Ep. 17. Genesis 32,33,35 | Jacob and Esau

EPISODE 17

JACOB AND ESAU: GENESIS 32,33,35

No big surprises today; Jacob is still scared of his big brother. He is a bit of a punk to put his least favorite wife and kids in the front just in case Esau gets violent. I mean, come on, who does that?

The most significant thing in this reading is that Jacob wrestles with "a man" and gets renamed "Israel." I wish this part of the story gave us more details. It is such a mysterious event, and I am not smart enough to provide you with much information about it. I wish I could, and maybe in time, I can revisit this video and post, but it won't be today. A friend told me about twenty-five years ago, "Don't try to swim in knee-deep water; don't go beyond your ability." So, with that in mind, I'll shut up about Jacob wrestling this angel (or God) and say, "I'm not deep enough to talk about that yet."

We skipped chapter 34 on purpose, but we will return to it. Jacob (Israel) flees again from his brother Esau, and God directs him toward Bethel. Once there, Israel made an altar to God and had his family put away all the foreign gods they had been serving. It is possible they picked up some of the foreign gods in the city of Shechem, where they dwelled for a short time, or they could have been serving the idols Rachel stole from her father, Laban. Either way, you would like to think Israel had no part in idol worship, but that doesn't seem to be the way of the nation of Israel. They were always taking up foreign idols and having to put them away again.

Genesis 35:11-12 will sound very familiar to you as it resembles Genesis 1:26-28 and several statements God made to Abraham.

Finally, Rachel gave birth to her second and last son, Benjamin. Rachel died in childbirth. Rachel was buried in "Ephrath (that is Bethlehem." Pay attention to Ephrath. It also has a prominent place in the history of the nation of Israel, and of course, is where our Savior was born.

ADDITIONAL READING: Genesis 1:26-27; Micah 5:2