Here we find the letters to the seven churches and thus to the complete (symbolism of the number 7) church. This is the second half of the vision of Christ.

Instead of continuing to mark new paragraphs with "I heard" or "I saw," now a new section begins with: "To the angel of the church in ... write..." This emphasizes that this vision that is seen and heard is to be written down. Next John points to the parts of the vision of Christ. Ephesus: "The words of Him who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands" (Rev 2:1). Smyrna: "The words of the First and the Last, who died and came to life" (Rev 2:8). Pergamum: The words of Him who has the sharp two-edged sword" (Rev 2:12). Thyatira: "The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze" (Rev 2:18). Sardis: "The words of Him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars" (Rev 3:1). Philadelphia: "The words of the Holy One, the True One, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens" (Rev 3:7). Laodicea: "The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation" (Rev 3:14).

The allusions to the vision of Christ opening each are relevant to the circumstances of each particular church. First, Jesus walks among the golden lampstands (Rev 2:1) and can "come to you and remove your lampstand from its place" (Rev 2:5). Second, Jesus is "the First and the Last, who died and came to life" (Rev 2:8) and the people need to "be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life" (Rev 2:10). Third, Jesus' words are "the sharp two-edged sword" (Rev 2:12) and if they do not repent "I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth" (Rev 2:16). Fourth, Jesus "has eyes like a flame of fire" (Rev 2:18) and "I am He who searches mind and heart" (Rev 2:23). And etc.

After mentioning something about the vision of Christ, usually then Christ gives the strengths of that church, but either way the paragraph begins "I know [often: "your works"]." Ephesus: "I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary" (Rev 2:2-3). Smyrna: "I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation" (Rev 2:9-10). Pergamum: ""I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells" (Rev 2:13). Thyatira: "I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first" (Rev 2:19). Sardis: "I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive" (Rev 3:1). Philadelphia: "I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name... (Rev 3:8-11). Laodicea: "I know your works" (Rev 3:15).

Virtues that are praised include "patient endurance" (Ephesus: Rev 2:2; Thyatira: Rev 2:19, Philadelphia: Rev 3:10), not denying Jesus and holding fast to His name (Pergamum: Rev 2:13, Philadelphia: Rev 3:8), love and faith and service (Thyatira: Rev 2:19), keeping the word of Christ (Philadelphia 3:8, 10), as well as not growing weary (Ephesus: Rev 2:3) and testing false apostles and kicking them out (Ephesus: Rev 2:2) and even hating the works of the Nicolaitan heretics (Rev 2:6).

Many also include vices like abandoning your first love (Ephesus: Rev 2:4, "But I have this against you..."), being a stumbling block so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality and holding the teaching of the Nicolaitans (Pergamum: Rev 2:14, "But I have a few things against you..."), tolerating a false prophetess who seduces them to practice sexual immorality and eat foods sacrificed to idols (Thyatira: Rev 2:20, "But I have this against you..."), Sardis does not have complete works (Rev 3:9), and Laodicea does not see their need for God (Rev 3:17). Some of the churches are weak where others are strong and vice versa. For example, Smyrna is enduring poverty ("but you are rich," Rev 2:9), but Laodicea says they are rich not realizing that they are poor (Rev 3:17). Pergamum and Thyatira are not dealing with heresy but Ephesus is (contrast especially apparent on the Nicolaitans (Rev 2:6, 2:15). Two of the letters also mention the "synagogue of Satan" -- those who claim to be Jews but are not followers of Christ and are persecuting the church (Rev 2:9 and 3:9).

Some have a promise or threat: "If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent" (Ephesus, Rev 2:5). "Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life" (Smyrna, Rev 2:10). "If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth" (Pergamum, Rev 2:16). The great tribulation is the threat for those who hold to false teaching in Thyatira (Rev 2:22). Sardis, "If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you" (Rev 3:3). Philadelphia, "Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth. I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown" (Rev 3:10-11). Laodicea: "If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me" (Rev 3:20). Of course, a threat implies a promise and a promise implies a threat.

