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Bible study for Genesis 25:19-34

Gen 25:19-34 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

Isaac and Rebekah’s marriage began in dramatic fashion with their romantic meeting in the Negev (24:62-67).  Abraham, through his servant, had successfully found a wife for Isaac from the line of his father Terah, his father, who was called to ‘leave home’ for Canaan (11:31,32).  The future of the Covenant of God now lay with Isaac and Rebekah, and they had much in common.  Isaac was conceived through a miracle, and Rebekah was found through a miracle!  Also, Isaac was blessed by an angel of the Lord to become ‘a great multitude’ (22:17), and Rebekah received the same blessing from her family (24:60). However, when it came to having children, the two of them, just like Abraham and Sarah, had great difficulty.

Today’s passage of Scripture is the story of the birth Isaac and Rebekah’s twin sons Jacob and Esau; and the story of their feuding from birth.  Right at the beginning, we are told that Rebekah was barren, but Isaac prayed for her and she then became pregnant.  It sounds as if Isaac’s prayer was answered almost immediately!  A closer look at the text however tells us that Isaac prayed for her from the beginning of his marriage, when he was 40 (25:20), but that the twins were born when he was 60!  Isaac had to pray with persistence and patience,

When Rebekah gave birth to her sons, it would normally have been a time of great rejoicing, but both the pregnancy and birth were difficult (25:22-26).  The Lord gave Rebekah a prophecy for her children which spoke of them as ‘two nations’ (25:23).  It was a prophecy that may have seemed incomprehensible, but it came true; Jacob became the Covenant nation of Israel, and Esau became Edom.  God chose one of these to bless (Jacob) but it was not according to the social norms of the day which always favoured the elder.  Indeed, Isaac favoured Esau, and Rebekah favoured Jacob, which all added to the tensions!

The story of what would happen to the two sons and the nations that would come from them is played out in a remarkable cameo sketch focussed around a pot of stew (25:29-34).  Jacob famously managed to deceive Esau into selling his rights as the firstborn son for little more than some lentil soup and bread (25:34).  The story sounds like some teenage ‘playing about’, for the birthright was not Esau’s to sell; it was Isaac’s to give.  We will discover the truth of this later on in Genesis (27) where Jacob had to perform another trick to get the real birthright blessing.  Scripture however is blunt in its judgement of Esau for treating his birthright, which was the Covenant of God with Abraham his grandfather, with contempt.

What is interesting, however, is the speed with which the story now moves with the passing of the Covenant from one generation to another, because previously in Genesis, this has been agonisingly slow.  All of the characters of our story have their good and bad points; Isaac was a man of prayer, but was weak in controlling his family; Rebekah was a good mother but childless for 20 years, Esau was a hunter, but derogatory towards the Covenant and Jacob was a refined but devious character.  Yet in the midst of all this, God appears now to be pursuing his Covenant plan of redemption with increased vigour.  Nothing stands in his way.

Gen 25:19-34 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

There are many fascinating details to this story.  The details of Jacob’s and Esau’s names tell us much about them, as well as what happens in the story.  We will find that Jacob did not give Esau what he promised, for example!  Also, this whole incident is an important one for the theology of the New Testament, because Paul uses it to describe God’s ‘election’ of His people.

Arameans

It is very important for the writers of Scripture to tell us afresh the family ties that link the first generations of God’s people, and this is the purpose of the first few verses of our text, if not the whole passage.  We know the outline of these relationships from various places in Genesis (11:10,27, 24:15 etc.), but there is one interesting detail here which is not found anywhere else.  Verse 20 describes Rebekah as the ‘daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddam-aram, sister of Laban the Aramean.’  It is the identification of Bethuel’s family as ‘Aramean’ which is new, for it is the first place in Scriptures that we hear of a tribal group by this name.

It appears that the ‘Arameans’, broadly speaking, were Abraham’s relations who had not moved south with him to Canaan to follow the Lord’s command.  Because they were related to Abraham in this way, Moses taught the people of Israel a prayer beginning ‘My father was a wandering Aramean …’ (Deut. 26:5; - the father being Abraham), and without the family connection being made clear in this passage here, we would not know what was meant by this prayer, which became important for the people of Israel after the Exodus. The Arameans became a powerful state centered upon Damascus which vied for power with Judah and Israel in later years, but was finally swallowed up in the Assyrian Empire of the eight century BC.

The birth of Jacob and Esau

We will find that Scriptures identify common features in the stories of the forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  The first and most easily discernable one is that of difficult childbirth, and this story of the birth of Jacob and Esau is no exception.  The difficulties of childbirth in ancient times was far greater than today because of the conditions in which women had to give birth, so each time a child was born was cause for not just great rejoicing on the part of the parents, in this case, Rebekah and Isaac, but an example of the protection and guidance of the Lord.  Certainly, Isaac put a great deal of intercession into the birth of his sons, over at least 20 years.  In this case, the birth of twins who were ‘struggling’ within the womb (25:22) was a matter of much trepidation for Rebekah who would have rightly feared for her life in these circumstances.  She was reassured by a prophecy from the Lord.  We can well imagine that the details of which one would be the stronger were not the most important to Rebekah, merely the promise that the turmoil she felt in her womb was indeed two sons who would father two nations.  Through this, the blessings said to her when she left her home (24:60) would be fulfilled.

The birth of Jacob and Esau is a story filled with word-play.  Esau was born first and although one of twins, was by right, the firstborn.  His was rather red at birth, but his name Esau is related to the Hebrew word for hair ‘e‘se’ir’, which was the other one of his infant features!  The Hebrew word for red, ‘admoni’ crops up here and later in the story (the famous ‘red stew’ – see later) and is the reason why Esau was also named ‘Edom’ and became the father of the ‘Edomites’, a tribe of people who lived to the far South East of the Dead Sea in tension with the people of Israel over many years.  Esau was described as a skilful hunter, someone who was a natural explorer an outdoors person.  His father favoured him, perhaps admiring in him a strong and adventurous spirit; something he did not appear to have himself.

Jacob was born famously grasping Esau’s heel.  This action is prophetic of the whole of Jacob’s life, an indication yet again that the Scriptures see great connections between the conception and birth of a child and their consequent life.  We are not to think that Jacob spent his whole life hanging on to Esau, but he certainly did live his whole life hanging on to the firstborn birthright that he deceptively stole from him.  In the end, God blessed him, and gave him a new name, ‘Israel’, meaning ‘he who struggles, prevails’ (Gen 32:32).  When we recall the name of God’s people, we might recall its meaning and the reason it was given.  Jacob was loved by his mother, and was also described as a quiet man (25:27) which is a strange description.  The Hebrew word used here indicates that Jacob was a ‘self-possessed’ person who was content in himself; a useful quality for someone who was a great schemer, as we shall see!

The selling of a birthright?

The story of Esau selling his rights as the firstborn is famous.  These are sometimes called the ‘birthrights’, but it is more accurate to describe them as rights of the firstborn.  In ancient times, firstborn birthrights varied.  There are some ancient records which indicate that the normal apportionment was ‘twice as much for the favoured firstborn’; yet the stakes were higher in the Bible, as we have seen in the division of Abraham’s inheritance, where by far the majority went to Isaac (25:1-18) because of the spiritual significance of the Covenant.

Jacob had begun life grasping at Esau’s heel, and the grasping, according to this story, continued.  One day, when Esau came in from the fields, he saw in front of Jacob a rich meat stew.  Most translations simply say ‘red stuff’, but the Hebrew words describe a sumptuous red stew!  Also, the ‘redness’ of the stew is a play on Esau’s second name, Edom.  It is impossible to fathom why Esau entered into a bargain with his brother for family food that should be shared, which is why the story sounds like a youthful squabble.  The real focus of the story is firstly on the brief and uncivil words of Jacob; ‘sell me your rights’, ‘swear to me now’; by comparison, Esau talks with some humanity ‘I’m famished’, ‘I am at death’s door …’!  Then, when Esau had sworn over his rights, Jacob did not give him a rich meat stew, but a meal of bread and a meagre lentil soup!  It certainly seems to be a trick played by Jacob, and we who read the story are aghast at this deception, and even more so by Esau’s meek acceptance of it.  Four short verbs conclude the story, indicating Esau’s disgust at Jacob and his trickery as well as the rights of the firstborn which he had needlessly given away.  The Scripture then adds a rare moral comment.  Esau is condemned for his stupidity and contempt of God’s Covenant.  This may all have been a prank, but this points forward and paves the way for Jacob to practice even further deception in obtaining the real blessing of his father Isaac upon his deathbed (Gen 27); but this time using his mother’s cooking skills!

In the midst of this story we might easily forget that we are talking about the Covenant of God with his people, and it is here being bought and sold as a plaything!  We are now tempted to wonder what God is doing and how things will turn out.  However, the prophecy given earlier to Rebekah is there to help us understand that God makes His sovereign choices according to His will, and not according to our moral or social judgements.  He sustains His plan of salvation despite the sins of those who bear it, so that His grace may be made known. In a famous passage, Paul speaks of God’s sovereign will and grace by which salvation is achieved:

Rebekah's children had one and the same father, our father Isaac. Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad (in  order that God's purpose and choice might stand, not by works but by him who calls) she was told, "The older will serve the younger." As it is written: " I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau." What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."  (Rom 9:10-15)

Gen 25:19-34 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

One important theme of Scriptures begins in earnest with this story, and it is the theme of ‘family characteristics’.  Whilst it is clear that the Lord does His work whatever happens, He works through real people with real characteristics, just like you and me.  Now, Abraham was a man of faith, and that was passed down to Isaac who we find as a man of prayer; and Sarah was barren and had to await the Lord’s blessing to conceive, and so did Rebekah (see text).  There is no moral comment on these characteristics; they are traits which are passed on through the generations.  What we find is that this theme broadens as the book of Genesis unfolds, and there are now hints of good and bad moral characteristics in the family line of Abraham.  Jacob, for example, was a deceiver from early days and this was also true, to a certain extent, of Abraham. The great man certainly deceived his own wife Sarah (12:10-20) and later, Abimelech (20:1-7).  There is much more of this theme to come, but we should watch Scripture closely to see what happens, as it was God’s purpose to deal with Jacob’s sin.

The message for us is that we all have a variety of characteristics which we have inherited, or even ones that have grown in us through our life experience.  Some are good, some are bad, many are neutral, and it is how we use them that counts (such as ‘being inquisitive’, which can be either a good trait or a difficult one!).  However, if the Lord has His hand on our lives, as He first did with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, then it is His purpose to guide us in the right use of our gifts and characteristics, and redeem the bad ones.  This is the work of grace that he does in the life of the believer, and it is an important part of our salvation.

Gen 25:19-34 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. What does the birth of Esau and Jacob say to us about the choices God makes?
2. If possible, look up ‘Edomites’ and ‘Arameans’ in a Bible concordance or dictionary, to find out more about these people in the later years of the Old Testament.
3. Are you conscious of family traits being carried through the generations in your life?  How can we use this insight in a godly way?

Suggestions about discipleship and Christian lifestyle

It is hard for any of us to ‘analyse’ ourselves, but I suggest we can prayerfully ask the Lord to help us identify our characteristics, good, bad and neutral; some of these may be ‘family’ traits, some not.  We can also ask Him to help us identify how and when we use our characteristics well or badly.  Having done this, we can offer these things to the Lord in prayer and ask Him to redeem our characteristics and our moral weaknesses, to help us walk in His ways.

Final Prayer

We ask You, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to help us walk in the light of the Covenant promises, by which you led Your people despite their earthly circumstances.  Give us the confidence to trust in Your ways, and stay close to You for ever;  AMEN

Bible study for Genesis 26:1-11

  Gen 26:1-11 (get text)  Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

Isaac was the only son of Abraham who inherited both his wealth and the Covenant promises of God.  Now, in chapter 26, we learn something about the character of Isaac as a man.  He is compared to Abraham in all of the six stories of the chapter, but as we read them, we discover that Isaac is both similar to his father, and also very different.  The six stories all echo incidents in Abraham’s life, and are as follows: 1. God’s instructions and promises to Isaac (26:1-5); 2. Isaac and Rebekah with Abimelech at Gerar (26:6-11); 3. Isaac’s successful work (26:12-16); 4. Isaac re-establishes wells dug by his father (26:17-22); 5. Isaac builds an altar, just like his father (26:23-25); 6. Isaac makes peace with the people of Gerar and Abimelech (26:26-33).  We will find these stories are not mere repetitions of those of Abraham, as they contain significant differences which are due either to Isaac’s personality or to new revelations about the Covenant.  Today, we read the first of these two stories, and each contains significant new information about both Isaac and the Covenant.

The first story describes a ‘famine in the land’ which prompted the Lord to appear to Isaac and tell him both what he should do and why. Isaac was told firstly not go to Egypt to obtain food, which was the only logical thing to do, for Egypt and its river Nile was the nearest land where food could be obtained. He was told to stay in Gerar, which he did.  Isaac’s faith in accepting the Lord’s word and the promise of His provision at a time of famine was considerable, and contrasted well with the example of Abraham, who went to Egypt at the first sign of the earlier famine (see 26:1, 12:10).  The Lord continued however, and His speech became one of the longest in the Book of Genesis.  Within it, He confirmed to Isaac many of the different Covenant promises previously revealed to Abraham; personal blessing (v3 – see 12:2,3), land (v3,4 – see 13:5f.), many descendants (v4 – see 12:2, 15:5), blessing ‘the nations of the earth’ (v4 – see 12:3).  Also in this revelation, the Lord said something new and important to Isaac; it was ‘I will be with you’ (v3).  This was the first time God had spoken these words to anyone, and His Covenant promise to be present with His people was eventually fulfilled by Jesus whose name ‘Immanuel’ means ‘God with us’.  This promise of God is a crucial connection between the Old and the New Testaments.

The second story is very strange, for it tells of how Isaac obeyed the Lord by not going to Egypt but fell into the trap of telling people around him that Rebekah was his sister.  In so doing, he repeated a mistake his father had made twice before (12:12-20; 20:1-18).  Nothing sinister happened, however, apart from Abimelech, the King of Gerar, discovering (26:8) that Isaac and Rebekah had an intimate relationship! Throughout these events, Isaac continued to show faith and trust in God, which was essential for the Covenant.  We should not read these stories and forget that they tell us how God chose to break down the barriers of sin between Himself and humanity; and he did it through His own chosen people, despite their sin.

  Gen 26:1-11 (get text)  Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

There are some surprising additions to the Covenant promises of God for us to examine, which teach us about the Lord’s protection of His people.  The story of Isaac and Rebekah at Gerar adds more to this theme.  Also, whatever we think of this passage and the repetitions within it, it tells us that Isaac walked in the steps of his father not just physically, but spiritually.

Isaac, and the famine

The timing of both of our stories, the famine and Isaac’s stay in Gerar, is a little uncertain.  This uncertainty continues throughout the stories of Genesis 26, as it appears that not everything is in chronological order.  For example, it would surely have been obvious to the locals that Isaac and Rebekah were married, or at least that she was his concubine, if a young Jacob and Esau were around their camp, but although their birth is recorded in the previous chapter of Genesis, they do not figure in Genesis 26.  It is therefore possible that these events happened before they were born! We should not be too worried, however, because the writer of Genesis is far more interested in the theological importance of making spiritual connections between Abraham and Isaac than pursuing the story of Jacob, which is taken up in chapter 27.

It is all too easy for us to read quickly past the mention of famine without recalling that in those days, a famine was a ‘life and death’ matter.  Isaac was obedient to God, though, even when following His command to stay in Gerar, a town in the southern regions of Canaan which was known for having little water.  It was an extremely high risk decision, but one that was equally high in faith.  At a similar time of famine, Abraham had travelled straight down to Egypt, and severely compromised the Covenant by allowing his wife, Sarah, to be taken into Pharaoh’s harem (12:10f.).  On that occasion, God had to intervene directly to save Sarah, but on this occasion, Isaac’s more mature faith meant that the Lord could appear to him and tell him more about the Covenant promises He had previously given to Abraham. We should not forget that so far, Isaac had only received the Covenant by means of the blessing in Genesis 22:16-18, which was spoken to Abraham by an angel and directed towards him when he was only a young boy.

Isaac and the revelation from God

If we look at the particular aspects of the Covenant that God reveals to Isaac in this story, many of them are almost identical to what was said to Abraham at various times during his long life (as in the references given above).  Some things, however, have been left out.  There is no mention, for example, of circumcision; something that was presented to Abraham as an essential sign of the Covenant (17:9f.); neither is there any mention of possessing ‘the gates of their enemies (22:18).  Most of the other features of the Covenant are there, however, and if we look carefully, we will notice that there are one or two additions.  God specifically told Isaac that he was confirming his oath (22:3) of Covenant, and it is extremely rare for the Lord to say that he will ‘confirm’ His word.  Also, as we have seen (above), God chose to reveal to Isaac the special Covenant promise ‘I will be with you’, where previously, it was Abimelech who had observed of Abraham ‘God is with you’ (22:21).  More than this, God promised Isaac ‘all these lands’ (26:3) and this was then emphasised by the Lord’s further promise that his offspring would have ‘the whole country’ (26:4), which seems to imply even more land than what we think of as Canaan.  Some scholars have suggested that God was thereby extending the boundaries of Canaan to include the Philistine territories including Gerar where Isaac was staying.

This may be true, but there is one other explanation of these omissions and additions.  When God speaks in this way, it is usually for a purpose, and if we look very simply at the story in front of us, Isaac had just accepted the Lord’s guidance to stay in the region of Canaan despite the terrors of famine.  It is not surprising therefore that the whole revelation of God was focussed on reassuring and protecting Isaac, because that is just what he needed.  It was not a time for discussing circumcision, but it was a time for Isaac to be assured that he would survive the famine and bear the children who would in future bless ‘all the nations’ (26:6).  He also needed to know that he was safe in Gerar, which was verified by God promise of ‘all the land’.

The last sentence of God’s revelation to Isaac is also interesting.  If you read back over it from the middle of verse 4, you will discover that the Lord says that all the nations of the earth will be blessed by Isaac’s offspring ‘because Abraham obeyed me and kept my charge …’ (26:5)  Here is an important point for us even today; the nations will be blessed by God through the obedience of God’s people.  It is a small but essential piece of the theological jigsaw in the Old Testament.

Isaac and  Rebekah at Gerar

When Isaac travelled to Gerar, he went to ‘Philistine’ (26:8) territory, and it seems strange to us that Isaac and his father Abraham were able to live at peace with people who, later in the life of God’s people, were sworn enemies.  We should be aware however, that the word ‘Philistine’ in Genesis is a word that refers to the people who lived in the south western regions of Canaan, between the hill country and the sea.  It is reckoned that at the time of Abraham they were peaceful peoples (the ‘Caphtorim’ of Deut 2:23), and not the more aggressive Philistines of later generations who were descended from Aegean warriors who crossed the Sea from Greece around 1200 BC and settled in a confederation of the five city states of Gath, Gaza, Askelon, Ashdod and Ekron.  These were the people who were the Philistine enemies of Saul and David, and were very different from the peaceable people they displaced, such as the King Abimelech of Gerar (to the south of the traditional Philistine territories) who appears in our story and that of Abraham (20:1f.; 21:22f.).  It is also reckoned that the name ‘Abimelech’ which means ‘the king is my father’ was a generic name for the King in Gerar rather than the name of an individual; so the Abimelech in the stories of Abraham and Isaac were probably a generation apart.

