Themes in Genesis: The Older Serves the Younger - Birth Order

One common theme throughout Genesis is the younger son becoming more important than the older one. This theme is repeated over and over.

1. Cain killed his older brother Abel and then Seth was born who was became the most important one in the family.
2. Abraham gave his blessing to Isaac who was his second born because his first born Ishmael was the son of an Egyptian slave who was expelled from the house by his wife Sarah.
3. Isaac's son Jacob stole the blessing and bargained for the birthright from his brother Esau.
4. Jacob's son Reuben lost his birthright and blessing to Judah (4th in line) because of his affair with his step-mother.
5. Judah's son Er was given Tamar as his wife. Er died so Tamar was given to Er's brother Onan who also died. Finally, she tricked her father-ion-law to have sex with her so she could have a child, but instead of having one child she bore twins, Pharez and Zarah. As Zarah was coming out of the womb a red thread was tied around his hand to identify the first born but he was pulled back into the womb by his brother who then came out first.
6. When Jacob blessed his children he also blessed 2 of his grandchildren, Manasseh and Ephraim, who were sons of Joseph. When Jacob placed his hands on the 2 children he put his right hand on the younger child thus giving the best blessing to the younger of the two. Joseph tried to correct his father, but Jacob refused to change his hands' position. The younger was to be the greater of the two.

So what's the issue with the older serving the younger theme? Perhaps the writer of Genesis was a younger brother.

Judah and Joseph - Sexual Temptations

Genesis 38 and 39 both deal with sex. Genesis 38 is the story of Judah's 3 sons and Tamar - the story that begins immediately after we are told that Joseph found himself a slave in Potiphar's house.

The author of Genesis broke away from Joseph's story in Egypt (Genesis 37) to tell us about his brother Judah, Judah's sons, and a woman named Tamar.  After the story of Tamar and Judah's sons, the author returned to Joseph's story in Egypt (ch 38); to the place where he had left him - in Potiphar's house. In other words the story of Judah and his family was sandwiched into the midst of Joseph's ordeal with Potiphar's wife.

Sandwiching is a common writing tool in the Bible that helps emphasize something.  Sandwiching was intentional on the part of the writer.  In this case, before the writer of Genesis gets too involved with the story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife, he wants us to see the story of Tamar and Judah.  In other words, they are intended to be connected.

Here is how it works out in outline form:

A. Brothers sell Joseph into slavery
B. Joseph in Potiphar's house
C. Judah and his sons' shameful sexual behavior
B. Joseph in Potiphar's house

In chapter 38 Judah's daughter-in-law (Tamar) did not bear children before her husband died, so by custom, her husband's brother was suppose to have sex with her so she could have a child in the name of her dead husband. But her brother-in-law wanted nothing to do with having children in the behalf of his brother, so "he spilt his seed on the ground." In other words while having sex with his brother's wife he pulled out last second.

This verse is not about masturbation as many have suggested, although it does tell us indirectly about birth control in their days. Ultimately this verse gives us an example of a brother who should have done his cultural duty and produce a child for his dead brother's wife and and so that his dead brother's name might continue in genealogies to come.

For his lack of honoring the tradition, God killed him. Judah lost 2 sons, both after being with Tamar (the girl). No doubt he blamed her for their deaths but was stuck with a tradition, so he promised Tamar that his youngest son would fulfill the duty of the brother when he got old enough, but his promise was empty; when the son got old enough, Tamar saw that Judah did not do as he had promised.

So Tamar dressed up as a prostitute to get Judah's attention. This meant covering her face so that he would not recognize her. Judah fell for it and went in to her, had sex with her and she got pregnant.

Tamar's trickery for the sake of custom was considered noble, not only in her day but for centuries to come.

Meanwhile, at the same time Judah's sons died and Judah visited a prostitute, miles away Joseph (considered lost or dead) was being pursued by Potiphar's wife for sexual favors. Joseph ran from his temptation and was imprisoned for his nobility. But in the end he was lifted out of prison and placed in the second highest position in Egypt.

