Today, I am reading and commenting on  Genesis 31-32.

So, when I started to compose my thoughts about what to write about today’s passage I decided to focus on the oath between Laban and Jacob.  In particular I was struck by whom Laban swore his oath: “the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father.”  But, as I reread the passage to fully form my thoughts I was brought up short by whom Jacob swore: “the Fear of his father Isaac.”  I know that the capitalization of “Fear” in this passage is a translators’ interpretation, since Hebrew does not make that distinction the way that English does.  Then I looked and noticed that a few verses earlier Jacob had said, “If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would surely have sent me away empty-handed. ”  So, either Jacob is saying that Laban was afraid of Isaac (which is not out of the question, but doesn’t seem to fit the context), or The Fear of Isaac is Jacob’s term for God.  As I was looking into this I came across a scholar who says that name of the Edomite (descendants of Esau) god Qos is derived from the word for dread (“Shield of Abraham, Fear of Isaac, Dread of Esau”).  From there I did a quick search for information on the Edomite god, Qos.  What I learned was that many of the archeological records of Qos suggest that he was considered at times to be the same as YHWH, including some which suggests there was an Israelite-Edomite worship center at Beersheba.  Considering that Esau was also Isaac’s son and that one of his wives was a daughter of Ishmael, it would not be surprising that some of his descendants worshiped God (even if they referred to Him as Qos rather than YHWH).

Now, I want to return to One by whom Laban swore.  Laban swore by the God of Jacob’s grandfather (Abraham) and his own grandfather (Nahor), and of their father.  Despite considering the God of Abraham, Nahor, and Terah to be a god of great power, Laban worshiped other gods, gods which Rachel had stolen from him when Jacob took her away from her father’s lands.  How many of us know someone who admits to God’s existence and power, yet worships some lesser god(s)?  How many of us struggle to avoid doing the same?  We need to fear God enough to not do that, and we need to help others feel that same fear.  We also need to see how that fear can be a shield for us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.