Once again, a great deal of time has passed since I posted last. Teaching two graduate level classes alongside a full-time job has been rather demanding. I hope you are enjoying your third reading of the Torah. Also, I hope you are finding this month to be much less demanding on the note-taking front.
I thought I would share a quick insight that I found intriguing as I read with my attention focused on repeated geography and character names. As I read through Numbers, I was struck by a few details in chapter 13, the story of the twelve spies. (Insert old Sunday School song: "Twelve men went to spy on Canaan ten were bad and two were good"...and so on.) Three keywords seemed notable: Eschol, Negeb, and Hebron.
Each of these words occur throughout Genesis 13-23. We are told here and there throughout these chapters that Abram was dwelling in Hebron (13:18) near "the oaks of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eschol and Aner (ESV, 14:13). Later on, in chapter 20, Abraham flees Hebron due to famine and travels through the Negeb to Gerar, eventually setting up shop, so to speak, in Beersheba. We are informed in 23:1 that Abraham had migrated back to Hebron (Kiriath-Arba), which was where Sarah died. He purchased the field of Machpelah to the east of Mamre (which has now changed from a person's name to a geographical location) as a burial site.
In Numbers 13, the spies take a reverse path, traveling from Paran/Kadesh through the Negeb to Hebron, namely, the Valley of Eschol. Here we are told that the name of this Valley is due the to "clusters" (eschol in Hebrew) of grapes. However, one cannot help but wonder if this is connected to Eschol, the brother of Mamre, friend to Abram the Hebrew so long ago. Suffice it to say that it seems that the Israelites found themselves in the place where two of the major covenants and promises (chapters 15 and 17) were made with and to Abram/Abraham.
It is my conviction that these details give us some warrant to consider these stories in parallel (in good Hebrew narrative fashion). In doing so, what struck me was the fact that the story in Numbers throws the reader right back to Abraham, traversing the ground on which he walked and lived. The land they were spying out was the land in which Abraham and his clan dwelt as foreigners and where God set the groundwork for the people of Israel through the covenant of circumcision. Further, it was the place of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and many others' burial.
What is the possible significance of this? We might say that the site of Abraham's peace was the site of these Israelites' anxiety. In Genesis 14, Abram is informed of a situation that will require him to raid a band of warring kings to rescue his nephew Lot. In Numbers 13, the spies are tasked with reporting the situation in the land. Whereas Abram responds with familial loyalty and bravery (for lack of a better term), the spies (or the majority of them) respond with cowardice and disloyalty, shrinking before the inhabitants. Abram's overall response to God's call (represented in microcosm in chapter 14) that he should move into the land of Canaan is resolute. The Israelites are fearful despite the promise of God to provide them victory.
What connections have you seen as you read?
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