Israel

If God exists, do you think that he/she/it must always be right?

Background

Isaac, the son of Abraham, lived in Canaan, which is the area covered by the modern-day states of Israel and Palestine. God had promised the land of Canaan to his father Abraham, but at this time was mostly populated by the descendants of Noah’s grandson, Canaan - hence the name).

Isaac was the father of twins, Esau and Jacob. Esau was born just before Jacob, and so was the eldest son. The tradition of the time was that the eldest son would inherit all the father’s wealth and titles. So, technically, it should have been Esau that inherited everything. This was, according to the traditions of his time, his birthright.

Jacob’s name was later changed to Israel. He was the father of the Israelites, and the country of Israel is named after him. But he is perhaps not what you would expect from a forefather. We might expect that the father of a nation would be some kind of great hero: noble, honest and so on. And even if he wasn’t in real life, you might expect those to be the stories that are told about him. But this isn’t the case with Jacob. It’s not entirely clear that he is good at all.

Summary

Abraham had a son called Isaac and Isaac had sons Jacob and Esau.

Esau was the oldest and so should have inherited everything from Isaac but Jacob tricked Isaac and stole his birthright.

Jacob met a man and had a fight with him. The man said, ‘now you will be called Israel, which means “struggle with God”’.

Jacob had 12 sons.

Joseph was Jacob’s 11th and favourite son. To demonstrate it he gifted Joseph the “coat of many colours”

His brothers grew jealous of him, they sent Joseph to slavery and faked his death.

Joseph worked his way up from slave to adviser to the Pharaoh.

He foresaw that there would be a famine and advised the Pharaoh to make preparations.

Jacob and the rest of the family had very little food, so they went to Egypt and stayed with Joseph.

Joseph died in Egypt but was taken back to Canaan as per his wishes.

The birthright

One day, Esau returned from farming in the fields and was very hungry. Jacob had made a stew, and Esau begged him for some. Jacob offered him some stew in exchange for his birthright, and Esau agreed.

Later, when Isaac was very old and blind, he called Esau in to see him because he knew he would die soon and wanted to give Esau his blessing and hand over the inheritance. Their mother, Rebecca, overheard Esau planning this, and quickly told Jacob to disguise himself as Esau. Because Isaac was blind, he wouldn’t be able to see that it was Jacob, but Jacob was worried that he would know it was him because he had smooth skin but Esau was very hairy. Rebecca told Jacob to wear some goatskin so that he would seem hairy to Isaac. She also told him to wear Esau’s clothes so he smelled like him.

Despite Isaac being very suspicious, he blessed Jacob nonetheless and gave him the inheritance.

(It’s not in the Genesis account, but according to a mediaeval French Rabbi, known as Rashi, when Jacob entered the room, Isaac smelled the heavenly scent of paradise, but with Esau he smelled the scent of Gehenna - the valley where the sinful dead go.)

Jacob wrestles with God

After stealing Esau’s birthright, Jacob feared that Esau would want revenge and so he ran away. He did eventually try to return to Canaan though. Something very strange happened, however, on his way back.

22 That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”

But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

27 The man asked him, “What is your name?”

“Jacob,” he answered.

28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

29 Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”

But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.

30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”

31 The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon.

—Genesis, chapter 32

The twelve sons of Israel

Jacob had twelve sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph and Benjamin. His favourite son was Joseph. Jacob even made Joseph a really fancy colourful coat. All the other brothers hated Joseph for the special treatment he got, so much so that one day they beat him up and sold him into slavery, telling their Dad he was killed by a wild beast.

Joseph ended up a slave in Egypt but using his special skills of prophecy and dream-reading, over about twenty years, he worked his way up the ladder until he became a powerful adviser to the Pharaoah (King) of Egypt.

One particularly good piece of advice that Joseph gave was telling the pharaoh that he should store up some grain in case of famine, which the pharaoh did. And so, when the entire area (including Canaan) was suffering from failed harvests, the Egyptians were ok.

Still living in Canaan, Jacob and his family were suffering from a lack of food and so they went to Egypt in search of help. After engaging in some shenanigans with his brothers, Joseph eventually revealed his identity, and invited his family to live with him in Egypt.

In accordance with his wishes, when Jacob died, he was carried from Egypt to the land of Canaan to a place near the city of Shechem, and was buried there.

Tasks

Why might someone argue that Jacob was not a great role-model?
Do you think that it would be better if the father of the nation was perfect, or is it good that he was imperfect?
Think about the way God is portrayed in these stories: the way in which Jacob seems to be blessed despite not being very good, and the way God (or at least a divine being) fights with Jacob. What do you think of this concept of God? Explain your answer.

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