Isaac and Rebekah - biblical story. Isaac (son of Abraham) Father of Isaac in the Bible

The first years of Isaac's family life passed during the life of his elderly patriarch father. He was the sole heir of all the promises of Abraham, but he, like his father, had to be tested in his faith. His wife Rebekah was childless for twenty years, but he did not despair and prayed to the Lord. “And the Lord heard him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.” Just before the birth, something unusual happened that alarmed Rebekah; but she was reassured by the revelation that two twin sons would be born to her, “and two different nations would arise from her womb,” “one nation would become stronger than the other, and the older would serve the younger,” i.e., that, contrary to the usual order, the firstborn would not will possess the right of birthright, with which all the great promises given to the posterity of Abraham were connected. This revelation sank deeply into Rebekah’s soul and served as a guide for her in her later life. Rebekah actually gave birth to two twins: “the first came out all red, like shaggy skin, and they called his name Esau (shaggy); then his brother came out, holding Esau’s heel with his hand; and his name was called Jacob (that is, he who holds on to the heel).”

The character of the twin brothers turned out to be consistent with this. When they grew up, “Esau became a man skilled in hunting, a man of the fields, but Jacob became a meek man, living in tents.” As often happens, parents were somewhat partial to their chosen favorites, and it is remarkable that the calm, meek Isaac loved the brave, courageous trapper more, while Rebekah especially loved the modest and gentle Jacob. The latter probably soon learned from his mother about the revelation she had had regarding the future fate of the brothers and began to wait for an opportunity to claim his rights to the birthright. The opportunity soon presented itself. One day Esau came from the field tired and hungry and, seeing that Jacob had cooked a dish of lentils (and now a favorite dish in Syria and Egypt), he began to persistently ask him to give him this “red” to eat. His hunger was so strong that when Jacob told him to sell him his birthright for this food, Esau did not even pay attention to Jacob’s offer and impatiently remarked: “Here I am dying, what is this birthright to me?” Esau knew that with the birthright he was selling all his spiritual advantages and all rights to possess the Promised Land. But due to his wild and rude nature, he apparently did not attach any importance to the former, and as for the latter, perhaps he hoped to return them to himself with the help of his father’s favor and even direct violence against his meek brother, and thus he, because to satisfy his hunger, he sold his birthright for “red” lentils, which is why “he was given the nickname: Edom” (red).

Meanwhile, one of those famine years began in the country, which had previously forced the patriarchs to move to neighboring, more fertile countries for food. Isaac decided to follow the example of his patriarch father and wanted to move to Egypt, but he was forbidden, and he spent a hungry year within the boundaries of the Philistine king Abimelech, where the same story that happened with Abraham was repeated with him and Rebekah. Namely, he passed off Rebekah as his sister, but when the truth was revealed, Abimelech (probably the son of Abraham’s contemporary of the same name) showed him special patronage and respect.

Thanks to this, Isaac was able to begin a more settled life and began farming. “And Isaac sowed in that land, and that year he received barley a hundredfold: so the Lord blessed him. And the man became great, and increased more and more until he became very great. He had herds of small and herds of cattle and many arable fields.” But the Philistines soon became jealous of his wealth, began to oppress him, buried the wells dug by Abraham, and generally started quarrels, which finally forced Isaac to move from here to Bathsheba. There the Lord appeared to strengthen him, confirming His blessing and promise to him, and Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord. Seeing the rightness of Isaac and repenting of the unjust oppression against him, the Philistine king Abimelech came to him with an apology, and between them, at a feast made by Isaac, an oath was concluded, near the same well, near which their fathers once concluded their alliance (Bathsheba) .

Isaac's quiet family life was soon outraged by the disobedience of his favorite son Esau, who, without the blessing of his parents, at the age of forty, married two Canaanite women, thus entering into kinship with idolaters. “And they were a burden to Isaac and Rebekah.” But he soon faced an even more difficult family test. As his old age approached, his eyesight weakened, and he found it opportune to perform a solemn blessing for the transmission of the promises associated with it to his posterity. According to established custom, he, of course, intended to transfer the birthright to Esau, as the eldest son, and told him to prepare a meal from his own game for this occasion. Esau hardly informed him about the sale of his birthright, and Jacob, in turn, did not dare to openly express his claims to this right.

