“The Mother’s Counter Plan”

Genesis 26:34 - 27:17

 

We are reading through the book of Genesis and we are currently in the midst of Jacob’s life story. The narrative of Jacob can be broken down into three parts. One would think that the story would be told in chronological order, starting with the life of Abraham and Sarah who had two sons. Then we would read about the older son, Ishmael. Yet, all we know about him is that he was sent away and that he became prosperous, as promised and formed clans of his own. Next, you would think we would then read about the life of Abraham and Sarah’s second son, Isaac. Instead, the narrator places Isaac’s story of deception in the midst of two deception stories about Jacob, Abraham’s grandson. 

Jacob’s story began with his birth along with his twin brother, Esau, where he received his name, which means “heel grabber” or “trickster” because he had a hold of his brother’s heel coming out of the birth canal. From there, we are given Jacob’s first trickster story of when he connives the birthright from his brother with a bowl of lentil stew. 

 

You might be thinking, “How did he learn to act like that?” 

 

Then we read the story of his dad’s deceptions which turn out to be replays of his father’s deceptions and you go, “Oh, a chip off the old block.” 

 

Today we are going to return to Jacob’s story and begin the third part, which turns out to be a culmination of deceptions within deceptions. 

This next section can also be divided into three parts. We will begin with the first part today. As we read through this story I want to encourage you to look for the hyperlinks to earlier parts of the narrative. They are all over the place. The hyperlinks will help you see the notes of the melody that continue to play. 

 

This section begins with a short explanation about Esau and his choice of wives. He had two wives who were Hittites. 

 

For those of you who remember  your genealogies you will recall that the Hittites came from Noah’s son, Ham. Ham was the shameful son. Whereas, Esau comes from the line of Shem, and from Abraham, the chosen line of Noah. Esau’s choice was speculative at best and according to his father and mother, this is how Eugene Peterson puts it in The Message,

“They (Esau’s wives) turned out to be thorns in the sides of Isaac and Rebekah.”

 

Let’s stop for a minute and touch base with the context of what is happening here. Many of us read this with our 21st Century mindset and think, “What’s the big deal?” Actually, based on the difference of ages in the room, I suspect if we were to talk about our views on intermarriage they would be varied. It’s significant to note that within the book of Genesis this is a repeated theme. So let’s take a moment and view it from the Genesis perspective. Can anyone remember another character who was the first man to accumulate multiple wives? 

Lemek. 

And was that considered the Eden ideal? 

 

Let’s go back and read the ideal in Genesis 2:24,

“That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.”

 

Lemek was the first polygamist and he was not a positive character, at all. But before we start pointing fingers, Abraham and Sarah also planned for another wife, Hagar, and how did that turn out? Abusive. 

 

This is the third time polygamy is mentioned. We will discover that Jacob follows suit and manages to accumulate four wives. This theme of multiple wives continues but within this context it is painted in negative colors. These women have to endure neglect, with their being objects of their husbands desire, as their husbands keep accumulating more wives. Unfortunately, not everyone sees the negative critique and they assume, “Well, these are God’s chosen people, so polygamy must be okay.” 

Not necessarily, I will agree that God tolerated it, but then God tolerates a lot of things that are not okay. But that doesn’t mean they are the Eden ideal. At this point in the narrative we have Esau choosing to follow the Lemek-like pattern of accumulating wives and it leads to bitterness and strife in his family. 

 

There is another angle to Esau’s choice of wives. This is not the first time we have read about the Hittites. Abraham negotiated with the Hittites to purchase the one and only piece of land he owned. His peaceful negotiation provided him with a little piece of Eden in the middle of Canaan. So you see, not all non-chosen people are bad. 

 

To add to this complexity one of Esau’s wives Yehudit, or Judith, is the Hebrew word for “Jewish woman.” There exists a little ironic pun. 

 

God did tell Abraham that he would become the father of a multitude of nations that would be wrapped up into the blessing. The idea that Jewish people only married Jewish people is true, but in the ancient world it was common for a marriage to be used in a way to make peace between two people groups, but in the Old Testament, that is not the case. 

 

In the Scriptures the tribal identity was also bound up with whatever deity that tribe gave its allegiance to. Moses talks about it regarding the Canaanites, Deuteronomy 7:3-4,

"Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your children away from me to worship other gods. Then the LORD’s anger will blaze against you, and he will quickly destroy you". 

 

Guess what? That is exactly what happened. 

 

But before we think this is the pattern that always occurs, there is another Genesis story where a Canaanite sex worker, Rahab, marries into the family. She, however, we are told, gives her allegiance to Yahweh and becomes the great-great grandmother of King David. Which demonstrates it working both ways. 

 

All this to say, that as we read these two verses we can’t just chalk it up to an ancient form of racist tribalism. As best we can, we need to shed our own culturalism and try to read the narrative from its own cultural context. 

 

The narrative continues with two tales of plans, ill-advised plans, and counterplans and deceptions. If I didn’t know better I would think we are reading about the TV drama “Dallas.” 

We begin with Isaac coming up with a great idea, “You know, I’m hungry, and I can’t see very well. Maybe this means I am dying. I guess I should pass the Eden blessing onto my favorite son, Esau.” 

 

We have an old Isaac, who can’t see well. Ding, ding, ding. This should bring us back to the Eden story. 

Remember, the word “to see,” the woman, she sees that the tree is good, but she also heard what God said about the tree. Remember what the snake said, Genesis 3:4,

“You will not certainly die, for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, …”

Sight and blindness… notes in the Eden melody. 

 

So Isaac considers the idea that he can’t see well, this may mean he is dying, so he calls for his favorite son Esau and tells him he is not sure when he will die, but just in case he has a plan. 

