By Jill Roberts and Michael Canalé
Last week, we had an overview of Jacob and the, at times, inexplicable favor of God on his life. This week, we will zoom in on the remarkable early life of Jacob, a man known as both a deceiver of unparalleled proportions and, also, as an iconic Patriarch of God’s Chosen People.
How right Michael is when he observes,
“Humans will be humans, even when God is inviting them onto a higher road in life. At the time we are studying, mankind did not yet have the Ten Commandments and it showed in their lives.”
Nowhere is this truer than in the behavior of Jacob! As you recall from last week’s study, Jacob and his mother, Rebekah, literally plotted against Esau, Jacob’s twin brother, to steal the all important and financially lucrative blessing to which Esau, as the older son, was entitled. The following is what Esau lost as a result of Jacob’s and Rebekah’s deception. These are the words of aged and nearly blind father, Issac, delivered to the deceiving Jacob as he fraudulently received the blessing:
“May nations serve you
And peoples bow down to you
BE LORD OVER YOUR BROTHERS
and may the sons of your mother
bow down to you.
May those who curse you be cursed
And those who bless you be
blessed.”
(emphasis added)
(Genesis 27:29) NIV
This blessing was stolen by Jacob. When Esau learned of it and of the fact that it could not be reversed, he declared he would kill Jacob.
Michael says, regarding Jacob’s blatant theft,
“Looking at Jacob’s life, it was absolutely normal for this character to live like this!”
Wouldn’t it stand to reason that God would reject this thief, based on what Michael describes as a lifetime pattern of deception? After all, Jacob was not being considered for some minor role in Biblical history. He was up for being a Patriarch of God’s Chosen People, like his grandfather, Abraham and his father, Isaac. Wouldn’t his despicable cheating of his brother and his father, disqualify him as an iconic leader of God’s own favorites?
As Michael says, quite prophetically,
“It’s not for us to judge. The Bible is God’s story, not our opinions. It’s just not our business, though we can always wonder.”
The reality is that the blessing was now firmly in Jacob’s hands, and he was on the run to escape Esau’s death threats.
This brings us to Bethel, stop number one. What happens here is so amazing that, as Michael says, “We can only wonder.” The following verses tell this surprising story:
“Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above, stood the LORD, and he said, ‘I am the LORD, the God of your father, Abraham, and the God of Isaac. I WILL GIVE YOU AND YOUR DESCENDANTS THE LAND ON WHICH YOU ARE LYING. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. ALL THE PEOPLE ON EARTH WILL BE BLESSED THROUGH YOU AND YOUR OFFSPRING. I AM WITH YOU AND WILL WATCH OVER YOU WHEREVER YOU GO, AND I WILL BRING YOU BACK TO THIS LAND. I WILL NOT LEAVE YOU UNTIL I HAVE DONE WHAT I HAVE PROMISED YOU.”
(emphasis added)
Genesis 28:10-15) NIV
Please feel free to join Michael and myself in WONDERING! Here is Jacob, the thief and deceiver of his own family, now, one horse ahead of the posse, so to speak, of Esau, in pursuit of him for his outright betrayal and thievery. Yet, God not only does not rebuke him, He continues the Abrahamic Covenant, and all its honors and joys, with him!
Michael so astutely says,
“There is knowledge that is not in a book. This is God’s world and we are left to wonder about it. And that is just fine.”
The story continues:
“When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, ‘Surely the LORD was in this place, and I was not aware of it.’ He was afraid and said, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.’
Early the next morning, Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. HE CALLED THAT PLACE BETHEL, though the city used to be called Luz.”
What a notable couple of paragraphs! HE WAS NOT AWARE THAT GOD WAS IN THAT PLACE!
That explains a great deal, doesn’t it? By his conduct of dishonesty, Jacob thought that he, himself, was calling the moral and ethical shots. And, in his worldview, his theft was the easiest road to what he thought he needed and wanted. In other words, the end justified the means. He had become the god of the rules.
As Michael said, “The Ten Commandments were not yet the gold standard, as their time was not yet there.”
Michael always calls Scripture, lessons to be learned. What a lesson this is. How easily we can forget that God IS in THIS place. We are never outside the zone of his Kingdom. God is omnipresent and so is His code of behavior – the cornerstone of which is love. One need not memorize God’s statutes to know that love of God and neighbor are its underpinnings. When in doubt, we should just ask if this or that issue in our minds is a loving one. In so doing, we will stay in the center of his laws and their statutory intent.
Before he left Bethel, Jacob vowed that the LORD would be his God, conditionally, if He provided for him in various ways. (Genesis 28:20-22) Of course, God can be counted on in this regard. However, with Jacob, when he left Bethel, he strayed from his side of the vow. After being with his mirror’s image, Laban, a deceiver of monumental proportions, Jacob followed suit and set out an elaborate plan to steal livestock from him. At this, did God say, “Enough is enough?” Not at all:
“Then the Lord said to Jacob, ‘Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.”
(Genesis 31:3) NIV
Jacob took his family and followed God’s orders. Laban, aware of Jacob’s deception, pursued with a vengeance. After God appeared in a dream of Laban’s and warned him, there was ultimately a covenant reached between the two men. Each had deceived the other at one time or another but God divinely brokered peace between them.
As you recall from last week, Jacob then wrestled with a man, some theologians interpret as God. This person changed Jacob’s name to Israel. The flawed Jacob received as high an honor as could be imagined. This name change was later affirmed by God, Himself. (Genesis 35:9-10) NIV
And what happened between Jacob and Esau, his brother who, in a second, later pursuit, ominously brought four hundred men with him as he chased Jacob? Jacob humbled himself before Esau, from whom he had irreversibly stolen so much He even repeatedly referred to him as “his lord,” Esau’s rightful title, had he received their father’s blessing. (Genesis 32:4, 18 and Genesis 33:15)
NIV.
Michael sums it up so beautifully, so eloquently,
“Esau forgave because the unforgiving season wore thin.”
May all of our “unforgiving seasons,” wear thin until they are completely gone. Oh, the lessons of Scripture!
Eventually, Jacob returned, full circle, to Bethel, the site where God had first met him as Esau initially chased Jacob, fully intending revenge for Jacob’s immense sin and deception against him. As cited above, it was there that God officially renamed Jacob, Israel.
Michael wisely ascribes full legitimacy to not knowing or understanding why God does and thinks as He does. We are wise indeed, when we listen to this and surrender ourselves to the One whose judgements are unsearchable, whose ways are past finding out. (Romans 11:33) KJV