THE FEARED ONE

“But Ya’akov swore by the One his father Yitz’chak feared.”
Genesis 31:53b

It was after Lavan had searched the tents that he approached Ya’akov desiring to make a covenant. Taking stones and making a pile, Ya’akov and Lavan built their altar and named it “pile of witness”. With the prayer that Adonai would watch between the two while they were apart, the covenant was sealed. But the part of this section of the parashah that catches my attention comes in Genesis 31:53. It is here we read that Ya’akov swore to the One his father feared. It was here that Ya’akov swore to Adonai.
In Proverbs 1:7 we read that, “The fear of Adonai is the beginning of knowledge…” This fear that Proverbs tells us of, and the fear that Ya’akov and his father shared, was not a fear as in being scared, but of reverence. It is a reverence for Adonai that brings the beginning of knowledge. Do we possess this? Do we have a holy fear for Adonai; a fear for Him by which we swear? I am challenged in thinking about this. I am forced to think in regards to who I reverence. If I am not fearing Adonai then I have missed not only knowledge, but all that He offers.

Genesis 31:43 – 32:3