the great Exodus cycle of the Old Testament begins. Joseph’s exodus precedes that of his family, and is an exodus into which they are included. It represents the culmination of many themes that have been operative in previous exoduses in the book of Genesis. It involves themes such as plagues, humiliation of foreign deities and proof of YHWH’s supremacy, and release from death through becoming a servant. In Joseph’s exodus the Gentiles are blessed and through their blessing the people of God are saved.

It is an exodus into Egypt, and entry into a rich and fertile land, away from a realm of famine and death. Finally, it is accompanied by both an anticipation and a certain promise of the great Exodus to come.

Laban Overtakes Jacob

Our previous study took us up to the point of Jacob’s flight from Laban. Jacob has secretly taken his family, livestock, and possessions and fled across the river, towards the mountain, all unbeknownst to Laban, who was in the middle of the sheep-shearing. Within this post we will conclude our study of this exodus pattern in Jacob’s life.

On the third day, Laban is informed that Jacob has fled (31:22). He then probably has to return to his home and spend a few days gathering a group to pursue Jacob. By this stage, even though Jacob had young children and flocks with him, he had quite a head start on Laban. It took Laban seven days to catch up with Jacob, which he finally did in Mount Gilead. The third and the seventh days already have significance in Genesis, a significance that will develop as we move through Scripture. While there are presumably several days intervening between Laban’s reception of the news and the beginning of his pursuit of Jacob, the fact that these numbers are given to us is most likely not accidental. Three days’ journey into the wilderness for worship is mentioned at various points in the Exodus narrative as the initial request made by Moses to Pharaoh (Exodus 3:18; 5:3; 8:27).

The seventh day is also given importance within the Exodus, as the day of Sabbath and judgment (Exodus 16:23-30; 20:8-11). This significance can also be seen in the book of Genesis (2:1-3; 7:4). The seventh day is the day of judgment and Laban’s overtaking of Jacob on the seventh day sets things up for a judgment scene.

God had appeared to Laban in a dream, warning him to speak to Jacob neither good nor bad (v.24). While Laban was free to engage in conversation with Jacob, he was not permitted to cast judgment or carry out any sentence upon him. God coming to the wicked ruler in a dream, warning against judgment upon the righteous is a theme that one finds on some occasions in exodus patterns. For instance, God appears to Abimelech in 20:3-7, warning him about his actions. In Matthew 27:19, Pilate’s wife also has a dream in which she is warned about the danger of Pilate judging Christ.

Laban, true to type, accuses Jacob of wrongly treating him, suggesting that Jacob has treated his daughters ‘like captives taken with the sword’ (v.26). He claims that he would have sent Jacob away with ‘joy and songs, with timbrel and harp’ (v.27). Of course, we shouldn’t believe any of this for a moment. All of Laban’s treatment of Jacob to this point argues against the truthfulness of these words. As we observed in a previous study, the unrighteous ruler’s accusation of the righteous is a consistent theme in exodus narratives: the unrighteous ruler always casts himself as the innocent party, unfairly treated by the righteous. We shouldn’t give credence to such claims for a moment. Jacob was quite justified in fearing that, if he had revealed that he planned to depart, Laban would have taken his daughters from him by force (v.31)

Laban’s Household Gods

Laban accuses Jacob of having taken his household gods. Jacob was unaware of the fact that Rachel had stolen the gods (vv.19, 32). There is a contrast set up in the passage between the God of Jacob’s father (cf. vv.5, 29, 42) and the gods of Rachel and Leah’s father. The God of Jacob’s father proves his power throughout, protecting Jacob from Laban’s injustice and seeing his oppression, appearing both to Jacob and to Laban in dreams. In stark contrast, the gods of Rachel and Leah’s father are powerless captives and require a rescue party to come after them. The God of Jacob’s father takes away the possessions of Laban and gives them to Jacob (v.9); the gods of Rachel and Leah’s father are stolen away themselves.

Laban searches all of the tents. Whether there is any significance to the order in which he searches the tents, I am unsure. The fact that we are given such inessential detail suggests that there may be. Perhaps it relates to the order in which the wives bore children in chapter 30. The account might also follow the oldest to the youngest pattern of the strikingly similar story of 44:9-13.

There are a number of things taking place in this narrative. The parallels with chapter 27, where the younger child deceives the father who had unjustly favoured their older sibling over them (Laban giving Jacob Leah on the night of his marriage rather than Rachel, whom he had chosen) are clearly present. Laban ‘feels’ about in the tent (v.34), just as Isaac ‘felt’ Jacob (27:21-22). The description of Laban’s actions in terms of ‘feeling’ might suggest a recurrence of the darkness/blindness motif. He had used the darkness of the wedding night to cheat Jacob and Rachel out of their rightful marriage. Now Laban receives poetic justice at Rachel’s hand, as he gropes in vain for his idols. The woman the tyrant had tricked now tricks him. As we have seen, the deception of tyrants is a key exodus motif, and also, as this deception typically occurs through the actions of a woman (e.g. the Hebrew midwives and Pharaoh, Rahab and the men of Jericho, Jael and Sisera, Michal and Saul, Esther and Haman), a reversal of the Fall. The father who is deceived by the daughters that he treated shamefully recalls the story of Lot.

Rachel is sitting on the household idols, which are hidden in the camel’s saddle. She requests her father’s pardon for not rising before him, as she was having her period. Later on in Leviticus 15:20 we are told that, under the purity regulations, anything a menstruating woman sat upon during her period was unclean. Whether or not such a law or custom was seen to be in effect at the time of Genesis 31 is unclear, but most readers would be expected to make the connection. By sitting upon the household gods during her period, Rachel was humiliating them.

The humiliation of false gods is, once again, something closely related to the Exodus. The Exodus was a judgment upon the false gods and idols of the Egyptians (Exodus 12:12; 18:11; Numbers 33:4). YHWH judges and humiliates the gods of Laban like the gods of Pharaoh, taking them captive (cf. Jeremiah 43:12) and rendering them unclean. This action of Rachel’s also relates to the later spoiling of the Egyptians.

Jacob responds to all of Laban’s accusations in verses 36-42, rebuking him for his actions and his ill-treatment of Jacob over the years of his service. He emphasizes his faithfulness and honesty in his service of Laban and brings his actions forward as witnesses to his fair dealing with his unjust father-in-law. Despite his fair treatment of Laban, he points out that throughout Laban acted unfaithfully towards him

David Daube suggests the possibility of a relationship between the six year period of Jacob’s service following the fourteen years of service for Rachel and Leah and the law of Deuteronomy 15:12-18. The Hebrew man who served a master for six years should be allowed to go free in the seventh and should be given gifts liberally. Laban, as a wicked master to Jacob, however, would have sent him away empty-handed (v.42). As the release of slaves is an absolutely central theme of the Exodus (about which I will have much more to say in future posts), the presence of the theme in this context is noteworthy.

The Covenant between Laban and Jacob

Despite Jacob’s spirited defence of his actions, Laban continues to accuse him of being a thief and a false dealer. He suggests a covenant with Jacob. Jacob erects a stone as a pillar, much as he had done in Bethel (v.45; cf. 28:18) and then gathered stones with his men to form a heap, upon which they ate a covenant meal. This heap and pillar were signs of divine witnessing of the covenant between Jacob and Laban, assuring Laban that, among other things, Jacob wouldn’t take a wife besides his daughters.

The divine arbitration between two parties in a dispute is a theme that this passages shares in common with the later Exodus, where the pillar of fire and cloud stands between the children of Israel and the Egyptians and judgment is made between the two parties in the crossing of the Red Sea.

The witnessing pillar and heap also form a boundary between two realms. As we shall see, within these narratives we see the delineation of territories through narrative itineraries and representative characters. Crossings, boundary markers, covenant locations, sites of altars, locations of significant occurrences: all of these possess a significance exceeding the events of the particular narratives in which they appear. They are the ways in which YHWH first inscribes Israel’s identity onto the land, marrying people with place, providing Israel with the geographical and symbolic coordinates of its national existence. We will return to this theme presently.

They swear an oath by the God of their fathers, calling him to judge between them. Laban swears by the God of Abraham, Nahor, and Terah. What conception Laban had of this God was unclear. Perhaps he regarded him as a sort of tribal deity, rather than the God of the whole earth. After a sacrifice and a shared meal, Laban stayed the night with Jacob and his people on the mountain, departing in the morning after kissing and blessing his daughters and grandchildren.

Preparing to Meet with Esau

Jacob goes on his way and encounters the angels of God. Together with the encounter with the angels at Bethel, this account serves as a bookend of Jacob’s dealings with Laban in Haran. Jacob sends messengers ahead of himself to Esau, explaining where he has been, and seeking his favour. The messengers return to Jacob declaring that Esau is coming to meet him, with four hundred armed men. This action of Esau’s anticipates Edom’s refusal to grant Israel passage through their land during the Exodus in Numbers 20:14-21, and their coming out to attack Israel. Jacob divides his people and flocks and herds into two companies (v.7), hoping that at least some will be able to be saved if Esau attacks.

Jacob then begins wrestling with God in prayer that night. He identifies God as the God of his fathers, as YHWH who told him to return to his country and kindred and assured him of his protection and help (v.9). He recalls the many ways in which God had blessed him up until that point and prays for protection from the hand of Esau, once again reminding God of the promise that he had made that Jacob would have descendants as numerous as the sand of the sea (v.12).

Jacob then prepares a huge series of gifts for Esau his brother, dividing them into a number of droves, which he sent on ahead of himself to Esau, in hopes that this would appease him. We encounter a similar story to this in 1 Samuel 25, where an Esau-like David prepares to attack the foolish Nabal with four hundred men, but his ungodly lust for vengeance is appeased by the shrewd Abigail and her lavish gifts. After having sent on the gifts, Jacob lodges in the camp that night.

That night Jacob crosses over the ford of the Jabbok that night with his wives, maidservants, and his eleven sons. The Jabbok is an important location in a number of respects (the word may be a play on the verb for wrestling, and perhaps also even a confusion of Jacob’s name). The Jabbok is a tributary of the Jordan (v.10). To cross the Jabbok is to cross the Jordan and symbolically to re-enter the land. It serves as the symbolic threshold of the Promised Land (although most of its course lay within Israel), a boundary between Ammon and Israel (Numbers 21:24; Deuteronomy 2:37) and between Gad and Manasseh (Deuteronomy 3:16). As such, this water crossing was similar to the crossing of the Jordan under Joshua (note the occurrence of two water crossings in Jacob’s exodus – cf. 31:21, much as Israel crossed both the Red Sea and the Jordan).

Wrestling with God

Jacob is then left alone and a man wrestles with him until the breaking of day (v.24). Finally, not prevailing against Jacob, the man touches the socket of Jacob’s hip and puts it out of joint. Jacob refuses to let the man go until he blesses him, even as the day is breaking. The man asks Jacob’s name, but then gives him a new name, Israel (‘God contends’), because Jacob has struggled with God and men and prevailed. Jacob asks the man’s name, but the man doesn’t give it (v.29; cf. Judges 13:17-18), although he blesses him. Jacob names the place Peniel, because he saw God face to face, but his life was preserved. The sun then rises upon him and he limps on his hip (v.31). The passage then goes on to explain that the children of Israel don’t eat a particular part of the sacrifice on account of this.

There are several things to notice here. We should pick up on all of the references to passing over in the context. The crossing of the Jabbok is a Passover event, happening in the climate of threat and trust. It is an event that occurs at night. The frequent references to events occurring during the night in the passage and the heightened anticipation of the coming of the dawn during the wrestling scene should remind us of the account of the Red Sea crossing, where there the previous events are dominated by the night and the dawn brings the deliverance and the new state (Exodus 14:20-21, 24, 27).

