Tag: spirit

Parallel Journeys

Posted on by jovial_cynic

וַיֹּ֖אמֶר נִסְעָ֣ה וְנֵלֵ֑כָה וְאֵלְכָ֖ה לְנֶגְדֶּֽךָ׃
And [Esau] said, “Let us start on our journey, and I will proceed at your pace.”
Genesis 33:12 (Revised JPS, 2023)

There is a teaching among the rabbis that when Esau and Jacob separate here, Esau is saying something that should be understood theologically.

“I will proceed at your pace” can mean “I will travel parallel to you.” The Midrash speaks to a division of the world – a picture of this life and the hereafter.

I see it similarly, but within a slightly different framework.

My journey through Genesis has led me to believe strongly in this repeated theme of heaven and earth. Not the “future heaven” of the afterlife (that’s “resurrection”), but in the present spiritual reality of heaven, where God currently dwells. Genesis 1:1 speaks of God creating heaven and earth, and I think this describes “twin realities.” And here in this part of Genesis, we are shown a parallel path for Jacob and Esau. Twins.

The Jewish writings describe Esau as a sort of wickedness and evil incarnate, and point to repeated passages where God has rejected Esau. He appears irredeemable. But maybe the picture isn’t meant to be a picture of “good vs evil,” but rather “spirit vs flesh.” It is our flesh that craves the things of Esau. His stomach, his lust, his desire for blood. In the same way the Flood narrative specifically calls out an end to “all flesh,” I think the text is telling us that the corrupted flesh is dying, and that no flesh will survive. The spirit survives, and longs for a day of resurrection, where all flesh will be made new again.

Adam and Eve, too, are a story of flesh and spirit. Read the text carefully and see where death is assigned, and where life is assigned. It’s a repeated story.

So when Esau says “I will travel at your pace,” we’re being told a plain truth: our spirit and our flesh are twins. They are the same. And this is just like the way Adam and Eve came from the one body, cleaved in two, but are one.
Strangely, Jacob will INSIST on separating from Esau, and the next chapter is the tragedy at Shechem. I think this is related.

We are flesh AND spirit. We are not spirit that happens to inhabit a random body. We are not a body that happens to have a soul. They are linked as one. To try to separate this identity in the present life means to ignore the needs of the present life. The story of Dinah seems linked to a failure to see this.

Two Camps

Posted on by jovial_cynic

When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”
In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups, and the flocks and herds and camels as well. He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that is left may escape.”
Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps.
Genesis 32:6-10 (NIV)

This will only make sense if you have been following me from the very beginning of my Genesis journey.

The two camps of Genesis 32:6-10 is the splitting of ha’adam into Ish and Isha of Genesis 2-3.

This is an echo.

Fluttering Spirit

Posted on by jovial_cynic
I used to say that the first lesson of Scripture is the promise found in Genesis 1:1-3: “Light in the Darkness.” That’s a whole teaching that gives us hope.

However, I’m staring at Genesis 1:2 and seeing another lesson.

In the context of the Babylonian captivity, where images and murals of the captors must have shown Marduk the Warrior Chief of the Gods striking down Tiamat, the goddess of Chaos and Water to bring Order, Genesis 1:2 says something to counter this message:

“The Spirit of God hovered over the surface of the Deep.”

If you’ve studied ancient Hebrew and ancient Babylonian texts, you’ll know that “the Deep” is the Hebrew word “Tehom.” It’s the Hebrew word for Tiamat.

What the ancient Hebrew people were shown in Scripture is a COUNTER-story to the War God Marduk battling Tiamat to bring Order out of Chaos. Instead, the God of the Israelites simply… hovers.

The word “hover” is “rachaf” (רָחַף), which means to soften. To relax. To flutter. It’s used to describe the wings of a mother eagle over her young (Deut 32:11).

This verse is a promise. It doesn’t tell us that God will bring order out of our chaos. God doesn’t promise to slay Tiamat here. Not yet. Instead, the God of scripture tells us that God will provide peace through it. He will flutter over us, like an eagle fluttering her wings over her young to assure them.

“I am with you. Always.”

God with Us

Posted on by jovial_cynic
Our blessed hope is that when there was darkness over the world, God spoke Light into it. But He is the Light, so what we learn is that God brings Himself into our darkness to be with us.

That is Emmanuel. God with us.

Genesis 1:2 tells us that the Spirit of God hovered or fluttered over the water – like a dove, close enough to stir the water with the beating of his wings.

The Light isn’t shining from far away. It’s shining so near to us.

Cut Off

Posted on by jovial_cynic

But as for an uncircumcised male, one who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”
Genesis 17:14 (NASB )

There are two instances of word play happening here in the text.

1. “Person” here is nefesh, or “soul.” As in, spirit. So there is an interplay between flesh and spirit.

2. “Cut off” is the same word for establishing the covenant: one “cuts a covenant” through circumcision.