Reading Genesis 30-36
We continue the story following one of the patriarchs: Jacob. Jacob is son of Isaac, crucially, Jacob, through deceit, “stole” the blessing of Isaac, which was for his twin brother Esau (Chapter 27). The interaction between Jacob and Esau ends with Esau wanting to kill Jacob, and Jacob fleeing to his uncle Laban.
It was at Laban’s place that Jacob met all 4 of his wives and bore 12 sons and a daughter. Again, he married his wives through deceit (of Laban) and internal rivalry and jealously. Pause here to consider what the writer of Genesis want to paint as a backdrop of the patriarchs and the eventual 12 tribes. Essentially, the chosen people of God were very much a bunch of schemers trying to take things into their own hands. The same theme of a sinful people chosen or called to fulfil God’s salvation plan continues to be central in Genesis.
Chapter 30 picks up from where we left off, where Jacob was deceived by Laban to work for him, all while pushing his own agenda of marrying off his daughters. Jacob had to live in such an environment for 20 years. Eventually Jacob was able to leave Laban through a complex sequence of escaping across the Euphrates River. Laban continued to pursue Jacob and his family because he viewed everything that Jacob has as rightfully his. It was not until Jacob reminded his 20 years of faithful service to Laban, that Laban relented, committed to peace and returned home. In Chapter 31, we see the first instance of peace-making taking place in Jacob’s life.
But there was a bigger one – his relationship with his twin brother. Chapter 32 starts with Jacob back in Canaan. This was the place that he had fled from due to his brother wanting his life. Now, Jacob has to face this. Chapter 32 reveals Jacob’s grand plan in seeking peace with his brother, he went through a lot of preparation in order to make peace.
But nestled in this story is an intriguing episode of Jacob struggling with God. It is clear why Jacob was persistent with wrestling with God, he desperately wants God’s blessing. At the start of his life he desperately wants his father’s blessing and here he wants God’s blessing. The difference is that for the former he got it through deceit, but to obtain God’s blessing, Jacob attained it through struggling. The former he received the inheritance of Isaac, but for the latter he received a lifelong injured hip. But while the latter seemingly suggest that Jacob came out worse off, in fact, it is through his struggle that Jacob attained a new identity – Israel and he received the blessing. Jacob now has a new identity, much like Abram when he changed name to Abraham. And this new identity symbolises God’s intention to fulfil the Abrahamic covenant through Israel, just like he did with Abraham.
It is here that I would like to pause to talk about what a “blessing” is. This is theologically complex and eventually when I write an article on it, I will link to it here. But in a nutshell, “blessing” means receiving God’s favour. When God placed man in the Garden of Eden, they had the full blessing of God – they were perfect. The “blessing” is the full expression of heaven on earth. When Adam and Eve were removed from the Garden, they could no longer receive God’s full favour (i.e. blessing) as now they are sinful beings. Thus, for God to bless Jacob here is not a declaration that Jacob is sinless (clearly he wasn’t), but for God to bless Jacob here is for Jacob to receive the full favour of God in spite of his sin. In receiving the blessing, Jacob now had the full experience of heaven on earth. So when we offer the blessing through the benediction at the end of every church service, we are actually proclaiming the experience of heaven on earth for the recipient. We want them to be sent forth from the church gathering with the blessing to bring heaven to the people that they cross path with.
The story continues with Jacob making peace with Esau – seemingly out of no where. All the planning down the drain because Esau himself was willing to make peace, the second instance of peace-making in Jacob’s life.
Genesis 31:13, God gave clear instruction for Jacob to return to his native land. One would think that with two episodes of peace-making and receiving a new identity, Jacob’s life will be pretty much set and peaceful. Yet Chapter 34-35 records tragedies in Jacob’s family. Why? Jacob chose to take a detour and stayed in the land of Shechem. This is a persistent and constant reminder that the writer of Genesis wants us to remember – we may be a blessed people, but we still live in a fallen and sinful world which will cause us to sin – all of which has consequences.
The first tragedy is the defilement of Dinah by Shechem and the eventual massacre of the Shechemites by Simeon and Levi (Dinah’s brothers). Not only did they put to sword every male in the city, they defiled the sign of circumcision which was meant to mark God’s chosen people by asking all male Shechemites to be circumcised. Taking advantage of their vulnerability while recovering, they went on to kill every male and plundered the city.
The story comes to a seeming abrupt end with Jacob expressing displeasure at his two sons because by doing what they did, they surely pissed off the Canaanites and Perizzites who will now come after Jacob. However, Jacob had no comeback when his two sons asked if they should just sit around and do nothing. There is no indication as to whether God approved what Simeon and Levi did. But what God did next would give an indication that they did not have to take things into their own hands. God addressed Jacob’s concern by calling him to move to Bethel while at the same time sending terror on all the towns surrounding Jacob and family so that no one pursued them. God could have settled and judge the Shechemites, but Simeon and Levi circumvented God’s judgement by taking things into heir own hands. For which there will be consequences – In Jacob’s blessing, Simeon’s descendants are to become divided and scattered. Levi’s descendants never got to own land.
The second tragedy that struck was the death of Rachel during the birth of Benjamin in Ephrath (Bethlehem). Her body was never moved and she remains the only one among the patriarchs and matriarchs not to be buried in Hebron, the place where Abraham stayed. This deliberate choice to loiter in the land of the Canaanites ultimately have consequences.
Finally, the third tragedy is Reuben sleeping with Jacob’s concubine Bilhah. for which the consequence for Reuben was that he lost his inheritance as the eldest son. It was Joseph, first son of Rachel that was given double portion of inheritance.
The study of Jacob’s life reveal themes of blessing, peace-making and tragedy. The introduction of these themes slowly ease us into the latter half of Genesis and the rest of the Bible where similar themes will be put on full display by the Israelites. But before we continue to follow the descendants of Israel, Genesis 36 records the descendants of Esau – the Edomites. Genesis is huge on this recording of descendants because they want us to see that God is fulfilling his covenant with Abraham, even if the account is not of the “chosen” lineage.
Jacob experienced God’s grace and blessing but also consequences of choices. His large family likely experienced a lot of laughter and joy, but also pain and tragedy. As we turn the page to Chapter 37, we will see how the broken patriarchy continues to be broken.
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