BRAGADAYJAH 120

After the death of Rachel, Israel moved on and spread his tent in a place called the tower of Edah; and while there disaster struck. It happened that Rueben went in and lay with one of his fathers concubines by the name of Bilhah and Israel heard about it. How Israel felt or reacted is not known; but it is to be assumed that he did not make a big public issue of it, although it must surely have made him very unhappy. Rueben was one of Israel’s twelve sons. He was the first born of Leah and so by right heir to his father. The other sons of Leah were Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar and Zebulun. The sons of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin; while the handmaids of Leah and Rachel bore two each, and those of Rachel’s maid Bilhah, Dan and Naphtali, and those of Leah’s maid, Zilpah, Gad and Asher. All these twelve children were born in Padanaram. In course of time Isaac returned to the land of his father Isaac in Hebron, a city in which his father Isaac and his father before him Abraham lived. By this time, Isaac was one hundred and eighty years old. And Isaac gave up the ghost and died and both of his sons Esau and Jacob, renamed Israel buried him. One can’t help noting how wonderfully God works things out for his chosen ones. Almost fifty years before his two sons were at each other’s throat over the right to inherit as his heir. But God drove out from the heart of Esau vengeful and spiteful enmity towards his brother. Time had healed both Esau’s wound and his pride. He had forgiven his brother; he had embraced him in loving forgiveness; and so now the siblings could come together and bury their dead father without animosity. More