Genesis 32: 22-32, Jacob Wrestles With God

     In this essay I will take an interpretive look at Genesis chapters 5-9. The main focuses will be: the relationship between God, Noah, and Noah’s generation of mankind; the barriers and boundaries for

In the book of Genesis, we are introduced to everything. From the creation stories to the sagas in between Genesis is an opening to the old testament and an opening to the book of exodus. This essay will contrast each creation story and describe each stories interest, explain how Genesis 12: 1-3 links the stories of 2: 4b-11 with the ancestral narratives in 12-50 and connect the sagas of Abraham/Sarah, Isaac/ Rebecca and Jacob/ Racheal.

The story starts by explaining how Jacob has always tried his hardest to be a good little boy like in the Sunday-school books he reads. It gives you many instances of this but instead of the praise Jacob is seeking, he always ends up in trouble, normally because the situation is misunderstood. In the end it takes this to the extreme with Jacob trying to undo what some bad boys did and dies tragically, without saying the last words he had prepared.

When Jacob and Esau were born, they were extremely different despite being twins. Esau was robust and red headed while Jacob was meek and small. “When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so they named him Esau. After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob,” (Genesis 25:19-34). Jacob was a trickster. He covered himself with the hide of a lamb to mimic his brothers appearance and take his blessing as the first born. “So Jacob went out and got the young goats for his mother. Rebekah took them and prepared a delicious meal, just the way Isaac liked it. Then she took Esau’s favorite clothes,

“Now Israel [Jacob] loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him” (Genesis 37: 3-4).

There are thousands of stories in the Bible, but one stands out in particular; the story of Joseph. The Hebrew meaning of the name Joseph is “may Jehovah add, give increase.”1 Through the life of Joseph we see God add meaning and purpose to his life, just as God adds meaning and purpose to all our lives. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”2 Joseph obediently followed God’s plans through trials and tribulations whereas many other figures in the Old Testament faltered in their faith. Joseph, son of Jacob, is the single most important human being in the Old Testament because of his impeccable faith to the one true God and his story of forgiveness that set the stage for God’s chosen people.

Upon initial consideration, comparing similarities in the Homeric epic The Iliad against the Bible’s first book Genesis would seem outlandish. The comparisons between the two tales may not be abundantly clear. The parables of the Bible serve as religious cornerstones for society, while Greek tragedies serve as the moral lessons on which our culture is predicated. Fate in both narratives is understood to be a governing body, with a prominence being placed on remaining on the course with that which has been outlined for the individual. The “swift footed” Achilles and the “simple tent-dweller” Jacob are dually fated to embark on a trajectory that does not align with their idiosyncratic needs: death for Achilles, social status for Jacob. The comparisons between the two characters seems to augment more contradictions than parallels, yet it is through these similarities that the characters are humanized and the malleability of destiny can be understood. Fate in The Iliad and Genesis reveals an intriguing dilemma: one can either change their destiny, like Jacob, or one could succumb to fate, like Achilles. These polar notions serve to accentuate the significance of becoming an active participant in your own narrative, even when fate is not on one’s side.

In his book God Behaving Badly David Lamb examines difficult texts in the Old Testament and tries to answer the hard questions that arise from those readings. In my own examination of Lamb’s God Behaving Badly I will look at a few of the- questions and difficult texts that I found most interesting. Specifically, I will examine Lamb’s response to God 's anger, apparent lack of concern for race and genocide, and violence in the Old Testament, and I will offer my own response.

