THE EMMAUS WALK PRESENTS:

"Oak of Weeping" by Eben - Dedicated to El Shaddai

Commentary on the Ballad

Who were the ancient people called Hebrews who descended from Abraham (or Nahor and Abram of Ur)? What were they like? What was God's plan for the family line that ran from Abraham to Isaac and then to Jacob? Why were they special to God? They are special, indeed. Sarah, Abraham's wife, is mentioned more than two hundred times in the Bible, in both Old Testament and New Testament, whereas Mary (Jesus's mother) is mentioned only about thirty or so times. Without Sarah, there would have been no Messianic line producing the Savior, Jesus! The same can be said for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob! This commentary will hopefully give some answers to the questions we naturally have, but if you already know the answers proceed to the ballad. Otherwise, please read on.

This ballad celebrates the life of Jacob, his many, many troubles, and how God intervened in his distress to start him on the road to becoming a holy Patriarch of Israel, a father and perserver of the Messianic Line, not just a forefather of the Israelite people. Though he was involved in the strife-filled time of Isaac his father's contacts with the rival, militarily-predominant Philistines (they had five large, allied cities with all their surrounding `villages and could raise huge, chariot-equipped armies to fight their foes) and the conflict over wells and limited water sources, though he had observed how God was with Isaac in the dicey conflict with Philistia (which must have seemed trivial later when he came to face seven such hostile nations!), Jacob's own story and walk with God actually begins in Genesis 27, where he schemes to gain Isaac's blessing reserved for the first-born son, Esau. Tricking the aged, blind Isaac into thinking he was Esau, he gains his objective, the blessing of the first-born which carries such great weight, but he also gains his rival Esau's fearsome wrath. From that time Esau was determined to kill his younger brother, waiting for the right time when he could do it without his father being alive or aware enough to punish him. Esau had already grieved his parents by going against their wishes and marrying two Hittite women, who because they were from the idol-worshiping population of the land were not only idolatrous aliens to God-fearing Isaac and Rebecca but who went out of their way to make the household miserable with their idolatrous ways and attitudes. Rebecca had already warned Jacob about Esau's murderous plan, and she went to Isaac and sought a reason--the taking of a wife for Jacob--as her pretext for getting Jacob safely away from Esau. Hearing of Esau's intention from his mother, Jacob fled the camp, to go to Padan-Aram where his uncle Laban lived, hoping to find refuge and possibly a wife. On the road God met him, at the place of Jacob's most deperate straits, which was at a place Jacob later named "Bethel," which means, "House of God." Here God's grace came down to the fugitive chased by Esau's vengeful ghost. This is the place where the heavens opened, and Jacob saw a glorious staircase on which angels ascended and descended before the throne of God. God spoke to Jacob, reaffirming the Covenant He had made with Abraham, and then with Isaac, in which He had promised them the land all about them, to give it to them and their descendants, as well as convey to them a blessing that would bless all the people of the earth. God promised to be with the fleeing, frightened Jacob, to preserve his life from all danger, so that he would return to his home without harm. Having received this wonderful assurance that he would live and not be slain by Esau, and that the God of Abraham and Isaac was now his God, Jacob arose in the morning a better man. He even made a solemn vow after dedicating the site with a pillar made of the stone pillow he had used during the night to lay his troubled head upon: "If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God, and this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house, and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee."