If this story is a copy of the earlier ones of Abraham’s mistreatment of Sarah (12:10-20; 20:1-18) in Egypt and Gerar, then it is a pale shadow of the former stories.  The whole story is quite different apart from Isaac’s calling Rebekah his sister, the mentioning of Rebekah’s beauty and the annoyance of the king upon discovering that Isaac and Rebekah were married.  We do, however, have a glimpse of Isaac’s fear (26:6) which is understandable given the circumstances of famine in which they lived and the risk he was taking for the Covenant.  It does seem hard to fault Isaac for keeping the men of the area at bay by using this excuse, when it appears that the two of them enjoyed a clearly intimate relationship (26:8).  The echoes of Abraham’s not so creditable stories of handing Sarah over to a harem (12:15; 20:2) merely serve to remind us of the spiritual journey of both Abraham and Isaac, and on this occasion, the situation was rectified not by divine intervention (a plague,12:17; a vision, 20:3) but by the providence of God (a glance out of a window! 26:8).  Abimelech was very concerned about the possible consequences of what Isaac had said, but the truth was that Isaac and Rebekah were able to live ‘a long time’ (26:8) in Gerar, and survive the famine.  God’s hand was on them for protection.

  Gen 26:1-11 (get text)  Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

It appears that chapter 26 has a pattern of showing us how Isaac walked in his father’s footsteps, both physically and spiritually.  He was a different person, of course, but there were also similarities and family traits which bound them together and we can see how these affected Isaac in this story.  The main feature of chapter 26 so far is the faith of Isaac, which has developed and grown from the example of his father Abraham.  Many people think of Isaac as something of a ‘flat’ character in the Bible (that is, having little to say or do), but we should credit the man with more than this.  He overcame any fears he may have had (26:6), to be obedient to the Lord in the face of famine, and to deal reasonably well with a similar situation to that which dogged his father.  Abraham of course, learned through these experiences and matured in faith, and Isaac learned from his father.  Despite problems that would show themselves in the family line in the future, Isaac showed how it is possible for a son to learn spiritual lessons from a father.  Perhaps we should look carefully at this today in an age where the connections between generations appear to be assumed as difficult rather than positive.

It is helpful for us to see how the Lord spoke to Isaac in a way that reflected his needs, and in a manner that both gave and promised him protection.  The protection the Lord gave was more than just saving Isaac from famine, and was designed to encourage him for the future.  In the midst of difficult or life-threatening situations, the Lord is still able to offer His people not just the protection that will bring them through the problems of the day, but the spiritual protection of encouragement that everything is ‘in His hands’.  It is a Covenant blessing we all need to hear.

  Gen 26:1-11 (get text)  Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. From what you know of Abraham and Isaac, what are their similarities and differences?
2. Why is it that Christian people today do not talk much about the ‘Covenant’ when it is such an important theme of the Bible?
3. When you think of the promises of God, do you have in mind any of these promises in this text, or any variation of them?

Suggestions about discipleship and Christian lifestyle

Faith is something that we often think of as something we either have or do not have.  However, the Bible teaches that our faith in God is something that needs to grow in the experiences of life.  It can even be learned by a child from their parents.  In what ways have you grown in faith over recent years?  Are you aware of needing to grow in faith?  As with Isaac, life is full of these spiritual challenges!

Final Prayer

Your protection, Lord God, is all around us.  We cannot necessarily hear it, see it or feel it, but it is there.  Thank You for the times when You have indeed protected us, whether we know it or not, and help us recognise the spiritual signs which give us confidence that You are indeed, watching over us;  AMEN

Bible study for Genesis 26:12-22

  Gen 26:12-22 (get text)  Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

Genesis 26 invites us to see parallels between Isaac and Abraham, but it does not do this merely to tell us that the son was like the father!  The passing of the Covenant from one generation to another is an important theme, but we have already seen (yesterday) that this chapter about Isaac describes profound spiritual truths.  That does not mean to say that the events themselves were unimportant; on the contrary, they point to deeper spiritual truths.  Yesterday we saw how God promised for the first time to ‘be with’ His people (26:3) and we also saw how the Lord protected His people in time of need (26:1f.).  Today’s stories contain further spiritual truths, all set against the background of famine.

Isaac was blessed by the Lord with wealth, as was his father before him; and he then became even more wealthy!  It is tempting to combine this idea of blessing with other similar Scriptures, and conclude that the Lord intends all his people to become wealthy; the downside being the assumption that those who are not wealthy are somehow deficient of the Lord’s blessing.  This is wrong, for it is not a ‘spiritual’ conclusion from this text, but a ‘material’ one, and Scripture says far more about wealth than this (e.g. Ecclesiastes 4:8f, and Jesus’ caution about wealth; Luke 8:12f.).  God gave wealth to Abraham and Isaac not only to establish His people on earth, but also as a sign of the spiritual blessing of the Covenant which was big enough, generous enough, and loving enough to be offered, through them (in Jesus), to all people.  The example of Abraham and Isaac already shows us that the key to God’s Covenant plan of blessing is not material wealth, but spiritual qualities such as faith (15:6 etc.) and obedience (26:5 etc.)

When Isaac accumulated wealth, it brought him trouble!  And we can learn from how Isaac dealt with that trouble.  When local people became envious of Isaac’s wealth, they made life difficult for him by blocking the wells used by Isaac’s flocks, herds and household.  This was a serious matter at a time of drought.  Isaac responded not with aggression, but with the same respect they had shown him previously (26:11), and by moving away.  This was not easy, but in the process Isaac found a number of springs of ‘living water’ (literally, in 26:19), eventually finding peace and ‘open space’ (26:22) within which he could be ‘fruitful in the land’ (26:22).

By acting in a peaceful, accommodating way, and in the face of trouble and drought, Isaac found spiritual wealth!  His story therefore has a great deal to teach us.  Springs of ‘living water’ give a picture of God’s generosity used by the prophets (Jer 2:13; 17:13) and Jesus (John 4:10f.; 7:38).  The word for ‘open space’, ‘rehoboth’ is linked in Hebrew to the idea of salvation (logically, someone who is restricted is liberated into an open space).  Lastly, this is the first time the Lord’s people are described as ‘fruitful’ in the stories of Abraham (from Genesis 12), in fulfilment of God’s command (1:28) and in anticipation of the Gospel (Matt 7:17f.; 13:23 etc.) and the ‘fruit’ of the Spirit (Gal 5:22).  These are rich grounds for spiritual truths!

  Gen 26:12-22 (get text)  Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

The more you look, the more you find!  This passage observes the links between envy, violence and wealth; it speaks of re-establishing truth in the face of injustice, and of a path of humility which is salvation and peace.  The story may be easy to read, but we can skip over it too easily!

Going over old ground

We will start by looking at the incidents of dispute between Isaac and the Philistine citizens of Gerar (26:15-18).  Abraham had come to an agreement with Abimelech, the king of Gerar, some time previously about the rights of his family to live there (21:22f.).  In that agreement, Abraham and Abimelech had formally promised to ‘deal loyally’ with each other and concluded their deal with a Covenant which included the exchange of gifts and the settlement of water rights at a well which they named Beersheba (‘well of the oath’, or ‘well of seven’).  It appears that within a generation, this agreement was abandoned, as the Philistines blocked up this and other wells (26:15).  It may be that they felt deceived by Isaac after the incident with his wife (26:10), but the facts are not that clear in the text.  What we do know is that Isaac and his whole household were at risk because of the blocking up of these wells at a time of drought.  It was both an attack on Isaac due to envy at his wealth (26:14) and also a spiritual attack on his heritage, for the blocking of his father’s wells was an insult to him and his heritage. 

At the time of the conflict and the attack on the wells, Isaac was challenged to ‘move away’ by King Abimelech, which Isaac promptly did; however, this was not an ignominious retreat, but more of a tactical withdrawal (26:17).  Isaac moved to a nearby valley (the ‘Valley of Gerar’) before deciding what to do next.  He had sufficient men and servants at his disposal who were capable of fighting on his behalf (his father already had an army of men, many years previously; 14:1-16); so having tactically withdrawn, Isaac then gave his men the difficult and dangerous task of digging out the wells ‘of his father Abraham’ (26:18).  These wells were like large deep pits in the open ground (many have been found or are still used in the region today), and the task would have required good operational planning at a time of strife, for the workers would have had to be well defended. Isaac saw to it that the wells had the same names as those given by his father, reminding everyone of their true ownership.

Some might read this story and see in it a man who was weak because he did not stand his ground.  This would not be a fair reflection of Isaac or of what happened.  Isaac managed, with careful planning, to avoid a fight with those who were aggressive towards him and his household. He did what was necessary for the long term survival of his family, by giving them safety, and most importantly, re-establishing the family heritage.

And yet, moving on!

Despite this success, Isaac still moved on.  We should remember that Isaac was still a nomad at heart, and the Lord had commanded him to live in the land as a temporary ‘visitor’ (26:3) or ‘guest’ in the Promised Land, and because he was therefore able to see the whole land as his, it was not a problem for him to ‘move on’.  Indeed, it may have been necessary for at a time of drought, new water had to be found as old wells were used up or ran dry.

We are told that Isaac and his servants then dug three more wells in search of the necessary water.  It is remarkable that water was found at each location.  This was indeed a blessing, for many people have dug wells in dry areas only to be disappointed that none was forthcoming. The excitement and joy at discovering new sources of water is found in the text which talks literally of ‘living water’, meaning that the water was indeed a source of new life for those who were ravaged by drought.  It is difficult to put this in the translation because without explanation, it does not easily make sense, and the expression can also refer to water that is ‘newly found’; that is, fresh.  This is how it is therefore translated.  Nevertheless, the physical salvation of Isaac at a time of drought is thereby used by Scriptures to point forward to a spiritual salvation; the living waters of God’s salvation. This is the theme taken up by Jeremiah (2:13) and as we find in the teaching of Jesus, who is the ‘living water’ in whom salvation is found (John 7:38). 

Again, it is fascinating that Isaac had to dig three wells before he found that he could live in peace.  The first well was disputed with the people from Gerar, who believed the water was there’s.  It was fresh and living water, but Isaac was prepared to move on.  The second well also caused hostility with the local people, though on this occasion, no reason for the hostility is given.  Isaac’s father, Abraham, had complained about the filling in of wells and managed to regain a well from Abimelech and the citizens of Gerar (21:25f.), but this time, Isaac knew that the antipathy towards him would make any negotiation impossible.  He dug for the third time, and was successful again, a remarkable achievement in itself!  The fruitfulness of the Promised Land was a gift from the Lord which was available for those who would do the work and dig the wells!  Isaac named the well ‘Rehoboth’, meaning ‘open space’, a further indication of the salvation of God; for he had now managed to find sufficient distance between himself and Gerar to be able to live in peace and freedom from strife.

True wealth

There is a connection between the first verse and the last verse of this passage.  The first verse talks of Isaac planting a crop and obtaining a yield of a ‘hundredfold’; a magnificent yield, whatever the crop used (which we do not know), and this was a key part of the escalation of Isaac’s personal wealth.  This, however, was gained at a time of drought, so the yield should properly be regarded as something of a miracle, and therefore an obvious blessing from the Lord and not just the product of good labour.  Incidentally, it is possible that Jesus made reference to this miracle when he told the parable of the sower, in which the unbelievable maximum yield quoted was a ‘hundredfold’.  Certainly if Jesus had this passage of scripture in mind, Jesus was indicting that the fruit of the Kingdom was a miracle of God’s grace, rather than a natural product of the world in which we live!

The last verse contains the fascinating reference to being ‘fruitful in the land’ (26:22 – see above).  Just like the ‘hundredfold’ yield earlier, this fruitfulness is not simply the product of the labour of Isaac’s men, but part of the blessing of God which came from the last well dug, ‘Rehoboth’, which celebrated the liberation and salvation of God (above).  All together in this passage, there is a strong link between the miracles of God’s grace and the spiritual wealth of salvation and fruitfulness!  This is the true wealth that this passage describes, and it is not a simple equation between God’s blessing and wealth.

  Gen 26:12-22 (get text)  Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

Earlier, I observed that this passage of scripture is closely linked with the ‘prosperity Gospel’, which broadly speaking, refers to that preaching which says it is God’s intention to bless His people with worldly wealth now, in response to their faith.  There is also a more unpleasant form of this preaching which calls on people, often the poor, to give their tithes to a preacher in order to obtain these blessings and riches.  This so-called Gospel is no Gospel.  It does not properly understand the spiritual links between the dramatic stories of the Old Testament and the reality of Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross for our salvation from sin and peace with God.  There is only one Gospel, and it is the Gospel of Jesus.  The subject of wealth is well covered by His teaching (Matt chs. 5-7, e.g.), and it adequately sums up what the Old Testament says and offers the poor the unstinting love and compassion of God.  It is true that the Lord will often help people better themselves by placing their worldly circumstances in His hands, but the offer of the Gospel is eternal life, not cash now.  Isaac was a wealthy man because it was necessary for God’s purposes for him to be so; and yet many other godly Old Testament characters were not wealthy (Moses, Elijah, Elisha, Amos etc.).  God will make it clear what His purpose is for us if we yield ourselves to Him, and our faith and obedience are most important, not wealth.

Neither should this blind us from the other great truths hinted at in this passage; the importance of re-establishing our spiritual heritage when under attack, for example.  Isaac is rightly regarded as a man of peace, and those who seek a Christian form of ‘pacifism’ do well to follow his example, but it is one that is ‘worldly wise’.  Isaac withdrew, but he did so tactically, and with cunning.  By so doing he made strategic gains which ensured the future of his family and heritage, and gives us an example of what may best be called ‘active’ pacifism, which engages with real situations rather than stands back from them.

Then, in the midst of the drought, Isaac was able to deal with the problems of staying in the Promised Land by trusting God.  That was probably his greatest strength.

  Gen 26:12-22 (get text)  Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. In what ways are the problems of wealth different from those in Isaac’s day?  Does this affect how we read the text and interpret it?
2. Discuss how you would characterise Isaac after reading about him today.
3. Isaac dug a number of wells before being able to use the water.  Discuss any spiritual parallels to this with your own experience.

Suggestions about discipleship and Christian lifestyle

When we are in difficulty financially, a ‘prosperity Gospel’ may seem very attractive, for it seems to say that if we do the right things for God, then we will be blessed with the things we want.  Spend some time trying to work out what may be true or false within this teaching.  Consider the responsibilities of the Church of God to the poor.  In what ways can you and other people ensure that the real Gospel of Jesus Christ meets real people’s real needs?

Final Prayer

Great Lord and Master of all; save us from thinking that we know everything.  Remind us of our weaknesses so that we may address them, confront us with our sins so that we may repent of them, and embrace us with Your love so that we may yield to Your truth and wisdom.  We ask this through Jesus Christ;  AMEN

Bible study for Genesis 26:23-33

  Gen 26:23-33 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

From the very beginning of the Covenant, God was able to do His will through His people despite the failings and frailties they showed.  We saw how this was true of the life of Abraham, a man who had to grow in faith before he could be trusted with the son who would fulfil both his dreams and God’s prophetic blessings.  In New Testament times, after the victory of Christ on the Cross, Paul found the same to be true for Christians living in the midst of a sinful world.  He spoke poetically of ‘treasure in clay pots’ (2 Cor 4:7) when describing the wonderful blessings of God which we possess by faith, and the faulty vessels in which it was contained.  The main difference between Christians now and the forefathers Abraham and Isaac, is our assurance in Christ that our faith is a guarantee of our eternal salvation.  This is a benefit the forefathers did not have, and it is therefore all the more amazing that they demonstrated such faith.

As we reach the end of Genesis 26, we can make an assessment of the life of Isaac which this chapter was surely designed to give.  All the stories of Genesis 26 are very similar to stories about Abraham; the problem of famine and Egypt (26:1-5 – see 12;1-9), misunderstandings about his wife (26:6-11 – see 12:10-20, 20:1-18), the digging of wells (26:12f. – see 21:30), appearances of the Lord (26:2f.; 24f. – see 12:2,3 etc), and in today’s passage, the making of peace with the people of Gerar and the founding of Beersheba (26:26-33 – see 20:11-18).  However, any careful look at Genesis 26 will show that apart from these themes, the path of Isaac’s life was totally different from his father’s.  He did the Lord’s will in almost every situation (which his father had not) except for the lack of trust he showed in the Lord when not being truthful to the people of Gerar about his wife, because of fear (26:7,8).  He appears to have learned many lessons about faith from his father, but was not yet perfect!  His real problem was that although the Lord made him even wealthier than his father, this was not recognised by the people he lived with.  e H

The people of Gerar and their King, Abimelech, had always honoured Abraham (20:18f.) but they initially refused to give the same credit to his son, Isaac.  It is certainly true of life in general that people rarely honour a successor or a son as much as the great man who preceded him!

This is exactly what happens in our passage of scripture today.  Having been chased away from Gerar by its Philistine citizens because of their fear of him, Isaac’s earlier plan of dignified retreat (26:17-22) was now vindicated.  Seeing the success of Isaac in surviving in the land at a time of drought, the Philistines came to the conclusion themselves that that Isaac was a worthy man; as Abimelech said to Isaac, ‘the Lord was with you’ (26:28).  It was a confession which relieved the tensions of the situation and enabled an agreement of peace to be signed, associated with Beersheba (26:32:33), as was Isaac’s father’s agreement with the Philistines (21:31).  Isaac was a man of faith, maybe even more so than his father, but it was still hard for him to put this faith into practice in the real world.

  Gen 26:23-33 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

Looking more closely at the text, there is a significant addition to God’s Covenant blessing.  The presence of the Lord with Isaac was clearly seen by the Philistines, who wanted to be associated with this by an earthly agreement!  Much of this text reads straightforwardly, but its value lies in foreshadowing what was to come in the life of God’s people.

The blessings of God upon Isaac

It is easy to forget that God had unconditionally agreed to bless Abraham’s descendants.  From a Christian point of view, this equates to Gods’ promise that He will now bless those who have faith as Abraham had faith, and bless all who show faith like Abraham are his descendants.  It is easy to make this jump given what is said by Paul in Romans 4 and the teaching of Jesus about the heart of our relationship with God which goes deeper than the Laws of Moses (Matt 5:17f.).  However, we cannot just skip everything in between Abraham and Jesus!  The stories of Isaac show that God builds upon faith from one generation to another, and as He does so, more of His blessings are revealed.

