Following up on my last post<\/a>, which likely changed your life forever, let\u2019s channel Gary Rendsburg\u2019s article<\/a>\u00a0a bit more and explore a few\u00a0more\u00a0ways that David and the monarchy are embedded into the stories in Genesis (in no particular order).<\/p>\n Esau\u2019s\u00a0\u201cblessing\u201d and Edom\u2019s revolt. <\/em><\/strong>You may recall in Genesis that younger brother Jacob twice outmaneuvered his\u00a0elder brother Esau (nickname Edom, Genesis 25:25 and 30).<\/p>\n The first time (Genesis 25:29-34), Esau (who is clearly some kind of dolt), sold his rights as firstborn for a hot lunch. As far as I\u2019m concerned, that one\u2019s on Esau. But in 27:1-40, Jacob, at the urging\u00a0of his helicopter mother Rebekah, tricked old, nearly blind, Isaac into giving him Esau\u2019s blessing too (by dressing up as Esau).<\/p>\n After Isaac blesses Jacob by mistake with a very awesome blessing that really couldn\u2019t be topped (27:27-29), Esau returned from his hunt (the brutish, hairy guy is always out hunting) expecting to be blessed by his father. Isaac realizes he has been deceived, basically freaks out, followed by\u00a0Esau freaking out even more, begging his father, \u201cHave you only one blessing, father? Bless me, me also, father?\u201d\u00a0(v. 38)<\/p>\n Yes, Esau. Jacob only has one blessing, and he shot it all on Jacob. And it\u2019s quite a blessing, which includes\u00a0agricultural bounty and\u2014to get to our point\u2014political supremacy<\/em>:<\/p>\n Let peoples serve you,\u00a0and nations bow down to you.\u00a0Be lord over your brothers,\u00a0and may your mother\u2019s sons bow down to you.<\/em> (27:29)<\/p>\n Looks to me, Esau, that you\u2019ll be under your brother\u2019s thumb. (You really need to stay home more and keep an eye on things.)<\/p>\n The plural \u201cbrothers\u201d and \u201cyour mother\u2019s sons\u201d\u00a0may seem\u00a0odd at first blush, given that Jacob only has one brother, the disenfranchised Esau. But in\u00a0Hebrew \u201cbrothers\u201d and \u201csons\u201d often simply\u00a0mean \u201ckin\u201d and \u201cdescendants.\u201d And\u00a0these plurals\u00a0are a clue as to the ultimate meaning of this exchange.<\/p>\n If we remember that Jacob\u2019s name will be changed to Israel later in the story (32:28 and 35:10), it\u2019s not to hard to see what is\u00a0really<\/em> being said here: the Israelites will have political supremacy of their\u00a0kin\u2014which include Edom (Esau\u2019s nickname) and the other two trans-Jordan\u00a0nations: Ammon and Moab.<\/p>\n Like Edom\/Esau, Ammon and Moab are also kin, but more distantly. As Genesis tells the story, these\u00a0nations stem from the union of Lot (Abraham\u2019s nephew, Isaac\u2019s cousin) and his daughters (19:30-38)\u2014and if that\u2019s not political propaganda, I don\u2019t know what is.<\/p>\n The plurals \u201cbrothers\u201d and \u201csons\u201d make perfect sense if we see in Genesis later political realities embedded into the past.\u00a0Genesis draws up Israel\u2019s political map, and the younger son of Jacob will reign over them.<\/p>\n Back to Esau. Isaac has exhausted his good blessing by giving it to Jacob, and so he has to scrounge up a blessing for Esau. And this is all he has left (vv. 39-40):<\/p>\n See, away from the fatness of the earth shall your home be,\u00a0and away from the dew of heaven on high.\u00a0By your sword you shall live,\u00a0and you shall serve your brother;\u00a0but when you break loose,\u00a0you shall break his yoke from your neck.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Not much of a blessing. Sort of an anti-blessing if you ask me, the opposite of Jacob\u2019s: weak agriculture and political subservience<\/em>\u2014but with one ray of hope: Esau\/Edom will eventually break free\u00a0from his brother.<\/p>\n And so he does.<\/p>\n According to 2 Samuel 8:13-14, the nation of Edom came\u00a0under Israelite control under David \u00a0and then revolted about 150 years later during the reign\u00a0of the southern (Judahite) king Jehoram<\/a><\/strong> (2 Kings 8:20-24).<\/p>\n And so, Esau\/Edom served his brother for a time until he broke loose.\u00a0It seems like Isaac\u2019s \u201cblessing\u201d to Esau was preview of coming attractions pertaining to the political events of the middle of the 9th c. BCE.<\/p>\n As we saw in the last post<\/a>, the monarchy is the context for the writing of Genesis, and monarchic concerns\u00a0are embedded into the ancient narratives of Genesis<\/em>.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s ideal boundaries<\/strong>. In Genesis 15:18, God promises Abraham the land of Canaan for his descendants. The description of\u00a0the boundaries is extensive\u2014stemming from the Euphrates River down to Egypt.<\/p>\n These extensive boundaries appear elsewhere in the Israel\u2019s story only\u00a0during the time of the monarchy, specifically the early, ideal, days of the monarchy during the reign of Solomon (1 Kings 4:20-21) before he got cocky and disobedient.<\/p>\n The promise to Abraham was written with the monarchy in view\u2014not predictively but retrospectively.<\/p>\n Abraham\u2019s\u00a0near sacrifice of Isaac<\/strong>. In this famous story (Genesis 22), Abraham\u2019s near\u00a0sacrifice of his\u00a0son Isaac is stopped at the last second when\u00a0God provided\u00a0a ram for the sacrifice as a substitute. The story ends,<\/p>\n So Abraham called that place, \u201cThe LORD will provide\u201d; as it is said to this day, \u201cOn the mount of the LORD<\/strong> it shall be provided.\u201d<\/em> (v. 14)<\/p>\n Here is the earliest reference in the Old Testament to the \u201cmount of the LORD,\u201d and the other occurrences (in Isaiah, Micah, and Psalm 24) all refer to Mount Zion, which is Jerusalem with its Temple built during the reign of Solomon.<\/p>\n The writer of this story is living during the monarchic period (\u201cas it is said to this day\u201d) and embedding the origins of Temple sacrifice in the near sacrifice of Isaac, where an animal was substituted for a human.<\/p>\n The everlasting covenant<\/strong>. The Hebrew term\u00a0berit `olam<\/em> (everlasting covenant) is used in the Old Testament of only 3 people: Noah (Genesis 9:16), Abraham (Genesis 17), and David (2 Samuel 23:5). God\u2019s relationship with David is like one we have not seen for a long time, since the dawn of time, since Israel\u2019s beginnings.<\/p>\n There are more examples in the article\u2014some a little subtle, others that take a lot more\u00a0explaining. But the\u00a0similarities between the stories in Genesis and the later monarchy that we\u2019ve looked at here and in the last post<\/a> are hard to dismiss.<\/p>\n Key elements of the monarchy find their origin in the deep past of Israel\u2019s origins. To read Genesis well means to read it with one eye on David, the monarchy, and ultimately the southern nation of Judah.<\/strong><\/p>\n This way of looking at Genesis may be seem to some to undercut the Bible, and I get that. But it\u2019s not. It\u2019s really only about trying to understand when and why Genesis was written by paying careful attention to the clues<\/a> the writer left there.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Esau](\"https:\/\/thebiblefornormalpeople.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Holman_esau_going_for_venison.jpg\")
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