Tag: Rebekah

Two Nations

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וַיֹּ֨אמֶר יְהֹוָ֜ה לָ֗הּ שְׁנֵ֤י (גיים) [גוֹיִם֙] בְּבִטְנֵ֔ךְ וּשְׁנֵ֣י לְאֻמִּ֔ים מִמֵּעַ֖יִךְ יִפָּרֵ֑דוּ וּלְאֹם֙ מִלְאֹ֣ם יֶֽאֱמָ֔ץ וְרַ֖ב יַעֲבֹ֥ד צָעִֽיר׃

And יהוה answered her,
“Two nations are in your womb,
Two separate peoples shall issue from your body;
One people shall be mightier than the other,
And the older shall serve the younger.”
Genesis 25:23 (The Contemporary Torah, JPS 2006)

Genesis 25 mentions two “nations,” but the word is written in a strange way. Notice the Hebrew spelling in the highlighted section of the image.

It’s [גוֹיִם֙] and (גיים). גוֹיִם֙ is the normal spelling.

The rabbis say the normal spelling (גוֹיִם֙) means “nation.” When you spell it with no vav, two yods, and a final mem, it means “noble or powerful individuals.” It’s very different.

In paleo-Hebrew (pictograph form), the “vav” is a nail or hook, and it symbolizes binding together. The “yod” is a hand, denoting action or power. The final version of “mem” means final and established.

Symbolically, if you remove the “vav,” you’ve removed the binding-together element. It’s not people – it’s two distinct elements. Add a second “yod” and we’re talking about greater power and influence. Change the “mem” and we have something concrete and established.

I believe Rebekah is being told about the struggle of good and evil, spirit and flesh, within her. In all of us – all of humanity. This is our existential battle that’s rooted in our hearts; our actions give birth to both.

But the older (flesh) will one day serve the younger (spirit)

Inquiring of the Lord

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But the children struggled together within her; and she said, “If it is so, why am I in this condition?” So she went to inquire of the Lord.
Genesis 25:22 (NASB)

Genesis 25:22 says that Rebekah “went to inquire of the Lord.”

The text says “she went.” Where did she go, exactly?!

If God is everywhere, why didn’t it just say “she prayed to the Lord,” like it did for Isaac in the previous verse?

This phrase “went to inquire of the Lord” is most commonly associated with going to see a prophet or a priest, so the rabbis wondered who Rebekah went to see.

Some suggested that Shem, son of Noah, was still around, providing guidance and wisdom for those who seek the Lord.

Rebekah’s Distress

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But the children struggled in her womb, and she said, “If so, why do I exist?” She went to inquire of יהוה,
Genesis 25:23 (The Contemporary Torah, JPS, 2006)

The Hebrew word used to express Rebekah’s distress in Genesis 25:22 is of uncertain meaning. It’s אָנֹכִי (anokhi), and it carries a sense of “why me?” and “it shouldn’t be this way,” but it also carries a meaning of existential crisis: “Why do I exist?”

At this point in the story, she doesn’t know that she’s having twins. She’ll learn about this in the next verse, where she’s told about the two nations that will emerge from her: one that God will love, and one that God will hate.

There are layers to the meaning.

If you believe God loves Jacob and hates Esau, the individuals, you’ll describe a God whose dedication to you is arbitrary: Maybe God will love you, and maybe not.

If Jacob and Esau are viewed as nations, the text describes a God who sees race and bloodlines. This is also abitrary and… racist? Does God love some nations and hate others, regardless of their actions?

But there’s another view.

Jacob/Esau are an echo:

Consider –

Abel/Cain
Isaac/Ishmael
(Perhaps Abraham/Nahor, the idolator?)

These are stories about brothers, one of which walks by the Spirit and trusts God, vs the other who walks by the Flesh and trusts works. But we’ve already learned that the flesh is cursed to die. Works will not work.

This is not merely a story about the people. These are parables.

