Northern Kentucky's Evening Interdenominational Community Bible Study Text of Presentation, Lesson 18b-19, Gen 33-36 Click Here for Lesson 18b-19 Photos Click Here to return to GENESIS Home Page

Genesis 33:1-36:43
Jacob meets Esau: Planning, Prayer, and Strategy
Jacob’s Compromise and Commitment: The Cost of Discipleship

Last week’s lesson ended with Jacob in a state of high anxiety . . . afraid of what will happen the next day when – after 20 years – he meets his brother Esau with 400 men. In the middle of the night he sent his family and everything he owned across the Jabbok River, while he cowered on the north side. A theophany appeared and wrestled Jacob until dawn – dislocating Jacob’s hip. God then blessed Jacob, and changed his name to Israel, thus completing Jacob’s 20-year journey from a nominal believer in God . . . to someone who knew he relied on God’s blessing as his only source of wealth . . . to someone who finally trusts God and acknowledges God – not Jacob – is in control. Jacob can’t control Esau; and if he attacks, Jacob will be powerless against 400 men. Yet in dawn’s early light, Jacob limps across the Jabbok River to meet Esau, confident of God’s protection.

As this week’s lesson opens, Jacob sees Esau and his men approaching. He is unsure of their intent, so he divides his family in reverse order of his favor: the slave girls Bilhah and Zilpah and their four sons first, Leah and her seven children next, and Rachel and Joseph last. Jacob was a coward a few hours ago, but now he bravely gets out front. When Esau approaches, he bows down seven times: an elaborate sign of respect in the ancient Middle East.

To make a long story short . . . Esau comes in peace. In fact, Esau “embraces” Jacob (33:4) and calls him “my brother” (33:9) – a familiarity Jacob is not comfortable using. In the 20 years since Jacob left, Esau has also become wealthy – by God’s blessing, of course, but perhaps his loss of the inheritance and the father’s blessing made him decide he had to get work and build his own fortune. Now Esau has more than enough and is content; and as Rebekah anticipated, he has forgotten what Jacob did to him (27:45). Nevertheless, after first refusing these gifts, Esau agrees to accepts the livestock Jacob sent ahead; and he graciously invites Jacob to come home with him to Seir. Jacob reluctantly agrees – but instead turns west and enters Canaan.

Jacob goes to Shechem – where Abraham built his first altar (12:7) – and he buys land. Perhaps he does this to symbolize that God’s promise to Abraham – the land, the offspring, and the blessing – is now God’s promise to Jacob. Jacob also builds an altar to God (33:20) . . . no doubt to commemorate his vow to God 20 years earlier: “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey . . . so that I return safely, . . . then YHWH will be my God” (28:20-21).

Jacob’s first experience in Canaan is disastrous, but it’s key in the development of God’s promise. The story centers on the rape of Jacob’s 12-13 year old daughter Dinah by the son of the local chieftain. According to Jewish tradition (cf, Josephus, Antiquities 1:21:1) this occurs during a pagan festival, which Dinah attended, because she was allowed to move freely in the community (34:1), not confined to Jacob’s domicile. What to do?! Jacob’s daughter has been “defiled” (34:5), but his household is so outnumbered by the Canaanites they don’t dare take revenge!

The rapist claims to be in love with Dinah and wants to marry her. Therefore, his father, the local chieftain, makes what seems to be a tempting proposal:

“Intermarry with us; give us your daughters and take our daughters for yourselves. You can settle among us; the land is open to you. Live in it, trade in it, and acquire property in it” (34:9-10).

This is an offer to assimilate. Jacob can’t accept this!! The reason Isaac married Rebekah – the reason Jacob went to Haran to marry Leah and Rachel – was so as not to assimilate with the Canaanites. The heirs of God’s promise to Abraham – whom God has promised to bless if they are faithful only to Him – cannot subject themselves to pagan influences in this way!!

The bible doesn’t say how Jacob reacts to the proposal, but Dinah’s brothers see it as an opportunity to take revenge. Remember . . . God’s covenant with Abraham includes the external sign of circumcision (17:10-14). So the brothers tell the Canaanites: We’re under a covenant with our God to be circumcised; we can’t assimilate if you are uncircumcised. But if you become circumcised . . . sure, we’ll assimilate (34:14-17). The bible says the brothers spoke “deceitfully” (34:13), because they have a plan! And although Jacob’s #2 and #3 sons – Simeon and Levi – become the “scapegoats,” my gut tells me that’s only so Reuben the firstborn can claim “plausible deniability”; all the brothers are involved!