Then each one concludes in a similar way. Ephesus: "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God" (Rev 2:7). Smyrna: "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death" (Rev 2:11). Pergamum: "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it (Rev 2:17). Tyatira: "To the one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father. And I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches" (Rev 2:26-29). Sardis: "The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches" (Rev 3:5-6). Philadelphia: "The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches" (Rev 3:12-13). And Laodicea: "The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches" (Rev 3:21-22). Each one emphasizes us as kings.

The order of "He who has an ear" and "The one who conquers" switches with the church in the middle. It is also worth noting that the second church and the second-to-last church are the ones that Christ does not say something is wrong. These things suggest that the churches are in a chiastic order. G. K. Beale suggests this is the case because the healthy churches are not only a minority but are surrounded by unhealthy ones. It appears though that John has done other things to make sure we do not read too much into the chiasm, like the only two times it does not say "I know your works" but instead "I know your tribulation" and "I know where you dwell" is for the second and third cities. The three in the middle have connections between them. For example Pergamum and Thyatira both have similar problems with sexual immorality and food sacrificed to idols and Thyatira and Sardis both have members who have not been stained by the sins mentioned.

These letters are full of allusions to later parts of Revelation and the rest of Scripture. Just a few examples of the latter: Rev 2:2 and 1 John 4:1; the tree of life and paradise of God (Rev 2:7) refer to the Garden of Eden in Genesis; Balaam and Balak (Rev 2:14) are from Numbers; manna is an obvious reference, but that it is "hidden manna" is probably an allusion to John 4:32; Jezebel is a reference to the Baal prophetess who seduced Ahab away from YHWH to serve idols in the OT Book of Kings; Rev 2:27 is paraphrasing Psalm 2:9; like many other places the thief in the night is a common teaching (Rev 3:3, 1 Thess 5:2, 2 Peter 3:10, Matt 24:43 / Luke 12:39, also Rev 16:15); and others (both more obvious and thus easy to gloss over like references to King David and those that are more obscure).

I look forward to continue to see more things in these seven letters.

Labels: idolatry, seven, sex, vision, writing

Genesis has much more to say about sex and marriage than the creation of woman out of man and the scene at Sodom. Sex and marriage is a theme that can be found throughout the book and the righteous make a lot of mistakes.

The book teaches that sex and marriage are to be enjoyed between one husband and one wife. This may come as a surprise to those who have not studied Genesis carefully because everyone remembers that the patriarchs had multiple wives. Abram not only married Sarai but Sarai gave her servant Hagar to Abram as a wife. Jacob married Leah and Rachel and each of them gave their servant to Jacob as a wife. Thus Jacob had four wives. But this was not God's original design and we can see why when we see the issues of jealousy between wives, competition for children between them, and so forth.

God's original design was for marriage between one man and one woman. And he blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over..." (Gen 1:28). The married couple was blessed to have children and be fruitful and was put in the Garden of Eden (meaning fertility). The first poem in the structure of Book One says, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man" (Gen 2:23). And the next verse after this says, "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh" (Gen 2:24). So the original design was that of marriage between one man and one woman. This picture of exclusivity pointed to the relationship the husband and wife as one were to have with our jealous God.

The Book of Genesis on its own terms is very clear about the design of marriage and sex. The third poem in the structure of Book One is a song of revenge by the evil murderer Lamech proclaimed to his two wives. The third part of Book One means to demonstrate the escalation of sin among the seed of the serpent moving from the murderer Cain to the murderer Lamech. It is intentional that Lamech is the first one in Genesis said to have more than one wife. But this is only the beginning. In Book Two the demon possessed kings, the so-called "sons of God," take harems and breed champion giants. They have many more than two wives. It is instructive that the two situations calling for God's judgment in Genesis both have a sexual dimension: harems (answered by the flood) and homosexual rape (answered by the sulfur and fire coming down on Sodom & Gomorrah). This is not to say that there are not other issues involved. But the climax of sin includes harems or homosexual rape.