The Joseph narrative can be found in the book of Genesis chapters 37-50. It is slightly interrupted “by the story of Judah and Tamar (Gen. 38) and by the so-called Blessing of Jacob (Gen. 49:1-28)” (Skinner, 438). The story of Joseph is seen as unique because it has different characteristics than its counterparts in Genesis. Other writings in Genesis seem to be short, brief incidents, about family and tribal affairs. The Joseph narrative, on the other hand, is lengthy in nature “comprising some 300 verses” (Barton & Muddiman, 60). In fact, Joseph is “second only to Moses in the attention given to him in the Torah” (Spring & Shapiro, 260). Some scholars consider the Joseph

Another brother story in the Bible is that of Esau and Jacob. The prophecy of these brothers was that the younger would rule the elder. Esau was a hairy man that was skillful in the hunter – gatherer ways and Jacob was somewhat of a “mamas boy”. One day while their father Isaac was dying he told Esau that he would bless him. Jacob then deceitfully went into the place of his father and was blessed as if he was Esau. When Esau returned he was very upset and was going to kill his brother. Jacob fled and was out of touch with his brother for a long time. Then Jacob sent word to meet his brother again and heard that Esau followed by 400 men were coming to him. Afraid and distressed about what Esau might do, Jacob had a dream in which he wrestled with God and was there blessed. With the new name of Israel he met his brother Esau and gave him many gifts. Esau came to his bother in open arms not needing any gifts because the only gift he wanted was to see his brother. Again united Esau and Israel showed that being brothers was more important than any childhood feud.

While Jacob is on his way to Haran, God finally decides that it is time to introduce Himself to Jacob. He speaks to Jacob for the first time in a dream, during which God tells Jacob that, “I am with you and will keep you wherever you go...I will not leave you until I have done [the promises] of which I have spoken to you” (Gen 28:15). Interacting with Jacob in such a way, and telling him that God will keep him instills within Jacob a sense of security. Jacob can continue on his journey without worry as, even though Jacob has yet to receive other aspects from the blessings, God is with him and God will keep him. Following the dream, when Jacob wakes up, he makes a vow where he says that, “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go...then the Lord shall be my God…”(Gen28:20-21). Jacob’s vow [FINISH THIS].

The book of Genesis forms part of a series of ‘historical’ books that begins with the creation story and ends with the destruction of the kingdom of Judah (6BCE.) These narrated events are in a chronological sequence (Barton 2001:38).It is the first book of the Old Testament and Pentateuch (Barton 2001:12) . Jews name these five books the Torah or ‘the law’(Holdsworth 2005:71). The passage(Gen22:1-19) reveals God’s relationship through a trial with a major character, Abraham. Key themes that are central to the Pentateuch lie within the passage; the sovereignty and grace of God; sacrifice and obedience; the establishment and reaffirming of covenants and the redeeming nature of God. What lies before and after

One of the inherent conflicts in the story of Joseph is the tension between Joseph and his brothers. The tension between them is caused by both Jacob and Joseph. First, Jacob shows favoritism toward Joseph, because he is the son of his favorite wife Rachel. Second, Joseph brings back bad reports when he is out pasturing with his brothers. However, what truly increased the hatred and jealousy was the Joseph’s dreams. The author notes that when Joseph recounts the dreams, “they hated him even more (Gen. 37:8).” Their jealousy for Joseph is strong enough that they are willing to murder him. However, they decide to instead sell him into slavery, and convince Jacob that he was killed.

     Abraham stands as one of the most important figures in the Hebrew Bible, and is central to the understanding of God’s solution to the problem of mankind. Man, the mysterious creature that God wraught as a semi-experiment, is constantly prone to believe he is self-sufficient and capable of survival without God, the central problem God must deal with in the Hebrew Bible. To solve this problem, God decides to strike fear in the heart of man and to revolutionise his lifestyle by creating laws and empowering a chosen group of people, who will spread the word of God by example. These people are the Hebrews, and Abraham is the father of their race, the man from whom all

The concept of faith and suffering in the Hebrew Bible has filled worshippers with fraught throughout the ages of its existence. The crux of the matter is that there is no definition of what exactly these things are and what they mean, leading to many different theories to emerge on the concept of whether suffering is necessary for faith in God. This has historically caused strife between many populations of worshippers, and continues to be a point of bitter disagreement between people. Wildly contradicting itself between various books, the Hebrew Bible is at best ambiguous in many of these concepts, but when analyzing small passages, certain themes can be argued for with much more strength. In the Book of Job, loyalty to God is questioned, and ultimately the theme of free will in faith is addressed through the pain and suffering of its characters.