Our neighborhood usually has some small fireworks displays going on, and this year was no different, except that I was ready to take some photos. This is from about 4-5 small shows which I could see from our yard.

http://www.sbranyan.com/galleries/2008FourthofJuly/index.html

Hope you enjoy the photos.

© 2008, Scott Branyan

A photography blog at The Boston Globe has a series of Mars photos which are stunning. Be sure to check out the dust devil images.

© 2008, Scott Branyan

Genesis 31 PowerPoint Slides (PDF)

[Draft in Progress]

© 2008, Scott Branyan

See last slide in previous lesson’s PowerPoint.

[Draft in Progress]

© 2008, Scott Branyan

Genesis 29b PowerPoint Slides (PDF)

[Draft in Progress]

© 2008, Scott Branyan

Genesis 29:1-30 PowerPoint Slides (PDF)

[Draft in Progress]

© 2008, Scott Branyan

Genesis 28 PowerPoint Slides (PDF)

[Draft in Progress]

The charge ¹ of Isaac to Jacob (28:2) to not marry a Canaanite woman follows the deceptive urging of Rebekah to her husband (27:46), but Isaac perhaps also remembers the charge Abraham gave his servant in 24:3.

Isaac sends Jacob away with the Abrahamic blessing. It is worth noting that although Isaac was deceived into blessing the younger son, he does not try to finagle back his blessing of Jacob. This took some maturity of faith, an understanding of the providence of God, and a resignation to the will of Yahveh. Isaac now gives him the full blessing which includes the wording concerning the promise of Abraham in verses 3-6.

© 2008, Scott Branyan

1. The Hebrew verb in “And he charged him” means to “command” or “order,” and so the imperfect and the strong negation of the following phrase is probably best rendered as an emphatic prohibition, “You must not take for yourself a wife from the daughters of the Canaanites!” ↩

Genesis 27 PowerPoint Slides (PDF)

The episode with Jacob deceiving his father has to be one of the great swindles of all time. Rebekah is the instigator of the deception but Jacob is a willing accomplice.

Isaac is not without guilt here either. Surely knowing of Esau’s contempt for his birthright and perhaps even of the oracle God gave Rebekah at the birth of the twins, he determines still to bless the elder son.

One is left to wonder how God would have fulfilled the oracle without this chronicle of deception, but he would have had no difficulty. Rebekah and Jacob’s snatching the blessing is a moment of unbelief that brings future consequences. After sending Jacob away to Laban, Rebekah will not see him again. Jacob will live a shortened life of unpleasantness (47:9).

Jacob requests Esau prepare a savory dish and come before him for the blessing. The savory dish reminds us of the food Isaac loved (Gen 25:28; 27:4) but also of Jacob’s red stuff Esau hungered for (25:30) when he traded his birthright for it. The great events in this story hinge over a mere meal.

The Bible places emphasis upon the elaborateness of the scheme of deception. Of particular note is Rebekah’s willingness to take on herself a curse if the scheme is found out (v. 13). Rebekah thinks of everything necessary ¹ for Jacob to put on the appearance of Esau fulfilling his father’s request. The only thing Jacob is not able to hide is his voice, and this necessitates him lying three times (vv. 19, 20, 24).

The blessing of Isaac upon Jacob (see the slide) is binding. Nuzi texts speak of the blessing as a legal form which would hold up in court. This explains Isaac’s resolve in verse 35.

Verses 41 and following give detail of the consequences of Jacob’s deceit. Esau’s wrath is kindled but in a deliberative sort of way. He will wait for Isaac’s death before extracting vengeance upon Jacob. Rebekah hears of his plans and instructs Jacob to flee to her brother Laban in Haran. Her words, “Stay with him a few days” ² in verse 44 tell us she does not foresee the long lasting consequences of the deception. Jacob stays in Haran twenty years, and Rebekah most likely dies before his return to the land (cf. Gen 35:27-29. The next mention of Rebekah after Gen 28:5 is in Gen 49:31).

Finally, Isaac’s blessing of Jacob and Esau is regarded as an act of faith according to Hebrews 11:20. Isaac regarded the blessing of Jacob as legally binding, but he may have also seen it as providentially performed (something Jacob certainly comes to believe by Gen 48:19). Although, not to his expectation and causing great emotional distress on both himself and Esau (27:33, 34, 38), he does not seek to overturn the blessing of Jacob when he blesses Esau. The blessing of Esau is in keeping with the status now of a subservient brother who bears resentment and a determination to shake off his younger brother’s yoke of usurpation. At first unknowingly, and then by recognition of divine choice, Isaac prophesies in his blessings “regarding things to come.”

