by Ptr. Art Calaguas
Shalom.
The Israel-Hamas War has now been more than 200 days since the Hamas attack last October 7, 2023. Israel is now poised to attack Rafah to free the hostages and because it is the last stronghold of the remaining Hamas armed battalions. Some 40,000 tents have been set up in designated civilian evacuation sites in Gaza prior to the Israeli offensive. The 133 hostages composed of men, the elderly, 19 women, children and a baby, as well as an unknown number of bodies of the dead among them in Rafah or somewhere in Gaza. We must continue to pray for the immediate release of all hostages and for a just end to this war. Let us continue to pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6-9) and stand with Israel.
Earlier, we saw the progression of the Biblical narrative with the focus now on Isaac and God’s blessing and confirmation of covenantal promises passing on to him from his father, Abraham. Genesis 27 narrates the deception planned and successfully executed by Rebekah and Jacob on Isaac. It resulted in the stealing of Isaac’s blessing from Esau to Jacob. This comes at the heels of Esau’s nonchalant sale and exchange of his birthright to Jacob for some bread and lentil stew, as narrated in Genesis 25:29-34. Such was Esau who despised his birthright for an immediate physical gratification. And now his brother has once again taken advantage of him. Genesis 27:41 then records Esau’s plan to get back at Jacob by killing him after their father Isaac dies. Truly a dysfunctional family as any! Rebekah then advises Jacob to flee to her brother Laban in Haran and wait for Esau’s anger to subside. Then to complete the cover up for Jacob’s flight, she convinces Isaac to command Jacob not to marry Hittite/Canaanite women but to go to Paddan Aram (in Mesopotamia) to the house of her father, Bethuel, and take a wife from the daughters of Laban, her brother.
Genesis 28:3-4 narrates part of Isaac’s blessing to the departing Jacob. It contains the LORD’s blessing to Abraham, explicitly including the land grant. The Hebrew text of verses 3-4 are given below (read right to left, top down) with the relevant verses regarding the land grant highlighted:
וְאֵ֤ל שַׁדַּי֙ יְבָרֵ֣ךְ אֹֽתְךָ֔ וְיַפְרְךָ֖ וְיַרְבֶּ֑ךָ וְהָיִ֖יתָ לִקְהַ֥ל עַמִּֽים׃
וְיִֽתֶּן־לְךָ֙ אֶת־בִּרְכַּ֣ת אַבְרָהָ֔ם לְךָ֖ וּלְזַרְעֲךָ֣ אִתָּ֑ךְ לְרִשְׁתְּךָ֙ אֶת־אֶ֣רֶץ מְגֻרֶ֔יךָ אֲשֶׁר־נָתַ֥ן אֱלֹהִ֖ים לְאַבְרָהָֽם׃
These verses may be translated this way:
3“May God Almighty bless you, And make you fruitful and multiply you, That you may be an assembly of peoples; (NKJV)
4May he give the blessing of Abraham to you and to your offspring with you, that you may take possession of the land of your sojournings that God gave to Abraham!” (ESV)
Verse 3 is a translation from the New King James Version (NKJV) while verse 4 is a translation from the English Standard Version (ESV). The 2 Hebrew words translated “God Almighty” in verse 3 (also by most other translations) are actually the words “El Shaddai” and occurs nearly 50x in the Old Testament (OT). It first occurs in Genesis 17:1 when the LORD introduces himself to Abram and changes his name to Abraham as part of God’s covenant with him and his progeny.
In Genesis 28:4, the grammatical construction can be taken as a jussive (hence, “may” is used) and with the context, points to Isaac praying that God may give the covenantal blessing given to Abraham (and to him, as well) to Jacob. The Greek Septuagint translation (LXX) takes this view when it uses the (aorist optative mood, not subjunctive mood) inflected form of the verb “to give” to mean that the blessing is hopefully given (as if it is a done deal). Another way of translating this verse with the (non-jussive) straightforward treatment of the Hebrew imperfect verb is that Isaac knows or assumes that God will give the covenantal blessing to Jacob and his descendants. This view can be seen in the Aramaic Bible in Plain English translation:
4And he will give to you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your seed with you, and he shall cause you to inherit the land of your habitation that God gave to Abraham.”
In either view, the same covenantal blessing to Abraham is referred to: being fruitful, having many descendants, becoming a multitude of peoples and possessing the land. An integral part of God’s blessing includes the land of Jacob’s sojourning that God gave to Abraham (and to Isaac). The Hebrew verb used means “to take possession of” but other translations use “to inherit.” The LXX uses the Greek verb “to inherit” which also means “to obtain,” “to acquire,” “receive possession of,” or “to be an heir.”
Another aspect that is important to see in the passage is that the context includes Isaac commanding Jacob not to take a Canaanite wife and go to Paddan Aram to take a wife from one of his uncle Laban’s daughters (Genesis 28:1-2). It may be that Isaac believed that the blessing of Abraham that he hopes his son Jacob will receive is connected (and conditional) to his son’s obedience to his charge. In much the same way, the LORD ratified his blessings to Abraham (and Isaac) because of full obedience (fealty and loyalty) to him and his plan for them.
In contrast, note that in Genesis 28:6-9, Esau observes that Jacob obeyed their parents and left for Paddan Aram. Knowing that Isaac and Rebekah were grieved by his marriage to Hittite women, he now decides to take another wife: a daughter of Ishmael. Perhaps Esau hoped that his marriage to the family of Ishmael (Isaac’s half-brother, Abraham’s son from Hagar) would please his parents. But he still kept his pagan wives.
We will continue next time.
God bless us all.