Prophet Abraham - why is he important for three religions?

Who is Prophet Abraham

Abraham (translated from Hebrew as “father of many”) is an Old Testament prophet, the ancestor of the Jewish people. The Prophet Abraham in Christianity is one of the three biblical patriarchs. These are the key saints of the Old Testament who carried out the will of God before the birth of Christ. The other two biblical patriarchs are Isaac (son of Abraham) and Jacob (grandson of Abraham).

Prophet Abraham (medieval Catholic mosaic)

Prophet Abraham is the founder of three world monotheistic (preaching monotheism) religions - Christianity, Judaism and Islam. In this regard, the listed religions are called Abrahamic. All of them have their roots in Old Testament Judaism. In Islam, Abraham is revered as the prophet Ibrahim.

Jacob's story

Jacob is the grandson of Abraham, the father of the twelve patriarchs of the Jewish people. His story included family conflict, flight from his home, supernatural encounters and a reunion with his brother. In this article we will take a detailed look at his life and actions.

Childhood: the origins of rivalry

The birth of the brothers Jacob and Esau is described in chapter 25 of the Book of Genesis. Isaac, son of Abraham, married Rebekah. She was barren, and Isaac prayed to God for her. Rebekah became pregnant and received a word from the Lord about future children:

“The sons began to beat in her womb, and she said: if this happens, then why do I need this? And she went to ask the Lord. The Lord said to her: Two nations are in your womb, and two different nations will come out of your womb; one nation will become stronger than another, and the older will serve the younger” (Genesis 25:22,23)

Rebekah gave birth to two sons. Esau was born first, and Jacob was born holding his brother's heel with his hand.

“The children grew up, and Esau became a man skilled in hunting, a man of the fields; but Jacob was a meek man, living in tents. Isaac loved Esau, because his game was to his taste, and Rebekah loved Jacob” (Genesis 25:27,28)

Sold Birthright

Esau had the rights of the firstborn son: the inheritance and blessing of his father. One day he returned from hunting hungry and tired. At this time, Jacob prepared the stew. Esau asked to give him something to eat, to which the younger brother responded with an offer to sell him his birthright.

“Esau said: Behold, I am dying, what is this birthright to me? Jacob said: Swear to me now. He swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob” (Genesis 25:32,33)

In this situation we see the attitude of each brother towards the blessing. To suit immediate needs, Esau renounced his birthright. Jacob, on the contrary, realized that he could not claim what his older brother had, and desperately fought for the blessing. The manner in which he purchased it may be disputed. What is certain, however, is that Jacob understood the importance of the blessing and sought to receive it.

Later, the Holy Scriptures will put everything in its place: Esau will become an example of a man who thinks about earthly things and not about heavenly things.

“lest there be any fornicator or wicked man among you, who, like Esau, gave up his birthright for one meal” (Hebrews 12:16)

Blessing and Escape

Having grown old, Isaac decided to bless his firstborn. He asked Esau to go hunting, catch game and cook his favorite dish. Rebekah overheard their conversation.

She hurried to Jacob and suggested using a trick: prepare a dish faster than Esau from the meat of domestic goats and receive the blessing before him. Since Isaac's eyesight became dull in old age, Jacob's hands and neck were tied with goat's hair so that his father would not recognize him, because Esau was a hairy man.

Their trick was a success: Jacob received the blessing instead of his brother. When Esau returned from hunting, prepared a dish and presented it to his father, he was refused, since Isaac had already given everything to Jacob. The blessing was not something formal. The one who received it also received an inheritance with a position.

Esau hated his brother and decided to kill him when his father died. Rebekah, having learned about this, sent her youngest son to her brother Laban. So Jacob was forced to leave home and go to Haran, from where his grandfather Abraham once set off on a journey through the Promised Land.

stairway to Heaven

On the way to Laban, Jacob spent the night in a place called Luz. In a dream, he saw a ladder standing on the ground and reaching to the sky. Angels descended and ascended along it.

God stood on the stairs and said to Jacob:

“...I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie will I give to you and to your descendants; and your descendants will be like the sand of the earth; and you will spread to the sea, and to the east, and to the north, and to the noonday; and in you and in your seed all families of the earth will be blessed; and behold, I am with you, and I will keep you wherever you go; And I will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you” (Genesis 28:13-15)

God repeated to Jacob the blessing he had once given to Abraham. In this story we see the Creator's loyalty to His plans. Through generations, he continues to implement the plan he spoke about decades ago. First to Abraham, and now to his grandson Jacob, God gives the same promises, which he fulfills step by step.

Waking up, Jacob makes a vow to God:

“And Jacob made a vow, saying: If God will be with me and will keep me on this way that I am going, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, and I will return in peace to my father’s house, and the Lord will be my God, - then this stone, which I have erected as a monument, will be the house of God; and of all that You, O God, give me, I will give You a tenth” (Genesis 28:20-22)

Jacob named the place where he saw the stairway to heaven Bethel, which means “house of God.”

At Laban's house

Jacob's uncle Laban accepted him and allowed him to live in his house. Jacob liked the younger of his two daughters, Rachel, and he agreed to work for Laban for seven years in order to marry her. After the time had passed, Laban married his eldest daughter Leah to him, explaining that it was not customary for the youngest daughter to marry first. A week later, Jacob received Rachel as his wife and worked for her for another seven years.

Jacob's wives bore him twelve sons, who became patriarchs of the Israelite people. From Leah and her maid Zilpah were born Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun. From Rachel and her maid Bilhah were born Dan, Naphtali, Joseph, and Benjamin. In those days, a wife could give her husband her maid. The children born to her were considered her children.

After the birth of Joseph, Jacob decides to leave Haran and return to his native land.

Fighting with God

Jacob faced a difficult meeting with Esau, whose wrath he feared. So he sent messengers ahead of him.

“...he commanded them, saying: Thus say to my master Esau: this is what your servant Jacob says: I lived with Laban and have lived until now; and I have oxen and donkeys and flocks, and male and female servants; and I sent to tell my master about myself, that I might find favor in your sight” (Genesis 32:4,5)

The messengers returned and said that Esau was coming to meet him with four hundred men. Jacob became confused and divided his caravan into two parts so that if Esau attacked one, the other could escape. He sent gifts ahead of him - small and large livestock.

That night Jacob prayed to God:

“Deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I am afraid of him, lest he come and kill me and the mother and children. You said: “I will do good to you and make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.” (Genesis 32:11-12)

Together with his wives and children, he crossed the ford on the Jabbok River. When Jacob was left alone,

“... Someone fought with him until dawn appeared; and when he saw that it did not prevail against him, he touched the joint of his thigh and damaged the joint of Jacob's thigh when he wrestled with Him. And he said to him: Let me go, for the dawn has risen. Jacob said: I will not let you go until you bless me. And he said: What is your name? He said: Jacob. And he said, From now on your name will not be Jacob, but Israel, for you have wrestled with God, and you will overcome men” (Genesis 32:24-28)

So the name Israel became the second name of Jacob. He named the place of meeting with God Penuel.

Meeting with Esau

From Penuel Jacob moves on. Esau, seeing him, ran to meet him and hugged him. The brothers are reconciled. Esau did not want to accept the gifts sent by Jacob, but he persuaded him to do so.

Israel settled separately from Esau near the city of Shechem. There he bought a plot of field on which he pitched his tents. However, he was not destined to die here. Much later, when Jacob's son Joseph became second only to Pharaoh in Egypt, he went there to escape famine. There he blessed Pharaoh himself, his twelve sons and the sons of Joseph, and died, but he was buried in Canaan, in a cave near the oak grove of Mamre, once purchased by Abraham.

Altar at Bethel

God fulfilled the promise he made to Jacob at Bethel. The time had come for Jacob to fulfill his vow. Having settled near Shechem, he said to his family:

“Let us arise and go to Bethel; There I will build an altar to God, who heard me in the day of my trouble and was with me in the way that I walked” (Genesis 35:3)

After making the sacrifice at Bethel, Jacob again receives a promise from God:

“And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; From now on you will no longer be called Jacob, but your name will be Israel. And he called his name Israel. And God said to him: I am God Almighty; be fruitful and multiply; a people and a multitude of nations will come from you, and kings will come out of your body; The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and to your descendants after you I will give the land” (Genesis 35:10-12)

God fulfilled the promise, and among the descendants of Jacob there were indeed kings, as well as the King of kings - the Lord Jesus Christ.

The story of Jacob is described in detail in chapters 25-35, 37, 42-50 of the Book of Genesis.

Share your questions and opinions about this biblical character in the comments!

Biblical story of Abraham

In the Holy Scriptures, several chapters of the book of Genesis narrate the life of the prophet Abraham. Abraham lived about 4 thousand years ago. He was born in the city of Ur (Mesopotamia, the territory of modern Iraq) and came from the tribe of Eber - the great-grandson of Shem. The latter, in turn, was the eldest son of Noah. Abraham's wife, Sarah, was his half-sister. Initially, the couple's names were Abram and Sarai.

Abram's family lived for a long time in a society of idolaters. Striving for faith in the One God, the future prophet and his family left their native lands. Then the Lord appeared to him for the first time, saying that He had chosen Abram to fulfill His will. The Almighty commanded the righteous man to go to the lands of Canaan, where he would become the founder of God’s chosen people. Later, God appeared to Abram several times, reminding him of his destiny and predicting the birth of a son. Pious Abram obeyed the Creator in everything.

Professor A. Lopukhin notes:

“Seeing the spread of false teaching in the form of polytheism, God deigned to preserve the guarantee of revelation and true faith among at least one people... The Creator chose as the founder of this people a righteous man who was devoted to the true faith... But in order to save him from the harmful influences of his fellow tribesmen , God decided to remove Abraham from his fatherland” (“Orthodox Theological Encyclopedia”).

Abraham and Sarah: Spiritually Alive

About why indications of the age of the persons about whom the Bible narrates are so important, what little Abram answered Nimrod, what events are connected with the places where Abram stayed, about “good” and “bad” old age, “the fire of the Chaldeans” and “stolen saints,” says Archpriest Oleg Stenyaev, continuing to analyze the Book of Genesis, chapter 12.

Abraham and Sarah

The meaning of age

“And Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran” (Gen. 12:4).

Some clarification for Bible lovers. If the Bible states a person's age, then, as a rule, the Bible praises him.

