The Sons of Isaac

by Roberta Kells Dorr

  Laban dared not challenge her for proof. She looked pale and fragile and he did not want to do anything that would upset her. Laban immediately called off the search. His whole attitude changed. Though he cited all of his grievances and listened to Jacob’s complaints, he finally agreed to make a peace pact with Jacob.

  At that, Jacob took a huge rock and placed it upright between them, then calling his men, he told them to pile a great heap of stones around it. They called the pile of stones “the witness pile.” In Laban’s language it was “Jegar-sahadutha,” but in Jacob’s “Galeed.”

  This was to be a barrier across which neither one would go to attack the other. “This pile of stones will stand as our witness if either one crosses this line,” Jacob said.

  “This will be our watchtower (mizpah),” Laban said. “The Lord may be the only one who will know if we keep this bargain when we are parted from each other. If you are cruel to my daughters or take other wives, I won’t know, but the God of your father will see it.”

  Jacob took a great oath in the name of his great-grandfather Terah, grandfather Abraham, and his own father, Isaac, that he would respect the boundary line. Then he made a sacrifice to God and ordered a feast prepared for everyone.

  In the morning, Laban arose early, kissed his daughters and his grandchildren, then with tears in his eyes blessed them and departed for home.

  After Laban had gone, Jacob pondered briefly over the missing idols. Was it possible, he wondered, that someone in his company could have taken them? He had questioned Rachel, and she had laughed her silvery laugh and admitted it wasn’t really that time of the month but insisted that she knew nothing of the idols. “I thought he was being too pompous and it would be nice to get even with him for all the times he has tricked you.”

  * * *

  As Jacob traveled on southward, he became more anxious about meeting Esau and more concerned about his mother’s illness. He prayed that he might have guidance and the assurance of God’s presence. He received no definite answer but instead had a strangely reassuring encounter with what appeared to be a host of heavenly beings.

  It happened at dusk one evening. Just ahead of him on the path where two cliffs seemed to bar his way, he saw an army of light. Two camps of ethereal beings were dressed in full armor. As he slowly and cautiously advanced, they parted and let him pass. With sudden understanding, he exclaimed, “This is God’s host; they have come in two camps to protect us.” He promptly named the place Mahanaim, or two camps, so he would not forget the place where this miracle happened.

  With this to encourage him, he determined he must immediately send a message to notify his brother, Esau, that he was on his way home. He must deal with the problem of Esau first before he could return to his mother and father. It was very possible that Esau still harbored such a grudge that he would threaten to kill him.

  Time was running out. He had been procrastinating, putting it off long enough. The time had come to act. He didn’t know just what to do, but it was obvious he must settle that relationship before he could return home.

  He finally singled out five young men to go as his messengers. “You must tell my brother that all this time I have been living with our uncle Laban. Tell him also that I have prospered so that I own oxen, donkeys, sheep, and many servants. I’m not coming back as a failure, and I hope he will be friendly to us.”

  In what seemed a very short time, his messengers returned with the frightening news that Esau was coming to meet him with an army of four hundred men.

  Jacob was wild with fear. He didn’t know what to do. Finally he went alone back up into the hills to pray. “Oh, Jehovah,” he prayed, “You told me to return to the land of my birth and that You would do me good. I am not worthy of all Your loving-kindness. I remember how I left home with only a walking stick, and now I am two large camps. Please protect me from my brother, Esau. I am frightened, terribly frightened. I know he’s coming to kill me. Please remember Your promise to make my descendants as the sands along the shore or the stars in the sky.”

  After he had prayed he felt better and could think more clearly. “I must send him presents,” he said as he ordered his shepherds to single out from his flock,

  200 nanny goats

  20 billy goats

  200 ewes

  20 rams

  30 milk camels with their young

  40 cows

  10 bulls

  20 female donkeys

  10 male donkeys.

  Jacob gave the men who were to take these gifts to Esau instructions that they should arrive one after the other, with enough space in between to be impressive. As each arrived, they were to announce that the animals were a gift to Esau from his servant Jacob. In this way he hoped to soften Esau’s heart.

  Jacob moved down to the brook Jabbok and camped there while he waited. He had done all he could to placate his brother. The waiting was nerve-wracking. He paced back and forth, trying to imagine the worst that might happen. With four hundred men, Esau could quickly wipe out his whole family. He struggled to think of some preparation he could make that would lessen the blow.

  He finally reasoned that Esau would be looking for him, not his family. He must somehow separate himself from his family. He walked around thinking and planning, and finally he came to a decision. He would divide his family into two camps. Leah and her children would be in the first camp that Esau would meet, and Rachel and her children in the second.

  It took the whole day to accomplish, but when night fell Jacob was still not satisfied. He tried to sleep but was too disturbed. It seemed to him that there must be something more that he could do. He finally rose and woke his wives and their children. “I have decided,” he said, “that it will be safer if we put the river between us. It’s me he will be looking for, and he will not harm you until he first finds me.”

