Anthony Donaghey
A REASON FOR THE HOPE MINISTRIES
“By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.”
(Hebrews 11:21)
There are many easily discernible examples in the Bible that tell us that Jesus of Nazareth is to be believed when it comes to Him being the promised Messiah spoken of in the Old Testament; His seven “I Am” statements found in the Gospel of John alone also make His claims of being one with the Father of Heaven beyond dispute. The singular plurality of the Godhead seen clearly in Genesis 1:26 tells us Jesus claims about being one with the Father and the Spirit are honest and correct assertions; proclamations backed up to the hilt during His baptism when He comes up out of the water with the Spirit of God descending upon him like a dove as the Father speaks from Heaven about this strange carpenter being His Son, in whom He is well pleased; all of which is made abundantly clear from Isaiah 48:16; one of the greatest Trinity and Messiahship declarations of the Old Testament.
These examples of His true identity are pretty plain and straightforward; all it takes is a little extra study to find them and mark them out so as we can show others what it is the Bible actually teaches and how Jesus fulfils all the first advent Messianic prophecies to the letter, meaning we can fully believe and trust in all of the Messianic prophecies that point to His inevitable return.
There is, however, a very strange conversation that takes place between Jesus and a young man from Bethsaida, that, if examined more deeply, tells us also that Jesus was and is exactly who it is He always claimed to be: God Himself made manifest among mankind.
Turn with me please to the Gospel of John, Chapter One:
“44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, of the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip *found Nathanael and *said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” 46 Nathanael said to him, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Philip *said to him, “Come and see.” 47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and *said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” 48 Nathanael *said to Him, “How do You know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” 49 Nathanael answered Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel.” 50 Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” 51 And He *said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” (John 1:44-51 NASB)
Now, I am sure we have all read this passage many times without paying much attention to the lack of sense contained within the dialogue. I mean, imagine I meet you for the first time, and you happen to be an American who has been struggling with your feelings because you have been reading about another, famous, American, a man full of pride, and is yet thought of by the world as humble as humble can be, and my first words are to the person standing next to me: “Oh, an American, in whom there is no puffed up pride at all!” You would surely wonder what it is I am going on about, and I am pretty sure you would not be asking how it is I know you based solely on this strange greeting, unless of course you know that I know something I could not possibly know about you. The conclusion and the premise simply would not connect; as it does not connect in this conversation going on between Jesus and Nathanael.
When one sees this kind of nonsensical occurrence in the Bible, it is usually a sign that there is some treasure to be found if dug for; much like David out walking on his roof about to spy on another man’s wife in 2nd Samuel, Chapter 11, when we know the passage begins with “In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war…”; which must surely leave us wondering if this is the time kings go off to war, and Israel is at war, why is this king not out at war; and moreover than this, why is he out prowling around his roof spying on Bathsheba. Or take the incident when one of Goliaths sons wants desperately to kill David on the battlefield; the key is to be found in the mentioning of the fact that this giant has a “new sword”; (why mention the newness of the sword, what can that possibly have to do with what is going on in the story, especially given the fact that the newness of the sword is never once mentioned again in this story), meaning the reason for the murderous intent within the big fella is about pride; David not only killed this giant’s father; he has been running around using his father’s sword; a sword that rightfully belongs to Goliath’s eldest son.
If something doesn’t appear to make sense when reading the Bible, this is usually indicative of treasure to be found, if we will but take the time and effort to dig out such gemstones.
This kind of conversation falls into what is called a Non Sequitur exchange; it is kind of like saying Mark Twain is a funny American man, Mark Twain is a writer, and using those premises alone, arrive at the wrong conclusion: therefore all American writers are hilarious.
Non sequitur comes from the Latin and literally translates as 'it does not follow'; there is dissent between the premise and conclusion, which results in fallacy.
Simply put, a proper deduction does not follow the proposition.
Non sequitur takes a colossal rational jump that is totally unreasonable, given the confines of the conversation and circumstance.
So, we have Nathanael meeting Jesus for the first time; and Jesus saying that Nathanael is an Israelite indeed and in whom there is no deceit, despite the fact that just prior to this meeting, Nathanael makes a sarcastic remark about Jesus and his hometown, and yet appears before him acting anything but cynical or derisive.
Something in the statement makes Nathanael realise that Jesus somehow knows him; hence his very next question: How do you know me?