“Get out of your land,” says the Lord. Our land, that is, our body, before baptism was the land of the dying, but after baptism it became the land of the living. This is what the psalmist says about her: But I believe that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living (Ps. 26:13). Through baptism, as I said, we have become the land of the living, not the dead, the land of virtues, not vices - unless, having been baptized, we return to the quagmire of vices; unless, having become the land of the living, we commit the shameful and destructive deeds of death. [And go] to the land that I will show you, says the Lord. And it is true that we will then joyfully enter the land that the Lord will show us when, with His help, we first purge sins and vices from our land, that is, our body,” writes Caesar of Arles[1].

The words: “and Lot went with him” must be understood to mean that Lot did not follow God, but followed his uncle, that is, “for company.”

It says Abram is 75 years old. Usually people think that 50 years, 60 – and that’s it, life is already ending. Avram's life is just beginning! He will live 175 years! Your whole life lies ahead—a whole century!

Jews believe that he should have lived 180 years. Why do they insist on this? After all, Scripture directly says that he died at 175! Because it is said that Abraham died in a “good old age” (Gen. 15:15). What do you mean? His son Ishmael, the eldest son born of Hagar, led a criminal life. But towards the end of his life he experienced repentance and turning to God. And when the burial of Abraham is spoken of, it is said: “And Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is opposite Mamre” (Gen. 25:9). And the fact that Isaac’s name comes first, and Ishmael’s second, means that Ishmael recognized the spiritual primacy of Isaac, since he experienced repentance. And indeed, this is a good old age. But what does this have to do with the five years that Jews sometimes argue about?

If we leave behind bad grandchildren and ill-mannered children, this means: an unkind old age.

At this time, a boy named Esau was running around in Abraham's family. He was young (15 years old). Esau and Jacob are the children of Isaac, the son of Abraham. The Jews say: “Esau – oh, he was a nice, kosher, pretty boy! He understood the issues of what is permitted and what is not permitted. It hasn't gone bad yet! But if he had deteriorated and Grandfather Abraham had seen this, it would have been an unkind old age!” That is, if we die and bad grandchildren and ill-mannered children are left behind us, this means: an unkind old age. But if we die and our loved ones bury us with prayer, with reverence, with diligence, this is a good old age, which can be expected for every person.

As I said before, if the Bible tells the age of a person, it wants to praise him. For example, when the Bible talks about the circumcision of Ishmael, the son of Hagar, it says that he was 13 years old (see: Gen. 17:25). And commentators asked the question: why did Moses specify that he was exactly 13 years old? what can this teach us?

At the age of 13, he could have been afraid of what was happening, he could have run away - all men were circumcised! But he, as an adult, stood in line, and Abraham circumcised him. And in order to praise him, this clarification is given: “he was thirteen years old when his foreskin was circumcised” (Gen. 17:25). So every number of Scripture and every letter and word have great significance for us, as Christ said: “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or one tittle will pass from the law, until all is fulfilled.” "(Matthew 5:18).

“Not one jot or one tittle will pass from the law until everything is fulfilled - a comparison with this letter (י) shows that even what seems the smallest in the law is full of spiritual secrets and everything will be concisely repeated in the Gospel,” – writes Blessed Jerome[2].

What god do you believe in?

Abraham

And Abram - and this was a man who was predicted that all the tribes of the earth would be blessed in him - leaves Harran. In the Book of Genesis, Abram, the ancestor of the Jews, the first Jew[3], together with his father Terah, his wife Sarah and his nephew Lot, went to Canaan (see: Gen. 11: 31).

Terah (Terach) died on the way to Haran. There, God commanded Abram to leave the country, promising to make his descendants a great nation.

Abram was 75 and five years old when he left Haran (see: Gen. 12:4). And Terah (Terach) was 70 years old when Abram was born (see: 11:26). This means Terah was 145 years old when Abram left Haran and still had many years to live. Why does Scripture speak of Terah's death before Abram's departure? So that everyone does not know about this, so that they do not say that Abram did not fulfill the duty of honoring his father, left him in his old age and left. Therefore Scripture speaks of him as dead. We must understand that he was spiritually dead, that is, he remained a pagan. Therefore Abram could desert him; cf.: “And they immediately left the boat and their father and followed Him” (Matthew 4:22); and again: “And everyone who leaves houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for My name’s sake will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life” (Matthew 19: 29).

Abraham, then a 75-year-old man, went to Canaan with Sarah and Lot. Near Shechem, God appeared to him again and promised this entire country as an inheritance to his descendants (see: Gen. 12: 1–9). It was not just an exodus; rather, it looked like an escape, an exile.

How does this expulsion happen?

This is not described in the Bible, but there are traditions about this event that are the same among different ethnic and religious groups. Jews, Muslims, and Christians alike talk about the flight of Abram, citing the ancients. These are legends about Abram’s childhood, very interesting legends. We find similar things in the Face Vault of Ivan IV the Terrible (XVI century), in Blessed Jerome and in the Paleia Tolkovaya (XI-XII centuries), in St. Demetrius of Rostov in his wonderful “Cell Chronicler”[4].

When Abram was a little boy[5], his father Terah (Terach) was engaged in selling idols: he made them and sold them. And so little Abram once sat, looked out the window and thought about God: “Which of the gods should I choose, who should I worship?” He saw the stars, the moon. What a beauty! And he thought: “This is my god - the moon! The stars will help her!”

But the moon and stars set, and Abram said:

- I don’t like gods who come in!

The sun appeared - the ancient Egyptians revered the sun as the god Ra, the Slavs, our ancestors, revered the sun as the god Yarilo. But the sun has also set...

And then the little boy understood what many were not given the opportunity to understand, as we can read this from Anthony the Great[6]; the inner voice of conscience suggested to this little boy the idea of ​​the unity of God. Young Abram realized that God is the One who created the sun, the stars, the moon, and the earth.

And he destroyed all the idols in his father’s shop while he was not at home. There was also a large idol there that Abram could not move. And when the father returned, looked at the mess that had been created and sternly asked little Abram: “Who did this?” Abram replied:

- This big one killed all the little ones!

The father then cried out:

– Are you laughing at me? He can't walk!

– To which Abram, this youth of God, reasonably remarked:

- Why, father, do you worship him if he can’t even walk?

A scandal arose: the inhabitants of Ur of the Chaldeans found out about what had happened. According to ancient legend, the ruler of Ur of the Chaldeans was then none other than Nimrod, the builder of the Tower of Babel. And so he called Abram for interrogation.

Little Abram stands in front of the tyrant, and he asks him:

– What God do you believe in? Answer, child!

And Abram said:

– I believe in God, who gives life and takes it away.

Then Nimrod says:

- So it’s me! I give life when I cancel an execution, and I kill when I pronounce a death sentence!

The boy looked at this pagan monster and said to him:

And then the boy said to the ruler: “The sun rises in the east. Command it to rise in the west!”

– The sun rises in the east. Command it to rise in the west!

And this ruler became terribly angry and ordered the fireplace that he had to be kindled, and threw Abram into this oven.

The fact is that the word “ur” can mean “fire”, and this name Ur Kazdim (Ur of the Chaldeans) can mean “Chaldean fire”. And when the Scripture says that he left Ur of the Chaldeans, it can be translated that he fled from there to escape the fire.

Saint Demetrius of Rostov wrote in the “Cell Chronicler”: “... the Chaldeans were angry with Abram for the destruction of their idols and threw him into the fire, but he came out of there, preserved by the power of God unharmed from the fire.”

And so this tyrant looks at Abram, but Abram, like those three youths in the oven in the days of the prophet Daniel (see: Dan. 3:92), walks, prays, glorifies the only Lord... Then Nimrod calls him from there and says:

- Get out with your family so you are not here!

Blessed Jerome wrote: “Thus, the tradition of the Jews is true, which I said above, that Terah came out with his sons from the “fire of the Chaldeans” and that Abram, being among the Babylonian fire, because he did not wish it (the fire - the deity of the Chaldeans. – Archpriest O.S.) to worship, was freed thanks to God’s help; and from the time when he confessed the Lord... the days of his life and age are counted”[7].

“And from the time that he confessed the Lord, the days of life and age are numbered.”

That is, it doesn’t matter how old you are - 15 or 70 - true life begins then (“the days of his life and age are numbered”) when a person turns from the darkness of unbelief to the Divine light (“from the time when he confessed the Lord”).

I remember when I was a child, my grandmother called me into the church gatehouse:

- Let's go have tea with the girls.

I happily agreed. We go into the lodge, and there are only grandmothers there, 70–80 years old. And I asked:

-Where are the girls?

Grandma said:

- Everything is in front of you! – And pointed to the old women.

One of them says:

- We are all girls here! I believed ten years ago, others even younger.

We cannot buy eternal life at the price of temporary life. We cannot buy incorruptible life at the price of perishable life, no matter how correctly we live here! We cannot purchase life in Heaven at the cost of life on earth! These are incommensurable and incomparable things! Therefore, whether there were Abram’s exploits or not, God chose this man! And this man followed Him.

A few words about the “stolen saints”

Prologue

By the way, the Russian people love most those saints who were not stolen from us. I'll explain what I mean. I completely agree with Professor A.I. Osipov, who says that when the lives of saints were compiled in the 17th century, many texts were copied from Catholic sources, where there were a lot of incredible fantasies. And as a result, we now have stolen saints. What does "stolen saint" mean? Here Simeon the New Theologian writes (I did not dare to quote his text without abbreviations):

I was a murderer - listen everyone!... I was, alas for me, an adulterer at heart... I was a fornicator, a magician... A user of oaths and a money-grubber, A thief, a liar, a shameless person, a kidnapper - woe is me! - An insulter, a brother-hater, filled with envy, a lover of money and a perpetrator of every other type of evil. Yes, believe me, I’m telling the truth about this, without pretense and without guile![8]

I read it and thought: I should read his biography - when did he have time? I open his biography: “From childhood, he visited a monastery, flourished with the greatest piety, reached the heights of spiritual life, was transferred to another monastery... there he reached even greater heights and was returned to his monastery, where he labored in piety until his death.”

Or, for example, I read Macarius the Great: “Everyone considers me holy and righteous, I am many years old, and still lustful passions overcome me...”

Our saints were stolen! This is a very serious problem. And the people feel it. Previously, in Rus', every day during the service a book called “Prologue” was read. This book read the life of a saint of a particular day. The Russian people now read nothing from the Prologue, except just one life! This is the life of the Venerable Mary of Egypt. Because obviously nothing was stolen here, she is what she was. And such a life can inspire a sinful person to ask himself the question: “Why am I standing still? Why am I not doing anything to change my life?”