The passing of blessing from one generation to another is emphasised by the additional words in the blessing (26:24).  The Lord gave this blessing to Isaac as he roamed through the desert seeking water to survive in the midst of the famine (26:1) and as he came to Beersheba in the far south of Canaan where his father had taken ownership of the well.  Earlier, God had made Isaac’s blessing conditional upon his obedience in not going down to Egypt (26:2f.), but since Isaac had been obedient (26:5), unlike his father, the Lord now confirmed his blessing.  However, the blessing began in a new way.  When speaking to Abraham, he had previously said ‘I am the Lord …’ (15:7; 17:1 etc), but now He began ‘I am the God of your father Abraham …’; and this was the first time the Lord used this formula of words to speak to His people.  It is one that we find is used elsewhere in the Old Testament, and after the death of Isaac and his son Jacob, becomes ‘I am the Lord, the God of your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob …’ (Ex 3:6,16; 6:3 etc.)  God did not say this in order to be eloquent.  He wanted us to know that the blessings we receive are handed on to us and are not simply plucked out of the air.  For example, when someone speaks a word of prophecy in a church, that prophecy, according to scripture (1 John 4:1), should not be accepted until it has been tested; but the means by which we can test what is ‘of the Lord’ are surely those of scripture and the heritage of faith in which the Church stands.  God is still the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob!

Once Isaac had received the same blessings as that of his father, he ‘built an altar’ (26:25).  Through trials of faith he had come out from behind the shadows of his father and now did openly what his father had done before him by worshipping the Lord (12:7; 13:4,17; 22:9) in the land of Canaan.  It was a significant moment of his life and he celebrated it formally.

The blessing of God shared with others?

This fulfilment of the Lord’s blessing was something that the Philistine citizens of Gerar noticed.  Their King, Abimelech together with a more powerful complement of advisors (26:26) than had made the earlier agreement with Abraham at Beersheba (21:25f.) immediately came to Isaac and sought to put behind them the previous altercations about wells that had seen Isaac thrown out of the region of Gerar.  Isaac was naturally suspicious (26:27), but after the reassurance of their accepting that the Lord’s blessing (26:28) was now upon him as it had previously been on his father (26:29), he was prepared to sit down and eat with his guests and make an agreement with them by oath (26:31).  The Philistines were seeking some benefit from being associated with the blessings of God, and that in itself was a fulfilment of God’s Covenant Promise ‘through you all the nations of the earth will be blessed’ (12:3, 26:3).

Incidentally, the Covenant of the Lord with Abraham and Isaac was based upon God’s Covenant faithfulness and love (in Hebrew, ‘cheseth’), but the covenant agreements offered to Isaac by Abimelech were based on oaths and curses.  Legal agreements between tribes of those days called down curses upon the heads of those who broke the agreements!  There was a long way to go before all the Gentiles could truly benefit from the revelation of the love of God through Christ Jesus!

Looking ahead

In all of this, we see how the God’s blessing was something which was intended to be shared with the nations of the earth (represented by the Philistines) but this was something that would take many years and the death of Jesus Christ to bring into effect.  Tensions between the people of Israel and the other people who lived on the borders of the land and within Israel itself remained for centuries, and do so to this day.  The extraordinary animosities that exist in Israel amongst some of those involved in the terrible situation there in our own day are surely far from the will of God, who has provided through Jesus Christ the true ‘light for the nations’ which can shine peace into the land of the Old Testament ‘people of God’; Israel.

There is a great deal in Genesis 26 which points forward to later experiences of the people of Israel in the Old Testament.  Animosities between the Philistines continued through the time of Samson (Judges 14f.) and then in the time of Samuel, Saul and David (e.g. 1 Sam 4:1; 1 Sam 13:2; 1 Chron 18:1).  At this point in the Old Testament the Philistines represent the Gentile, uncircumcised, world with which God’s people interacted with great caution.  The general picture of Genesis 26 is that of Isaac moving around the southern wildernesses of Canaan (later, Judah) at a time of drought, and having to depend upon the mercies of God to survive and find water, in the face of opposition.

This was to be the experience of the people of Israel centuries later when they came out of Egypt under the leadership of Moses.  If those who cried out to the Lord for help in Egypt had properly remembered the stories of their forefathers, which they apparently had not, (Ex2:23, 5:1f., 15:22f.) they would have been more prepared for the rigours of the nomadic desert experience of the 40 years they endured before entering the Promised Land.  Isaac’s spirit of faithfulness was also a pointer to the work of prophets such a Jeremiah who had to try and persuade God’s people to remain faithful to Him despite the spiritual famine of the days in which he lived and the terrors of the Babylonian invasion of Jerusalem (Jer 33:23f.).

Finally, within the blessing of God pronounced on Isaac in verse 24, Abraham is described as ‘my servant’.  This is the first occasion in scripture when an individual receives this blessing, though it was clearly intended to be a blessing that was handed on through Isaac to all God’s people.  As history unfolded, this designation became something of a title, given to the great men of faith who guided Israel path through history; Moses (Deut 34:5) Joshua (Josh 24:29), Caleb (Num 14:24), David (1 Sam 7:8).  Eventually, Isaiah prophesied that God would work through a Suffering Servant (Isa 42:1; 49:3; 50:10; 52:13) who would sum up in His own life and work the mission of Israel and the prophets.  He would be the light to the nations and the one means of God’s blessing to the whole world; the Messiah, who we know to be Jesus Christ.

  Gen 26:23-33 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

Genesis 26 is almost at an end, and the last two verses sit more naturally with the story to come in Genesis 27 about the passing on of the blessings of God to Jacob.  It is easily read over as if it is like a repeat of stories of Abraham, but the details show that it focuses upon the growth of faith in Isaac.  The growth of faith amongst God’s people is an important thing.  If we do not know how to hand the faith on to future generations then the Gospel has to ‘start from scratch’ in each generation, and cannot benefit from the natural processes by which God would build the faith from father to son; mother to daughter, and from one church member to another.  I am aware that there is great heartache amongst Christian people today as they see young people abandon the church for the world so easily in their teenage years.  I firmly believe that if we teach and learn the importance of God’s purposes for Christian families, then the world will have less of a draw upon our young people, and they will learn faith in its natural context, the family.  This is where Isaac learned from Abraham; and it is one reason why this website promotes Bible Studies equally from both the Old and the New Testaments, for this teaching is there for us if we are prepared to embrace all God’s Word, and not just part of it.

Tucked away in this passage of scripture is one other quite important reference, and it is to worship.  When Isaac built an altar to worship the Lord as his father Abraham had done so often, it was no casual matter.  An altar could take some time to build and the worship offered would have been accompanied by formal meals and rejoicing lasting many days, if not weeks.  The example of the ancients often reminds us that our ‘one hour on Sundays’ is but a pale reflection of what worship should be.  Neither did Isaac and his extended family have to hire a musician or anyone else before they could worship.  They used what they had within the family, and were content with this.  There is a lesson for us here.

  Gen 26:23-33 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. Are there any special occasions when you have become aware of the special blessings of God.  Do they have anything in common with the story we have read?
2. Is it possible to cross cultural boundaries in today’s divided world so that the message of God’s Love can be proclaimed?  Do you know of examples?
3. If water was essential to life in the desert, what is essential to life for us now?  How are these essentials protected, and can we trust this protection?

Suggestions about discipleship and Christian lifestyle

What can you do to pass on the faith that you have received?  It may be the special calling of a few people to be missionaries or pastors or prophets, but the greatest of all callings is that which all Christians share, which is to be followers of Jesus and workers in the Lord’s vineyard.  Everything we do with our lives will therefore have a bearing on our eternal destiny, for we face the challenge to make this a reality.

Final Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ Saviour of the World; we thank You and praise You for the heritage in which you have placed us.  May we always be conscious of our responsibilities to those who come after us and seek to pass the Gospel on through all we do and say.  We ask this in Your name, Jesus Christ,  AMEN

Bible study for Genesis 26:34-27:17

Gen 26:34-27:17 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

This passage of Scripture is the first part of the famous story in which Esau is finally tricked out of his firstborn birthright by his younger brother Jacob, with the help of his mother Rebekah. As with all the stories of this part of Genesis, Scripture is concerned to tell us about how God’s Covenant and the Lord’s blessings were handed on from one generation to another.  This passing on of the sacred inheritance was something that Abraham had been careful to secure by finding a wife (Rebekah) for his son (Isaac), and we might expect that Isaac would now do the same.  We are not told why Isaac failed to do this, and we should not speculate on the reasons or assume that Isaac was therefore a weak man. 

What Scripture has already told is that the relationship between the twins Esau and Jacob was not good, and there was considerable rivalry between the two.  When the two sons were younger, Jacob had played a trick on Esau by which the older son had cursed his birthright (25:29-34).  Then, in our passage today, we learn that Esau took two wives from local Hittite families, outside of parental consent, causing Isaac and Rebekah great grief.  We might easily empathise with Isaac and Rebekah, but this whole incident opened up a sore division between them due to their favouritism; Isaac of Esau, and Rebekah of Jacob.  Since birth, Rebekah had favoured Jacob because of a prophetic word from the Lord (25:23), but Isaac would not relinquish his belief in the assumed rights of the firstborn, and in the end, the decision would rest with him before he died.  Isaac and Rebekah loved each other dearly (24:67; 26:8), but they could not agree between themselves on this, and the stalemate could well be the reason for their lack of authority about the marriage of their sons.  Isaac would have to bear the disappointment in the end, but would he be able to accept the consequences?  We will have to wait to find that out!

All of these complex family issues were clouding the story of God’s Covenant and its blessings, creating great suspense about what would happen next. It is not surprising that the story of the trickery by which Rebekah and Jacob secured the Covenant blessing for Jacob takes more than a whole chapter of Genesis.  We will split the story into three in order to make it manageable for study.

Today’s passage is all about setting the scene, and we can scarce believe what we are reading.  Rebekah and Jacob resort to intentional deception in order to ensure that Jacob receives the blessing from Isaac, by now an almost blind old man. Our sense of shock at this is only alleviated by the knowledge that Esau has already dismissed his birthright (25:29-34) and married outside the family line of Terah.  It may seem awful to us from a human point of view, but scripture is obliged to tell us that God’s will is about to be done through sinful means!  We will have to stay with the story of Jacob far longer than this chapter of Genesis alone, if we are to discover how he finds peace with God after this cruel deception.

Gen 26:34-27:17 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

Did you know that it was not just Rebekah and Jacob who acted deceitfully in the acquisition of the Covenant blessing? Going deeper reveals some other deception as well, and in the light of this, the deeds of Rebekah and Jacob’ were not quite as devious as we might think!

Isaac and Esau

The opening words of Genesis 26:34 clearly indicate that it is the beginning of a major new story.  It is in fact the start of a long story about Jacob and Esau which goes on far longer than the birthright story of Genesis 27.  This longer story is only completed after Jacob has learned some hard lessons of life over 20 years of living in the service of his uncle (Laban) in Mesopotamia, before returning to the Promised Land (33:15-17).  Right at the beginning, the personal link between Esau and Isaac is heightened by the mention of his taking wives at the age of 40; the same age at which Isaac himself was married (25:20), and for the next five verses, Isaac and Esau appear inseparable, despite the despairing and on-looking Rebekah (26:35, 27:5).  These verses are indeed remarkable, but the reasons are not easy to spot.  Several things in the story make the relationship between Isaac and Esau appear very close, yet the more we look at them, the more their actions appear to be deceptive as well as those of Jacob and Rebekah!

The possibility of deception on Isaac’s part is hidden from us because of our unfamiliarity with the customs of the day, and needs explaining.  When an old man came near to death, as we see in the story of Abraham (25:1-11) it was expected that the whole family to be called, and the old man would speak openly about what he wished to happen to his wealth.  In this way there would be no argument about his intentions.  There could have been many who thought they might inherit more from Abraham, for example, but his clear instructions could not be opposed because they were publicly known. Now if we contrast this with what was happening here, Isaac is reported to have failing eyesight (27:1), which hardly constitutes ‘near death’; he is even reported as saying ‘I do not know when I will die’ (27:2), which in ancient times meant that he should not have yet called anyone for blessing!  As for Isaac’s age, he married at 40, his sons were born when he was 60 (25:26) and Esau was just over 40 in this story, making Isaac 100.  He actually lived to be 180 (35:28), and was certainly alive many years later because Scripture records him greeting Jacob back from Mesopotamia (35:27), after 20 years!  This makes the whole scene of this chapter appear rather false; Isaac may well have been an old man and failing in his abilities, but he was hardly near to death.

In addition, he spoke to Esau about giving his blessing without any reference to anyone else, something that was just not done; and his wish to bless Esau ‘before I die’ sounds hollow.  Did he know that he would never be able to give Esau the Covenant blessing because of the Lord’s prophetic words (25:23) and yet sought to give some form of private paternal blessing to Esau before his favourite son left the family home due to the family tensions, and set up on his own with his two wives?  It is possible; but if it is true, the situation gets completely out of hand.

With words that speak overwhelmingly of Isaac’s love for his adventurous son Esau, Isaac asked him to prepare a special meal, suitable for the blessing ceremony that was required for the passing of a blessing from father to son (27:4). Unfortunately for Isaac, Rebekah was listening (27:5) to what was going on!

Rebekah and Jacob

In the turmoil of family sensitivities that surrounded the whole issue of paternal ‘blessing’, Rebekah assumed that Isaac was secretly preparing to pass on the Covenant blessings of God which she fiercely guarded for her other son Jacob.  See how Scripture in this passage calls Jacob ‘her son’ and Esau ‘his son’; thereby emphasising the polarisation that had happened within the family!  Rebekah was noted in her youth as one who was prepared to take swift action (24:58), and that capacity immediately swung into action, as she hatched a plot to deceive her husband directly, for the greater purpose of preserving the Word of the Lord spoken at Jacob’s birth.  Her seriousness is illustrated by verse 8, in which Rebekah told Jacob that he must do what she commanded; this is almost the only use of the word ‘command’ by a woman in scripture (with the exception of Queen Esther  - Esther 4:5).  She was certainly a strong woman; but whether Isaac was weak or being deceptive is not as clear.

Jacob’s response to this is interesting.  In the culture of the day, a son would be expected to be absolutely obedient to his father, and any departure from this would not be tolerated.  It is a sign of how serious the rift within the family was that Jacob was meekly willing to listen to his mother, and not defer to his father and refuse the deception.  In Old Testament teaching about the family, it was assumed that a father and mother were united (Deut 5:16; Prov 1:8; 6:20 etc), and there were few example of such lack of unity as in this story.  Jacob, of course, was the same age as his twin brother Esau, and was hardly a young lad; he was around 40 at the time of the story!  He had a mind of his own to follow what was happening, but still went along with his mother’s plan, despite the risks.  He knew full well he was entering into deception, and it seems that all he was concerned about was the awful consequences of being ‘found out’ (27:12).  The deception of a father, and a blind man (in verse 12, ‘mocking’ or tricking’) was a serious offence (see, for example, Lev 19:14; Ex 21:17).

In the rest of the passage, Rebekah clearly did all the trickery.  She gave the instructions, prepared the food, dealt with the problems (making Jacob’s skin feel hairy) and then cemented her part in the scheme by taking on herself the full consequences of her actions (27:13).  It was a rash thing for someone of her time to undertake, but in her favour, it must be accepted that she was doing this because of her conviction that the Lord’s promises were properly to be given to Jacob, and she believed that she was being deceived by her husband who was himself planning to pass on the Covenant blessing without the whole family being present.

The story will continue tomorrow!

Gen 26:34-27:17 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

It is sad to read of a breakdown in the trust between Rebekah and Isaac.  However, trying to apportion blame in the midst of a situation such as this is like trying to apportion blame in the majority of marriage troubles: impossible.  Once we know the details that help us to see Isaac’s deception, then the whole story can be viewed with more equality by us today.  It has too often been assumed that Rebekah was the deceiver, and she passed this on to Jacob, exacerbating the small degree of deception carried through to him from him fathers, Isaac and Abraham (mostly evidenced in their treatment of their wives, 12:10f.; 20:1f.; 26:6f.).  Jacob’s problems in later years might well be a result of both his parents, but they should not be thought of as the rejection of his father or the deceptiveness of his mother.  It was more complex than that.

One thing is evident from this passage, and it is that in the complex relationships of marriage, quick assumptions are often somewhat wide of the mark!  The reality of this situation was that the Lord was in control, and through this agonising process, Jacob was on a path that would lead him to deeper truths of faith.  Whilst the Jacob we meet in this chapter is a timid man who was obedient to his mother, he would indeed inherit the blessings of God from Isaac, would receive from him the full Covenant of God for his descendants (28:4f.), and eventually become the mature man who would be named ‘Israel’ by the Lord (32:22f.) and become the father of twelve sons.  This is a clear message to us that God can change people and use them; whatever the circumstances.  We too easily judge people by what we see of them or hear of them from one moment of time, or one conversation.  We are all more complex than that, and the Lord can do far more in us than we imagine, let alone what other people think of us!

Gen 26:34-27:17 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. Do you think it is possible to say who is ‘in the wrong’ within this story?  What is the most important theme of the passage?
2. Share experiences within your group of what happens when people jump to conclusions too quickly about what happens in a marriage.
3. Who comes out best in this story?  Why? And how does this benefit them, if at all, in the long run?

Suggestions about discipleship and Christian lifestyle

Ask yourself whether you are too quick in your judgement of other people?  It is wise for us all to assume that we are!  The challenge we have is to be sufficiently focussed on the Lord to have a mature, forgiving and open-hearted attitude towards others, generally.  This is not to say we should not exercise discernment and caution about those who we believe are do evil, but it is important that we have a right and godly attitude towards everyone.  All of us need to be challenged about this from time to time!

Final Prayer

Holy Spirit, You have come and rested upon my soul.  Fill me with love and compassion; grace and truth; integrity and honesty; and a sincere desire for justice in Your Name: and as You bless me now, flow out from me to others according to Your gracious will.  AMEN

Bible study for Genesis 27:18-29

Gen 27:18-29 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

The story of Jacob’s stealing of Esau’s blessing continues, but is not what it seems. A plain reading of the text appears straightforward; Rebekah had plotted to enable her beloved Jacob to receive the blessing that Isaac had intended to give privately to his favoured son Esau.  The passage today highlights the dramatic tension of what happened as Jacob put his mother’s plan into action and successfully received a blessing from his father.  But if you read yesterday’s full Bible study, then you will know that everything was not as simple as that!  Isaac was indeed getting old, but all this happened 80 years before he actually died (35:28), and he did not follow normal practice for the formal inheritance of a wealthy man of those days (e.g. see Abraham, 25:1-11)  This whole event was either intended by Isaac as a private blessing for his favourite son, or Isaac was attempting to pass his inheritance on to Esau by tricking Rebekah and Jacob! Who was deceiving who?  It is certainly not yet clear!

Today’s passage should be read carefully, to see whether it can shed any light on what was truly going on.  Also, we should be wary because much of the discussion of this text in books and the preaching we hear about it, simply focus on the deception of Isaac by Rebekah and Jacob.  No other possibility is usually considered.

Most of this text is a tense conversation between Jacob and Isaac.  Isaac was uncertain about which son he was talking to, as is obvious from his frequent questions about who he was speaking to (27:18,21,22,24).  At any moment we feel that Isaac, despite his failing eyesight, would surely realise that something was wrong and refuse to give the blessing, but he was finally convinced by three things; the feel of the hairy skin Rebekah placed on Jacob’s hands (27:23), the smell of Esau’s garments worn by Jacob (27:27) and the taste of the food Rebekah had prepared to imitate the cooking of Esau (27:25).  Of the five senses, these three overcame the suspicions Isaac clearly had that he was not talking to his favourite son Esau, reflected in his caution that ‘the voice belongs to Jacob’ (27:22) and his failing eyesight.  One might think that if Isaac was really that worried he could easily have sorted out who he was speaking to with some more searching questions.  However, if Isaac was under the impression that he had given the instructions to Esau privately, then it would have been very distracting to suspect that he was speaking not to Esau but Jacob! How did he know?

