First Unitarian Universalist Society of Albany
“Liberal Bible Study”
Rev. Samuel A. Trumbore November 6,
2005
Now Rebecca was barren, and
Isaac prayed to the Lord for her. And
Yahweh answered his prayer, and Rebecca conceived. And when it was time for her to give birth, twins came out of her
womb. And the first one was red and
hairy like a fur cloak; so they named him Esau, The Shaggy One. And then his brother came out, with one hand
grasping Esau’s heel; so they named him Jacob, Heel-Grasper.
And when the boys grew up, Esau
became a skilled hunter, a man of the open country, and Jacob was a peaceful
man who stayed near the tents. And
Isaac loved Esau because he brought him venison to eat; but Rebecca loved
Jacob.
One day, as Jacob was cooking a
stew, Esau came back from hunting, and he was famished. And he said to Jacob, “Give me a heap of
that red stuff: I’m famished.”
And Jacob said, “First sell me
your birthright.”
And Esau said, “I am dying of
hunger: what good is my birthright to me?”
And Jacob said, “Swear to me
first.” So he swore to him and sold him
his birthright. Then Jacob gave Esau
bread and lentil stew; and he ate and drank, and got up and went away. That is how Esau showed how little he valued
his birthright.
Now Isaac was old and his eyes
had grown so dim that he couldn’t see.
And he called his elder son Esau and said to him, “My son.”
And he said, “Yes.”
And he said, “I am an old man
now, and I may die any day. Take your
quiver and bow, and go out to the open country and hunt me some venison. And cook me a stew, the way I like it, and
bring it for me to eat, so that I can give you my blessing before I die.”
Now Rebecca had been listening
as Isaac spoke to his son Esau. And
when Esau went out to hunt venison for his father, Rebecca said to her son
Jacob, “I just overheard your father telling your brother Esau to bring him
some venison and cook him a stew so that he could eat and give him his
blessing. Now listen and do exactly as
I tell you. Go out to the flock and get
me two tender kids, and I will cook them into a stew, the way your father likes
it. Then you will take it in to your father,
so that he can eat it and give you his blessing before he dies.”
And Jacob said, “But Esau’s
skin is hairy, and mine is smooth. What
if my father touches me and discovers the trick? I will bring a curse on myself, not a blessing.”
And his mother said, “Let the
curse be on me, my son. Just do as I
say and get the kids.”
So he went and got them and
brought them to his mother, and she cooked a stew, the way his father liked
it. And she took Esau’s clothes and had
Jacob put them on. And she covered his
hands and the bare part of his neck with the goatskins. And she gave him the stew and the bread that
she had baked.
And he went to his father and
said, “Father.”
And he said, “Yes? Who are you,
my son?”
And Jacob said, “I am Esau,
your firstborn. I have done as you told
me to; sit up now and eat some of my venison, so that you can give me your
blessing.”
And Issac said, “How did you
get it so quickly, my son?”
And he said, “The Lord your God
brought me good luck.”
And Isaac said, “Come here and
let me touch you, my son, to make sure that you are my son Esau.”
And Jacob came close, and Isaac
touched him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands
of Esau.” And Isaac didn’t recognize
him, because his hands were hairy like Esau’s hands. And he said, “Are you really my son Esau?”
And he said, “I am.”
And he said, “Bring me the
stew, my son, and I will eat and give you my blessing.”
And he brought it to him, and
he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank.
And Isaac said “Come here and kiss me, my son.” And he came close and
kissed him. And Isaac smelled his
clothes, and he blessed him and said,
How fragrant is my son’s smell,
Like
the smell of the open country
That
the Lord has blessed.
My God give you the dew of heaven
And
the richness of the dark earth:
An
abundance of grain and wine.
May you rule over your brother,
And
may your mother’s son bow before you.
Cursed be those who curse you,
And
may those who bless you be blessed.”
No sooner had Jacob left his
father Isaac than Esau came back from hunting.
And he cooked a stew and brought it to his father and said, “Sit up,
Father and eat some of my venison, so that you can give me your blessing.”
And Isaac said, “Who are you?”
And he said, “I am your son,
your firstborn, Esau.”
And Isaac shuddered violently
and said, “Then who was it that brought me the other stew? I just finished eating it before you came,
and I blessed him and the blessing cannot be taken back.”
And when Esau heard his
father’s words, he cried out loudly and bitterly and said, “Bless me, bless me
too, Father.”
And he said, “Your brother came
and deceived me and took your blessing.”
And he said, “Didn’t you save a
blessing for me?”
And Isaac said, “I gave him
power over you, and made him your master, and granted him an abundance of grain
and wine. What is left for you, my
son?”
And Esau said, “Do you have
just one blessing? Bless me too
Father.” And he burst into tears.