Here are some parallels and contrasts between the 2 stories
1. Tamar pursued Judah for noble reasons, Potiphar's wife pursued Joseph for sexual gratification. Tamar went down in history as a hero, Potiphar's wife as a scoundral.
2. Judah slept with a prostitute for sexual gratification while Joseph fled from his temptation. Both fulfilled God's plans.

Jacob's Uncle - Laban

Laban was Rebeka's brother and the cousin of Isaac. He and his family (father, mother, sister and maybe others) lived in or near Haran which is the city from which Abraham left years ago. He like Abraham took care of cattle, sheep and goats. No doubt the people of the city all knew who he was.

His life in the Bible began with a surprise visit from Abraham's servant who brought much wealth and great stories of Abraham and Sarah. He told them about Abraham's wealth and clout - it probably fascinated Laban and his family. The servant also told them that he was looking for a wife for his master's son Isaac and he told them how Rebekah showed up at the well while he was praying for guidance from the Lord.

Within a day or two Rebekah was gone and life returned to normal for Laban, except there was more work to do now that Rebekah was gone. In time he married, had children (boys and 2 girls) and he became the head of the household when his dad died.

20 to 30 years after he saw his sister leave his daughter brought home a young man she met at the well (a very popular place for men to meet women in the Bible). He could tell his daugher liked the guy and he so happened to be his sister's son Jacob. Unlike Abraham's servant who brought so much wealth, this guy brought nothing with him.

Jacob stayed with Laban for quite awhile and that seemed to be o.k. because even though he was an extra person to feed he was a good worker and things went very well with his work. Laban decided it was good to have Jacob around, so he made him an offer, "What wages would you like?" Jacob wanted Laban's younger daughter in marriage in exchange of 7 years of work. Laban agreed with the offer.

Sometime in the 7 years that Jacob worked for him, Laban got a great idea for marrying off his older daughter who had no decent pursuers. And on wedding night when all was dark Laban had his younger daughter Rachel taken from her husband and gave Jacob his older daughter Leah instead. Because it was dark Jacob didn't know he consummated his marriage with the wrong girl.

Just over seven years previously, Jacob deceived his dad by pretending to be his older brother in order to get the blessing, and on his wedding night Rachel's sister Leah did the same thing to him. Here are some of the similarities between Leah's deception and Jacob's deception:

1. Both were set up by a parent. Jacob's mother set him up to deceive his dad and Leah's dad set her up to deceive Jacob.
2. Both took advantage of darkness. Jacob took advantage of his dad's blindness and Leah took advantage of the night.
3. Both pursued a blessing. Jacob got his father's blessing and Leah got the blessing of marriage.
4. Both angered a sibling. Jacob angered Esau by stealing his blessing and Leah angered Rachel by stealing her husband.

No doubt Jacob told his new family all about his great deception and while the family laughed time and time again, he was actually feeding his Uncle with some great ideas for Leah.

Laban probably felt pleased with himself for pulling off a great trick and for it Jacob had to pay another 7 years of work in order to marry the girl he really wanted (the 7 years would be owed to Laban and the marriage to the younger daughter was days after the first marriage).

For those 14 years things went well and Laban prospered knowing that his son-in-law / nephew was the main reason, so when the 14 years were up, Laban offered Jacob wages - he could keep certain of the sheep and goats if he took care of them all. It was a deal.

The Life of a Slave in Ancient Times - Hagar

A great way to understand the Book of Genesis is to step into the shoes of each character - the good ones and the bad ones.  Try to understand and make sense out of everything each character did.

Another important point in reading Genesis is to put aside our 20th Century morals and ideas of right and wrong, because this gets in the way of understanding the text and realizing that the values of that time differed from our own.  Let's face it, how many of us would have have sex with our father-in-law in order to have a child and in so doing be deemed a fine example of morality?  Or how many, like Lot's daughters, would get dad drunk to get children by him?  These women did what they needed to get children - and that was what was important.

Finally, it is imperative to let go of preconceived notions that say because someone is chosen of God, he/she is an example of good morality.  This assumption makes nice well behaved models out of people who in reality were not always nice and not always so well behaved.  And by turning these people into ideal saints, we strip them from their humanity and their faults as humans, and we end up clothing them with garments of 20th Century morality and ideals.

