History of Israel: Jacob - Obedience and Dysfunction

Jacob, the patriarch who's name becomes Israel, has a history of not being fully obedient and running a very dysfunctional family. In this episode of Bible Backdrop, we see Jacob leave Laban, wrestle with God, reunite with Esau, not follow God's directions and then have his son's slaughter a Canaanite city. Jacob's story is one of constant failure, grace, and reconciliation. His story is both a warning and a beacon of hope for us. If you are enjoying Bible Backdrop, please leave a 5 star rating and review.

Transcript

The young messenger bowed low and delivered his message to the man as his master directed. This man was quite a bit different, but he could definitely see the family resemblance. Unlike his master, the man was very hairy and it was of a reddish tint. Or was that just his skin color...burned from long hours in the sun.

The man heard the message and looked to be in shock. He asked the messenger to step away while he considered the response. The man, Esau, couldn’t believe what he had just heard. His brother, Jacob, was nearby and sent the messenger ahead...obviously, to see what kind of welcome awaited him. Esau contemplated and thought back to the past. His brother, the trickster, had made him bargain for his birthright for a bowl of stew. Later, he passed himself off as Esau to get their father’s blessing. His eyes narrowed as he remembered those days long ago.

His gaze softened a bit. He looked around and took stock of what he had. Three wives...children...sheep...goats...beasts of burden. Would it do to fight his brother for sins of the past? What was done, was done...and maybe Jacob had learned a lesson or two. There was no point in fighting now.

And yet...it might be fun to play one last trick on his brother. He knew Jacob had to be worried or he wouldn’t have sent the messenger. He smiled to himself. Yes...one last trick on little Jacob. Hardening his gaze again, he called the messenger back over and told him to report back to his master. Esau was coming to meet him...with 400 of his men. Yes...he heard correctly...400. Make sure my brother knows. The messenger bowed and left. Esau smiled, then laughed out loud knowing the panic this would cause with his brother. Maybe a taste of his own medicine wouldn’t be so bad for Jacob.

Hello again everyone and welcome to another episode of Bible Backdrop. My apologies for being later than I wanted to be with this episode. I’ve been doing a bit of traveling, so my schedule has been up in the air. Now that I’m back, we’ll continue with our look at the history of Israel and today will continue the narrative of Jacob, Esau, and Jacob’s children. When we left off last time, Rachel was finally able to conceive and gave birth to a son and named him Joseph. After Joseph is born, Jacob asks Laban to be released to go back to his home and family. Laban protests as Jacob has made him wealthy as God has blessed him. They then strike a bargain and while Laban believes that he gets the upper hand, Jacob is the one that comes out ahead. The story is confusing and has to do with selective breeding and herding, but Jacob’s herds grow while Laban’s dwindles. As a result, Laban and his family become antagonistic towards Jacob. God tells him to gather up his family and go back to Canaan. His wives agree and they immediately set out. However, before leaving, Rachel takes a household idol from Laban. Why? The Bible doesn’t say. Rachel may have still believed in the gods of her family, or she may have taken it as a reminder of a home she would no longer visit. 

When Laban returns, he sees that Jacob is gone and has a 3 day head start. He pursued him and caught up with him after 7 days. God warns Laban to not harm Jacob, but they have a confrontation. Laban accuses him of running away and taking his household idol. Jacob invites him to look through his belongings, but when he goes to inspect Rachel’s tent, she tells him that she cannot move from her spot as she is having her menstrual cycle. What he doesn’t realize is that she is sitting on it. After his inspection, Jacob fires back at Laban about how he has worked for him for 20 years and the wages were constantly changing. Laban then asks for a covenant between them that Jacob will remain loyal to Laban’s daughters and that they will not harm one another. Jacob agrees and they share a covenant meal together. Laban then says goodbye to his daughters and grandchildren and returns home. 

Now Jacob is embarking on his own...but not really. Genesis 32:1 states that “Jacob also went on his way and the angels of God met him.” God has sent his angels to him to watch over him and his family. And I’m sure he’s glad to see the angels for his next meeting is with his brother, Esau. He’s not sure how this is going to go, so he sends a messenger to Esau to gauge how he’ll be accepted. Esau responds that he’s coming with 400 men. This must have upset Jacob and he devises several plans so that at least some of his family could escape if necessary. He also sent ahead a huge gift for Esau in the form of some of his herds. Was Jacob feeling some guilt for what he did to Esau? Perhaps. The size of the gift shows that Jacob wanted to be received favorably while also being a penitent offering to make up for the sins of the past. Another explanation is that Jacob wanted to make sure that Esau understood he wasn’t looking for any necessities as he had plenty. Jacob then let his family cross over the river and stayed behind on the east bank to cross over later. Why? He most likely wanted to be alone to pray before meeting Esau.