The key to what is going on here is to be found in the next thing out of our Lord’s mouth: “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”
What we miss here in the reading because of our lack of knowledge of Hebrew culture and custom is when one Hebrew says to another Hebrew that he has been sitting under a fig tree, it is an idiom for when someone has been studying the Torah; much like we in the West might say someone has been burning a candle at both ends to mean they are getting up early and going to bed late; denoting a riotous or injurious manner of living. Or, more in line with what we are looking at here, when we say someone has been up burning the midnight oil to denote serious, long periods of study into the wee small hours; no one is actually burning candles or burning oil at midnight; just as Nathanael was not actually sitting under a literal fig tree when Jesus “saw” him.
(Although it must be pointed out that the idiom “burning the midnight oil” did originate when people, prior to electricity, did have to use an actual oil lamp if they wanted to read or study after the sun went down,)
Nathanael knows by Jesus’ quip about him being a true Israelite housing no deception that this Nazarene not only knows he has been studying the Torah, but somehow He seems to know exactly what book and chapter he has been studying, as well as how he has been feeling about the main character of that story.
The answer is to be found in the last thing Jesus says to him; once again a statement that is completely nonsensical given the dialogue preceding it: “And He *said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
Nathanael has already come to the conclusion that Jesus must be the Son of God, the Messiah, before Jesus confirms for him what it was he had been studying. You see, given the conclusion of the conversation and the astounding reaction of Nathanael; we now know he has been reading Genesis, chapter 28.
This chapter is about one of the most deceitful men of the entire Bible. Jacob, (the name actually means “deceiver”), is a man who has deceived everyone he has ever known, he has deceived his brother, Esau, his father, Isaac, he is then himself deceived by Laban and marries Leah instead of Rachel; he then treats Leah like a non-entity, despite her great love of him; following this he goes and cons his poor brother again when his brother decides to forgive him and spare his life and tells him he will meet up with him down the track and immediately takes off in the other direction; he even tries to con God; he eventually tells God if God will do this and that and the other thing, he, Jacob, will allow God to be his God.
The sheer gall of the man is almost beyond description!
Nathanael was reading about Jacob, and like all decent Hebrews who read of this man he is wondering why God loved Jacob and hated Esau. Yes, Esau was foolish giving away his blessing for some stew; but Esau was in no way deceptive like Jacob; Jacob would have sold his mother for next to nothing at the drop of a hat; and here, in chapter 28, verse 12, this Israelite, this deceptive Hebrew, this pitiful excuse for a man, (never mind a man of God), is blessed by God with one of the most astonishing dreams ever perceived through the mind and heart of Man.
Now, to fully understand Nathanael’s point of view of Isaac’s son, we have to develop the character of Jacob a tad.
Jacob began badly, even from within the womb; he was trying to best his brother Esau, clinging onto his ankle to stop him from coming out first, thus being the elder brother; for to the elder brother, in the Hebrew culture of those days, belong the spoils.
We will find God Himself opposing this cultural ideology right throughout this family line from the get-go.
It begins with Isaac and Ishmael. Although Ishmael was born some nine years before his step-brother Isaac, Ishmael is passed over for his younger sibling. The promise of descendants as numerous as the stars overhead would come through Isaac; all the nations of the earth would be blessed through his lineage, not Ishmael’s.
If one thinks about it for a while, one will come to the conclusion that Ishmael is a heartbroken figure in scripture, as despairing and inconsolable as poor Leah, the unloved wife to be of Jacob. He is abandoned by his natural father, Abraham, as a teenager, both he and his mother, on nothing but the whim and hurt feelings of Isaac’s mother, Sarah. We also know, if we properly read between the lines, that this man kept tags on his father for the rest of his father’s life. Upon his death, Ishmael turns up within a day, within a day! to offer to be with his family as they bury their patriarch. What this tells us is, although abandoned for no fault of his own, he must have been keeping pretty close tags on his father right throughout his miserable excuse for a life; remember, Ishmael is in his eighties when Abraham goes to be with the Lord.
Can you see it, on the evening of the death of Abraham; the night is still, almost as if the very creation itself is tongue-tied in its deep mourning for this great friend of God Almighty. Within: the muffled sounds of weeping; suddenly there is a noise from without, someone just outside the tent, the scraping of sandal on loose stone; Isaac goes and tentatively pulls back the flap and finds standing there, no doubt with tears brimming his bloodshot eyes, his older brother, a brother he has not seen since he was five years old.
They stand there, astray amid the disbelief and secluded memories, gingerly examining what time has done to each other’s face in the dim half-light of flickering oil-lamps, half recognising lines, shapes and contours, the weighty silence growing heavier and heavier between them.
