Nāšaq: Armed with Kisses
“Then his father Isaac said to him, ‘Come near and kiss me, my son.’ So he came near and kissed him. And Isaac smelled the smell of his garments and blessed him and said, ‘See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field that the LORD has blessed!’” (Genesis 27:26-27)
Isaac was the son of Abraham, the first generational heir of God’s covenantal blessing.
His time was nearing, and he had readied himself to pass along this blessing to his firstborn, Esau.
Aged in the eyes (and a bit inebriated), he commenced the patriarchal rite of passage, and at the climactic moment of so intimate a ceremony, he beckoned his boy near for a kiss.
Kisses weren’t solely romantic in that day, but they were an expression of honor - affection - love.
But Isaac was duped - countered by his child through an act of defiance and betrayal.
Jacob, the other son, had alluded his father, disguising himself as his twin brother to take possession of that which was not meant for him.
It’s a great irony, however, that those who deceive are too often the one’s most deceived, for (unsurprisingly) blessings stolen have a tendency of becoming the most vile of curses.
But we will get to that. First, let us examine the word “kiss” for a moment.
In Hebrew, “to kiss” is the verb nāšaq, which depicts kissing and gentle touching and intimate grazing of two bodies that are close together. Interestingly, it is also a term for equipping oneself with weapons in preparation for battle, like a swordsman entering face-to-face combat.
Adding one additional layer, core to the meaning of nāšaq is also its root word nāśaq (almost identical in transliteration), which is a word for kindling - literally, or out of an emotional state of warmth or wrathfulness.
As it is, when your face is in such proximity with that of another’s that your skin can meet theirs, your disposition will almost always be driven by one of two passions: delight or opposition.
At essence, Jacob’s kiss was no mere kiss. His gesture was a manifestation of duplicity that fundamentally introduced warfare into a relationship designed for harmony.
Sadly, his pursuit of gain would result in even greater loss. And isn’t that one of the tragic motifs across all of Scripture and history itself - our continual succumbing to cheapened pleasures at the expense of upholding our own stories with integrity?
Did not King David lament the antagonization of both Saul and Absalom, crying out that “even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me”? (Psalm 41:9)
Does not Jacob’s actions ripple with parallels into Judas’ betrayal of Yeshua, who with a kiss accepted blood money (no more than 4 months worth of wages) at the expense of the greatest of all loving connections?
There is simply no true wealth or blessing or inheritance where there is an undermining of true love!
The words of Paul of Tarsus cannot be overstated: “Love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-6)
Truth that is guided by love is a seed that brings forth freedom and connection, but that which is reaped in the shadows of deception and shame - even among the greatest of harvests - is of no profit at all.
For Judas, those shadows quickly consumed him as the weight of his shame compounded to an unbearable threshold.
Jacob, on the other hand, would himself experience a kind of poetic justice, being deceived by his eventual father-in-law, Laban. He would also go on to endure many years of relational rupture with his brother, Esau. He would eventually meet Reconciliation (and even then, perhaps for just a moment), but only through the humbling path of acknowledging the truth and personal reparations.
It cannot be overstated: without love, there is no gain, other than that which is restored along the painstaking path of redemption.
While our spiritual adversary leverages deception to confuse and accusation to shame (an unchanged tactic since the days of the garden), may we trust our inherit birthright and worth that comes from the Father in such a way that produces “kisses” of integrity and love, rather than that which is disingenuous and self-seeking.
BONUS:
Fun fact… Dr. John Gottman, one of the world’s leading clinical experts on love, relationships, and marriage, encourages couples to have a 6-second long kiss at least once every day. He calls it a “Kiss with Potential.” (yeah, I bet Jacob’s kiss was only like a 2-second peck 😂)
Alright, I’ma be honest here… when I read Jacob’s story and think about generational blessings/curses, stolen inheritance, and his process of relational repair… my mind can’t help but see a thematic commonality to the white American church’s ongoing failure to adequately repent and make reparations among fellow African American and indigenous citizens. No, I’m not going to try and make an apples-to-apples comparison between the two (the short narrative of Jacob and Esau would be a vast oversimplification), but if you’ve never spent much time pondering the idea of biblical reparations (or its practical application in the American church context), I would highly recommend Duke Kwon’s thoughtful book, Reparations (link here).