At the end of our passage, Isaac conceded and gave a blessing to his son in the belief that is was Esau.  Now Rebekah was concerned about two things, the inheritance of her husband’s wealth, and the Covenant blessings of God; yet none of these were mentioned in the blessing Isaac gave!  There was no direct connection between what Isaac said (27:27-29) and the Covenant, and neither did Isaac mention any apportionment of his wealth!  It was a form of blessing for a firstborn with general declarations about wealth, dominance and respect, but it did not have the expected details about inheritance which made the whole story contentious in the first place!  Who was deceiving who?  We shall have to wait to see how the story concludes to reach a conclusion about this!

Gen 27:18-29 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

Today we will weigh up what this story says about Isaac and Rebekah by examining how the story fits with the rest of Scripture, and also by looking at some revealing words in the text.  Then, if we look at what really happens to the Covenant promises, we find that they were passed on from Isaac to Jacob in a very different way than from Abraham to Isaac.

Isaac, Rebekah, blessing, and the firstborn.

In order to find some coherence in this story, it is best to stand back from what we can plainly read, and focus on other features of the text which may help us.  We have already hinted that Isaac may well have been as deceptive as Rebekah within Genesis 27.  Rebekah’s deception is openly described, for she specifically acted to deceive Isaac to make sure that Jacob would receive God’s blessing through Isaac.  We might say that her actions were reasonable because they would ensure the fulfilment of prophecy spoken by the Lord at Jacob’s birth (25:23).  Isaac’s deception was to attempt to pass on a blessing privately and without gathering the family, when his sight was failing but he was hardly near to death (according to Scriptural dates, see above).  What else can help us decide how to interpret the strange features of today’s text, and do they support any particular theory of what was going on.

We start by remembering that Rebekah was presented to us as a godly woman who was prepared to discern and follow the Lord’s will (24:58f.) and who was loved passionately by Isaac (24:67; 26:8).  When the twins Esau and Jacob were born, Esau was an adventurous youth, more like his mother, but favoured by his peaceable father, but the more staid Jacob was like his father, but was favoured by his mother! (25:27,28)  The mix up of family emotions which this entailed became a recipe for disaster, bringing out the negative traits in all concerned.  Isaac continued to favour the son whom God had not blessed (Esau) whilst it was Rebekah who defended the rights of God’s chosen, Jacob.  There are some family similarities here with Abraham’s favouritism of Ishmael and Sarah’s defence of Isaac her son.  We can see this from a distance, but it was not apparent to Isaac!  What great havoc is wreaked even amongst godly people, when personal choices and preferences are allowed to prevail over the Lord’s!

Isaac, we recall, was presented in chapter 26 as a man of peace, yet capable of considerable wisdom which the Lord used to help him deal with the difficult circumstances that developed near Gerar and Beersheba where he set up his household.  He was also presented to us as a worthy man of faith of whom the Philistine King Abimelech observed ‘the Lord has been with you’!  If Isaac was now attempting to exercise his own favouritism in the face of the Lord’s will and in defiance of social convention, then we are now seeing a very different side of the man!

One reason why we should indeed be concerned about Isaac’s intentions is the strong connection between the story of Abraham and Sarah, and of Isaac and Rebekah; we should expect Rebekah to enforce God’s choice of heir, because Sarah did this with Isaac (21:8-14).  Also, Rebekah’s influence and importance is obvious in our text because of something we cannot see in an English translation of the Bible.  The whole of this story (ch 27) is full of word repetitions which do not make sense if repeated in English; but they do in Hebrew, to make important points.  Rebekah’s name is often used (even where translations say ‘she’), and her name is made up of three Hebrew consonants RBK.  Two other words are also repeated frequently in the Hebrew, BRK meaning ‘blessing’ and BKR meaning ‘firstborn’! You can see how the combination of these three words in this passage is something of a brain-teaser, as we are constantly slipping between one or the other of these words!  The passage tells us that the Lord has given Rebekah the truth of the blessing of the firstborn (RBK … BRK BKR!)

Jacob, the blessing, and the Covenant

All of this does not defame Isaac, it paints him as human, and unfortunately not the one who was in touch with the Lord’s will at this point in the story.  Like his father before him, he favoured the wrong child, and eventually has to accept this fact, years later (28:3f.).

It is possible that Isaac knew the Lord’s blessing would have to be given to Jacob, but he wanted to give Esau his personal private blessing.  If this was so, then Rebekah should perhaps be faulted for jumping to conclusions.  In the midst of the family turmoil, she misread her husbands intention and was unnecessarily spurred into action in defence of Jacob.  Also, if Isaac knew the day that would one day come, when he would have to follow the Lord’s will and pass on the Covenant blessing to Jacob, it does make sense of Isaac’s strange blessing at the end of today’s passage.  As we have seen, it does not mention the Covenant blessings (to compare, see 17:6f, or 22:17,18).  Apart from speaking lovingly of the countryside, it had the effect of making the recipient (Jacob) senior in rank to all his brothers (27:29 – though we only know of Esau).  Jacob thereby received the words of authority by which he would one day be entitled to the blessings of his father and the Covenant of God, but not at this point in time.

For now, we should focus on Jacob himself, as the recipient of this blessing by deception.  What we know about him so far is not very complimentary.  He has been described as a quiet son who stayed ‘at home’ (25:27) and he appears to have had little to do with his father, Isaac, the bearer of God’s promises.  We have been told by prophecy that he is God’s choice as the next forefather of His people, but he seems an unlikely candidate.  Now, in verse 20, Jacob said something significant to his father when asked why he had been able to find food quickly.  Jacob replied with a ‘white lie’ (‘… God gave me success’) because of the deceptions involved, but in this reply he described the Lord to his father as ‘your God’.  He spoke as one who did not wish as yet to identify himself with the God of his fathers, Isaac and Abraham!

This was no small matter, and as we are talking about a grown man of 40 (26:34), his distance from the God of his fathers may have been one reason for Isaac’s discontent with him as a son.  We could also guess that perhaps Rebekah saw in Jacob a man who would one day reach the point of accepting the faith of his fathers, but the Scriptures do not say this directly.  What they do say is that after the awful disruption of Isaac and Rebekah’s family life due to this incident, Jacob left home.  His father did then grant him the formal Covenant blessing as he left (28:3f.), but it took many years and many tortuous lessons of both life and faith for Jacob to finally come to the place where he owned the faith of his fathers, and for the Covenant blessings to be discovered by him through a highly personal experience of God (32:22-32). 

The story of Isaac was one of the passing on of faith by the Lord through the family.  The story of Jacob was that of a man who had to find faith for himself.  Even to this day, the experience of faith of most people falls into one or other camp!

Gen 27:18-29 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

How often does division within the family create havoc and make good people blind to the Lord’s will?  It is hard not to reach the conclusion that whatever else was really going on in the minds of those involved with this incident, Isaac’s blindness was not just physical!  Rebekah too may well have over-reacted.  What this did to Jacob as a sensitive son (25:27) is uncertain, but it showed itself in his distance from the Lord at a time when his parents really needed him to be spiritually aware and receptive.

For the many families which experience division and upset today over a multitude of issues including that of faith, the good news is that He will achieve His purposes, just as he did quite gloriously through Jacob.  We often feel as if we are living within the snapshot of a story such as that in Genesis 27, full of intrigue and mystery, with uncertainty over people’s motives and being surprised or even shocked sometimes by their actions.  In the same way that we have found it difficult to be certain about who is intending what in our discussion of this text, we are often puzzled and find it hard to make sense of what happens around us.  This does not mean that the Lord is not in control!  Sometimes critical situations that appear to be at odds with God’s great purposes will turn out to be crucial for the path of life the Lord has for us.  I think it highly unlikely that Rebekah thought her panic response to help Jacob obtain his father’s blessing would be revealed in God’s Holy Word.  Neither is it likely that Isaac would have wanted his less than happy favouritism of Esau, a man who would eventually cause real trouble for God’s people, broadcast to the world!

Gen 27:18-29 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. If you are in a group, discuss what you consider to be the truth about Rebekah’s motives in this incident.
2. Discuss also what you consider to be the truth about Isaac’s motives.
3. Look again at the blessing Isaac gives in this passage.  What other passages of scripture does it link with?

Suggestions about discipleship and Christian lifestyle

In what situations of life to you find it difficult to keep a focus on the Lord’s overall will for your life?  This is a tough question for each of us, but one which it may be wise for us to consider from time to time.  Like all troublesome issues of life and faith, talking about these things can be a start; but if we can bring them to the Lord prayerfully and seek the Godly counsel of those who have discernment, then we can find the bigger picture we need in order to find peace.

Final Prayer

Lord of love and power and grace and strength; fill our minds with Your Holy Spirit to inspire us with Your vision, Your purpose, Your plans and Your eternal future.  As we open ourselves up to You, grant us peace and take away our fears.  Through Jesus Christ we pray; AMEN

Bible study for Genesis 27:30-45

Gen 27:30-45 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

This passage of scripture ends the long story of deceit surrounding the blessing Isaac gave to Jacob instead of Esau, his firstborn.  We know what will happen, because the whole story has been building up to this.  Esau returns and quickly discovers what has happened.  Isaac also discovers the deceit and shakes with fear (27:33).  Without question, this is the first time that the Bible has conveyed to us such strength of feeling, for the whole passage is littered with words of anger, tears, appeals and grudges.  The blissful scenes of contented nomadic life at the end of chapter 26 have been left far behind, and the ‘chosen people of God’ end this chapter of the Bible rent asunder.  Whatever went on in the minds of, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob and Esau, the damage has been done and crucially, the Covenant blessings of God have not yet been passed on.

The question we must ask is this; can God’s chosen people be salvaged from this mess?  The answer, of course, is ‘Yes’.  Genesis is a long series of catastrophic stories from which God has to rescue his Covenant plan for the future and for salvation.  Who would have thought that God’s promises could be passed on by an infertile married couple? But the Lord miraculously gave Sarah a child!  Who would have thought that God could have a relationship with people again after their appalling sins before the Flood? But through Noah, He did.  Who would have thought that humanity could survive the disaster of the ‘Fall’, and the murder of Abel by Cain?  But by the creation of a new line from Adam through Seth, it did.  Our passage today is no less significant, but if we know this theme of Genesis, then we can expect that God will find a way to bear the Covenant, even more strongly, to the next generation.  The last story in Genesis, about Jacob’s son Joseph, also follows the same path from disaster to triumph.  It would become a theme for the whole life of God’s people in Old Testament times.

If you have followed these studies over recent days, you will know that it is not obvious that Isaac intended to do anything more for Esau than give him a fatherly blessing; certainly not the formal inheritance his wealth and the Covenant of God as Abraham had done for Isaac (22:17f.; 25:5f.)  We will try to get to the bottom of this in the main Bible study, but we can easily see that Isaac, despite being shocked, did not respond to Esau with warmth or reassurance, eventually giving him what amounted to a curse not a blessing (27:39).  There was no reason why a father could not respond favourably to sons that were not firstborn (see 25:5f.).  Why did Isaac react like this?  Was it because despite his favouritism, he knew that God wanted the Covenant to go to Jacob (27:23,37).  We should be careful not to make assumptions about what was happening and read the text carefully.

At the end, the Covenant is not yet passed on and although Isaac may well have been an old man when this happened, he would have to live many more years before the Lord brought Jacob, an immature man of difficult character, to a place of surrender and faith where he was worthy of both the Covenant and the Promised Land.

Gen 27:30-45 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

What did Isaac really feel about what was going on?  He was clearly angry, but unable to show love to Esau and give him comfort!  And what was happening to God’s Covenant in the midst of this family mayhem?  It is not mentioned, but it was the key to the whole situation.

Strife in the family

The tense moments when Jacob scuttled out of Isaac’s presence and Esau arrived with his freshly killed game are wonderfully portrayed in the Hebrew of verses 30 and 31, and the story is told with a great deal of repetition of words.  ‘My father’ or ‘his father’ is repeated in the story far more times than we would normally do in English, six time in verses 30-34 alone, for example, and other details which indicate family relationships are also repeatedly emphasise; ‘his brother Esau’ – v30; ‘… your firstborn son, Esau’ – v32; ‘his father Isaac’ – v39.  In this way, the text of Scripture tells us its primary concern, which is that the family is being destroyed by their ‘in-fighting’ over the Covenant of God.

Throughout the life of the people of Israel in later years, great emphasis was placed on the importance of the family unit as the place where the life of God’s chosen people was to be lived.  After the time of the Exile, for example, the supremely important feast of the Passover was celebrated in the family home, as it is to this day amongst Jews.  It is possible that some of the stories of Genesis, such as that of Jacob and Esau, which told of the ups and downs of family life were used as examples of what happened when people followed their own ways and the Lord had to rescue them from the consequences of their actions. 

Confusion!

Nevertheless, it is possible to dig deeper into this story and reach some conclusions about what was going on, and these conclusions may not be what we might imagine from a quick read of the text.  We shall start with Isaac.  If it was indeed his intention to give Esau a private paternal blessing for his favoured son, knowing since the Lord’s prophecy at his birth that the Covenant blessing would go to Jacob, then his actions in this text do make sense.  When Esau came in and presented himself to Isaac, Isaac would have been shocked that his private arrangement with Esau had been overheard.  He would have immediately realised that it was Jacob who had come previously, but he did not speak out against Jacob in anger.  Instead, he declared openly that Jacob would indeed be blessed (27:33).  The fact was that the whole situation was out of hand; Isaac realised that Jacob (with Rebekah’s help) had tricked him because he thought he would gain the coveted blessing of God, the inheritance of God’s people and the Covenant; but nothing of the sort was in his mind!  His trembling was the fear and horror of realising the utter mess that had been created by presumptions and misunderstandings within the family created by its inner tensions.

The confusion in the household about birthrights, blessings and the inheritance of God’s people was clearly evident in Esau’s words of pleading to Isaac.  Realising that Jacob had again taken from him what was his, he complained bitterly that Jacob’s name, meaning ‘he grabs’ (see 25:26) had proved to be his character.  He knew full well that he had been tricked out of his birthright in the earlier incident with the ‘red stew’ (25:29-34) and this right of the firstborn meant nothing unless it included the primary inheritance from Isaac.  His objection to what had just happened was not that he had lost this, but that he had now lost the personal blessing of father.

When Esau complained to Isaac, the reply he received was extraordinary.  Isaac repeated that the words of blessing he gave to Jacob, were fixed, and once said, they were irrevocable.  Yet why did Isaac not offer other words of blessing for his favoured son in this tragic situation?  It is possible that Isaac knew full well that he had one more blessing to give, which was the Lord’s blessing and the Covenant, and his prevarication was a sign of his unease at Esau’s pressing the request for more blessing.  In reality, everyone knew the blessing of God and the Covenant was the real issue at stake, and Isaac was not going to say anything to his sons about that in the midst of this family strife!  Jacob had tried to get it by trickery, and now Esau was trying to badger his father into doing something he knew would not be right.  This is why Isaac spoke words to Esau (27:39,40 )that were simply a prophecy of what would come rather than any form of blessing.

The consequences

Whether we are right or wrong about what Isaac felt and believed, the consequences of what happened had a dire impact upon the family.  Reading about it in hindsight is easy, because we know that Jacob will one day become a godly man and Esau will find his own life and create a new tribe (Edom – see 25:30), but the strength of feelings generated by the whole incident threatened everything that Isaac and Rebekah had built together with God’s blessing.

Esau became immersed in his own sense of rejection and responded to it with an aggression that was typical of his character.  He planned to kill Jacob (27:41).  The assumption that his father would soon die was also misplaced, for Isaac would live another 80 years (35:28).  Rebekah, the woman commended by scripture for her prompt responses (24:57f.) and strong character (24:64f.) had used these same characteristics, for good or ill, to plot the deception of her husband, and could be said to be responsible for all that had happened.  Nevertheless, she attempted to hold the family together and maintain a long term perspective (27:43f.). God needed someone to do this in order to resolve the problems now raised for the future of the Covenant.  Isaac was not ready to give the Covenant to anyone (we will read more about this tomorrow); Esau would never have it, and Jacob was not mature enough to be worthy of it.  A longer term solution was required.

Whatever Rebekah felt about the whole situation, she acted for the safety of her sons, and instructed Jacob to go to the household of her brother Laban in Mesopotamia (a very long way away!) whilst the situation cooled down (27:42f.)   Her final comments reveal her thought that if her two sons remained in the same place, they would kill each other, and then everything would be lost.  She may also have been aware that if her favoured son Jacob was ever to become a man of God, he needed to be hardened by work of a kind he had not done before (25:27,28).  She knew just the man to teach him!

Gen 27:30-45 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

It is very hard for any of us to see the way forward in the midst of difficult times, for personal or family reasons, and it is easy to become caught up in disputes about why did this person say this to that person or someone else, and so forth. The endless discussion of who did what for whatever reason, can be the seed bed either of further strife and conflict, or the route to understanding and forgiveness.  The difference between the two is God Himself.  In the midst of this situation, I believe that Isaac was holding back from offering the Covenant blessings of God  by inheritance to either of his sons; despite the blessings and prophecies he gave to them.  Rebekah was looking to the future, trying to make sure that everything did not cycle into disaster.  There is much in the story of Genesis 27 that is not worthy of our attention for spiritual growth and formation.  However, in the circumstances of strife between Isaac and Esau, their parents might just have done the right thing, in the end.

Whatever happened, God was not going to be deflected from his chosen path.  He had promised to keep his Covenant with the family line of Abraham, which was to rest with Jacob, for ever, and everything would work out ‘for good’.  Whatever was really going on in Isaac’s household, the story is a reminder to us that real faith in God is proven when times seem dark and troubled, not when everything is going smoothly.

Gen 27:30-45 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. Why do you think that Isaac did not feel able to give a blessing of any kind to Esau?
2. What did Esau expect to gain from his father, given that he knew that Jacob had ‘stolen his birthright’?
3. Discuss the options for what Rebekah may have meant by saying ‘why should I loose both of you in one day?’

Suggestions about discipleship and Christian lifestyle

Do you recall any troubled times within your family, either when you were a child, or in later life?  It is important for us to come to terms with what we recall of such events, even though we tend to bury these things quite deeply inside.  I suggest you focus not on the rights and wrongs of what happened, but on its effect you. Offer your own responses of unhappiness, anger or whatever, to the Lord.  Pray and ask the Lord to help you forgive others, repent of wrongdoing, as appropriate for your involvement.  You will find great blessing in doing this.