We saw that the first half of Book Six and all of Book Eight are chiasms. In Book Six there are parallel episodes of Abram/Abraham and his sister/wife Sarai/Sarah (Gen 12:10-20 and Gen 20). In the first story Pharaoh took Sarai as his wife, not knowing that she was Abram's wife. This brought down great plagues on the house of Pharaoh. In the second story Abimelech took Sarah as his wife, not knowing that she was Abraham's wife. God came to him in a dream and said, "Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man's wife" (Gen 20:3). God explains to Abimelech that he kept him from "sinning against me" (Gen 20:6) by having sexual relations with her because Abimelech was unaware she was married. That the Gentile Abimelech knew before this that it was wrong to take another man's wife as his own wife is clear because he tells Abraham, "You have done to me things that ought not to be done" (Gen 20:9).

In the similar story in Book Eight (Gen 26), Isaac told the men of Abimelech's city that his wife Rebekah was his sister. And Abimelech saw them laughing together and realized, 'like father, like son' and he rebuked Isaac saying, "What is this you have done to us? One of the people might have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us" (Gen 26:10) and then told the men of the city that the death penalty would be the sentence for anyone who touches Isaac or Rebekah. The end of this section tells us that Esau took two Canaanite wives who "made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah" (Gen 26:35). The parallel story in the structure of Book Eight is the rape of Jacob's daughter Dinah (Gen 34). After raping her like a prostitute, Shechem the Canaanite wanted to marry her. As the sons of Jacob said, "He had done an outrageous thing in Israel by lying with Jacob's daughter, for such a thing must not be done" (Gen 34:7). Interesting that such a similar phrase appears in Book Six and Eight.

The climax of Book Six (Gen 15:1-16:16 and 17:1-18:15) is complicated by the fact that Abram/Abraham took Hagar the Egyptian as a wife and she gave birth to Ishmael. Later in the book, righteous Lot's fall becomes complete when his two daughters got pregnant by him. They gave birth to Moab (father of the Moabites) and Ben-ammi (father of the Ammonites). He never should have gone into seclusion so that each could not marry a husband (Gen 19:30ff).

In Book Eight, when Jacob had gone to find a wife among his kinsmen, Esau took one of the daughters of Ishmael as a third wife. The text tells us, "When Esau saw that the Canaanite women did not please Isaac his father, Esau went to Ishmael and took as his wife, besides the wives he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of Nebaioth" (Gen 28:8-9). The solution was not to add another wife: Esau should have never married two wives to begin with and most certainly not two Canaanites under the curse. The comment "besides the wives he had" accents this.

Also in Book Eight, Jacob married Leah and Rachel (Gen 29:1-30) and this caused all kinds of jealousy issues even to the extent that they each gave their servant to Jacob as additional wives. It is instructive that Isaac had sent Jacob to find in Laban's house "a wife from there" not wives (Gen 28:6). Of course, the stress is on the instruction not to take a wife from among the Canaanite women. In any case, the author of Genesis wants the reader to compare Abraham's servant who went to find Isaac a wife and Jacob when he went to find a wife. Jacob wanted Rachel because of her looks instead of praying to God for direction on whom to take as a wife. And as a result of this mess, Jacob ended up with two wives and then four.

The sex and marriage then continues in the epilogue of Book Eight. There we see Rachel die during childbirth and Reuben, Jacob's firstborn and the son of Leah, "went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine" (Gen 35:22). Bilhah was Rachel's servant and this will keep Bilhah from replacing Rachel in the affection of Jacob. Reuben did this for his mother Leah (I am not implying that she knew anything about it ahead of time, nor am I implying that this excuses his sexual sin, I am simply explaining the situation).