It is here that we then see the famous struggle of Jacob wrestling with the pre-incarnate Christ. Jacob was alone on the bank of the river and God could now deal with him one on one while before he was busy and distracted. There are a LOT of theological writings about Jacob wrestling with God and the meaning of that event. For this episode, there are two things to remember. First, it is here that God changes his name from Jacob to Israel. Second, God dislocates his hip socket and Israel will now walk with a limp for the rest of his life as a reminder of this wrestling match. 

After this, Jacob now prepares to meet Esau and has no idea how he will be received. He’s hoping that the gifts have softened his heart, but they probably weren’t needed. It seems that Esau was glad to see his brother as their meeting was one of joy and weeping. Esau appeared genuinely glad to see Jacob and inquired about his large family and, in groups, were introduced. Esau says he will travel with him, but Jacob tells him that it would be hard on the children and the newly born cattle and sheep to travel a forced pace. Esau then offers to leave some men with him, assuming for protection. Jacob refuses this offer also and convinces Esau to go ahead and he would catch up with him. All of this goes to show that there is still a lot of Jacob in Israel as he doesn’t quite trust his brother and is still afraid of him instead of trusting in God. Then, as Esau gets ahead of him, Jacob changes course and goes north Sukkoth. If that name sounds familiar, it should; the booths during the Festival of Booths are called succoths. The area was given the name because Jacob built temporary shelters there. Looking at Genesis 31, it appears that God told Jacob to go to Bethel but, given the situation with Esau, he decided against it. Jacob still struggles with following God’s commands and this leads to a very horrific situation that unfolds in chapter 34.

Jacob’s daughter, Dinah, born to him by Leah goes out to visit the women of the land. What this means exactly is unknown, but she was obviously had no supervision or protection. In the Caananite communities of that time, an unattended woman was fair game and Dinah caught the eye of the prince of the city and he raped her. He fell in love with her and sent his father to arrange for her to become his wife. They offer to pay whatever Jacob and his sons feel is a good price and tell him that he can stay there and trade with the city and move freely throughout the land. Of course, they expect to eventually take his flocks and herds as they expect his sons to marry their daughters and become one with the city. Jacob’s sons have a different idea altogether. They tell the young man that he can marry Dinah if he and all the other men in the city become circumcised since it would not do for her to marry someone that is not like them. The prince and his father agree and call together the elders of the city and they agree to the plan since Jacob was so wealthy. But it was all a trick. When adults are circumcised, the second and third day can incapacitating. The brothers understand this and Simeon and Levi take the opportunity to go through the city and slaughter all the men who are unable to defend themselves. They then sack the city and take everything including the women and children. This was obviously a sinful act even though it was done in defense of their sister’s honor. They used God’s mark of setting apart His people as a trap to kill and destroy. Jacob is paying the price for his lack of complete obedience and is distraught at what they’ve done since it will make him a pariah among the people and they may hunt him down to exact revenge.

So in the next chapter, God tells him again to go to Bethel. This time, Jacob listens, tells his family to purify themselves and get rid of the foreign idols. They listen and bury the idols and earrings under the oak at Shechem. Why the earrings? These earrings were not just for decoration, but probably were charms or talismans related to their foreign idols. Once this was done, they set out and the Bible says “...the terror of God fell on the towns all around them so that no one pursued them.” God provided supernatural protection for them as the people in the area certainly heard about what happened earlier and would have risen up against him. They make it down to Bethel and Jacob establishes an altar there to God who communicates with him again, confirming that Jacob is to be the bearer of the covenant established with Abraham. It is also here that great sadness will hit Jacob’s family. First, the Bible mentions the death of Rebekah’s nurse. This is the first mention of her and we’re not sure why the Bible brings her up now, but she must have been special to Jacob. She may have been very involved in raising Jacob and Esau and like a member of the family. The place she is buried is called the Tree of Weeping, so her death must have been a great loss. It may have been the last tie to his mother. After this, Jacob then suffers his most grievous loss...the death of his beloved, Rachel. She dies in childbirth, giving birth to his last son who she names Ben-Oni which means son of my trouble. Jacob decides to change his name to Benjamin, meaning son of my right hand. After her death, Rachel is buried and Jacob builds a pillar over her grave. Probably wanting to get away from the place of death, he goes a little way to Migdal Eder, which I talk about way back in episode 2. This was an area close to Bethlehem and becomes the place where Jesus is born. Unfortunately, Jacob suffers one more sorrow. His oldest son, Reuben, decides to sleep with Bilhah who was the maid that Rachel gave to him in order that she may have children through her. This destroys his last tie with Rachel. As we see, Jacob’s family is, at best, dysfunctional and, at worst, downright evil. How great must God’s grace be to cover some of the atrocities we see.

With that, I’m going to pause here as we’re about to follow Joseph into Egypt and discuss what happened there along with another side story about Judah. Next episode, I’m taking a break from the narrative to talk about Canaanite cities and customs. This may make it easier to understand why they were in such conflict with Israel. In the meantime, if you are enjoying Bible Backdrop, please leave a 5 star rating and review. This can be done on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Since word of mouth is the best way for this podcast to grow, please tell a friend and have them subscribe. Thank you again for listening and have a great week!