The life of Hagar begins in Egypt where you will begin to look at her place in Genesis through her eyes.

IF YOU WERE HAGAR

You were a slave which meant one of several possibilities:

1. Your parents were slaves and you had little or no hope of ever being anything but a slave. Even as a child your purpose in life was to serve somebody who could afford to keep you. When you were old enough to be on your own you were permanently ripped away from your parents to serve another person or family. Your body and your time belonged to the person or persons who owned you.

2. You were sold into slavery by parents who could not afford to keep you. For their own survival and yours you were sold to become the property of others. It may be that your parents were also sold into slavery, but as a child you were the first to go. You probably never saw your parents or the rest of your family since.

3. You were taken by a band of kidnappers and murderers. A group of people came into your village or to your farm and they slaughtered many around you and took some of you as slaves.

There are I suppose, other possibilities, but every one of them would be unacceptable for any 20th Century American. We value freedom and have grown up with it. In some countries such as Sudan, kidnapping and slavery still continues.

Here then is the story of Hagar.

Either you grew up in Egypt or you were brought to one of the cities where buying and selling of slaves was commonplace. With other slaves you were brought to the market at a young age, perhaps 8 - 12 years old. You are bought by people high up in the government and are brought into Pharoah's palace. For all the bad things that have happened to you in life, being in a palace guarentees a decent life of food and a place to stay, but you have no hope of romance and the few servant boys you find attractive are off limits.

Eventually Pharoah gives you to an older man and his wife. They are nomads (wanderers) who tend sheep and goats. You enter their world and their language which is unfamiliar to you.

You become the slave of the old woman who is unhappy with life because she can't have children. The husband wants a child, but realizes it will never happen with her; and this strains their relationship.  From time to time, when they enter large cities, the old man tries to trick the locals into thinking his wife is only his sister.  You wonder if he wants someone else to take her away from him.

One day, with little or no notice you are brought into the old man's tent and he has sex with you and you become pregnant. Any sense of violation is overcome by the pregnancy that results, because it gives you a sense of entitlement. You did what the old lady could not - you got pregnant and it makes you feel good about yourself. You begin to allow yourself feelings that you may rise above slavery.

You no longer respect the lady who owns you.  In fact, you despise her - she is an unhappy barren woman who is not good enough for her husband. You are better.

Seeing your new attitude, the lady becomes even more cruel toward you than she had ever been. She despises you and is very harsh with you, so you run away into the desert knowing that the desert is certain death.

In the desert an angel comes to you and tells you that your child will become a nation - it is the biggest honor anybody could ask for. The angel also tells you to go back and face the lady and serve her. So you go back.

The old man (Abraham) loves your child because it is also his.  You endure the lady's hatred because you know one day that your child will own everything in the camp; but the day comes when his old wife gets pregnant and then has a child.  Your dreams for your child face constant threat, but you know that your child is preferred by the old man, and you see that there is something different about the old lady's child.  Her child may have been a miracle, but your child is smarter, more aggressive, better, and more loved by the old man.

But when your teenaged son makes fun of the new child, despite the fact that you know that Abraham loves your child more, his wife convinces him to send you and your child out into the wilderness and to your death with only enough food and water to survive a few days.

When all the water is used up, you and your son give up all hope and cry. Again an angel helps you out by showing you where there is water and once again telling you that your son will become a great nation. For years you stay in the desert with your son who eventually marries an Egyptian woman (probably one of her own kind of people) and your son and his wife take care of you.  And for the rest of your life, you live as a free woman, no longer serving others, but others (your son and his wife) serve you and take care of you, because they love you - well... at least your son loves you.

Abraham's Wife - Sarah Did not Have a Happy Life

The beginning of Sarah's life story is summed up in these words: "She was barren, she had no children." Just in case you didn't get it the first time the writer of Genesis states it 2 times - she was very barren. Her life in Genesis begins with shame and disappointment. When we read the bible all too often we miss what it must be like in the shoes of the secondary character. To best understand Sarah's life, put yourself in her shoes and look at life through her eyes.

