JACOB RETURNS
Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.
—Unknown
“So Jacob went on his way and sent messengers before him to find Esau,” said the man:
He instructed them, “This is what you are to say to my lord Esau. ‘Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and have remained there till now. I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, male and female servants. Now I am sending this message to my lord, that I may find favor in your eyes.’”
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.”152
“This number four hundred,” said the man, “carries a militaristic connotation in ancient Hebrew, so Jacob becomes rightly afraid and divides his people and flocks into two companies.”
“Up to some trickery again, no doubt,” said the boy.
“Well, his message to Esau was cordial and apologetic,” said the man, “so it seems to have come from a place of maturity.”
“Or cowardice.”
“Or fear, yes,” said the man. “He didn’t exactly leave on the best terms with his brother, but he does call Esau ‘my lord,’ so we can see it is out of respect, not conflict, that he informs him of his arrival. He also lists that which he can offer in order to find favor in his brother’s eyes. But there is certainly fear, as we’ll see.”
“Clearly Esau doesn’t like that he’s acquired so much wealth if he’s sent an army to greet him,” said the boy. “Seems like jealousy over that blessing has been brewing for the last twenty years.”
“And who can blame him?” said the man. “So anyway, Jacob’s idea is that if Esau attacks one company, the other can still escape. So he prays to the Lord to deliver him from the hand of his brother for fear that Esau will attack his children and their mothers. Then he makes camp for the night and gathers an offering for his brother that consists of ‘two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty milk camels with their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten foals.’”
“That’s a lot of animals.”
“Yes, this was no small gift back then either,” said the man. “Livestock provided a renewable source of milk, meat, labor, and clothing. The size of this gift wasn’t just a token of kindness. Jacob was giving his brother a large portion of his wealth.”
“And how does it go over?”
“Well, Jacob assigns servants to each of these different herds and sends them ahead one by one with space in between, instructing each to tell Esau, ‘They are your servant Jacob’s. It is a present sent to my lord Esau, and behold, he also is behind us.’”
“He doesn’t even have the balls to meet him head-on? Just sends his servants ahead for slaughter? Boy, if his wives weren’t barren before, their wombs are certainly dried up now.”
“I’m not so sure I’d have the courage to ride to my doom either,” said the man. “To send a train of gifts with the intention of gradually wearing down Esau’s wrath seems pretty clever. Increasing the emotional impact of each additional gift is another example of Jacob’s mastery of manipulation.”
“He always was a thinking man,” said the boy. “So, does it work?”
“Well,” said the man, “before we get to that, we have what is possibly the strangest verse in all of Genesis.”
“Stranger than a talking snake and impossible flood?”
“I’ll let you decide,” said the man. “Jacob wanders away from his camp, and then here it says he ‘was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of day.’”
“A random man?” said the boy. “Just appears out of nowhere and wrestles him? For hours longer than an Olympic wrestler could endure? You’re right. That is strange.”
“That’s not even the strangest part,” said the man. “But keep in mind this theme of wrestling that has occurred throughout this story so far. Esau and Jacob, Jacob and Laban, Leah and Rachel. Here the imagery becomes literal in this important moment.”
“Alright,” said the boy, “let’s hear it then.”
“When the man sees that he cannot overpower Jacob, he touches the socket of Jacob’s hip, and his hip goes out of joint. But then the man says, ‘Let me go, for the day breaks.’”
“What is he, a vampire or something?”
“That’s the thing,” says the man. “Some people interpret this man as God, or one of God’s angels. But why this unease about daybreak? God and His angels have appeared in daylight before, so this may contradict that theory.”
“Unless God had a dentist appointment He was late for,” said the boy.
“Very good,” the man laughed. “Perhaps that’s the reason.”
“Well, obviously it’s some kind of spiritual… thing,” said the boy, “if he can dislocate a hip with a measly touch.”
“Yes, it’s very unclear,” said the man. “So anyway, Jacob recognizes this man has this kind of supernatural power, so he says, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me!’ So the man asks, ‘What is your name?’ Which, again, couldn’t be our omniscient God, who has the habit of calling his chosen people by name. But either wa—”
“Hold on a sec,” said the boy. “You told me God asked where Adam was in the garden to give Adam a chance to repent, even though God already knew where he was.”
The man paused and looked off into nowhere. “Good point.”
“You said Jacob means ‘supplanter,’ right?”
“Yes, often understood to mean one who circumvents or usurps.”
“Right. So maybe this is God giving Jacob a chance to repent somehow, because the last time someone asked Jacob for his name he said it was Esau.”
The old man’s eyes lit up. “My boy, you may be on to something there. Because in the next line Jacob tells the man his name and the man says, ‘Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.’”
“Right there,” said the boy. “He just said you’ve struggled with God.”
“Well, he refers to God, but he doesn’t say, ‘You have struggled with Me, God.’ And he also says you have struggled with men, so I never thought it was clear enough to assume this was God. Perhaps a dream of the spirit of Esau, or an externalization of all that Jacob had to contend with leading up to this reunion.”
“But we haven’t seen any other kind of spiritual beings at this point,” said the boy, “besides God or His angels.”
“But that doesn’t mean there’s no room for a first either,” said the man. “But whoever this figure is, this victory results in a name change, perhaps symbolizing that a metaphorical debt has been paid, that God’s good grace has been restored, instead of having to seize more blessings through devious schemes.”
“Well,” said the boy, “maybe it was a drunk night owl with a light sensitivity, wandering through a field looking for a fight and getting lucky with a pressure point.”