"And all the people they made"

Abraham goes to the land of Canaan. St. Mark's Basilica, Venice

But we read further from the Book of Genesis:

“And Abram took with him Sarah [9] , his wife, Lot [10] , his brother’s son (his brother died - Archpriest O.S.) , and all the property that they acquired, and all the people they had in Haran" (Gen. 12:5).

Here, from Hebrew, you need to literally translate it like this: “and all the people they made in Harran.” How do you understand this: “made in Harran”?

If they say about a person: “He makes money,” this does not mean that he is a counterfeiter, right? He just knows how to earn them. And the words: “they took all the people they made in Haran” should be understood as follows: Abram preached Monotheism to men, faith in one God, and Sarah preached to women.

“This holy duo, Abraham and Sarah, united in flesh and spirit, was among the infidel generation like a grain in thorns, like a spark in ashes and like gold among blat[11]. While all nations sank into idolatry and lived godlessly, committing unspeakable evil and ungodly iniquities, they both knew one God and believed in Him and served Him faithfully, pleasing them with good deeds. They glorified and preached His holy name to others whom they could, instructing them in the knowledge of God. For this reason, God led them from one place to another.”[12]

And they, Abram and Sarah, created a religious community. And the word “Jew”, indeed, in its original meaning does not mean a nation, but rather a religious affiliation. And Christians have never perceived the word “Jew” or “Jew” as a designation of nationality.

The Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Romans writes: “For he is not a Jew outwardly, nor is circumcision made outwardly in the flesh; but he who is a Jew inwardly, and that circumcision which is in the heart is in the Spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not from men, but from God” (Rom. 2:28-29). And the ancient prophets called on the so-called ethnic Jews (Jews): “Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and remove the foreskin from your heart” (Jer. 4:4). Yes, they were circumcised—thus maintaining the outward form—but their hearts were not circumcised to God.

In the land of Canaan

Abraham's Journey

But we read further:

“And they went out to go into the land of Canaan; and they came to the land of Canaan. And Abram walked through the land [along its length] to the place of Shechem, to the oak grove of Moreh. The Canaanites [lived] in this land at that time” (Gen. 12: 5–6).

Abram seemed to pray for places in which significant and sometimes extremely dangerous events for his descendants later took place.

If we carefully write down all the sites of Abram, where he made altars, where he simply stopped for a while, and look at where these places are found in the Bible, we will see that he seemed to pray for places in which some kind of events later took place. very significant and sometimes extremely dangerous events for his descendants.

Here is Shechem. In Shechem, nine-year-old Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, was raped when she went to see how the people of the area lived. The Prince of Shechem fell in love with this little Dinah, took her to him, abused her, but then became afraid because of what he had done, and negotiations began.

Dina's brothers Levi and Simeon, who were her brothers on both her father's and mother's sides, found out what they had done to nine-year-old Dina and decided to take revenge. They told the people of Shechem: “We cannot do this, marry our sister to a man who is uncircumcised, for this is dishonorable for us” (Gen. 34:14).

And all the inhabitants of Shechem were circumcised. And when a person undergoes circumcision, due to the peculiarities of physiology, he lies in a fever for three days, it is very difficult for him to move. And when the circumcised inhabitants were in a fever, Levi and Simeon, the brothers of this girl, slaughtered all the men of Shechem. And then they gave this entire city to be plundered by their other brothers (see: Gen. 34: 18–31).

They, of course, had the right to take revenge on the rapist for their sister, but without this extreme cruelty! Later, Patriarch Jacob will say about them: “Cursed is their anger, for it is cruel, and their wrath, for it is fierce” (Gen. 49: 7).

Shechem is also the “oak forest of More”, a place between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. Upon entering the Promised Land, the descendants of Abraham cursed sinners on Mount Ebal and blessed them on Mount Gerizim (Deut. 11:29).

And Abram stops in Shechem, he is God's prophet.

“And Abram walked through the land [along its length] to the place of Shechem, to the oak grove of Moreh. The Canaanites then [lived] in this land” (Gen. 12:6).

Why does Moses use this phrase: “the Canaanites [lived] in this land at that time”?

Now, if, for example, we go out into the street and I say: “And here recently there were Uzbeks and Chechens standing,” what does that mean? This means they are gone! And when Moses writes that the Canaanites were still living on that land, it means that they were still living when Moses wrote these words.

By this, the everyday life writer Moses shows that the Canaanites captured this land. Remember how the Book of Acts says: “From one blood (that is, from the blood of Adam. - Archpriest O.S.) He (that is, the Lord. - Archpriest O.S.) brought forth the entire human race to live throughout the whole world. earth, having appointed predetermined times and limits for their habitation” (Acts 17:26)? And this land, the holy land, was intended for the descendants of Shem, Eber and Abraham. That’s why it says here: “The Canaanites lived in this land at that time,” that is, they lived illegally.

“And the Lord appeared to Abram and said to [him], “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there [Abram] built an altar to the Lord, who appeared to him” (Gen. 12:7).

An altar to the Lord is built in Shechem, and the Lord says that He will take care of Abram’s descendants: “To your descendants I will give this land.” That is, I’ll give it back later when I drive the strangers away from it.

And further:

“From there he went to the mountain, east of Bethel; and he pitched his tent so that from it Bethel was to the west, and Ai to the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord, and called on the name of the Lord” (Gen. 12:8).

The words: “his tent” must be understood to mean that he first pitched his wife’s tent, then his own. In the spelling אָהֳלֹה, the letter ה “het” at the end of the word instead of ו “vav” means: “her tent.” First he pitched his wife's tent, and then his own. This is a lesson for husbands: take care of your wife first, then yourself. It is said: “In the same way, husbands, treat your wives wisely, as the weaker vessel, showing them honor, as heirs together of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered” (1 Pet. 3:7). It turns out that if someone does not give up his seat to a woman, for example on a bus or subway, his prayers are imperfect.

These two righteous people - Abraham and Sarah - left interesting lessons in family life for us!

Birth of Isaac and covenant with God

Sarah was barren, so she allowed her husband to conceive a child with her maidservant Hagar. They had a boy, who was named Ishmael. However, he was not God's promised son. The Lord appeared to Abram again, solemnly confirmed his promise and named the couple Abraham (“father of many”) and Sarah (“queen of many”). In this way, the Lord symbolically designated their new spiritual level and their great destiny to become the father and mother of all believers.

The promise of the birth of a son was also confirmed by the Almighty when He appeared to Abraham in the guise of three strangers. In Christianity, this episode is considered as one of the proofs of the trinity of God. Sarah was skeptical about the prediction of the birth of a son. However, she soon gave birth to the promised son Isaac. It is his descendants who form God’s chosen Jewish people. Ishmael became the ancestor of the Arab tribes.

The close connection between the Creator and Abraham devoted to Him was finally established in the form of a covenant (agreement) between them. The Almighty promised the prophet to multiply and bless his descendants. Abraham and his family were required to obey God and maintain the true faith. God also commanded Abraham to institute the rite of circumcision. It became a symbol of the contract between man and the Creator, a sign of belonging to the chosen people. Fulfilling the ritual was one of God's commandments before the giving of the Law (10 Commandments) to Moses on Mount Sinai.

Abraham outlived Sarah, who was 127 years old at the time of her death. He later married again. Ketur's new wife bore Abraham many sons, from whom various Arab tribes descended. The Prophet died at the age of 175 and was buried in the same cave with Sarah.

Abraham's Sacrifice

The Almighty repeatedly subjected Abraham to various tests, tempering the faith and perseverance of His chosen one. The Prophet unshakably trusted God's Providence. Saint John Chrysostom in his “Conversations on the Book of Genesis” notes:

“God knew well that, like gold refined after a long time in a furnace, the virtue of the righteous will appear (in temptation) purer and brighter.”

The last and main test of the prophet was associated with the promised son Isaac. In Old Testament times, there was a religious ritual of bringing a symbolic sacrifice to God in the form of a lamb (lamb). He was slaughtered and burned on the altar. The Lord commanded the prophet to sacrifice his own son, Isaac, instead of a lamb.

Such a decision was painful for Abraham, but here too he showed obedience to God. Together with Isaac, the prophet built an altar on the mountain and placed his bound son on it. The father had already swung his knife, but was stopped by the angel. God told the prophet that he was convinced of his devotion and ordered him to sacrifice a lamb. The Lord promised Abraham again:

“By blessing I will bless you and by multiplying I will multiply your seed like the stars of heaven and like the sand on the seashore; and your seed will take possession of the cities of their enemies; and through your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice” (Gen. 22:16-18).

Saint John Chrysostom notes:

“Do you see God’s love for mankind? And the sacrifice was completed, and the forefather showed the piety of his soul, received a crown for his one intention” (“Conversations on the Book of Genesis”).

Christians see Abraham's sacrifice as the highest manifestation of obedience and trust in the Lord. This episode is interpreted as a prototype of the voluntary martyrdom of Christ, sacrificed by God the Father for the salvation of mankind:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

About how Abraham came to the Holy Land

About one hundred and forty kilometers north of the center of the world, Jerusalem, at the foot of Mount Gerizim, is located one of the most ancient cities of the Holy Land, the city of Shechem (Shechem), which the Arabs also call Nablus.

Pilgrims from Russia do not often come to Shechem: the places here are considered unsafe, and the local Arab population is not very peaceful. As for the Jews, they haven’t been coming here at all lately. And those Israelis who are very interested in biblical history can admire the city from the neighboring “Jewish” mountain.

Like most modern cities of Palestine, Shechem is completely faceless: monotonous stone houses with flat roofs, clinging to each other along the slope of Mount Gerizim and at its foot, narrow candle minarets, dusty streets littered with garbage... And in the midst of all this oriental flavor, which is very The majestic Orthodox church stands tall, like a stranger from another, higher world, not just one, as usual, but with two bell towers.

This is a temple in honor of the holy martyr Photinia , built over Jacob’s well , the same one near which the Lord, who stopped to rest, talked to her.

Yes, the Lord passed through this city often. After all, the shortest route from His native Galilee to Jerusalem lay right here, along the Road of the Forefathers.

The Road of the Forefathers by its name reminds us of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They all took place here. And when you look at the two tall, beautiful bell towers of the temple of St. Photinia, reaching into the sky, you involuntarily remember the two pillars of God, Abraham and Sarah, who came from far, far away here, to the Canaanite city of Shechem two millennia before Christ...