And Isaac said,
“Far from the richness of the
dark earth
your
home shall be,
far
from the dew of heaven.
By your sword you shall live,
and
you shall be a servant to your brother.”
When I first studied Genesis
chapters 25 and 27, I was angry at Jacob.
How could he listen to his conniving mother and take advantage of his
blind father to betray his own brother and cheat him out of his father’s blessing?
How low can cowardly Jacob stoop! This is the fellow who will become the
father of Israel? Not much of an
inspiring hero, if you ask me. I
particularly feel Esau’s pain. He’s
been robbed after all! My heart aches
as he cries out, “Bless me too, Father.”
Why would anyone want to study a story of cruelty and trickery like
this?
Well, perhaps it does have some
more depth than my initial gut reaction might suggest. A straight forward reading looking for a
simplistic literal message will not disclose its layers of meaning. But if you’ll join me now on an exploration
of this text, we can begin to peel the onion and find some meanings that may
touch us, even inspire us.
The liberal approach to Bible
study using individual analysis and a free and open search for meaning will not
come up with one authoritative answer about what these texts are really
trying to say. As we bring ourselves to
the text, we will find meanings that we cannot prove or disprove were the
author’s intent. To be sure there is a
locus of meaning. The story of Jacob
and Esau is not about how to raise twins, whether stew tastes better with lamb,
lentils or venison, or about animal husbandry for that matter. These ancient stories, handed down orally
for generations, honed by the telling and retelling, are masterpieces of great
literature. These stories wrestle with
the conflicts and contradictions of the human condition in ways that continue
to be relevant to listeners today.
While our technology has advanced, basic human nature is pretty much the
same as it was when these stories were composed and handed down.
First, let’s look at family dynamics. Much as we rationally try to love our children equally, our
emotions just don’t cooperate. We can
choose to be fair and just with our children but we still feel emotionally
closer to one than another. And they
know it even if we try to hide it from them.
Isaac loves Esau more than
Jacob. From what we know of Isaac, he
isn’t in the best of physical condition.
Esau is a man’s man, a man of the open country, a skilled hunter, strong
and capable, a paragon of the virtues of ancient people living off the
land. His hairiness suggests he may
have the spirit of a lion. I wonder if
Isaac loves Esau because he has all the qualities that Isaac has never
had. Isaac thinks Israel needs a lion
to lead it not a milquetoast like Jacob who likes to hang around the tents,
spend time with his mother Rebecca and tend the herds.
But what we know and Isaac does
not seem to recognize is there is something missing from Esau’s character. He is quite happy to sell his precious
birthright to his brother for a bowl of lentil soup. His appetite, his desires rather than his mind dominates his
values and commitments. The text
suggests Esau does not have the right kind of temperament to be the patriarch
of a people who will someday subordinate their passions to the rule of law.
The dilemma in the story is
Jacob has no standing to inherit the blessing of his father due to the accident
of his birth. Esau came out first and
Jacob was clutching his heal. Even if
their status as twins allows some doubt about Esau’s rightful position as
primogenitor, he still came out first.
Rebecca is the one who
recognizes Esau isn’t the right man for the job and decides to do something
about it. She had no place to go to her
husband and question his judgment. I
doubt if Isaac would have listened to her if she did. His blindness is a powerful metaphor to his inability to
recognize each son’s gifts and capabilities.
So when she hears he is about to bless Esau, she decides she must create
a deception.
What I want to know is: what
has God been doing while all this is happening? God doesn’t seem concerned or isn’t willing to interfere in the
situation to at least straighten Isaac out.
Even a dream giving Isaac a divine message might have been useful. When Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac,
God stepped in and gave him a ram. You
think God would care enough about the future of his covenant with Israel to
make a suggestion about who should get the blessing?
Perhaps God does. Could God actually be acting through Rebecca
in creating the deception?
We don’t usually think of the
Bible presenting God as a trickster.
Could that be a divine quality?
Have you ever been deceived in a way that was for your own good? For the good of others you have power over?
Oppressed people have been getting their needs taken care of by tricking their
masters forever. Rebecca knows trickery
is one way to bring her husband to his senses.
Jacob is wary of being part of
this deception. He has smooth skin
where as Esau is hairy. But more
important, if the deception fails, he may suffer his father’s curse. The downside risk here is pretty
significant. Jacob isn’t thinking about
future generations, just about himself.
Rebecca is the real hero of
this story. She takes full
responsibility. If there are any curses
to be made, she will step in and take them on herself. She sacrifices her own well being for the
future of Israel. WOW! What a mom!
What a gutsy, courageous women.
Indeed, Isaac is suspicious
when Jacob comes in pretending to be Esau.