Book Ten resumes this theme as Judah sleeps with his daughter-in-law thinking that she is a prostitute (Gen 38), Potiphar's wife tries to seduce Joseph (Gen 39:7) and even includes the theme in the concluding poem as Jacob cursed Reuben in the blessing, "unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence, because you went up to your father's bed; then you defiled it - he went up to my couch" (Gen 49:4). They have knowledge of sexual ethics (language of defiled). Also Joseph's response to Potiphar's wife shows this: "How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" (39:9). But even though they know right and wrong the explicit episode with Judah shows they did not always do the right. In this story, Judah took a Canaanite wife and had three sons. Judah took Tamar as the wife of his first son. But his son was so wicked that God struck him down. So Tamar became the wife of Judah's second son who wasted his semen on the ground because he knew that if he had a child it would not be considered his own. And God struck him down. Judah, afraid the same would happen to the youngest son, sent Tamar away pretending to need to wait for him to grow up. Eventually Judah himself slept with her, not knowing it was her, and she gave birth to twins. She was accused of adultery until it was discovered that the father was Judah himself. The story has a number of similarities with the daughters of Lot narrative.

So the Book of Genesis teaches (through precept and example) that God intends for sex and marriage to be between one husband and one wife for all of humanity and that His people should only marry those not under the curse of Canaan. The consequences of the patriarch's failure to keep this design would last for the rest of the history of Israel. And a sign of sin reaching its height is harems or homosexual rape. Of course, people will try to excuse behavior that does not fit God's intention of sex and marriage between one husband and wife by arguing that the episode at Sodom does not have to do with homosexual behavior but homosexual rape. But such an argument has missed the overall message of Genesis on this theme that marriage should be between one man and one woman.

It is worth noting that marriage is a gift of God's common grace to all of humanity. God defines marriage for all peoples (not just His people) as between one man and one woman. Israel and the nations broke the covenant of creation whenever they allowed variations from this pattern. While this common grace institution was something Canaanites could enjoy, the people of God were prohibited from marrying Canaanites under the curse. Later laws in Scripture would build on this principle by prohibiting believers from marrying any unbeliever. For example, in the New Testament (though the regulation was much older) believers are told to marry in the Lord (1 Cor 7:39, i.e., only marry other believers). There are other laws that would be spelled out in the Torah including regulations about marrying close relatives (including prohibiting marriages between some relationships that are not blood relationships). In the New Testament, for example, Paul rebukes the fornication among the Corinthians not even found among the Gentiles - a son marrying his step-mother (1 Cor 5). The most serious violations of this creation ordinance, short of harems and homosexual rape, are things even the Gentiles know are wrong, and are called things which quite simply ought not to be done (cf. Gen 20:9, 34:7 and Rom 1:28) or things that are contrary to nature, which we have called the covenant of creation (cf. Rom 1:26). Such things include marrying your step-mother, all homosexual behavior, marrying another man's wife, and heterosexual rape. This is why it is so surprising that Christians are debating homosexual marriage, something that even the Gentiles should know is wrong.

Labels: Abimelech, creation ordinance, flood, Genesis, giants, gomorrah, harems, homosexual behavior, lamech's curse, marriage, polygamy, prostitution, rape, sex, sodom

This book follows the same pattern as the first part of Book Six: prologue, poetry, narrative, poetry, and epilogue. The title is "These are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son" (Gen 25:19). This should mean that the book will be about Isaac's descendants, and this is the focus of the book, but like Noah in Book Three the account of Isaac's death is in the epilogue. Book Seven was so short in comparison partly because the author was in a hurry to get to Isaac. But, even so, Isaac is not portrayed very favorably and his life must be pieced together from Books Six and Eight as a result. Instead of Book Eight focusing on Isaac, it will focus on Jacob.

At the center of the prologue (Gen 25:19-22) we find that Isaac prayed for his wife Rebekah because she is barren and YHWH answered the prayer and she conceived (Gen 25:21). This should remind us of the center of the prologue in Book Six: "Now Sarai was barren; she had no child" (Gen 11:30). But this time the barren Rebekah conceives and has twins who are fighting in the womb. The rest of the book will be concerned with which of the twins, Esau or Jacob, will be the heir to the promise.

