Posts Tagged: Jacob and Esau

“The Moral of Morally Ambiguous Stories”

On January 5, 2020 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

The Bible—especially the Old Testament—is full of stories that are full of moral ambiguity.  If you want nice little moralistic tales, don’t go to the Old Testament.  Read Aesop’s Fables, or something of that nature.  The Bible tells stories of another sort.

The words of Gordon J. Wenham about the deception of Isaac by Jacob are worth a lengthy quote.

“26:34-28:9 Jacob cheats Esau of his blessing

This is one of the most gripping stories in Genesis. Will Jacob’s disguise deceive his father? Will he receive the blessing before Esau returns? But it also poses moral and theological problems. Does God approve of Jacob’s cheating? Will he endorse a blessing gained under false pretences?

            On first reading we tend to see Rebekah and Jacob just as rogues who exploited the blindness of Isaac to do down Esau. In fact the situation is not so black and white. Esau had married two wives, which was a bad step in itself (cf. Lamech, 4:19-24). Moreover, they were Hittites, i.e. Canaanites (see 23:3). Abraham had been most concerned that Isaac should not marry a Canaanite girl (24:3); why had not Isaac insisted on, or even arranged, a suitable match for Esau? Worse still, Isaac on his deathbed flouted convention and showed total bias towards Esau. When patriarchs knew their death was near, they were expected to summon all their sons and give them each a blessing (cf. chs. 48-50). Now, lamely pretending he does not know the day of his death (2), Isaac summoned only his favourite, Esau. No wonder Rebekah, who had long preferred Jacob (25:28), was incensed.

            It is not clear how far Jacob approved of Rebekah’s scheme to outwit Isaac and obtain the blessing. His reluctance to cooperate may have been prompted as much by fear of being caught out as by moral scruple (11-12). Nor is the narrator’s evaluation immediately obvious. Isaac was clear that his blessing was irrevocable: that since it was pronounced over Jacob it belonged to him (37).

            Yet in the longer term it is apparent that Jacob’s deceit caught up with him and Rebekah. Esau’s anger at Jacob’s deed forced the latter to leave home, so that despite Rebekah’s hope that he would only be away a few days (a while, v 44) she never saw him again. Jacob, who cheated his father, would soon be cheated by his father–in–law Laban, who would force him to marry Leah as well as Rachel. This would be a cause of perpetual distress to Jacob for the rest of his days. In their turn, Leah’s sons would deceive Jacob with a kid about Joseph’s fate, just as Jacob deceived his father with a kid (37:31-35; 27:9, 16). Later too, Jacob acknowledged his fault. When he returned to Canaan, he gave flocks and herds to Esau and invited him to accept them with the words ‘Please accept my blessing [the NIV’s ‘the present’ is inexact] that was brought to you’ (33:11). With this gesture he was trying to give back the blessing he had cheated Esau out of.

            Nevertheless, despite the underhand way in which Jacob obtained the blessing, it was still valid. Isaac’s last words predicted the future relationship between Jacob (Israel) and Esau (Edom). The nation of Israel would usually dominate Edom. Israel would enjoy a settled agricultural existence, whereas Edom would be more of a nomadic people in the dry wilderness areas (28-29,39-40). Furthermore, the promises made first to Abraham and repeated to Isaac, would now be fulfilled through Jacob (28:3-4).

            Here, as often in Genesis, this new step forward in the history of salvation is set against the backdrop of unscrupulous behaviour by the patriarchs involved. Once again, it is God’s mercy, not human merit, that is the ultimate hope of redemption (cf. Rom. 9:10-18).”[1]

My own thoughts on the story of Jacob are pretty much in line with those of Wenham.  God uses even morally ambiguous people to accomplish God’s purposes.  What other kind of people are there, really?

And yet, no one gets a free pass.  We cannot play the “moral ambiguity card” as a get-out-of-jail-free card.  No!  There are consequences to our choices, and we can’t pick and choose them.  Once we’ve made our choice, the consequences are inevitable.

And, of course, a lot of “moral ambiguity” isn’t all that ambiguous, is it?  I know this only too well.  I imagine we all do, in our heart of hearts.