Beats of nothing but time passing o’ so painfully by…
“Hello, Isaac, my dear brother”, I imagine him quietly saying, “I hear our father has died. I am here…”
He pauses for a moment, choking back the tears, suddenly overwhelmed with the sheer austerity of the moment itself,
“I am here to help bury and mourn for him.”
The silence returns.
Time once again passing o’ so painfully by…
“I love him, Isaac.”
Once again, tears choked back, his gaze lowering for a tortured moment or two toward the barren ground somewhere so very far away below.
It‘s as if the night itself is holding her breath.
Along with angels hovering somewhere above unseen…
“He’s my father too…”
I wonder what Isaac’s reply was on that dark night of the soul for both those good sons?
I hope they held each other…
I hope they held each other for a long, long time…
And I hope the angels sang and cried…
Ishmael seems to me to have been a rather sensitive man, how could he not be? He was abandoned for reasons that must surely have eluded him all his life. And yet he obviously did not sever all ties with his natural father; he obviously kept himself aware of all the goings on during those long, lonely years; most probably blaming himself of having been pushed aside; always left wondering what it was he could have possibly done to deserve complete abandonment from a father he obviously loved with all that was left of his poor, tattered heart hung on half-mast.
Not too many men would continue to love a man who has discarded and forsaken them from their youth; let alone turn up to offer condolences to the family of that man on the day of his death.
I think, reading between the lines, that Ishmael ran deep; I also think had his father had met him before his death, he would have been proud of the man he turned out to be, a man with heart, a man with as forgiving a heart as it takes to overcome such neglect and still turn up to grieve with all the rest.
I like Ishmael.
I like his mother, Hagar, too.
Ah, how needlessly we drag others not a part of our sin into the very heart of that sin…
Now we move on to Jacob, the deceiver, and the first of the twins out of the womb, Esau.
In the Book of Malachi, we find that God actually hated Esau:
2 “I have loved you,” says the Lord. “Yet you say, ‘In what way have You loved us?’ Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” Says the Lord. “Yet Jacob I have loved; 3 But Esau I have hated, and laid waste his mountains and his heritage for the jackals of the wilderness.” 4 Even though Edom has said, “We have been impoverished, But we will return and build the desolate places,” Thus says the Lord of hosts: “They may build, but I will throw down; They shall be called the Territory of Wickedness, And the people against whom the Lord will have indignation forever. 5 Your eyes shall see, and you shall say, ‘The Lord is magnified beyond the border of Israel.” (Malachi 1:2-5)
These are very strong words from the Lord, not only does He say He hates Esau, but that this hatred will carry on, not only for generations, but forever.
This is obviously another case of the Lord being able to see the end from the beginning, we may not fully understand it, we may even have confused feelings about such a long term hatred for a man and all his descendants, but the Lord knows what we do not know. Much like the case of the Lord turning against king Saul because he did not kill all the Amalekites, the Lord knew that six hundred years later a direct descendant of the family of king Agag would raise his ugly head and try to put into action the first planned holocaust of the Jewish people; we find that story in the Book of Esther.
All that aside, why would the Lord love Jacob the deceiver and hate Esau, who was not a deceiver, and what are we to learn of the Lord from this situation; for the Bible is not so much about the people found in it, but about the Lord Himself?
Jacob was a con man, a fraudster and a liar; it began from the womb; he then swindled Esau’s birthright for a plate of stew because the poor man was tired and hungry from hunting all day long. He then swindle his father, Isaac, when he was old and half blind, pretending to be Esau, (under the directions and encouragement of his mother), and once again Esau is tricked out of the blessing that should go to the first born son.
Esau is so upset he vows to kill Jacob the moment the old man has gasped his last breath of air; what he is saying here is, “I love my father, but I hate that fraudster of a brother of mine”. The threat is taken so seriously by Jacob’s mother that she tells him he needs to immediately flee for his life.
Esau will not set eyes on him for twenty years after this event.
Now, it is the swindlers turn to meet an ancestor even more double-crossing than himself: Laban. Laban tricks Jacob into working seven years for the wrong bride, Jacob so loves Rebecca that he claims that working seven years for her hand in marriage will be a walk in the park. Once he finds he has been conned into marrying the older daughter, Leah, he is then persuaded to work another seven years to get the girl he worked the first seven years for.
Jacob does not love Leah, not in the slightest, despite the fact that she loves the very ground he walks upon. She bears him one son after another, all the time hoping that he will return her love.
