Shadowland: Beginnings: Week 34

משחק בינגו

Genesis 29: The Rights of the Firstborn

• 29:1 "lifted his feet" (often translated "went on his journey") - Jacob was walking on air for the remaining 500 mile hike to Haran, believing the promises he had received.
• 29:2-3 As Pink says, there is some spiritual significance about these details (that he fails to discern). But I can at least point to the practical significance. Wells are scarce resources. The stone kept out sand, but since this was a shared well, was also big enough to require several men to move it, so that one party could not hog it. Or at least too big for a child or female.
• 29:4 Eliezer, when he arrived at Haran seeking a wife for Isaac, immediately asks the Lord for guidance in the momentous task of choosing a Godly wife. Jacob asks some shepherds.
• 29:7 Jacob was trying to get rid of these guys to talk to Rachel.
• 29:8 But his ploy fails, they will not move the stone without Laban's daughter, especially because she cannot move the stone.
• 29:10 The three references to his mother suggest the source of Jacobs emotion. Jacob did not necessarily move the stone by himself ("strong as 3 men!"); the other 3 were waiting for Rachel. But I'm pretty sure he was showing off, with an extra boost of strength. Isaac's bride waters the camels of Eliezer. Jacob waters the sheep of Rachel.
• 29:15 "serve me" - Jacob lied to receive Isaacs blessing, "Let peoples serve thee." But Jacob's first discipline is to serve Laban.
• 29:17 "tender eyed" - teary. Either caring and compassionate - or bleary eyed from allergies or dry desert air. (Commentators are split.) "well favoured" - to this day, Rachel is more revered.
• 29:20 "they seems to him but a few days" - a poignant description of romantic love.
• 29:25 Bear this in mind when feeling sorry for Leah later on: She is complicit in the scheme, keeping her identity concealed from Jacob.
• 29:26 Jacob gets a hard lesson in the rights of the firstborn. And smarts from a mirror of the deception he foisted on his father.
• 29:31 Not just the reader, but God himself is heartbroken over Leahs rejection. I note that while many OT saints had multiple wives, they only had one "favorite". (Which sometimes changed.) Thus, modern divorce and remarriage is essentially serial polygamy. Apparently, while a man can father children by multiple women, he can only "cleave to" one.
• 29:32 Reu-ben - "see a son". Because the Lord has seen my affliction.
• 29:33 Simeon - "hearing". Because the Lord has heard that I was hated.
• 29:34 Levi - "attached". Now this time my husband will be joined to me.
• 29:35 Judah - "praise". Now will I praise the Lord. Leah continues the line of the Seed. Leah is buried next to Sarah - Rachel has a tomb by herself.

Hindsight is 20/20