July 24, 2011
Genesis 29:15-28
It’s a story worthy of Rupert Murdoch and “News of the World”… a story of intrigue, deception, and betrayal that go right to the top! No this isn’t the scandal of phone-hacking, but another scandal. I’m referring to the story of Jacob, one of the Patriarchs. Today let’s look at him without the rose-colored glasses. This is Jacob, the grandson of Abraham and Sarah; Jacob, son of Isaac and Rebekah, yes. This is also Jacob, who stole his brother Esau’s birthright and inheritance; Jacob, who deceived his old, blind father; Jacob, who got his due at the hands of Laban, the father of Leah and Rachel, the father of his two wives; and Jacob, whom God called, equipped, and blessed in spite of his deceptions.
It’s interesting to note in today’s reading there’s no mention of God and no real moral teaching. Like so much of Hebrew scripture this is a story that explains why things are as they are – why the covenant continued from generation to generation in spite of behaviors that seem outrageous to our modern sensibilities.
By one count, Genesis tells us 15 distinct stories of our ancestors in the faith lying, cheating, deceiving in their attempts to get their own way and to fool God and others.
But remember that scripture is first about the nature of God. It then gives us insight into the nature of humans who respond to the deeds, actions, and intentions of this God who is worthy of wonder, awe, praise and, ultimately, obedience.
Like the determined parent of a terrible two-year-old, God holds on through the tantrums and fits and the acting out and the messing up… and is still there when we stop from exhaustion. We see in these stories that God will move the promise and blessing forward with apparent disregard for our intentions or qualities as the human partner.
The touch stone for our biblical story is the profound truth that by the sheer power of God’s divine will, the covenant is kept.
A covenant, as you know, is a two-party agreement in which God is present and through which there is mutual benefit. Just this morning we made a covenant with eighteen members of our church family who are heading off this afternoon for a week of service with the Maine Seacoast Mission. In our covenant we beckoned the spirit of God while making mutual promises. And so it was in the time of Genesis as God made and kept the covenant.
Let’s spent a few minutes recalling what has preceded today’s lesson about Jacob and his wives. Looking way back you’ll remember that Abraham had first been named Abram – a wandering Aramean in the upper region of Mesopotamia, called by God to the land of Canaan to the south – center stage for the biblical story.
God promised to be with Abram and Sarai, his wife, (Gen. 12) and promised to bless Abram and make from him a great nation. Of course, that meant fathering children, more specifically, sons. Sarai was unable to bear a child and sent her Egyptian slave-girl, Hagar, to Abram. (Gen. 16) Hagar bore Ishmael, Abram’s first-born son. In anger, Sarai sent Hagar and Ishmael into the desert. They survived, and Ishmael, son of Abram and Hagar, was father of the nation of Islam. (Gen. 21)
God came again to Abram and made the covenant (Gen. 17) saying “no longer will you be Abram – but you will be called Abraham” meaning “father of a multitude.” And your wife will be called Sarah. And she will bear a child. And she did. Abraham was 100 and Sarah was ninety when their son was born. They named him Isaac which is similar to the Hebrew word meaning laughter.
Abraham’s son Isaac married Rebekah whom his servant brought back from the homeland. Together Isaac and Rebekah had twin sons – Esau and Jacob. Isaac loved Esau the elder by minutes; Rebekah favored Jacob. When Esau fell on hard times, Jacob virtually stole his brother’s inheritance in return for a bowl of stew. And when father Isaac was old, frail, and blind, Rebekah and Jacob fooled him by wrapping his arms in animal fur so Isaac would think it was his older son, Esau, the rightful inheritor as the first-born son.
Trickster. Deceiver. Liar. Manipulator. There are lots of labels we can apply to Jacob, son of Isaac, grandson of Abraham. But he was also a patriarch – one of the great leaders of the nation of Israel.
And if we need a reminder, here it is: God does amazing, beautiful things in the lives of ordinary, very human, very complicated people. These characters are no closer to perfect and divine than you or I.
While I don’t believe God has a pre-ordained plan for them, or you or me. I do believe that God’s spirit and energy are constantly at work moving us away from chaos and towards justice and wholeness. Martin Luther King memorably said: “The arc of history is long, and it bends toward justice.
We can fight it; we can flee from it; we can delay it. But we can’t prevent the holy work of this God who seeks us and keeps opening doors and keeps throwing blessings in our path.
And finally, ultimately, the will of the holy one wears down the will of the human ones.
If you push beyond today’s lesson for the next couple of chapters (anyone under 17 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian!) you can read of the birth of Jacob’s children – with four different women. It’s a story of jealousy and heart-ache, sister turned against sister, handmaidens bearing heirs of the covenant. It’s emotionally very complicated, but in it, finally, it seems that God’s promise to Abraham will be fulfilled. He will be father of a mighty nation – as many as the stars in the heavens or the sand on the shore.
The biblical story tells us a lot about human nature. Even more it tells us about divine nature – this persistent and inexhaustible God who could remain faithful to generations who pulled away.
Just when we think the situation has turned impossible, God steps forward. And since that’s true in these stories from Genesis – isn’t it also true that God would never give up on you?