It is not known whether Rebekah also knew about this, but only she, having heard about Isaac’s intention, decided to use cunning in order to use it to deliver the blessing of the birthright to her favorite Jacob. According to her advice, he had to put on his brother’s clothes, saturated with the smell of aromatic herbs and bushes, among which the trapper had to spend his life, and cover his body with a shaggy skin in order to be like his brother to the touch; Rebekah herself promised to prepare such a dish from domestic young animals that Isaac could hardly distinguish from the dish he expected from the game of Esau. Jacob hesitated, fearing a curse from his father if the deception was discovered; but Rebekah convinced him that she would even accept the curse. Jacob set to work; But what awe did he feel when the elder father, surprised by the too quick return of Esau and the preparation of the food, called the one who had appeared for a blessing to him in order to verify by touch whether it was really Esau. The elder felt the shaggy cover on Jacob’s hands and remarked in bewilderment: “The voice, the voice of Jacob; and the hands, the hands of Esau.” But the smell of hunting clothes finally dispelled the doubts of the elderly patriarch; he ate the food, drank the wine, ordered himself to be kissed, and then blessed Jacob with the blessing of the birthright: “May God give you from the dew of heaven and from the fatness of the earth, and plenty of bread and wine. Let the nations serve you, and let the nations worship you; be lord over your brothers, and let your mother’s sons worship you; those who curse you are cursed; those who bless you are blessed!” But it is remarkable that in this blessing there is only a faint hint of the great promise to Abraham, namely, that in him and his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Isaac, imagining that he was blessing Esau, apparently did not consider him fully worthy to inherit the fullness of the blessing, and thus Jacob and Rebekah did not quite achieve what they sought.

As soon as the imaginary Esau, having received the blessing of the birthright, left, the real Esau appeared to receive it. If Jacob’s act was unseemly, then Esau’s actions are no less subject to censure, since he did not want to admit that he had long ago sold his birthright to his brother Jacob. When Isaac learned of this deception, he “trembled with great trembling,” but refused to take away this blessing. “I blessed him, he will be blessed!” - said the alarmed patriarch. Esau raised a “loud and very bitter cry” and asked Isaac to bless him too. “Is it really, my father, that you have only one blessing? bless me too!” - Esau begged with tears, and Isaac blessed him and said: “Behold, from the fatness of the earth will be your livelihood, and from the dew of heaven from above; and thou shalt live by thy sword, and shalt serve thy brother; The time will come when you will resist and cast off his yoke from your neck.” This blessing predicted the entire future fate of the descendants of Esau - the Edomites, who for a long time were subordinate to the descendants of Jacob - the Jews, but later even a king emerged from them who subjugated the latter (Herod the Great, an Edomite by origin).

Having lost his birthright, Esau hated his brother Jacob and even planned to kill him as soon as his father died. Rebekah learned about this danger and, knowing Esau’s violent and indomitable temper, decided to send Jacob for some time to Mesopotamia to his brother Laban in Harran, until Esau’s rage subsided. But in order not to disturb her elderly husband, she did not tell him about Esau’s bloodthirsty intention, but presented to him another reason for Jacob’s temporary departure from home, namely, so that he could marry someone from her family, which undoubtedly was at the same time and the true desire of her heart. “I am not happy with life from the daughters of the Hittites (Esau’s wives),” she said, “if Jacob takes a wife from the daughters of this land: then why should I live?” Isaac heeded her complaint and sent Jacob to Laban to find a wife for himself, but at the same time he deliberately repeated to him the blessing that he had previously given out of ignorance, and at the same time aggravating it with the fullness of the promises given to Abraham. “God Almighty,” he said, “may he bless you, may he make you fruitful, and may he multiply you, and may there be from you many nations; and may Abraham (my father) give you the blessing, you and your descendants with you, that you may inherit the land of your sojourning, which God gave to Abraham!”

Thus, Isaac received his sight from spiritual blindness and gave his blessing to the most worthy, and Esau indulged more and more in sensuality and took himself a third wife, Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, concluding a family alliance with the one whom Abraham had expelled. Thus, Esau’s spiritual inability to bear the birthright was revealed in its entirety.