The coming of the dawn also marks the end of the symbolic darkness period that began in 28:11. Jacob entered the darkness at Bethel and was brought back up as a new man, the victor limping into the sunset. The intervening period is a deep sleep period of dreams and events of the night, of marital relations, of groping and blindness, of stealing and slipping away, of the fears and shadows of the night, and of wrestling in the dark. This period is very similar to that of the Exodus.

Like the Exodus and its connection with the Passover sacrifice and also the Aqedah, there are sacrificial themes at work here. Jacob is divided in two (v.7) and stripped of his glory as he is left alone. The reference to the sacrifices in verse 32 suggests that, since God had touched that part of Jacob’s anatomy, it was now considered holy. Jacob’s wound was most likely near the genitals, possibly connecting it with circumcision (see Joshua 5, where after the crossing of the Jordan, there is circumcision, a celebration of the Passover, and an encounter with the Angel of YHWH). The attention drawn to the sacrifices in this context suggests that we are to see Jacob himself as a sacrifice. This whole period with Laban has been one of preparing Jacob, who gives up a lot of his possessions and his physical capacity in this passage, but is transformed through the process.

The reference to wrestling with God is important. Jacob’s entire life has been characterized by wrestling with God and man, with Esau, Isaac, and Laban. By connecting Jacob’s wrestling with these figures with Jacob’s wrestling with God, Jacob learns that all of the time God has been wrestling with him through these persons. Wrestling with the unknown person in the dark, Jacob may have wondered whether it was Laban or Esau, but it turned out to be God. Later on he will make the significant statement that seeing Esau’s face is like seeing the ‘face of God’ (33:10; cf. 32:30 – ‘Peniel’). Perhaps this is a reference to the fact that Jacob now recognized that it had been God wrestling with him all of the time. While Abraham was marked out by patience, Jacob was a man marked out by patience and wrestling, a man who struggled with God and man to receive that which was promised.

The water crossing and the movement from darkness to light represent key transitions in the state of affairs and in the identity of the actors. The land of Israel possessed a symbolic geography, its boundaries marking out transitions and the nature of Israel’s religious identity. The Euphrates was the boundary between former idolatry in Ur and Abram and his faith. The Jabbok/Jordan was the point where Israel’s identity was first forged and given and later the place where the wilderness wanderings ended and the conquest began. The Red Sea was the boundary between slavery and freedom. Each of these boundary markers represented existential moments and movements in the life of the nation. This is another exodus theme.

Peace with Esau

After wrestling with God, Jacob’s eyes are opened to the fact that God has been dealing with him throughout, that all of the things that had befallen him had been used by God as means of preparing him as a champion and a sacrifice. We see a similar realization in the story of Joseph (45:7-8). The Angel on the banks of the Jabbok is like the ‘boss’ at the end of the game. Having wrestled with the Angel and prevailed, Jacob’s life as a wrestler largely comes to an end. He is given a new name as a mark of his success.

The way that Esau greets Jacob should be related to the wrestling of the previous chapter, both the wrestling in prayer and the wrestling with the Angel. Once this great transition has been made, Esau meets him in peace, as God will no longer wrestle with Jacob through him. This sort of wrestling with relentless opposition and radical dispossession, followed by the revelation that God was behind things throughout and the doubling of former blessings and the enjoyment of peace is essentially the story of the book of Job. Just as Job is full of sacrificial themes, as Job is prepared for a greater status through his sufferings, so Jacob returns from his exodus a very different man from when he departed (cf. 32:10). He has undergone a sacrificial movement and is now raised up. A clear line is drawn at this point, much as occurred at the Red Sea, where a definitive break was made with a former period of activity.

Jacob gives Esau a blessing, giving him many of his possessions, but refusing to receive gifts in return. Jacob is thus giving the older son that he replaced the younger son’s portion of the blessing, playing the role of Isaac. He doesn’t take up Esau on his offer to journey together to Seir, where Jacob would have dwelt under the terms of his older brother. Rather Jacob recognizes that, as the bearer of the covenant birthright and blessing, he must be independent of Esau at this point.

Summary

Within this passage we see a host of exodus themes. The false gods are humiliated and taken captive. The woman deceives the oppressor, who is also despoiled. There are themes of poetic justice and the release of slaves. There is divine arbitration between two camps, with mention of heaps and pillars. There is the fear of death and a crossing of water by night. There is struggle or battle leading to victory as the dawn comes. There is the end of the night period and a transition in identity.

A New Contract

In the previous study we saw Jacob’s status reduced by his uncle, and the deception of Laban with regard to Rachel and Leah. We concluded by looking at the birth of Jacob’s children as the first movement towards the turning around of his situation. While for much of the recent narrative Jacob has been in the background of the narrative, with the text focusing upon his wives, we now see him come to the foreground once again.

After the birth of Joseph, fourteen years into his sojourn with Laban (cf. 31:41), Jacob requests to be sent back to his own country (30:25-26). He requests an end to his labour for Laban, in a manner that suggests that their relationship is more contractual than familial by this point. The language used is similar to that of the Exodus, with its references to service and appeal for release.

Laban asks Jacob to stay, pointing out that YHWH has blessed him through Jacob’s service. He offers Jacob a new ‘contract’, suggesting that Jacob name his own wages. Drawing attention to the way that Laban’s possessions have been multiplied through his labours, he declares that he now needs to provide for his own household (30:30). While Laban offers to give Jacob something, Jacob refuses (30:31). Rather than receiving a gift from Laban’s hand and becoming bound to him, Jacob requests that he be given all of the speckled and spotted sheep, all of the brown lambs, and the spotted and speckled goats, and that these should be his wages.

By setting such terms and refusing to receive any gift from Laban’s hand that might leave him obliged or in any way beholden to him, Jacob maintains a distance in his relationship with Laban, who will not now be seen as the cause of Jacob’s prospering (cf. 14:21-24). Jacob will owe Laban no return gift. The wages that Jacob will receive will be determined by his own cunning and divine providence, as YHWH gives him his due of Laban’s possessions. Jacob knows all too well that Laban is a double-dealing crook and so this arrangement provides a way to avoid Laban having much leverage over him and also provides a clear basis for arbitration between them, so that he cannot be falsely accused (30:33). It also means that YHWH can decapitalize Laban, without Laban giving the wages himself: the wages are rather being rightfully taken from him.

Laban immediately breaks the spirit of the new arrangement, giving many of the animals most likely to produce Jacob’s payment to his sons (30:35). Incidentally, while seldom coming to the forefront of the narrative, the sons of Laban seem to be abetting and supporting him in his trickery and false dealing throughout the story (29:27; 30:35; 31:1). Laban then puts three days journey between the main part of his flock and the rest, which Jacob is caring for.

False Phalluses and the Lex Talionis

Jacob then performs what initially appears to be an odd piece of nature magic or pseudoscience, using rods of green poplar, almond, and plane-tree and exposing the white within them. He then sets these before the flocks, where they came to drink. When the flocks conceived, they all bore streaked, speckled, and spotted. He then set these lambs upon the streaked and the brown in Laban’s flocks (v.40). Finally, he used the rods only in the case of the stronger animals of Laban’s flock. The flocks then gave birth to feeble animals.

I don’t actually think that Jacob is trying some pseudoscientific fertility magic here. There is a more straightforward explanation (drawing upon this article). Jacob’s plan was quite a bit more cunning than this. The rods were false phalluses, which he used for the females of the flocks unlikely to produce speckled and spotted. These animals would mate against the false phalluses and produce no actual offspring, while those most likely to produce Jacob’s wages would mate freely. Jacob would then use the animals produced upon the brown and the streaked in Laban’s flock (v.40 – ‘putting the faces of the flocks towards’ here refers to mating). While doing this, Jacob would get the strong of Laban’s flock to use the rods, while with the feeble he wouldn’t.

We should also relate this to the similar account of ‘fertility magic’ earlier in the chapter, where the phallus-like mandrakes are given to Rachel by Leah in exchange for a night with Jacob. Thus the ‘ewe’ Rachel (remember the meaning of her name) receives a false phallus, while Leah gets … ahem … the real thing.

This whole scene involves an advanced application of the lex talionis, the eye for an eye judgment upon the wrongdoer. Laban had tricked Jacob earlier concerning his wives. The beautiful ‘ewe’ Rachel wasn’t given to him, but, after he had drunk, the symbolically speckled and spotted Leah was given to him instead. The speckled and spotted proved fruitful, while the beautiful ‘ewe’ bore no children until YHWH finally opened her womb. The stronger had been kept away from him, while he had been made to go into the weaker (cf. 29:17). Jacob performs Laban’s trick back upon him with his flocks.

The way that Jacob outwits the deceiver is underlined in other ways. A couple of studies ago, I discussed the account of Jacob’s deception of Esau with the stew. I observed the emphasis upon the red colour of the stew and its connection with blood. However, in the immediate connection, Esau is called ‘Edom’, literally ‘Red’ (25:30). The means of deception is connected with the deceived person’s name. We see the same thing here. Laban means ‘White’. Jacob takes rods of poplar (‘libneh’ – another play on Laban’s name), almond (‘luz’ – cf. 28:19), and plane tree (a play on the word ‘crafty’, I suspect), peels white – ‘laban’ – stripes in them, making bare the ‘laban’ in the rods. The strong ewes then mate with the false ‘laban’ phalluses, while the flock of Jacob multiplies. If Jacob once gained his rightful birthright by divine will from his brother Edom with the ‘red red stuff’, now he will gain the wages due to him from Laban with the ‘white’ of the white tree.

The puns on names are important throughout these narratives. The hairiness of Esau is connected with the word ‘Seir’, his redness with ‘Edom’. Likewise, the name of Laban the Aramean may be connected with ‘Lebanon’ – the ‘White’ Mountains. As archetypes, Esau and Laban are never merely individuals in a narrative, but always stand for larger relationships and realities that exceed them. For instance, Esau’s ‘blessing’ in 27:39-40 anticipates the event of 2 Kings 8:20-22.

All of this is very important for our theme of exodus. As we look through the narrative of Exodus we shall see that powerful applications of the lex talionis can be a key dimension of them. YHWH, through his providence and the wiliness of his people, gives back into the lap of the wicked the evil that they have dealt to others. The waters of the Nile that served as the grave of Israelite boys turns to blood; the sons of Egypt are drowned in the waters. As Job 5:13 declares, ‘He catches the wise in their own craftiness, and the counsel of the cunning comes quickly upon them.’

Jacob’s Flight from Laban

By this time Jacob, who had come to Laban with nothing, was enormously wealthy, with ‘large flocks, female and male servants, and camels and donkeys’ (30:43). All of these had been taken from Laban as his wages, rather than given to him. Seeing this, Laban’s sons realized that Jacob had taken away all of their father’s possessions, leaving them with little or no inheritance (31:1). Jacob sees this, and also that Laban is now hostile towards him (v.2, cf. Exodus 1:8-14). YHWH then tells Jacob to return to the land of his kindred, promising to be with him (v.3).

Jacob summons Rachel and Leah and speaks to them about the most hostile aspect that the situation has taken on. The countenance of their father is unfavourable towards him, but the God of his father is with him. He draws attention to his faithfulness throughout the situation, to the fact that he served their father with all of his might. Laban had deceived him and changed his wages ‘ten times’ (v.7 – the reference to the ten changes of wages recalls the ten plagues by which Egypt would later be decapitalized; see also Numbers 14:22), yet God had protected him from harm. However Laban changed the terms of his agreement with Jacob, through YHWH’s protection and Jacob’s shrewdness, it came out in Jacob’s favour, while Laban was progressively hardened and judged. The final result was that God had taken the livestock of Laban and given them to Jacob (v.10). The multiplication of the righteous, the progressive despoliation of the tyrant, and the giving of riches into the hands of the righteous all anticipate the growth of Israel in Egypt, the plagues, and the plundering of the Egyptians at the Exodus.

