Devotional Short Note to Genesis 28
Moses is giving a briefer overview
here what was already covered before. Background material is given before he
could start the narrative later in the chapter. Esau saw that Isaac blessed
Jacob and sent him away to Padan-Aram and that was between 2040-2030 BCE. Esau
of course got his Hittite wives in 2040 BCE and soon afterwards. Isaac and
Rebekkah was not happy and the Jesus marriage principle apply: do not pull
unequal in the yoke with the unbeliever. As simple as that. When Esau saw that Isaac and Rebekkah
did not like the Canaanite wedding and that his brother had to go to Padan-Aram
to get a wife, he thought that he would fish in Ishmael’s court for a wife and
he did. When Ishmael married, Shulgi, the self-deified ruler of Ur III died in
2047 BCE already seven years before. Nine years before the marriage of Esau
would be in 2049 BCE and this was the 45th year of Shulgi and at
Andrews University, in the Library in the Archives is a cuneiform tablet dated
to this year 2049 BCE. It is an economic account of deliveries made for the
Nippur religious city at a town Drehem, about 20 km from Nippur. The tablet
talks about lambs, 1 ox and 6 cows, 45 sheep, 215 ewes and other animals that
were to be given to the tax collectors at Drehem. It is in the Heritage Center
and was brought there by George Suhrie who was an Armenian escapee in the times
of Ellen White as a young boy to New York. I hope to publish it very soon and
submitted it for publication. Remarkable that the tablet dates to someone who
lived when Abraham died and when Isaac was still alive. It dates to this
chapter. The organization and presentation of the account is no different than
what one finds today in supermarkets receipts. Their brain capacity was no
different than our own. So where does the evolution of the brain come in from
ape to man with slightly lower back then than us today? No change in 4067
years. Leaving for Haran, Jacob took a rest
and dreamed about the ladder to heaven (Genesis 28:12). It was around 2030 BCE.
The Canaanite name of the place was
Luz but that day Jacob called it Beth-el because the Lord came standing next to
him and promised him the land (Genesis 28:22-24). Jacob vowed that if he safely return
that God will be continued to be His God and Lord and that he will pay a tithe
to the Lord (Genesis 28:24). Temple collections were common in those days at
Nippur and the place where the Mesopotamians had to drop their taxes and
offerings was at the market-town at Drehem some distance from the Temple Town
Nippur. The tablet at the James White Library Heritage Room is evidence of such
payments.
Dear God We stand in awe when the data of
history confirms the Book and the Words of God speaks forcefully to us about
realities that are no different than the ones we face from day to day. Give us
also the same victory as them. In Jesus loving Name. Amen.