After this, Isaac lived for another forty-three years, but he no longer declared himself in history. And in general, he was one of those rare people whose whole life is boundless meekness, embodied humility and serene contentment. Being the patriarch of a large family, he, however, avoided everything that could make his position particularly visible, and thereby proved that with humility and meekness one can please God just as much as with a life filled with great deeds and difficult trials. Unquestioning obedience to his father, even to the point of slaughtering his very life, tender affection for his mother, for whose loss he was consoled only by his marriage to Rebekah; unconditional devotion and fidelity to his wife in an age when polygamy was common; patiently enduring domestic trials inflicted on him by his wife and sons; the inactivity of life itself, during which he never moved more than forty miles from the place of his homeland (Bathsheba) - all this together paints before us the image of a patriarch who was great not in his external loud exploits, but in that inner spiritual world that is invisible to people, but who shines all the brighter before the Heavenly Father - with that insurmountable faith in God’s Providence, which all his life made him the embodiment of humility, hope and love.

After the events described, the fate of the further history of the patriarchal era is concentrated in the hands of Jacob, to whom all the hereditary blessing and promise of the family of Abraham passed.

(1 Chron. 1:32-33)

Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah.She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah.Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan; Dedan's descendants were Ashurites, Letushites and Leumites.The sons of Midian: Epha, Ether, Enoch, Abida and Eldaga - all of them are descendants of Keturah.

Abraham left everything he had to Isaac.During his lifetime, he gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away from his son Isaac to the east, to the eastern land.

Abraham lived a total of one hundred and seventy-five years.He breathed his last and died at a ripe old age, having had enough of life, and went to his ancestors.His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre, in the field of the Hittite Ephron, son of Zohar,which Abraham bought from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried next to his wife Sarah.After Abraham's death, God blessed his son Isaac, who then lived near Beer-lahai-roi.

Descendants of Ishmael

Isaac and his sons.

The first days of Isaac's family life passed during the life of the patriarch Abraham. Isaac was the only heir of the promise and, like his father, had to undergo a test of faith.

The test that the Lord sent him was his beloved barren wife, whom he took, loving with all his heart. His wife was barren for almost 20 years, says the Holy Scriptures. But he did not despair and prayed to the Lord.

“And the Lord heard him, and Rebekah his wife conceived”

Just before the moment of their birth, her sons began to beat in her womb, and she said:

“If this happens, then why do I need it? And she went to ask the Lord. The Lord said to her: Two nations are in your womb, and two different nations will come out of your womb; one people will become stronger than the other, and the greater will serve the lesser. And the time came for her to give birth: and behold, twins were in her womb. The first one came out red, all shaggy like leather; and they called his name Esau"

(Genesis 25:22–25) "Esau" means "shaggy." “Then his brother came out, holding Esau’s heel with his hand; and his name was called Jacob” (Gen. 25:26). "Jacob" means "he who holds on to his heel."

“And Isaac was sixty years old when they were born

[from Rebekah]

. (Genesis 25:26).

Esau became a man skilled in hunting, and Jacob was meek, lived in tents, and, as often happens in families, the mother gave preference to the one who lived closer to her - the meek, peace-loving Jacob. Not to say that she did not love Esau, but she treated him with coolness. And, of course, she was worried that the person in whom she, perhaps, did not see the grace that she would like to see, should inherit the birthright. Esau was the eldest, and although there were moments of difference, it was important - the issue of birthright was being decided, about the blessing that the Lord, through their father, was supposed to give to the eldest son.

You know the story of the brother who sold his birthright for lentil stew. From that time on, it received the name Edom, i.e. red. Why red, because lentils are not red? It depends on how you cook it. If you add some roots, it turns red. These lentils became the reason that he sacrificed his spiritual birthright for the sake of material things. Not because he was hungry, but at the moment he did not value his birthright, he lived a momentary life: Esau was a carnal man, and no birthright mattered to him. He himself renounced his birthright - and this is very important.