  They quickly passed over the Jabbok and settled down for the rest of the night, leaving Jacob alone on the opposite bank. The moon rose over the Gilead mountains behind him, touching the rocks and shrubs with a soft light but leaving the gorge of the Jabbok dark and shadowed. He could hear nothing but the rushing water crashing against the rocks and gurgling in its hurried descent.

  A cold, damp, chilling mist rose along the rocky banks of the river. Jacob shuddered and hurried to wrap himself in his sheepskin cloak. He found a level space with soft tufts of grass and lay down, making sure he could keep watch over his family on the far bank.

  Now that he was quiet, he could hear the sound of a child crying faintly and far away. One of his shepherds was playing his flute. Everything was calm and peaceful. It seemed hard to imagine that disaster could be coming toward them up the Jordan valley.

  No sooner had he settled himself to sleep than he was suddenly aroused by the soft crunching sound of sandaled feet walking somewhere nearby. Then a shower of stones was dislodged above him. He jumped up and was immediately wrestled to the ground by a large man who seemed to have sprung at him out of the darkness. He assumed it was Esau come to take his revenge. Fear drove him to desperate measures. He wrestled, exerting every bit of strength at his command. The moon came out from behind a cloud and shone for just a moment on the man’s face, and Jacob saw that it was not Esau. It made no difference. The man had attacked him and he must prevail at all costs.

  The man was stronger and bigger than Jacob, but Jacob tussled and wrestled him to the ground again and again. Sheer terror enflamed him. When Jacob would not give up, the stranger lightly touched the hollow of his thigh, putting it out of joint. Jacob was in excruciating pain but even then he would not give up.

  “Let me go,” the man said. “The day is breaking.”

  Exhausted, dripping with sweat and caked with mud, Jacob clung to him. “I will not let you go unless you bless me,” he gasped.

  “What is your name?” the man asked, still trying to pull away.

  “Jacob! My name is Jacob,” he almost sobbed.

  There was a pause and then looking
down at Jacob, the man said, “Your name is no longer Jacob but Israel, for as a prince you have prevailed. You have power with both God and man.”

  Jacob stumbled to his feet and peered through strands of matted hair at the man. “What is your name?” he questioned softly.

  “Why must you know my name?” the man asked. “It is enough that I have blessed you.” With that he was gone as mysteriously as he had appeared.

  Jacob lay back exhausted. He must have dozed, because in what seemed just moments, the sun was up over the distant mountains, birds were singing, and the terror of the night was completely gone. Jacob felt oddly refreshed. He roused and looked around, remembering the struggle with the stranger of the night before. Surely it was just a dream.

  Then he rose and found his hip was painful where the stranger had touched him. He took a few steps and found that he limped. With difficulty he made his way down to the river and knelt to wash his face. Stooping was painful. He saw his image in the water waver and break. “This is no longer Jacob,” he said with amazement. “I am no longer the trickster, the supplanter; I am Israel, God’s prince.”

  He laughed a joyful, excited, gut-shaking laugh. “All my life I have had to plot and scheme to get ahead. I never dared to face a man or a problem head-on. Last night I wrestled with no tricks and won. I am Israel!”

  The word sounded beautiful, even musical. He said it softly, then chanted it, then shouted the word so it echoed against the rocky heights behind him. He wanted to leap and run and dance, but his hip was too painful.

  He stood and pondered the strangeness of it all. He would have been sure it was a dream but for the pain in his hip and the limp that didn’t go away. “It was all real,” he concluded. “I wrestled with God and won a blessing from Him and a new name.”

  He gathered up his sheepskin cloak and started for the river. I must give this place a name. “Peniel,” he said. “I’ll call it Peniel, for surely I have seen God face-to-face.”

  With that he went down and waded across the turbulent, bubbling water of the Jabbok and stood on the opposite shore, eager and ready to meet Esau. “I am not afraid,” he shouted. “I am Israel, God’s prince.”

  * * *

  The next day Esau came riding a white mule with his four hundred men strung out behind him. Behind his men came the animals that Jacob had sent to him as gifts. Jacob stood watching him come, no longer hiding behind his large family but out in front ready to deal with his brother.

  While Esau was still a considerable distance away, Jacob bowed himself to the ground, and as Esau came closer he bowed himself seven times to the ground. As he rose he was surprised to see Esau running toward him with his arms outspread and tears running down his cheeks. They hugged and laughed with the joy of reunion.

  Finally Esau stood back and looked around with amazement. “Who are all these people with you?” he asked.

  “They are my wives and my children.” At a nod from Jacob the concubines, Zilpah and Bilhah, came forward with their children and bowed before him, then Leah came with her children, and finally Rachel with Joseph. They all bowed and they could see that Esau was impressed.

  Jacob took him aside to a large tent where they could sit while Esau’s men were served refreshments. “Tell me,” Esau asked, “where did all these animals come from that met me on the way?”

  Jacob laughed. “They are my gift to you. I will admit it was an attempt to gain your favor.”

  Esau laughed. “You must keep them,” he said. “I have plenty.”

  “No,” Jacob said, “you must keep them. You have no idea what a relief it is to see you smiling and friendly. I was so frightened. Please take my gifts; God has been very generous with me.”

  Esau could see that it was important for him to accept Jacob’s gift. “You have been more than generous,” he said.

