Hebrew Word Study – Garment/Deceit – Begad  בִּגְדֵ֨   Beth Gimmel Daleth  

Genesis 27:15,27: “And Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which [were] with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob her younger son: 27 And he came near, and kissed him: and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son [is] as the smell of a field which the LORD hath blessed:”

You remember the story of Easu and Jacob from Sunday School and how Jacob and his mother plotted to deceived Jacob’s father into giving him his brother Easu’s in heritance by Jacob dressing up in his brother’s clothes.

The word for garment or raiment in  Hebrew is the word  begad which is really not the word for garment at all but is the word for treachery and deceit.  Semitic story telling is filled with metaphoric language and it is most likely begad is used metaphorically for clothes worn for deceitful purpose like stealing a birthright.  There is evidence in ancient literature that begad is used to express something else. It is possible these were not Esau’s garments but garments Esau obtained through a treacherous act, that is the killing of Nimrod.  In fact the Mishnah Rabbah teaches that these were the garments stolen from Nimrod when Esau ambushed him in the field.  But why steal his clothes?  

On a recent visit to the University of Chicago’s library I wasted a whole afternoon reading an ancient book called the Book of Jasher. The book of Jasher, is not part of the canon nor is it inspired Scripture and may just be a book of urban legends, however, many Jewish rabbis will attest to a degree of historical accuracy. 

In the Book of Jasper the 27th chapter we see some gaps in the story of Esau being filled.  It is believed that as the story of the creation was passed down orally, the original garments that God gave Adam to wear still existed and were in Nimrod’s possession.  Apparently, as the legend goes,  the garments given to Adam by God were given to Enoch which were given to Methuselah who  handed them down to Noah who gave them to his son Ham and eventually worked their way into the hands of Nimrod. By this time legend grew up that these garments contained some mystical powers.   

Such a garment would be considered as sacred as the Shroud of Turin and I am sure the authenticity would be just as questionable. But suppose the garments of Adam did survive until the time of Esau or someone put together a garment and called it Adams garments.  People would assume and/or someone would convince others it had special powers. It is believed that Esau coveted these garments and with the blessing of his father Isaac sought to steal them and in the process got into fight and Esau ended up murdering Nimrod and taking off with Adam’s alleged garments. Of course it would be these garments he would wear when he was to receive the blessing from Abraham.  Surely, with the garment of Adam God would double and maybe triple His blessing. Of course now that Jacob was planning his coup, what better way to ensure God’s blessing than to wear the sacred, blessed garments of Adam.  

To be honest, I don’t know where I am going with this. Maybe I am just trying to convince myself that I didn’t waste a perfectly good afternoon studying the writings of some ancient story teller trying to build a platform with a  lot of myth.  But you know what, the whole idea of relics having mystical powers and people killing others to possess these relics is not an ancient one.  Hitler kill thousands of people in his quest for the Spear of Destiny, because he actually believed that if he possessed it he would be invincible.  Some years ago a movie called the Raiders of the Lost Ark spurred the imagination of millions of Christians over the thought of recovering the lost Ark of the Covenant and the powers it might contain. It’s a box, for crying out loud,  just a box. It would have great historical and archaeological significance but that is all. 

People want to see what they worship.  They need an idol, a relic, a thing that they can touch and see.  They want a preacher to pray over them because they can see the preacher.  They want a beautiful church building because that they can see it.  Before long they begin to believe that the preacher has special powers or that God will surely bless them more if they attend church in a building designated for worship. I remember as a pastor I had a person ask for prayer.  I was in his home and I immediately reached out to pray and he stopped me and said: “No, no, let’s go to the church to pray.  I want this to be a good prayer.”  I’m thinking: “Good prayers are all I got buddy.” 

My point is, we worship God with our  hearts, not our eyes.

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