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Jacob “He Deceives” (Gen. 25:19-26)
Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah. For twenty years they tried to have children, but they were unsuccessful. But Isaac prayed fervently and faithfully to God and when he was sixty years old, Rebekah conceived and gave birth to not only one son, but two. Now anyone who has ever had twin boys would expect to see some knock down drag-it-out fights through the years, but these boys started going at it when they were in the womb. The pain from this internal wrestling match made her wish that she had still been barren.
This pregnancy caused her to cry out to God and ask, “God, why me?” God answered her question by revealing the destiny of her two sons. He told her that two nations were in her womb, and that one people would become stronger than the other one; the older would serve the younger.
When the time for the delivery came, the first boy was a real sight to see. His body was red and he was covered with so much hair that it looked like he had clothes on already. So, they named him Esau, which means hairy. The second son immediately followed his brother. As a matter of fact he was grasping at his brother’s heel. So, they named him Jacob, which means “he grasps the heel.” Ironically, this phrase was a common figure of speech that meant “he deceives.” His name foreshadowed of his destiny as a dirty rotten scoundrel.
Jacob’s Deception to Get Esau’s Birthright (Gen. 25:27-34)
As these two boys grew up, they couldn’t have been more different. Esau was a man’s man macho man. He was strong, loved the outdoors, and became a skillful hunter. Jacob was a quiet sissified mama’s boy who preferred to stay indoors. It comes as no surprise that Esau, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau more, while Rebekah loved Jacob more. All children bear resemblance to their parents, but we might say that Esau got his father’s brawn, but Jacob got his mother’s brains!
We begin to see Jacob’s craftiness when his brother returned home from a weekend at deer camp. Now we know that Esau didn’t pray for a deer because no one in their right mind would do that; nevertheless, he went home empty handed. After spending the whole day in a tree stand, you work up quite an appetite; and Esau returned hungry. And that is where our story gets interesting.
Jacob just happened to be cooking up a big old pot of lentil stew. It also just happened to be a reddish color. Esau just happened to go by the nickname Edom, which means “red.” I don’t think any of this was accidental. He set the whole thing up to trick his brother out of his birthright. Jacob was a master of manipulation, and he was actually cooking up some Esau stew. Esau’s decisions were dictated by his appetites instead of his intellect. He was about to get cooked by his brother.
Jacob made his brother an offer that he knew he couldn’t refuse. He offered him all the lentil stew and freshly baked bread he could eat in exchange for his birthright. The birthright entitled the firstborn so to inherit all of his father’s possessions. We see that Esau wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer when he reasons “What good is my birthright if I starve to death?” So, he swore an oath and traded his birthright for a bowl of soup. Oaths like this were binding and irrevocable, and from that time on, Esau despised his birthright. Jacob’s deception shows that he was a dirty rotten scoundrel!
Jacob’s Deception to Get His Father’s Blessing (Gen 27:1-40)
Some time later, Jacob’s dirty rotten deception stuck again. Even more important than a son’s birthright was his father’s deathbed blessing; this granted the authority to be the leader of the tribe. Like the birthright, once the father’s blessing was given it was binding and irrevocable.
Isaac was getting old and he knew he would live much longer. So, he determined that it was time to transfer the blessing to his oldest and favorite son Esau. He told Esau to take his bow and arrow to the wilderness and kill some wild game and prepare it the way he liked it, and then he would give him his blessing.
Neither Isaac nor Esau realized that Rebekah had overheard their conversation, and she came up with a plan for Jacob, her favorite son, to steal his brother’s blessing. Where did Jacob learn his tricks? From his mother, I presume! She told him to slaughter some goats and she would prepare them to taste like venison. (She must have been a good cook; I have no idea how you get goat to taste like venison.) She also said that she would dress him up to look and feel like Esau.
After Esau left for the wilderness, Jacob took advantage of his father’s blindness and tricked him. He pretended to be Esau and blatantly stole his brother’s blessing. We see the depth of Jacob’s treachery in his repose to his father’s question in verse 20. Isaac asked him, “How did you find it so quickly, my son?” And Jacob said, “The Lord your God gave me success.” It was bad enough that he lied to his father, but he actually invoked God’s name in his lie.
Well, it wasn’t much later when Esau returned home from a successful hunt. He was looking forward to receiving his blessing. When he realized that his brother stole his blessing, he was furious. He exclaimed, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob? He deceived me out of my birthright and my blessing!” Unfortunately for Esau, it was too late. There wasn’t anything he could do about it. Again, Jacob shows himself to be a dirty rotten scoundrel!
Jacob and Laban: The Trickster Gets Tricked (Gen. 27:41-46; 29:1-30)
We have all heard the phrase, “What goes around comes around.” This is exactly what happened to Jacob. After he tricked his brother out of his birthright and blessing, Esau was so angry that he vowed to kill Jacob after his father died. But again, Rebekah found out about Esau’s plan and outwitted him by sending Jacob to live with her brother Laban.
As Jacob traveled east to Paddan Aram, he came upon a well where some shepherds were watering their sheep. Jacob asked the shepherds if they knew Laban. They said, “Sure, we know him. Here comes one of his daughters right now. When he turned around and saw Rachel, he was awestruck by her beauty and began to weep tears of joy. It was love at first sight!