He never does.
A REASON FOR THE HOPE MINISTRIES
“By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.”
(Hebrews 11:21)
There are many easily discernible examples in the Bible that tell us that Jesus of Nazareth is to be believed when it comes to Him being the promised Messiah spoken of in the Old Testament; His seven “I Am” statements found in the Gospel of John alone also make His claims of being one with the Father of Heaven beyond dispute. The singular plurality of the Godhead seen clearly in Genesis 1:26 tells us Jesus claims about being one with the Father and the Spirit are honest and correct assertions; proclamations backed up to the hilt during His baptism when He comes up out of the water with the Spirit of God descending upon him like a dove as the Father speaks from Heaven about this strange carpenter being His Son, in whom He is well pleased; all of which is made abundantly clear from Isaiah 48:16; one of the greatest Trinity and Messiahship declarations of the Old Testament.
These examples of His true identity are pretty plain and straightforward; all it takes is a little extra study to find them and mark them out so as we can show others what it is the Bible actually teaches and how Jesus fulfils all the first advent Messianic prophecies to the letter, meaning we can fully believe and trust in all of the Messianic prophecies that point to His inevitable return.
There is, however, a very strange conversation that takes place between Jesus and a young man from Bethsaida, that, if examined more deeply, tells us also that Jesus was and is exactly who it is He always claimed to be: God Himself made manifest among mankind.
Turn with me please to the Gospel of John, Chapter One:
“44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, of the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip *found Nathanael and *said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” 46 Nathanael said to him, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Philip *said to him, “Come and see.” 47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and *said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” 48 Nathanael *said to Him, “How do You know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” 49 Nathanael answered Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel.” 50 Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” 51 And He *said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” (John 1:44-51 NASB)
Now, I am sure we have all read this passage many times without paying much attention to the lack of sense contained within the dialogue. I mean, imagine I meet you for the first time, and you happen to be an American who has been struggling with your feelings because you have been reading about another, famous, American, a man full of pride, and is yet thought of by the world as humble as humble can be, and my first words are to the person standing next to me: “Oh, an American, in whom there is no puffed up pride at all!” You would surely wonder what it is I am going on about, and I am pretty sure you would not be asking how it is I know you based solely on this strange greeting, unless of course you know that I know something I could not possibly know about you. The conclusion and the premise simply would not connect; as it does not connect in this conversation going on between Jesus and Nathanael.
When one sees this kind of nonsensical occurrence in the Bible, it is usually a sign that there is some treasure to be found if dug for; much like David out walking on his roof about to spy on another man’s wife in 2nd Samuel, Chapter 11, when we know the passage begins with “In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war…”; which must surely leave us wondering if this is the time kings go off to war, and Israel is at war, why is this king not out at war; and moreover than this, why is he out prowling around his roof spying on Bathsheba. Or take the incident when one of Goliaths sons wants desperately to kill David on the battlefield; the key is to be found in the mentioning of the fact that this giant has a “new sword”; (why mention the newness of the sword, what can that possibly have to do with what is going on in the story, especially given the fact that the newness of the sword is never once mentioned again in this story), meaning the reason for the murderous intent within the big fella is about pride; David not only killed this giant’s father; he has been running around using his father’s sword; a sword that rightfully belongs to Goliath’s eldest son.
If something doesn’t appear to make sense when reading the Bible, this is usually indicative of treasure to be found, if we will but take the time and effort to dig out such gemstones.
This kind of conversation falls into what is called a Non Sequitur exchange; it is kind of like saying Mark Twain is a funny American man, Mark Twain is a writer, and using those premises alone, arrive at the wrong conclusion: therefore all American writers are hilarious.
Non sequitur comes from the Latin and literally translates as 'it does not follow'; there is dissent between the premise and conclusion, which results in fallacy.
Simply put, a proper deduction does not follow the proposition.
Non sequitur takes a colossal rational jump that is totally unreasonable, given the confines of the conversation and circumstance.
So, we have Nathanael meeting Jesus for the first time; and Jesus saying that Nathanael is an Israelite indeed and in whom there is no deceit, despite the fact that just prior to this meeting, Nathanael makes a sarcastic remark about Jesus and his hometown, and yet appears before him acting anything but cynical or derisive.
Something in the statement makes Nathanael realise that Jesus somehow knows him; hence his very next question: How do you know me?