Shechem in biblical times

What did the city of Shechem look like during Abraham's time? Let's give the floor to Israeli biblical scholar Liora Ravid. We will present excerpts from her book “Daily Life in Biblical Times” in our, not always literal and perhaps somewhat clumsy translation from English:

“We must admit that calling Shechem a “city” is not entirely correct. In biblical times, it was the capital of the central part of Ancient Israel due to the fact that it was located on one of the main trade routes... But despite its important historical role in the biblical period, Shechem was just a village whose inhabitants lived in tents or small stone houses. It could not even be compared with the royal cities with which the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates were dotted in those days. It did not have the grand structures of the palaces and temples of Egypt, and it did not have the slightest influence on the cultural or economic life of the ancient Near East. If the Bible had not mentioned it, no one would have known that the Canaanite Shechem ever existed.

We can assume that at that time Shechem was inhabited by one large clan or perhaps several clans..."

Let's imagine this picture: an alien caravan is moving along a dusty road between tiny stone houses with flat roofs. (By the way, the word JEW can mean “descendant of Eber,” or maybe ALIEN, “one who CROSSED a river or border.” For the first time in Scripture, this word is applied specifically to Abraham.) Here they are walking wearily: righteous Abram, next to the beautiful Sarah , her brother Lot, faithful servants. Here is the slave steward Eliezer from Damascus (obviously, Abram’s path from Haran flowed through the city of Damascus, where he met and acquired this man and made him senior over his slaves). Local residents look at the ALIENS in surprise: adults, children, big Canaanites, little Canaanites...

Wait, wait, the reader may say. Did they really walk all this way, from Harran to the Holy Land? Usually in films and paintings Abraham and Sarah are depicted riding CAMELS!

With camels, in fact, everything is very difficult...

Camels or donkeys?

During the time of Abraham, camels were used infrequently, and some (especially advanced) scientists generally believe that the camel was domesticated only eight centuries after Abraham, and this supposedly once again confirms that the Bible, as a historical source, cannot be trusted. After all, the Bible directly says that among the domestic animals that Abraham received as a gift from the Egyptian Pharaoh were camels (Gen. 12:16). And then, when Eliezer, Abraham's eldest servant, set off on a long journey to Mesopotamia, he took ten camels from his master's camels (Gen. 24:10).

What can we say about this? The book “Biblical Archeology” by Nikolai Vasiliadis provides a whole series of evidence that camels were ALREADY used as domestic animals by humans in those days, although it is admitted that only from 1300 BC. this animal began to be used more widely. We hope to return to this topic in the next article, which will be dedicated to Egypt. For now, let’s assume that initially, before meeting Pharaoh, Abraham really didn’t have camels. After all, the domesticated camel was still a curiosity back then...

Well, okay, maybe they rode on donkeys?

Let's give the floor to Liora Ravid:

“Donkeys were the most important beasts of burden in the time of Abraham, as well as much earlier. For thousands of years, donkeys led caravans along the trade routes of the ancient Near East. They accompanied the Israelites when they left Egypt and moved through the Sinai Desert to the Land of Canaan (Num. 20:4, 8, 11), until camels came onto the scene and replaced them. The Bible mentions the donkey dozens of times, indicating the important role it played in the households of ancient society. Knowing about their endurance, we can safely say that several small donkeys, hanging their heads, helped this family carry their luggage. The donkeys could carry tents for shelter at night, mats of straw, sacks of wheat, dates and olive oil for food, some pottery for cooking, and some clothing. In addition, we can be sure that before starting their journey through Sinai, three travelers (Abraham, Sarah and Lot - E.E.) loaded wineskins made of goatskin onto the backs of donkeys, which they replenished from wells and water collectors located along the way. (Even today, desert dwellers still use waterskins made from goatskin.)

Since we determined that donkeys accompanied the family on their journey, why did we decide that the travelers walked instead of riding on donkeys' backs? A donkey is capable of carrying weights of 50 to 60 kg, which is approximately equal to the weight of a skinny adult. But if three were riding donkeys, they would have to give up some of their vital equipment and provisions.

Archaeological finds show that in ancient times, sedentary inhabitants living along the great rivers could afford a plentiful and varied diet, including all types of food necessary for life. But let's not fool ourselves into thinking that such a luxury could be afforded by people who spent their days on long journeys...

Almost certainly, in order to enrich their meager diet available to them, they collected wild fruits and barley , and in those days when they walked along the Euphrates, they fished . But this food is accidental, and luck could not always smile on travelers. We can assume that travelers usually had to rely only on the provisions they carried with them: wheat , dates and olive oil . These foods lack calcium and protein, which are essential for the proper functioning of the human body and continued survival. The absence of these components is especially difficult if we take into account constant physical activity... And this brings us to the heroine of our journey, the Arabian goat, to whom we are going to sing our song of praise..."

(I hope you understand, reader, that the Arabian goat is not necessarily a goat that belongs to an Arab, but simply the scientific name for a variety of goats common here in the Middle East - E.E.).

Song of praise to the Arabian goat

“The Arabian goat is a truly outstanding creature. ... Although a goat produces less milk than a sheep or a cow, it is designed in such a way that it can travel great distances. Therefore, just like donkeys, goats have always been the nomad’s faithful friends. The Arabian goat easily climbs cliffs and mountains and can even climb trees like a monkey. For example, travelers visiting Moroccan villages have seen clumps of low-growing trees, from whose branches it seemed as if some kind of black soccer balls were hanging down. As they approached, the tourists were amazed to discover that these were not balls at all, but GOATS, who had climbed these trees and were carefully gnawing, to the great horror of the owner of this grove, the fruits and green leaves...

Long black goat hair contains natural fats that expand dramatically in the cold and, when exposed to water, protect against the elements. The goat's fur, swollen with fat, traps air and serves as a kind of heat protection. On rainy, cold days, such wool swells with oil, and the fat on the wool (like feathers on birds) prevents water from reaching the goat's skin. On warm days, the goat’s fur, on the contrary, allows the wind to pass through, which cools its body. Because goat wool retains its natural properties even after the goat itself is slaughtered , it served as the highest quality tent fabric until modern times, when synthetic fibers began to be used.

Since the black goat, like the donkey, has accompanied nomads from time immemorial, we can rest assured that a herd of dusty black goats walked proudly ahead of our exhausted travelers.”

From Shechem further south

Friendly reader, let’s go further along the Land of Canaan, following our hero...

In Scripture we read that Abraham, having reached Shechem, built an altar (or altar ) to the Most High God and pitched a tent .

And Abram walked through the land [along its length] to the place of Shechem, to the oak grove of Moreh. The Canaanites [lived] in this land at that time. And the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And [Abram] built there an altar to the Lord, who appeared to him. From there he moved to the mountain, east of Bethel; and he pitched tent so that from it Bethel was to the west, and Ai to the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord, and called on the name of the Lord.

And Abram got up and continued to go south (Gen. 12:6-9).

We'll talk more about tents a little later. As for the altar, in the time of Abraham it was simply a pile of stones (“the higher, the closer to God,” hence the Latin word “altar,” which means “exaltation”). Simple rough stones were piled into a flat pile on which a fire could be built and a sacrifice could be placed. Monotheists sacrificed sheep , goats and calves , and pagans could sacrifice anyone to their gods, including their own children. In addition to animals, plants were sacrificed, for example, olive oil (oil) was poured onto the altar, and this was also considered a sacrifice. The first altar mentioned in the Bible was built by Noah after the Flood. And Church Tradition says that the first sacrifice was made by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden immediately after the first sin, and the Lord Himself taught them this action. Then, from the skin of this animal they had once sacrificed, the first people would make their first leather clothes.

What did Abraham pray for? First of all, Abraham simply GLORIFIED the Almighty God, because, as we know, in the RIGHTEOUS GLORIOUS service “the glorification of God prevails not only over prayer, but also over thanksgiving and teaching” (M. Skublanovich. Explanatory Typikon). But Abraham probably also prayed that the Lord would travel with him, so that he would not leave him without his daily bread (Matthew 6:11), and he probably prayed for his beloved wife and for his nephew. He probably also prayed for the inhabitants of this land, the pagan Canaanites, so that the Merciful Lord would enlighten them with the light of the knowledge of His truth. Or, at least, softened their hearts so that none of them would even think of raising their sword against his family, small and defenseless aliens...

Father Oleg Stenyaev, who has carefully studied the interpretations of the Holy Fathers on the Holy Scriptures, expresses an extremely interesting thought. “If you carefully write down all the sites of Abraham, where he made altars, where he simply stopped for a while, and look where these places are found in the Bible, you will see that he seemed to pray for places in which some kind of things later happened. these are very significant and sometimes extremely dangerous events for his descendants .” (The family life of the Old Testament patriarchs.) Moreover, Father Oleg continues, there are several places where Abraham passed and where he, of course, prayed - and then nothing happened to the Jews there... well, it’s not evening yet. It hasn’t happened yet, but it will happen in the future!

Of course, we will not write out all the places, but we will consider this idea using the example of Shechem, the first of the Canaanite cities, near which Abraham set up his altar.

What happened to the descendants of Abraham in Shechem

About a century and a half later, Abraham’s journey from Haran to Shechem (900 km) would be repeated by his grandson Jacob. Fleeing from the wrath of his older brother Esau, from whom he cunningly seized the birthright, Jacob flees to Haran. After all, there, in Harran, not far from the current Turkish-Syrian border, their relatives continued to live: as you, I hope, remember from the previous article, Abraham’s brother Nahor , who did not give up idolatry, was not honored to move to the Holy Land, but remained in Harran “to live, live and make good.”

Jacob lived with his uncle Laban (Nahor's grandson) in Haran for about twenty years. He took his two daughters, Leah and Rachel, . From them and from his concubines Jacob had twelve sons and a number of daughters. Moreover, in Haran Jacob became very, very rich, and he had many flocks [and herds], and female servants, and menservants, and camels, and donkeys (Gen. 30:43).

And with all this wealth, Jacob returns to the Holy Land. On the way, God Himself meets him and gives him another name - Israel . This name can be translated as GOD’S HERO, or it can also be translated as GOD’S FIGHTER. Of course, Jacob-Israel follows the same (or approximately the same) path as his grandfather Abraham, and the first important Canaanite city he comes to was the already familiar city of Shechem.

