Tag: Israel

Theophany

Posted on by jovial_cynic
When Jacob wrestled with a man in Genesis 32, he says, “I have seen the face of God and lived!”

On the one hand, no he didn’t.

But on the other hand, Jacob thinks he did, and this isn’t theologically problematic. The narrator doesn’t rush in to correct Jacob. Jacob seems to move through life as though he did meet God face to face and is in awe, and we just wonder, “who was that man? How did he rename Jacob to Israel?”

I’m wrestling w/ this text from a Jewish lens, and from a Christian lens. There are so many ways to read this.

Crossing Over

Posted on by jovial_cynic

Sons were also born to Shem, whose older brother was Japheth; Shem was the ancestor of all the sons of Eber.
Genesis 10:21 (NIV)

Linguistic historians note that “Eber” may be the source of the word “Hebrew.” The word means “crossing over.”

Scripturally, we link this to crossing over the Euphrates (Abraham) or the Jordan (Israel), but we also use this phrase to talk about crossing over into the afterlife.

The Mount of Olives

Posted on by jovial_cynic

When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth.
Genesis 8:11 (NIV)

The rabbis wondered about this olive leaf the dove found, because in the already unlikely story of a global flood, it is unlikely that an olive tree should produce leaves so quickly.

They point to Ezekiel and suggest that perhaps the Mount of Olives and Israel (Eden) were never flooded.

Again the word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, say to the land, ‘You are a land that has not been cleansed or rained on in the day of wrath.’
Ezekiel 22:23-24 (NIV)