This is meant to be a fun reading (with some commentary) for all ages through Scripture. Please do not take this as a substitute for reading through the Bible on your own.
Previously, we witnessed the end of Abraham’s life as Isaac starts his own with his new wife Rebekah.
For whatever reason, Isaac doesn't seem to have much personality. Perhaps this is because he is the longed for only-child of two elderly parents and they spoiled him rotten. For whatever reason, we do not hear much of his story. All we know is that when settling in another land during a famine temporarily, he does the exact same thing with Rebekah that his father did with his mother.
Indeed, Isaac's story is more a transition into that of his son, or perhaps we would be better to say "sons", for he was a father of twins. The first twin to be born is Esau with Jacob clinging to his leg. Esau, from all the tales told about him, seems to be the better of the two, though perhaps a little dumb. As an example of his intelligence, in a moment of hunger he is willing to sell his birthright as the older twin to his brother for a scrap of food.
Jacob, on the other hand, is a scoundrel, as we will have plenty of chances to see. Yet somehow, he is the one God favors. This shows that God looks for something different than we are and that God is willing to love all of us, regardless of our behavior in this world.
Even though Jacob, apparently, has the birthright, it is, for some reason, necessary for him to ensure this birthright by seeking his father's blessing. Now Jacob is not only a scoundrel but a trickster, and he apparently gets this trait from his mother. When Isaac gets ready to bestow his blessing on his boys, Rebekah conspires with Jacob to make sure he gets the better of the blessings.
For you see, Isaac was getting well on into age, and he asked Esau, renowned for his hunting, to bring him a meal so he could give him his blessing. Rebekah tells Jacob about this and hatches a plan. Because of his advanced age, Isaac was losing his sight, so he could not tell which son was which just by seeing them. He would have to do so by feeling their arms, for Esau was a hairy, hairy man.
Rebekah hatches their plot mostly on her own. She has Jacob get the best of their livestock and bring it to her so that she can prepare a meal that Jacob will bring to his father. She then gets the bright idea to cover Jacob’s skin with the pelt of the goats she has prepared, so that Isaac will think he is talking to Esau when in reality he is speaking with Jacob.
And their plan, or rather her plan, works. At first, when Jacob comes in, Isaac is confused. After all, this doesn’t sound like Esau. Plus, he did complete Isaac’s task suspiciously quickly, even for a skilled hunter like Esau. Yet once he feels Jacob’s goat-haired arms, he thinks this must be Esau. After all, who else would be this hairy? So Isaac gives his blessing, a sign that Jacob will be a leader to the family. He even ends with something similar to what God told his own father, that may all who curse Jacob be cursed and all who bless him be blessed.
And of course, once Jacob has left, Esau finally comes in. Isaac is understandably confused, asking Esau, ‘didn’t you already come in?’ It doesn’t take them long to realize Jacob has gotten the once over on them both. Poor Esau is understandably upset, having been bamboozled twice, and asks if there’s anything his father can do. Yet Isaac says his hands are tied for he has already given Jacob reign over their family. Esau wants something, anything, so he asks if his father can’t give him a blessing too. Isaac obliges, yet the blessing he gives can only reflect Esau's role now. He blesses the work of Esau's hands as a hunter, yet Isaac also acknowledges, in his blessing, that Esau will now serve his brother.
As you can probably imagine, Esau is upset and that worries his brother. Jacob decides it might be good to get out of town for a while. Once again, his mother Rebekah intervenes. She tells Jacob to go to live with her brother Laban for a time. She even convinces Isaac to bless this journey. So off Jacob goes.
Now in Jacob’s time, people believed in many gods, though not the One True God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth and the God of Abraham and Isaac. These gods were considered the gods of families and tribes, and they are rooted and connected to the land. To leave one place and go to another was to escape one’s gods.
Jacob had a long journey, and he found himself in need of rest. Because he was in the wilderness, he needed protection from wild animals, so he would have placed four rocks, one at his head, one at his feet, and one on each of his sides for protection. Then he would have fallen asleep.
While Jacob slept, he dreamed. In that dream, he saw a huge ladder that Angels were climbing up and down on. This stairway reached all the way to Heaven, all the way to the place that God resides even.
