Day 11, Sat., 24 Feb., Genesis 28.10-17

It’s unfortunate when one makes genuine, unintended mistakes. The good Lord knows that I make plenty of them, including hopping over last Thursday’s reading, which I now will comment on today! But Jacob, the main character of this reading from Genesis 28, set an intentional pattern early in his life of using deception to achieve his ends. A second twin whose name meant “Supplanter”, he grasped his brother Esau’s heel even in the womb. The rivalry, foretold by God to their mother Rebekah, continued outside of her womb when Jacob took advantage of his hungry elder brother’s ill discipline and induced him to exchange his birthright for a “mess of pottage” as older translations memorably put it. Then, egged on by his mother Rebekah, (Why do parents persist in thinking that showing favouritism is a good idea?) Jacob deceived his father, the ageing, blind and foolish Isaac, into bestowing on him rather than on his sibling the blessing of seniority. Cunning Rebekah (her son’s mother!) prevailed on her husband to allow Jacob to return to family in northern Haran, but in point of fact Jacob fled, pursued by Esau’s hate. 

In the flight God got to work on Jacob. God may also have also got to work on Esau in Jacob’s absence. We know nothing about that, except that when Jacob eventually returned to meet his nemesis more than 20 years later, Esau had amassed a fortune and a fighting force of 400 men, which in those times was considerable, and had forgiven his brother. Perhaps Esau’s impulsive, “live for the moment” character which placed him at a disadvantage with his scheming brother had its positive side. But we return to Jacob, whose name God eventually changed to Israel. It is the story of Israel we are following. For him the wages of deception was to become a fugitive. That is surely not what he had intended! Homeless, alone, miserable, exhausted and no doubt fearing for his life he lays his head upon a rock and falls asleep. There are shades here of yesterday’s blog in which I quoted Al Gore’s statement: “The difference between despair and hope is a good night’s sleep.” But the undeserving Jacob receives more than that. He dreams of…Now much as I’d love to say, “The world’s greatest song, ‘Stairway to Heaven’”, that is not true, and my wife would have words with me when she reads this. But “Stairway to Heaven” is in fact a reasonable translation, so I’d better do a bit of digging. We presume that the vision he received was not of a fireman’s ladder, nor of a beanstalk. Those structures belong to our culture. “Jacob’s ladder” may have been a vision of a ziggurat, a stepped pyramid used in Mesopotamia as a religious structure that was designed to reach the heavens. One important thing is that Jacob had gone to sleep in a “thin” place, a place where heaven and earth were particularly close, as depicted by the angels ascending and descending on the structure that linked the two realms. Even more importantly, Jesus used the image of the “stairway to heaven” to describe Himself:  “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

But that came much later in the story. The wonderful facet of this part of the great story of God’s salvation plan for the whole world, as worked out through all too imperfect people such as Jacob, is that the faithful God chooses and uses peculiarly faithless people. Why didn’t God choose Esau, for goodness’ sake? He strikes me as a bit of a rough and tumble, but essentially a decent kind of a bloke a bit like the apostle Peter, perhaps. Why not him? I think it’s because God never wants us to take the credit for ourselves. We can't handle it. As soon as we do that, as soon as we start thinking we’re a bit of all right, we’re gone! Instead, there is a whole long story of God ruthlessly forming Jacob that plays out during the 20 years Jacob is away from home. One might call it “The trickster tricked!” God’s chief human agent is Jacob’s uncle and Rebekah’s brother, the arch manipulator Laban. And essentially it’s about a” honey trap”, as they call it in spy thrillers. Jacob falls head over heels in love with his cousin Rachel, and that of course renders him very vulnerable indeed. 

God is faithful to the faithless Jacob. By the time Jacob manages to turn the tables on Laban he escapes as a very wealthy man. He has received a considerable down payment on the huge blessing in land, descendants and wealth God promised him in chapter 28.13-15. But how ruthless God is in conforming Jacob to His will and character! The whole tumultuous relationship between the two reaches its climax when they wrestle at Jabbok’s brook and Jacob is rendered lame. This is a fantastic story, filled with resonances. Do take the time to read it in detail!

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