In Shechem, Jacob-Israel bought a field for himself, pitched his tent on it, built an altar and called on the name of the Lord God of Israel. (These are exactly the same places where at JACOB’S WELL his Divine Descendant, Jesus Christ, met the Samaritan Photinia and where an Orthodox church with two bell towers now stands).

And here, in Shechem, a tragedy soon occurred, which we will talk about with a quote from the lectures of Fr. Oleg Stenyaev:

“In Shechem, young Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, was raped, who went to see how the inhabitants of this region lived. The Prince of Shechem fell in love with Dinah, took her to him, abused her, but then became frightened because of what he had done, and negotiations began.

Dina's brothers Levi and Simeon ... found out what they had done to young Dina and decided to take revenge. They said to the people of Shechem: “Okay, let’s live together, especially since your prince fell in love with Dinah. But we have a law that all men must be circumcised.”

And all the inhabitants of Shechem were circumcised. And when a person undergoes circumcision, due to the peculiarities of physiology, he lies in a fever for three days, it is very difficult for him to move. And so, when the circumcised inhabitants were in a fever, Levi and Simeon, the brothers of this girl, slaughtered all the men of Shechem. And then they gave this entire city to be plundered by their other brothers (Gen. 34: 1-31).

They, of course, had the right to take revenge on the rapist for their sister, but without this extreme cruelty! Later, Patriarch Jacob will say about them: “Cursed is their anger, for it is cruel, and their wrath, for it is fierce” (Gen. 49:7). That is, there should be no cruelty in anger, and there should be no ferocity in rage. And Jacob was afraid, because all the other nations could look at the Jews as some kind of villains who could not keep the agreement and could take and kill them all. This is how in Shechem there was a danger of extermination of the entire Jewish people.” (Family life …)

What saved the sons of Jacob - Israel from total extermination? According to the interpretation of Fr. Oleg, is the prayer of Abraham, who at this place once asked God for mercy for his foolish descendants !

God intervened in this story with the Shechem massacre. He appeared to Jacob and ordered his entire family to “evacuate urgently” from these places, and He Himself sent terror to the Canaanites so that they would sit at home and not even try to do anything.

And they set out [from Shechem]. And the terror of God came upon the surrounding cities , and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. (Genesis 35:5).

This story, however, did not remain without consequences for the twelve sons of Israel. Remember their names? The firstborn was Reuben , followed by Simeon , the third son was Levi, the fourth was Judah , the eleventh was Joseph the Beautiful (whom his brothers would later sell into slavery, and he would forgive them and help them move to his place in Egypt), and so on.

From which of them was the Savior of the world supposed to come? Of course, from the FIRSTBORN, from Reuben. But Reuben subsequently committed a very serious sin: he desecrated his father’s bed by sleeping with his concubine Bilhah (Gen. 35:22), and this sin deprived him of his right to the birthright. The SECOND and THIRD sons, Simeon and Levi, did what you just read about, they carried out a terrible massacre of the defenseless inhabitants of Shechem. This means that the right to continue the sacred line from Abraham to Jesus Christ passed to the fourth son of Jacob , Judah. It is the tribe of JUDAH that the Lord will preserve and return from Babylonian captivity. Therefore, after the Babylonian captivity, the Jews will also be called “Jews” (variants of this name are the Eastern “Yahud”, and the English “Juz” and the Italian “Judei” and the word “Jews”, which has now acquired a purely negative connotation) - after all, the majority of post-captivity Jews were from tribe of Judah. And our Lord Jesus Christ Himself will become that same lion from the tribe of Judah (Rev. 5:5), Whom the dying Jacob-Israel prophetically announced to his sons in Egypt.

Well, reader, since it so happened that we jumped from Abraham to his grandson Jacob, whom fate threw with his children to Egypt, then let's jump ahead a little more.

So, Egypt, the kingdom of the almighty Pharaoh, the land of Goshen, where the old man Jacob-Israel is preparing to meet death...

Jacob's Blessing

Egypt, the kingdom of the almighty Pharaoh, the land of Goshen, which he, the Pharaoh, specially allocated for the relatives of his supreme dignitary Joseph the Beautiful who moved here from the Land of Canaan...

In an expensive, beautiful tent, illuminated by the light of two oil lamps burning on high stands, lies a very old man, the father of Joseph the Fair and grandson of Abraham, Jacob, whose middle name is Israel. Jacob-Israel is one hundred and forty-seven years old, and his hour has come to be united to his fathers, Isaac and Abraham. His twelve sons, the ancestors of the twelve tribes of Israel, approach him for the last blessing...

“Jacob... lay on pillows, under a sheepskin, in the depths of peace on his bed, and he had exactly as much strength as he still needed, and the waxy pallor of his face was slightly softened by the colorful twilight and the purple of the nearby brazier. His appearance was meek and majestic. The white bandage he usually wore when he made sacrifices was wrapped around his forehead. From under it, white hair emerged at the temples, turning into an equally wide... covering the chest, thick and white... beard of the patriarch, in which a thin, spiritual, slightly mournful mouth emerged. He did not turn his head to the side, but his gentle, veined eyes squinted inquisitively, visibly revealing the yellowish whites. They were addressed to the sons who were entering..." (L. Feuchtwanger. Joseph and his brothers).

Reuben is the first to approach his father, kneel down and fall face down on the edge of the bed. The same Reuben who committed the abomination sinned with his own father’s concubine.

- Reuben, my firstborn! - Jacob turns to him, moving his parched lips with difficulty, - you are my strength and the beginning of my strength, the height of dignity and the height of power; but you raged like water, you will not prevail, for you have ascended to your father’s bed, you have defiled my bed... (Gen.49:3-4)

Reuben gets up from his knees in embarrassment and walks away. The fate of his descendants is sealed. “Already Moses, in his blessing to the tribe of Reuben (Deut. 33:6), prayerfully wishes for him only that it would not die out... In subsequent times, the tribe of Reuben was one of the first to disappear from history” (A. Lopukhin. Explanatory Bible).

Now Simeon and Levi approach the dying man’s bed. They stood together in childhood, together they took revenge for the insulted honor of their sister, and now, on this day of the last conversation with their father, they approached him together. Together they knelt before him.

“Simeon and Levi are brothers , ” Jacob says to them, barely audible, “their swords are instruments of cruelty; Let not my soul enter into their counsel...; cursed is their anger, for it is cruel, and their wrath, for it is fierce; I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel (Gen. 49:5-7).

Of course, this will happen.

“The prophecy was fulfilled with accuracy on both tribes, although in a different way,” comments A. Lopukhin, “in all its unfavorable meaning only on the tribe of Simeon. It quickly decreased in number during 40 years of wandering in the desert... In Canaan it received its inheritance not independently, but within the tribe of Judah. Its insignificance in the life of the people is clear from the fact that it is not mentioned at all in the blessing of Moses (Deut. 33). ...

On the tribe of Levi, the patriarch's formidable word also initially came true: it did not receive its own inheritance during the division of Canaan... But then the sincere and zealous service to God of the representatives of this tribe ... made it the chosen and sacred tribe of Jehovah's at His sanctuary : then the curse of dispersion turned into the blessing of sacred service - teaching, worship... AMONG ISRAEL."

Now it’s the turn of the fourth son, Judah, to come for a blessing. Jacob looks at his son... and suddenly the walls of the tent and the entrance curtain seem to sway before his blurred eyes... Gathering his last strength, Israel rises on his bed and extends a blessing hand, exclaims:

- Judas! Your brothers will praise you. Your hand is on the back of your enemies; the sons of your father will worship you. The young lion Judah , my son, rises from the prey (Gen. 49:8-9) ... He binds His donkey's colt to the vine, and His donkey's son to the vine of the best grapes; He washes His garments in wine and His garments in the blood of grapes; [His] eyes were shining from wine, and [His] teeth were white from milk (Gen. 49:11-12).

Israel clearly sees the One about whom God spoke in the First Gospel, the Savior of the world, the King-Messiah! The king from the family of David, greeted by the jubilation of the crowd, rides into Jerusalem on a donkey...

Jacob sees: behold, on a mountain rising above an abandoned quarry just outside the walls of Jerusalem, the Young Lion of the Tribe of Judah spread out his arms on the Cross... Behold, His most pure Body is removed from the Cross by the disciples, washed with water, wrapped in a shroud... Women with tears pour incense on Him ... The body of the Martyred One is carried into a coffin, placed on a bed hollowed out in a limestone cave, on the terrace of a quarry, and buried... So that He would not be tormented by jackals and foxes roaming the wastelands, a heavy stone is rolled over the coffin...

- He bowed down, lay down like a lion and like a lioness: who will raise Him up ? (Genesis 49:9) - Elder Jacob whispers sadly. - Who, if not the Most High Himself, will now resurrect His Son?..

(Further, reader, we will skip the blessings and prophecies about the other sons of Israel. We will dwell only on one more of the twelve, the son of Jacob named Dan).

Scripture does not tell us anything bad about Dan But, looking at the sad and solemn face of his son, it is in HIS descendants that Jacob-Israel prophetically sees the man of sin, the son of destruction (2 Thess. 2:3) who is about to come in the last times of human history.

“Dan will be a serpent on the road ,” the old man says with difficulty, as if not believing what has just been revealed to him by God, “an asp on the way, biting the horse’s leg, so that his rider will fall back... (Gen. 49:17)

The last times of human history... At the head of the last universal Babylon, in the new and at the same time ancient capital of the world, Jerusalem, sat the Antichrist, a shameless deceiver, performing great miracles, a Jew from the tribe of Dan. What a shame this is and what an inescapable horror!.. But once upon a time EVER, the ancestor of the Jewish people, was one of the few who did not participate in the shock worldwide construction of the Hamitic King Nimrod!

Jacob again drops his gray head onto the pillow. Exhaustedly he whispers:

- I hope for your help, O Lord... (Gen. 49:18)

This is how, dear reader, we have jumped from Abraham to the last times, to the time of the Antichrist. Let us quickly return to those original times, when everything was still ahead. When Abraham had not yet given birth to Isaac. When Isaac had not yet given birth to Jacob. When Jacob had not yet given birth to Judah and his brothers... (Matthew 1:2) To those times when Abraham really had NOTHING other than the promises of God and prophetic insights. To those times when the CHILDREN still Abraham moves around the Holy Land from place to place, places altars on his way and, in the absence of a permanent home, lives in an ordinary tent...