At this point in the story, we might think that God favoured Esau. Yes, Esau was not the sharpest crayon in the box or the brightest lightbulb even. That is, Esau was not a very smart man. He got tricked by his brother not once but twice. Yet of the two of them, Esau seems to be the better behaved. At the very least, he was the one who deserved justice.
Yet God does not look at people the same way that we do, so in this dream, God gives Jacob the same promise the Lord gave to his father and his grandfather. Jacob’s people will be a great nation, and all will be blessed through them.
Then Jacob wakes up, and he was probably really scared. In leaving, he would have thought he left his father’s God behind, but he didn’t. Little did he know, God can be anywhere and everywhere. You cannot escape God. Jacob then decides to take one of the stones he used to protect himself while sleeping and set up a pillar. He called that place Bethel, meaning “God’s house” and swore that he would build a house for God there in the future, if he could survive that long.
Finally, Jacob made his way to his uncle Laban. If we had any doubt that all of Jacob’s trickster ways came from his mother, Laban dispels all those doubts. He is just as crafty and conniving as his sister Rebekah. From the minute Jacob walks in, Laban sees him merely as free service. Immediately he puts Jacob to work, though he does allow Jacob to choose his wages.
Now before Jacob met Laban, he saw Laban’s daughter, Rachel. They had a “meet cute”, you might say, talking with one another and falling in love. So when Laban asks Jacob what he wants in return for his labour, Jacob says he wants Rachel’s hand in marriage.
Laban, however, has two daughters and, according to the tradition of his time, wants to marry his oldest daughter, Leah, off first. He tries to explain this to Jacob, offering him Leah’s hand instead. Jacob, however, is smitten, and he will not budge. He wants to marry Rachel. Laban gives in, though he tells Jacob he’s going to have to work for 7 years first, the same number as the days and rest of God’s act of Creation.
Jacob does as Laban asks. He tends his flock for 7 years, and at the end of that time asks for Rachel’s hand. They have a big beautiful ceremony. The bride, in a custom of that time, is veiled. Everything goes smoothly in the ceremony. Then Jacob wakes up the next day to see he hasn't married Rachel as he thought, but instead Leah.
Jacob is understandably angry being on the receiving end of craftiness, so Laban makes him a deal. If he’ll work for 7 more years, he can marry Rachel. Jacob agrees and begins working again.
Now the deal between Laban and Jacob will seem quite strange to our modern ears and rightfully so. In the church we do not recognize multiple marriages to one person, and we certainly wouldn’t have siblings marry the same person. We would never see a deal like what Laban made with Jacob now-a-days, and for good reason as we see shortly.
For once Jacob finishes his second set of 7 years work, it is clear to Leah that Jacob loves Rachel much more than her. The interesting thing is that God, as we are told in the Good Book, looks with favor on Leah because she is unloved, and she begins having lots of children. The children, unfortunately, become a means of competition between Leah and Rachel. Just as Sarah did with Hagar, they get their servants in on the contest too. In the end, these are the children of Jacob:
Leah first has 4 sons:
- Reuben
- Simeon
- Levi
- Judah
Then Rachel’s servant Bilhah has 2 sons:
- Dan
- Naphtali
Leah’s servant Zilpah has 2 sons:
- Gad
- Asher
Then Leah has 2 more sons of her own:
- Issachar
- Zebulun
Finally Rachel has 2 sons of her own:
- Joseph
- Benjamin
Make note of these names, for as many as they are they will be important as we continue the story of God’s People and see Abraham’s descendants indeed become a great nation.
Under Jacob, Laban’s flock, and fortunes grew, and though Laban knew it was God’s favor on Jacob that brought this about, he still sought to swindle Jacob. Unfortunately for him, Jacob decided he had enough and wanted to work Laban over.
Laban proposed that Jacob take a wage for his time of labor with him, and Jacob got crafty. He asked for all the spotted goats and lambs among Laban’s flock. Laban, being the trickster he was, agreed and had such goats and lambs removed from the main flock so Jacob couldn’t find them. Yet Jacob, centuries before genetics or advanced breeding techniques had been discovered, found a way to make sure the new babies of the flock not only were spotted, but were strong. In this way he pulled one over Laban’s own trick in order to walk away with the best deal deal and the best of the flock with him.
Laban finally agreed to let Jacob go with his family. Jacob now had the most difficult part of the journey ahead of him: going home to face his brother once again. Jacob, for one of the few times in his trickster life, feels a bit of apprehension.