Meanwhile, one of those years of famine begins, which often forced the patriarchs to go to other countries. And Isaac (54) considers it necessary to follow the example of his father and go to Egypt in order to survive the famine years there. However, the Lord appears to him and forbids him to go to Egypt, but blesses him to settle within the borders of the Philistine king Abimelech. And here a story similar to Abraham’s takes place. Isaac passes off his wife as his sister, fearing that because of her they will kill him and the people close to him. Abraham's trick was learned by his son. But after Isaac’s wickedness was revealed, he, like Abraham, was rewarded with gifts and sent away, only so that he would leave and not interfere with them. Thanks to this, Isaac began to lead a more settled life and took up farming. And it says:

“And Isaac sowed in that land, and that year he received barley a hundredfold: so the Lord blessed him. And this man became a great man and grew more and more great until he became very great. He had herds of small and herds of cattle and many arable fields."

(Genesis 26:12–14). Isaac's quiet family life was soon disrupted by the disobedience of his beloved son Esau. After all, Isaac loved his eldest son, his heart favored him more. However, Esau showed base carnal feelings and married two Canaanite women at the age of forty, thus entering into kinship with idolaters. And the Scripture says:

"And they were a burden to Isaac and Rebekah"

(Genesis 26:35), that is, his wife, but soon he faced an even greater test. The time approached when Isaac felt that his last strength was leaving him, the time had come to leave this earth. According to ancient Eastern custom, he had to bestow his blessing on his eldest son, bless his children, and thus prepare for the journey of the whole earth.

On this occasion, he ordered a meal to be arranged, which each son was to prepare from the fruits of his hands, in order to bless them afterwards as he saw fit. It is unlikely that Esau told him that he had sold his birthright - rather, it was an episode known only to his mother. Therefore, here too she shows some cunning and, taking advantage of the fact that her brother was out hunting, she skillfully makes up her youngest son to look like his elder son, tying his body with animal skins, prepares delicious dishes that her husband loved, gives them to the youngest son, and he goes without any hesitation to his father, having received a blessing from his mother. And before us is a very interesting dialogue between Jacob and Isaac:

“And Isaac said to Jacob, Come

I will feel you, my son, are you my son Esau or not? Jacob came to Isaac his father, and he felt him and said, “A voice, the voice of Jacob; and the hands, the hands of Esau. And he did not recognize him, because his hands were like the shaggy hands of Esau, his brother; and he blessed him and said, Art thou my son Esau? He answered: I"

(Genesis 27:21–24) What did he do? He lied - it was an obvious lie, and not just a cunning and trick. If the father had not asked him, but simply blessed him as the eldest son, this would have been a lesser sin, but he asked:

“Are you my son?”

He doubted because he sensed a lie. And for this lie the Lord punished Jacob many times, although he provided for him. Any lie is punishable. And the father said, blessing his son:

“This is the smell of my son, like the smell of a field

[full]

Which the Lord blessed; May God give you from the dew of heaven and from the fatness of the earth, and plenty of bread and wine; Let the nations serve you, and let the nations worship you; be lord over your brothers, and let your mother’s sons worship you; those who curse you are cursed; those who bless you are blessed!”

(Genesis 27:27–29)

“And as soon as Jacob went out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came from his hunt.”

Esau also prepares all kinds of food and goes to receive the blessing. Isaac blesses his eldest son, although this is a completely different blessing:

“Behold, from the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be, and from the dew of heaven from above; and you will live by your sword and serve your brother; The time will come when you will resist and cast off his yoke from your neck.”

(Genesis 27:39–40).

This blessing is the entire future fate of the descendants of Esau (his descendants are called the Edomites, the Edomites, who were subordinate to the Jews for a long time, but subsequently broke away from obedience and themselves began to rule over Israel in the person of their king Herod the Great, who was an Edomite by origin).

After this incident, Esau hated his brother and said these words:

“The days of mourning for my father are coming, and I will kill Jacob my brother.”

(Genesis 27:41). That is, in other words, soon my father will die, and then I will deal with my brother (a clear hint that he will kill his brother). Rebekah, knowing Esau's indomitable temper, decides to send Jacob for some time to Mesopotamia, to her brother Laban, until Esau's rage subsides. In order not to bother her elderly husband, she calls the “official” version of marriage. Thus, Jacob flees on behalf of his brother Esau in order to simultaneously arrange his family and personal life. His brother took Canaanite wives for himself and thereby showed his complete failure as the firstborn.