The epilogue (Gen 35:13-29) follows the same pattern of the two epilogues in Book Six except instead of they arose and went it is God who "went up from him in the place where he had spoken with him" (Gen 35:13). The epilogue also has a genealogy, this one featuring the number twelve as it tells us the twelve sons of Jacob. And it recounts the death and burial of Isaac. Like with Ishmael, the "he died and was gathered to his people" (Gen 35:29) language is used (see the commentary on Book Seven). The epilogue also recounts the death of Rachel as a result of the birth of Benjamin. And it mentions in passing that Reuben "went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine. And Israel heard of it" (Gen 35:22). This is all preparing us for Book Ten.

The first poetic section is in response to Rebekah's prayer since the twins are fighting in her womb, "YHWH said to her, 'Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger" (Gen 25:23). So the poetry right at the beginning indicates that the younger son will be the heir to the promise.

In the second poetic section God says two poems. In the first he gives Jacob (the younger son) the name Israel (Gen 35:10). In the second, He says to Jacob, "I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body. The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give the land to your offspring (seed) after you" (Gen 35:11-12). This poem reminds us of the creation mandate "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over..." (Gen 1:28). It was repeated to Noah and his sons "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth" (Gen 9:1, cf. 9:7). And more immediately, Isaac's words to Jacob "God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples. May he give the blessing of Abraham to you and to your offspring with you, that you may take possession of the land of your sojournings that God gave to Abraham" (Gen 28:3-4). The language of nations/kings also brings to mind God's words as he renamed Sarai as Sarah and Abram as Abraham (Gen 17:6 and 17:16). The creation mandate and the blessing have passed down to Jacob/Israel.

Both poems point us to Jesus Christ as the heir.

As usual, the longest portion is the narrative (Gen 25:19b-35:10). The chiastic arrangement of prologue, poetry, narrative, epilogue sets us up to expect it (as in Book Six) to continue in the narrative. And this is what we find. The first story (Gen 25:24-34) tells us about the birth of Esau (explaining why he is also called Edom) and Jacob. The second born child Jacob was holding Esau's heel when he came out. And the story tells us about Esau selling Jacob his birthright for some stew. The text tells us, "Thus Esau despised his birthright" (Gen 25:34). Jacob will inherit. In the last story (Gen 35:1-10) Jacob professes his faith in the true and living God, telling his household, "Put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments. Then let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone" (Gen 35:2-3). And Jacob inherits the blessing.

The second story (Gen 26) is where Isaac pretends that his wife Rebekah is his sister. This follows the same pattern of the similar stories for Abram/Abraham and his sister/wife Sarai/Sarah (Gen 12:10-20 and 20:1-18). We also find out that Esau married two Hittite women who cause problems for his parents. In the parallel place, the second-to-last story (Gen 34) is not one of Jacob pretending one of his wives was his sister but instead Shechem raping Jacob's daughter Dinah. The danger of the stories where the wife pretends to be the sister (though technically Sarai/Sarah is the half-sister of Abram/Abraham) is that someone might lie with her and bring guilt upon the people where they are sojourning. Sexual sin is the issue in both stories. And Simeon and Levi responded by tricking the city to circumcise themselves and killed all the males while they were sore.

The third story (Gen 27:1-28:9) is where Jacob pretends to be Esau and steals the blessing and Esau finds out about it. Also Isaac instructs Jacob to find "and take as your wife...one of the daughters of Laban your mother's brother" (Gen 28:2) and sends him with the blessing. In the parallel place, the third-to-last story (Gen 33) is Jacob's return to Esau and Jacob brings a blessing to Esau.

The fourth story (Gen 28:10-22) is Jacob's ladder with the angels ascending and descending on it. In the context of Genesis, we are to contrast this with the Tower of Babel. In the parallel place (Gen 32) the fourth-to-last story begins, "Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him" (Gen 32:1) and the story ends with Jacob wrestling with God. Between these events Jacob decides to send gifts on ahead of himself to Esau. In both stories God verbally blesses Jacob.

The fifth story (Gen 29:1-30) is where Jacob meets his kinsman Laban and marries Laban's daughters Leah and Rachel. Jacob, the trickster, gets tricked by the one who says, "Surely you are my bone and my flesh" (Gen 29:14) after Jacob told him all about his life. In the parallel place (Gen 31) Jacob and his family say their farewell to Laban after trying to sneak away.