This parable is about Rebekah’s internal and existential crisis: Why do I exist? Why me? Why is this happening?

This is the struggle in all of us: to walk by the Spirit or to walk by the Flesh. How will it end? Which “child” inside of us wins?

“The older will serve the younger.”

This is our hope.

Always Pray

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Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was unable to have children; and the Lord answered him, and his wife Rebekah conceived.
Genesis 25:21 (NASB)

The rabbis note that the first part of Genesis 25:21 is written backwards. Normally, it would note the ailment (the barrenness), and then follow it with prayer.

But here, Isaac prays for Rebekah, and then the text lists the ailment. The teaching: prayer is primary. Always pray.

Praying with Rebekah

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Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was unable to have children; and the Lord answered him, and his wife Rebekah conceived.
Genesis 25:21 (NASB)

A notable contrast between Isaac and Abraham, as it relates to their barren wives, is that Isaac prays for Rebekah. We never saw Abraham pray for Sarah.

But even more, “on behalf of his wife” is literally “in front of his wife.”

Isaac prayed for Rebekah. Who knows? The text may be telling us that he prayed with her.

Living with Tricksters

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…and Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean, to be his wife.
Genesis 25:20 (NASB)

Some translations say “Syrian” instead of “Aramean” in Genesis 25:20, but the Hebrew scholars say that “Aramean” is intended for a very tricky reason.

For starters, we’re going to discover that Rebekah will have twins – Jacob and Esau.

If you know the story, you’ll draw parallels between the worldly Esau and Laben, the one who later tricks Jacob. But then, Rebekah herself is a trickster, and brings Jacob into deception as well.

So the first thing the rabbis note is that Rebekah is being clearly linked to both Bethuel and Laben, so that Esau’s wickedness has a source: he will be like his uncle and his grandfather.

Perhaps this is a teaching about the deep-rooted nature of familial wickedness.

But another clue is in the word “Aramean.”

In Hebrew, it is Arami (אֲרַמִּי):
– Aleph-Resh-Mem-Yod.

This word is a jumble of Ramai (רַמַּאי):
– Resh-Mem-Aleph-Yod

Ramai means… trickster; a cheat.

When we stare at the verse, it becomes clear what the message is: “Look! Rebekah is from a family of tricksters; she’s from a town of tricksters.”

This is going to be a story of God’s people interacting with tricksters. We’ll see it play out in the twins in an ironic way.

God Killed Bethuel

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According to the rabbis, God may have killed Bethuel.

Read Genesis 24 carefully. Follow Bethuel, the father of Rebekah, and see when he shows up, and when he stops showing up.

Isn’t it odd for Rebekah’s father to be so uninvolved with the important parts of the story?

While this doesn’t seem like a good reason to end a man’s life, there is a clue – something peculiar in the text that isn’t discernible in English. It relies on an odd spelling.

Before we get to Bethuel, look carefully at verse 33. The food was set “before him,” but Eliezer does not eat yet. He insists that he wants to tell his story.

Food was set before him to eat, but he said, “I will not eat until I have told about my errand.”
Genesis 24:33 (NKJV)

When Eliezer finished the story, look at how the Torah shows us Laban and Bethuel:

Then Laban and Bethuel replied, “The matter has come from the Lord; so we cannot speak to you bad or good. Here is Rebekah before you, take her and go, and let her be the wife of your master’s son, as the Lord has spoken.”
Genesis 24:50-51 (NASB)

The wickedness of Laban: he speaks before his father.

The wickedness of both: they speak of Evil (ra) and Good (tov), reversing the order of God’s tree, bringing up Evil first.

And it’s only after this that everyone eats and then goes to sleep. The next the morning, Bethuel is nowhere to be seen, ever again.

Then he and the men who were with him ate and drank and spent the night. When they got up in the morning, he said, “Send me away to my master.” But her brother and her mother said, “Let the young woman stay with us a few days, say ten; afterward she may go.”
Genesis 24:45-55 (NASB)

Strange.