You grew up with a half brother named Abraham who married you when you got older. Your brother who is now your husband was called by God to move around a lot and without any destination. Your husband tells you that you are going to go to a land that God promised to give to his descendents. Perhaps a glimmer of hope arises. Has God heard your prayers? Will you have children? But as you get to the promised land you and your husband discover that the land is filled with people and it is going through a drought, in other words, it doesn't look like any promised land. The promises of God seem to be less than what you hoped for.

You and Abraham wander Southward until you reach Egypt where your husband reminds you of an agreement he wants you to keep. You are not to tell anybody you are his wife, instead you are to tell everybody you are his sister. He does this because he is afraid he will be killed by the people he is visiting. He is afraid that these people will take you away from him by force and kill him, so you are to let them take you without force. You could very well become some stranger's wife so that your husband will be safe. You wonder does he want to get rid of you because you are barren? Does he want somebody else who can give children?

Because you are beautiful people in the highest position are attracted to you, and sure enough you are taken away to become the wife of Pharoah. In return, Abraham is given a lot of possessions and valuables. He becomes rich.

Eventually, Pharoah and his princes realize that a lot of bad things happening to them are because you are the wife of Abraham. Pharoah is not the immoral man your husband feared; it turns out he has morals and is angered by what your husband did.

After you leave Egypt with your husband you have more servants and things you have ever dreamed of. You are now the wife of a wealthy man.

You may have known all along that your husband was a warrior, but it isn't until his nephew was taken prisoner to become a slave that your husband leaves with the servants to battle with armies far more powerful than he. He comes back a conquerer and a hero.

Abraham your husband, not you, receives promises about having children and through them would become a nation. After hearing about this over and over you decide to let your husband sleep with your maid so that he can have the child that God has promised him aand that he so desires to have.

Your maid becomes pregnant and has a child that your husband loves dearly. And in return for your generosity, your maid scorns you and looks down on you, so you resort to violence by beating her. She runs away with her son only to return humbled from her experience in the desert.

Finally one day strangers come to your tent and tell your husband that you will have a child. You overhear and laugh because you are too old and have given up your dream a long time ago.

You and your husband travel South for another journey and as usual you are told to tell the local king that you are his sister. The king likes you and you are taken to the king's house but before anything sexual happens the king discovers you belong to Abraham and just like the Pharoah he is appalled with your husband's behavior and again your husband becomes richer because of his trickery.

You do become pregnant by your husband and you give birth to a child that you call "Laughter," because you laughed when the strangers told your husband you would have a child.

A new sense of empowerment comes over you and your low self-esteem seems to disappear, until you see the servant's teenage son mocking and making fun of your own child. For the first time in your marriage you put your foot down and insist that the other child and his mother must go - you will not let her and her son get in the way of you, your husband, and your child.

For years the very presensce of your servant and her child has taunted you and you hated it. For years her child was was your husband's pride and joy, and you sense his preference for the servant's child (which he proclaims before God but not you) but now you are taking control of the situation and removing the servant and her son from the family. Abraham concedes to your demands because God tells him to.

Some time later, Abraham takes your child for several days on a camping trip. When they come home Isaac tells you that God told dad to sacrifice him, but as dad had the knife raised to slaughter him, an angel told him not to.

As Isaac's mother, how do you feel about this?

That is Sarah's life as we know it.

Examples of Incest in Genesis

Even though the Law of Moses will condemn so much of what happens in Genesis, there is a lot of incest in the book. I have already explained that having children in Genesis was more important than incest. But I'd like to pursue this deeper and in other ways because there is so much of it going on in Genesis.

1. I'd like to begin with Cain's wife. The great question of every doubter is: where did Cain get his wife? Good question, no answer. But some have suggested that Cain obviously married his sister - the only possibility if one believes that Adam and Eve are the only people of their day.

Another option offered is that there was a pre-Adamic race - that is, there was a group or groups of people that lived before Adam and Eve.

2. We don't know anything about Abraham and Sarah before they were adults called by God to move to a land they had never seen. We do know that Sarah was barren and that she was the half sister to Abraham.