Final Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ; You came into this world with the intention to love all people, and yet You quickly found yourself in contention with those who opposed You.  Help us to deal with strife and tension in a godly way, and seek Your help in the midst of all the problems we face.  Bring us, we pray, to a place of freedom and liberation from trouble and strife.  AMEN

Bible study for Genesis 27:46-28:9

Gen 27:46-28:9 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

It is quite extraordinary that at the end of the heartbreak within Isaac’s family over blessings and birthright in Genesis 27, Isaac freely offered the honoured Covenant blessing of God to Jacob whilst sending him away to Mesopotamia to find a wife (28:3,4).  Isaac certainly knew full well what the difference was between this Covenant blessing of God and the paternal blessing of his favoured son that Esau had sought and which Jacob had taken (27:27-29); and the signs were that Isaac was deeply hurt by everything that had happened.  He had been trapped by the deceptions of his wife and his son Jacob, but as a man of honour and perception, he attempted to do the right thing both for his family and the Covenant blessing for which he was responsible.

Many commentaries on this passage of scripture will tell you that Isaac was weak-willed and even incompetent in the whole story of Genesis 27 and 28, because he was gullibly deceived (27:1f.), unwilling to properly bless Jacob or Esau (27:27-29; 39-40) and unable or unwilling to handle the murderous intent of Esau (27:41:f.).  However, I suggest that he was a man of integrity, and it was the same Isaac who previously handled the conflict with the Philistines very well (26:17f.) who now dealt well with the fallout of the family dispute over birthright, paternal blessing, and God’s Covenant blessing. He knew what he was doing in refusing to let God’s Covenant blessing be handed on in the midst of a family dispute, and even here as he dismissed Jacob, he spoke of a future in which these blessings ‘may’ possibly and hopefully be fulfilled in Jacob (28:3,4).  He did not see in either of his sons a worthy successor for the Covenant; either the deceiving Jacob or the plotting Esau (who wanted to kill Jacob as soon as his father died – 27:41) and by sending Jacob away he knew he was following Rebekah’s wishes (27:43-45) to avoid strife in their home. 

Isaac was also setting Jacob on a path that would make him grow up, for he had never spent significant time away from his mother’s tents before (25:27,28).  Isaac knew very well that his own father’s servant had gone to Laban to obtain Rebekah for him as a wife (ch.24), and the servant had used tact, diplomacy and considerable social skills to outwit Laban in the negotiations for Rebekah.  Jacob would have to learn the same if he was to be able to extract a wife from the same Laban!  Yet this was something Isaac considered essential for the passing on of God’s Covenant blessings (28:5).

Our passage today ends with the sad story of Esau’s sudden realisation that he had not done what would have endeared him to his father and mother.  His taking Canaanite women in marriage had been contrary to their wishes (26:34,35; 28:6), so he did what he could to marry into the family line of Abraham (28:9), in a vain attempt to gain approval; not realising that it was also an offence to his father to marry into the family of his brother Ishmael, the man who was rejected by God for the birthright of Abraham and the Covenant of God!  Emotions were settling down however, and the whole of our text today concludes the story of Isaac and Rebekah and their household.  From now on, Scripture turns its attention to the adventures of Jacob!

Gen 27:46-28:9 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

So what really was going on between Isaac and Rebekah, and also Jacob and his father Isaac?  And why does Scripture bother to tell us about Esau’s marriage?  As we look at these issues, some surprising and interesting things emerge from this passage which tells us some interesting things about the life of faith and also the future of God’s people, Israel.

Rebekah and Isaac

Despite all that had happened, Rebekah and Isaac were still on talking terms!  In 27:46 to 28:2, the two of them apparently discussed the situation and agreed that Jacob should go to Bethuel at Paddan-aram in Mesopotamia, in order to deal with the rift that had occurred in the family.  It is also obvious that the two of them knew the full implications of sending Jacob there.  Rebekah knew that her brother Laban was a devious man and it would be a hard task for Jacob to obtain a wife from him.  This, however, was the impossible and miraculous route God had used to bring Isaac and Rebekah together, and it was to be the route God would use to bring Jacob to maturity and mould him into the man of God that he needed to be for the sake of the Covenant.

It is amazing that most of the commentaries I have read in preparing this Bible study insist that Isaac was a weak man, and the Rebekah was twisting him around her little finger to get him to do what she wanted.  Rebekah, they say, had already decided that Jacob should go (27:43) and merely had to persuade the old man to agree.  This is mere presumption, and it adds sentiments to the story that are not there.  Isaac and Rebekah both agreed that they disliked Esau’s Hittite wives (see 26:34,35), and after the disruption of the disputes in chapter 27, sending Jacob to look for a wife was a good idea.  Isaac agreed (28:2) and commanded Jacob to go to Paddan-aram and do just this, copying both his wife’s wishes (27:43) and the words his father spoke to the servant who travelled to the same place to find Rebekah (24:4).  He realised the significance of the event, and the importance to the people of God of a single and united family line.  It was part of the wider picture of what had been handed on to him by his father.

The one big difference between the servant’s earlier quest for Rebekah, and what Isaac was now doing with Jacob was this.  Isaac had not travelled to Mesopotamia, but Jacob was himself to go outside the Promised Land and then return to it.  After the recent trouble and discord, and after his part in deception, Jacob had to leave the place of God’s blessing and then return to it.  This theme should make our ears prick up!  We have already noticed previously in parts of the story of Isaac that what happened to him was a foreshadow of what would happen to God’s people in later years (e.g. the contention with the Philistines – 26:17f.). Now the ‘exile’ of Jacob to Paddam-aram in Mesopotamia foreshadowed the terrible experience of the Exile of God’s people in Babylon, when God forced the people of Israel to leave Jerusalem (in around 587BC, see Jeremiah 27) as a punishment for their sins after the breakdown of the monarchy in Judah and Jerusalem.  After many years (between 40 and 70 years), the people of Israel returned, much the wiser and therefore able to withstand the onslaught of Greek and Roman civilisation in the coming years (400-100BC) until the time of Jesus.

Jacob left the Promised Land, and it would be 20 years later, after many hard lessons, that he returned, much the wiser, and as one who ‘wrestled with God’ (32:22) to receive the Lord’s blessing.  This was the fulfilment of the blessing of the Covenant that was his by means of the birthright and blessing he took from Esau, but it was a blessing his father could only prophecy (28:3,4).

Isaac and Jacob

When Isaac spoke the words of Covenant blessing to Jacob (28:3,4), the Hebrew makes it clear that what Isaac did was to prophecy that Jacob would bear the Covenant one day, but he did not bestow it in these words.  In previous instances of the Covenant being bestowed on Abraham, or offered to Isaac, for example, the words were ‘I will give you … I will make you’ (e.g. 22:17 etc.).  In our passage, the words are ‘May he bless … May he give …’, therefore Isaac was speaking of a time when God would do this, but it was in the future.  Jacob was given a promise, but not the fulfilment of it because he was not yet worthy of God’s Covenant presence in its fullness.  It was as if the Covenant was ‘on hold’ for a time until the Lord saw fit to reveal Himself in a new way to Jacob, when he had learned some lessons of faith and experienced more of how to trust in the Lord (see Genesis 32 f.)

This too, is also typical of the experience of God’s people over the years.  Before the people of Israel called out to Moses in Egypt, they had forgotten God (Ex 2:23f.), and Moses had to remind them of their heritage and the Covenant blessings (Ex 3:13f.), and also of God’s name!  Also, at the time of the Judges, God’s people cycled between calling on the Lord and falling away into sin, only for a Judge to be raised up who would call the Lord’s people together again as a Covenant people (for a summary of this, see Judges 2:11f.).

Here is a pattern of the life of faith which many experience.  After sin and trouble, the Lord is unable to work in His people as he would want, and they experience being at a distance from Him, perhaps feeling ‘banished’ from his presence.  Then at a later time when the lessons of life are learned, or disaster strikes, then the Lord visits his people again and then moves them on to a deeper experience of both Himself and faith.  This was certainly true of Jacob, and his story was used as a moral tale to explain the truths of faith to Israelite children. 

Esau and his parents

Jacob had to leave the family home and the Promised Land and search for a bride as well as the Covenant blessings that had been prophesied for him. Esau, however, remained at home with Isaac and Rebekah.  One wonders what they thought of this!  Certainly they did not appreciate Esau’s wives (26:34,35)!  The rupture in the family life must have broken Isaac and Rebekah’s hearts, for they both come across in scripture as strongly emotional people.

The story of Isaac and Rebekah’s family life comes to an end in Scripture with the attempt by Esau to gain favour from his father again, but what he did was totally inappropriate.  His father was not going to appreciate a family connection with the man who had but briefly tried to usurp his birthright from Abraham (17:18; 21:10) and who was married to a woman from Egypt (21:21)!   This passage of Scripture identifies plainly the source of the difference between Esau and Jacob; Jacob was obedient to his father and mother (28:7) but Esau attempted to be obedient by doing what he thought was right but without checking it with his parents!  Here, if we are prepared to see it, is another cautionary tale.  Despite the problems, Jacob followed instructions, and Esau sought to get things done in his own way.  Jacob’s manner was something God could build on, but Esau’s was not.

Gen 27:46-28:9 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

I fear that in the church today, all too often we try to manage the people of God, the Church, according to what appears right for cultural or historic reasons, and our ability to engage with the Lord over serious matters of discipline, organisation, mission and other matters, is limited.  I have been present at too many church meetings where God has been addressed in prayer at the beginning, and then beyond that, it is assumed that He is present in the roughly democratic processes of the meetings which follow, managed well or badly.  I have rarely been present when the Lord has been prayerfully consulted about serious issues to be decided; everyone usually agonises over a matter and then when a consensus is reached, it is presumed to be God’s will!  I have even been taken to task for raising the objection that a decision so taken might not be the Word of God!  We will see in coming studies how Jacob had to learn to take God more seriously than that in order to find peace with God.

The other main point we can take from this text is also from what happened to Jacob.  He was a man who had the opportunity to receive the blessings of God directly from his father, and this included wealth and the stability of living in the Promised Land.  Yet because of the man he was, he had to leave the Land of blessing and find his calling for himself before he could enjoy the Lord’s blessings in their fullness.  We cannot make hard and fast rules about  the path that any of us will take in discovering our faith or meeting our Lord, but the story of Jacob tells us that some have to ‘leave’ for a while before they can return.  If that is us, then we should bear in mind that the Lord is always calling us to learn our lessons and come back.  If that is not us, then we should always support those who have to travel this path.

Gen 27:46-28:9 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. In your opinion, was Rebekah manipulating Isaac? 
2. Do you feel there is much unity between Isaac and Rebekah in Genesis 27 and 28?
3. What do you make of the character of Isaac, after reading Genesis 27 and this part of 28?  What kind of character does he come across to you

Suggestions about discipleship and Christian lifestyle

Have you experienced times when you feel you are a long way from the Lord?  If so, then try to understand why the Lord may have allowed this to be so.  If not, think of those you know who have left the church, for example, and then come back, years later.  Spend time reflecting on what this means for the life of faith, and remember Paul’s words which emphasise God’s faithfulness: ‘if we are faithless, He remains faithful; for He cannot deny Himself’ (2 Tim 2:13)

Final Prayer

Heavenly Father, when all has finished at the end of this day, give me peace.  When I reach a place of rest, remind me of Your care for me.  When I close my eyes to sleep, take care of my soul, my body and my spirit; and refresh them for the challenges of  the coming day.  AMEN

Bible study for Genesis 28:10-22

Gen 28:10-22 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

This is a well known passage, and it is one of those scriptural texts which are both immensely human and spiritually awesome.  Jacob’s vision of angels ascending and descending is unique in Scripture and has inspired artists for thousands of years.  Jacob had been sent away by his parents to find a wife from the family of his great-grandfather Terah, and been instructed to find the house of his mother’s brother Laban (27:43; 28:2).  At this point of his own spiritual journey, Jacob was doubtless aware of the faith of his father Isaac and the Covenant of which he was the guardian, but his own faith was under-developed; as when he spoke to his father about ‘your God’ (27:20).  Although a man of nearly forty years of age, he had not yet accepted the faith of his father and did not appear to have a relationship with God.  His father had prophesied the Lord’s Covenant blessing on him (28:3,4), but whilst Jacob had deceived his father to obtain his blessing, he gave no indication of understanding the spiritual significance of the Covenant.

This did not stop God working powerfully in Jacob’s life!  Immediately he left his parents home, the Lord began his work of bringing Jacob to a place where he would be worthy of the Covenant blessing!  As Jacob came one evening to a place where a boundary was marked (a detail we will examine later on), he re-arranged the stones to protect himself.  As he slept, he had a vision of angels ascending and descending on a ladder.  This was remarkable, for thus far in Scripture we have only ever met one or two angels going about the Lord’s business (16:7f.; 19:1f.), but here, Jacob saw many of them, and then the Lord addressed him personally!

God said to him ‘I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac …’ awe-inspiring words given only to a few such as Isaac (26:24) and Moses (3:4,16f.).  God then gave Jacob his personal guarantee of the Covenant (28:13,14), but it remained a promise.  Jacob would have to learn how to accept, and the last part of what the Lord said indicated that Jacob would have to travel some distance before He would complete his side of the bargain and fulfil the Covenant blessing (28:15).

Upon awakening, Jacob was immediately aware of the significance of the dream, and set up one of the stones he had used as a marker not of a boundary, but of special experience.  He made a vow that if God fulfilled his promise and gave him safety in his travels, then he would build a temple there (‘God’s house’ – see v22).  This shows that Jacob was still not wholly committed to the Lord, but testing Him.  He did not respond to the revelation with obedience or worship, but a bargain.  Jacob was only prepared to accept the Lord if He did what he wanted however reasonable that was!  This was the start of a long a complex relationship between the Lord and Jacob through which Jacob would have to be broken before he would truly be the Lord’s servant worthy of the Covenant.  It is a reminder to us that we often treat the Lord in the same way; yet the Lord is always drawing us, like Jacob, to deeper obedience.

Gen 28:10-22 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

There are plenty of details within this text which are of great interest.  Going deeper we will find out about the meaning of the boundary stones and the angels going up and down the ladder; none of this was co-incidence! The Covenant Promise itself was also extended by the Lord, and the bargain that Jacob asked of the Lord is very important for the future of Israel.

Setting out for Haran

The previous Scriptures in Genesis 27 and 28 explain why Jacob was on this private and lonely journey.  He had been central to a deceitful incident that had torn apart his family, and both his father and mother decided that for his own good and the stability of the family unit, he should leave and go to Mesopotamia, to Haran (28:10) where he should find himself a wife from the family of his mother’s brother, Laban (28:2).  Now, if this was to be the way that Isaac’s son would find a wife, it stood in stark contrast to what happened when Abraham sent his most senior servant to find a wife for Isaac (Gen 24).  On that occasion, the heir apparent stayed with his father, and a wise and trusted servant went to Haran with a rich and glamorous camel train to negotiate for Rebekah to become the next matriarch in Abraham’s family line.  Now Jacob left the family home for his own safety, alone and apparently without even a tent within which to sleep at night.  He was the pampered favourite son of his mother who needed to learn something of real life if he was to become a man.

Jacob travelled north from Beersheba, and his journey to Mesopotamia in the far north and the regions of Haran would have taken many days, being several hundred miles.  On his way he would have travelled through large sections of Canaan, the ‘Promised Land’ of the Covenant God had made with his father Isaac and Grandfather Abraham (13:14-18).  Our passage describes what happened on one of the nights of this journey, at a place we now know as Bethel (28:19) 50 miles north of Beersheba, in the middle of Canaanite territory.  Jacob came across some stones that marked a tribal boundary, a common sight in those days, but because it is not something we are familiar with today, it is often translated as ‘a certain place’. 

Jacob had already shown that he was a somewhat irreligious man (see above) and his next actions typified this.  Boundary stones (clearly referred to in the Hebrew of v11) were set up in honour of the gods of the tribes to whom the boundaries belonged, and were regarded as sacred.  Jacob had the temerity to take them down and arrange them around his head as a form of night protection from wild animals.  Old translations of the Bible such as the Authorised Version have ‘under’ his head – hence the wrong idea that he used the stone as a pillow!  Nevertheless, the tribes-people who would have set up these stones in the first places would have said curses against whoever moved the stones (there are many ancient records of such treatise) and this may have been playing on Jacob’s mind as he went to sleep.

The Vision

The general popular beliefs of the day were that angels protected the different tribes within their own agreed areas, and Jacob had gone to sleep on a boundary within Canaanite tribal lands after having dismantled a sacred boundary marker and (according to beliefs of the day) upset the local gods!  It is in this setting that Jacob had his famous dream of angels ascending and descending to heaven on a ladder!  Some believe the angelic activity represented a fearsome picture of Jacob’s unsettling the local deities by his dismantling of the sacred stones.  This is not in fact a negative picture, but a positive one.  Unknowingly, Jacob had done something very significant; by doing this, he gave the Lord a chance to break into a small part of the Promised Land and to make an appearance to him at this very place.  The angels could be the Lord’s angels coming into the Promised Land from heaven and the demonic angels of the local deities departing!

In verse 13, it says ‘the Lord stood beside him …’ and then spoke to him a new version of the Covenant Promise.  On this occasion, God identified the Promised Land as ‘the land on which you lie’, He promised Jacob not just many descendants as he had done to his father Isaac and grandfather Abraham before, but more specifically, many ‘children’ (28:14,15).  Abraham and Isaac had only passed the Covenant on to one child, and at some point, these small families had to come to an end and the inheritance pass on wholesale to large numbers of children and their generations; this was to happen to a fearful, lonely and somewhat sceptical Jacob!

In addition, the Lord’s appearance to Jacob was a powerful mystery.  The Hebrew word ‘beside’ him (28:13) could equally mean ‘above’, ‘alongside’, ‘around’, or ‘adjacent’ or anywhere ‘near’ him.  From the point of view of the Hebrew text, the Lord was all around him, protecting him!  God’s very actions were a fulfilment of his promise that he would ‘be with’ Jacob wherever he went, the crucial Covenant blessing that God gave to his people irrespective of their deserving!

Upon waking

It was the presence of the Lord that Jacob remembered from his dream; ‘Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it!’ were his reported words; and it was not the details of who the angels were that bothered him, but the fact that he had seen them ascending and descending!  To him it was proof that God Almighty was present at this place, and his response was to do something that was highly provocative in his own day.  Setting up a cairn of stones and anointing it with oil (28:18) was a formal way of staking a claim to a piece of land.  Jacob unilaterally claimed this piece of the Promised land as belonging to him and his descendants!

The first piece of the Promised Land that was owned by God’s people was the field of Machpelah at Mamre which Jacob’s grandfather Abraham purchased as a burial ground for himself and his wife Sarah (23:9; 25:9) from local inhabitants.  Jacob’s actions were far more rash; the Scriptures record for us that the place Jacob slept was near a city called Luz, and the boundary stones would therefore have been an outlying marker for the city boundaries.  Jacob called the place ‘Bethel’ meaning ‘house of God’, but as happened in many parts of the Promised Land, in future years both names were used for the same place (see Joshua 16:2, Judges 1:23,26).  Bethel became very important in later years to the religious life of Israel because of its association with Jacob and this famous experience (see Judges 4:5, Amos 5:5).  It was the first religious experience that Jacob had, and it affected him deeply.

