Parashat Vayetzei 5765/2004
EJD
The weekly reading for the week of 7 Kislev, 5765 - November 20, 2004 Parashah: Vayetzei Genesis 28:10 to 32:3(2); Haftarah: Hosea 11:7 to 14:10(9); Mei Kituvim: Daniel 6:1-28; Brit Chadashah: John 1:35-51
The Bagel: Divine protection. "Mahanaim" means "two camps" in Hebrew. It refers to Jacob's encounter with the angels in Genesis 32:3(2). It is taken to mean that the angels encamped (probably a symbolic encampment) near Jacob's camp. The presumption by commentators is that the angels were there to protect Jacob. This is not exactly the same as the "guardian angel" idea. Jacob needed protection from his forthcoming encounter with Esau. This was a special visitation from G-d to preserve the godly lineage. The story of Mahanaim becomes a model of divine protection.
Torah:
Genesis 28:10 to 32:3(2). In Parashat Vayetzei, the theme of divine protection begins right away with Jacob fleeing from the vengeful Esau. He was leaving the borders of Land to enter into Laban's country. The ladder full of angels indicated that even though Jacob was about to sojourn in a foreign land G-d would still be with him. The angelic visitation many years later after Jacob became successful in the face of repeated attempts to oppress him meant it was time to return to the promised land. Jacob was not to settle down in a foreign place. For the believer this world is a foreign land and we are not to settle down here either. Our home is in heaven and we should live our life down here in that reality.
To pull up stakes and leave was very difficult for Jacob. Just when he worked so hard to make a life for himself the angel came. It was really for his own good and protection. The simmering jealousy of Laban's sons and of Laban himself could have meant danger had Jacob continued to stay there. When he did leave it was Rachel's theft of the family images (idols) that brought out the vengeful Laban and sons in hot pursuit. Had it not been for the divine visitation in Laban's dream, the ire of Laban & Co might have done-in Jacob on the spot.
Jacob's encounter at Mahanaim was a confirmation of the continuous care that G-d provided during the time of his living in Laban's country. But now, that era passed and a new era was upon Jacob. How could he live in the Land fraught with danger? How could he survive Esau? He had to depart the security of Laban's world and enter the uncertain future in the Promised Land. From the ladder to the camp of the angels divine protection remained steadfast and would continue even in these future circumstances. Perhaps, later when Jacob was just about to meet Esau face to face, he whispered "Mahanaim" to remind himself and G-d that the Divine Presence has indeed encamped here.
Haftarah:
Hosea 11:7 to 14:10(9). In the Haftarah reading, divine protection is shown in two ways. First, there is the metaphor of Adonay as a lion who roars:
They shall follow after the Lord, when he shall roar like a lion; for he will roar, and the children shall hasten together from the west; They shall hasten together as birds out of Egypt, and as doves out of Assyria: and I will cause them to dwell in their houses, saith the Lord (Hosea 11:10-11 Isaac Leeser Translation, 1924). Leeser's "hasten" is "chared" in Hebrew, which often connotes the idea of trembling before the fearful presence of a Holy G-d. Elohim is pictured as a lion and those of the righteous among Israel as a bird. He roars and they are able to come in a fearful rush. As dreadful as this metaphor is, it is also a scene of divine protection. Better not mess with Israel or Adonay will defend His own with those powerful claws! Woe to those who adopt a Yasser-Arafat policy of "push Israel into the sea!"
The second way that the reading demonstrates divine protection is in Hosea's recounting Jacob's sojourn: Then Jacob had to flee to the land of Aram; There Israel served for a wife, For a wife he had to guard sheep. But when the LORD Brought Israel up from Egypt, It was through a prophet; Through a prophet they were guarded (Hosea 12:13-14[12-13] Tanakh JPS). Jacob's divine protection in the land of Laban (Aram) revolved around the watchful eyes of the angels. But Hosea then switches to the Exodus and tags divine protection around the person of Moses. This equation by Hosea gives Moses an almost angelic quality. No wonder, for his face shone with the glow of the Divine Presence. He was the meekest man in all the earth (Numbers 12:3). He became the model of the "Prophet like Moses" (Deuteronomy 18:15-19). The Exodus, like Jacob's sojourn in Aram, reveals a similar history, which is that G-d guarded His people.
Mei Kituvim:
Daniel 6:1-28. In the reading of the Kituvim, we have an example of angelic intervention to protect Daniel the Prophet. Daniel's sojourn, if you will, was a night in the presence of hungry lions. Like Jacob, Daniel turned that den into a holy temple to Adonay. For Jacob it was a rock and for Daniel it was the Persian coliseum full of lions. The angels encamped around Jacob. The angel shut the mouths of the lions: My God sent His angel, who shut the mouths of the lions so that they did not injure me, inasmuch as I was found innocent by Him, nor have I, O king, done you any injury (Daniel 6:22 Tanakh JPS). It was as if Daniel was in Bethel, the house of G-d or in the Holy of Holies before the Divine Presence and he was found innocent. Adonay superseded the "Law of Medes and the Persians which altereth not" to enforce His higher Law. When it was done, the lions attacked Daniel's enemies as they were thrown into the den at the king's command. It is a story of divine protection at its finest.
Brit Chadashah:
John 1:35-51. When we get to the Brit Chadashah, you would not think of divine protection as one of the driving forces in the text. But Nathaniel was under the fig tree and was in deep thought. We can only speculate as to what he was thinking about. Perhaps, the author wanted to stage Nathaniel's story with a pressing need against the backdrop of a metaphor borrowed from Micah. Israel's urgent need was deliverance from Roman oppression and the metaphor in Micah is the picture of the Messianic era symbolized by the fig tree.
Maybe Nathaniel was wishing for the coming of the Messiah, so that real divine protection could happen. If this was so, then his wish was nearly granted when Philip arrived announcing "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote-- Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph" (John 1:45 NIV). The wish was granted in that deliverance came, but not from Roman oppression.
Divine protection was spoken by Yeshua to Nathaniel in the words: "I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man" (John 1:51 NIV). Not freedom from oppression or deliverance from persecution, but divine protection in the midst of those trials. The Jacob's-ladder event occurred prior to his "hatafusot" - his diaspora or scattering to the land of Aram to be oppressed by Laban's craftiness. G-d protected Jacob there in that suffering and made him prosper in spite of being cheated. Like Daniel, it was not freedom from lions, but rather the Divine Presence in the midst that brought true divine protection.
So it has been from the First Century to our day, that Jewish or Gentile believers suffer at the hands of ungodly people, but in the midst of this is divine protection, even in death. As Paul said: "....to be absent from the body and to be present with the L-rd" (2 Corinthians 5:8) means an instant entry into glory for the believer in Yeshua. This is the ultimate and unassailable form of divine protection.
Cream Cheese: Divine protection formula: Yeshua chai means Am Yisrael chai.*
* Chai means "live" in Hebrew. Israel lives because Yeshua rose from the dead and is seated at G-d's right hand to intercede on behalf of those who have accepted Him. Some day Israel will receive Him and then it will be a born-again nation that shall rule the world with Him in the Messianic Era.
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