3. Abraham's son Isaac married his father's brother's granddaughter Rebekah. To put it another way, Abraham's brother was Nahor. The granddaughter of Nahor married the son of Abraham. Or better yet, Isaac married his cousin's daughter.

4. Lot's 2 daughters had children from their dad.

5. Isaac's son Jacob married 2 of his cousins from his mother's side.

6. When Esau saw that his parents didn't like his Canaanite wives, he married his cousin from his father's side to make his parents happy.

7. Finally, Judah's daughter-in-law Tamar slept with Judah in order to get a child for her dead husband.

So here is my conclusion. Esau saw very clearly that his family liked to keep marriage and relationships in the family. This was a tight knit family who liked to keep things among people they trusted probably because they were a nomadic family - they moved around in tents and had as little contact with outsiders as was necessary.

Contact outside of the family could go poorly as happened to Dinah who was raped by a local prince. Lot settled into a city and mingled with a population that was evil and doomed for destruction. Esau's Canaanite wives (family outsiders) were a problem to Isaac and Rebekah.

Abraham never trusted people in the cities he visited. He pawned off his wife because he thought they would kill him and take her as his wife. He believed they were immoral when in fact the king of Gerar rightly rebuked Abraham for his lack of morality. Abraham's excuse: "I didn't think the fear of God was in you." This by the way is the source of all kinds of evil. People who wrongly judge others to be evil will fight evil that does not exist with evil that does exist.

This episode with Abraham shows that he had a huge distrust of outsiders, and yet, when people, friends or strangers, came to visit him he and his family were very hospitable. Both Abraham and Lot welcomed the strangers who turned out to be angels.

Conclusion - When strangers came to visit they were warmly welcomed, but when they when visiting other places, strangers were not trusted, in fact, the worst was assumed.

Abraham a Prophet

Abraham was the first person in the Bible ever mentioned as a prophet. He had pawned his wife off as his sister to protect himself in a city in which he felt threatened. He thought that if he told everybody Sarah was his sister (evidently he didn't think he was really lying - she was a half sister), nobody would kill him to take her away from him; for after all she was beautiful, although she was barren. As a result his wife ended up in the palace with an unknown man who had not yet consummated the relationship. He had a dream warning him not to touch her, but give her back to her husband Abraham who "is a prophet" and who would pray for him.

Being a prophet is intimately tied to prayer. Abraham pleaded with the Lord that He would save wicked cities (Sodom and Gomorrah) convincing the Lord to spare the cities if only 10 people in the cities were righteous - unfortunately in the end, there weren't enough to save the cities.

Moses was considered the greatest of prophets until the time of Jesus. Several times he saved the people of Israel by praying for them when God wanted to destroy the nation. Moses put his life on the line telling God that if he destroyed the Israelis, God could take his name (ie: Moses' name) out of the book of life. Time and time again, even when the people wanted to kill Moses, he stood up for them protecting them from God's wrath by praying for them.

God told Jeremiah 3 times to stop praying for the people because God wanted to pour out his anger on them. Jeremiah disobeyed God, in fact, if he had obeyed God and quit praying he not only would have neglected his responsibility as a prophet, I believe that God would have been angry with him.

In Ezekiel the false prophets did not warn the people and did not strengthen the walls of protection against God's wrath through prayer and supplication. Instead they whitewashed the walls with messages of peace, when there was no peace.

The prophets' responsibility was to stand as the lawyers defending their clients (God's people who were guilty and ready to be sentenced). They did this by praying for the people and standing up for the people and identifying with the people being on their side, never saying "Lord they have sinned," but rather "Lord WE have sinned."

Let's be like prophets standing up for the church when it errs and seeking God's mercy rather than condemnation.
Let's be more like Christ who defends the church and who is on God's right hand pleading for the church.
Let's not be like the enemy who "accuses the brethren" night and day.

Superstitions in Genesis

Superstition # 1 - Reuben (the first born of Jacob's 12 sons) finds some mandrakes in the field and brings them home to his mom. Now the mandrake has gone through many superstitious legends, one of which it helps make women fertile. Reuben's mother Leah and her nemesis Rachel believed that it would make them fertile, so they make deals with each other so that both of them can use the mandrakes. Lo and behold, the mandrakes work for both women - they both have children.

