The Family of Israel

The

Family of Israel

When Abraham was a hundred years old his son, Isaac, was born, so finally fulfilling the promise made to him by God about twenty five years earlier. Some years later Abraham instructed his most trusted servant to watch over Isaac and make sure that he did not marry one of the women from the Canaanites amongst whom they lived. The servant fulfilled the task entrusted to him and as a result of his diligence Isaac subsequently married his cousin Rebekah; and so Abraham’s concern that the family line should be kept to the Word of God was satisfied.

The Birth of Two Nations

Shortly before Rebekah’s twin sons were born, the Lord told her that they would become two nations; and that the elder would serve the younger. It was destined that in due course the descendants of Esau, the eldest, were to become a nation; while those of the younger son, Jacob, would become a company of nations.

Esau, despising his birthright, was deprived of it and later married outside the wider family by marrying a Hittite. This displeased his parents, for it introduced another family into the line, but God in His foreknowledge had other plans for his progeny. He subsequently married again; this time choosing a women from the tribe of Ishmael, which was again outside the covenant line.

Isaac, in his old age, calling Jacob to his bedside blessed him and charging him not to take a wife "of the daughters of Canaan", said: "Arise, go to Padan-aram, to the house of Bethel thy mother’s father; and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother’s brother." Genesis 28:2

Jacob accepted this, but due to the custom of the family that the eldest daughter had to marry first, the daughter of his choice was at first denied to him and he was deceived into marrying Leah. However, he was allowed to marry the younger daughter Rachel later.

Jacob’s Family

Leah had four sons in succession, Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah; whilst Rachel remained barren. Rachel, in her envy, gave her maid Bilhah to Jacob as a concubine and she had two sons Dan and Naphtali. This made Leah jealous and so she gave her maid Zilpah as another concubine and she also had two sons Gad and Asher.

It would seem that Leah now returned to favour for two more sons Issachar and Zebulon were born to her. Following which the Lord blessed Jacob’s true love Rachel with her firstborn Joseph, for whom He later had great things planned. There followed the only recorded daughter in the family, Dinah; and then Rachel, having been despised for so many years by Leah, finally died in childbirth when Jacob’s last son Benjamin was born during their return to Bethel.

The Return to Bethel

Twenty years, had by this time passed, following Jacob’s flight from his brother Esau’s wrath due to the matter of the birthright, when God commanded Jacob to return to his father’s house; where he was to be reconciled to his brother. However, he did not return directly but pitched his tents in the land of the Hittites during which time Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, seduced Dinah. In their anger Simeon and Levi destroyed Shechem, his father and all the people of their city. This affair grieved Jacob who, now realising that he was in enemy territory, heeded God’s command to return to Bethel.

Here it had been that he had rested his head upon a stone when departing from his father’s house, all those years ago, and here he had received the vision of the angels ascending and descending the ladder.

It was here that he now built an altar and when his sacrifice was completed the Lord appeared to him and blessed him saying:

"Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called anymore Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel. And God said unto him: I am God Almighty, be fruitful and multiply, a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins." Genesis 35:10-11

And so we see the basic terms of the covenants made with Abraham (see the article The Covenants with the Fathers) and Isaac now confirmed to Jacob.

Family Characteristics

What a household! What strange characteristics this family displayed in the behaviour of its members! Born as they were of love, hatred and jealousy, with four women scheming for favours, two wives of high status offering their maids as concubines, whilst at the same time retaining their services as maids; and twelve sons divided in their loyalties, but by force of circumstances loyal to their father! Yet, despite such a background, God chose to prepare these people for His plan. Forming in them the characteristics, the individual peculiarities which each acquired and passed on through its offspring, to form the distinctive character each tribe was to reveal throughout the centuries; and the differences which pertain to this day.

From this came the common hatred of the sons of Leah, of Bilah and of Zilpah which was so evident in their desire to kill Joseph. Set against this there was the urge of Judah to profit from the circumstances by selling him into slavery in Egypt; which he prevailed upon his brethren.

Joseph’s own abilities as an administrator and controller were a rather different matter, which he demonstrated when he later became a leading statesman under the Pharaoh of Egypt. A position which was destined to provide the necessary circumstances, which would be needed by this family, for the next great step in transforming the family of some seventy people into a nation.

They moved into Egypt when a Pharaoh of the Hyksos dynasty ruled the people, during the great famine when Joseph was chancellor, second only to Pharaoh himself; and were given the fertile land of Goshen. And so they remained living freely within the territory until a Pharaoh, of a different dynasty from Thebes, in the south of Egypt, seeing these strangers living in prosperity, enslaved them

But until then the Family of Israel, growing into a nation, remained separate from the Egyptians. Joseph, following his marriage to the daughter of the priest of On, a kinsman, had two sons Manasseh and Ephraim who were destined to become prominent when the family became a nation. His father, Jacob, had on his deathbed crossed his arms to place his right hand on Ephraim the younger so giving him the major blessing, prophesying of Manasseh, when Joseph protested:

"He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations." Genesis 48:19

And so the Family of Israel developed, the name Israel becoming common to all the tribes. The Covenants made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were made with the people of the Hebrew race. It was Jacob who was renamed Israel; and therefore his descendants after him were naturally the Children of Israel. Abraham and Isaac were never Israelites; they were Hebrews as their forefathers had been. Equally they were never Jews, for the Jews were to come out of the tribes centuries later; when a remnant of some of the tribes who had been taken into captivity, returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the city. So that while Jews are Israelites, being of the tribes of Israel; Israelites are not necessarily Jews. Neither can the name Jew be applied to the Family of Israel.

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