Stones intro sampler - Flipbook - Page 30
Every biblical scholar I referenced talks about the overwhelming role stones
play in Jacob’s life. Robert Alter, professor in the graduate school and emeritus
professor of Hebrew and comparative literature at the University of California at
Berkeley, has this to say about Jacob’s bedrock of faith:
Jacob is a man who sleeps on stones, speaks in stones, wrestles with
stones, contending with the hard unyielding nature of things.3
What you are about to read is one of the episodes in Jacob’s life where God’s
unmerited favor and love are most obvious. As uncomfortable as it makes us all
feel, God will reassure Jacob—and, by way of the Scriptures, all of us—that one’s
worthiness comes from God’s faithfulness and nothing else.
1. PERSONAL CONTEXT: What is going on in your life right now that might impact
how you understand this Bible story?
What a reassurance Jacob’s encounter with God offers us
today. Despite our limitations and our failings, both as individuals
and as his church, God is able to achieve his purposes through
us (see 1 Cor 1:26-29).4
Jesudason Baskar Jeyaraj, “Genesis,” in South Asia Bible Commentary
10
S TO N ES