The key to what is going on here is to be found in the next thing out of our Lord’s mouth: “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”
What we miss here in the reading because of our lack of knowledge of Hebrew culture and custom is when one Hebrew says to another Hebrew that he has been sitting under a fig tree, it is an idiom for when someone has been studying the Torah; much like we in the West might say someone has been burning a candle at both ends to mean they are getting up early and going to bed late; denoting a riotous or injurious manner of living. Or, more in line with what we are looking at here, when we say someone has been up burning the midnight oil to denote serious, long periods of study into the wee small hours; no one is actually burning candles or burning oil at midnight; just as Nathanael was not actually sitting under a literal fig tree when Jesus “saw” him.
(Although it must be pointed out that the idiom “burning the midnight oil” did originate when people, prior to electricity, did have to use an actual oil lamp if they wanted to read or study after the sun went down,)
Nathanael knows by Jesus’ quip about him being a true Israelite housing no deception that this Nazarene not only knows he has been studying the Torah, but somehow He seems to know exactly what book and chapter he has been studying, as well as how he has been feeling about the main character of that story.
The answer is to be found in the last thing Jesus says to him; once again a statement that is completely nonsensical given the dialogue preceding it: “And He *said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
Nathanael has already come to the conclusion that Jesus must be the Son of God, the Messiah, before Jesus confirms for him what it was he had been studying. You see, given the conclusion of the conversation and the astounding reaction of Nathanael; we now know he has been reading Genesis, chapter 28.
This chapter is about one of the most deceitful men of the entire Bible. Jacob, (the name actually means “deceiver”), is a man who has deceived everyone he has ever known, he has deceived his brother, Esau, his father, Isaac, he is then himself deceived by Laban and marries Leah instead of Rachel; he then treats Leah like a non-entity, despite her great love of him; following this he goes and cons his poor brother again when his brother decides to forgive him and spare his life and tells him he will meet up with him down the track and immediately takes off in the other direction; he even tries to con God; he eventually tells God if God will do this and that and the other thing, he, Jacob, will allow God to be his God.
The sheer gall of the man is almost beyond description!
Nathanael was reading about Jacob, and like all decent Hebrews who read of this man he is wondering why God loved Jacob and hated Esau. Yes, Esau was foolish giving away his blessing for some stew; but Esau was in no way deceptive like Jacob; Jacob would have sold his mother for next to nothing at the drop of a hat; and here, in chapter 28, verse 12, this Israelite, this deceptive Hebrew, this pitiful excuse for a man, (never mind a man of God), is blessed by God with one of the most astonishing dreams ever perceived through the mind and heart of Man.
Now, to fully understand Nathanael’s point of view of Isaac’s son, we have to develop the character of Jacob a tad.
Jacob began badly, even from within the womb; he was trying to best his brother Esau, clinging onto his ankle to stop him from coming out first, thus being the elder brother; for to the elder brother, in the Hebrew culture of those days, belong the spoils.
We will find God Himself opposing this cultural ideology right throughout this family line from the get-go.
It begins with Isaac and Ishmael. Although Ishmael was born some nine years before his step-brother Isaac, Ishmael is passed over for his younger sibling. The promise of descendants as numerous as the stars overhead would come through Isaac; all the nations of the earth would be blessed through his lineage, not Ishmael’s.
If one thinks about it for a while, one will come to the conclusion that Ishmael is a heartbroken figure in scripture, as despairing and inconsolable as poor Leah, the unloved wife to be of Jacob. He is abandoned by his natural father, Abraham, as a teenager, both he and his mother, on nothing but the whim and hurt feelings of Isaac’s mother, Sarah. We also know, if we properly read between the lines, that this man kept tags on his father for the rest of his father’s life. Upon his death, Ishmael turns up within a day, within a day! to offer to be with his family as they bury their patriarch. What this tells us is, although abandoned for no fault of his own, he must have been keeping pretty close tags on his father right throughout his miserable excuse for a life; remember, Ishmael is in his eighties when Abraham goes to be with the Lord.
Can you see it, on the evening of the death of Abraham; the night is still, almost as if the very creation itself is tongue-tied in its deep mourning for this great friend of God Almighty. Within: the muffled sounds of weeping; suddenly there is a noise from without, someone just outside the tent, the scraping of sandal on loose stone; Isaac goes and tentatively pulls back the flap and finds standing there, no doubt with tears brimming his bloodshot eyes, his older brother, a brother he has not seen since he was five years old.
They stand there, astray amid the disbelief and secluded memories, gingerly examining what time has done to each other’s face in the dim half-light of flickering oil-lamps, half recognising lines, shapes and contours, the weighty silence growing heavier and heavier between them.