After these events, Isaac will live another 43 years, but will not show himself in anything else. His son Jacob goes to his relative Laban to look for a wife, his eldest son apparently remains in wickedness and moves away from true worship of God. Isaac himself exhibits meekness, humility and deep, serene peace of mind.

What character traits are characteristic of this patriarch? Remember how Abraham leads him to the slaughter? Isaac shows unconditional, complete obedience to his father - this first. Second- tender affection for mother. He mourned his mother until he got married. Third- devotion to his wife, although she was barren for a long time. He took neither maids nor concubines, but by being faithful, he showed faith in the promise of God. Fourth- patiently endured the trials that the Lord sent him through his sons. AND fifth a characteristic touch is a sedentary lifestyle. Modern Bible researchers (Lopukhin and a number of others) say that Isaac spent almost his entire life in almost one place, and if he left, it was no further than 100 kilometers. And yet, before us is a patriarch who was great not because of his high-profile exploits, but because of his rich spiritual world. He was rich in faith in the Providence of God, which throughout his life made him the embodiment of humility, hope and love.

Before us next patriarch - Jacob. The Lord makes the same covenant with him as with Abraham and Isaac. It is no coincidence that the Lord said, addressing the people of Israel:

"I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob"

That is, the promise of God rested completely on Jacob. And the Lord said to him:

[Don't be afraid.]

The land on which you lie will I give to you and to your descendants; and your descendants will be like the sand of the earth."

(Genesis 28:13–14)

These words were spoken at the greatest moment in history when Jacob went to Haran.

“And he came to one place and stayed there overnight”

(Genesis 28:11), and he dreams.

Chapter 28 from verse 10 to the end. I think you know this scripture very well. Artists often depict Jacob sleeping, with a stone lying at his head, and he sees a ladder descending from heaven, along which the Angels of God descend and ascend. The ladder symbolizes the Mother of God: through Her the grace of God descended to earth. The Lord became man in order to bring man closer to Himself. It is Jacob who awakens from sleep and says that this place is scary:

“this is nothing other than the house of God, this is the gate of heaven”

(Genesis 28:17). And he took the stone that was at his head, and set it up as a monument, and poured oil on it, and called the name of the place Bethel, which means “house of God.”

“And Jacob made a vow, saying: If

[Lord]

God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I am going on, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, and I will return in peace to my father’s house, and the Lord will be my God, then this stone, which I have set up as a monument, will

house of God; and of all that You, O God, give me, I will give You a tenth.”

(Genesis 28:20–22)

He promises to give God a tithe for the good deeds that the Lord promises to send him.

Next is the story that we all know: his acquaintance with a treacherous uncle who was on his own, and then the story of Jacob’s marriage to his sisters Leah and Rachel. Here we see the trials that the Lord sends to him because he deceived his father. Just as he deceived his father, so he himself was deceived by his father-in-law. Leah was the eldest, and Rachel the youngest; He fell in love with Rachel with all his heart and promised to work for her for seven years with his uncle. But after the contract was concluded, the marriage ceremony began, at the end of which it turned out that it was not Rachel, but Leah, who was brought into the groom’s tent.

According to Eastern custom, having crossed the threshold of the groom's tent, she was considered his wife, no matter what. There was no turning back. And when he saw that the one standing in front of him was not the one he was expecting, he was saddened and annoyed and told his father-in-law about this. And his father-in-law sympathized with him and said: “I’m worried with you, but we have such a custom: it’s supposed to give away the eldest daughter first, and then the youngest. I don’t mind, take the younger one later, but work for me for another seven years.” Jacob agrees and works seven more for his wife Rachel. So, he gave 14 years to live with the woman he loved. What is important here is not the years themselves, but the love that knows no barriers. For him, work was like a single day, because he loved Rachel. But Leah also fell in love with him, but there was no reciprocity. In addition, she “was weak in the eyes,” that is, she had a certain physical disability. This irritated Jacob and he clearly favored his second wife, Rachel, who was barren. And the Lord blessed Leah for her humiliation, for her suffering, for the fact that she was despised by her husband. And she began to bear him children.