The chieftain and his son convene a city council meeting at the city gate to consider the proposal from Jacob’s sons. They look greedily at Jacob’s wealth: “Won’t their livestock, their property and all their other animals become ours?” they speculate (34:23). So they agree to go under the knife; “every male in the city was circumcised” (34:24).

I was circumcised as a teenager, so I know how painful and debilitating it can be – even though it seems like not a big deal. So I find it very credible that – while the men of the city are nursing their wounds – Simeon and Levi can attack and kill them all . . . and bring Dinah home! Then the other 9 brothers do to the people of Shechem what the people of Shechem wanted to do Jacob’s family: confiscate their property.

Jacob says to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me a stench to . . . the people living in this land. . . . If they join forces against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed” (34:30). He’s stating the obvious . . . but Simeon and Levi also state the obvious: “Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?” (34:31). Can a people promised God’s protection allow themselves to be treated this way? What good is God’s promise of protection if they do?

Nevertheless, Jacob has to leave Shechem; the local “Canaanites and Perizzites” (34:30) will surely not let his family live in peace there. But where to go?

God provides the answer: “Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau” (35:1). God’s instructions serve a strategic purpose moving Jacob’s family 20 miles away from Shechem – a hard day’s journey for any seeking revenge; but they also serve a symbolic purpose by taking Jacob and his family to the site of God’s first promise to him . . . the place Jacob called “the gate of Heaven” (28:17). What better place to settle . . . and lay claim to God’s protection and His promises to Jacob?!

But before embarking, they seem to reflect on what they’ve learned from the disaster at Shechem. First, as God’s people, they are a people apart. They must remain at arm’s length from the local Canaanites . . . not becoming their friends, not participating in their festivals or religious practices, and not even dealing with them except from a position of strength. And second they must put away all previous religious allegiances and worship only Jacob’s God, YHWH. Recall . . . all the people of Jacob’s household – even his wives – were raised in a polytheistic environment; they’re OK worshiping YHWH, who has blessed them with so much wealth, but – as appropriate in their culture – they see no reason they can’t worship YHWH and the idols they’ve worshiped all their lives. But now that’s got to stop! “So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, ‘Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes. . . . Let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone’” (35:2-3).

This is a turning point for Jacob’s household. Just as Jacob became totally committed to God only after he wrestled with a theophany at the ford of the Jabbok (Gen 32), Jacob’s household is now forced to do the same by giving up “all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears”; Jacob buries them under an oak tree before they leave Shechem (35:4). And God Himself protects the family as they travel to Bethel, because “the terror of God fell upon the towns all around them so that no one pursued them” (35:5). When they arrive, Jacob builds an altar, just as God instructed (35:7).

Here the bible emphasizes that Jacob has now come full circle since he was in Bethel some 25 years ago: “After Jacob returned from Paddan Aram, God appeared to him again and blessed him” (35:9). Jacob left this spot as a nominal believer, forced to trust God because there was no other option; he returns a true believer, trusting God because that’s his best option. So now God repeats and elaborates on His first blessing in Bethel: His promise of the land, the offspring, and the blessing (35:11-12). And God reiterates Jacob’s name change to Israel to recognize his changed personality (35:10). In response, Jacob repeats the act of worship he performed so many years ago: he raises a stone pillar and pours oil on it 28:18; this time he also pours a drink offering on it (35:14) . . . presumably an additional sign of his dedication to God.

We know why Jacob left Shechem for Bethel . . . but the bible gives no clue why he leaves Bethel – only that he does. And the bible doesn’t say why he leaves with his favorite wife Rachel in an advanced pregnancy; she has had so much trouble becoming pregnant and is now almost 40! Nevertheless, she gives birth after they have traveled scarcely 10-15 miles – normally only 1-1½ day’s journey – to somewhere north of Ephrath, later called Bethlehem. Rachel dies in childbirth, leaving Jacob with his 12th and last son, Benjamin, who is 10-15 years younger than his brothers and Jacob’s only child born in Canaan. Jacob buries Rachel and sets a stone pillar over her grave; it was apparently still there when Jacob’s descendants returned to Canaan after 430 years of slavery in Egypt (35:20). Today, the traditional site of Rachel’s tomb is just north of Bethlehem; it was pictured on the web site, but it’s authenticity may be questioned. Although Matt 2:18 seems to confirm the Bethlehem tradition, when Jacob’s descendants returning from Egypt conquered Canaan, Rachel’s tomb was the southern border of the territory of the tribe of Benjamin (1 Sam 10:2), whereas Bethlehem is in the territory of the tribe of Judah – the tribe of King David and Jesus the Messiah.