So here are the conclusions: Bethuel has died; this is why Laban and Rebekah’s mom ask her to stay longer. She declines, and perhaps there is a spiritual lesson here about one who has discovered the promise of God: “Leave your father’s home, and go to a land I will show you.”

But… why did he die? What did he do, other than be possibly identified as a wicked man?

Let’s go back to verse 33:

Food was set before him to eat, but he said, “I will not eat until I have told about my errand.”
Genesis 24:33 (NKJV)

The phrase we read “when food was set before him” contains an anomaly. The “set before him” should be spelled וַיּוּשַׂ֤ם.

Vav, yod, vav, shin, mem.

But it is… “misspelled.” It is spelled ויישם.

Vav, yod, YOD, vav, shin, mem.

There’s an extra yod!

The pronunciation is the same, but the extra yod is there, staring back at the reader. And the rabbis say that when you add this extra yod, assume something extra was added to the story. To the food.

From this, they conclude that Bethuel POISONED the meal for Eliezer.

Who would receive the camels’-load of wealth if Eliezer died? Who would know what happened to him?

So when they all eat in verse 54, the angel from verse 7 is there, and he swaps the plates: Eliezer’s for Bethuel’s!

And that’s the teaching about Bethuel, the wicked father of Rebekah.

So perhaps Rebekah is called away from her earthly father, in order to join the house of a Heavenly Father.

A Daughter for Abraham

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There’s a teaching in the Midrash that says Abraham had a daughter, based on Genesis 24:1.

It is based on this word “bakol.”

It means “with everything.”

A certain rabbi considered this word bakol and concluded this: for a man to have everything, he can’t only have a son. He must also have a daughter; her name was Bakol.

This is figurative, but the root of the teaching is lovely.

One of the attributes of God is “All.” This is “kol” in Hebrew. It is this principle that God is both the foundation and creator of “all things,” captured here in Isaiah:

This is what the Lord says, He who is your Redeemer, and the One who formed you from the womb:

“I, the Lord, am the Maker of all things,
Stretching out the heavens by Myself
And spreading out the earth alone,
Isaiah 44:24 (NASB)

But we also read that all the earth benefits from bakol. It is because of bakol.

Moreover the profit of the land is for all; even the king is served from the field.
Ecclesiastes 5:9 (NKJV)

The literal rendering of this verse in Ecclesiastes is “the profit of the land is bakol.”

If creation itself and all the land in it is blessed by kol, and then we go back to the beginning of creation and see that God made us male and female and in God’s image, bakol must hint at both a son and a daughter.

But these same rabbis say that this doesn’t need to be understood literally. It is a picture.

But also… the story brings in Rebekah, who will be like a daughter to Abraham in this chapter.

Treasure in His Eyes

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Now Rebekah had a brother whose name was Laban; and Laban ran outside to the man at the spring. When he saw the ring and the bracelets on his sister’s wrists, and when he heard the words of his sister Rebekah, saying, “This is what the man said to me,” he went to the man; and behold, he was standing by the camels at the spring.
Genesis 24:29-30 (NASB)

Perhaps Laben, too, is introduced as someone who is primarily motivated by treasure!

Run!

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There’s a lot of running in Genesis 24.

This Hebrew word רוּץ (rootz) means to run. The first two times this word appears in Genesis is when Abraham runs to serve the 3 men who visited him. He runs twice – once to meet them, and once to get a choice calf to cook for them.

In Genesis 24, we have the following:

v17: Eliezer runs to meet Rebekeh
v20: She runs to refill the water jugs
v28: She runs to tell her family
v29: Laben runs to meet Eliezer

Perhaps there’s a lesson here.

We spend a lot of time running FROM things that scare us or worry us. We are trying to outrun the things we fear.

But the people of God are given this example: Run to serve. Run to meet. Run to tell everyone the good news.

Run!