Friday, 9 October 2015

Genesis 24-25: Isaac marries his cousin. Abraham dies. Isaac's son is a scheister.

Genesis 24
Isac gets a wife.

24:1-9 Abraham is old and dying.  He takes his servant aside and asks him to go and fetch a wife for Isaac from the land of Abraham's birth.  He makes the servant promise that he will not take Isaac out of Canaan, nor will he allow Isaac to marry a Canaanite.  This is the first indication that the sons of Abraham are to marry their own people.

24:10-17  The servant travels to Mesopotamia to find Abraham's family (they were Syrian).  He prayed that God would show him a sign - specifically, that one of the women drawing water from the nearby well would offer him and his camels a drink, and that should be the woman he was to take for Isaac's wife.  Rebekah came to the well to draw water, and fulfilled the sign the servant had asked for.  The servant praised God for finding Rebekah and asked if he could stay in her family's house, then discovered she was Isaac's cousin (which the servant considered fortuitous).  He gave her gold earings and bracelets.  If she's supposedly this godly woman, why did he give her jewelry to convince her to let him go to her house?

24:28-33  Rebekah ran home and told her family what had happened.  Rebekah's brother, Laban, ran to the well and fetched the servant back to the family home, then set up the camels and set a table to feed Abraham's servant, but the servant refused to eat until he had told them why he came.

24:34-49 The servant recounts the story of how he came to be there, and how God showed him Rebekah.

24:50-67  Laban tells the servant to take Rebekah for Isaac's wife.  The servant showers Rebekah and her brother and mother with jewels and other precious things, and they all ate and drank all night.  In the morning the servant was ready to go, but the family asked if she could stay for 10 days.  The servant refused, so the family wanted to ask Rebekah, who agreed to leave immediately.  They traveled to Isaac's home, where they saw him in a field.  It was love at first sight, and Isaac was comforted by Rebekah after the death of his mother.  So basically he bought her.  I find the fact that she was showered with gold and jewels, and that her family was showered with gifts, and then she magically fell in love with Isaac the first time she saw him to be a little dubious.  He was obviously a very wealthy man - it's significantly more likely that she knew she would live in comfort.

Genesis 25
Abraham dies.  Isaac has 2 sons.  Jacob is a scheister.

25:1-7 Abraham married again to a woman named Keturah, and they had many children, but he gave everything he had to his son Isaac.  He gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away.

25:8-11 Abraham "gave up the ghost" and died at the age of 175.  His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the tomb with Sarah.

25:12 -18  An account of Ishmael's sons; 12 of his descendants were princes.  Ishmael died at the age of 137.

25:19-24  Rebekah got pregnant, but it was difficult.  When she asked God, he told her that two nations struggled within her, and that the older would serve the younger.  Rebekah had twins.

25:25-26  The first twin was red and hairy, and they named him Esau.  The second twin was Jacob, and he held Esau's heel.  Isaac was 60 when they were born.

25:27-28  Esau became a hunter and Jacob spent his time indoors.  Isaac favored Esau, but Rebekah favored Jacob.

25:29-34  One day Esau came in from the field feeling faint, and asked Jacob to feed him some of the soup he had made.  Jacob asked Esau for his birthright in exchange for the soup.  Esau said he was about to die, so the birthright made no difference and sold his birthright to Jacob in exchange for a bowl of soup.  Esaw was bitter about the exchange once he felt better.  So Jacob's a sneaky man who leveraged his brother's discomfort to bilk him out of his inheritance.


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