[1]G.J. Wenham, Genesis, New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition; ed. D. A Carson et al.; Accordance electronic ed. (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1994), 78-79.

https://accordance.bible/link/read/IVP-NB_Commentary#1081
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KEEPING UP APPEARANCES

On June 8, 2016 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

DTEB, THE LIE OF “AS IF,” GENESIS 27, 12

“Perhaps my father will feel me, then I will be as a deceiver in his sight, and I will bring upon myself a curse and not a blessing” (Genesis 27:12 The New American Standard Bible, 1995).

Did you notice the little word “as” above?  No?  I admit it is a little word—indeed, it might be regarded a throwaway word, not even fit to put in a yard sale.

Years ago, I had a professor at Hebrew Union College who would often remind us that “context is everything.”  He would sometimes say (or write on the board) C.I.E., for short.

So, what is the context for Genesis 27:12?

The patriarch of the family, Isaac, was old, blind.  Isaac thought he was about to die soon, and was planning to give his favored son, Esau, the blessing.  Rebekah heard of this, and hatched a scheme to steal the blessing for her favored son, Jacob.

The word “as” is part of the dialog between Rebekah and Jacob, as they plot to deceive Jacob (Rebekah’s husband and Jacob’s father) in order to cheat Esau (Jacob’s brother and also Rebekah’s son) out of the blessing.

Family intrigue is such a lovely thing, isn’t it?  And you thought it was just a soap opera thing?

When Rebekah proposes her plan to deceive Isaac, Jacob’s only protest is that his father may realize that he is trying to deceive him.  Jacob is not concerned with whether what his mom is proposing is right.  Jacob is not worried about long-term results.  He does not think about the effects on his own character, on his brother, on his father.  He apparently does not even care about the possible effects on his mother, who offers to take his curse upon herself.

Now, let me quote verse 12 again, with one word highlighted: “Perhaps my father will feel me, then I will be AS a deceiver in his sight, and I will bring upon myself a curse and not a blessing.”

Did you notice the word this time?  Of course you did!  I have made it inescapably obvious.

The Hebrew word Kî  means “like, similar to, as.”  Jacob is not saying that he will be a deceiver.  He is only saying that he will appear to be a deceiver “in his father’s eyes.”  (There may be an ironic intent here, since Isaac is blind!)

Jacob is not worried about what he is about to do, nor is he worried about what he is becoming.  He is only worried about keeping up appearances.

Before I go off on Jacob (or you), I need to consider myself.  How many times have I been more interested in appearances than reality?  I am reminded of the saying, “All I ever wanted out of reality was . . . out!”

The tendency to be more interested in appearances than in reality is well formed in every child by age three.  We laugh at the three-year-old who denies getting into the cookie jar, even though his mouth is covered with cookie crumbs.

However, even as we laugh, there is a queasy feeling that we have not entirely grown up ourselves in this regard.  The vast majority of us don’t become more interested in reality as we age.  We just become better at hiding the fact that we are concerned primarily or exclusively with appearances.  We even learn to hide our real concerns from ourselves.  We are all very good at covering our . . .  I will spare you the crude pun, which involved the word “as.”

Of course, Jacob did succeed in keeping up the appearance of being someone else.  Well, at least he kept up that appearance long enough to succeed in stealing the blessing.

Or did he succeed?  He spent twenty years in self-imposed exile.  It appears that Rebekah died while he was in exile.  He arrived home just in time to bury his father.  He was repeatedly deceived by his father-in-law and by his own children.

Yes, Jacob was blessed with wives, children, and material goods.  And yet . . .

The more I reflect on this story, the more I feel myself being sucked into it.  I identify entirely too easily with Jacob.  I find that I am no longer reading the Bible.  Rather, it is reading me.  And, in reality, I do not like to be read.  I like to hide.  I don’t like reality; I like appearances.

God, help me to accept reality!  I can’t do this on my own!

The solution to practicing the not-so-fine art of appearances sounds simple: We need to confess reality.  Such confession my sound simple, but it feels like an amputation.

Proverbs 28:13 boils it down to a very terse maxim: “He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, But he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion” (The New American Standard Bible, 1995).

Dark secrets, like certain bacteria, tend to multiply in dark places.  The bright sunlight of God’s forgiveness will kill appearances, and foster my/your/our growth in reality.

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