Jacob’s vow

Jacob was still not one who was won over to showing the same kind of blind faith that his grandfather Abraham had shown, or the obedient faith of his father Isaac.  He wanted proof that God was going to look after him well beyond the one night near Luz!  He therefore made a vow.  It sounds a very holy thing to do, and to some extent it was, but it was still a contract that worked on the principle of proof; ‘if You, O God, do what you have promised for me, then I will do …’  This kind of vow might be helpful in circumstances when we are unsure of the Lord’s will, but in this case, God had spoken to Jacob directly, so Jacob was starting from the premise that God might not fulfil his promise!  His scepticism was not yet removed!

Jacob promised that as his side of the bargain which he tried to arrange with God, he would accept the Lord as his God, if the Lord provided for him and kept him safe until he returned.  Again, this is proof to us that at this point in time; Jacob did not fully accept the Lord as his God!  Still, Jacob also promised that he would build a temple of some kind to the Lord at Bethel, and would ‘give one tenth to you’ the tithing principle of offering to the Lord that was exampled by his grandfather Abraham (14:20).

The physical journey that Jacob was about to embark upon was far more extensive and challenging than he knew, but so was the spiritual journey that he had started.  He had begun a path of faith, but it would be a long time before he was in a position to fulfil the vow; though in God’s providence, he would.

Gen 28:10-22 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

The dream of Jacob is a fascinating story in Scripture, and one that reminds us in a graphic way of God’s desire to break into our world in order to achieve His purposes.  In Old Testament times, this happened only occasionally as God appeared to great people; forefathers, kings and prophets, and led them through their lives.  He did this most frequently to those who were of His chosen people, but not always.  In New Testament times, God broke into the world through His son Jesus Christ, and then more extensively by His Holy Spirit through the Christian church which now extends the realm of the Kingdom that Jesus has begun on earth, as a foretaste of the glory of Heaven.  The angels ascending and descending was an Old Testament foretaste of the connection between heaven and earth that exists for us now in Jesus Christ.

Possibly the most important part of this text is the description of what can only be called the beginning of Jacob’s journey of faith.  Some people are like Abraham, and find blind faith easy or natural.  Some are like Isaac, and exercise faith quite happily through being faithful and obedient.  Yet others are like Jacob; they need to test God out and travel an extensive road of spiritual experience before coming to the p lace where they will accept the call of God.  Initially it seems as if they are asking for God’s attention on their own terms, but as we shall find out, God accepts this starting point, but he never accepts a relationship with anyone on this basis.  It was something Jacob would have to discover, and it is something many people have to discover today.   Jacob’s life story is one that many people could learn from today!

Gen 28:10-22 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. What was your understanding of the vision of the angels ascending and descending before reading this study?  What do you believe it means now?
2. If you have access to a Bible Dictionary or Concordance, look up the town Bethel, and try to find out some more about its history in the life of Israel.
3. Is making a vow a helpful way of dealing with our journey of faith today?  What can we learn about this kind of ‘bargain’ with God, if anything?

Discipleship

Measure yourself against the categories of faith that have been identified in the Bible study as belonging to Abraham (blind faith) Isaac (faithful obedience) and Jacob (sceptical faith which needs proof).  Also, ask yourself if you have any prejudice against anyone who has a different experience of faith to yourself?  This can be very damaging within the church, yet God worked through all three within the forefathers, to bring His people into existence!

Final Prayer

Help us, in the midst of all that happens to us each day, to stop and give thanks to You, Lord God, for your sustenance and power; Your spiritual and physical sustenance, and the heavenly power by which everything we hold dear is embraced by Your love and care.  AMEN

Bible study for Genesis 29:1-14

Gen 29:1-14 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

Jacob now began his quest in earnest.  He had been sent by his parents to find Rebekah’s brother Laban and his family, and from them find a wife.  As he set out on his journey, the Lord met him and offered His blessing (28:10-22).  This story of Jacob’s arrival in the region of Haran is, in general, a happy one in which he is overjoyed at the initial success of his journey.  He managed to find the right region without any difficulty, and then, although the local shepherds were not exactly helpful, he met Rachel, the daughter of Laban.  For him, it was proof that the Lord was indeed watching over him, as he had asked (28:20).

It is obvious straight away that there are similarities between this story, and the one in which Abraham’s servant took the same journey to find Rebekah as a wife for Isaac (ch24); in both, the well was a place of meeting; in both, the young woman destined as a bride came immediately to the scene; and in both, Laban rushed out to meet the stranger who had come.  Other similarities include the significance of watering animals, and joy at the successful turn of events.  However, we learn a great deal about this whole episode as much from the differences as the similarities.  Abraham’s servant came with ten camels and great riches which placed him in a position of power over Laban, who sought to get all he could from the deal and failed (see ch24).  Here, Jacob came alone, an outcast in search of some meaning in his life from the God who had promised him so much (28:13f.).  In the earlier story of Rebekah, she was the energetic, youthful girl who performed heroic feats to water ten thirsty camels (24:19f.); now it was Jacob who had to prove himself by removing the stone from the watering hole to feed Laban’s flocks and favouring Rachel’s in front of the hardened shepherds (we will examine what they were doing and why, later on in the study).  Finally, there is an emotional outburst as Jacob kissed Rachel before explaining that he was related (again, this interesting sequence of events will be looked at this later).  Finally, in the first story, a young Laban had hurried out to discover riches adorning Rebekah and the prospect of wealth from a good marriage deal; and  in this story, an older Laban again hurried out (29:13) only to discover a penniless relative embracing his daughter.  It is not clear in translation, but Laban was distinctly unimpressed by Jacob’s story and his offer of a stay for a month (29:14) was merely the proper thing to do.

We are at the beginning of a long tale in which Jacob would have to learn many lessons, but the Lord granted him sufficient blessings in these events to keep him on track with God’s plans for the future.  Without some success like this, Jacob would have soon lost heart and lost faith in his journey.  We can all understand that on a long journey, we need initial encouragement, but if we are truly following the Lord’s way, then he will indeed look after us and protect us, even though there may be troubles around the corner.  Jacob would soon discover trouble enough, and needed to be sustained by the recollection of the successful start of his mission.

Gen 29:1-14 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

Today, we will explore Jacob’s character in more depth, for this story tells us so much more about this complex man.  This, of course, is just the beginning of an extensive story of self discovery by the man who would one day be named ‘Israel’!

The focus of our text today is almost entirely upon Jacob, and it is only towards the end that we are drawn to notice the rather threatening figure of Laban.  Before Jacob left home, he was a scheming brother and an unremarkable son. Behind his parents back, he had stolen his brother’s birthright (25:29-34); and was later manoeuvred by his mother into deceiving his father over his father’s blessing and incurred the wrath of his brother Esau (ch27).  These two stories tell us of a character who was somewhat unpredictable, and for one whose name meant ‘grabber’, the only significant things he had done in his life were to fulfil that name!  In addition to this, he appears to have stood at a distance from faith in the God of his father Isaac (27:20).

The journey that Jacob was on was one from scepticism to faith, and it was a journey in which his character would have to be changed if he was to come to a place of submission and faith in the God of his fathers.  People have a tendency today to place a great emphasis upon the idea that ‘God accepts us as we are’; which is true.  However, it does not mean that God can continue to accept us if we are unwilling to change.  He needs us to follow the path he sets before us so that we eventually arrive, like Jacob, at a place of genuine faith.

The character of Jacob

Jacob appears to be a man who was totally focussed upon himself and his own needs in the story we have read today.  The narrative glosses over the hundred miles or more of journey between Bethel and the regions to the north east of Canaan which are described here as ‘lands of the people of the East’ (29:1).  The sight of a well with some flocks gathered nearby would have been intriguing (29:2) and caught Jacob’s eye as he travelled through the countryside.  It was an indication of some contention or dispute, for flocks would usually be left to graze during the daylight hours, and then gathered together and taken to a watering place at the end of the day, before being gathered into a fold for the night.  Gathered flocks during the day meant that there was competition for the water, either because of scarcity, or strife over land and water rights (remember the trouble Isaac had with this issue – 26:17f.), and the shepherds had gathered their flocks early in order to gain an advantage when the water become available at the end of the day.  This well was guarded by a large stone (29:3,8) which was removed, presumably by several men, at due time.  Scripture explains this all to us (29:2,3) before the story unfolds, so that we understand the ensuing conversation!

Jacob made some general enquiries with the shepherds who gave him brief, curt responses.  This was enough to excite Jacob, who learned that Laban’s family lived nearby.  Jacob seems not to have been bothered by the replies, even challenging them about what they were doing.  It was hardly a tactful thing to do to local shepherds who knew far more about what was going on than he did!  Jacob was only interested in his own plans and their fruition.

Nevertheless, Jacob found out what he needed to know; the Lord was blessing him yet again, for not only had he found the well near where Laban lived, but his daughter Rachel was coming out with her father’s sheep! (29:6).  Jacob’s response to this was extraordinary, and we are tempted to believe that he was filled with supernatural strength, rolling back the stone from the entrance to the well so that Rachel could water her father’s flock in advance of those who were queuing nearby!  It is doubtful that Jacob won many friends for this rash action amongst people who, though he did not yet know it, he would have to live and work for many years.

Jacob’s focus was on Rachel.  We are not told immediately that Rachel was beautiful, for that comes later (29:17,18); but what follows is almost unprecedented in scripture, being virtually the only occasion in Scripture where a man is recorded as ‘kissing’ a woman in what could possibly be the closest Scripture comes to a romantic situation (outside the Song of Solomon!).  It could be argued that Jacob’s ‘kiss’ of Rachel (29:11) was a formal means of greeting; as indeed it was later on when Jacob first ‘embraced’ Laban and then ‘kissed’ him (29:13).  However, verse 11 of Genesis 29 is a most remarkable verse, for the kiss was not preceded or described in Hebrew by any words of normal formal greeting; Jacob appeared to be highly charged emotionally, having removed a stone that normally required the efforts of more than one man, he then kissed Rachel and further, he burst unto tears!  Only after this extraordinary outburst did Jacob tell Rachel anything about himself and his mission to find Laban (and a wife).

Is this the same deceitful and sceptical Jacob we have met so far in Scripture?  It is, and the Old Testament has chosen to show us that we should not presume to know a man from a couple of stories, even though they were key to his destiny.  Underneath the somewhat dry character we have met so far is a passionate man, perhaps capable of falling in love at a glance, just like his father (24:67).  This deep passion within Jacob was something that the Lord could build upon to guide him on his journey in coming days, as we shall see.

Laban – the man, and the future!

Laban has figured strongly in this story even before the verse in which he comes running to meet Jacob (29:13), his name appearing four times, mostly in reference to the ownership of the sheep driven and kept by his daughter Rachel.  As soon as he heard that a relative had come, Laban, just as he had done many years ago for the emissary of Abraham (24:29), ran to find out what was going on.  However, the man the Laban met this time was no prospect for marriage.  He had been rejected from his family home, and the unthinking Jacob is reported to have told ‘everything’ (29:13), which implies that he told Laban all we know of his life’s story, at least, which could have been interpreted in a number of ways, good or bad.  It was a hasty and foolish act, and quite the opposite approach to that of the experienced servant who had manipulated Laban when Rebekah was taken as a bride for Isaac.

We can imagine that Laban would not reject Jacob from his house as unworthy, however, as he was a member of his extended family.  That is about the sum total of Laban’s concern, for his expression ‘you are indeed my own bone and flesh’ is not necessarily complimentary.  One commentary on Genesis (Wenham; Word series 1993) reports Laban’s approach in this way ‘you have convinced me you are my nephew so you may as well stay!’

All of this does not bode well for the future.  Jacob probably still felt the flush of success, having fulfilled the first part of his mother’s request to find her brother and ‘stay a few days’ (27:44).  He may also have felt that he had seen the woman he wished to marry; yes, the Bible does describe romance!  Laban, however, would have remembered the last time someone came from Abraham’s household to take a wife, and that man, because of his riches and smooth talk, had manoeuvred Laban out of getting as much from the marriage deal as he would have liked; at least from his point of view.  Laban could see what was in Jacob’s mind and saw the opportunity to play games with the young man before him, and exact a just revenge for what had been done to him before.  That, indeed, is what happens next in Scripture!

Gen 29:1-14 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

The story of Jacob is now opening out substantially as we see more of his character.  From a human point of view, Jacob could prove to be a disaster; deceitful and arrogant, physically strong and yet untrusting and capable of being carried away by his emotions.  It was a heady mix!  The truth is that most of us are a seemingly strange mixture of characteristics.  Hardly any of us is truly predictable, and we even catch out our nearest and dearest from time to time; God has not made us ‘fixed in stone’, and we should not allow ourselves to think this of ourselves or of anyone else.  Just like Jacob, there are unexplored aspects of our characters that need the right circumstances in which to excel, and which may otherwise appear ‘out of place’ (like Jacob’s passion in this story!).

The remarkable thing is that the more you discover about the lives of those who have committed themselves wholly to the Lord, the more you discover that God leads each of His people on a journey of self discovery that is exciting and adventuresome, demanding and fulfilling.  He places us in new situations which we would not choose ourselves and then blesses us by giving us peace and fulfilment within them! Indeed, we learn more about ourselves and discover we are far more complex than we had ever imagined.  God even gives us gifts which draws out of us things that we never thought were there; one person may discover a gift of healing, and thence a ministry of care for the dying and the sick, for example; or another may find that although quiet in other ways, they are able to write direct and effective letters to politicians and the media which create debate and change within the church or even society.  God is present and active in these and many other ways.

It remains a mystery to me why we label people in the church according to roles, or even the ‘Gifts of the Spirit’ identified in us by others (as in some church ‘gifting’ programmes), or we label church leaders according to experience, role or qualifications.  God and His people are so much more fluid than these labels, not because labels are not useful, but because they can only ever tell a fraction of the truth about people and they do more than they should.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ is so much more.  It promises a life which is a journey of immeasurable excitement and infinite possibility, and the story of Jacob shows us the way.

Gen 29:1-14 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. Write down a list of the good and bad characteristics of Jacob, and assess whether he was a good marriage prospect for one of Laban’s daughters!
2. Have you heard of instances where people were able to do things that normally require the strength of more people?  How do you explain this?
3. Discuss what you think God would have felt about the story in our text today.

Discipleship

Write down a list of your own characteristics.  How many of them have been ‘lifelong’, and how many have been discovered along the path of life?  Seriously consider what the Lord may be asking of you in the future, and whether this will require something more of you than what you currently think you can give or do.  If you have no dreams for the future or for what the Lord may do in or through you, search your heart as to whether you are in the right place, spiritually.

Final Prayer

We thank You, Lord God, for the simple ways in which you guide us.  Help us to take those small steps of faith that lead us on Your paths.  May this be our life’s journey, and may its end be in eternity with You: AMEN

Bible study for Genesis 29:15-30

Gen 29:15-30 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

This is a powerful story of deception with one clear motto; ‘you reap what you sow’!  Jacob had deceived his own brother and father to obtain a blessing; and now, he was trapped by the deceptions of Laban!  He had been sent from his home by his mother and father partly in disgrace and partly for his own protection, but with a command to go and seek a wife; but he was given nothing, and he had neither means of support nor wealth with which to buy a bride.  Despite this, with the promise of God ringing in his ears (28:10-22) he had quickly found his destination and was overjoyed at the sight of the lovely Rachel.  Jacob has his eyes firmly set on obtaining her as His wife; but how could he do that from his vulnerable position?  Scriptures say that Jacob told Laban ‘everything’ (29:13), but looking back, he may have said too much, giving Laban all the information he needed to get his own back on the family of Abraham that had previously ‘taken him for a ride’.

Initially, Jacob stayed with Laban for a month (29:14), before his uncle offered to pay him (29:15).  Laban undoubtedly knew what Jacob was after, and took advantage of the generous deal that Jacob, blinded by love, offered for Rachel (29:18).  With cunning that cruelly echoed that of Jacob himself, Laban gave the appearance of acting properly and correctly, but deceived Jacob out of his heart’s desire by exchanging the elder and less attractive Leah for the beautiful and shapely Rachel! (29:25)  Jacob had previously subverted social convention by deceiving Esau out of his inheritance, but Laban now deceived Jacob to force him to accept social convention (29:26) and the priority of the elder Leah!  Now in a position of power over Jacob, Laban surprisingly gave Jacob his younger daughter Rachel after only a week, but the price of a further seven year’s labour for her was a heavy blow to Jacob, who knew that he had an anxious mother waiting at home.

It is typical of Scripture that this story is told without saying much about the feelings of those involved (only rarely do we get a glimpse of true feelings, as in 29:11 where Jacob ‘wept aloud’).  This makes the story very powerful, for it invokes emotions in us; feeling insulted at the way Laban treats his daughters, for example, or being incensed at the deceptions involved.  It is natural to respond in this way, but it does not help us get to the heart of what Scripture is saying to us.  This story is in God’s Word for a reason, and if we hold back our emotions, then we will see that Jacob was being taught a lesson by God.  He was indeed God’s chosen son of Isaac upon whom the future of God’s plans would rest, but this did not mean that his sin would go unpunished, or that he was immune from discipline.  As the prophet Amos said many years later ‘you have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities’ (Amos 3:2).  The truth is that now, even after the life and death of Christ, the Lord still has to discipline His people today (Hebrews 12:6), and the truth of this is all the more urgent.

Gen 29:15-30 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

The details of this story lead us to understand the extent of Jacob’s punishment.  We begin to realise that Jacob was indeed going to be blessed by God, but he would have to walk a hard path in order to discover it.  There is no small amount of controversy in the life of Jacob, but it makes the story all the more real and its message clearer.

Laban and his deception

All deception starts with being reasonable, in fact it often depends upon it!  Laban appeared to be very generous when he first offered Jacob some wages for work done around the family home (29:15).  Herding sheep and cattle was the main occupation of nomadic groups such as this, and Jacob would have been familiar with the practices, even if he had taken advantage of his favoured position back at home to do little work.  He would now have to make up for that!

The offer made by Laban appeared to be very reasonable, for it allowed Jacob to ‘name his wages’.  The issue was not straightforward, though, and Laban knew that Jacob was attracted to Rachel (he had not made a secret of the fact! – 29:11) and Jacob wanted to make an offer of work that would secure Rachel as his bride; for he had no other means or wealth.  In such marriage bargaining, the potential bridegroom had to make a generous bid; but what could Jacob do?  A typical ‘bride-price’ arrangement of those days (as scholars have discovered) was around 50 shekels.  We also know that the average monthly wage for a labourer was 1½ shekels.  With a little mathematics, you will quickly see that 3 years labour would have just secured a bride for Jacob; however, in the position of having to make an opening bid that was flattering, he offered to work for twice this plus one, to make the perfect seven; an offer that was very generous to Laban.  Jacob would have expected the usual polite bargaining of the day which would have lowered the amount, but Laban immediately accepted the deal (29:19), and however surprised Jacob was, he accepted because of his love for Rachel (29:20).  What Jacob did not notice, however, was that when Laban accepted the deal, although Jacob had made clear he was negotiating for Rachel, Laban did not mention the name of the daughter he was offering in marriage.  It is a detail that slips by in the story, but which comes back to dominate it at a later stage!

One other detail should alert us to Laban’s scheming.  When Abraham’s servant had come to negotiate the hand of Rebekah for Isaac, he was keen to leave Laban immediately, with almost undue haste and certainly denying Laban’s family the chance of a wedding celebration.  There was no way that Laban was going to let the young Jacob leave as quickly!