This event at Bethel marks the beginning of how God got hold on a mean-hearted, scheming "mama's boy" and "supplanter" (the meaning of the name, "Jacob") and began making a great-hearted man of God out of him, a fit instrument with which to create a holy nation and people who would not only serve the Lord but form the nation of Israel from which the Blessing of the whole earth would someday come--that Blessing being, of course, Jesus Christ the Messiah. This is also the portrayal of how God revealed himself to Jacob as El Shaddai, the wonderful and mighty, nurturing and perserving God of the Covenant first instituted with Abraham. As El Shaddai spread his almighty wings over Jacob's life and soul, Jacob was increasingly changed. As Jacob successively bowed to the will of God at in each crisis of his life, he found great success and the fulfillment of God's promises made to him at Bethel. As Jacob struggled to keep the God of Blessing in his grip, a most gracious God strengthened him to win that battle but at the end of the struggle touched the hollow of his thigh and weakened him in his own human natural strength, thus making him even more dependent on God for everything than he would have been if left alone. Thereafter, Jacob limped through life, leaning on the Lord his God! Jacob's worst enemy was not Esau his vengeful brother, as it turned out, but himself. But with God's ever-faithful help, Jacob was ultimately victorious over the deep flaws in his nature and character and also over the troubles of his life, though his own sons proved sources of greatest distress, and who jeopardized Jacob's very life in the treacherous slaughter of the helpless Shechemites--not to mention selling off Jacob's favorite son Joseph as a slave into cruel Egyptian bondage and later lying to their father that a wild animal had killed Joseph. Despite all these trials, Jacob ended a happy man, though it took nearly all his life to arrive at that state. But why Jacob and not Esau? Genesis says the Lord loved Jacob and hated Esau. God's reasons for His choice is clear. Esau despised his birthright and thought so little of the Covenant God had made with Abraham he sold his birthright for a bowl of stew Jacob had made. That is how much Esau valued all what God had promised Abraham and Isaac. Jacob, on the other hand, was the underdog, the younger brother who bitterly envied Esau the First-born, for he coveted Esau's precious birthright and the blessing of Father Isaac upon the First-born above everything else, and risked his life to wrest them away from Esau--in other words, he sought to gain the Patriarchal Kingship by violence and pressing into it as believers in Christ are exhorted to press into the Kingdom of God and take it by "violence". He chased after what the birthright and blessing entailed for himself and all his descendants, realizing their tremendous value would never, never diminish. God honored this seeking after the legacy of the glorious Covenant and the Patriarchy, even though Jacob got his father Isaac's patriarchal blessing by hook and mostly crook, because God knew how to work the hard-pressed heart of Jacob in the winepress of adversity to the point where Jacob repented and was broken enough to be made into God's man. But even above all this, what is it we can learn from Jacob's experience of man and God? His wrestling with the Angel of the Lord at the brook of Jabbok (where the author has journeyed, by the way), what really was that all about? Perhaps we can't learn anything unless we admit first to private gods, idols of the secret heart. These must be acknowledged if we are to gain the only true God--or they will block, hinder, and prevent us from reaching the Lord in truth. Jacob served his own gods as a youth--gods of self mainly, self-advancement, ambition, pride, and covetousness. These gods had to be given up if he was to ever become a man of God. Do we serve any such gods? When the lights are off, and we sit in darkness alone and nobody is looking, what is the thing or things our hearts turn to for satisfaction? What secret gods do we bow to? Now the Ballad can properly begin, and to God be the glory:

El Shaddai of Israel,

Faithful Shepherd of your flock!

Though troubles round old Jacob fell,

You were his Refuge and his Rock.

O help us, Lord, in our distress,

To rescue us and save our lives,

When sins and foes around us press

And evils swarm like bees from hives.

Grant your mercy to us now

As we dig our idols down

Beneath this oak (in tears we bow)

That grows near sunny Shechem Town.

Delivered from his brother's hand,

(The Lord saved Jacob in his guilt)

The fearsome Esau with his band

Returned to Seir they had built.

With tears of joy poor Jacob gazed

On two twin mountains in the west;

With thankfulness he limped half-dazed

To sacrifice to God his best.

The city Shechem lay close by,

And Jacob bought a piece of land;

His altar to the God Most High

Was raised on Israel's own sod.

"El-Elohe-Israel" was

"God, the God of Israel"--

The One who met him near by Luz

Now dwelled in Jacob's heart, "Bethel."

Yet his safe place soon was past,

Bloody deeds his sons performed;

From favored neighbor to outcast

Great enmity for him was formed.

Dinah was the start of it,

Young and restless she did stray,

And while in town on a visit

Poor Leah's daughter lost her way.

Shechem was Prince Hamor's son,

With young Dinah he had his way;

Despite the evil he had done,

He fell in love with her that day.

Hamor, Prince of Shechem Town,

Took his son to see Jacob;

By a young oak they walked on down

To Jacob's camp, and heard great sob.