Jacob at Bethel and Penuel: the polarity of Divine encounter

Judaism, Spring, 1993 by Bernard Och

OF THE BIBLICAL PATRIARCHS, JACOB IS the most enigmatic. Possessing neither the awesome faith of an Abraham nor the stoic equanimity of an Isaac, Jacob is, nevertheless, chosen to be the bearer of Divine blessing and the eponymic father of Israel. His character emerges through a series of deceptions, intrigues and conflicts which cast serious doubt on the wisdom and appropriateness of Divine election. A casual reading of the text would indicate that God, Himself, is rather wary of being too intimately involved in Jacob's schemes and machinations. God, who was Abraham's constant companion and guide, now appears to be standing on the sidelines, carefully weighing when and where to make an appearance. Moreover, the immediate revelations and promises which defined God's relationship to Abraham are now replaced by ambiguous dreams and night encounters shrouded in mystery and uncertainty. With Jacob we seem to be dealing no longer with the life of man in the presence of God, but, rather, with a cacophony of all too human events and conflicts where God's presence is conspicuously, perhaps judiciously, absent.

Structurally, the Jacob narrative (Genesis 25-35) moves along two distinct, dramatic lines: a horizontal one of human-profane activity and a vertical one of Divine-human encounter. In contrast to the Abraham cycle, where the profane and sacred are so closely intertwined as to be inseparable, here, with Jacob, they are experienced as two separate dimensions. Furthermore, in a quantitative sense, profane time now takes precedence over sacred time, as major segments of Jacob's life are played out with no reference whatsoever to Divine intervention or direction. And, yet, from a thematic perspective, the entire narrative draws its intensity from the sacred dimension of Divine-human encounter. God's revelations at Bethel (Genesis 28:11-22) and Penuel (Genesis 32:24-32) serve as the pillars upon which the entire narrative rests, and provide a theological gestalt which infuses the story with the concerns and fulfillments of Divine promise. These visitations disclose the stamp of God's purpose in history and the enigmatic way in which that purpose is often realized, in directions which run quite contrary to human expectation and manipulation.

The Jacob cycle occupies a pivotal position in the Biblical narrative, and serves a dual function. On the one hand, it provides, de facto, a bridge between the Patriarchs and the people -- a transition from the individual lives of the Patriarchs to the history of the people. Abraham is the father of Israel; Jacob is Israel. On the other hand, the Jacob cycle is "fraught with background," and can be seen as a continuation and resolution of prior events and motifs of the Biblical narrative. Jacob's life is related thematically and functionally to events and theological concerns of primeval history (Genesis 3-11), and serves as its dramatic and theological culmination. "God created worlds and destroyed them, till Jacob came. The world was then completed and was no more destroyed."(1)

The Bethel/Penuel revelations place the Jacob narrative within a continuum of events beginning with man's expulsion from the Garden of Eden and ending with Israel's entrance into the land of Canaan. Vis-a-vis the past, Jacob represents the working out of God's promises to Abraham, and the resolution of various problems of humanity posed in the first eleven chapters of Genesis. Vis-a-vis the future, Jacob presents a paradigmatic overview of the history of the people of Israel and of the ambiguous, sometimes threatening, relationship of God to His people. The last of the Patriarchs, Jacob stands at a crucial juncture in the Biblical narrative: a closure and consummation of the past; an opening and prophetic glance into the future.

Thematically, Genesis 1-11 describes a progressive deterioration of the original unity and harmony of creation -- the chronicle of humanity's undoing of Divine creation. Abraham and Jacob are the two individuals chosen by God to reverse this process of de-creation and reinstate God's original blessing to mankind. In this context, Isaac is of minor importance. Although he is blessed by God, the text clearly indicates that Isaac's blessing is granted neither on his behalf nor on grounds of his own merits but "for my servant Abraham's sake" (Genesis 26:24). Isaac serves as a link between the generations, the transmitter of Divine blessing from Abraham, the father, to Jacob, the son. Isaac, as it were, preserves the spark of Divine blessing, which will now be rekindled in all its intensity and ambiguity in the life of Jacob.(2)

Abraham and Jacob are the the cornerstones of God's plan for world redemption. Jacob, not Isaac, is the dramatic and theological heir of the promise/blessing enterprise which originated with Abraham. After an interval of stasis, man's journey with God, which began with Abraham at Haran, is now resumed with Jacob at Bethel. Both Patriarchs are set on a road that reverses the series of aimless wanderings which have characterized human existence since the expulsion from Eden. Men are still on the move, but the centrifugal direction of these earlier peregrinations is now arrested by the centripetal movement of humanity back to God through Abraham and Jacob.