Leah gave birth to Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah. Rachel has not yet had a single child, and then she, jealous of her sister, gives him the maid Baal as a concubine (a common custom. Remember, Abraham already did this?), from whom two side sons are born: Dan and Naphtali. Then Leah says, why am I worse? And she also gives him her maid. Jacob is not embarrassed and takes himself another concubine. And although he was the son of a father who was faithful to one wife all his life, the Holy Scriptures are nevertheless true. From his second concubine, the maid (56) Zilpah, Gad and Asser were born to him. Then Leah herself gives birth to Issachar, Zebulun and a daughter, Dinah. You don’t need to think that he didn’t have any more daughters, it’s just that a certain story is connected with this daughter in the future, that’s why the Holy Scripture mentions her here, the rest of the daughters were not included in the Holy Scripture because their names are not connected with historical events.

Finally, the Lord removes the shame from Rachel: she conceived and gives birth to a long-awaited beloved son, to whom he gives the name Joseph, which means: “The Lord has looked upon me, the Lord will give me another son,” that is, she was happy that, finally, received forgiveness. Apparently, this happened when she came to terms with her situation and envy left her heart. Then the Lord, looking upon her humble heart, gave her children, perhaps in adulthood. Isaac lived with Laban for about 20 years: seven years for one, seven years for another, and several more years.

When Jacob became the father of a large family, he felt that it was time for him to be independent and free from the tutelage of his father-in-law. He says that he wants to leave and start his own farm, return to his homeland. Again we see here a trick: under the leadership of Jacob, the livestock entrusted to him miraculously multiplied, and when they began to divide their herds, it turned out that Jacob had more. They decided that the piebald ones would be Jacob's, and those who would be of the same color would be Laban's. But Jacob knew how to make the cattle have piebald color. When the cattle drank, he cut the rods and made cuts on them down to the wood.

Looking at these piebald rods, the cattle gave birth to the same piebald offspring. In a word, his flocks multiplied and multiplied, but Laban’s remained at the same level.

This irritated Laban, of course. And he really didn’t want to part with such wealth that he saw from the husband of his daughters, and he didn’t want to let his daughters go either.

“And Jacob saw Laban’s face, and behold, it was not the same to him as it was yesterday and the day before. And the Lord said to Jacob: Return to the land of your fathers and to your homeland; and I will be with you. And Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field, to his herd of flocks, and said to them: I see the face of your father, that it is not the same towards me as it was yesterday and the day before; but the God of my father was with me; You yourself know that I served your father with all my might, but your father deceived me and changed my reward ten times; but God did not allow him to harm me. When he said that cattle with specks will be your reward, all the cattle were born with specks. And when he said: the motley ones will be your reward, then all the cattle gave birth to motley ones. And God took it away

your father's cattle and gave

(Genesis 31:4–9).

Jacob leaves Laban unnoticed, he simply runs away from him. And Jacob took his wives, put his children on camels, took all the livestock, his wealth that he had acquired in Mesopotamia, and went to the land of Canaan. But since Laban was not at home, Rachel stole the idols that her father had. These were small local gods that were common in the East (they were called teraphim): people believed in them as guardians of hearths.

Laban grabbed his idols, suspected that they had been stolen, and began to pursue Jacob. His daughter’s trick was successful: she hid the idols, and he did not find them. Moreover, Jacob managed to win over Laban, and they entered into an alliance. Jacob stabbed

"sacrifice on the mountain and called his relatives to eat bread, and they ate the bread

and spent the night on the mountain. And Laban rose early in the morning and kissed his grandchildren and his daughters, and blessed them.”

(Genesis 31:54, 55).

And Laban returned home, and Jacob went his way, that is, this event served as a reconciliation between Jacob and Laban, who blessed his offspring in the person of his grandchildren.

"Make friends for yourself with unrighteous wealth"

(Luke 16:9). If you give a person something from a pure heart, then you simply want to win him over, and there is no sin here. But if we quarreled, and I give you one thing, then another, then a third, then how can I be angry? Our relationship is improving. And this is human wisdom, which Jacob showed. He does this to his brother and fervently prays to God to reconcile them. And God heard the prayer. Esau meets him, and this meeting ends in reconciliation.