“I’d have trouble believing that one,” said the man, “but we can certainly throw it into the hat of theories anyway.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t,” said the boy. “I think if the whole nation of Israel was named because some bum said so it might take away the magic.”
“Out of the hat it goes then,” said the man. “In any case, Jacob says, ‘Tell me your name, I pray,’ and the man says, ‘Why is it that you ask about my name?’ So whomever or whatever it was resists recognition. He does, however, bless Jacob before he goes. Then Jacob calls the name of the place Peniel, ‘For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.’ And just as he crosses over Peniel back to camp, the sun rises as he limps on his hip.”
“I mean that seems pretty clear,” said the boy, “at least in his eyes.”
“In light of what you’ve just shown me, I might have to agree with you.”
“Come on, man, this is your book. I have to convince you that it’s God? What kind of believer are you?”
“Well,” the old man chuckled, “I guess I was feeling tied to my old ways of thinking, but I think that can change.”
“Better than a drunk bum,” said the boy.
“Better than a drunk bum,” said the man.
“And so?”
“And so ‘Jacob lifted his eyes—’”
“I thought you said he was Israel now.”
“Well yes,” said the man, “but the name change doesn’t appear fulfilled in the same way Abram was henceforth known as Abraham. The Scripture still refers to Jacob by his birth name at times. I’m not sure why, to be honest. Perhaps Israel is more of a synonym in this case, or the change was more of a symbol of internal changes.”
“Just one more of those things we’ll never have an answer to I guess,” said the boy.
“That’s right,” said the man, reading on again:
Then Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming with his four hundred men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and his two servant wives. He put the servant wives and their children at the front, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph last.153
“So we’ve learned nothing about playing favorites,” said the boy.
“Indeed, Jacob’s motivations aren’t outright stated, but I think you’ve got a pretty firm grasp on the reason for the ordering. It may seem harsh that his most beloved family will have the best chance at escape if Esau attacks, but probably not an uncommon attitude in that era either.”
“I’m imagining all of Joseph’s brothers craning their necks to look at the back of the line at the favorite son,” said the boy.
“Indeed, this is perhaps where the resentment starts brewing that we’ll see later on, but fortunately we don’t have to witness any kind of violence here. Jacob approaches his brother before them and bows down seven times. Esau then runs to meet him, and they embrace and begin to weep upon each other’s shoulders.”
“Oh how the blessing tables have turned,” said the boy. “Look who’s bowing down to who now. But I guess all those gifts softened up Esau after all, huh?”
“Yes, then he lifts his eyes and inquires about all the women and children,” said the man, reading on:
“Who are these with you?”
Jacob said, “The children whom God has graciously given your servant.”
Then the servants drew near, they and their children, and bowed down. Leah likewise and her children drew near and bowed down. And last Joseph and Rachel drew near, and they bowed down.
Esau said, “What do you mean by all this company that I met?”
Jacob answered, “To find favor in the sight of my lord.”
But Esau said, “I have enough, my brother. Keep what you have for yourself.”
Jacob said, “No, please, if I have found favor in your sight, then accept my present from my hand. For I have seen your face, which is like seeing the face of God, and you have accepted me. Please accept my blessing that is brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough.”
Thus he urged him, and he took it.154
“Better that way,” said the boy. “There’s probably a small part of Esau that still resents what happened. Something of a formal apology might discourage that part of him bubbling up later on.”
“Precisely,” said the man. “A gift of this size was substantial enough to erase the loss of a birthright, at least in material terms. But ‘I have seen your face, which is like seeing the face of God’ is also a very flattering statement for Esau. Jacob equates the judgment of his brother with that of the highest of virtues, something that implies his recognition of a larger principle at stake, one which is vital to reconcile as they set an example in front of their family as well as hundreds of men that dwell in their lands.”
“Powerful,” said the boy.
“Indeed,” said the man. “Then Esau offers to escort Jacob’s caravan along their journey, but Jacob politely declines, informing his brother that they could not keep up the pace of his men with his nursing sheep and tired children. And so they go their separate ways.”
“Ahh, and all is right in world,” said the boy. “But just to sum up this chapter, for clarity’s sake and all, God punishes Esau for taking three wives by making him the leader of a nation with so much wealth that he was in a position to turn down a birth right’s worth of livestock from his brother, God’s polygamous chosen one whom Israel is named after, who was blessed with that much wealth to spare himself, all because God hates polygamy. Am I getting this right?”
With frustration boiling to the surface the man said, “In case you’re not listening, these stories of polygamy have been examples of ‘show don’t tell’ when it comes to the headaches of marriage beyond just a man and a woman.”
“Yeah, but point to a monogamous marriage that’s gone well so far,” said the boy. “Eve dragged her husband out of paradise by tempting him to sin. Rebekah tricked her blind husband into giving her favorite son the blessing. Who else are we supposed to look to? Laban, who sold his daughters into polygamy? Lot, who had sex with both his daughters after his wife turned into a salt pillar? There are no good examples to follow.”
“Well Noah’s family was clearly on the right path,” said the man, “while the sons of God were busy fornicating with the daughters of men. But I’d like to know where this idea that you need multiple wives to be happy is coming from?”
“No one’s saying that,” said the boy. “I’m just trying to point out that there’s no divine rule against different kinds of relationships, except for your own ideal painted onto these stories. We’ve heard nothing from God in this regard.”
“We’re still in the early days, my boy. There are plenty of laws and examples coming.”
“And I’ll be patiently waiting,” said the boy. “But until then, God and I would appreciate it if you stopped putting words in His mouth.”
There was a strong pause where they both held a straight face, but after fighting back smiles, they each burst into laughter.