March 2–8: “Let God Prevail”

Genesis 24–33

I have to admit that the Come Follow Me introduction to this week’s reading makes me chuckle as it places a very positive spin on some of the events in the life of Jacob:

How do you secure for yourself a blessing from God? You might say that the account of Jacob, grandson of Abraham and Sarah, is the story of a man who learned the answer to that question. In a culture where the firstborn son received a birthright blessing, Jacob was born second, grasping the heel of his twin brother, Esau. The name “Jacob” means “supplanter”—one who replaces someone else. Jacob lived up to that name by trying, more than once, to supplant Esau as inheritor of the birthright blessing because Esau was unworthy of it (see Genesis 25:30–34; 26:34–35; 27:36). The result was discord in the family, and Jacob had to flee for his life into the wilderness.

In many ways the story of Jacob stands in stark contrast to that of his grandparents Abraham and Sarah. As discussed in last week’s readings they waited patiently on the Lord to realise the blessings that they had been promised, while, when we read Jacob’s story, he tried to expedite the process. Thus, in Jacob’s life it is possible to see how the Lord uses despite their imperfections.

We read in Genesis 25 of the struggle that Esau and Jacob had in Rebekah’s womb:

And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren: and the Lord was entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to inquire of the Lord. And the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger (21-23).

We also read later that while Isaac favoured Esau, Rebekah favoured Jacob:

And Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison: but Rebekah loved Jacob (Genesis 25:28).

Maybe I’m filling in the blanks but one can imagine that Rebekah had shared her revelation during the pregnancy with Jacob, that one day Esau would serve him, and the people of Jacob would be greater than the people of Esau. With this as a background it is possible to suggest that Jacob’s actions seemed to be designed to expedite this process. I have been quoting my friend Ben Spackman a lot in these early weeks of Come Follow Me, and I will do so again here, as we reflect on Jacob’s relationship with Esau:

[Jacob] seems, at best, cleverly cold and calculating and at worst, dishonest and conniving.

Let’s consider the first event where Esau sells his birthright to Jacob:

And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint: And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom. And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me? And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright (Genesis 25:29-34).

The usual message from the retelling of this narrative surrounds the casual nature with which Esau treats his birthright. Indeed, Come Follow Me outlines:

In Isaac and Rebekah’s culture, the oldest son received the birthright, which meant a greater inheritance, along with greater responsibilities for caring for the family. As you read Genesis 25:29–34, ponder why Esau might have been willing to give up his birthright in exchange for a meal. What lessons do you find for yourself in this account? It might help to make two lists: (1) eternal blessings God wants to give you and (2) worldly things that might distract you. Then you could read the passage, replacing “birthright” with something from the first list and “pottage” with something from the second. How will you focus on the Savior and the eternal blessings of His gospel?

Esau did wrong in despising and selling his birthright. This is an important point, and the suggestion is that Esau did not see any value in it, and as such he was willing to part with it. In Jewish literature Radak suggests this was a wholly appropriate action by Jacob:

…the reason was that Yaakov pursued a lifestyle that would lead to eternal life, whereas Esau did the opposite. Not only did he not lead a life leading to eternal life after death, but he actively forfeited even life on earth, exposing himself to needless dangers. Seeing that Yitzchok was aging and sitting at home most of the time, he was not aware of Esau’s doings and was easily led to believe that Esau led a virtuous life, basing his belief on the daily supply of venison his son provided for him. The story unfolds at a time when Yitzchok was already incapable of seeing well with his physical eyes. The story of the sale of the birthright is told primarily to illustrate the disdain with which Esau looked upon spiritual values as a valuable acquisition, something guaranteeing a person life beyond death.

The suggestion here is that Esau was exaggerating his hunger, maybe in the way we might say ‘I’m starving’- and that for a mess of pottage Esau was willing to give up his birthright. A couple of passages illustrate this manner of Esau, and how this might apply to us:

[This provides] an explanation of why Jacob is more suitable as the covenant heir… It is not that Esau trades the covenant blessing away (remember that the birthright relates to material inheritance), but rather he shows his attitude towards his heritage. If he so lightly esteems his material inheritance, what reason is there to believe that he will value a covenant birthright? (John H. Walton, Genesis: The NIV Application Commentary, 558).

Esau, the episode makes clear, is not spiritually fit to be the vehicle of divine election, the bearer of the birthright of Abraham’s seed.  He is altogether too much the slave of the moment and of the body’s tyranny to become the progenitor of the people promised by divine covenant that it will have a vast destiny to fulfil (Robert Alter, The Art of Biblical Narrative, 41).

As children of the covenant we have a birthright, as children of the Saviour as we accept His atonement can we sell that inheritance by placing other things in front of our relationship with the Lord?