The Angel of God appeared to Jacob in a dream (presumably the same event as that mentioned in verse 3), which he recounts to Rachel and Leah. Within the dream all of the rams leaping on the flocks were streaked, speckled, and spotted, a sign that YHWH was given the flocks of Laban into Jacob’s hands. God declares that he had seen the way that Laban was oppressing Jacob and that he was upholding Jacob’s cause and judging Laban as a result. God makes known his identity as the God of Bethel, the place where Jacob made a vow and anointed the pillar (v.13). As we shall see, God’s revelation of his identity in association with exodus events is a recurring theme. He then tells Jacob to return to his kindred’s land.

The parallels between this appearance of the Angel of YHWH to Jacob and the appearance of the Angel of YHWH to Moses in the burning bush should be immediately apparent. Both are addressed in a similar manner (31:11; Exodus 3:4). Both Moses and Jacob are assured that YHWH has seen the oppression of the tyrant and their suffering and are called to depart (Genesis 31:11-13; Exodus 3:4-10) from the land of their exile, where they are herding their father-in-laws’ flocks, to return to a land that they once fled from a threat to their lives.

Rachel and Leah answer Jacob by pointing out that Laban had squandered their bride prices, which should have been held in trust for them (vv.14-15), an action by which he despised them and left them with no portion in their father’s house. The riches that God had taken from Laban and given to Jacob were really Rachel and Leah’s by right, so whatever God had told Jacob to do, he should do it. Here again we see the lex talionis at work. Because Laban had despised his daughters’ inheritance when giving them to Jacob in marriage, his sons were now left without inheritance (v.1). This passage is the point where Rachel and Leah share in the Abrahamic calling to leave their father’s house.

Jacob then takes all of his possessions and livestock, sets his family on camels, and fled from Laban, who was shearing his sheep, and knew nothing of what was taking place. Rachel also stole Laban’s household idols, a theme to which we will return in our concluding study of Jacob’s exodus. The fact that this occurred at the time of the shearing of sheep is interesting, given the way that theme functions elsewhere in Scripture (I might comment on the parallels between the Jacob narrative and that of Abigail and Nabal in the next post). The suggestion that the shearing of sheep was associated with Passover would also underline the strong exodus themes at work here.

They flee with all of their possessions, cross the river, and head toward the mountain (singular) of Gilead. This pattern should be familiar to us by now, although the water-crossing (while present in the Flood narrative) comes into play in the Jacob narrative, while it was absent in most of the earlier exodus patterns. Fleeing or travelling towards the mountain is a repeated theme (8:4, 12:8; 19:17). Later, Israel will cross the water (of the Red Sea) and head towards the mountain (of Sinai).

Conclusion

Within this portion of Jacob’s exodus from Laban, we see Laban’s continued mistreatment of Jacob, but YHWH’s blessing and protection of Jacob throughout, just as he had promised (28:15). Jacob and Laban enter a relationship where wages are taken rather than given, and YHWH despoils Laban’s possessions. The oppressor Laban suffers the full judgment of the lex talionis, as Jacob’s serpentine shrewdness and YHWH’s providence deal back to him what he had dealt to Jacob. The Angel of YHWH then appears to Jacob in a dream, assuring him that he had seen the wickedness of Laban and was blessing and protecting him, telling him to depart from the house of Laban and return to him homeland. Jacob then flees, departing in haste, much as the Israelites would do when leaving Egypt, crossing over the river (Euphrates) and heading towards the mountain, most probably at Passover time.

First Sunday of Lent Summary

Day 5: Abram’s Sure Covenant of Exodus

Promise of heirs – A strange vision – Meaning of the vision – Darkness and the passing of the torch – The sacrificial system – Anticipation of Exodus

Day 6: The Opening of the Wombs and the Blessing of the Gentiles in Gerar

Repeating themes in sacred history – Timeframe and geography – The deception of Abimelech – The threat on the woman – Accusation – Opening of the wombs – Conversion of Abimelech – Covenant with Abimelech – Birth of Isaac

Day 7: Hagar and Ishmael, the Forerunners in the Wilderness

Interwoven narratives and archetypes – Abram, Sarai, Hagar and a Fall scene – Hagar’s exodus from Sarai – Ishmael as the first Isaac – Ishmael’s exodus – Hagar and Ishmael in later biblical typology – Hagar/Ishmael and John the Baptist – Paul’s allegory in Galatians

Day 8: Following in the Footsteps of Abraham

A third sister-wife narrative – Isaac and Rebekah among the Philistines – Conflict over wells – Oath and covenant with Abimelech – Extension of the life of the covenant

Day 9: The Cunning Woman and the Righteous Serpent

The birth of Esau and Jacob – The Fall of Esau and the loss of his birthright – Jacob as the righteous serpent – Rebekah’s shrewd deception – Two goats and the Day of Atonement – The flight of Jacob

Day 10: The Faithless Father-in-Law and the Wrestling Wives

The vision at Bethel – The true tower to heaven – Meeting Rachel at the well – Jacob reduced to service – Laban’s deception of Jacob – Women giving birth and the start of the deliverance – Multiplication in captivity – Miraculous birth of the deliverer

The Vision at Bethel

In my previous post I set the scene for Jacob’s great exodus cycle. Jacob, the serpentine seed of the woman, outwits his wicked brother and unfaithful father, gains the birthright and the blessing, and then flees from his murderous brother, travelling towards Haran, to stay with his uncle Laban. Jacob’s departure from Beersheba (28:10) might recall Abraham’s sacrifice of Ishmael and later of Isaac, both of whom left from Beersheba (21:14; 21:33—22:2, 19). One might also argue that Jacob is reversing Abram’s exodus from Haran here (12:1-9). In Jacob we are also seeing a very clear recurrence of the pattern of the son leaving his father’s house to go into the far country (cf. 12:1), a pattern that we will see again in the story of Joseph. The fact that Jacob is travelling alone perhaps particularly relates this journey to that of Joseph and Moses in Genesis 2.

While travelling to Haran, Jacob stops at a particular place for the night. When the sun set, he took a stone as a pillow and slept (28:11). The setting of the sun should remind us of the various references to the sunset in 15:12, 17 during Abram’s night vision of Exodus, the vision that begins the great series of exodus cycles leading up to the birth of Isaac. Once again, there is going to be an encounter with YHWH after the sun goes down, followed by a period of symbolic darkness, before the sun rises again, after the exodus cycle has been completed.

The significance of the descent of the sun here will become clearer in light of the emphasis placed upon the rising of the sun after Jacob’s wrestling with the Angel. All of the intervening events occur in a period of symbolic darkness. The same thing can be seen in Exodus 4:24-26: there is a night encounter with YHWH in the camp between the origin and destination of the journey, just prior to the start of an exodus cycle.

In my second study, I drew attention to the fact that Terah and Abram’s exodus from Ur of the Chaldees and later from Haran was framed by the events at Babel, where Shemites working under the guidance of the empire-founder, Nimrod, sought to build a tower whose top was in the heavens (11:4). The ladder of Jacob’s vision, upon which the angels are ascending and descending, is YHWH’s answer to Babel’s tower (later in Scripture, we will see this ladder imagery being applied to Christ – John 1:51).

At the top of the ladder stands YHWH himself, who declares to Jacob that he will give him and his descendants the land on which he is lying, and that he will make his descendants like the dust of the earth, a dust that bears a divine blessing to replace the dust that mediated the curse (vv.13-14; 3:17-19). Through Jacob and his seed, all of the families of the earth will be blessed. YHWH promises to accompany and protect Jacob wherever he is going and that he will bring back Jacob to the land, completing his exodus.

Jacob is afraid (v.17), like Abram was at his vision (15:12), recognizing the place as the house of God and gate of heaven (v.17) and renaming the place Bethel – ‘house of God’ (v. 19). Jacob makes a vow, declaring that, if God will protect and uphold him where he is going and bring him back safely, he will establish the worship of YHWH in that place and give YHWH his tithe (vv.20-22). Once again, as in the stipulated animals of Abram’s vision in chapter 15, we see an anticipation of the later worship of Israel in the reference to the tithe. In chapter 35, Jacob will fulfil this vow.

Rachel at the Well

Arriving in the land of Haran, Jacob sees a well in a field, surrounded by flocks. The field, rather than the city or town, will be the central site of action throughout most of the Jacob narrative. The well is covered with a stone and the shepherds are waiting for the arrival of Rachel with her father’s sheep, so that all of the flocks can be watered together. Just as he has finished enquiring after his uncle Laban, Rachel arrives and Jacob removes the stone.

As I have already mentioned on a few occasions, there is a symbolic connection between women and wells and the encounter with the woman – typically a future wife – at the well is a common theme in the Old Testament. Robert Alter describes what he refers to as a betrothal type scene, of which Genesis 29 provides one:

What I would suggest is that when a biblical narrator—and he might have originally been an oral storyteller, though that remains a matter of conjecture—came to the moment of his hero’s betrothal, both he and his audience were aware that the scene had to unfold in particular circumstances, according to a fixed order. If some of those circumstances were altered or suppressed, or if the scene were actually omitted, that communicated something to the audience as clearly as the withered arm of our twelfth sheriff would say something to a film audience. The betrothal type-scene, then, must take place with the future bridegroom, or his surrogate, having journeyed to a foreign land. There he encounters a girl—the term “na‘arah” invariably occurs unless the maiden is identified as so-and-so’s daughter—or girls at a well. Someone, either the man or the girl, then draws water from the well; afterward, the girl or girls rush to bring home the news of the stranger’s arrival (the verbs “hurry” and “run” are given recurrent emphasis at this junction of the type-scene); finally, a betrothal is concluded between the stranger and the girl, and in the majority of instances, only after he has been invited to a meal.

This incident is not merely formally familiar to readers as a betrothal type scene, but is also symbolically freighted. The reader would recognize that there is some symbolic relationship between Rachel and the well. Rachel, an unmarried virgin and later the barren wife, is like the well covered with the stone (cf. Song of Solomon 4:12). Jacob, who is associated with stones throughout his narrative (28:11, 18; 31:46; 35:14), removes the stone from the well and brings forth the water. The mention of three flocks and the arrival of a final one, which are then watered from the well, might suggest a possible allusion to the water that flowed from Eden, which split into four rivers and watered various parts of the earth (2:10-14). We can also note that Rachel’s name means ‘ewe’, which strengthens the woman/well/flock connection. The connection between the stone and bringing forth the water might also suggest some connection between Jacob and Moses, who brings forth water from the rock.

Having watered Laban’s flocks, Jacob greets Rachel with a kiss and weeping, telling her who he is. She runs to tell Laban her father that Jacob has arrived. Laban greets him warmly, declaring that Jacob is ‘his bone and his flesh’, a recognition of deep kinship (v.14). This isn’t our first encounter with Laban in Genesis. The last time that we saw Laban, in Genesis 24, he received great gifts from Abraham’s servant (24:53). Perhaps he is expecting a repeat occurrence, which explains his later change in attitude towards Jacob, when no such great gifts were forthcoming.

Laban’s Mistreatment of Jacob

Jacob had originally started off being treated as a full member of the family, working in Laban’s household for nothing, but as one who was regarded as having a share in the family’s wealth. In v.15 we see a change in Jacob’s status. While we might think that Laban is being generous to Jacob, paying him for his work, this was actually a lowering of Jacob’s status. No longer was he being treated as a full member of the house, but was now more akin to one of Laban’s servants. This initial welcoming, followed by a reduction of the status of the stranger relates to Joseph’s Pharaoh’s initial welcoming of Jacob and his sons, followed by the later Pharaoh’s enslaving of them.

