The idea of many gods, one for each people, leads to war and death.
Monotheism is, perhaps, a cry for peace. But it only works in the absence of empire.
One God: the God of Nomads.
וַיַּשְׁכֵּ֨ם לָבָ֜ן בַּבֹּ֗קֶר וַיְנַשֵּׁ֧ק לְבָנָ֛יו וְלִבְנוֹתָ֖יו וַיְבָ֣רֶךְ אֶתְהֶ֑ם וַיֵּ֛לֶךְ וַיָּ֥שׇׁב לָבָ֖ן לִמְקֹמֽוֹ׃
Early in the morning, Laban kissed his sons and daughters and bade them good-by; then Laban left on his journey homeward.
Genesis 32:1 (The Contemporary Torah, JPS 2006)
Note: In the Hebrew bibles, Genesis 32:1 is the same as Genesis 31:55 in English bibles.
In this passage, the commentators point out that the phrase at the end is a little unusual. Laban didn’t just “go home.” He “returned to his place.” And this phrase, according to the Haamek Davar, this “… foreshadowed the ascendance and subsequent decline of all the nations that hosted and then expelled the Jewish people.”
In the interpretation that views Laban as a symbol of wickedness, likening him to Egypt and other conquering nations, Laban appears to slink back into the depths, as though he is brought up for this purpose, and then returns to his right place of lowness.
This concept of “place” is very interesting, because it makes me think of the Jewish teaching about God calling to Adam. When God says “Ayeka,” (where are you?), God is not asking a question. God is making a declaration, stating that Adam is not where he is supposed to be; he is not where God placed him. This can be viewed as a statement about the relationship, not Adam’s specific GPS coordinates.
This tells me that there *IS* a place where we are meant to be in our relationship to God. If God walks through the garden, we are meant to walk with God, and not hide in the bushes.
But Laban? And the empires that enslave God’s people, rooted back to the original hissing trickster that enticed and enslaved us all? Perhaps “returned to his place” describes a place of outer darkness, where one day he will remain separated from us forever.
It’s after Laban “returns to his place” that Jacob goes on his way, and is met by God, and where Jacob declares, “This is God’s camp.”
Here, perhaps we see a glimpse into the Kingdom, where our lived reality and heavenly truth come together in a living parable.
The story of Abraham occurs during a time when nations had their own local “greatest deity.” That god was supposed to be the most powerful, thus “many gods.” As a kingdom grew, it “proved” the greatness of a particular deity.
But the story of Abraham starts with being called to wander. Away from empire, to view many empires and to see the absolute irrationality of a theology built upon it.
The God of Abraham only makes sense to those who wander. An empire is an idol.
If that’s true, perhaps we are meant to understand that he and his actions (the building of empires) are the opposite of God hanging his bow in Genesis 9.
Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.” Abram agreed to what Sarai said.
Genesis 16:1-2 (NIV)
The text is quite clear. We are not called to use the gifts of Empire to try to force God’s blessing into our lives.
It’s not by our efforts, nor the might of Empire that moves God to keep His promises.
God has to intervene.
So many lessons here.
So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth; and they stopped building the city.
Genesis 11:8 (NASB)
Genesis 11 doesn’t tell us that the people stopped building the Tower of Babel after God confused their languages. It says they stopped building the city.
I suspect this tells us that God was primarily interested in stopping the expansion of Empire, as Empire enslaves us.
The writers want you to see something that isn’t plainly obvious in this story. It’s subtle.
As people moved eastward, they found a plain in [a] Shinar and settled there.
Genesis 11:2 (NIV)
The [a] footnote tells us that this is Babylonia.
Babylonia is Nimrod’s Empire:
He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; that is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.” The first centers of his kingdom were Babylon, Uruk, Akkad and Kalneh, in Shinar.
Babylonia is the region that housed the great city of Babylon. This isn’t obvious in the text yet, but the translators want to preserve this understanding for you later. This would be the place that the Jews lived during the Babylonian exile.
Babylon is linked to wickedness, captivity, and darkness. It’s the place where Israel was held captive for about 70 years, and it was perhaps during this time that the Jewish sages began refining/organizing their scriptures.
One thing that stands out is how much anti-Babylonian messaging show up in the newly articulated scriptures, starting with “Shinar.”
The meaning of “Shinar” is unclear. It might mean “two Rivers,” or “the land between two rivers,” perhaps referring to the Tigris and Euphrates.
However, the root of Shinar is שער (s’r), which is associated with violence in various forms:
Noun שער (sa’r), means horror.
Verb שער (sa’ar) means to sweep or whirl away, like a storm.
Verb שער (sha’ar) means to break
Adjective שער (sho’ar) means horrid or disgusting
The sages of the Midrash include even more thoughts on this, saying that “Shinar” sounds like “she’ein ne’or,” which means “no one is awake” at night because they have no candles (Midrash HaMevo’ar)
It is a place of darkness.
At the time when Amraphel was king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Kedorlaomer king of Elam and Tidal king of Goyim…
Genesis 14:1 (NIV)
Later, when Shinar is introduced to us again in Genesis 14, we’ll meet Amraphel, the King of Shinar.
Amraphel means “Speaker of Darkness.”
Shinar is the bad place.
They also took Lot, Abram’s nephew, and his possessions and departed, for he was living in Sodom.
Genesis 14:12 (NASB)
When the kings of Empires captured Lot, the rabbis suggest that they knew exactly who Lot was, and that perhaps they could demand a ransom for him from Abraham.
ויקחו את לוט בן אחי אברם, they made a special effort to capture Lot because he was Avram’s nephew. They were aware of his wealth. They were expecting that Avram would pay a heavy ransom for the release of his nephew.
Sfnorno on Genesis 14:12:1
The shift for me here is that empire does represent bondage and slavery, and these things are definitely not good. But they are not the same as “wickedness,” which is also not good, but they are different, and treated differently in the text.