From Peace & Prosperity to War & Revenge…
Kind of a light hearted joyous section of Scriptures that turns dark quite quickly.
Mandrakes—I guess are “love-plants” and help in the conception of babies. Remember back to all the old wives tales about how to conceive and how to pre-determine the sex of your child. Probably a few sins committed there on the way to the most blessed event in my life—fathering two sons!
Oh my, speckled and white and black sheep; divers colors and spotted sheep. I was confused. “Lions and tigers, and bears, oh my!” was more understandable for me from Dorothy in Wizard of Oz. Even though I spent a day on the Walter Peak High Country Sheep Farm across Lake Wakatipu from Queenstown, New Zealand.
I think the main jest was Jacob was blessed by God and became well off by how he bred sheep?
“Have I therefore been with thee twenty years? Fourteen for thy daughters and six for thy flock,” said Jacob. Now that is a commitment to one’s father-in-law!
“The Lord behold and judge between us when we shall be gone one from the other.”
Father-in-law Laban and son-in-law Jacob settle their disagreement by including God as the final judge.
That was the transition from light to dark.
As Jacob and family were traveling back to the Bersabee homeland of his father Isaac a terrible thing happened.
Dina is ravished by Sichem which meant he raped her.
Jacob pretended to be friendly and accommodating to the Sichemites saying that together they “will be one people; we shall make one people.”
In revenge of the rape, Dina’s two brothers Simeon and Levi rescued Dina and then they slew (which means slayed) all of the Sichemites and plundered their city.
Jacob when he found out was worried and noted to Simeon and Levi that “we are few, they will gather themselves together and kill me: and both I, and my house, shall be destroyed.”
Should they abuse our sister as a strumpet (a female prostitute or a promiscuous woman)?
And there you have the story of the world… justification and revenge.
Are you a modern day barbarian? I don’t care what is in your wallet.
What is in your heart today?
There’s a heart in your Splendid Spiritual Self, do you feel it today?
Day 11: Reading The Bible with a TROML Perspective; From Peace & Prosperity to War & Revenge….
Read and inspired by the Old Testament, The Book of Genesis Chapters 30-34.
Bible Notes:
Genesis, the genesis or origin of the world, the history of Creation.
Noe and the Deluge, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph
Closes with the deaths of Jacob and of Joseph in Egypt, whither Joseph had called his father and brothers.
Genesis Chapter 30: Rachel is barren; Birth of Dan and Nephtali; Birth of Gad and Aser; Ruben’s mandrakes; Birth of Issachar, Zabulon, and Dina; Birth of Joseph; Agreement of Jacob and Labran, Jacob’s prosperity.
Mandrakes—”love-plants,” the root of a mandrake formerly used especially to promote conception,
Genesis Chapter 31: Jacob plans to leave Laban; Jacob departs; Laban overtakes Jacob; Laban accuses Jacob of trickery and theft; Jacob’s defense; Covenant of Laban and Jacob.
Your father’s countenance is not towards me
Speckled and white sheep; divers colors, spotted and speckled.
Now therefore rise, and go out of this land, and return into thy native country.
And went forward to Isaac his father to the land of Chanaan
Rachel stole away her father’s idols. Jacob knew not that Rachel had stolen the idols.
She in haste hid the idols under the camel’s furniture, and sat upon them.
Have I therefore been with thee twenty years? Fourteen for thy daughters and six for thy flock.
The Lord behold and judge between us when we shall be gone one from the other.
Genesis Chapter 32: Jacob’s vision; Jacob’s message to Esau: Jacob’s fear of Esau; Jacob sends presents to Esau; Jacob wrestles with an angel; Jacob becomes Israel.
Now I send a message to my lord (and brother Esau), that I may find favor in thy sight.
Return to thy land and to the place of thy birth, and I will do well for thee
Deliver me from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am greatly afraid of him.
Thy servant Jacob
I will not let thee go except thou bless me.
Jacob becomes Israel, for if thou hast been strong against God.
I have seen God face-to-face, and my soul has been saved.
Genesis Chapter 33: Meeting of Jacob and Esau; Jacob and Esau separate; Jacob raises an altar.
I have plenty, my brother, keep what is thine for thyself.
Which God hath given me, who giveth all things.
Genesis Chapter 34: Dina is ravished by Sichem; Sichem seeks to marry Dina; The Sichemites are circumcised; Simeon and Levi slay the men of the Sichemites; Jacob reproves Simeon and Levi.
Uncircumcised is unlawful and abominable.
And will be one people; we shall make one people
In revenge of the rape
Jacob: we are few, they will gather themselves together and kill me: and both I, and my house, shall be destroyed.
Should they abuse our sister as a strumpet?
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