Fleeing from Laban (Genesis 30 - 31)

The stories of the patriarchs have so many twists and turns. Because of this, the story of Jacob and his uncle, Laban will not be disappointing. From what I can tell, Laban is one of those, "difficult to love" kind-of guys. He initially welcomed Jacob in his home but then he stirred up trouble in Jacob's life. Remember, Laban deceived Jacob and got him to marry Leah and he ended up working 14 years for his wives. Now, Laban tries to cheat Jacob...again.

Trouble Making

In this chapter, Jacob wants to leave Laban's house but He begs Jacob to stay. Through divination, he learned that God deliberately blessed Jacob. You would think that Laban would respect Jacob since he knows this but Laban will be Laban. He's in it for the money... or in this case... the blessing. He may even be envious of Jacob. The Bible says that Laban had very little when Jacob came to live with him but now both of them had so much that they had to live a three-day journey from each other. 

Jacob puts in another six years with Laban and builds  his wealth of servants, camels and donkeys but Laban and his sons accuse Jacob of taking away Laban's wealth. Suddenly, Laban is no longer friendly. God tells Jacob to go back to Isaac's country. Jacob talks it over with his wives and they tell him that they have no inheritance with their father so they are ready to leave. So Jacob picks up his entire household and travels toward the land of his father. 

When Laban learns that he is gone, Laban gathers his relatives and for seven days, they hunt for Jacob. On this journey, Laban has a dream and God tells him not to say anything good or bad to Jacob. When Laban catches up with him, he tells Jacob that Jacob left with his daughters, his grand-kids and his animals. Laban is quite the character. I think he had nerve to call everything his and totally disregard Jacob's payment in work.  

Surprisingly, Laban makes an agreement with Jacob. "You stay in your country and I will stay in my country. They pile up rocks... a common practice to signify a covenant... eat and go their separate ways. But before they do; Laban repeats the famous Mizpah, "May the Lord watch between me and thee while we are absent from one another."  I would have never guessed that Laban would speak such a rich request from God over Jacob. 

Mandrakes & Joseph

Rachel was beautiful and was Jacob's first love. You get the feeling that Jacob would do anything for her but she remained childless for a good bit of time. In what seems to be an irrational and probably a hormone-driven fit of rage; she cries out to Jacob, "Give me children or I will die!" He explains to her that it was up to God not him. Both Leah and Rachel give Jacob their maids as wives and each of them contribute two sons.

Rachel gets creative and she sells her bedtime with Jacob to her sister so that she could get mandrakes. And what are mandrakes? They are a "Love plant" root that looks like a human form. It has been used in "magical" rituals in other cultures. I'm guessing here that she thinks mandrakes improve her chance of having sons. 

The night Leah spends with Jacob, she bears a son and later on another one. But the text says that God remembered Rachel and she had a son... Joseph. I bet Jacob felt relieved and totally in love with the child of his first love. The moments between father and son must have been priceless.

We also find Rachel stealing her father's gods and then deceiving him when she tells him she is on her period. Where she sat, the idols were right underneath her. We don't find any discipline for her deceit. I guess these two chapters showcase the human spirit but it also shows that God is running the show in spite of their human struggles. 

Happy

These chapters don't reveal too much about Leah other than she was content to sleep with Jacob and get two sons out of the deal. She was also willing to trade her mandrakes for her time with him. She named her maid's son, Asher because women will call Leah happy. Leah finds her joy or reason to smile outside of her husband. By having six sons and two by her maid, she has eight sons and the Bible mentions she had a daughter, Dinah; she reaches her utopia.

The Making of a Patriarch

These chapters point out Jacob's growing connection to God. In these chapters, he acknowledges God's blessings. I think Jacob allows this to be proof for the if/then covenant he made with God... If you bless me, then You will be my God. I like the growth of Jacob but I guess I would have liked to see him handle the matters of his household a little more effectively. For example, should he have slept with Leah in exchange for Rachel's mandrakes?

Now I don't think that he was without a backbone. He did speak his mind with Laban... although Laban really didn't listen to him. Laban bulldozed his ideas and thoughts right over Jacob's words. But I think being in this kind of circumstance allowed Jacob to build character. However, he still stayed true to the meaning of his name. When he fled Laban, the Bible says, "He deceived Laban."

Lessons

God uses broken people. This story is not short of broken humans. So many issues and yet God used Jacob. He was the one who was going to be the keeper of the seed of Jesus Christ. That seed passed right through his family with all of its brokenness. This idea  gives hope to me and others who recognize and suffer from broken lives. 