Now that Jacob has 12 sons, Moses (the author) finds it appropriate to list them in 35:23-26. We won’t go over them . . . but will note the order, which is the way they are normally listed, and reflects the traditional way of assigning inheritance priority. The first 8 are the sons of Jacob’s two wives, in descending order of age from Reuben to Benjamin; the last 4 are the sons of Jacob’s two concubines in descending order of age.

Don’t overlook 35:22 as we move toward the conclusion of this lesson: “While Israel was living in (the Bethlehem) region, Reuben went in and slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard of it” (35:22). The act is disgusting, but some commentators suggest that – rather than merely a sexual tryst – this affair was only part of a “power play” by the sons of Leah, attempting to take over leadership of the family from Jacob. The bible records that sleeping with an old king’s concubine was regarded as a claim to the throne (2 Sam 16:22, 1 Kn 2:15-25). This could be interpreted the same way, and the sons of Leah seem to have ample grounds for complaint. Jacob never wanted to marry Leah, and her family has only been a step above the families of the slave girls in Jacob’s affection (33:2). Jacob did nothing about the rape of their sister Dinah; Simeon and Levi were the ones who carried out retribution. And now that Jacob’s favorite wife Rachel is dead – producing a 2nd son, Jacob is no doubt projecting his love for Rachel and guilt over her death to her sons. He did this in naming Benjamin; and in next week’s lesson the Jacob’s shameless, blatant favoritism for the sons of his favorite wife becomes obvious – to which Jacob’s other sons try to get rid of Joseph. The sons of Leah constitute a family majority – and allied with the sons of the slave girls they are more than enough for a coup. So there’s probably a lot we don’t know imbedded in 35:22. In any case, in the earlier discussion of the birthright and the blessing in the story of Jacob and Esau, the issue was raised how much discretion a father had to name his heir. Abraham’s choice of Isaac over Ishmael was only choosing his wife’s son over the son of a slave woman. Yet as Genesis comes to an end, we learn that when Jacob/Israel designates the rights of primogeniture as his death approaches, he passes over his oldest son Reuben because of this affair with Bilhah.

Jacob/Israel moves again, and finally reunites the extended family of God when he settles in Hebron – home base of his father Isaac and grandfather Abraham. Moses (the author) immediately mentions the death of Isaac, and the final reunion of Esau with Jacob for the burial of their father. This leads the reader to believe that Isaac’s death occurs soon after Jacob arrives in Hebron; but according to my chronology, Isaac dies more than 15 years after the birth of Benjamin, so Isaac and Jacob/Israel have a long time together. It appears 35:28-29 actually occurs after chapters 37-40; but as has been said before, Moses organizes his material more on a thematic basis than a chronological basis . . . and the death of Isaac neatly closes the story of the return of Jacob/Israel to Canaan, and the transmission of God’s promise from Abraham to Isaac and now to Jacob/Israel. Moreover, mentioning the death of Isaac now allows Moses to focus on Jacob’s sons for the balance of Genesis; to insert this event chronologically, Moses would need to interrupt the story of Joseph in Egypt, between chapters 40 and 41.

Rebekah is not mentioned at any time in Jacob’s return, which probably means she died beforehand. This might also explain why Rebekah’s nurse, Deborah, was with Jacob in Bethel, where she died and was buried (35:8). Deborah accompanied Rebekah when she left Nahor to marry Isaac (24:59), so perhaps she went out to welcome Jacob home to Canaan – and take Jacob the sad news of his mother’s death.

The traditional tombs of Isaac and Rebekah are in the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron along with Abraham’s and Sarah’s tomb; they are pictured on the web site.

This essentially concludes tonight’s lesson. Chapter 36 is about the genealogy of Esau – which we shall not discuss – except to call attention to 36:6-7: “Esau took his wives and sons and daughters . . . and all the goods he had acquired in Canaan, and moved to a land some distance from his brother Jacob. Their possessions were too great for them to remain together; the land where they were staying could not support them both because of their livestock” (36:6-7). The story sounds like the split of Abraham and Lot (Gen 13) – but the bottom line is both Esau and Jacob ultimately are blessed with wealth . . . so we must say Esau does not suffer from losing either the birthright or the blessing, and the heir to God’s promise was indeed the son who became closest to God. As mentioned before Esau’s most famous descendant was King Herod from the time of Jesus.

Next week – as the focus of Genesis shifts to Jacob’s sons – the unique saga of Joseph begins: his brothers sell him into slavery in response to Jacob’s blatant favoritism. The rest of the lesson is the story of how Jesus’ ancestor Judah gets his daughter-in-law pregnant under very unusual circumstances.