As I turn to the other side of this story I am somewhat conflicted by the actions of Jacob. He is using Esau’s weakness or state as a way to get what he sees as rightfully his, based on his mother’s dream. If his brother is hungry, surely he would just give him his food rather than exacting a price. One biblical commentator has noted:

God’s covenantal blessings were gifts to be received, not grasped. They carried the responsibility that they be used for others, not hoarded. This was lost on Jacob. Though Jacob had faith (unlike his brother Esau), he depended on his own abilities to secure the rights he valued. Jacob exploited hungry Esau into selling him the birthright (Gen. 25:29-34). It is good that Jacob valued the birthright, but deeply faithless for him to secure it for himself, especially in the manner he did so… Jacob began a long period of genuine belief in God’s covenantal promises, yet he failed to live in confidence of what God would do for him.

I began the discussion by suggesting that Jacob’s life stood in contrast to his grandparents. This illustrates the point perfectly. His name means ‘supplanter’ or one who takes the place off- this is a name I have struggled with, as the English version is James- it suggests a deception, and the fact that Jacob was named as such is very appropriate, a point Esau makes later with respect to a further action to claim what he felt was his due:

And he said, Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and, behold, now he hath taken away my blessing (Genesis 37:36).

This has reference to the events where Rebekah and Jacob worked together to deceive Isaac, so that Jacob would receive the blessing due to Esau. Knowing that Esau was preparing venison for his father after which he would receive his blessing, Rebekah made some of the meat and instructed Jacob to take it to his father to secure a blessing for Isaac died, Jacob realised that because of the hairiness of Esau that his father would realise it was not him. Rebekah and Jacob conspired to overcome these issues

And Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob her younger son: And she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck: And she gave the savoury meat and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob. And he came unto his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I; who art thou, my son? And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau thy firstborn; I have done according as thou badest me: arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me. And Isaac said unto his son, How is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son? And he said, Because the Lord thy God brought it to me. And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son, whether thou be my very son Esau or not. And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father; and he felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau’s hands: so he blessed him. And he said, Art thou my very son Esau? And he said, I am. And he said, Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son’s venison, that my soul may bless thee. And he brought it near to him, and he did eat: and he brought him wine, and he drank. And his father Isaac said unto him, Come near now, and kiss me, my son. And he came near, and kissed him: and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him (Genesis 27:15-27).

Through deception and outright lying Jacob received the blessing, meant for Esau. This is not the end of the story, this was not the covenantal blessing that perhaps Jacob and Rebekah expected, but as an aside we might be left to consider any particular consequences for Jacob. Did he get away with it? Well, yes and no. Ben Spackman again highlights the chain of consequences this deception seems to set in motion:

As it turns out, the deceiver who profits by his deception is in turn deceived. It’s not quite “karma” or “what goes around comes around” but close. Jacob, now the possessor of the birthright AND the blessing, will in turn be deceived several times about identity. When he goes to Aram to work for his future wife’s father Laban, he works seven years for her… and then the night of the wedding, the older daughter is switched for the younger (Genesis 29:21-22). Jacob substituted the younger son for the older through deceptive identity, and he is repaid in kind by having the older daughter substituted for the younger through deceptive identity (presumably veils and a very dark tent.) And he must work another seven years for Rachel.

Then at the ripe old age of his life, he is again deceived, this time by his sons through a particular garment and the role of a goat (see my article here.) While Jacob had used the goat’s meat, smell, and skin to deceive his father, Jacob’s son deceive him about Joseph’s death by using a garment and a goat, whose blood is smeared on that garment.

So while Jacob is not punished per se, literary connections in the text (which will also include Judah, Tamar, Potiphar’s wife, and Joseph in Egypt) show that his deceptions set off a chain of deceit which comes back to bite him and echoes through his family for generations.

Before studying this story again this week, I hadn’t really thought through all of these links. Not that I think anyone deserves to be deceived, but Jacob’s indignation of being deceived by Laban is ameliorated in the reader’s eyes because of his predilection to deception earlier in his life. Again, supported elsewhere:

Prof. E.S. Hartom, in his introductory remarks* to Gen. 29, states explicitly that Lavan’s trickery was punishment for Ya’akov’s deception. Nehama Leibowitz writes (New Studies in Bereshit, p. 266): “The vicissitudes of Jacob’s life teach us, at every step, how he was repaid–measure for measure–for taking advantage of his father’s blindness.” Similarly, the Christian commentator Gordon Wenham writes (Word Biblical Commentary, Gen. vol. 2, p. 216) writes: “Only subsequently does it emerge that Jacob and Rebekah suffer for their deeds… Thus, despite his apparent silence about the morality of the actions of Jacob and Rebekah, the narrator points out that they paid dearly for them.”