One day Jacob, in a lonely night, was granted some mysterious vision, as it is said: “Someone wrestled with him.”

“And Jacob was left alone. And Someone fought with him until dawn appeared; and when he saw that it did not prevail against him, he touched the joint of his thigh and damaged the joint of Jacob's thigh when he wrestled with Him. And said

: Let me go, for the dawn has risen. Jacob said: I will not let you go until you bless me. And he said: What is your name? He said: Jacob. And said

: From now on your name will not be Jacob, but Israel, for you have fought with God, and you will overcome men. Jacob also asked, saying: Tell me

your name. And He said: Why do you ask about My name?

[it's wonderful]

. (Genesis 32:24–29)

Remember who else asked the name of God? Moses. “What is your name?” (The time has not yet come (57) to reveal the name). Jehovah, the Jehovah. Remember? Here He says, “It is wonderful.” Israel was not yet ready to spiritually accept this name. And we read further:

“And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Penuel; for he said, I have seen God face to face, and my soul is preserved. And the sun rose as he passed Penuel; and he limped on his hip. Therefore even to this day the children of Israel do not eat the sinew that is on the thigh, because He who fought touched the sinew on Jacob’s thigh.”

(Genesis 32:29–32). The Lord allows a person to even fight with Himself, so that from this struggle the person learns for himself the lesson that the Lord loves him. And so, inspired by this meeting, Jacob goes to his brother, and here reconciliation takes place. Perhaps without this struggle there would have been no reconciliation, but now they found those words for each other, that forgiveness that came from the Lord to the hearts of both. And it is said that they hugged and kissed and both cried, and after that the peace that came into the heart of Jacob allowed him to live in safety and continue his ministry in the place where his ancestors lived, where Abraham lived - in the land of Canaan , near Shechem.

Unfortunately, the ordeal for his family continued. The beautiful sister Dinah was the reason for the bloodthirsty actions of her brothers: Simeon and Levi. The son of the local ruler Shechem liked Dinah, who dishonored her. Although Shechem offered to take her as his wife, this seemed too offensive to the sons of Jacob.

Jacob himself agreed to Dinah's marriage. However, the sons showed treachery and cruelty, setting a condition: in that case, she would become Shechem’s wife if the entire city performed the rite of circumcision, which they themselves performed. And when they were sick, two sons Simeon and Levi came with swords and struck down all the men of this city, avenging their dishonored sister Dinah. This violent cruelty outraged Jacob, he reproached his sons and expressed fear that cruel retribution might follow.

Subsequently, Jacob and his family were forced to leave Bethel, because they began to experience the very strong influence of idolatry. Moreover, Jacob commands all the families of his tribe to gather foreign gods in one place and buries them under an oak tree near Shechem, i.e., he destroys idolatry. In Bethel he built an altar, and there the Lord appeared to him again, who confirmed all the previous promises and the one that he said to Abraham: “all the tribes of the earth will be blessed in you.” At Bethel, Rebekah's old nurse Deborah dies, and she is also buried under an oak tree. And Rachel gives birth to the long-awaited second child. But while giving birth, she felt that she was dying, and gave him the name Benoni, which means “son of my sorrow.” But Jacob called him Benjamin, which means “son of the right hand”; this is how the double name turned out.

Jacob grieved deeply over the loss of his wife. He buried her on the way to Bethlehem and placed a monument to her on the coffin, which still stands today. Unfortunately, the grief that Jacob experienced after losing his wife was aggravated by the fact that his eldest son Reuben desecrated his father’s bed, for which he was deprived of his birthright.

Jacob comes to where his elderly father Isaac lives. This place was also chosen by Abraham - near the oak of Mamre, near Hebron. It was with him that the elderly patriarch died (he was 180 years old). Isaac

“And he was gathered unto his people, being old and full of life; and Esau and Jacob his sons buried him."

(Genesis 35:29). This happened after the events with the son Joseph, the beloved son of Jacob, whom the brothers sold to Egypt, approximately 10 years before the resettlement of Israel to Egypt. This concludes the story of Jacob.