Day 7: Genesis 24-25

Day 7: Genesis 24-25

A Hefty Bargain

Chapter 24 focuses on Abraham’s errand to find his son a wife, most importantly a wife from his homeland, and not a Canaanite. Abraham sends his oldest servant to collect this woman for Isaac. Loaded down with gifts that took ten camels to carry, the servant traveled to the city of Nahor.

Waiting by the well where the women would gather at night (I wonder if that is where the old term “watering hole” came to reference a single’s bar came from), the servant made a deal with God. The deal was simple, the servant would ask for a drink and the first woman who gave him the drink, and provided for his camels, would be the future wife of Isaac. Rebekah arrives, provides for his thirst and he follows her home to ask, or maybe more like bargain, for her to come with him back to Isaac as a wife. For now we will ignore the whole possible blood relationship between Isaac and his future wife.

Okay, I have to stop here. How often have we tried to make a deal with God? Like the servant, we tell God the terms. Like the servant, we tell God how we want things to go. However, in our lives we rarely get things that easy. I find it interesting that in this story we see God making such an easy deal with the servant, and provides.

Of course this passage has some other troubling issues for women, but as we know at this time the cultural norm was that women were considered property and had little to no rights to make their own decisions.

Sometimes I have to wonder how people can read these stories as a means to live in a modern world. People use these texts to teach about relationships, marriage, and families; yet, none of these families fit the “perfect” image of family that these Bible-thumping groups long for. So far, even just considering Abraham, we have adultery and incest, and I am not sure that is approved in most circles.

Baby-boom

Chapter 25 shares the genealogical history of Abraham’s family. First it outlines Abraham’s other children for his second wife. This is followed by Ishmael’s lineage of his twelve sons and their twelve villages. Then we get to Abraham and Sarah’s son, Isaac.

Isaac and Rebekak seem to have a similar problem to that of Sarah (maybe due to some inbreeding, just saying). When Rebekah conceives two children fight in her womb, causing her tremendous pain. Until birth, and beyond, the two children fight.

All I can imagine is the movie Twins with Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger. You know, the movie where two obviously different men were born as twins due to a scientific experiment. If you have ever sent he movie you probably understand. Danny DeVito, as most of you know, is a rather short, plump man. Arnold, the Governator, is vastly different with rippling muscles. When they finally meet it, DeVito’s character is constantly scheming and plotting against his brother, even trying to leave him behind a time or two.

Here I see Esau and Jacob, Jacob being Danny DeVito. At the close of today’s reading, we find Jacob scheming to take Esau’s birthright, and succeed. Now if only they had a secret prototype fuel injector in the trunk of a stolen Cadillac, comedy would ensue. Alas, we will see tomorrow what is in store for Esau and Jacob.