Laban offers Jacob his choice of wages and Jacob requests Rachel’s hand. Jacob will serve Laban for seven years in payment of Rachel’s bride price. The bride price would have served to give Rachel some degree of independent financial security, to vet Jacob’s suitability as a future provider, to acknowledge the authority of Rachel’s family and strengthen the bond between the families, and would also ensure that daughters were not regarded as a drain upon the family wealth. The dishonourable way in which Laban treated his daughters’ bride prices will come to light later in the narrative.

Jacob serves Laban for seven years for Rachel, a period of time that feels like no more than the few days that he had originally intended to stay (v.20, cf. 27:44) on account of his love for her. At the end of this period of time, he asks for his wife, the woman to whom he has been betrothed for seven years. Laban tricks Jacob, as Leah is given to him instead of Rachel. Leah would have been veiled at this point: while the women in Genesis weren’t regularly veiled, the veil was associated with the time of marriage (cf. 24:65). The darkness theme also comes to the surface here again. Finally, Jacob would probably have drunk well at the feast (v.22). By going into Leah, Jacob was trapped – sexually married to one woman, but legally married to another, he had become an inadvertent polygamist.

The parallels between Jacob’s own deception of his father Isaac should be clear to us. Jacob was blind like Isaac in the dark and Rebekah’s no less wily, though unrighteous, brother disguised one of his children as another in order to fool the ‘blind’ man. We might think that YHWH is giving Jacob a dose of poetic justice here, but that seems unlikely, given what we have said about the previous passage. Rather, Jacob is the bearer of the covenant legacy and he must deal with the failure of those who went before, much as Christ will one day bear the bitter covenant legacy of Israel’s unfaithfulness upon himself. In particular, Jacob has to take upon himself the consequences of Isaac’s sin. He becomes as Isaac, but must handle things differently, picking up the dropped stitch of the covenant and working it back into YHWH’s plan. It is important that we recognize that these developing patterns involve succession and a legacy, each new generation working with and building upon the successes and failures of the generations that preceded them.

Through this action, Laban reveals himself as a double-dealing scoundrel, who explains his bait and switch by reference to a custom of which Jacob was never apprised when they first made an agreement (v.26). There is also a possibility that Laban planned to use the customs of his people to take advantage the fact that Jacob would insist on completing his marriage to Rachel too as a means of lowering his status and defrauding him even further. Such treatment of his new son-in-law also reveals how the unscrupulous Laban was prepared to mistreat and use his daughters for his own gain. Laban is the serpent and tyrant figure with whom the serpentine Jacob will have to wrestle.

The Wives and the Sons

Naturally, given all that had happened and the fact that he had never wanted to marry Leah in the first place, Jacob preferred Rachel over her. However, Leah, who in all probability had limited choice in the deception of Jacob, being put up to it by her father, suffered greatly as a result as an unloved wife. YHWH, who sees the sorrowful and oppressed, was gracious to her and opened her womb.

Like Abraham learnt through having to send Ishmael away and Isaac failed to learn in seeking to bless Esau over Jacob, Jacob must recognize that the course that YHWH charts for his covenant purposes does not always match our desires. The preferred son doesn’t receive the blessing and the unfavoured wife is the fruitful one.

The lengthy description of the struggle of the wives and their maids in pregnancy and YHWH’s gift of children, a story in which Jacob plays only an incidental role, should be seen as a key turning point in the narrative. Within the exodus pattern, as we shall see in various other studies, it is with the oppressed or barren women seeking to give birth to the seed that YHWH’s salvation begins. To this point, Jacob has been reduced in status, tricked, and made into a servant of his uncle. Rachel and Leah have both been misused by their father, Rachel robbed of the exclusivity of her relationship to her rightful husband and made a competitor of her sister and Leah forced into a marriage as an unloved wife, playing second fiddle to her younger sister. These actions again identify Laban as a serpent figure who mistreats the woman.

It is with YHWH’s hearing of the affliction of Leah that the story begins to change direction. To this point YHWH has seemingly abandoned Jacob to Laban’s clutches, but in response to the distress of Leah, he enters the story. 29:31—30:24 is all about what YHWH does through the prayers and wrestling of Leah and Rachel. Jacob hardly acts in this passage at all, but Leah and Rachel do all of the planning, struggling, and naming, while YHWH accomplishes the salvation.

In light of 30:25, 31:38, 41, the chronology of the birth narratives would barely seem to be possible, as it would suggest that all of 29:31—30:24 occurred within a seven year period. A far more likely explanation is that the order is theological, with Joseph – the miraculous child who will play the role of the firstborn and chief bearer of the covenant legacy – being the fifth of the sons of the wives (not the maids), after Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah.

As the miraculous child, Joseph comes at the climax of the narrative. The opening of Rachel’s womb also continues the theme of the barren wombs of the patriarch’s wives. Joseph is the child who, like Moses, will secure the future and destiny of the people of God. The whole passage is structured in a way that highlights themes of divine action and salvation. We see the God who looks on affliction (29:32), who judges a person’s case (v.6), who leads to people being called blessed (v.13), who listens (v.17), who remembers (v.22), and removes people’s reproach (v.23). All of these themes are repeated in the context of the exodus.

Summary

In this passage we see Jacob as a stranger going to a new land where he is first welcomed, but then reduced in status, mistreated, and oppressed by a serpent figure. Jacob must bear the flawed legacy of his father. Jacob and his wives become fruitful and multiply, much as the children of Israel will later multiply in Egypt. This passage is the Exodus 1:1—2:10 of the Jacob story. It is about the oppression and growth of the people of God, about the struggles and victories of faithful women, of YHWH’s remembering of them and dealings with them and, finally, about the birth of the future deliverer.

The Birth of Esau and Jacob

At this point we move into one of the most developed exodus patterns in the Old Testament: Jacob’s exodus from the house of Laban in Haran. As I will be devoting a few studies to this account, the full nature of the Jacob narrative as an exodus pattern may only gradually become apparent. This initial study will be devoted to setting the scene.

Much as the other patriarchs in many of the passages that have been studied so far in this series, Jacob receives a rather bad press in many circles. Presented as a deceiver and a trickster, we are led to believe that it was only as YHWH dealt with him later in his life that he was changed. However, a careful reading of the text of Genesis punctures such claims.

Going back to the passage before the one examined in our previous study, we see the birth of Esau and Jacob and the selling of Esau’s birthright recorded in Genesis 25:19- 34. Like Sarah, Rebekah is barren. The barrenness of the patriarchs’ wives is an important theme throughout Genesis. The patriarchs and their wives do not produce the nation out of some great virility and fertility, but through the divine gift of life where the natural powers are absent or lacking. The opening of wombs is clearly presented as something that YHWH accomplishes and prayer is a recurring theme in the context of the birth accounts.

A further thing to recognize is that the childbirth of the patriarch’s wives is regarded as frontline covenant work, something involving struggle, prayer, and victory over the serpent. After the Fall, YHWH established enmity between the woman and the serpent and between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. While our focus is commonly on the enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, we need to appreciate the importance of the enmity between the woman and the serpent. The chief hostility is not between Adam and the serpent, but between Eve and the serpent. Eve is the mother of all living (3:20) and the one through whom the promised seed will come, so she is the one who is in the centre of the serpent’s sights. Adam just stands in the way.

As we look through the book of Genesis, we see various serpent figures seeking to attack and capture the women at every turn. We see the women using deception to outwit these serpents: Eve overcomes the serpent who first deceived her by outwitting him in his cunning. This theme is one that will develop throughout the Scriptures. While many of the stories, especially the earlier ones, involve the Adam figure guarding the Eve figure from the attack of the serpent, as we move through Scripture, we increasingly see situations where there is no Adam figure and the conflict between the woman and her seed and the serpent and his seed is thrown into the sharpest of relief.

In the account of the birth of Esau and Jacob we see the struggle of two nations in the womb of Rebekah. The struggle between these two children is the struggle between Cain and Abel, the struggle between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. Rebekah knows that there is something strange going on her womb. While the unborn John the Baptist will leap in Elizabeth’s womb with joy at the arrival of Mary and the child that she is bearing (Luke 1:44), in Rebekah’s womb there is a vicious battle taking place.

After inquiring of YHWH, Rebekah is told that two people groups are struggling in her body and that the older shall serve the younger. Once again, we should recall the fact that Genesis is a story of archetypical figures, not just of individual historical characters: Jacob and Esau represent nations and peoples and their later history. The theme of the younger child taking the place of the older should also be familiar to us from Cain and Abel/Seth, Ishmael and Isaac, Joseph and his brothers, Perez and Zerah (38:28-30), and Ephraim and Manasseh (48:12-20). This declaration of YHWH’s is important as he identifies which of the two sons will bear the covenant destiny. Recognizing this fact helps us to make sense of much of the narrative that follows. By favouring the older over the younger, Isaac will be seen to be going against YHWH’s purpose.

The womb is a place of great significance in Scripture. New periods of history are preceded by an emphasis upon the ‘womb’. The Garden of Eden is a womb, a source from which life flows out. The deep of the Flood is the watery womb of a new world and the opening of the door of the ark a new birth. The vineyard of Noah is a period of childhood protection before entering into the wider world. Symbolically Egypt is a womb: the struggle in Rebekah’s womb is, like the struggle between Israel and Pharaoh in the ‘womb’ of Egypt, something that heralds a great development in history – the birth of a new nation. Jacob’s time with Laban is another such ‘womb-time’, a period during which Jacob matures and is multiplied in size, before he comes out at the other side and is given a new name. The baptism of John is the birth of the original form of the kingdom, leading to the ministry of Jesus in which newborns are raised to maturity. Christ’s resurrection is his birth from the tomb, as the firstborn of the dead. Pentecost is the birth of the Church from the womb of Israel. It is for this reason that themes of childbirth and the figures of pregnant women cluster around these epoch-changing moment in history.

When the two children are born, Esau has a lot of positive signs going for him. He is ruddy and covered with hair, something remarkable and a sign of glory in Scripture. Judging by the outward appearance, Esau is well-favoured. Jacob comes out of the womb grasping the heel of his brother, like the serpent bruises the heel of the seed of the woman in Genesis 3:15 and is named ‘the one who takes the heel’ or ‘supplanter’.

Esau and his Birthright

The description of the two children as they grow identifies Esau as a hunter and man of the field (25:27). I suspect that we are supposed to be reminded of Nimrod and Cain here. Nimrod, the founder of the great and wicked empires, is the other great hunter in the book of Genesis (10:8-12). Cain is the man associated with the field, where he slew his righteous brother Abel (4:8). Jacob is described as a perfect man (25:27; cf. Job 8:20), a man of integrity, dwelling in tents and running the affairs of the household. I wonder whether the association of Jacob with tents is supposed to remind us of Shem, underlining the prophecy given prior to the birth of the twins, which should recall the relationship between Canaan and Shem (9:26-27), suggesting that Jacob is the true Shemite.

Isaac loved Esau. The reason for this is given to us: Isaac’s appreciation for Esau’s game, hardly a good reason to favour one son over the other. Like Esau, as we shall see, Isaac has become a man who compromises for the sake of his stomach. Rebekah, however, loves Jacob, the son that YHWH marked out as the true bearer of the covenant destiny. Later on in Scripture, we will see that YHWH concurs with Rebekah’s preference rather than Isaac’s (Malachi 1:2-3).

