Vayetzei (Part 3) Genesis 28:10-32:3

The Story of Esau, the Believer, and Jacob, the Skeptic

In the Book of Genesis, we read the story of twins being born, Jacob and Esau.

Jacob sees that his brother is starving, near death, and is willing to only give him food if he gives him something in return, the bechorah, a  non-physical association with getting a double-portion of an inheritance.

Esau does so, after all "What good is a bechorah to me if I am dead?" (25:32)

Jacob seems to keep this bit of extortion to himself.

Jacob's mother prefers her son Jacob over Esau, and she knows the special "blessing" that her husband is about to give will define which of her sons will serve the other. So she orders Jacob (27:8) to listen to her, and to do as he is told, by deceiving Isaac.

It is only in the middle of deceiving his father, of pretending to be Esau, that Jacob says the name YHVH. He is obviously trying to pretend that he is the religious one, the brother who went out to bring fresh meat to his ailing father.

It is the only time, since he was born, and as long as Jacob lives in the house of his father, that "God" was ever mentioned by him. Even saying a name of "God" that he had heard his brother utter was only done as part of a deception.

Now let's fast forward to Jacob leaving home to find a wife. His father blesses him with God's name "El Shaddai", which is primarily used when wanting to express God as a force of fertility and protection. 

Jacob doesn't respond. He just leaves. He even goes the opposite direction from where his father tells him, hangs out for an unspecified amount of time in Be'er Sheva, and it is only then, that he begins his trip to marry his cousins. (When Esau finds this out, in order to try to get back into his mother's good graces, he marries a first-cousin as well, from his Uncle Ishmael.)

While sleeping, Jacob sees God standing next to him.

It should be obvious that Jacob's understanding of what a God is was quite primitive, and was, up until that point, of no interest to him.

When Jacob wakes up, he says, addressing his words in the third person, as if to himself, he makes a neder (a personal vow), and at the end, changes to the second-person, to confirm this to God, saying:

"If YHVH-Elohim will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and clothing to wear [and make it] so that I will come back to my father's house in peace... THEN  YHVH shall be my Elohim, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be Elohim's house; and of all that You will give me, a tenth, I will give the tenth to You." (28:20-22)

Jacob is making a deal, "I know what Gods are supposed to be able to do. So if you can do these things for me, proving that you are Who you claim, then I will serve you. Until then, I'll hedge my bets."

It also appears that he still had a very anthropomorphic idea of what a God was.

And as we will read in the next parashah, Jacob will be comfortable not returning home, and it is only after YHVH insists, and Jacob checks it out with his wives, that he leaves the house of his father in-law to head in the opposite direction!

No wonder YHVH sent an angel to beat some sense into him!