Read Genesis 35-36 at Bible Gateway.
The Hebrew paragraph divisions for our chapters today are:
Gen 35:1-8 {p} Repentance and return to the house of God (Bethel)
Gen 35:9-22 {p} Renewal of the covenant
Gen 35:23-29 {p} The seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
Gen 36:1-19 {s} The seed of Esau
Gen 36:20-30 {s} The seed of Seir
Gen 36:31-43 {s} The kings of Edom
Today’s reading concludes a chiastic structure begun several chapters ago:
1a) Gen 32:3, Esau in Seir, the country of Edom;
1b) Gen 32:4-6, Jacob came to Esau;
1c) Gen 32:7-8, The wives and seed of Jacob;
1d) Gen 32:9-12, Prayer to God to remind Him of Abraham’s covenant;
1e) Gen 32:24-30, God blessed Jacob and changed his name to Israel;
1f) Gen 32:31-33:20 {s+s} Repentance, journey to Succoth and Shechem, altar El-Elohe-Israel;
central axis) Gen 34:1-31 {p} Defilement with Canaanites;
2f) Gen 35:1-8 {p} Repentance, journey to Bethel, altar El-Bethel;
2e) Gen 35:9-10, God blessed Jacob and changed his name to Israel;
2d) Gen 35:11-15, God renews the Abrahamic covenant with Jacob;
2c) Gen 35:16-26, The wives and seed of Jacob;
2b) Gen 35:27-29 {p+p} Jacob came to Isaac;
2a) Gen 36:1-43 {sx3} Esau in Seir, the country of Edom.
Isn’t it interesting that defilement with Canaanites is the central axis of the entire chiastic structure concerning Jacob’s life in the Land? After God told Jacob to flee to Bethel (for I believe Jacob was as fearful, after the destruction of Shechem, as he was when he was fleeing from the wrath of his brother Esau; and Bethel was a significant place in Jacob’s life, where God met him in his fear and strengthened him and reassured him that He would not forsake him), Jacob instructed his household to repent and rid themselves of their idols.
I believe that they had truly been defiled even to the point of idolatry, by not just sojourning among the Canaanites, as Abraham and Isaac had, but by purchasing land to dwell among them, by investing in their way of life. And before you know it, bit by bit, a little here and a little there, their ways began to defile all of Jacob’s household, culminating in the rape of Dinah and sin of murder.
It is a warning to us, again. It is an easy thing to slip into, living like the Canaanites (i.e., the world) that are in the Land, first in a small thing here, then in a small thing there. One day we wake up and realize there is idolatry in the house, and we need to return to the pure worship of YHVH.
I find it fascinating, that surrounding this defilement with the Canaanites, is repentance, renewal toward YHVH, Jacob’s new identity as Israel, “Upright of El”, as well as the affirmation of Abraham’s covenant. Once we are in covenant with YHVH, we might slip up temporarily; but that defilement is not our identity any longer. Our identity is in the name that God has given us, wrapped up in the covenant God has made with us! ♥
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