© 2008, Scott Branyan

1. The scheming of Rebekah does not put her in good light. She appears to be a domineering, shrewd mother who will go to any length for her beloved son but all the time hiding her involvement (vv. 35, 41, 46). The French illustrationist Gustave Dore portrays her in his sketch of the blessing as standing by the tent door on the lookout for Esau while Isaac blesses Jacob. See here. ↩
2. The word “few” in Hebrew is a numerical adjective for “one”; but it is in the plural, so “a few.” ↩

Genesis 26 PowerPoint Slides (PDF)

Isaac is caught in a repetition of the sin of his father Abraham (cf. Gen 12:10ff and 20:1ff). Isaac’s sojourn to Gerar, however, is by divine instruction (26:3a). Abraham has died, and now the Abrahamic promise is confirmed to Isaac (26:3-5).

During his sojourn in Gerar, the Lord blesses Isaac and he becomes wealthy. There is contention between him and locals over the wells Abraham had dug. The Philistines had filled them in after Abraham’s death. Isaac moves around and again re-digs some of these wells and reestablishes his claim to them by renaming them the same as his father had done. The Philistines continue to quarrel with him until he comes to Rehoboth. See the slide on the names of the wells.

Isaac moves then to Beersheba where the Lord again confirms to him the promise to Abrahamic (v. 24). Isaac settles there and builds an altar.

The covenant with Abimelech is reminiscent of the one between an earlier Abimelech and Abraham (21:22-34) where Abraham adds the water rights to the covenant and plants the tamarisk tree. The covenant between Abimelech and Isaac establishes Isaac as the representative of the covenant family among the Philistines (”You are now the blessed of Yahveh,” 26:29) and reasserts the Abrahamic connection to Beersheba (”Well of the Oath”).

Verses 34-35 provide background to the character of Esau who sold his birthright and now takes wives from the daughters of the Hittites. Remember Abraham’s instruction to the servant in finding a wife for Isaac to not take a wife from the Canaanites (24:3)? Marrying the pagan girls of Canaan would become a stumbling block to many Israelites later.

Esau’s choice of wives brings grief to Isaac and Rebekah. Rebekah herself was not the epitome of a God-fearing woman ¹ , and the daughters of the Hittites would have been far less so.

© 2008, Scott Branyan

1. By tricking her husband Rebekah ”forces” the fulfillment of God’s oracle of the older serving the younger, and then also by trickery she talks Isaac into sending Jacob to her lying brother in Haran for protection from Esau ↩

Genesis 25:19-34 PowerPoint Slides (PDF)

The Toledoth of Isaac begins in 25:19 and extends through 36:43.

Isaac faces a situation similar to what his father Abraham faced with Sarah because his wife Rebekah is barren. The difference in this instance, however, is that Isaac prays for Rebekah and the Lord answers.

Rebekah conceives, but the struggle within her causes her to inquire of the Lord. An oracle is given to Rebekah and recorded in verse 23. The struggle of twins within her becomes a metaphor for the struggle between two nations. Esau the older brother will serve the younger Jacob. The brothers will be progenitors of two peoples who will also struggle against one another. See the slide on the meaning of the names.

A noteworthy observation is made in verse 28 that Isaac loved Esau but Rebekah loved Jacob. No doubt, Rebekah’s devotion to Jacob was based on the oracle she had received, but divided devotions in a family are never a good thing. This one-sided preferential love, first received as a son and next given out as a husband and then as a parent, becomes a theme in Jacob’s life that produces much angst.

Esau is presented as crude person, an outdoorsman and skillful hunter, Jacob a more refined soul (v. 27). This background leads us to the selling of the birthright in vv. 29-34.

The birthright was usually given to the firstborn son. This entitled him to the principal inheritance of property (cf. Deut 21:15ff.) and name and line of descendants. The birthright could be taken away as in the case with Reuben (cf. Gen 49:4) or forfeited as in the case of Esau (25:33).

Genesis makes the comment that “Esau despised his birthright” (25:34), and Hebrews 12:16 picks up on this to describe Esau as a godless person because he must have been devoid of spiritual interest to have sold his right of inheritance for a meal. Esau is therefore a type of the worldly, materialistic person.

The displacement of the eldest son by the younger is a repeated theme in scripture ¹ . The Bible uses these instances to teach God’s choice is gracious and unmerited (Rom 9:10ff). When it came to the birthright, Jacob was a swindler–but a chosen swindler; and after Bethel, he seems a changed person.

Isaac Watts penned some of these thoughts in verse:

Not all the outward forms on earth,
    Nor rites that God has given,
Nor will of man, nor blood, nor birth,
    Can raise a soul to heaven.

The sovereign will of God alone
    Creates us heirs of grace;
Born in the image of his Son,
    A new peculiar race.

© 2008, Scott Branyan

1. Compare Isaac over Ishmael; Perez over Zerah; Joseph and Benjamin are Jacob’s favored sons; Ephraim is blessed over Manasseh; David is the youngest, and he leaves his throne to Solomon, his youngest. ↩