The stories we find in Jewish tradition certainly do. Take the tale of Esau and Jacob, for instance. It’s a story filled with sibling rivalry, deception, and, as we'll see, divine intervention.
Imagine this: Esau, incensed by Jacob's trickery in obtaining the birthright and blessing, sets out with an army to confront his brother. But on his way, he encounters something… strange. A massive host of forty thousand warriors appears seemingly out of nowhere. They're armored, mounted, in chariots – a terrifying spectacle! They attack Esau and his men relentlessly.
"Who are you?" Esau demands, amidst the chaos. The warriors, between savage attacks, claim to belong to Jacob. It's only when Esau declares that Jacob is his brother that they abruptly stop, horrified. "Woe to us," they cry, "if our master hears that we did thee harm!"
This encounter clearly shook Esau to his core. When he finally meets Jacob, it’s the first thing he asks about: "Tell me," he says, "what was that army I met?"
Now, here's where the story takes a turn into the truly wondrous. According to the Legends of the Jews, as retold by Ginzberg, this wasn't an army of mortal men at all. It was a host of angels. To Esau and his men, they appeared as fierce warriors, a force to be reckoned with. But their true nature was something far more powerful.
Think about that for a moment. Angels, intervening in a family feud. Is it any wonder Esau was confused?
And it doesn't stop there! Even the messengers Jacob sent ahead to meet Esau were angels, according to the tradition. As Ginzberg tells it, no ordinary human being could be persuaded to face such a treacherous character as Esau. It would take divine intervention, angelic messengers, to even approach him.
So, what are we to make of all this? Is it simply a colorful story, a way to embellish the biblical narrative? Perhaps. But it also speaks to a deeper truth. It suggests that even in the midst of human conflict, divine forces are at work, protecting, guiding, and sometimes, even intervening in ways we can't fully comprehend. It makes you wonder, doesn't it, about the unseen armies that might be fighting on our behalf, even now?