In 25:29-34 Esau returns from hunting and, bearing very weary, asks Jacob for some of the ‘red red stuff’ that he is cooking. The fact that the colour is so emphasized should suggest that it is being given significance: Esau seems to think that Jacob is cooking blood, something that was forbidden for consumption (9:4), and demands it. Jacob says that he will give Esau the food in exchange for Esau’s birthright. Here we see an interesting play on the roles in Genesis 3. Esau is immediately given the name ‘Edom’ (v.30), which is formed of the same letters as Adam in Hebrew. The association between the characters should not escape us. Edom wants the forbidden food. He makes the questionable claim that he is about to die, so the covenant birthright means nothing to him anyway. The connection of the forbidden food with death is another connection with Genesis 3. The fact that Edom wasn’t really on the point of death is suggested by the fact that he eats, drinks, and immediately goes on his way (v.34).

The role that Jacob plays is particularly fascinating here. Jacob plays the role of the serpent, the one who is shrewd, who uses trickery, and offers the forbidden food to the unfaithful Adam figure. He plays along with his character as the serpent-like heel-bruiser of his brother. However, and this is a crucial point, the serpent-like Jacob is not seen as an evil serpent, but as one who has the shrewdness and cunning of the serpent yet uses it for good, outwitting the wicked seed of the serpent as the true seed of the woman. He is the one who is as wise as a serpent, but as innocent as a dove (Matthew 10:16). We see that the tribe of Dan is also spoken of as akin to a serpent who bites heels in Genesis 49:17.

The judgment of YHWH in the passage fails clearly upon Esau. He is the one who despised his birthright (25:34). Jacob was cunning, wise, and, most importantly, righteous in tricking his wicked brother out of the birthright. He was fulfilling the will of God as declared to Rebekah. He was also guarding the legacy of the Abrahamic covenant, preventing it from falling into the hands of a godless man who valued it so cheaply. Jacob’s serpent-like traits are noteworthy, because they are the traits that will enable him to struggle with and overcome the various serpents that he wrestles with in his life. In each case, Jacob gains the upper hand by using righteous cunning and deception, out-serpenting the serpents.

The exodus pattern is one that involves wrestling with and overcoming serpents and dragons. The serpentine Jacob wrestles with unrighteous covenant men (Adam/Edom figures and, later, his father Isaac) and later will wrestle with viperous men outside of the covenant people. All of this is preparation for what is to come.

Jacob’s name also means ‘supplanter’ or ‘replacement’. Using serpentine cunning, he will replace the unfaithful. He will take the place of Esau with his cunning, take the covenant legacy of his father Isaac, and the property of his wicked uncle Laban. The youngest brother will take the place of his elders.

Esau’s Loss of His Blessing

In Genesis 27 we see Isaac thinking that he is nearing death (he doesn’t actually die until about forty years later – 35:27-29) and wanting to bless Esau. The whole story is framed by the wilful unfaithfulness of Esau in taking wives from the Canaanites (26:34-35; 27:46; 28:6-9). Yet Isaac is seemingly prepared to give the Abraham covenant blessing to this son who clearly despises it (his dulled senses are supposed to alert us to his dulled spiritual vision – v.1). He is prepared to give a blessing that declares ‘be master over your brethren, and let your mother’s sons bow down to you’ (v.29) to a son whom YHWH had declared should serve his younger brother (25:23). An appreciation of Isaac’s unfaithfulness, once again seen in terms of his willingness to put the covenant in second place to his love for Esau and his game, is essential if we are going to make sense of the meaning of this passage. The man who was a faithful son (Genesis 22) and a faithful husband (Genesis 26) is not a faithful father.

Rebekah overhears Isaac arranging for Esau to hunt some game and prepare him some food in preparation for his blessing and hatches a plot. Since her husband is disregarding the covenant, she must take matters into her own hands. Rebekah, the new righteous Eve figure, wise to the unfaithfulness of her husband, talks to her son Jacob, the seed of the woman, seeking to trick Esau, the seed of the serpent, and Isaac, the unfaithful Adam figure, who is favouring him. Using deception she will outsmart both of these men and achieve YHWH’s purpose through her cunning. Once again, we should see the poetic justice of the woman deceiving the serpent figures, Eve getting her own back for her deception in Genesis 3.

Two goats play an important part in this story. These two goats represent the two sons. The hairiness of the goats is connected to the hairiness of Esau and Jacob wears the skins of the goats in order to appear like his brother (vv.11, 16, 23). Out of the two goats food is made for Jacob (v.14). One goat would be more than enough for a full meal for one man. However, the fact that two goats are used suggests that there is a symbolic combination occurring here, a joining together of the two sons in one figure, Jacob, whose food and clothing is made to smell like Esau’s. In Jacob and his meal, both of the sons are represented and he receives the full blessing and inheritance. The other son, Esau, is replaced and suffers loss. He bears the judgment of the covenant, while Jacob is raised up to God’s presence as an approved and pleasing offering, yielding blessing. Once again, we see a possible allusion to this in the two goats of the Day of Atonement.

James Jordan’s treatment of this passage is very helpful. He makes the following observations about the sacrificial themes:

1. Isaac needs to be propitiated by the offering of food before giving blessing. Smelling the son is also mentioned (v.27), just as the sacrifices of the covenant are spoken of as a sweet aroma to YHWH, leading to his favour (Leviticus 1:9).

2. There is the threat of death or curse associated with drawing near falsely to Isaac (v.12), who is in the place of YHWH. Rebekah, however, is prepared to take the curse upon herself (v.13).

3. The sacrifice represents Rebekah as the Mother of the Seed. She prepares the food and prepares Jacob and sends him to Isaac.

4. The Day of Atonement/Covering is the day when the father figure – Aaron – offers up Israel to YHWH and receives YHWH’s blessing and covering. Isaac should have offered his children in a righteous manner, but on account of his failure, Rebekah had to take over.

5. The Day of Atonement/Coverings parallels are important. Two goats are offered. One is sent into the wilderness (Leviticus 16:21; Esau is sent away from the fat of the land and dew of heaven into a dry and barren country – 27:39) and the flesh of the other is offered to YHWH (Leviticus 16:25). Aaron has to cover himself with new woollen garments in order to do this (Leviticus 16:23-24). The fact that the covering with new garments comes after the sending away of the goat into the wilderness (vv.22-24) and before the offering up of the food to YHWH (v.25) suggests that there is a replacement theme here. Likewise, Jacob’s hairy garments give him a new status on the basis of the hairy kid Esau being sent into the wilderness.

6. There is a development here, from the ram of the Passover, which represented Isaac in Genesis 22 (perhaps seen as Ishmael’s righteous substitution for him as Ishmael beneath the bush in 21:15 parallels the ram caught in the bush in 22:13), to the goats of the Day of Coverings, where the two sons are offered up to YHWH by the father figure (although the mother figure has stepped in here), one being sent out into the wilderness and the other offered as food (there may also be Day of Covering themes in the Ishmael/Isaac account, as I have suggested, although Ishmael isn’t seen as a negative figure to the degree that Esau is).

Jacob’s Flight

All of this sets the stage for Jacob’s flight from his brother, who seeks his life (27:41—28:5). The theme of fleeing from a threat to life (whether violence or famine) into a foreign land should be familiar to us as the beginning of a new exodus cycle. We should remember that Haran is associated with the intermediate realm in Genesis 11:31, away from Ur, but not yet in Canaan – it might symbolically be seen as a sort of wilderness location. Within our next study we will begin to see how Jacob’s preparation as the serpentine seed of the woman enables him to wrestle with the new viper – his uncle and father-in-law Laban.

Summary

We have strayed a little from our primary theme here. However, what we have seen is the emergence of key motifs that will be prominent in the various exodus accounts that follow. In particular, we have seen the importance of the theme of the struggle between the woman and her seed and the serpent and his seed. The role of the woman at the forefront of the struggle against the serpent will only become more crucial as we forge ahead. We have once again seen the prominence of the imagery of the womb and giving birth, the importance of deception and trickery as a means of overcoming serpents. With all of this background narrative, the scene is set for the great exodus of Jacob that follows.

We have tarried for several days in the story of Abraham. It is now time to press forward and enter the story of Isaac. While it is possible to detect Exodus-related themes in some of the intervening narratives, the next major expression of these themes is found in Genesis 26. Once again, my thoughts here have been very much helped by James Jordan’s treatment of the passage.

In Genesis 26, we once again find a story in which one of the patriarchs seeks to deceive a foreign ruler by pretending that his wife is really his sister. We have already encountered and commented upon two such stories within Abraham’s life – the first with Pharaoh in Egypt and the second with Abimelech in Gerar.

Despite the similarities between these stories, there are significant differences and, more importantly, developments between them to be observed. For instance, in the Pharaoh story the woman is the one who is primarily attacked: the seed isn’t really in view. In the first Abimelech story, while the woman is once again attacked, it is the threat to the promised seed that is most in view and the opening of the wombs plays an important part in the story. In this, the third of these related narratives, the children, Esau and Jacob, have already been born. There is a threat to the woman and to the seed, but most of the wider story focuses upon the disputes over the wells. A further difference can be seen in the fact that, while Sarah is taken by the ruler in the other two narratives of this kind, Abimelech doesn’t take Rebekah, as the ruse is discovered before anyone does anything to her.

Isaac and Rebekah among the Philistines

The narrative of Genesis 26 begins with a famine, which leads Isaac to go to Gerar and Abimelech, king of the Philistines, probably a different Abimelech from the one with whom Abraham made a covenant (21:32), Abimelech being a dynastic title, like Pharaoh, rather than a personal name. YHWH appears to him, instructing him to dwell in the land that he shows him, rather than heading down to Egypt. YHWH declares that he will fulfil his oath sworn to Abraham for Isaac, because Abraham ‘obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws’ (v.5). It is worth remembering that Isaac witnessed this oath made to his father Abraham in 22:16-18, as he was also on the mount in Moriah. This appearance of YHWH, occurring within the inclusio of v.1b and v.6 has Abraham at its very heart. Within the entirety of this chapter, Abraham will remain a very important figure, as a crucial theme is the realization and recovery of Abraham’s legacy.

In Gerar, Isaac uses the same ploy as his father Abraham, pretending that Rebekah is his sister. The need for such deception may seem unclear to us. However, the impression that one gets from ancient literature and later from this passage is that women – even married women – were seen as fair game in many cultures and that wives were often taken from their husbands by more powerful men. Isaac’s chief concern seems to be his own safety (v.9). As in previous examples, this action should not be attributed to mere cowardly self-interest. Isaac was the leader and protector of a large group of people, quite probably numbering in the thousands, including his two sons, Esau and Jacob. If he was killed on account of Rebekah, all of their lives could be put in jeopardy. However, if he pretended to be her brother, he could use delaying tactics or some other ploy to prevent her being taken, while not being seen as so direct an obstacle.

They are discovered, however, when Abimelech, looking through a window, sees Isaac playing (literally ‘isaac-ing’) with his wife (v.8). Whether Abimelech was spying on Isaac and Rebekah, we don’t know, but it wouldn’t be surprising if he were. Abimelech promptly accuses Isaac of dealing falsely with him. By not telling the Philistines that Rebekah was his wife, he could have brought guilt on them if one of the people were to lie with her (v.10). The injustice of this accusation should be immediately apparent: it implies that the Philistines were the sort of people who would just sleep with a woman without seeking consent either from her or her brother or protector, and that anyone not married (and probably many who were) was fair game.

