I am reminded of Paul Celan's gloss on Shakespeare's Sonnet 105-- it's perhaps not coincidental that Celan's version captures better than Shakespeare's original the need to *act* to join the beautiful and the good:
"Schon, gut und treu" so oft getrennt, geschieden.
Just one of many passages about Jacob where it's hard to know for sure exactly what is happening. Jacob is certainly one of the more complex figures in scripture.
It seems inevitable that Jacob was called to a life of struggle, as he in effect birthed a great nation, but there is superimposed on this story arc a recurring pattern of Jacob using cunning toward ends that were apparently God's will, but were those the means He intended?
The tricking Esau out of his birthright, the deception of Isaac, Jacob's travails with Laban, his overtly favoring Joseph to the point of making his brothers terribly jealous, again and again Jacob stirs up animosity that bears bad fruit, yet God still uses it to accomplish His will.
But then Jacob's wrestling with the angel, followed by this encounter with Esau, makes one feel renewed sympathy for him. One can hope the reconciliation was genuine, but surely Jacob remained guarded, and who could blame him? He had taken a lot of punches in life, but was still standing. And the end of his story, the reunion with Joseph, is certainly one of the most beautiful passages in the Bible.
Also, there is surely no better time of year than Thanksgiving to dwell on the grace of accepted gifts!
I am reminded of Paul Celan's gloss on Shakespeare's Sonnet 105-- it's perhaps not coincidental that Celan's version captures better than Shakespeare's original the need to *act* to join the beautiful and the good:
"Schon, gut und treu" so oft getrennt, geschieden.
In einem will ich drei zusammenschmieden.
Just one of many passages about Jacob where it's hard to know for sure exactly what is happening. Jacob is certainly one of the more complex figures in scripture.
It seems inevitable that Jacob was called to a life of struggle, as he in effect birthed a great nation, but there is superimposed on this story arc a recurring pattern of Jacob using cunning toward ends that were apparently God's will, but were those the means He intended?
The tricking Esau out of his birthright, the deception of Isaac, Jacob's travails with Laban, his overtly favoring Joseph to the point of making his brothers terribly jealous, again and again Jacob stirs up animosity that bears bad fruit, yet God still uses it to accomplish His will.
But then Jacob's wrestling with the angel, followed by this encounter with Esau, makes one feel renewed sympathy for him. One can hope the reconciliation was genuine, but surely Jacob remained guarded, and who could blame him? He had taken a lot of punches in life, but was still standing. And the end of his story, the reunion with Joseph, is certainly one of the most beautiful passages in the Bible.
“If there will be an end of history, if people and nations will come to harmony, it will be because of grace, and it will be a beautiful thing.”
Beautifully written. Indeed, our greatest deficit is a lack of grace that renders all of us unforgivable and unwilling to forgive.