Though not all agree:

An alternate interpretation, that I think is closer to the simple meaning, is that the text approves of Ya’akov’s deception. The context seems to imply justification. Gen. 25 discusses the prophecy of Ya’akov’s superiority and the contrast of Ya’akov’s and Eisav’s personalities. Gen. 26 (v. 7) mentions Yitzchak’s deception of Avimelekh. And at the end of Gen. 27 and beginning of Gen. 28, Yitzchak blesses Ya’akov again and instructs him not to marry a Canaanite woman. This seems to be an intentional contrast with Eisav, who married Hittite women to his parents’ dismay (26:34-35). The entire context seems to imply that Ya’akov was justified in using deception to obtain what was rightfully his rather than allowing the wicked Eisav to continue the Abrahamic legacy.

It is important to note that despite his efforts, Jacob has not received the blessing of bestowed upon Abraham. It is only later when he dreams of the ladder that he realises that the promises are still to be fulfilled and later will be:

And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of (Genesis 28:12-15).

This is confirmed in chapter 32 following his wrestle with the Lord:

And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there (27-29).

This is confirmed in the Come Follow Me manual:

Years later, God commanded Jacob to return home. On the way, Jacob, in humility, again sought a blessing from God. The scriptures describe this time as a “wrestle” for Jacob, and he declared that he would not give up “except thou bless me” (Genesis 32:26). Then came the lesson—and the blessing. God changed Jacob’s name to Israel—meaning, among other things, “let God prevail.” Israel learned that to receive God’s most valuable blessings, His covenant blessings, it’s not necessary to supplant someone else. His blessings aren’t purchased or seized or won. He gives them freely to all who live up to the name of Israel—who let God prevail in their lives.

Up until this point in his life Jacob, despite lots of positive aspects and focus on the Lord, it could be argued had tried to rely on his own wisdom and strength, it is only when he lets God prevail that he receives the promised blessing. He did not expedite the blessing he was to receive; one realises that we cannot force the hand of the Lord. His plans will not be frustrated. 

If we link this to the atonement of the Saviour; we might try every which way to overcome sin and struggles but it is only by surrendering to the Lord and letting Him prevail that we can be forgiven. I am reminded of the scene in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Here, Eustace has been turned into a dragon because of his lust for wealth, he struggles to remove the scaly skin for himself; each time he manages to shed his skin with a little bit of effort but within moments he discovers that it has returned. It is only when Aslan (a type for Christ throughout the books) offers to help him remove the skin, does it have any impact:

The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. . . .Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off — just as I thought I’d done it myself the other three times, only they hadn’t hurt — and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me — I didn’t like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I’d no skin on — and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I’d turned into a boy again. . . . After a bit the lion took me out and dressed me . . . in new clothes (2001, pp. 117-118).

This might help us understand and remember better what the process of conversion and repentance: 

And my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens.  And there came a voice unto me, saying: Enos, thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou shalt be blessed. And I, Enos, knew that God could not lie; wherefore, my guilt was swept away. And I said: Lord, how is it done? And he said unto me: Because of thy faith in Christ, whom thou hast never before heard nor seen. And many years pass away before he shall manifest himself in the flesh; wherefore, go to, thy faith hath made thee whole (Enos 1:4-8).

The reception of the Holy Ghost and process of sanctification makes us a new creature in Christ. It is not a passive relationship, our indwelling with the Holy Ghost and the activation of the atonement, entails the removal of sin and its replacement with Christ-like qualities. Parley P. Pratt has described that the Holy Ghost actively:

…quickens all the intellectual faculties, increases, enlarges, expands, and purifies all the natural passions and affections, and adapts them, by the gift of wisdom, to their lawful use. [He] inspires, develops, cultivates, and matures all the fine-toned sympathies, joys, tastes, kindred feelings, and affections of our nature. [He] inspires virtue, kindness, goodness, tenderness, gentleness, and charity. [He] develops beauty of person, form, and features. [He] tends to health, vigour, animation, and social feeling. [He] invigorates all the faculties of the physical and intellectual man. [He] strengthens and gives tone to the nerves. In short, [he] is, as it were, marrow to the bone, joy to the heart, light to the eyes, music to the ears, and life to the whole being (Parley P. Pratt, Key to the Science of Theology , p. 61).

This change of heart is, however, not a one-time event. It is something that we have to recapture every day of our lives through Hearing Him. In our daily interactions with the Godhead we are able to develop more of their characteristics and qualities; it is by spending time Hearing Him that we are able to become more like them, to become more Christlike.

There is lots more in this week’s reading, but it is the juxtaposition of the deception of Jacob and his ultimate reliance on the Lord that stands out to me.