How could Esau have returned from the hunt so quickly? The voice sounds like Jacob, but the hands
are hairy like Esau. He does cook his
meat the way Isaac likes it.
The acid test for Isaac to
recognize his son is by smelling him.
I hope my father doesn’t decide
I’m worthy of his blessing by how I smell.
We’re talking about resorting to the most basic creaturely sense to
divine worthiness and value. Isaac
could have questioned him, used his mind.
But he resorts to his nose. The
deception reveals Isaac’s lack of judgment to pass on the all-important
blessing.
That doesn’t mean Jacob is yet
worthy of receiving the blessing nor does he escape the consequences of his deception. Sir Walter Scott put it well, “Oh what a
tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.” To escape Esau’s wrath, Jacob must leave his
father’s house and lodge with his mother’s brother Laban. He falls in love with Laban’s daughter Rachel
and labors seven years as his servant to earn the right to marry her. On their wedding night, Laban sends his
first-born daughter Leah into his tent.
Only in the morning does Jacob wake up and discover he has been
deceived. He must labor another seven
years to get Rachel as his second wife.
The story of Rebecca’s and
Jacob’s deception is messy and has messy consequences. But isn’t life like that? Esau, Jacob and Isaac’s character flaws draw
us into the story. Jacob wasn’t perfect
– maybe Esau would have made a decent leader for the Jewish people too.
We don’t know if Esau could
have risen to the occasion. (In my heart I’m still rooting for him) Just about every Biblical figure we read
about has flaws. Even Moses, good as he
was, wasn’t without sin. The Bible
teaches perfection is not a necessary qualification for service to the
Lord. Nor can we exempt ourselves from
life’s challenges by complaining of our weakness and inadequacies.
Jacob’s adventures culminate in
the story of struggling all night with the angel, some say it was actually
God. Jacob won that battle though he
didn’t come out of it unscathed.
Neither will we get out of struggling with the challenges life presents
to us unscathed. The price of following
the guidance of our inner light may cost us our lives.
Yet the story of Jacob’s
struggle rings true to me as a life giving metaphor for the human journey. To do what is right and honorable may
require tremendous personal sacrifice.
Jacob doesn’t suffer his wound until the end of the struggle. And he only wins when he receives that
crippling wound to his hip. The
nightlong struggle, I imagine, is the struggle of his divided nature, his
desires for himself and his desires for his people. His struggle between his animal nature and his higher intellect;
His struggle with following others and becoming a leader himself; You can’t
have it all, something must be lost, when you attain a new level of
maturity. Literally, Jacob cannot run
anymore, he must face his past. He must
face his brother Esau, ask for forgiveness and make peace. Justice comes full circle. Now Jacob is ready to assume the name
Israel.
Whether or not Jacob, Esau,
Rebecca and Isaac were real people doesn’t matter. The vision of God they imagined will not exactly match our vision
of God. Unitarian Universalists go to
the Bible not looking for its authority over our lives but as a source of
inspiration to help us lead our lives.
These amazing stories are not the property of Jews or Christians. We Unitarian Universalists have claim to
them as well. Along with the Quran, the
Bhagavad-Gita, the Buddhist Sutras, the Upanishads, the folklore of all the
world’s indigenous people, these sacred sources are the inspirational heritage
of all people. Some may be more easily
accessible or interesting to us than others but they all have messages for
everyone. The ones that are easiest for
us to open up are the ones from our own religious and cultural heritage. And for most of us in this room, that
heritage is Biblical.
Though we have grown far beyond
the limiting Christian framework of the first Unitarians and Universalists,
that framework remains the taproot of our religious tradition. To attempt to sever that connection has done
tremendous harm to our movement. Like
Jacob, we must struggle with our history and find a way to make peace with
it. The maturity we seek as a
denomination cannot happen while we reject our spiritual parents. I believe the Unitarian Universalism of the
21st Century must be willing to draw from Judaism and Christianity
as well as reaching beyond them into the religions of Persia and the East and
from the earth centered traditions as well.
This is why I’ll be starting a
seven week Bible Study for Liberals class tomorrow night. We’ll be working with Genesis, opening up
those important stories, identifying with the characters and finding new levels
of meaning. Our goal is not
conversion. I’m not leaving my Buddhism
behind. But my explorations of Buddhism
have made my Bible study much more meaningful.
The collective wisdom we bring to these texts from many different areas
of study and experience can create a rich and meaningful exploration of them.
What makes Unitarian Universalism unique is this wide embrace. My greatest hope for us is that each of us
can learn to go to any religious text and find significant meaning in it.
May you take another look at
the Bible as one of the sources of truth and meaning for your own lives. There may be a blessing in it for you too!
Copyright © 2005 by Rev. Samuel
A. Trumbore. All rights reserved.