Beats of nothing but time passing o’ so painfully by…
“Hello, Isaac, my dear brother”, I imagine him quietly saying, “I hear our father has died. I am here…”
He pauses for a moment, choking back the tears, suddenly overwhelmed with the sheer austerity of the moment itself,
“I am here to help bury and mourn for him.”
The silence returns.
Time once again passing o’ so painfully by…
“I love him, Isaac.”
Once again, tears choked back, his gaze lowering for a tortured moment or two toward the barren ground somewhere so very far away below.
It‘s as if the night itself is holding her breath.
Along with angels hovering somewhere above unseen…
“He’s my father too…”
I wonder what Isaac’s reply was on that dark night of the soul for both those good sons?
I hope they held each other…
I hope they held each other for a long, long time…
And I hope the angels sang and cried…
Ishmael seems to me to have been a rather sensitive man, how could he not be? He was abandoned for reasons that must surely have eluded him all his life. And yet he obviously did not sever all ties with his natural father; he obviously kept himself aware of all the goings on during those long, lonely years; most probably blaming himself of having been pushed aside; always left wondering what it was he could have possibly done to deserve complete abandonment from a father he obviously loved with all that was left of his poor, tattered heart hung on half-mast.
Not too many men would continue to love a man who has discarded and forsaken them from their youth; let alone turn up to offer condolences to the family of that man on the day of his death.
I think, reading between the lines, that Ishmael ran deep; I also think had his father had met him before his death, he would have been proud of the man he turned out to be, a man with heart, a man with as forgiving a heart as it takes to overcome such neglect and still turn up to grieve with all the rest.
I like Ishmael.
I like his mother, Hagar, too.
Ah, how needlessly we drag others not a part of our sin into the very heart of that sin…
Now we move on to Jacob, the deceiver, and the first of the twins out of the womb, Esau.
In the Book of Malachi, we find that God actually hated Esau:
2 “I have loved you,” says the Lord. “Yet you say, ‘In what way have You loved us?’ Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” Says the Lord. “Yet Jacob I have loved; 3 But Esau I have hated, and laid waste his mountains and his heritage for the jackals of the wilderness.” 4 Even though Edom has said, “We have been impoverished, But we will return and build the desolate places,” Thus says the Lord of hosts: “They may build, but I will throw down; They shall be called the Territory of Wickedness, And the people against whom the Lord will have indignation forever. 5 Your eyes shall see, and you shall say, ‘The Lord is magnified beyond the border of Israel.” (Malachi 1:2-5)
These are very strong words from the Lord, not only does He say He hates Esau, but that this hatred will carry on, not only for generations, but forever.
This is obviously another case of the Lord being able to see the end from the beginning, we may not fully understand it, we may even have confused feelings about such a long term hatred for a man and all his descendants, but the Lord knows what we do not know. Much like the case of the Lord turning against king Saul because he did not kill all the Amalekites, the Lord knew that six hundred years later a direct descendant of the family of king Agag would raise his ugly head and try to put into action the first planned holocaust of the Jewish people; we find that story in the Book of Esther.
All that aside, why would the Lord love Jacob the deceiver and hate Esau, who was not a deceiver, and what are we to learn of the Lord from this situation; for the Bible is not so much about the people found in it, but about the Lord Himself?
Jacob was a con man, a fraudster and a liar; it began from the womb; he then swindled Esau’s birthright for a plate of stew because the poor man was tired and hungry from hunting all day long. He then swindle his father, Isaac, when he was old and half blind, pretending to be Esau, (under the directions and encouragement of his mother), and once again Esau is tricked out of the blessing that should go to the first born son.
Esau is so upset he vows to kill Jacob the moment the old man has gasped his last breath of air; what he is saying here is, “I love my father, but I hate that fraudster of a brother of mine”. The threat is taken so seriously by Jacob’s mother that she tells him he needs to immediately flee for his life.
Esau will not set eyes on him for twenty years after this event.
Now, it is the swindlers turn to meet an ancestor even more double-crossing than himself: Laban. Laban tricks Jacob into working seven years for the wrong bride, Jacob so loves Rebecca that he claims that working seven years for her hand in marriage will be a walk in the park. Once he finds he has been conned into marrying the older daughter, Leah, he is then persuaded to work another seven years to get the girl he worked the first seven years for.
Jacob does not love Leah, not in the slightest, despite the fact that she loves the very ground he walks upon. She bears him one son after another, all the time hoping that he will return her love.
He never does.