Lesson #20

In a Far Country

(48: 1 50: 26)

In Lesson #19, Jacob and his entire family numbering 70 in allarrive in Egypt, and we witness the reunion of Jacob with his beloved son, Joseph, a son who for 22 years Jacob thought was dead. The meeting is a tear-jerker! Joseph threw his arms around [his father] and wept a long time [on his neck], while Jacob stands mute, perhaps rigid, a frail old man whose heart had stopped, paralyzed by overwhelming emotion.

In a brilliant conclusion, Lesson #20 brings Jacobs entire family together in Egypt, where Jacob blesses his sons, blessings that foreshadow future events. Recall that God said to Adam, You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die (Genesis 2: 17). Adam did eat of the tree, and he did, indeed, die. As the story of Genesis begins with birth, so it ends with death: in Genesis 50: 26 we read, So Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten. And after they embalmed him, he was placed in a coffin in Egypt. Our story comes full circle, but instead of enjoying eternal life in the Garden of Eden, the Israelites are in Egypt, poised on the brink of slavery, far from where they belong.

In a very important sense, Genesis is the opening chapter in the sprawling narrative of Scripture; it launches a 2,000-page story whose trajectory will span 2,000 years, involving unforgettable heroes and villains, rascals and rogues, and ending with the redemption not just of Israel but of the entire human family.

Antoine Pesne. Portrait of an Old Jew (oil on canvas), c. 1757. St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO.

. . . When Israel saw Josephs sons, he asked, Who are these? (48: 8)
This is a heart-breaking moment. Jacob, the assertive, confident and brash young man, is at the end of a long life, feeble and frail. As any adult child of an aging parent knows, as memory weakens, lucid moments are interspersed with bouts of confusion and momentary inability to recognize familiar faces.

When Joseph brought his sons close to him, he kissed and embraced them (48: 10).

Guercino. Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph (oil on canvas), c. 1620. National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin.

With the the energy of the entire Patriarchal Tale behind it, Jacobs extended narrative in Chapter 49 brings closure to the story of the Patriarchs, harkening back to events in the preceding narrative and looking forward to what will come.
1. Jacob addresses Leahs six sons first: Ruben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Zebulun and Issachar. 1. Ruben is displaced for his sexual indiscretion with his fathers wife, Bilhah (35: 22). 2. Simeon and Levi are displaced for their violence after the rape of Dinah in slaughtering the people of Schechem (34: 1-31) 3. Judah moves to position #1, due in large part to his protecting Benjamin, placing him as the progenitor of the House of David and, ultimately of the Messiah, Christ. 4. Zebulun, Issachar and Dan: Zebulun will live on the coastal plain; Issachar will be saddled in the Jezreel Valley; and Dan will become a divided, violent people.

Jacob then addresses the sons of Leah and Rachels maidservants, Bilhah and Zilpah in an A/B/B/A form:
A B B A Bilhah (Dan) Zilpah (Gad) Zilpah (Asher) Bilhah (Naphtali)

And finally, Jacob addresses the sons of his beloved Rachel, Joseph and Benjamin.

The Boys

Ruben

Marc Chagall. Ruben (stained glass), 1962. Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem.

Simeon

Marc Chagall. Simeon (stained glass), 1962. Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem.

Levi

Marc Chagall. Levi (stained glass), 1962. Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem.

Judah

Marc Chagall. Judah (stained glass), 1962. Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem.

Zebulun

Marc Chagall. Zebulun (stained glass), 1962. Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem.

Issachar

Marc Chagall. Issachar (stained glass), 1962. Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem.

Dan

Marc Chagall. Dan (stained glass), 1962. Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem.

Gad

Marc Chagall. Gad (stained glass), 1962. Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem.

Asher

Marc Chagall. Asher (stained glass), 1962. Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem.

Naphtali

Marc Chagall. Naphtali (stained glass), 1962. Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem.

Joseph

Marc Chagall. Joseph (stained glass), 1962. Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem.

Benjamin

Marc Chagall. Benjamin (stained glass), 1962. Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem.

Anonymous. Jacob on His Deathbed, (woodcut, possibly from Cramers Bible), c.1539. Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gray Collection, Cambridge, MA.

Final Thoughts
Jacob began as the deceiver, one who knew what he wanted from life and got it: the birthright, the blessing, marriage to his beloved Rachel, prolific progeny and great wealth. But one measure of the moral realism of the story is that all his gains came with far more pain than contentment.

Final Thoughts, Cont.

Everything was a struggle: 1. getting the birthright, but at the cost of fear, guilt and exile; 2. getting Rachel, but only after having Leah imposed on him, living a life of tremendous domestic strife, and losing Rachel in childbirth; 3. getting 12 sons, but enduring enormous enmity among them and grieving for 22 years over the death of his favorite son, whom he believed is dead.

Jacobs story, like Davids, is virtually unique in ancient literature in its searching representation of the radical transformation a person undergoes in the slow course of time. The powerful young man who made his way across the Jordan to Mesopotamia with only his walking staff, who wrestled with stones and men and divine beings, is now an old man tottering on the brink of the grave, bearing the deep wounds of his long life. Robert Alter The Five Books of Moses, p. 265.

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Genesis is a masterpiece of ancient literature in its own right, but what function does it serve in the overall architecture of Scripture, the grand narrative sweep of Genesis through Revelation? The patriarchs and matriarchs of Scripture are far from perfect peoplethey are quite the oppositebut God uses them nonetheless. What might we learn about God from these stories? What might we learn about ourselves? We have witnessed the use of ambiguity in many of the stories in Genesis, allowing for a variety of nuanced readings. Why would ambiguity be used in these stories? Having reached the end of Genesis, we are poised on the brink of our next book in the canon: Exodus. Has Genesis foreshadowed events to come for the Hebrews? If so, what might they be? What is the primary lesson we learn in Genesis?

Copyright 2013 by William C. Creasy

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