There are echoes of Eden here. Rebekah is ‘beautiful to behold’ (v.7), the accent upon the relationship between the senses and her beauty recalling Genesis 3:6. After discovering the true identity of Rebekah, Abimelech declares of the person who touches her ‘dying he shall die’ (26:11, cf. 2:17). On various occasions in Scripture there is a connection between the woman and the garden and the source of water within it. Adam, as the one charged with guarding and keeping the garden (2:15), was especially charged with guarding his wife, a task that Adam failed in. Isaac has the same vocation. Once again we see the cast lined up: the man who must guard and keep the woman and the seed of promise, and the serpent figure who lies, accuses, and threatens (over history serpents become dragons who don’t merely lie and accuse, but also threaten with violence), seeking to gain power over the woman.

By this point we also have an attenuated exodus pattern: famine and divine instruction drives the patriarch into a foreign country (once again, we should remember that the Philistines are associated with the Egyptians in Genesis – 10:13-14) where there is a perceived threat to the woman and false accusation is made by the ruler. It is important to notice that Edenic patterns and Exodus patterns are closely related. The pattern continues in the narrative that follows.

Conflict over the Wells

In verses 12-16 we see Isaac prospering in the land of the Philistines. He seems to be settled enough to engage in the growing of crops, an activity that his father Abraham was never recorded doing (although see 18:5-6). The hundredfold increase of Isaac’s crops contrast with the famine from which he has just escaped. The growing of crops and the planting of gardens and vineyards is a sign of a greater degree of settlement and is associated with the fuller blessings of the land. Many of the later feasts of Israel would develop around such practices. Isaac prospers exceedingly (he ‘began to prosper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous’), gaining an immense number of servants, huge flocks and herds, and enjoying a bounteous harvest.

Once again we see a development here in the exodus theme here. The story of Abraham with Pharaoh involves Abraham leaving the land of Egypt with the many goods and persons given to him by one who is now hostile to him – spoils. The story of Abraham and Abimelech involves Abraham staying in the land and enjoying a generally positive relationship with Abimelech, who gives him many gifts. Here, however, nothing is given to Isaac by Abimelech, but he enjoys miraculous fruitfulness from the hand of YHWH.

By this point, the Philistines were beginning to envy him. They had already killed the wells that Abraham had dug in his day (v.15), and seemed to have shifted in their attitude. Here we find an Abimelech who did not know Abraham, much as at the beginning of Exodus we encounter a Pharaoh ‘who did not know Joseph’ (Exodus 1:8). A similar shifting of attitude towards the prospering people of God can also be seen in the story of Jacob with Laban (Genesis 31:2). Isaac and his people have multiplied so much that they are mightier than the people of the land, making the Philistines fearful (v.16, cf. Exodus 1:9), so much so that they are told to leave. This prospering in the foreign land (though not this time at the expense of the people of the land) and departure continues the exodus pattern that we have already observed here.

Throughout this chapter we see Isaac following in the footsteps of Abraham his father, being blessed on his account, and continuing his legacy. Here we see Isaac restoring the work of his father, which had been destroyed by the Philistines. He digs the wells of his father again and gives them their original names, reviving the abandoned heritage of Abraham’s labours. The repetition of the scenes and themes of Abraham’s life that we see in this chapter, and the repeated references to Abraham, serves to demonstrate the relationship and continuity that exists between the two generations of covenant-bearers and also the progressive development of the patterns of the covenant as one generation succeeds another.

Isaac’s servants dig and find a well in the wadi, which Gerar’s herdsmen claim as their own (vv.18-19). Isaac names the well Esek, or ‘quarrel’. Isaac’s servants then dig another well, which the herdsmen of Gerar quarrel over again, naming it Sitnah or ‘enmity’ or ‘accusation’. Once again, this recalls themes of Genesis, with the enmity (although a different word in the Hebrew from that in Genesis 3:15) established between the woman and the serpent, and between their respective seeds (the relationship between Sitnah and Satan’s name as the ‘accuser’ should also be noted). Finally, at the third attempt, they dig a well that does not lead to a quarrel and call it Reheboth or ‘spaciousness’. Within this section of the passage we see departure from the land, struggles over water in the dry places, moving from place to place, finally leading a location where they find room and a place to settle and be fruitful. All of this continues the Exodus pattern previously observed.

The Oath and Covenant with Abimelech

Isaac then departs for Beersheba where he has a night vision. YHWH declares that he is with Isaac and will multiply and bless him for the sake of Abraham. Isaac then builds an altar, proclaims the name of YHWH, and his servants dig a well.

In 21:25-33, Abraham had a similar experience. He had a dispute with the herdsmen of Gerar over wells, makes a covenant with Abimelech, and names the name of the place of the well Beersheba. He then travels from there to sacrifice Isaac, before returning to Beersheba again afterwards (22:19). Once again, Isaac is following in the path of Abraham his father, and knowing Abraham’s blessing as a result.

At this point Abimelech, one of his close counsellors, Ahuzzath, and Phichol, the commander of his army, come out to meet Isaac. They have recognized that YHWH is with Isaac and desire to make a covenant with him (vv.28-29). The impression given is that it is not only Isaac with whom they are interested in coming into relationship, but also YHWH, whom Isaac represents. They establish a covenant between them and swear an oath, much as Abraham’s Abimelech had made an oath and covenant there earlier (21:31). That very same day, Isaac’s servants discover water in the well that they have been digging (26:32). Isaac then names the place Sheba, after the name given to it by his father (21:31; cf. 26:18).

We should connect the discovery of water with the establishment of the covenant with Abimelech and his people. The Garden of Eden was a source of water (2:10) and the woman, as the mother of the living (cf. 3:20) is symbolically associated with this: as I have already remarked women are related to wells of water. The threat upon the woman and the water sources is replaced by a situation where the life of the Garden and the woman as the womb of the world flow out into the whole creation. As Scripture develops, the water becomes increasingly associated with the gift of the Spirit, as wells and springs are opened in the wilderness, and barren places are made fruitful (cf. Isaiah 35:7; 41:18).

This movement from barrenness to fruitfulness recurs in Genesis (the chief wives of the patriarchs are all initially characterized by barrenness – 11:30; 25:21; 29:31). The development from the attack of various accusing ‘satan’ figures upon the women and the wells to spaciousness, fruitfulness, and the sharing of covenant life with the nations is a crucial theme of the book, where even dry wells of the sons of Abraham can yield life to the world (cf. Joseph is drawn out of a dry well in 37:24).

Summary

As noted at various points, this chapter is one in which Isaac clearly walks in the footsteps of his father, Abraham. He is blessed on Abraham’s account and devotes himself to recovering, restoring, developing, and fulfilling Abraham’s legacy. The exodus experience that he undergoes is one that takes a more mature form than those of Abraham, as a greater degree of fruitfulness is involved, and the life of the covenant, represented by the wells, is more expansive: not only are Abraham’s well restored, but further wells are dug besides.

Within Genesis 26 we once again see threats posed to the sources of the life of the covenant, to the woman and the wells. However, these threats are overcome, not through violence, but through patience and perseverance. The life of the covenant then begins to flow out into the wider world, as YHWH begins to fulfil his purpose to bless the nations through Abraham and his seed.

Rhyming History

Reading Genesis 20, we might be excused for feeling a sense of déjà vu. We have already encountered a story in which Abraham leaves Canaan for a foreign land, pretends that Sarah is his sister, Sarah is taken by the ruler, the ruler is plagued by God, the truth is revealed, Abraham is given many gifts by the ruler, and the plagues cease. In fact, not only do we find stories with this pattern in Genesis 12 and 20, we find a further one in Genesis 26, with Isaac and Rebekah in Gerar.

The repetition of this story has suggested to some that traditional material has become attached to the patriarchs in three different ways in different sources and, rather than exclude one of the sources, given the importance of the tradition, all have been included. We should not presume that the repetition of this narrative is merely some concession to ambiguity in the attribution of traditional material within the sources, however. The sacred history of Scripture does not see the same virtue in discreteness and novelty in events that our histories generally do. In fact, much of the history of Scripture is characterized by repetition with variation and biblical authors seem to go to lengths to avoid a sense of discreteness and highlight fundamental themes with new variations.

While these three stories are usually related together by commentators, my argument within these posts is that we must go much further than this, and relate these three stories, and many more besides, to a greater story of Exodus, a story that is repeated in various forms on dozens of occasions in Scripture. Scriptural history is symphonic, and Exodus is arguably its central theme. If you have trained your ear to hear it, you can hear its presence throughout the biblical text.

Readings of the book of Genesis that are driven by the sensibilities of modern historians or which are looking for moral examples for Christians can struggle with such seemingly repetitive narratives. However, such repetitive texts are the meat and drink of typological readings of sacred history. They serve as indicators of the integrity and unity of sacred history. They manifest the relationships between various characters and events, the meaning of certain occurrences. More importantly, they enable us to find our own identity within the narrative, as through the life and worship of the people of God we become part of the same symphony. This will be an overarching theme of all of these studies, one which will become increasingly prominent as we near its completion.

These themes are not bald repetitions, but undergo significant development, as we shall see as we look through this passage. The theme and its various elements fill out and gradually come to the foreground. By the time that we arrive at the Exodus from Egypt, it will be very familiar to us.

Timeframe and Geography

It would appear that Abraham went to Gerar almost immediately after the destruction of the cities of the plain. Directly prior to their destruction, YHWH had promised that Sarah would have a son that time next year (18:10). As Sarah conceived after the events of chapter 20 (cf. 21:1-2), those events would seem to have occurred in the intervening three months. We may presume that Abimelech took Sarah not much more than a few weeks after the destruction of the cities. The fact that the events from Genesis 17:1—21:7 occur within such a compressed timeframe is noteworthy. It underlines the relatedness of the events and also heightens the sense of drama associated with the transition that is occurring.

Once again we see Abraham travelling towards the south. This time he doesn’t go to Egypt, but goes to Gerar, to the land of the Philistines. The Philistines have already been related to the Egyptians in the book of Genesis. In Genesis 10:13-14 we are told Mizraim (Egypt) begot Casluhim, from whom came the Philistines. As we shall see as this series progresses, a number of the most important biblical exoduses occur within Philistine territory. Philistia was not one of the lands promised to Israel in Genesis 15:18-21, but was foreign territory. As we shall see, both Abraham and Isaac spend a significant amount of time living in this foreign territory and outside of the land of Canaan.

Sarah and Abimelech

Abraham employs the same tactic that he employed in Egypt, reasoning that, even though the fear of God was not in Gerar, the Philistines would at least have regard for custom, where the brother was to be respected as the woman’s guardian. Abraham assumed that he, his people, and Sarah would be safer if he pretended to be Sarah’s brother, rather than her husband. However, once again, the plan failed, as Abimelech sent and took Sarah, rather than dealing with Abraham, as he should have done.

In this case, though, things work out rather differently. God appeared to Abimelech in a dream by night, proclaiming a death sentence upon him for taking another man’s wife (v.3). Abimelech protested his innocence, pointing out that both Abraham and Sarah had told him that she was Abraham’s sister. God declared that he had preserved Abimelech from sinning against him, knowing that – even though he may have been in the wrong in his treatment of Abraham – it was not his intention to take another man’s wife. This preservation of Abimelech from sin provides quite a contrast to the later Exodus, where YHWH progressively hardens Pharaoh’s heart, so that his final judgment will be more decisive. Abimlech had to restore Sarah to Abraham, or God would take his life, and the life of his people. God also instructed Abimelech to ask Abraham to pray for him, so that he would live.

Abimelech tells all of his servants this dream and they are all very afraid. He then summons Abraham, accusing him of bringing a great sin upon him and his kingdom. While Abimelech was inadvertently guilty of taking another man’s wife, Abraham was hardly to blame, as Abimelech had unwittingly brought the situation upon himself by the lesser fault of failing to deal justly with Abraham as a brother of Sarah. Once again we see the unjust ruler accusing the righteous person of sin. If Abimelech and his men had truly feared God, they wouldn’t have mistreated Abraham and Sarah as they did, taking Sarah without either of their consent.