Was it the mandrakes? No. The women believe it was the luck of finding mandrakes that made them pregnant when in fact, it was God - and a night out with their husband.

Superstition #2 - In order to get certain stripes and spots in the color of his flocks Jacob peeled stripes in certain branches and then put them in front of them while they mated. Despite the fact that this would have no real influence on the outcome, Jacob believed they did, and even more interesting - it worked. Well, even though he thought it was his great strategy, unless Jacob was doing something else he didn't know, it was really God who was blessing his flocks with the kinds he needed.

Did Abraham Tell Sarah that He Tried to Kill Isaac?

So Abraham has a lot of kids by different wives, but with his wife Sarah he has one. Sarah is very old and cannot have other children - she is very protective of her son Isaac. Abraham's favorite son was Ishmael, but Sarah and God teamed up together to have Ishmael and his mother leave the house so he wouldn't be a threat to Sarah's only son Isaac.

Abraham goes with Isaac into a mountain and ties him up, puts him on an altar and then gets out a knife. Just about the time he is about to slaughter his son an angel stops Abraham and commends him for his faith.

If I could ask Abraham anything: When you were going home from that experience, did you tell Isaac that he not to tell his mother all about the ropes, and the knife, and being tied up and all?

What do you think?  Would you?

Isaac and the Caretakers

So I was reading this article suggesting that Isaac was mentally challenged. I was put off with it until all the evidence was in and I was semi-convinced. I say semi-convinced because I'm still not sure. What I did realize was that Isaac was incredibly passive. As I learned more about Isaac, I became more fascinated with him - he became amazingly interesting.

So let's see the evidence.

-He was born to very old parents. Older parents are more apt to have Autistic children.
-When he was young his older half-brother made fun of him and had to move out of the house because of it.
-His father took him to be a sacrifice and he seemed clueless about it.
-A servant had to find his wife.
-When Rebecca met him for the first time, Isaac was out in the field "contemplating." The word "contemplating" was placed there by English translators who did not know what the word really meant - nobody knows what he was doing in the field. The closest word in Hebrew is "to urinate."
-When he got married he moved into his mother's tent and his wife was his comfort replacement for his mother.
-Before his father died he gave instructions to the head servant about where he should take Isaac who was already an adult.
-Issac loved his first born son more than the other because his first-born made awesome stew - no other reason given.
-How did Jacob deceive his own dad in taking the blessing from his brother, even though his dad knew his voice was not Jacob's?
-Isaac was very passive. His parents took care of him, the servants took care of him and he did nothing notable in his life.
-He was always under the care of others.

What do you think? Did he have autism?

How Did Judah (the 4th born) Become the Leader of His Family and Receive His Father's Best Blessing?

At the end of Jacob's life (also toward the end of Genesis) Jacob called all 12 of his sons to bless them. Customarily the first born received the best blessing, but in the case of the 12, Judah who was fourth oldest, got the best blessing. His children were to become the kings of Israel and through him the messiah was to be born.

How did this happen? If you read in past blogs you will discover why Reuben (the first born) was passed up - in anger he slept with one of his father Jacob's wife. It was not an act of love or desire, but an act of lashing out against his father for the father's unjust love for brother number 11 (Joseph). As I mentioned before, King David's son Absalom did the same thing to cut himself off from and attack the honor of his father. Because of that event Jacob did not give Reuben any blessing.

Jacob also passed up giving blessings to the next 2 for another reason - they slaughtered an entire village out of vigilante justice. Their sister had been raped by a local big shot prince who wanted then to marry her. The brothers convinced the prince to have his entire village circumcized, and when the men were all sore from their operations, the 2 brothers went from house to house slicing up every male and taking the females. When Jacob heard about this, he feared for his life and scolded the 2 brothers; but the brothers were convinced they had done the right thing.

In the end, Jacob passed them up for the blessing that belonged to the first born because of that event. So after 3 had been passed up, Judah who was born fourth and therefore next in line got the blessing that would cusomarily go to the first born.