When Jacob got to the tents of his uncle Laban, he made a deal to work for him seven years in exchange for Rachel’s hand in marriage. He worked hard for seven long years, but they only seemed like a few days to him because of his great loved for Rachael. When the seven years were up, Laban arranged the wedding. In those days brides wore veils that totally covered their faces and the veil wasn’t lifted until after the marriage was consummated. So, you can imagine the shock Jacob felt when he woke up the next morning and realized that he had married the wrong woman.
He immediately went to Laban and said, “What have you done? Why did you deceive me?” And Laban said, “Oh yeah, I guess I forgot to tell you, it is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older one.” Then he said, “I tell you what, I’ll give you Rachel too, if you promise to work for me seven more years.” So, he took Rachel and worked seven more years. And Jacob learned the lesson, “What goes around comes around!”
Jacob’s Family: A Scandal of Jealousy (Gen. 29:31-30:24)
Jacob soon discovered that being married to two sisters carries its share of problems. He loved Rachael more than Leah, so the Lord decided to play a little trick on the trickster himself. God opened Leah’s womb and she gave birth to four consecutive sons.
In those days bearing sons was a woman’s glory, and Leah received all of the glory. When Rachael saw that she wasn’t getting pregnant, she turned into a petty little drama queen and grabbed Jacob by the collar and said, “Give me children or I’ll die!” Jacob became angry and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?”
Rachael’s jealousy became so great that she went back to an old trick that she learned from Jacob’s grandmother Sarah; she arranged for her husband to sleep with her maidservant Bilhah that she might build her family through her. Bilhah bore Jacob two sons.
By this time Leah had stopped having children and she became jealous. She jumped into the same game as her sister and gave Jacob her maidservant Zilpah. She bore Jacob two more sons.
As Jacob kept going through this revolving door of sleeping with four women, Leah gave birth to two more sons and one daughter. Eventually, Rachael did get pregnant and gave birth to two sons.
Therefore, Jacob fathered twelve sons and one daughter with four different women. Can you imagine what he must have paid in child support? This story seems like more like something we would see on the Jerry Springer than something we would read in the Bible. Two sisters torn apart by jealousy; two sisters using sex and getting pregnant to vie for the affection of one man!
All the while, Jacob sat back and pretended to be the innocent party in this mess. Can you hear him?—“I’m just doing what my wives tell me.” This episode reveals Jacob’s character—he was a DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDREL!
Jacob’s Sheep Stealing (Gen. 30:25-43)
After Jacob worked for Laban for fourteen years, he wanted to return to his homeland, but Laban gave him another offer that he couldn’t refuse. He said, “Name your wages, and I will pay them.” They agreed that Jacob would receive all of the sheep and goats that had spots on them, but Laban deceived him by having his sons hide all of the sheep and goats that would have gone to Jacob.
When Jacob realized what Laban had done, he said, “I can play this game too!” He acted on an old superstition whereby he put streaked stakes at all of the watering places. He believed that this would trigger the livestock to produce spotted offspring. He then saw to it that only the best animals went to those spots, thus insuring that his flocks would come from the strongest animals. Even though he had no knowledge of genetics, God blessed his plan and in this way he became very wealthy.
In order to avoid confrontation with Laban, Jacob pulled another deceitful stunt. He waited until Laban was away shearing his sheep and then he gathered up his whole family and all of his possessions and left without warning. To make matters worse, Rachael stole her father’s idols and hid them in her saddle bags and lied to her husband about it. In this way, they went back to Jacob’s homeland, securing his reputation as a dirty rotten scoundrel.
Jacob ’s Ladder (Gen. 28:10-22)
Tucked away in the middle of the story of his deception and sin against his brother, father, uncle, and wives we find the famous episode of Jacob’s ladder. After Jacob stole his brother’s birthright and his father’s blessing and before entered his love quadrilateral and ripping off his uncle, Jacob had a dream in which he saw a stairway that stretched from the earth the whole way to heaven. Angles were ascending and descending the ladder, and God stood at the top of it and reaffirmed the covenant that he made with Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the specks of dust on the earth and all the peoples of the earth would be blessed through him. And then, in spite of all of Jacob’s deception and sin, in 28:15 God promises that he would always be with him. God pours out his blessing on Jacob and turned this dirty rotten scoundrel into a dirty rotten blessed scoundrel!
Jacob is one of the dirtiest rottenest scoundrels in the whole Bible. His given name certainly proved to be his destiny. He bamboozled his brother, manipulated with his mother, took advantage of his father, swindled his uncle, and fathered thirteen children with four different women. And yet, God was faithful to him! God stayed with him! God kept his promises to him! God blessed him!
Jacob’s story is really a microcosm of the story of the whole Bible. The story of the Bible is about God’s love and faithfulness in spite of human failure.
Jacob’s story is really our story. Which of us has never told a lie? Which of us has never taken advantage of someone? Which of us has never manipulated someone or something for personal gain? Which of us has never committed a sexual sin? None of us! Like Jacob, we are all dirty rotten scoundrels!
But God is faithful to us in spite of our failures. While we were yet sinners, Jesus Christ died on the cross to provide forgiveness and atonement for our sins. Through faith in Jesus Christ, we are all blessed. We don’t deserve his grace, but he offers it to us freely. We are all dirty rotten scoundrels, but through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ we can be dirty rotten blessed scoundrels!