Despite his initial accusatory question, however, Abimelech seems to accept Abraham’s explanation of his actions in the matter, as his subsequent actions seem to make plain. Abimelech takes sheep, oxen, and male and female servants and gives them to Abraham, restoring Sarah to him also. In contrast to Pharaoh in 12:19-20, Abimelech invites Abraham to stay wherever he wishes in his land, much as Pharaoh offers Jacob and his people the best of the land of Egypt in 47:6. Abimelech also declares to Sarah that he has given a thousand pieces of silver to her ‘brother’ as a ‘covering of the eyes’ (v.16), making recompense for the fault, so that it may no longer be seen. The gift of the money vindicated Sarah of any charge of sexual impropriety and affirmed the authority of her protector, which Abimelech had violated.

Abimelech seems to have suffered some sort of illness as a result of his taking of Sarah, perhaps involving impotence, and his wife and maidservants have their wombs opened so that they can bear children again (unless we are to see Abimelech’s illness as that of his wife and maidservants alone, rather than something that he suffers personally). Since there is no more than a three month time period in which this story could take place, we are left to speculate on what exactly was involved in the closing of the wombs and the degree to which it had come to the attention of the people. James Jordan suggests the possibility that the women of Abimelech’s household wouldn’t have been able to deliver their babies at the point of giving birth (cf. Isaiah 66:9), and not merely that they weren’t becoming pregnant.

The power with which YHWH acts on behalf of Abraham is once again emphasized within this exodus narrative. However, to this emphasis is added one upon the power with which YHWH acts through Abraham the prophet. Rather than restoring Abimelech and his household automatically, God determines that Abraham has to pray for Abimelech. The power that Abraham’s prophetic prayer has with YHWH is highlighted here. YHWH wills to act by means of his servant Abraham’s prayer, not immediately.

Directly following the opening of the wombs of Abimelech’s household, Sarah’s womb is opened and she conceives and bears Isaac. As we shall see, the relationship between these two events is highly significant.

The Exodus in Gerar

In the events of this chapter, we see a series of prominent exodus themes. There is a journey into a foreign land, one associated with Egypt. There is an attack upon the bride and the seed by an unjust or serpent-like ruler (about which more in a moment). There is the use of deception against the ruler by Abraham and Sarah. There is a divine intervention in a dream (a theme that will recur on a few occasions in later studies). There are divine judgments or plagues upon the ruler (the closing of the wombs). There is the accusation of the righteous by the unjust ruler. Finally, there is the giving of spoils, most particularly of male and female servants.

A number of details merit especial attention here. The first is the importance of the theme of the attack upon the woman and the seed in this context. The threat to the woman was a theme in the previous narrative of exodus from Egypt, but here we see that this threat is also a more direct threat upon the seed. YHWH had only just promised to Sarah that she would have a child that time next year. From the beginning of Genesis we learn that the seed of the woman is the one who will defeat the serpent, and that there is a particular enmity between the serpent and the woman and her seed for this reason (Genesis 3:15). Throughout the Scriptures, we see serpent figures going to great lengths to prevent the woman from giving birth to the promised seed, or seeking to destroy the seed immediately after it is born (e.g. Exodus 1:15-22; Matthew 2:16-18; Revelation 12:4).

While Abimelech obviously knows nothing of YHWH’s promise to Sarah, we should see his action in terms of this pattern. Incidentally, it is within such narratives that we might see the first hints of a shadowy agency of the serpent, manipulating human agents behind the scenes, possibly implying that Genesis has a rather more developed concept of ‘Satanic’ power at work in the world than surface readings might give it credit for. The frequent subtle allusions to the Fall narrative at various points all hint at evil forces at work in the world that transcend the human protagonists, forces that are only fleetingly sighted, as if out of the corners of our eyes.

The second thing to observe is that, within this passage the exodus theme of new birth comes to the forefront, both in the closing of the wombs of Abimelech’s household, and in Sarah’s conception immediately after the wombs of Abimelech’s household are opened. The connection between exodus and new birth, already something that we have remarked upon, will be a prominent motif on a number of further occasions in these studies. While women have been in the background of these narratives, typically the victims of other people’s actions, as time progresses their role will become the prominent one, as their frontline covenant work of bearing the seed and outwitting the serpent comes to the fore.

A third detail that merits closer attention is Abraham’s new role. Abraham is no longer just the priest establishing new worship, nor the ruler over a people and military leader, but is now chiefly presented to us as the prophetic figure, who has power with God, a man whose words and prayers can build up or tear kingdoms. God no longer merely acts on his behalf, but acts through Abraham.

The Conversion of Abimelech

The actions of Abimelech within this chapter suggest that a real change occurs in his attitude, or at least in his narrative role. At the outset, he seems to be playing the standard serpent role. There seemed to be no fear of God in the land when Abraham first arrived (v.11), but after hearing of Abimelech’s vision of God, Abimelech’s servants are described as being ‘very afraid’ (v.8). Through his vision and his conversation with Abraham, Abraham moves to being one who supports the prophet. Formerly facing a terrible curse on account of his treatment of Abraham and Sarah, he responds, not by seeking to remove Abraham from his land and cease dealings with him, but to be blessed with him, as he treats Abraham with righteousness and kindness (cf. 12:3).

Abraham does not leave Philistia at this point, as he had left other lands beforehand, but remains there for a long time (21:34). The relationship between Abraham and Abimelech is akin to the relationship between Joseph and Pharaoh or between Daniel and the various rulers he served under. These parallels are not accidental. As we have already seen, Abraham’s life progresses from a priestly stage, to a kingly stage, before entering into a prophetic stage, each stage involving an expanded scope of influence. We see the same expansion of influence in the lives of the patriarchs, reaching its climax in Joseph’s rise to rule in Egypt, where Joseph’s prophetic wisdom is sought by a foreign ruler, who acknowledges the power of Israel’s God.

In the life of the nation of Israel the same pattern pertains. The earlier history of Israel is one dominated by the priesthood, leading to the establishment of the kingdom. The later history of Israel is a prophetic one, where its influence is scattered throughout the world, rising to positions of great influence within the mighty empires of the day. While the priestly era is dominated by the relationship with YHWH and the internal relations of the nation, the kingly era by relations with immediate neighbours, in the prophetic era the word of YHWH goes out into the world, into the very heart of the greatest empires of the day.

The Covenant with Abimelech

In 21:22-34 we read of events leading up to a more formal relationship between Abraham and Abimelech. Abimelech recognizes that God is with Abraham in all that Abraham does (cf. Genesis 26:28; 39:23) and asks Abraham to make an oath to him that he and his descendants will treat Abimelech’s land with the same kindness as Abimelech has treated Abraham, an oath that Abraham willingly makes (21:22-24).

Following this event, there is a troubling of their relationship, as Abimelech’s men seize one of Abraham’s wells, in an action not authorized by Abimelech himself. In response to this event, Abraham and Abimelech make a treaty. Abimelech restores the well and makes a covenant with Abraham. Abraham gives sheep and oxen to Abimelech, implying a stronger and more permanent relationship between the two of them. They then make a covenant at Beersheba, and Abraham establishes true worship there (21:31-33).

There are echoes of the events of the previous chapter that we should hear in the events surrounding the well. Peter Leithart remarks:

As Larry Lyke notes, “Following the events of chapter 20, it is hard to miss the significance of Abraham’s complaint that Abimelech has taken his ‘well.’ The juxtaposition of these texts is as close as our text comes to making explicit the association of women and wells in our narratives.” Reinforcing this is the fact that the well is named Beer-sheba, the well of the oath or the well of seven – a reference to the seven ewes that Abraham gives to Abimelech: “The association of the well of Beer-sheba with sheep connects this passage to the betrothal scenes. This all suggests that the cultural and literary competence that informs these texts strongly links women, wells, and sheep – all symbols of fertility.”

Abimelech’s men stealing Abraham’s well is analogous to Abimelech’s taking of Sarah. Throughout Genesis and beyond we see the association between women, sheep, water, and wells (Genesis 24:15-21; 29:1-10; 38:12-14; in my previous post I referenced Nathan’s symbolic representation of Bathsheba as a ewe lamb – 2 Samuel 12:3). For instance, in Exodus 2:16, we see Moses encountering the seven daughters of Reuel or Jethro, the priest of Midian, at a well, where they are trying to water their flocks (I suspect that some echo of the seven ewes of Beersheba should be seen here). A struggle over or at wells needs to be related to the threat to the woman, being an extension of and allusion to that particular motif. The relationship between these things will also be important to keep in mind when we study the account of Isaac’s sojourn among the Philistines in Genesis 26.

The Opening of the Wombs

It is important to notice that Sarah’s womb is opened at the same time as the wombs of the women of Abimelech’s household. In his typically perceptive piece, Jordan suggests that a relationship is here being drawn between the healing of the Gentiles and the birth of the promised seed. It is no coincidence that the birth of the promised seed follows after the development of the exodus theme to one leading to conversion, rather than judgment or destruction, and that it follows after Abraham’s prophetic prayer. Jordan writes:

Recall that the whole purpose of calling Abram in the first place was so that he could be father to many nations, so that he could be a priest and evangelist to the gentiles. In the fulfillment of God’s plan, we often see salvation and blessing come first to the Hebrews/Israelites/Jews, and then also to the Gentiles. But we also see instances of salvation and blessing not coming to the Jews until after it comes to the Gentiles, as in the case of Joseph. The book of Romans reflects on both of these sequences, telling us in chapter 1 that the gospel is “for the Jew first and also for the Greek,” and then also telling us in chapter 11 that the Gentiles are saved first, and then the salvation of Israel comes.

In fact, Romans 11:15 is quite specific: When Israel is saved after the Gentiles, it is “life from the dead.” This phrase does not appear in a vacuum, because Paul has already said that God “gives life to the dead” when discussing the opening of Sarah’s womb (Romans 4:17, 19).

Conclusion

Far from being a mere stolid rehearsal of a tradition praising the beauty of the patriarchs’ wives or a tale with a moralistic import, Genesis 20-21 is an account of deep typological and redemptive historical import. The serpent figure is converted, not destroyed, and the righteous are given a greater power and influence in the wider world, ministering to peoples outside of the land of Canaan. It is a story of the blessing of the Gentiles and the opening of the wombs, so that Israel’s fullness can come.

I have passed by Genesis 15 and 16 without comment. I had originally planned to return to these as part of my study of Ishmael’s exodus, but have since decided to tackle Genesis 15 by itself as there is more than enough material to justify doing so. I will return to Genesis 16 later.

The Promise of Heirs

In Genesis 15 we find Abram shortly after his victory over Chedorlaomer and the kings with him, receiving a vision from YHWH. This is the first explicit record of a vision in the book of Genesis. In my previous post I spoke of Abraham being treated as a prophet by YHWH in chapter 18, being allowed to have input in the decisions of the Heavenly Council. The prophetic vision that Abram receives in this chapter is another, earlier, sign that he is being raised to this prophetic vocation.

Chief among Abram’s concerns is that of his need for a firstborn son and heir. At that moment in time his heir was Eliezer of Damascus, one of his homeborn servants. YHWH promises Abram that he will have an heir from his own body and then brings him outside in the vision.

YHWH directs Abram’s attention towards the stars, declaring that his descendants should be like them. The relationship between Abram’s descendants and the stars goes beyond numbers alone. The stars of heaven, created on the fourth day, are not merely characterized by their numerousness, but also by their role as rulers and light-givers (Genesis 1:14-19). Some have suggested a relationship between the blessings upon the sons of Jacob and the tribes in Genesis 49 and Deuteronomy 33, the organization of the camp in Numbers, and the signs of the zodiac. Abram’s descendants, like countless stars, shall serve as a sort of celestial people, exercising God’s rule over the earth (cf. Numbers 24:17).