Tents

In order to better understand what the biblical tent was, we can mentally replace it with the word YURTA. A tent and a yurt are about the same thing. And here’s what Erik Nyström’s “Bible Dictionary,” published in the 19th century, tells us about the tent:

“Portable tents are still used by the nomads of Northern Europe and Northern and Central Asia, such as the Lapps, Mongols, etc. The Bedouins in Arabia still live in tents. Their tents are made of strong, coarse black cloth, woven by Bedouin women from goat's hair; this fabric is so dense that it does not allow rain to pass through. ...The prepared fabric is stretched on several poles , forming a tent, one side of which has an opening as tall as a person; this so-called house often consists of two sections : one for men and the other for women. In the middle of the men's section, a hole is dug in the ground for a fireplace , which is heated with dry branches or dried manure. To strengthen the tent, ropes , which are tied to pegs . Jael drove such a stake into Sisera’s head (Judges 4.21). Sometimes you can see cattle in the same tent in which the family lives. It happens that the same family has several tents. ...

 Many allegories are taken from life in tents in the Holy Scriptures . Thus, the future security of Jerusalem is depicted in the form of a tabernacle, “whose pillars will never be torn down, and not one of its cords will be broken (Isaiah 33.20)….

Heaven is also likened to a tent or tabernacle (Isa 40.22, Heb 8.2). On the other hand, Hezekiah likens his fast-flying life to a portable shepherd’s hut (Isaiah 38.12), and Paul compares his weak body to an earthly house, a hut (2 Cor 5.1, cf. 2 Pet 1.13)…

“Often,” says M. Shane, (who this Shane is – no idea, we’re just quoting the “Bible Dictionary” - E.E.) “we, not yet fully clothed, found ourselves homeless. What a symbol of our bodily hut! How often is it removed before our soul is made capable of participating in the inheritance of the saints in the light!”

Famine, King of Canaan

So Abraham moves from place to place, from the north of Canaan towards the south. What motivates them? Why can't he stop in one of these places and return to a settled life? Does the need to preach the Living God and make sacrifices to Him not only in one place, but throughout many villages and cities of the land of Canaan drive him? Or is he driven forward by the hostility of the local Canaanites?

Perhaps both the first and second. But there is also a third reason that does not allow him to stop in place. This reason partially explains the hostility of the local aborigines.

Famine is raging in Canaan.

How so? Don’t the size of the plants here sometimes even remind us of the Antediluvian Times? Is not the Holy Land a good and spacious land, flowing with milk and honey (Ex. 3:8)?

Yes, everything is here, on this blessed land. And milk rivers and jelly banks. But only if in winter the wind brings rain from the Mediterranean Sea...

“The peculiarities of the irrigation of Canaan with heavenly rain,” the famous biblical scholar D. Shchedrovitsky writes on this topic in his work “Early and Late Rain,” “were understood in those days as a special, one-of-a-kind example of God’s relationship to the Holy Land, as its difference, for example, from neighboring Egypt, which is watered by the Nile . This is stated in the “final speech of Moses”: “For the land into which you are going to take possession of it is not like the land of Egypt... where you, having sowed your seed, watered it with your feet, like an olive garden. But the land into which you are crossing... will be filled with water from the rain of heaven ... The eyes of the Lord your God are constantly on it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year” (Deut. 11:10-12). The last words emphasize, in accordance with the strictly monotheistic concept of the Pentateuch, the absolute dependence of the irrigation of the Holy Land on God, and on no one else ."

Just like that. The Lord wanted it, and the wind, which had been regularly carrying the clouds strictly from west to east, over the Mediterranean Sea towards Canaan, begins to blow a little “obliquely”... And then a catastrophe begins in the Holy Land...

This is how Jeremiah would describe this catastrophe much later: “Judah is crying, his gates have fallen apart, blackened on the ground... The soil is cracked because there was no rain ... and the farmers are in confusion... And wild donkeys stand on high places and swallow the air, like jackals, their eyes are dim because there is no grass... Let tears flow from my eyes... for the virgin, the daughter of my people, has been struck with a great defeat..." (Jer. 14: 1, 4, 6, 17).

Eh, righteous Abraham had few worries...

Where can one escape from this new scourge? Where can you find food for yourself, for your household, for your livestock? Will he really have to return back to Harran, from where God Himself ordered him to leave? No, the bridges have already been burned behind the travelers. But since you can’t go back, maybe you need to go FORWARD, that is, further south?..

And then Abraham makes an extremely ambiguous decision, which Bible interpreters are still arguing about: he decides to go down to Egypt...

On the long journey again

...In the morning the servants began to take down the tents and prepare the donkeys for the journey. Two slaves swung the central pole, which served as a pillar for Avramov’s tent. The pole fell, and the goat's hair cloth that had just provided shade for Abram and Sarah was lowered and rolled into a bale. It was as if the sky had been turned upside down... One of the slaves, yawning, carried the bale under his arm and secured the donkey on the saddle.

In the empty place where only yesterday Abram had felt at home, there was nothing left except a small fireplace, which was still smoking, but soon went out in the brilliance of the sun. As if someone wanted to extinguish the hope for family comfort and rest for the soul and body...

How unbearable is this new temptation! Abram so hoped to find in the Holy Land the blessings promised by God Himself, but instead - a wild outback, a hostile population and poverty and hunger all around...

Abram shuddered and looked up at the sky. It, the sky above, which so recently resembled the roof of a tent, was dark with many birds: starlings and doves, pigeons and loons, nightingales, eagles and kites and storm petrels and seagulls... these birds swam, spreading their wings, cast themselves in the air like a wheel, and rose again, and soared and soared.

And at some point it seemed to the tired wanderer that they, the birds of the Holy Land, were not singing a farewell song to him, but were simply laughing at him.

They laugh at him and at his unquenched faith.

...Behind them the deserts sing, Lightning flashes, The stars burn above them, And the birds hoarsely shout to them: That the world will remain the same, Yes, it will remain the same, Dazzlingly snowy, And doubtfully tender, The world will remain false, The world will remain eternal, Perhaps comprehensible, But still endless. And that means there will be no sense in believing in yourself and in God. ...And that means that only Illusion and the road remain...

(I. Brodsky. Pilgrims.)

Prophet Abraham in Christianity

Of all the Old Testament righteous people, only Moses can compare with Abraham in the frequency of mentions in the New Testament. Abraham is presented as one of the foundations of Christ's genealogy:

“Genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1).

It is the Savior who is the seed of Abraham, with whom all the nations of the world were promised to be blessed (Gen. 22:18). Hieromonk Job (Gumerov) notes that Abraham served the salvation of mankind with his faith:

“With the Patriarch Abraham begins the history of the people from which came the Blessed Virgin Mary, who gave birth to the Savior of the world.”

Calling his compatriots to repentance, John the Baptist said that it was impossible to be saved by physical relationship with Abraham alone (Luke 3:8). The Apostle Paul also pointed out this (Rom. 9:7). At the same time, Holy Scripture says that all followers of Christ are connected by spiritual kinship with Abraham:

“If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:29).

Prophet Abraham - Father of Believers

For the Orthodox Church, Abraham is not just the distant pious ancestor of Christ and the “genetic” father of believers. This prophet became a father for Christians in his spiritual qualities. His unconditional trust in the Almighty and determination to follow the Divine will in everything are an edifying example for all of us. Abraham had many trials in his long life. But even in them, the prophet remained devoted to the Creator and put His will above his own interests. This Old Testament righteous man showed us that true faith only strengthens and grows in trials. The example of Abraham teaches us not only to recognize the existence of God, but also to trust Him and try to follow His Providence.

Saint John Chrysostom in his “Conversations on the Book of Genesis” calls Abraham the guardian and preacher of the true faith among the pagans. Let us also quote the words of Professor A. Lopukhin:

“The whole life of Abraham shows that his faith was not a simple external confession, but the active beginning of his entire existence. He completely trusted in God, calming his spirit in this faith, like a child resting in the arms of his mother. And such faith was imputed to him as righteousness” (“Orthodox Theological Encyclopedia”).

Along with two other patriarchs, Abraham is mentioned in prayer appeals to God:

“Lord Almighty, God of our fathers, Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the seed of their righteous...”

The Orthodox Church reveres the prophet Abraham as a saint among the righteous. His memory is celebrated on October 22 and on the 2nd Sunday before the Nativity of Christ (on the “Sunday of the Forefathers”).

Abraham and his descendants

– Alexey Sergeevich, the history of Abram (Abraham) and his descendants is set out in the first, oldest of the books of the Old Testament – ​​the Book of Genesis. Abram's father Terah is a direct descendant of Noah. But we know almost nothing about Terah, and the events in the center of which Abram (later Abraham) finds himself begin with the words “And the Lord said to Abram...”. That is, from an act of unconditional obedience to God. What is it - the same faith of Abraham, imputed to him as righteousness?

– If we look closely at the fate of Abraham, to whom God repeatedly promises countless offspring and who at the same time lives to be a hundred years old without having children, and then is called to sacrifice his only miraculously born son, we will see that the word “faith” in this case can be replaced by the word “trust”. Abraham's faith was complete trust in God. Trust in any circumstances. At the beginning of chapter 12, God turns to Abram and calls him: get thee out of your land, from your kindred, and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you.

(1).
What was it like for a person of that time to leave his family, his tribe? And even at 75 years old... But Abram leaves Haran. He trusts God, despite the fact that he has to wait twenty-five years for the promised offspring - from seventy-five to one hundred. Twenty-five years - without grumbling, without doubt that God’s promise will be fulfilled. Although he could, in a purely human way, see the fulfillment of the promise in something other than what it was supposed to take place, for example, in the birth of Ishmael from the slave Hagar. The fact that his hope would be fulfilled precisely in Isaac, the son of Sarah, and not in Ishmael, became clear to him only when Isaac was born. Let us pay attention: Abram was already eighty-six years old when the slave Hagar gave birth to Ishmael (see: Gen. 16:16), and after that there was nothing for thirteen years - no news from God, no signs. Abram waited patiently and trustingly. And only when he turned ninety-nine, God appeared to him and said: And I will establish My covenant between Me and you.
And I will greatly, greatly multiply you (...) I will be your God and your descendants after you (Gen. 17: 1-7).