  They sat for a time in silence marveling at the strangeness of it all. “You are my only brother,” Jacob said at last. “No one will ever be closer to me. We are not just brothers, but we are twins.”

  “We are closer even than wives,” Esau said. “Never mind that we have never gotten along. We were fighting, our mother says, even before we were born.” They laughed now as they realized how unique their relationship really was.

  “How are my mother and my father?” Jacob asked suddenly and rather abruptly.

  Esau fidgeted and looked away. “Our mother is not well. She suffered greatly with the cold this year, but our father is much the same as when you left.”

  Jacob didn’t ask further as he sensed that Esau was reluctant to tell him anything that would spoil their reunion.

  They spent the day getting acquainted. In the early afternoon, Esau said he would have to go but offered to take Jacob and his family with him.

  “No, no,” Jacob said. “I have such a large family and so many animals we would slow you down.”

  “Then let me leave one of my men with you to guide you to my home in Mount Seir.”

  Again Jacob desisted. “We will manage just fine, so you must not be worried about us.”

  With that Esau left and Jacob relaxed in his tent and thought of the strangeness of it all. For years he had been alone without his family. He had been at the mercy of his wily uncle and felt so weak he could not confront him openly. Now everything was different; he had wives and sons and a brother who cared about him.

  Just as Jacob was feeling that everything was going to be all right and his homecoming would be wonderful, a messenger arrived from Esau’s band. “I have a message for my master’s brother. I am to give it to him in the privacy of his own tent,” the messenger said.

  Jacob was puzzled but he led the young man into his tent. For a moment they looked at each other as Jacob tried to read in the young man’s countenance the nature of the message. He could tell it was not good news. The young man looked as though he could hardly bear to say what he had come to tell.

  “Come, tell me what is it my brother wants me to know. If it is bad news, it is not the first time I have ever heard bad news,” Jacob said.

  “My lord,” the young man said, “my master could not bear to tell you in person, but your mother is dead and has been buried in the cave purchased by your grandfather.” With that the young man turned and left, and Jacob fell back among the cushions almost unconscious with wave after wave of grief and despair.

  Jacob lost all interest in returning home. He could not endure the thought of seeing his mother’s tent and his mother’s belongings without her. A great lethargy came over him. He could take no pleasure in anything. Each day seemed like a burden that must be endured. How could it be possible that his vibrant, alive little mother had died just as he was coming home? He had been afraid that his father would die before he got home, but it never occurred to him that his mother might die.

  When he had thought about going home, it had always been to fit himself, his wives, and his children back into his own family as he had known it. Now he realized that his mother had been his family. Isaac had been a shadowy figure who had preferred Esau. Esau would be managing the family flocks and herds. Esau would be taking care of his father. And Jacob’s homecoming would be an intrusion.

  If he went back, everything would become complicated. The old conflict over the birthright would flare up. Esau would again resent him. The truth was that he had all the sheep and goats and servants he needed, but Esau would not see it that way.

  The more he thought about it, the more he determined to take more time and test things out before going back. Temporarily it would be best if they could stay right where they were until things became clear. He crossed back over the Jabbok and went down to the Jordan. It would be difficult to cross the Jordan with his family and his flocks at any time, but at this time of year with the spring flooding, it would be almost impossible.

  He tramped around and found a level expanse that would make an acceptable place for them to camp. They would cross the Jordan when they were better prepared. They would have to
make temporary shelters for the animals, but his servants and sons could do that easily. Jacob called the place Succoth because of the booths they built, and he stayed there for several years.

  Once the family was settled, Jacob hiked in all directions looking for a permanent home for them that would not conflict with Esau. The land was large and the desert of the Negev was not the choicest land for cattle or for raising a family. He crossed the Jordan, and found that by going up the Wadi Fara, he came out onto a fertile valley.

  He learned from shepherds that the two mountains facing him across the valley were called Gerizim and Ebal, with a sizable city lying between them called Shechem. He remembered his grandfather telling him that it was from the top of Mount Ebal that Elohim had shown him the land He was to give him and his descendants. He was excited. This large, fertile valley seemed the ideal place to settle.

  He went back to the camp across the Jordan and began to seriously consider moving to an area near Shechem. He would have to go about it carefully. He would make friends of the important men in the city and then offer to buy land. Water would be a problem. He would have to set his men to digging a well as he had seen his father do in the Negev.

  By the time he was ready to leave the safe environment of Succoth, his sons had become handsome young men and his daughter Dinah was as beautiful and charming as Rachel. People often thought she must be Rachel’s daughter, as she looked nothing like her own mother, Leah. Jacob had no way of knowing that her beauty would upset all of his plans of a happy new home.

  He did everything properly. With several of his sons, he went to visit Hamor, the king of Shechem, and bought land from him for one hundred pieces of silver. He explained to the king that they had extensive herds and would not choose to live in the city but would dig a well in the valley so they would not be a burden to anyone.

  “We will be so happy to have you settle here,” the king said. “We are a hospitable people, and your sons will be welcome to come and visit my son Shechem, and your wives, the women of my family.”