Genesis 28 (starting in verse 10)
Jacob's ladder story happens here. Jacob calls it 'the House of God' and 'the Gate of Heaven'. God continues his covenant with Abraham through Jacob, stating "Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring" (28:14). Not only will Jacob's descendants be blessed through God's covenant with Abraham, but all peoples of the earth.
Jacob's vow has always perplexed me. "If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking... then the Lord will be my God". That doesn't sound like the faith of Abraham.
Genesis 29
- Jacob arrives in the area of his uncle, Laban and meets Rachel. He greets her enthusiastically.
- Jacob ends up working for Laban for seven years in return for the hand of his daughter, Rachel. But when the time came to be married, Jacob slept with Leah (Rachel's older sister). When Jacob found out, this is of course after having slept with Leah, he asked Laban why he had deceived him. Laban gave a cultural response and gave Rachel to Jacob for another seven years of work. After the week long ceremony with Leah, Jacob was married to Rachel as well. "Jacob lay with Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years" (29:30).
First, how in the world did Jacob not know who he was sleeping with? Was he drunk?
- The Lord saw that Leah was not loved and opened her womb and she gave birth to four sons - Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah
Genesis 30
- Rachel was now the jealous one. She gave Bilhah (her servant) to Jacob to sleep with so that Rachel could have a family as well. Bilhah gave birth to Dan and Naphtali.
Napthali means 'my struggle'. Rachel names her son (through Bilhah) Napthali because 'I have had a great struggle with my sister, and I have won'. What incredible jealousy!
- Now the pendulum had swung back and Leah was jealous. Leah gave her servant, Zilpah to Jacob to sleep with. Zilpah had Gad and Asher for Leah's side of the family.
- Reuben, the oldest goes out during harvest time and brought some mandrake plants back to Leah that he had found. Rachel asked for some and when Leah brushed her off, Rachel traded a night with Jacob for the mandrakes. "So when Jacob came in from the fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him. 'You must sleep with me,' she said. 'I have hired you with my son's mandrakes.' So he slept with her that night." (Genesis 30:16). That's a very funny verse. But God gave Leah a son through this affair, Issachar. Leah then had a sixth son, Zebulun and then a daughter, Dinah.
- Finally after Leah had bore Jacob six sons, Bilhah had bore him two and Zilpah had bore him two, ten sons in all, God remembered Rachel and she gave birth to Joseph. (11 sons).
- Jacob wishes to leave, but Laban asks him to stay because he has learned through divination that he has been blessed through Jacob. (That's another one of those things that I just noticed that others are getting blessed just by being in proximity to Abraham. Think Lot and Abimelech.)
- Jacob gets his wages from Laban to stay and becomes exceedingly wealthy by breeding his flock with the stronger females and the weaker females offspring went to Laban.
Genesis 31
Laban's sons become jealous of Jacob because his wealth was waxing and theirs was waning. Laban's attitude changed as well towards Jacob. The Lord instructed Jacob to return to the promised land and Jacob gathered his wives, children and household to flee without telling Laban. But, Rachel stole her father's household gods.
Laban pursued Jacob and when he was about to catch up the Lord appeared to Laban and warned him not to say anything good or bad to him. Laban finally says to him "Now you have gone off because you longed to return to your father's house. But why did you steal my gods?" (Genesis 31:30).
Jacob makes a pretty rash response about the stolen gods. He says that if anyone has the gods of Laban they shall not live. He didn't know Rachel had stolen the gods. Rachel sat on them and lied saying that she couldn't stand because she was on her period.
Jacob and Laban made a covenant not to harm one another by crossing the spot where they piled rocks to fight. Laban then kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them before returning home.
Genesis 32
Jacob sent men out to meet Esau, and when they returned they informed him Esau was coming with 400 men to meet him. Jacob panicked and split his group into two so that if Esau attacked one group, the other could escape. In fear Jacob prayed to God.
32:10-11 "I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two groups. Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children". This is a stark contrast to how Jacob spoke in chapter 31. In chapter 31 he is righteously indignant with Laban, lambasting him for the way he treated him, talking about his toil and his hard work. Now, when he talks to God, he is humble and admits that all his gains are because of the Lord's blessing, in spite of his unworthiness. It's an interesting contrast.
Jacob sends out a big gift of goats, sheep, camels, cows and donkeys to Esau ahead of him in the hopes of pacifying Esau.
Jacob then has an encounter with God where he wrestles him. Jacob won't let go until the man blessed him. The man (God) changed Jacob's name to Israel because Jacob had struggled with God and with men and overcame it.
Genesis 33
Jacob meets Esau and expecting the worse he bows down, but Esau embraces him.
Genesis 34
Dinah, Jacob's daughter by Leah was violated by Shechem, the son of the local ruler, Hamor. Hamor came to Jacob and his sons to ask for Dinah to be married to Shechem. They lied and said they would agree if all the men were circumcised. After the men of the city were circumcised Simeon and Levi (the brothers of Dinah) killed all the men of the city while they were still in pain and looted the city, carrying off the livestock, women and children of the city. Jacob rebuked his sons, but they asked 'should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?'
Genesis 35
Jacob was told by God to go to Bethel. Jacob told his house to get rid of their foreign gods, which he buried and went to Bethel, safely because God had filled all the people with terror of them.
Jacob was visited by God at Bethel and renewed his covenant. Jacob built an altar to God there and renamed the place Bethel (it was called Luz).
Rachel then died in childbirth, giving birth to Benjamin (the twelfth of Jacob's sons).
Reuben then slept with Jacob's concubine Bilhah.
They met with Isaac and Isaac died at 180 years old. Jacob and Esau buried him.
Genesis 36
Esau had three wives, two Canaanites and the daughter of Ishmael. His descendants became the Edomites and the rulers of Edom.
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