God gives Abram a new name - Abraham, the father of many nations, and the sign of the covenant between Him and Abraham - circumcision. The Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Romans emphasizes that this sign is the seal of righteousness through faith

(4, 11), which Abraham already had and demonstrated earlier, before the covenant was concluded.
That is why he became the father of all believers (...) not only those who accepted circumcision, but also those who walk in the footsteps of the faith of our father Abraham
(4: 11-12).
The same chapter says that Abraham believed with hope beyond hope
(18) and
did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but remained steadfast in faith, giving glory to God and being fully confident that He was able to perform what He had promised
(20-21).

– But why – as far as we can judge – did the Lord test Abram (Abraham) for so long and so harshly?

– The reward that God gives to a person still presupposes some kind of work, a feat on his part. It doesn't come easy. The Church Fathers posed a similar question: why couldn’t the Lord arrange it so that Adam, in principle, could not sin? And they themselves answered: if a person could not sin, he would not deserve the reward for overcoming sin, that is, all those blessings that God has prepared for those who love Him.

(1 Cor. 2:9). The Lord arranges the fate of Abraham in such a way that he shows his personal qualities by making his own choice. In addition, the events that happen to Abraham are significant not only for him, but also for all future generations - as a lesson, as a model. Of course, this would hardly have consoled Abraham when he was chopping wood to sacrifice Isaac (see: Gen. 22:3). But the Lord knew in advance how it would all end.

In fact, the Lord did not test Abraham - He is omniscient, He does not need to test a person. It was Abraham who had to test himself. It can be assumed that he himself had no idea about his hidden reserves, about his ability to endure such a terrible test. The Lord foresees that Abraham will act in exactly this way - he will holyly fulfill His will, but it does not follow from this that Abraham’s act itself is not necessary. Abraham himself needs him first of all. What he had to experience in the land of Moriah (see: Gen. 22:2) prepared him for the true knowledge of God.

– Why is Abraham’s sacrifice considered a prototype of the Sacrifice of the Cross?

– There are a lot of parallels here, and they are, of course, not accidental. Abraham sacrifices his beloved and, note, only son. Christ is also the only one, the Only Begotten Son of God the Father. Christian interpreters of the Old Testament paid special attention to Isaac’s behavior, his voluntary participation in his father’s sacrifice, and the absence of any resistance or protest. In Abraham's son we see the same trust in God that was in his father. Isaac carries the wood on himself (see: Gen. 22:6) - so our Savior carried His cross on Himself. Isaac, although he is probably stronger than his decrepit father, allows him to tie him up and put him on the fire (see: Gen. 22:9). So Christ could have called legions of Angels to help Him, but He voluntarily sacrificed Himself. Isaac, condemned, doomed, already lying on the altar, remained alive and returned home with his father on the third day (see: Gen. 22, 19) - this is also seen as a prototype of Christ’s three-day stay in the tomb, although this is a parallel already somewhat strained, because Isaac did not die.

- Let's go back to those years when Isaac was not yet on earth: who appeared to Abraham when he was sitting at the entrance to his nomadic tent near the oak grove of Mamre? Who predicted the birth of a son to the frightened Sarah? Abraham sees three husbands, but clearly addresses one of them: Master! If I have found favor in Your sight, do not pass by Your servant

(Gen. 18:3).
And later he speaks about two others: I will bring bread, and you will strengthen your hearts;
then go (Gen. 18:5). The development of the dialogue and subsequent events suggest that it was the Lord Himself and two Angels with Him...

– Or the Most Holy Trinity Itself. Notice, the Lord says: I will go down and see if they are doing exactly what the cry is against them

(Gen. 18:21), after which Two of the Three go to Sodom, to Lot. And One - the Lord - remains to talk with Abraham, and the famous dialogue takes place about justice, about the fate of the righteous in a sinful city (see: Gen. 18, 23-33). Of course, this is a very difficult place, and it is impossible to give a comprehensive answer here. To see the Trinity in Abraham’s three guests can be perceived as an image chosen to express the dogmatic idea of ​​the Trinity. Before Rev. Andrei Rublev, no one considered this event as a phenomenon of the Trinity. That is, this is an interpretation of the Russian late Middle Ages. In patristic literature there are two versions: three Angels and the Lord with two Angels. The latter is more likely. Most interpreters are inclined to believe that Christ appeared to Abraham - the second Person of the Trinity, the Word not yet incarnate, the Angel of the Great Council.

– Why is it so important that Abraham’s line was continued by his legitimate son, Isaac, and not Ishmael, although the Heavenly Father clearly shows concern for poor Hagar and her son?

– It was the son from his wife, and not from a slave, who was considered the full heir of the father, despite the fact that children from slaves, in the absence of children from the mistress, from the point of view of the law of that time, were also considered legal heirs. But something else is important here. The will of God is that the descendants of Abraham should be precisely from Sarah, from a certain moment - Sarah; God blesses her specifically (see: Gen. 17, 15–16). It is in Sarah that the hope must be fulfilled. But this was revealed later, after the birth of Ishmael, but in the meantime, time passes, and the aging couple still has no children, and Sarah, as we would say now, takes the initiative. She hopes to solve the problem on her own, through her human efforts - she sends a slave to her husband (see: Gen. 16). There is nothing unusual in this act of Sarah: barren women in the East did this quite often in order to then take a child born of a slave for themselves and raise it as their own. Sometimes even the marriage contract obligated the wife to provide her husband with a slave in case the wife turned out to be infertile. Ishmael grew up in Abraham's house, but as a result of his birth, a conflict arose between two women - a mistress and a slave - and Abraham took the side of his wife. The birth of Ishmael is a manifestation of human will, which seems to invade this story. But the Lord loves everyone, so He saves Hagar and her son in the desert (see: Gen. 21, 11–21).

– Why does the dying Abraham, after the death of Sarah (the grief of Abraham and Isaac, the compassion of their neighbors - one of the most touching pages of the book of Genesis, see 23) send his slave for a bride for his son Isaac to that distant country from which he once came to Canaan (see: Gen. 24)?

– Abraham does not want his son to marry a Canaanite: these are people with completely different religious ideas and different values. Such a marriage could lead to the family becoming infected with local superstitions; he would not have been happy for Isaac and would not have given a worthy continuation of the family. Rebekah comes from the same family as Isaac (see: Gen. 22, 23), she is his cousin. She is the bearer of the same religious, cultural and moral ideas as her future husband. A lively scene of the meeting of Abraham's servant with a kind, warm-hearted and hardworking girl, who, in response to his request, let me drink a little water from your jug

(Gen. 24:17) immediately volunteers to water his camels, talking about what qualities were brought up in this environment, what behavior was encouraged.

“Nobody forces Rebekah to leave her home and go with Abraham’s servant to the distant land of Canaan. The parents ask her consent. And she immediately answers: I will go (Genesis 24:58). And in this “I will go” one hears what is already coming, servant of the Lord: be it done to me according to your word

(Luke 1:38).

– At least, Rebekah’s determination is compared with the determination of Abram, who left Haran (see: Gen. 12). He also left his father and his family to follow the command of God. So Rebekah readily responds to the call to leave her family and go to the land of Canaan, that is, for her, unknown where. Thus, she becomes a participant in the promises made to Abraham and his descendants. It must be taken into account that at that time there were no means of communication, and young Rebekah parted with her parents, brothers and sisters forever. Why did she make this decision? The Bible does not say this directly, but we can assume that the grace of God touched the girl’s heart, that she heard the voice of God and responded to Him. After Isaac married Rebekah, the Lord appears to him and confirms the promises given to his father Abraham: ... I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and I will give to your descendants all these lands

(Genesis 26:4).

– We move on to the generation of Abraham’s grandchildren – Rebekah gives birth to Isaac’s twin sons. Esau, who was born first, sells his birthright to his brother Jacob for a cup of red, red this

(Gen. 25, 30) – lentil brew. Esau is simply dead tired and hungry from the hunt, and he doesn't see much point in his birthright. The meaning is clarified later, and not even by Esau, but by the Church: “You imitated the hated Esau, your soul, you gave your first kindness the primacy to your charmer, and your fatherly prayers fell away...” - this is from the Great Penitential Canon of Andrew of Crete. What is the spiritual meaning of selling the birthright?

“Contracts of this kind - when the older brother sold the birthright to the younger - were common at that time. This is a purely material transaction that does not have any spiritual overtones: the eldest (or, as it were, becoming the eldest) brother received advantages in the division of his father's inheritance. What is surprising here is the insignificant price - a bowl of stew. This speaks of Esau’s frivolity: he is at the mercy of momentary desires and does not think about long-term values. But in this case - in the descendants of Abraham - the birthright also carries a spiritual load: it is, after all, the inheritance of God's promises. Esau doesn't understand this. In the Canon of Repentance, Esau’s irrationality is a symbol of the irrationality of a person who prefers his temporary desires to the salvation of the soul, eternal life.

– Quite unexpectedly for us, Rebekah shows cunning and deceit - she deceives her blind husband into blessing Jacob (his mother’s favorite), and not Esau, whom his father loves more (see: Gen. 27). Why is it so important that Jacob succeeds his father, who will later receive the name Israel from God, see the Heavenly Ladder and fight with God?

– The Lord looks at a person’s heart, and He does not always choose the firstborn – David was also the youngest in his family, but God chose him (see: 1 Sam. 16, 1). the meek like this, through deception

(Gen. 25, 27) Jacob, not Esau the trapper.
Deception and lies are something that is allowed by God. But this cannot be justified, and later Jacob will pay for it in full - he himself was cruelly deceived, and who is his uncle Laban (see: Gen. 29, 20-27). Jacob fell in love with Laban's daughter Rachel at first sight; seven years of work for her seemed to him in a few days, because he loved her
(Gen. 29, 20). But when the hour of the wedding feast comes, Laban tricks Jacob into marrying his eldest daughter Leah instead of Rachel.

Events take place according to God's Providence; Human sin invades this Providence, but the Lord turns the consequences of sin to benefit. And yet, for every violation of the moral law there is retribution. For the blessing acquired by deception, Jacob paid for twenty years of service with the selfish and dishonest Laban: I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your cattle, and you changed my reward ten times

(Gen. 31, 41). For many years Jacob waited for the birth of a son from his beloved Rachel - Joseph (see: Gen. 30, 22). All biblical patriarchs experienced such periods - tests of faith: Rebekah, too, at first could not give birth, Isaac prayed for her so that she would conceive twins (see: Gen. 25, 21). But Jacob also had a transgression on his conscience, which he had to atone for, earning forgiveness and only then a reward.