At the center of the chiasm, the sixth story (Gen 29:31-30:24) and the sixth-to-last story (Gen 30:25-43) show us God blessing Jacob with children and livestock.

The sixth story shows us the blessing of children. At first, Leah was fruitful and Rachel was barren because of Jacob's preference for Rachel. Leah gave birth to Jacob's firstborn Reuben. In the epilogue we noted that Reuben had sex with Jacob's concubine Bilhah when Rachel, her master, died. Leah's second and third sons, Simeon and Levi, as we noted, will kill Shechem and all of the people of his city because Shechem raped their sister Dinah. The fourth son was Judah. Then Leah ceased bearing children. Rachel then gave Jacob her servant Bilhah as a concubine. Bilhah bore Dan and Naphtali for Rachel. Leah realized she was no longer having children so she gave her servant Zilpah to Jacob. Zilpah bore Gad and Asher for Leah. Leah, in an episode with mandrakes, conceived another son Issachar and then she had a sixth son Zebulun and a daughter Dinah. "Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. She conceived and bore a son and said, 'God has taken away my reproach.' And she called his name Joseph, saying, 'May the LORD add to me another son!'" (Gen 30:22-24). Taking away reproach is a constant theme in Scripture. Joseph is the last son mentioned in this section. His younger brother Benjamin is born in the epilogue. The effect of doing this is to make Joseph the climax of the blessing of children. This all prepares us for Book Ten.

The sixth-to-last story shows us the blessing of livestock. Jacob proposed that he take all of the speckled and spotted sheep and goats and every black lamb for his wages. But Laban tried to keep Jacob from breeding the sheep and goats to make more by taking all of them and putting them with his sons. So Jacob took "fresh sticks of polar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the sticks" (Gen 30:37) and he put these in the troughs where they drank and those who bred there produced striped, speckled and spotted sheep and goats. And he bred them so that he would have the stronger sheep and goats.

When Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac he passed the test of the conditional covenant of Gen 17. Having passed the test, he had shown that he would continue to keep the law. As God told Isaac in Gen 26:2-5, because Abraham kept the law, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in the seed of Isaac. Isaac is blessed for Abraham's sake (26:24). This blessing God pronounced upon Jacob in Gen 28:13-15 and 32:29 (the fourth parallel stories) and in the second poetic section. Blessed to be a blessing, Jacob was a blessing to Laban (Gen 30:30) and Esau (Gen 33:11). Blessing is the theme of this book. Especially since it goes beyond the verbal blessing of Jacob by Isaac and God to the climax where Jacob is blessed with children and livestock. Jacob responds to the first blessing by making a vow that the LORD shall be his God, the stone would be God's house, and he would tithe his goods (see Gen 28:20-22). After the second blessing, he has a limp because of the place where God touched his hip socket.

But there is one thing left to note about the verbal blessing of the poetic section and the verbal blessing of the fourth-to-last story. In both blessings by God Jacob is renamed Israel. In the former, where Jacob wrestled with God, the reason for his new name is revealed. In the latter, the poetry, it says that he shall no longer be called Jacob, but in practice he continues to be known as both Jacob and Israel.

And another observation about the epilogue. The twelve sons are not mentioned in order of birth by are listed by mother. First, Leah's children, then Rachel's, then Rachel's servant's children, then Leah's servant's children. This chiastic arrangement with Rachel and Rachel's servant in the middle highlights the preference Jacob had for her and points us to Joseph (preparing us for Book Ten). In actual birth-order, Leah was the first mother (for the first five), Rachel's servant was the second mother, Leah's servant was the third mother, then Leah had two more sons and a daughter, and then Rachel had her own two children. Rachel was the last wife to have any children but her own firstborn will have the prominent place of Book Ten despite the fact that Judah should qualify as Jacob's firstborn since Judah's three elder brothers have been disqualified.

Labels: angels, creation mandate, edom, esau, Genesis, isaac, israel, jacob, rape, sex