Rachel and Leah

The story recounts how Laban, doubtless under the cover of the darkness of night, the veiling required of a bride and the blindness of Jacob’s love, tricked Jacob into spending the nuptial night not with Rachel but her elder sister Leah, and the results of this were swift, as Jacob bitterly complained (29:21)!  A marriage feast was supposed to last anything up to a week, with the bride and groom as guests of honour, but after the first night the groom was infuriated, and demanded the wife he had paid for!  There was no politeness in the curt demand of Jacob, but Laban was now fully capable of driving the situation and was prepared with his answer.  Jacob would have to accept the social convention of the priority of the elder over the younger; something he had spent his whole life denying.

The two daughters Rachel and Leah both ended up as wives of Jacob; both became the mothers of his sons, Leah bearing more than Rachel.  Both are vital to the story of God’s people.  Leah, the elder is described in some translations as having ‘beautiful’ eyes.  The word in Hebrew is ‘soft’; ‘soft eyes’ were regarded as reflecting a meekness that was attractive to men, at a time of male dominance in society (though we should not assume too much about this given the strength of the characters of Sarah and Rebekah described in Genesis).  However, the description of Rachel is without parallel in Scripture; the Hebrew quite literally describes her as stunning in both shape and appearance.  We are left to wonder how Jacob could have not known the difference on his wedding night!  To add to the contrast between the two, Rachel means ‘ewe lamb’ and Leah means ‘wild cow’!   We are also left to wonder, in an age when names were considered as an important guide to character, how Laban was going to marry his elder daughter except by deception!

Rachel is the one we are led to feel most sorry for.  The woman that Jacob loved appeared to be the one who suffered as a consequence of his past and present mistakes.  She was given to Jacob at the end of his marriage ‘week’ with Leah, and had no wedding day or marriage feast; it is only a small but significant omission from the story line, but her father denied her a woman’s privilege of being the centre of attention on her wedding day.  Jacob’s own deception and trickery was turned back on him by Rachel’s father, who sought to teach Jacob a lesson by letting Rachel be married off to him as second best.  Normally, a second wife would be called a concubine, subservient to the elder and more senior wife.  But our text makes it clear that Jacob loved her and favoured her in a way that copied the Lord’s choice of him over the elder Esau.

Jacob

There was no negotiation over the ‘bride-price’ for Rachel.  It was a punitive arrangement that kept Jacob tied down to Laban’s household for a further seven years.  The (more than) double pay that he gave for Leah was itself doubled, and there was little that Jacob could do about it.  Whilst the first seven years seemed to Jacob ‘like only a few days because of his love for (Rachel)’ (29:20), the second seven years were ones in which he had to both work for Laban and also provide for his two wives and growing family (we will learn about them later).  They were a supreme test; but that is what the Lord meant them to be.

The only benefit that Jacob received from Laban was the indirect gift of the maids that he gave to his daughters; Zilpah (possibly meaning ‘handful’) to go with Leah, and Bilhah (possibly meaning ‘trouble’) to go with Rachel.  It does appear that Laban did not wish Jacob or his daughters well as they began their family life together!  Scripture records the names of these maids because in the course of time, and for reasons that we shall examine later, they became mothers of some of the sons of Jacob; and in the end, all four women were ‘matriarchs’ of the ‘people of Israel’.

Gen 29:15-30 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

There is an expression in a famous passage of scripture which may be explained by this story of Jacob, and though it is not a connection that is normally noticed, it is highly significant.  In Isaiah 40, the Scriptures read ‘Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.’ (Isa 40:2).  This is one of a few occasions in Scripture where God’s people are described as paying the price for their own sins, and the prophet Isaiah spoke of a ‘double’ punishment, thereby referring to the story of Jacob to make his point.  Jacob was ‘exiled’ from his own home in the Promised Land’ because of his sin, even though he was God’s chosen.  He had to go and find a future for himself in a way that he could not do at home because of his sin, and he had to ‘pay double’ (twice over!) for the wives and family that would secure the heritage of God’s people.  Isaiah saw in this a parallel with the people of Israel in later years who would be exiled to Babylon because of their sins (2 Kings 24:1f.).  In exile they learned the lesson that the Lord was with them wherever they were, despite the loss of Jerusalem and the Temple (an agonising trial described largely in the book of Jeremiah), and Isaiah’s prophecy told them they would be able to return (see Isa 40:3f.) when, like Jacob, they had paid a ‘double’ sentence for their sins.  There is much discussion as to what this ‘double’ punishment really is, and we will reserve this for a later discussion of Isaiah, but it is helpful for us to know the origin of the idea.

We, who are now God’s people need to know this.  We have a call to be the agents of God’s mission in the world today.  Even though we know that Jesus has paid the price for our sins once and for all, we also know that there is no Christian who can avoid the trials of this world or the works of the Evil one.  Satan specifically seeks to pull down the work of God’s people the Church, and enters through our sins.  Often for cultural reasons (as with Jacob, and Isaac and Laban as well), we are unwilling to accept the Lord’s ways which appear different from what we might expect. Like Jacob, we too often attempt to do the Lord’s work for Him, and end up in a mess.  We do well to heed the warning that the Lord’s people ‘pay double’ for their sins. 

This is not an easy message, but it is important.  Facing responsibility, as Jacob does eventually, and accepting the Lord’s hand in punishment, makes us better able to do His will: ‘for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves’ (Hebrews 12:6).

Gen 29:15-30 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

• Would you describe Jacob as deceitful in this story?  What lessons would he have learned about his own deceit?
• Do you think that the narrator of our story approves of marriages that are not monogamous?  What do you think about the polygamous origins of Israel?
• In what ways does the Lord discipline His people today?

Discipleship

As God’s chosen people, the Church is riven with sin, the sins of division, denial of Christ or the Holy Spirit, or of compromise with ungodly culture.  Each of us must ask whether we play a part in this.  For example, do we allow the world’s ‘fashions’ to determine the music we play and sing in church?  It is certainly sinful when musical opinion is placed above godliness, doing much harm!  How can we help the church (of which we are a part) to a place of repentance?

Final Prayer

Jesus, we are deeply conscious that we cannot live up to our calling except in your strength and through the power of Your Holy Spirit.  Keep us ever alert to the sins of the world which the Devil uses to distract us from our calling.  Be gentle with us we pray;  AMEN

Bible study for Genesis 29:31-30:13

Gen 29:31-30:13 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

We could be tempted to read these Scriptures with a degree of disinterest.  Today’s passage together with that of tomorrow, combine to describe the births of eleven of Jacob’s sons and one daughter, which all occurred in the seven years Jacob worked for Laban as the agreed pay for his second wife Rachel (see yesterday’s passage and notes).  Remarkably, the story of these births is not simply a list of one or other women bearing children to Jacob.  If we look carefully, we can see within it the deep feelings of love and insecurity that were generated by the involuntary polygamous marriage that Jacob was forced into by his father-in-law Laban.  Scripture does not appear to ‘approve’ of polygamy, instead, it uses this difficult episode of Jacob’s life to illustrate his personal and spiritual struggles in a fascinating way.  We will find that all the names of Jacob’s sons illustrate the spiritual life of Jacob, the man who would one day be named Israel!

We will look in detail at the names of the sons in the main body of the Bible study, but to give an example of this, see how the first child borne by Leah was named Reuben (29:32).  The name Reuben is a play on words which means ‘oppression is seen’, and expressed Leah’s belief that God had seen her plight as unloved and therefore given her a son.  It is a great theme of Scripture that God acts when He sees injustice or oppression, despite the sinful nature of the people he comes to save.  This was certainly true of Leah, the wife Jacob did not want (29:25).  More than that, it was also true that God had seen the oppression of Jacob.  His is the bigger story in Scripture, and we have reached a point where despite his past involvement in deceit, he was now the one who was being treated shamefully by Laban; but God was now beginning to bless him.  Both his fathers had experienced difficulty bearing children, but in the midst of his second seven years of hard labour for Laban, Jacob’s prospects in God’s greater plans were being turned around by the birth of children who would make the Covenant blessing of becoming a ‘numerous’ people, come true!

There are also many other important themes in the story; for example, that of God’s preference for choosing the younger over the older.  We know that this is an important part of the story of Jacob generally, beginning with his feud with Esau; but in this passage, Judah (meaning ‘He will be praised’) was the youngest of the first four children born to Leah.  Judah would one day rise to become the dominant tribe of Israel and the tribe of both David, the first King of Israel, and Jesus, the Messiah.

The whole passage is also a study of the difficult relationship between love, represented by Rachel; and the bearing of children, represented by Leah.  At the very least, it could be said that Scripture suggests that the real lesson of Jacob’s enforced and unhappy marriages is that love and the bearing of children belong together, not apart.  In an age where, for scientific reasons, we are able to separate these two, this Word of God should not be cast aside too quickly!

Gen 29:31-30:13 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

We will examine the names of the eight sons born in this passage, and what they mean for their mothers, and for Jacob’s spiritual journey.  There are also a number of ways in which this story echoes other important stories of the forefathers, helping us to understand the generational issues that surrounded God’s chosen people.  A heritage still relevant today!

A story of unhappiness overcome?

Jacob was locked into a marriage with two sisters, the younger, who he loved passionately, and the elder, who had been used by her father to cheat him.  In the broader scheme of things, we can say that when it came to deception, Jacob had met his match in Laban; but there would be stranger twists in the story to come!  In our passage today, Jacob is left in the position of having to work as hard as he ever did for his father-in-law, and also live with two wives who both wanted children, and saw this not just as a blessing from God but as a competition between each other.  Jacob had previously used his own position as a younger but favoured child to his advantage, and now had to watch while his own family was all but torn apart by the results of similar competitive urges in Rachel, his own favoured wife.

Rachel was Jacob’s first love, and the first verse of our passage says that Leah was ‘unloved’.  Some translations say she was ‘hated’; but we should not go that far because the Hebrew word is not straightforward to translate.  Literally, it is the opposite of ‘loved’, but it does not necessarily mean hated; merely not one that receives the favour of being loved.  This should be obvious, because Jacob had time in the marital tent with Leah as well as Rachel in the early years of family life, otherwise the whole situation described in our text would not have arisen.

Leah conceived first and quickly bore four children in succession.  At first, she was desperate for her husband’s love, as reflected in her explanation of her first child’s name (29:32).  Quickly, however, she realised that true love was not overcome simply by the bearing of a child, and although she had access to Jacob, he loved Rachel and not her.  In this situation, the names of her next three children showed a gradual acceptance of that fact as she turned to the Lord.  In naming her second son, she accepted that she was not Jacob’s true love, her third son’s name expressed the hope that because of her sons, her husband would be ‘joined’ to her, even if he would not love her, and in the fourth, she rejoiced in the Lord alone.  At this point she ‘stopped having children’ (29:35) either because Jacob refused her further access to his tent or because now that she had found peace with God, she no longer felt she had to prove anything to Rachel her sister or to Jacob.

All of this was intolerable for Rachel.  It is disturbing that the first time we hear words from the beautiful Rachel, so loved of Jacob, she complained bitterly to him (30:1).  It was a husbands job to pray for children, and her accusation ‘give me children, or I die’ was the equivalent of saying that he had not prayed hard enough for her; but her words were laced with a passion typical of the strong-minded women who married the forefathers; Sarah and Rebekah.  Jacob’s reply also indicates that he was beginning to find some proper perspective on his relationship with God; for he who had previously manipulated events to his own advantage now recognised that some things were God’s to do, not his.

The remainder of the passage describes the birth of the next four children, two by Rachel’s maid and two by Leah’s maid.  Subtly, the Hebrew text upgrades Bilhah and Zilpah from mere maids to their mistresses and describes them as ‘servant-girls’ to Jacob (see 30:3 and later on); the same word used to describe Abraham’s relationship with Hagar, his concubine.  They were, despite their lowly role, matriarchs of the nation of Israel through their sons!  The way that Rachel and Leah used their maids to have children for them by Jacob is beyond our bounds of acceptability, as is polygamy itself, but in the social context of the day, it was relatively accepted. (Who knows what future generations, let alone God, will make of modern surrogacy methods!)  The names of Bilhah / Rachel’s two sons reflected Rachel’s sense of vindication (Dan) after years of struggle (Naphtali) with her sister.  The names of Zilpah / Leah’s two sons reflect simple unaffected happiness; ‘good fortune’ (Gad) and happiness (Asher). 

However, there is unfinished business for both women in the matter of access to Jacob’s tent.  There is more to be said about their relationship, and the conflict continues tomorrow!

The names of the first eight sons

In the following chart, the first eight sons of Jacob are listed, together with their mother and the core meaning (as near as we can get to them) of their names:

          Name             Mother                            Meaning of name

          Reuben         Leah                                My oppression is seen (by God)

          Simeon         Leah                                He (God) has heard

          Levi                Leah                                (I will be) attached (to God)

          Judah            Leah                                He will be praised

          Dan               Bilhah for Rachel           (I am) vindicated

          Naphtali       Bilhah for Rachel           (I have struggled and) prevailed

          Gad               Zilpah for Leah               Good fortune!

          Asher            Zilpah for Leah               I am happy!

What is remarkable about this table is the list of name ‘meanings’.  This particular passage of Scripture comes right in the middle of the whole story of Jacob, and this means that from the manner in which most Hebrew narratives are constructed, it can be expected to have special meaning for the story as a whole.  The sequence of thoughts that we are offered here is remarkably similar to two things.  Firstly, is it typical of a large number of psalms, in which the Psalmist begins by bringing to God a problem or complaint of some kind, often about injustice or oppression (see Psalm 10 or 13, for example), and then proceeds to appeal to the Lord; the Lord hears the prayer offered and then the Psalmist rediscovers how to praise God, discovers victory in the situation they face, before praising God with renewed joy!

The same pattern can also be seen in Jacob’s life, although as far as Scripture is concerned, we are only half way through the story, and there are four more sons and a daughter yet to be born!  Jacob arrived at Haran to find himself oppressed by Laban, yet the Lord heard his prayers and granted him the blessing of children far in excess of his forefathers Isaac and Abraham.  His acknowledgement of God’s authority (30:2) was highly significant, and in giving God the rightful place of honour in the bearing of children, he was giving God ‘praise’ (in the Old Testament, ‘praise’ means honouring God’s existence and creative authority).

The truth is this, embedded within the names of Jacob’s sons is both his own experience of faith, and a life experience so common to humanity and the people of God in general that it is echoed in large numbers of Psalms!  The technical arguments about the details of each son’s name are complex, and some may debate what I have outlined above; but this is all highly significant, and very applicable to the spiritual journey we each face.

Gen 29:31-30:13 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

There are few of us who have not walked the path that leads from oppression or injustice through to faith and then joy again.  This is not the place in Scripture to discuss the details of why it is that we fall into oppression or sin in the first place; a book such as ‘Judges’ will help us far more with that.  Genesis lays out the ground rules of how God deals with errant humanity, and this pattern is a vital clue.  If we cry to the Lord in the midst of our oppression (whatever it is), then it is the Lord’s nature to respond in some way.  It is certainly true that we do not always recognise what the Lord is doing, and again, other Scriptures (Job, Psalms) deal more fully with these issues.  However, when we recognise that the Lord has heard our cries and we commit to Him as He commits to us (see Levi – above), then we can work through our struggles, and with praise in our hearts, eventually reach a place of peace and joy! 

It is true that as I write this down, this journey explains a number of things that have happened in my own life.  The great value of this model of our relationship with God is that it starts with trouble; the very circumstances in which we need to remember the Lord and cry to him for help.  Often, when life is dark and difficult, the journey back to joy again seems impossible, but the very fact that this is a common experience of humanity for thousands of years is our guarantee that the Lord will bring us through, whatever the problems we face!

Gen 29:31-30:13 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

• Have you experienced the journey of faith described in the Bible study?  How easy is it to hear God’s voice in the midst of oppression?
• Discuss in your group whether you find it easy or difficult to try to find spiritual truth from a story which involves polygamy?
• Are you comfortable with the way society today handles issues of surrogacy?  What do you believe to be contrary to God’s will?

Discipleship

Each of us might well be able to apply the spiritual path of Jacob outlined above, to any number of situations in our own lives.  Given that Jacob was the forefather of the people of Israel, is it possible to discern this same journey of faith in the life of God’s people as a whole?  Consider your own church; it may be that it is under oppression – but through faith it will go forward.  It may be at a place of joy, but the enemy may well create distress and bring it under oppression again.  What can you do to help your own church?

Final Prayer

In whatever state we are, Lord God, You have the answer to the way forward!  You know whether we should be cautious, advance quickly, or keep steady.  Inspire us directly by Your Holy Spirit to do what is right, for our good and the good of those we love; AMEN

Bible study for Genesis 30:14-22

Genesis 30:14-24 (get text)   links to:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

The astonishing story of the birth of Jacob’s sons continues.  If we did not know that twelve of his sons would one day become blessed as the heads of their respective clans of Israel, we might be tempted to wonder when the whole sequence of events was going to stop!  In this passage it stops with the birth of Joseph, the firstborn of Rachel, and the one chosen by God to save his entire family from drought in the famous story at the end of Genesis.  In total, twelve children were born to Jacob whilst he was working for Laban in the second of the seven years he worked for him; eleven boys and one girl.  In that time, Jacob worked for his father–in-law as a hired labourer (29:27), but longed to go home to his parents.  We now know that he would go home a different man than when he left!  We will discover later than one more child was to be born; Rachel gave birth to Benjamin some years later, after Jacob had managed to move his family back south to the Promised Land, but this birth would be one of tragedy, as Rachel died in childbirth (35:16f.)

After Yesterday’s passage, which included the birth of Jacob’s first eight sons, the story of the next three is very strange, and revolves around an odd episode where Leah acquires the right to sleep with her husband again after trading with Rachel some mandrakes found by her son.  She was sufficiently interested in the mandrakes to trade them for access to her husband (30:15)!  The mandrake was a plant that was highly prized in its day for its aphrodisiac and fertility qualities, and the young Reuben (probably around 6) had inadvertently given his mother a valuable commodity!  Mandrake was relatively rare around Mesopotamia where they were living and was an expensive commodity, even in those times!  Knowing this, the story becomes simpler.  Rachel was the favoured but barren wife of Jacob, and Leah had stopped having access to her husband after the birth of her fourth child (29:35).  Leah wanted access to Jacob’s bed, and Rachel wanted the fertility treatment in order to conceive!  A deal was done, Jacob did what he was told, and Leah conceived three times, bearing two sons and a daughter!  Later, Rachel conceived and finally bore the child that she so longed for.

The mandrakes are an intriguing part of the story, and we shall study this more fully later on, but a closer look at the story shows that as in yesterday’s full Bible study, the Lord’s purposes are explained through the names of the children.  Issachar has a name which means ‘may God be gracious’; Zebulun’s name is difficult to trace, but is clearly related to ‘honour’ or ‘reward’.  Dinah means ‘vindication (similar to ‘Dan’) and Joseph means ‘may he (God) add…’  All these names draw us back to the Covenant blessings of God given to the forefathers and promised to Jacob; the honour of God’s choice of His people and their vindication that would bless ‘all the nations of the world’, and the blessing of fertility (implied by Joseph’s name). It is clear that Jacob’s life is gradually being turned around by God, and the Jacob we meet in the following chapters is a different man from the one who turned up at Laban’s door.  The lessons of faith are frequently hard won.