The stars are also bearers of light and are related to the angels as the sons of YHWH (cf. Job 38:7; Psalm 104:4). The descendants of Abram will be sons of YHWH, light-giving rulers like the angels. This is a theme that is taken up in such places as Daniel 12:3, where the resurrected righteous shine like stars. Christians are called to be like celestial lights (Philippians 2:15; Matthew 13:43). As the salt and light of the world, we fulfilments of the Abrahamic promise of seed like the sand and the stars. The promise that Abram’s descendants would be like the stars of heaven for multitude is one that is recalled at various points during the Exodus (Exodus 32:13; Deuteronomy 1:10; 10:22), Moses declaring the multitude of the children of Israel to be a fulfilment of that promise.

A Remarkable Vision

Having assured Abram of numerous descendants, YHWH promises him the land also. YHWH begins his declaration that he will give Abram the land with a formula of identity that should be very familiar to us in a closely related form. ‘I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it’ is a slight variation of the divine formula of self-identification that we typically find related to the Exodus – ‘I am the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt’ (e.g. Leviticus 19:36; 22:33; 25:38; 26:13; Numbers 15:41; Judges 2:1). Just as he will with Abram’s descendants YHWH identifies himself to Abram through and relates to Abram on the basis of a past exodus.

Abram requests a confirming sign of YHWH’s promise, a second witness to seal YHWH’s word. YHWH instructs Abram to bring five animals – a three-year-old heifer (עגלה), a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon (v.9). Abram cuts the animals (but not the birds) in two and lays the parts out opposite to each other. Unclean vultures (Leviticus 11:13) then seek to descend upon the carcasses, but Abram drives them away (Genesis 15:11). Then, as the sun is going down, Abram falls into a deep sleep and great darkness and horror comes upon him (v.12).

God declares to Abram that his descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, where they will serve and be afflicted for four hundred years. After this time, they will come out with great possessions. They will then, when the wickedness of the Amorites reaches its full height, return to Canaan and inherit the whole of the land (vv.16, 18-21). Here we see that Exodus is absolutely central to the promise made to and covenant made with Abram. Later in Scripture, the covenant made with Abram and the other patriarchs is presented as a primary cause of the Exodus (Deuteronomy 7:7-8; 10:15).

After having declared this future to Abram, the sun goes down and it is dark. A ‘smoking oven’ and a ‘burning torch’ then pass between the pieces and YHWH makes his covenant with Abram.

The Meaning of the Vision

The reason why these particular animals are chosen, especially why their sex and age is so stipulated is difficult to determine. While Noah sacrificed of all of the clean animals (8:20), the animals selected here are of the five species that will become part of the sacrificial system. These are the species of animals that will represent Israel to YHWH. However, although a heifer could have been used for a peace offering (Leviticus 3:1), the sex for the peace offering was seemingly a matter of indifference. Nowhere is the use of a heifer stipulated in the regular sacrifices (the red heifer did not function as a regular sacrifice and the ritual of Deuteronomy 21:1-9). The only time a she-goat is stipulated is in the case of a sin offering for the commoner (Leviticus 4:27-28; Numbers 15:27). The only other occasion where a similar ritual is recorded in Scripture, a male calf is used (עגל – Jeremiah 34:18-19).

Within the Levitical system we learn that the he-goat represents the civil leader or the nation as a civil entity as a whole (Leviticus 4:22-23; 9:3; Numbers 15:24), the bull the high priest or the whole religious assembly (Leviticus 4:3, 13-14), and the pigeon and turtledove are especially associated with the poor. The ram is the most fundamental sacrifice, particularly associated with the firstborn son (in the Akedah or at the Passover, for instance), representing persons who are neither holders of high office, nor of low social degree. The female animals would symbolize the counterparts of each of these (the sex of birds is never stipulated). The she-goat is the regular citizen (Leviticus 4:27-28; Numbers 15:27) and the ewe is the daughter or sister of Israel (2 Samuel 12:3).

The heifer symbolizes the holy people as the priestly virgin bride. The heifer doesn’t function in the regular sacrifices because the priestly virgin bride is represented to YHWH by the priests, the husbands of Israel. The bull calves or bulls represented the priests (note the use of an עגל in Leviticus 9:2), who in turn represented YHWH’s husbanding of Israel. The bull calf (עגל) in Jeremiah 34:18 represents the priesthood (which in turn represents YHWH). In passing through the pieces, Israel summoned the pieces as witnesses against them should they break the covenant, and invoking the same fate for themselves in such a situation. The fact that Aaron formed a golden calf was not an arbitrary form of idolatry, but was related to the symbolism of the animals within the sacrificial system (as Leithart has observed, the golden calf was a replacement for Moses).

The dismembered animals symbolize Israel – as I have already remarked, these are the particular species of animals that will represent Israel in the sacrificial system. More particularly, however, they symbolize Israel in the state of bondage in Egypt, where Israel was without king or priest, without public representatives or official leaders. They are three-years-old, still young, but having attained to maturity. Three is a significant number in Genesis and Exodus, being associated with key transitions or moments of destiny on several occasions. It possibly also relates to the reference to the return in the ‘fourth generation’ in v.16. Hence, the nation is symbolized by: a) a heifer – the priestly bride nation without representative priestly husbands; b) a female goat – the royal nation without rulers; c) a ram – the firstborn males; d) a turtledove and young pigeon – the poor, oppressed, and enslaved. As we read of the Exodus, this is the state that we shall see: the heifers are struggling to calve, the goats are being burdened, the rams are being killed, and the birds are being caged.

Torn in two, the dead body of the nation of Israel lies in Egypt (cf. Revelation 11:7-10). The unclean carrion birds of the nations seek to descend upon the carcass to pick it apart, but Abram chases them away, as on account of his remembrance of his covenant with Abram, YHWH protects Israel from Pharaoh’s attacks.

Darkness and the Passing of the Torch

The references to the descent of the sun and the arrival of darkness in this passage are quite noteworthy. Abram has already been directed to look up at the stars in verse 5, so we know that it isn’t daytime. Nevertheless, the passage underlines the coming of darkness in quite an exaggerated manner: ‘when the sun was going down’ (v.12), ‘great darkness fell upon him’ (v.12), ‘the sun went down and it was dark’ (v.17). The arrival of (an unnatural) darkness is a very important theme. The sun doesn’t rise again in the text until the time of the destruction of the four cities of the plain (19:23). We see the same thing in Jacob’s sojourn with Laban: the sun descends at Bethel, where he has a night vision (28:11), and doesn’t rise again until after he crosses the Jabbok and finishes wrestling with YHWH (32:31). Once again, following a dangerous encounter with YHWH by night as he goes down to Egypt (Exodus 4:24-26), the sun doesn’t rise over Moses again in the text until the waters of the Red Sea close over the Egyptians (14:27).

The descent to darkness is a return to the darkness that preceded the creation (Genesis 1:2) and, as such, is a preparation for new creation. Abram’s ‘deep sleep’ is also a descent to a death-like state, one that will lead either to final destruction or to resurrection. It is the same ‘deep sleep’ into which Adam was placed when YHWH formed Eve out of his side (Genesis 2:21). Within Abram’s deep sleep, YHWH will raise up a royal priesthood from his loins, from the animals that symbolize his people’s powerlessness and death.

This descent into death is one of horror and great darkness, the turning out of all lights, the extinguishing of all stars. Within the terror of this Stygian pitch, a smoking oven and a burning torch pass between the dismembered pieces of the animals. This is the Passover (the same terminology is used in Exodus 12:12, 23), after the plague of darkness, where YHWH passes through Egypt and Israel, bringing death to the Egyptians, but raising dismembered Israel to new national life (cf. Ezekiel 37). This is also related to the new creation events of Genesis 1:2, where the Spirit hovers over the water, Genesis 8:1, where the wind (Spirit?) from YHWH passes over the earth, and strong east wind that divides the waters in Exodus 14:21.

At the point where Israel’s national death seems absolutely assured, on the shores of the Red Sea, we see an event that recalls this covenant-making ceremony. The Angel of YHWH and the pillar of cloud/fire pass through the camp of Israel, moving from before them to standing behind them (Exodus 14:19). The torch in Abram’s vision represents the Angel of YHWH; the smoking oven represents the pillar of cloud/fire (the Angel of YHWH and the glory cloud of the Presence are intimately related, but distinct). The children of Israel can then pass through the witnessing heaps of the waters of the Red Sea. When the Egyptians attempt to do the same, they are broken in pieces and become carrion (Psalm 74:14). Unsurprisingly, as we shall see in the future, the Red Sea crossing is recounted in terms that invoke the themes of creation, much as Abram’s night vision.

The Animals and the Sacrificial System

I have already observed that the animals of Genesis 15 are the animals that represent Israel in the sacrificial system. We can relate the elements of Abram’s night vision to practices within the sacrificial system. If we read Leviticus 1, we can see the same pattern. Bulls, he-goats, rams, turtledoves, and young pigeons are offered to YHWH. The animals are skinned, they are divided into parts, the head and the fat are laid on the altar, the entrails and legs are separately washed and placed on the altar too, the fire passes between them, and they are consumed into YHWH’s presence in the sacrificial pillar of fire and smoke, being rejoined in a more glorious form.

The pattern of division and glorious rejoining through the fiery Spirit is one manifested in events in sacred history as well. Flesh and bone are taken from Adam’s side and Eve is built from it and then joined to him in marriage. Moses is set apart as the head through the dividing work of God at the Red Sea (cf. Exodus 14:31) and the feet and entrails of the people are symbolically washed. Then God joins Moses to Israel in a more glorious way through the covenant given at Sinai, as Moses ascends into YHWH’s fiery thundercloud and YHWH’s Law and Presence are given. Elijah, Elisha’s ‘head’ is removed (2 Kings 2:5) and ascends into heaven in the fire, after they have passed through the water. The Spirit of Elijah then descends to Elisha, along with Elijah’s ‘skin’ or hairy mantle, creating a new and more glorious unity, as Elisha completes Elijah’s commission in his mighty Spirit. Christ is separated from his disciples through his death and resurrection. After his ascension, the Spirit reunites the separated parts as a glorious new Pentecostal body, a unity of Bridegroom and Bride.

James Jordan suggests, rightly I believe, that the sacrifices should be read as memorials of YHWH’s covenant. In offering whole burnt – or ascension – offerings, the offerer is calling upon YHWH to recall his covenant promise to resurrect Abram’s dead seed, to exodus them from Egypt and from the grave and re-member them into his presence. Abram’s vision reveals the fundamental symbolic covenant promise that underlies the entire sacrificial system and which anticipates future fulfilment in Christ.

Summing Up

YHWH’s covenant with Abram is the cause of the Exodus: he brings Israel out of Egypt because he loved Abram and swore an oath to him (Deuteronomy 7:7-8; 10:15). In Genesis 15, YHWH declares the Exodus in detail to Abram and, in a vision, he reveals what he will accomplish. In this vision, YHWH reveals both decreation – the judgment of death on Egypt – and new creation – the raising of dead Israel. This is all fulfilled in the Passover. Exodus is revealed to be at the heart of YHWH’s covenant promise, exodus from Egypt and exodus from the tomb. YHWH assures Abram of his promise by passing through the pieces himself, declaring that, if he fails to keep his promise, he will become like those pieces himself. This covenant promise is constantly appealed to in the sacrifices of Israel and is fulfilled in Christ. Genesis 15 reveals that Exodus is more than merely a pattern of divine activity: it is a certain promise of divine deliverance.