I can relate to deceit. Sadly, I've done it before. The fruit of deceit can be a painful process. The fruit of operating in my own will is also painful and difficult. Yet God worked with Jacob
and brought him into a relationship with him. God established the 12 tribes of Israel through this relationship... and finally a people so vast that it is impossible to number them. God delivered exactly what he told Abraham he would do. That gives me a hope in my life and in my world. That means God can and will make something of my broken life; my broken character. He can work with me and through me and bring about beauty that I never dreamed or imagined. This draws me to Him. This is the story that I can share with a broken world. 

That's it for today. 

Deceit (Genesis 27 - 29)

Jacob, Esau & Rebekah  (Genesis 27-29)

Deceit & Treachery

These chapters start with telling the story of Jacob deceiving his father and taking the blessing from Esau. The Bible gives play by play of the deceit-laced conversations between Jacob and his mother; and between Jacob and Issac. As a result of these conversations, Jacob had to flee to his uncle's house because Rebekah heard that Esau might try and kill him. Once Jacob reached his uncle's house, he discovered the deceit & treachery of Laban. Laban tricked Jacob into marrying Leah... his daughter with the weak eyes.  A few chapters later, Laban had the nerve to call all of Jacob's possessions his own. Forget the labor of Jacob! For fourteen years, he labored for both of his wives and Laban called Jacob's possessions his. The story continues to tell us that Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah and God saw this. He opened Leah's womb and gave her four sons in this chapter. But Rachel had none. 

A few Observations

Since God let Rebekah know when she was pregnant with twins and that the older would serve the younger why did she help God out and have Jacob deceive Esau? Why didn't she pray to God as she had done before and ask Him what she should do? The Bible is silent on this and we are left to wonder the whys of this story. 

Jacob seemed a little bit leery about lying to his father but his mother Rebekah encouraged him to do whatever she said. Once the deed was done, I noticed that when she told him that he should leave the house to protect himself for what he had done. In other words she shifted the blame on him and let him carry it as though he was the one who came up with the idea. Yet she was the one who chose to get him to lie. 

I noticed something else.  Later on in the story when Jacob saw Rachel he kissed her and wept aloud. However when his mother Rebekah saw Isaac she covered her face so there was something different in the tradition there. I wonder why. 

I also noticed when Jacob told Laban his story of how he deceived his brother, Laban responds,  oh you really are a part of my people. Since his sister was the one who encouraged Jacob to be deceitful, perhaps the whole store was recognizable and familiar to Laban. Perhaps, there might have been a similar story in their past. So, since Jacob was familiar with deceit, I'm sure he was not surprised when Laban deceived him. Perhaps, Laban is in essence acknowledging that there is lying and deceit on their side of the family. Perhaps, culturally, this was acceptable.

Beauty & Tragedy

This story also embraces a beauty & tragedy. Her name is Leah. She was born with some kind of physical issue with her eyes. Perhaps  society judged her appearance negatively and she was given to a husband who never had a heart for her. Even though her story is laced with tragedy, Jacob kept going back to her because she kept having children. 

Anyway, God saw this unloved woman and his way of having compassion for her was to give her several boys. I understand that having lots of boys in this culture was like winning the lottery... I know a bad comparison but I think it works here. Anyway, for a while Leah hoped that her husband would love her but he never seemed to come around. 

Finally, Leah decided to lift up God and praise him for her fourth son and named him  Judah. By doing this, she declared God as the one who orchestrated her life. As God tells his story through people, he chose Leah to bear Judah who eventually became part of the lineage of Jesus. Sometimes God picks the underdog or the most unlikely persons to bear his will and his message. And that is exactly what he did in this case. If someone was writing a romantic novel with an impactful ending such as the Messiah, most likely, the writer would have chosen the romance story of Jacob and beautiful Rachel but this was not the case. 

About Food

These chapters also do an excellent job of giving us ideas on what they ate. So far, we know that they ate goat with savory seasonings. At least this is what Rebekah prepared for Issac. She knew how to blend the spices exactly the way Issac liked it. Esau must have known too. His father asked him to prepare the fresh game meat just the way he liked it. Jacob knew how to fix lentils. His cooking enticed Esau to give up his birthright. In fact, the Bible says that he despised it for a bowl of lentils. We don't eat lentils too much today in the United States. It is still a savory dish in other cultures but generally speaking, we've lost the art of making it so scrumptious that we would want to sell our birthright too. 

Lessons

I'm guessing my lesson here is that God does not always pick what appears to us to be the right one. Nothing seem to be wrong with Esau but God looked on the heart of both of them. The Bible says he hated Esau and at this point, I am not too sure why. Perhaps this is something that I have yet to discover. On the other hand, the very name of Jacob meant heel grabber or deceiver. He is definitely not the one we would choose for the task of carrying the seed of the Messiah but it was God's choice. 

There is so much for me to learn. I am seeing in the story that God is not accepting those who appear to be pure but those are willing to follow him. He accepts those who he has plans for... or in other words he chooses... it seems. 

That's it for today.