He asks Esau to go out into the field and hunt for some game that he can use to make him a tasty meal. The type of meal he loves to eat. Once Isaac has eaten a tasty dinner, he will then give Esau the Eden blessing. 

 

Like any respectable Jewish wife, Rebekah was listening in. She comes up with a plan of her own. She has a talk with her favorite son, Jacob. She reveals that she had overheard Isaac talking with Esau about how he was going to give Esau the Eden Blessing before he died. Rebekah says to Jacob, verse 8, 

 “Now, my son, listen carefully and do what I tell you:”

Okay, whose voice should humans be listening to? And when you don’t listen to the right voice, who do you find yourself listening to? Isn’t your mother supposed to be telling you to do good things? In this family, deception wasn’t only taught by the father. 

Rebekah told Jacob to go and get her two choice young goats from the flock. She would prepare tasty food exactly the way Isaac liked it. Then, Jacob was to take it to his father and receive the Eden blessing. 

Check out Jacob’s response. Does he refuse to follow his mother’s deceptive plan? No. He discovers flaws in the plan and says, Remember, Mom,  Esau is hairy, but I’m a smooth man. Then in verse 12 he says, 

“What if my father touches me? I would appear to be tricking him.”

“Appear” to be tricking him? He would be trying to trick him. And as for being a smooth man, remember the word for “smooth” has an association with being a trickster. Jacob knows that deceivers, when caught, bring curses upon themselves, not blessings. 

Hyperlink back to Genesis chapter 3, think “the deceiving snake.” The first one God curses in the garden.

What does the mother say? I will be your substitute. 

So they continue with the plan. Jacob brings the goats. Mom prepares the food. Then Rebekah took some clothes from Esau, the best clothes, along with some skin from the goats to cover Jacob’s hands and neck. And she prepared Jacob for his task. 

You should be double hyperlinking right about now. Look at all the things she took. 

• Good animals
• Best clothes, or objects of desire
• She gave Jacob the food and the bread

And she sent her son off to go to his father. 

Notice how this connects? 

The best clothing, Rebekah plays the part of Eve and takes what is pleasing to the eyes, and Jacob plays Adam. But in the next scene, Jacob becomes like Eve and then merges into becoming the snake, the smooth deceiver.

Deception. 

Why do they think deception will get them a blessing? 

We will see that in the long run, it will only bring a curse. 

Now before we put too much focus on Rebekah and Jacob, we started this narrative with a dad who was willing to give away the Eden blessing for a meal. There’s another interesting meditation on the Eden story. Think about it. Isaac says he thinks he is going to die, so he may as well give the blessing to his favorite son. This raises some questions: Does Isaac know about what God told Rebekah where the younger son would rule over the older son? Or is he operating out of ignorance at this point? If he does know, then is he operating in violation of the divine command? Questions worth pondering. 

The ambiguity is in definite contrast to the Eden story. There it is very clear what God commanded and what voice they were supposed to listen to. 

This is demonstrating the very essence of biblical storytelling. Words and themes are repeated and over emphasized training us to read with a cultural sympathy. 

Another contrasting, but Eden theme, is Rebekah dressing her son in animal skins. This only happens two times in the book of Genesis. Back to Genesis 3 again. Adam and Eve had been deceived and their eyes were opened so they decided to dress themselves up like trees. They became the thing that they took from. But God comes along and says, “That won’t do.” God covers their shame and humiliation of the fact that they were deceived and then sinned with animal skins. In today’s narrative, Rebekah and Jacob are going to commit the deception and the sin against the other members of the family with animal skins. A direct contrast to the purpose God used them for. This contrast goes even deeper. Jacob dressed up to be “hairy” like his brother, the skins imitate an animal-like behavior and the look of his brother. 

Yet, Jacob, the deceiver, disguises himself like an animal. Where does that take us? Right back to Genesis 3 and the talking snake. 

When we first read Genesis 3 and the talking snake appeared you may not think much about it. But come on, talking snakes? Talking animals are not a common event in any culture, except in fables or fairy tales. Today’s Scripture has another deceptive animal talking which upon meditation we should be connecting it back to the first talking animal we read about and we begin thinking, “Is there more than meets the eye here?” 

A later story echoes an earlier story and we rethink the talking snake and possibly come up with, 

“Could that snake have been a disguise?”

This won’t be the last time we encounter a disguised snake-like deceiver. 

Back to the story. Jacob and Rebekah are trying to deceive someone who has dim eyes and can’t see, so it seems like they are deliberately using his vulnerability to their advantage. 

But remember, Isaac’s not so innocent either. Whether out of willful ignorance or true ignorance he is about to do something disastrous, or at least not in alignment with the will of God. At the very least, he is abusing the blessing by just doling it out for whoever provides him with the tasty food. 

So for all extensive purposes everyone has messed up motives and is not doing the right thing. 

This is the family God chooses to work with? 

Which takes us back to Genesis 1. God takes the risk when He chooses to partner with image-bearing humans and invest His authority and blessing in them. God’s plan has great potential for genuine love and shared partnership. On the other hand, it can also create a nightmare when the partners act like they did in today’s narrative. 

Where the Eden blessing becomes like pocket change and everyone in the family tries to work things out to their own advantage. 

Again, a major theme that works its way throughout the biblical story. 

Check in time. 

What’s surprising to me, that in spite of all the trickery and selfish behaviors, God continues to work with this family. Despite all of their foibles, God still chooses to keep them as His chosen line. 

 

That, my friends, gives me hope for my life. How many times am I like this and God is still working with me?

 

Oh the wonder of it all. Let’s pray.