[First posted in 2014. This series “Becoming Israel” follows the third generation patriarch from whom would issue twelve sons/twelve tribes who would thenceforth be called “Israelites” instead of Jacobites. As previously explained, this series reflects Sinaite discussions and enables the straight-through reading of this chapter without commentary from our usual three sourcebooks. Our translation of choice is Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses.—Admin.]
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Notice the title: this series is about Yaakov AKA Israel, so why is Esau mentioned first? Hint: not because he’s the firstborn who lost his birthright. Character is key here. His name does not change. Read on.
Getting a new name is easy and can happen overnight. But if the name isn’t simply for identification but has meaning that reflects character like most Hebrew names, then what takes time is for the bearer to live up to the meaning of his name.
Yaakov, after 20 years of being humbled and taken advantage of in the household of Laban sees the hand of God working in his favor on not a few occasions. As a result his faith in the God of his father Isaac and his grandfather Avraham was progressively reinforced. He starts undergoing a character transformation. By the time he would face the moment he feared most—the revenge he expected from his brother Esau—he had changed from the man he was when he fled from home to avoid his twin’s revenge.
For Yaakov the ‘chosen’, change is to be expected, he is renamed “Israel.”
What about Esau, Mr. “hairy red”? He doesn’t undergo a name change . . . but has this man changed?
‘Israel,’ the changed man prepares to meet his twin Esau. You would think that after wrestling with an angel and “prevailing” over “the divine Other” Yaakov would be highly-spirited enough to face his brother at the forefront of his travelling caravan. At first it appears like he’s a coward because look at how he arranges his entourage—
- at the front are Bilhah and Zilpah and their children,
- followed by Leah and her children,
- then Rachel and Joseph.
Vs 3 however describes that Yaakov/Israel “advanced ahead of them,” meaning, he did position himself in front. At least he gathered enough courage to meet Esau and his 400 men as the ‘head’ and not the ‘tail’.
Notice his body language at this point: bowing seven times must have been a recognizable gesture of humility if not respect which Esau graciously responds to, for look at the words describing this changed twin Esau:
- “ran,”
- “embraced,”
- “flung himself upon his neck,”
- “kissed”
- and “wept.”
What? Think of Esau the last time scripture describes him . . . angry, bitter, vengeful. What happened all the years between? He explains:
God has shown me favor—for I have everything.
The gracious God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is truly just and demonstrates in the lives of both Ismael and Esau, the ‘not chosen ones’, that He looks after their welfare as well:
“God has shown me favor.”
This unexpected behavior from Esau elicits a response from Yaakov/Israel that gives us a clue to how we “see” God in our midst. When someone reflects the image of God within him, when we catch a glimpse of godlike character, this affects others in a positive way. Gracious God-like behavior is disarming, surprising, people don’t expect it so there is a surprising effect on others who witness it.
Israel says of Esau:
For I have, after all, seen your face,
as one sees the face of God,
and you have been gracious to me.
This is similar to the lyrics of a song in the musical Les Miserables:
“To love another person is to see the face of God”
—which sums up the changed life of its character Jean Valjean in the end.
What great models of right and proper behavior these brothers demonstrate for those caught in bitter sibling rivalry:
- the one who has done wrong recognizes his fault and repents and makes up,
- on the other side, the wronged twin forgives and is quite willing to reconcile.
God is present in this scene indeed!
In behalf of Sinai 6000
Core Community,
Image from st-takla.org
Genesis/Bereshith 33
1 Yaakov lifted up his eyes and saw: there was Esav coming, and with him, four hundred men! He divided the children among Lea, Rahel, and the two maids: 2 he put the maids and their children first, Lea and her children behind them, and Rahel and Yosef behind them, 3 while he himself advanced ahead of them. And he bowed low to the ground seven times, until he had come close to him, to his brother. 4 Esav ran to meet him, he embraced him,flung himself upon his neck,and kissed him. And they wept. 5 Then he lifted up his eyes and saw the women and the children, and said: What are these to you? He said: —the children with whom God has favored your servant. 6 Then the maids came close, they and their children, and bowed low. 7 Then Lea and her children came close and bowed low. Afterward Yosef and Rahel came close and bowed low. 8 He said: What to you is all this camp that I have met? He said: —to find favor in my lord’s eyes. 9 Esav said: I have plenty, my brother, let what is yours remain yours. 10 Yaakov said: No, I pray! Pray, if I have found favor in your eyes, then take this gift from my hand. For I have, after all, seen your face, as one sees the face of God, and you have been gracious to me. 11 Pray take my token-of-blessing that is brought to you, for God has shown me favor—for I have everything. And he pressed him, so he took it. 12 Then he said: Let us travel on, and I will go on at your side. 13 But he said to him: My lord knows that the children are frail, and the sheep and the oxen are suckling in my care; if we were to push them for a single day, all the animals would die! 14 Pray let my lord cross on ahead of his servant, while as for me, I will travel slowly, at the pace of the gear ahead of me and at the pace of the children, until I come to my lord, at Se’ir. 15 Esav said: Pray let me leave with you some of the people who are mine. But he said: For what reason? May I only find favor in my lord’s eyes! 16 So Esav started back that same day on his journey to Se’ir, 17 while Yaakov traveled to Succot. He built himself a house there, and for his livestock he made sheds. Therefore they called the name of the place: Succot/Sheds. 18 Yaakov came home in peace to the city of Shekhem, which is in the land of Canaan, on his homecoming from the country of Aram, and he encamped facing the city. 19 And he acquired the piece of territory where he had spread out his tent, from the Sons of Hamor, Shekhem’s father, for a hundred lambs’-worth. 20 There he set up a slaughter-site > and called it: El/God, the God of Yisrael!
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