Jacob knows that he is unworthy of all that he received from the Lord (see his prayer - Gen. 32, 10). And this humbles Jacob, helps him to reconcile with his uncle-father-in-law Laban, when Jacob finally left him (see: Gen. 31), and with his deceived brother Esau, to whom Jacob first bowed to the ground seven times

(Genesis 33:3–4).
This is a very touching place - And Esau ran to meet him, and hugged him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him, and wept
. Forgiveness, reconciliation, peace - this is what the Lord expects from righteous people.

Is it easy for Esau to forgive his twin brother, with whom he fought in his mother’s womb (Gen. 25, 22)? Probably even more difficult than for Joseph - his brothers in Egypt, because Joseph had reached a high position by the time they met; what his brothers did to him in their stupidity and cruelty has already turned out for the better for him; and the brothers are actually in his power. With Esau it is different. Of course, enough time has passed and his pain may have subsided. But the main reason that he forgives his brother is that the Lord touches his heart. In the next book of the Old Testament - the book of Exodus - where it talks about the plagues of Egypt, the Lord says to Moses: I will harden the heart of Pharaoh

(Ex. 14:4). Sometimes people ask: what is Pharaoh to blame for, if God Himself hardened his heart, he could not resist God. But when God has mercy on a person, he turns to the best that is in him, so that it brings good fruit to the person; and when he punishes, it is for the worse, and a person receives the bitter fruits of his evil. God hardened Pharaoh's heart, but softened Esau's heart. Also because Jacob, through his suffering, earned the right to return to the Promised Land, he deserved to be received kindly here.

- Let's talk about the wonderful events that happened to Jacob. Leaving his parents for Mesopotamia, to his uncle Laban (see: Gen. 28), he falls asleep on the road and sees the Heavenly Ladder, along which Angels ascend and descend and on which the Lord stands, reaffirming His blessing to the descendants of Abraham (see: Gen. 12–16). Why exactly the staircase (ladder), how to understand it?

– A more accurate translation of the Hebrew word “sullam” is not even a ladder, but an embankment or elevation. In Ancient Mesopotamia, temples were built in the form of stepped bulk towers - ziggurats; pagans believed that the gods descended to earth along these steps. Christ Himself reminds Jacob of the vision of the ladder when he says to Nathanael: from now on you will see heaven open and the Angels of God ascending and descending to the Son of Man

(John 1:51). The vision of a mysterious staircase is a sign that the communication between Heaven and earth after man’s fall away from God has not been stopped; that from God Angels are sent to earth (which is spoken about many times in the Old Testament), and that at a certain time the Lord Himself will descend to earth, unite with human nature and open the path to salvation for man. The Holy Fathers of the Church see in the Ladder of Jacob a prototype of the Mother of God, who united and reconciled Heaven with earth: “Secretly in the sacred scriptures it was spoken about You, Mother of the Most High: Jacob of old, who formed the ladder of You, said: This is the degree of God” - Canon of Matins Annunciation.

– In chapter 32, Jacob wrestles with God and receives a new name – Israel. The meaning of this struggle seems mysterious...

– The meaning of this mysterious struggle is revealed in the words heard by Jacob: you have fought with God, and you will overcome men

(Gen. 32, 28).
Jacob at this time is afraid of the revenge of his brother Esau. He must understand that there is no need to be afraid, that God did not abandon him, Jacob, and meekness and love will help him earn his brother’s forgiveness. In the fight, Jacob is injured - his opponent damages the joint of his thigh (see: Gen. 25), making him lame for life. This is necessary to reassure Jacob that the event is real, that he did not dream it. The words of the Lord: Let me go, for the dawn has risen
(Genesis 26) perhaps mean that Jacob is already sufficiently strengthened for the trials ahead of him. God blesses Jacob and gives him a new name - Israel (“God fights” or even “He who wrestled with God”); subsequently it will become the name of an entire people. The naming of a new name speaks of a new spiritual birth of a person; the name Israel should instill in Jacob a firm understanding that God will give him strength to endure any trial. The struggle cleansed Jacob of sins and weaknesses (such as the craving for earthly wealth): from now on he firmly follows in the footsteps of his fathers.

“But why didn’t God reveal His name to Jacob?”

– In general, the name of God is a complex concept for the human mind, and it cannot be revealed to an unprepared person, especially since he is still not able to comprehend the full depth of this mystery; Samson’s father Manoah receives a similar answer in the Bible (see: Judges 13, 18). You also need to consider: Jacob did not ask about the name because he did not know Who he was dealing with. He guessed about this, otherwise he would not have asked his Rival to bless him (see: Gen. 32, 26) and would not have said immediately after the fight: I saw God face to face, and my soul was preserved

(thirty). The request to name speaks of Jacob's desire to know more about God than he has been given; penetrate into what other people cannot know. And the Lord makes Jacob understand that he must be content with what is revealed to him. Additionally, Jacob may have been tempted to use God's name for magical purposes.

– Leaving her father’s house after her husband, Rachel stole the household gods - idols (see: Gen. 19, 32); It follows from this that Laban’s family, related to the family of Abraham, was not averse to idolatry. So, with Rachel, paganism came to Jacob’s family too?

“Perhaps this is so, although we do not know how Jacob himself felt about these idols. When asked why Rachel stole the teraphim (the so-called household gods - the patrons of the clan), interpreters give different answers: perhaps the possession of idols gave the right to claim an inheritance, or Laban’s daughter considered them talismans that guarded travelers on a long journey. Therefore, it is possible that Rachel did not consider her father’s household gods to be objects of worship; that her attitude towards them was purely pragmatic.

The further fate of these gods is as follows: Jacob, having experienced such a close encounter with the One God, forces his household to give him all the idols and buries them under an oak tree (see: Gen. 35). The house of Jacob must be cleansed of paganism by changing clothes; then Jacob builds an altar to God, who heard me in the day of my trouble and was with me

(Gen. 35:3).
After this, the Lord again appears to Jacob and once again (see: Gen. 35:10) confirms the naming of the name Israel. He says to Israel: Be fruitful and multiply: a nation and a multitude of nations will come from you, and kings will come from your body;
the land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and to your descendants after you I will give this land (35:11-12).

– Jacob becomes the father of twelve sons, and they become the ancestors of the twelve tribes of Israel; Jesus Christ will come from the tribe of Judah. But the history of this generation, the fourth after Abraham (see: Gen. 37), will begin with a drama: the brothers, secretly from their father, will sell into Egyptian slavery Joseph, the penultimate of the sons of Jacob, one of the two sons of Rachel, a man noted for his miraculous spiritual gifts from his youth. gifts. Why is the story of Joseph and his brothers seen as a prototype of the story of Christ?

– This is a completely obvious prototype, it is sung about this in the hymns of Holy Week: “Let us now add weeping to the lamentation, and let us pour out tears with Jacob, weeping for the ever-memorable and chaste Joseph, who was enslaved to the body, but kept his soul unenslaved, and who reigned over Egypt to all: God gives for His servant an incorruptible crown” (Ikos of Great Monday). Joseph's brothers hate him, jealous of his father, envious of his prophetic dreams (see: Gen. 37, 3-11); in the same way, Jesus was hated because He called God His Father, for the miracles that He performed. The brothers sold Joseph to foreigners (see: Gen. 26–28) - so Jesus was betrayed by His fellow tribesmen to the Roman authorities. Joseph rises from the bottom of suffering to the heights of power in Egypt; so Jesus ascends to the Father, having endured the torment of crucifixion, having accepted death. Finally, Joseph forgives, moreover, saves his brothers, who are in his complete power, from hunger, just as Christ forgave His crucifiers. The story of how the sons of Jacob came to Egypt to buy bread and met there with Joseph, whom they did not recognize, whom Pharaoh had previously placed over all the land of Egypt

(Gen. 41, 41), the tests that Joseph subjected his brothers to make sure that their conscience was alive and they were not alien to repentance are described in chapters 42–45 of the book of Genesis.
The scene of Joseph’s forgiveness of his brothers and family reunification is one of the most poignant in the Old Testament: Joseph could no longer restrain himself in front of everyone standing around him and shouted: remove everyone from me.
And there was no one left with Joseph when he revealed himself to his brothers. And he wept loudly, and the Egyptians heard, and the house of the Pharaohs heard. And Joseph said to his brothers: I am Joseph; is my father still alive? But his brothers could not answer him, because they were embarrassed before him. And Joseph said to his brothers, Come to me. They came up. He said: I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt; but now do not be sad and do not regret that you sold me here, because God sent me before you to preserve your life; for now there are two years of famine on earth: five more years, in which they will neither yell nor reap; God sent me before you to leave you on earth and preserve your life with a great deliverance. So it was not you who sent me here, but God, who made me a father to Pharaoh and lord over all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Go quickly to my father and tell him: This is what your son Joseph says: God has made me lord over all Egypt; come to me, do not delay; you will live in the land of Goshen; and you will be near me, you, and your sons, and your sons’ sons, and your flocks and herds, and all that is yours; and I will feed you there, for there will be another famine for five years, so that you and your house and all that is yours will not become poor.

(45, 1–11). So Israel came to Egypt, which would later become for him a place of captivity and cruel oppression. But this is another story - the story of the Exodus.

Interviewed by Marina Biryukova

Prayers to Patriarch Abraham

Troparion, tone 4

Strange is the stranger of the earth who appeared, the same name of the high Father, the great Abraham, together with the honest Sarah, and who loved the strangeness of acquiring, thus he was interlocutor with God in the Trinity and received the conception of the only Isaac on earth, in the highest he was vouchsafed a foreign tongue from the east of the sun to the west of all believers Father be in the Holy Trinity, O God-given Father Abraham, pray together with Sarah to the Holy Trinity for those who believe in Nu, that he may be found in your lordship.

Kontakion, same voice

He who showed great faith in God, Abraham, before he was circumcised, and settled in a sunny place under an oak tree to receive strangers together and with the honorable Sarah, thus the three-solar majesty of the entire Divine Trinity was granted to clearly see, and the God-given child was received, and in the hospitality of strangers a place in the unflickering light We, the uncircumcised tongue of all countries, who believe in the Holy Trinity, are the successor and father of God called by faith, pray together to the Holy Trinity for us who believe in Nyu, that we may be found in your lordship.

On the Sunday of Saints, Forefather:

Troparion, tone 2

By faith you justified the forefathers, / from the tongue of those the pre-armed Church: / they boast in the glory of holiness, / for from their seed there is a blessed fruit, / without a seed she gave birth to you. // Through those prayers, Christ God, have mercy on us.