Rebekah sends Jacob off to her family in Haran. The period of the Patriarchs opened with
Abraham being called out of the east, to journey west into the Promised Land. Now,
Jacob goes in reverse, fleeing for his life east to Haran. Jacob is going in the
direction of
exile, east, away from God’s Promised Land; this too is a consequence of and punishment
for his sin.
As Jacob is about to cross out of the Promised Land, he vows,
If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me
bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father’s house in
peace, then the L
ORD
shall be my God. (Gn 28:20–21)
Jacob, fearful that he will never return to the Promised Land, prays for God’s help.
But unlike his father and grandfather before him, Jacob does not refer to God with the
covenant term of “Lord,” but simply as “God.” Additionally, Jacob’s vow is conditional.
Only if God provides for this deceiver will Jacob take the God of his fathers as his Lord!
For Jacob, God is the God of his fathers, but not yet his Lord.
In Haran, Jacob meets his uncle, Laban, and falls in love with one of Laban’s
daughters, Rachel. He works faithfully for Laban seven years so
that he can pay the dowry
and marry Rachel. Finally, the day of his wedding is at hand, and after celebrating the
feast, Jacob goes into his tent to meet his bride. But in the morning,
p 50
he finds that
the woman with whom he has consummated the marriage covenant is not Rachel, but
Leah, Rachel’s older sister. Laban has switched his daughters!
Jacob asks Laban, “Why then have you deceived me?” Why did you switch Leah for
Rachel? Laban responds, “It is not so done in our country, to give the younger before the
firstborn” (Gn 29:26). Jacob, the deceiver, has now been deceived! Jacob, who deceived
his father and stole the elder son’s blessing, now is deceived and given the eldest, Leah,
and not
the younger, Rachel, in marriage. Just as Jacob had deceived his father in the
twilight of his life when he could not see well, Jacob is deceived in the night when he
cannot see well. Jacob reaps the deceit he has sown.
Jacob is now married to Leah, but he works seven more years to marry the beloved
Rachel as well. It is obvious that Rachel is the favored wife, but she is barren. Leah bears
sons, while Rachel bears none. Following Sarah’s bad example, both sisters give their
maidservants into the embrace of their husband, Jacob, competing to
see which side of
the family will have more children. Finally, Rachel bears her first son, Joseph. Once again,
no judgment is stated regarding Jacob’s taking of multiple wives and concubines. Rather,
the judgment shows itself in the consequences Jacob and his family suffer; the constant
rivalry between Jacob’s wives and sons will bring immeasurable division.
A Fearful Return
Jacob stays with his uncle Laban for some time, but finally decides it is time to return
home, back to the Promised Land. The Lord allows Jacob to prosper in the land of Haran,
and he leaves that land enriched. As Jacob and his family near the Promised Land (Gn
32), Jacob sends messengers to Esau asking that he might find favor in Esau’s sight,
hopeful that the twenty years that have passed have lessened Esau’s wrath. The
messengers return to Jacob, reporting that Esau is coming to meet him with four hundred
men. Is this a welcome party or an army?
Fearing for his life and that of his family, Jacob cries out to the Lord (Gn 32:9–12).
This time, however, rather than making a conditional request, Jacob begins by recalling
God’s promises, faithfulness, and steadfast love, and Jacob’s own unworthiness! This
deceiver has begun to turn away from his old ways. That
p 51
night, Jacob meets a strange
man and wrestles with him through the night. Jacob asks for a blessing and receives it.
The man changes Jacob’s name
to Israel, which means “he who strives [wrestles] with
God” (Gn 32:28). Jacob’s new name will become the name of the nation formed by the
tribes of his twelve sons, a nation that will do its own wrestling with God. The strange
man then gives Jacob the blessing—this time not stolen, but requested and received (Gn
32:26, 29). The lesson for Jacob is that he did not have to steal the blessing from Esau.
Here, he asks, and God blesses him, and Jacob can say, “I have seen God face to face” (Gn
32:30). This remarkable encounter in which Jacob sees the face of God is the key to the
next day’s events.
The following day, Jacob sees Esau with his four hundred men coming from a
distance. Jacob places his concubines with their children in front, Leah and her children
second, and Rachel with Joseph last. Such an ordering is another reminder of who Jacob
loves best, a reminder not lost on Jacob’s sons. If Esau’s intent is to kill them all, Rachel
and Joseph will have the best chance of escape. When Jacob finally meets Esau, he bows
to him. Much to Jacob’s surprise, Esau runs to him, weeping, and embraces his brother.
Jacob offers Esau a gift and says, “Accept my present from my hand; for truly to see your
face is like seeing the face of God” (Gn 33:10).
Jacob’s words give us insight into what happened to Jacob in the wrestling match the
night before: after all of Jacob’s striving and conniving, the
God who wrestled with and
then blessed Jacob now reveals himself to Jacob in the face of Esau. What is God’s lesson
in this? It is that loving one’s brother is like loving God, and very much a part of receiving
his blessing.
God’s plan was to bless Jacob; this is clear from the Lord’s word to Rebekah at his
birth: “The elder shall serve the younger” (Gn 25:23). Jacob’s life of theft, scheming, and
deceit was not what blessed him. The love of God is what blessed him. He did not need
to wrestle and deceive to obtain the blessing, rather he needed to
trust and call upon his
God, the God of his fathers. And when he finally did so, it led him back to the very man
he had wronged—in order to give him a blessing. Indeed, in the next verse (Gn 33:11),
the term for the “gift” that Jacob offers his brother is literally “blessing.” Jacob returns the
blessing to Esau; that is,
p 52
the portion of the blessing that relates to material prosperity
is now shared with Esau as an act of restoration, “because God has dealt graciously with
me, and because I have enough” (Gn 33:11). While the blessing as it relates to headship
in the family, both spiritual (priestly) and political (royal), remains with Jacob, he
graciously offers what he can to his brother. This lesson of brotherly love foreshadows the
New Testament teaching that love of God and love of neighbor are intimately
intertwined.
The story of fraternal rivalry is as old as human history. The
bloodshed of Abel is a
constant reminder that such rivalry can be deadly indeed. Here, despite the threat of
bloodshed, there is reconciliation. For the first time in the story, there is hope that
reconciliation and forgiveness can win the day. It is just this kind of hope that Jacob’s
sons will desperately need in the next story.
A
CT
4:
J
OSEPH
,
THE
F
AVORED
S
ON
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