Genesis 30:14-24 (get text)   links to:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

A great price was being paid by the family of Jacob for the deceptions that led them to be where they were.  Yet God was still able to lead them through with a blessing, despite their personal problems and idiosyncrasies (see Rachel and the mandrakes!)  The names of Jacob’s sons are prophetic, and speak of things to come.

The family background

There was obviously deep a rooted mistrust and suspicion between Rachel and Leah.  During yesterday’s passage, Leah had seemed contented enough at the bearing of four sons (29:35), giving her fourth son the name ‘Judah’ (‘praise the Lord’).  However, she was competitive enough to present her maid to Jacob after Rachel did as if to say ‘I can do anything you can do!’ (30:9-13). The whole family appeared to be fraught with tensions that lay barely beneath the surface, and this was hardly surprising in a polygamous marriage.  By bringing these tensions out into the open, Scripture makes a clear statement that this is not God’s purpose for His people; however, the Lord was not going to allow even this to stand in the way of His great Covenant promise to bless the children of Abraham, and it was becoming clear that Jacob’s sons would be the means whereby the Lord would substantially extend His people beyond the small family units seen so far in the families of Abraham and Sarah, and of Isaac and Rebekah.  It was a dramatic change in the prospects for the people of God’s promise.

It remains true to this day that turmoil and strife, whilst painful in themselves, can frequently be the seedbed of change for the better.  That certainly seems to have been the case for Jacob.  He arrived to greet Laban (29:13) as the great deceiver, and a son thrown out of his home.  Yet he was now the one being manipulated by his wives, who were playing games behind his back to try and win his affection (30:16).  Jacob had also been reduced to the level of a shepherd (as we shall discover in tomorrows passage) earning little more than that of a hired labourer, and all for the family that was rapidly growing around him, requiring his time, attention and guidance.  He clearly had the love of his favoured wife Rachel, but Jacob seems to be reduced to a man was could do little about the manipulation of his wives described in this passage.

The story of the Mandrakes

Mandrakes were an aphrodisiac.  They were a shrub like plants which had a yellow, plum like fruit, and also had large, edible and fragrant fleshy roots.  The history of the plant is clear from its name; the Hebrew word literally meaning ‘love-fruits’.  Centuries later, the Greek god of love and sex, Aphrodite was called ‘lady of the Mandrake’!  There is also some reasonably clear evidence that even before this time, the mandrake was associated with a number of deities and fertility gods worshipped by the ancients.

Rachel, evidently, was interested in the fertility property of the mandrakes!  As senior wife, she had the right of deciding who should have access her husband’s bed, and she traded this right for the mandrakes, keen to take advantage in due course of their rare properties.  Her desperation was shown in the way she pleaded with Leah ‘please let me have …’ (30:14); ‘please’ can mean many things, and this was anguish rather than mere politeness! 

The first results of the exchange were that Leah bore two more sons, making up her contribution to six sons (30:20); and then she had Dinah.  It may well be that other daughters were born to Jacob, as they are mentioned later (34:19f.), thought it is quite uncertain as to when these children would have been born. Dinah is mentioned by name because of her important role in the story of Genesis 34.

Rachel’s conception of Joseph and his birth was a triumph in more ways than one.  Firstly, it is recorded as taking place after Leah’s three previous children, roughly three years after the incident with the mandrakes.  The significance of this is that the birth of Joseph was not therefore a result of Rachel’s interest in love-potions from mandrakes, or other fertility rites!  It is very important for the whole of Scripture that when Joseph was born, Rachel gave thanks to God alone (30:23) and she declared ‘God has taken away my shame’; adding ‘may the Lord add to me another son’.  Her strength of feeling about the future was reflected in Joseph’s name, which is a form of a verb which means ‘He (God) will add …’

Rachel was loved by Jacob, but there is clear evidence in Scriptures that she was prone to following the other gods of the land of Mesopotamia rather than the God of her husband’s forefathers.  Later on, there is a famous story of her stealing the ‘household gods’ from her brother Laban (31:35) deceiving not just her brother but also her husband about her idolatrous worship.  We do not know the full story of her spiritual anguish about childbearing, but it was important that when he was born, she was able to say that it was the Lord’s work alone.

          Name             Mother                            Meaning of name

          Reuben         Leah                                My oppression is seen (by God)

          Simeon         Leah                                He (God) has heard

          Levi                Leah                                (I will be) attached (to God)

          Judah            Leah                                He will be praised

          Dan               Bilhah for Rachel           (I am) vindicated

          Naphtali       Bilhah for Rachel           (I have struggled and) prevailed

          Gad               Zilpah for Leah               Good fortune!

          Asher            Zilpah for Leah               I am happy!

          Issachar       Leah                                 May God be gracious

          Naphtali        Leah                                 Honour (or perhaps, Glory’?)

          Dinah            Leah                                 She is vindicated

          Joseph         Rachel                              ‘God will add’

Each of the last four names here are difficult to translate, and scholars have found it difficult to pin the words down and make sense of them, given the different explanations of them that are in various Scriptures (see also Genesis 49, for example).  One reason for this is that ancient Hebrew texts have no vowels, and it is therefore difficult to pinpoint how a word was used or pronounced, and therefore its reasonably exact meaning.  We expect to be able to do this today, but it is not always possible in Hebrew.

The last four names are clearly prophetic of Jacob’s bearing of the Covenant promises of God, and point forward to a time when the names of these children would not reflect the feelings of the women who bore them, but the work of God through the whole family of Jacob.  Chapter 30 comes at the very centre of the stories of Jacob, and it may well be the intention of Scripture to tell us that this was the time at which Jacob’s fortunes began to turn.  As explained above, Jacob was probably at his lowest point during the bearing of these children; a slave to Laban and to his warring wives.  God, however, had much more for him.

Genesis 30:14-24 (get text)   links to:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

If you were to read the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel, you might be taken aback  by how quickly Jesus makes it plain that the path of Christian discipleship is a way of suffering (Matt 5:10,11).  The Old Testament too, makes it plain that the way to blessing is often through suffering, as it was in the life of Jacob.  When we then consider that our salvation was won for us by Christ’s suffering on the Cross, then it is amazing that we do not easily accept today that our own life’s path may contain suffering if we are to follow the Lord’s plan for our lives.  It was recently explained to me that the reason we forget this is not that this is not clear from Scripture, but that if the preaching we hear on Sundays constantly tells us that when we yield all to Christ we will be saved and all will be well, then we don’t receive the whole message.  God’s victories are won through suffering, and we are most blessed when we accept that the sufferings we experience are opportunities for the grace of God to lead us to greater peace, to a deeper walk and to a closer fellowship with our Lord.

It is my sincere hope that no Christian today bears the suffering either of being one of two or more wives in a marriage (for a woman), or (for a man) of being married to more than one woman.  Sexual intrigue outside a Godly state of monogamous marriage is always a recipe for disaster.  However, there are a thousand other oppressions in today’s world that are  pernicious; the evils of economic slavery, the inequalities of world pay which alienate the poor, the exploitation of our planet for greed, and the evils of sexual slavery and pornography to name but a few.  The question must be faced; are these evil sufferings part of the life of this world which the Lord will guide us through in this life? Or will their solution only come at the end of time? There have been thousands of oppressions in the history of civilisation which have spurred humanity to greater things, often by the grace of God (as in this story of Jacob) and many in the history of the Church.  However, do you, like me, ask whether the sheer scale and corruption of the world at the present time speaks of the final return of our Lord and His imminent return?

Genesis 30:14-24 (get text)   links to:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. Do you believe that God redeems situations today where people do good things for the wrong reasons (as with Rachel and the mandrakes in this OT story)?
2. What picture do you get of Jacob in this passage of scripture?  How has he changed since the beginning of his story?
3. What picture do you get of Rachel in this passage of scripture?  How has she been changed by all that has happened?

Suggestions about discipleship challenges

Think and pray about the last point made in the Bible study.  Do you believe it is likely that because of the scale of oppression and wrongdoing in our world, our Lord’s return is imminent?  Is this a realistic debate for God’s people to have or should we remain satisfied by Jesus’ statement that we ‘will not know the day or the hour’ (Matt 24:36)?  Due to the significant number of films and TV programmes that imply the ‘end of the world as we know it’, should we be discussing this more fully?

Final Prayer

Lord Jesus, You alone know when You will come again in glory and bring all this world’s suffering to an end.  Strengthen Your people who live through troubled times today, and save them, we pray, from the Evil One;  AMEN

Bible study for Genesis 30:25-36

Genesis 30:25-36 (get text)   links to:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

After the birth of Jacob’s twelve children, it looks to the reader of Genesis as if Jacob’s life is beginning to turn around.  That is indeed true, but we are about to embark upon one of Scripture’s truly dark stories; a tale of intrigue and shady dealing. From this point in his story until he re-enters the Promised Land (33:18f.), Jacob is tested in every way, all his wit and ingenuity is required to escape the clutches of his devious father-in-law, Laban.  Each element of the story is full of such complex deception that those of us who read these chapters today can easily become totally confused! 

The passage begins with a sharp conversation between Laban and Jacob.  After fourteen years of service for his two wives and the birth of Joseph, Jacob wanted to leave and go home to Canaan to fulfil his promise to God (28:20) and the request of his mother (27:43). He asked Laban to let him go immediately.  It is abundantly clear, however, that Laban was not prepared to do this.  He regarded Jacob as a labourer rather than a son-in-law; a servant who needed to ask to leave rather than a relative who had the freedom so to do (also, see later in 31:43, where Laban insisted that his daughters and grandchildren were his), and he did not want to loose someone who has given him good service (30:27).  He was a valuable shepherd, and Laban used all his cunning and smooth talk when declaring that all Jacob had to do was to ‘state his wages’ in order to continue to work for him.

This placed Jacob in a dilemma.  He wanted to leave, but needed to be able to support his family for the journey home and he had nothing.  He knew full well that Laban was not about to give him anything, and Laban’s caustic words ‘what should I give you’ (30:31) made it clear that Jacob would receive no favours. He therefore struck a strange deal that sounded as if Laban had managed to lock Jacob into being his servant for life!  The details are complex and to do with ancient laws about shepherding; we will see how this and the rest of the story works as the Bible study goes deeper, and by agreeing with Laban the ‘wages’ of the multicoloured sheep and goats, he thereby agreed to stay on as a labourer.  Laban immediately separated out the sheep and goats Jacob requested and gave them to his sons.  Of course, they were not interested in Jacob or his future, and it seems to us as if Jacob had completely ‘lost the plot’.  What hope did he now have of obtaining independence and returning to the Promised Land?

This is where we must remember that we are reading a long story, in which the reader is expected to know more than what is in this passage alone.  The next chapter of Genesis reveals that God told Jacob to take this course of action (see 31:7f.), and what Jacob agreed with Laban was in response to a quite specific vision of God!  Yet again, the Old Testament is telling us a story of the triumph of God’s grace over the ways of humanity.  Yes, it is complicated, but the wider picture is a powerful story of the grace of God which shapes one of the foremost characters of the Old Testament.

Genesis 30:25-36 (get text)   links to:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

There is a much detail in this story which helps us to understand what is going on.  It is certainly a story of the Old Testament that I did not understand fully until I studied it.  Yet the more I looked, the more fascinating it became!  There is more to this story about the grace of God than meets the eye.

Jacob asks to go home

The very first words of our passage are interesting.  Why did Jacob wait until Rachel gave birth to Joseph before he asked to leave Laban’s household (30:25)?  We could regard this as a passing reference which merely tells us about the timing Jacob’s request, but it is more than that.  Laban had managed to keep Jacob completely tied down under his authority while he worked for him.  Now it sounds crude to us, but before Joseph was born, Jacob had evidently consummated the marriage with Leah for she had conceived many children.  As long as Rachel herself bore no children, ancient cultures declined to accept that a marriage had been formally consummated, and there are a number of ancient texts from that region of around two thousand BC (roughly the time of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) which confirm this to be the case.  The irony was therefore that if Jacob had attempted to flee before Rachel bore a child, Laban would have been within his rights to claim her back, and with a financial penalty (which Jacob, with no personal wealth, could not pay!), and Rachel of course, was the woman Jacob loved!

The birth of Joseph is therefore the beginning of the story of the liberation of Jacob’s family from the clutches of Laban; something that we will find is important as Genesis unfolds, for we all know that later on, as the twelve sons of Jacob grow up, Joseph is the youngest, but also the favoured child of Jacob.  His importance did not simply come from his being the first child of Rachel, but he was the one whose birth sparked the hope in Jacob and gave him the confidence to speak to Laban and begin the long road to freedom.

The big problem that Jacob had was that he could not travel with his family unless he had cattle and flocks. His cautious words ‘you know how much work I have done for you’ were his way of saying to Laban ‘part of your wealth is mine’.  Laban was not going to accept this, of course, but the One who did know all about this was the Lord!  Before Jacob came to Mesopotamia it would be hard to credit him with a day’s hard work, for the picture we have of the Jacob who left his father’s house was of a man who was pampered (25:28).  Since then, the Lord had taken him and begun to fulfil in him the promises of the Covenant; firstly, he had large numbers of children, being the first of his family line to fulfil the promise of ‘increase in numbers’ (17:4 etc.), and secondly, his work was fruitful, as he was able to declare to Laban in the tense bartering that lay ahead (30:30)

The stubborn and scheming nature of Laban

Laban knew well that Jacob could not leave him unless he managed to obtain flocks and herds from him, which he was not prepared to give.  From his point of view, if Jacob had paid for his wives, then he (Laban) would be obliged to give him back the equivalent to provide for his family, but Jacob never paid for his wives in a direct way; he had only worked for them ‘in lieu’ of payment.  From Jacob’s point of view, he had paid by increasing Laban’s flocks and was due a portion, and this would enable him to set off as he requested.

Laban replied to Jacob with a politeness which hid his real intention.  Having said ‘please’ and ‘if you accept me favourably’ to Jacob in a manner not unlike that of the famous Uriah Heap in Nicholas Nickleby (a novel by Dickens), he set out his counter proposition, which was that Jacob remain as a shepherd of his, for some agreed pay.  It was a simple ploy to say ‘No’ to Jacob, and he knew it.  Any pay that Jacob asked for would mean far less than what he really wanted; his freedom (30:30).  The subtlety of what was going on is not conveyed in most Biblical translations, which then put the following question in Laban’s mouth; ‘what shall I give you’ (30:31); implying that Laban was asking Jacob what he wanted in order to leave.  This is wrong, for no substantial grammatical change is required in the Hebrew for us to find a far more caustic question as in the translation above ‘what should I give you?’ for which a more bold form of the English could easily be ‘why should I give you anything?’

Ancient documents of the times reveal that it was a common ‘sharp practice’ amongst wealthy men to tie their labourers into pay deals which either gave them the minimum wage (one and a half shekels per lunar month) or a share of the flock that was the weakest and least likely to breed well or succeed in the long term.  Jacob knew he would not get a deal from Laban that would enable him to go immediately, and he needed flocks and herds, not money.  He opted for the wage deal that left him with a portion of the flock that was ‘speckled and spotted’; a variety that was considered less valuable (because the skin and fleece was not ‘pure’ white) and less virile (see later in the story).

Laban was perfectly happy with the deal and although it is not said who went in amongst the sheep to do the separation or what Jacob did at this point, Laban put all his speckled and spotted flocks of sheep and goats into the hands of his sons (30:35,36) and at a good distance from Jacob.

God’s blessing on Jacob

It is now clear to us that Jacob, who has already experienced two of the Lord’s Covenant blessings (see above), now started a third period of employment for Laban in which a miracle of provision would have to take place, because he was left in charge of pure white flocks, and the spotted and speckled sheep and goats he claimed had been removed as far away from him as possible and were in the hands of Laban’s sons.  They would all be keen to hang on to what they had as part of their inheritance from their father.

The interesting thing about this story is the way that Jacob capitulated to the deceptions of Laban, and placed his faith in God alone for his liberation from his father-in-law.  Also, the man who had done so little work as a child was prepared to work even longer for a man who had stood in his way and attempted to cheat him, at least by making sure that any claim he made on the flocks would be contested by his sons, whatever agreement he thought he had made with Laban himself.  Now, the flocks that Jacob started with and which belonged to Laban were pure white, and ironically, Laban’s name means ‘white’!  No wonder Jacob wanted the ones that were speckled or spotted or brown (30:32f.); the pure white one reminded him of the man who had cheated him!

We will read tomorrow of what happened over the following years as Jacob bred the sheep and goats, and later about the vision of God which gave him confidence in what he had done even though it made him vulnerable.  God had made his choice a long time previously, and was about to fulfil his promises to His servant Jacob.

Genesis 30:25-36 (get text)   links to:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

In the midst of a difficult situation, we would be tempted to fight our way past ‘the enemy’ in order to find a victory for Christ and His people.  This story of Jacob tells us that sometimes it is necessary to give in to the enemy in order to defeat him, simply because the victory does not belong to us but to the Lord alone!  In this passage of Scripture, we do not see the full story, but we do see the important part of it in which Jacob yielded control of the situation to the Lord.  His enemy, Laban, thought he was in control, but in reality, Jacob had left the situation in God’s hands, the God he believed would bring him safely back to the Promised Land.  It was a game of double-bluff, Laban thought he had successfully bluffed Jacob into remaining his servant for life, but Jacob called that bluff by leaving Laban to believe what he wished, whereas he had left things in God’s hands and had faith that they would turn around.

It is important for us to remember this approach to defeating the enemy, for it clearly yielded impressive results for Jacob, as we shall see in the coming chapters!  In our world in which aggression is glorified, we are often tempted to believe that the Devil is only defeated by direct confrontation.  This Scripture teaches us otherwise, but maintains without question the supreme importance of faith and trust in God for all things, especially in impossible situations!  There is one other possibility, however, which is that when we face what appear to be impossible situations, these may well be the exact circumstances in which the Lord delights to show us that He is in control, and He delights to intervene in human affairs!  Miracles have happened, they do happen now, and they will in the future; especially when we trust in the Lord!

Genesis 30:25-36 (get text)   links to:  / Review / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. Read through the passage of scripture carefully to make sure that you understand what the study notes have said.  Check it out if you are uncertain.
2. At what point in the text do you believe that Jacob shows faith in God?
3. In what ways do you believe that Jacob has changed since he was the man who cheated his brother out of his blessing?

Suggestions about discipleship challenges

Each of us face circumstances in which we must decide either to fight on, or to stand back and allow the Lord to pursue His sovereign will.  It is very hard to know how to deal with this dilemma!  In reality, though, the lesson of this passage may be that we should fight as hard as we can for what is right and then stand back when we know we can do no more.  But it is in these last situations that our faith is most tested, for we have to hand things or people over to the Lord.  What circumstances do you face in which it seems impossible that the Lord’s will can be done?

Final Prayer

You bring us the brightness of joy and the liberation to our souls, Lord Jesus Christ.  For when we trust You, believe in Your promises, have faith in Your steadfast love and depend upon Your support, You delight to surprise us with Your answers to our problems.  Thank You Lord; AMEN