Romans 8:26-39 Genesis 29:15-28
So the story of Jacob continues. After his night in Bethel where he saw the ladder of angels climbing between heaven and earth, and heard the voice of God reaffirming the promise of a future, Jacob arrives at the home of his uncle Laban – his mother’s brother. Here he is welcomed … here he meets a beautiful girl … it looks like Jacob has landed on his feet.
But what’s that thing they say about karma? Karma is a you-know-what, right? After seven years of hard work impressing his future father-in-law, Jacob the trickster gets tricked. Bigly. And surprisingly, Jacob doesn’t even complain. Maybe he’s been waiting for this, the proverbial other shoe, to drop. So he sighs, nods in acceptance, then puts his head down and continues working off his sentence – seven more years for Uncle Laban. And we, the readers, sit back and say, WOW.
You have to appreciate the irony – it is thick in this story, isn’t it? The young man who passes himself off as his older brother to get the inheritance – and gets away with it – becomes the victim of an almost identical crime. Leah is passed off as her younger sister to get the husband. It is the revenge of the older sibling.
But look deeper and see that in each case the trick was orchestrated by a parent. Jacob was disguised to look like his brother Esau by his mother, who was acting to defeat the tradition of the first-born privilege. And then Leah was disguised by her father, who was acting to defend that same tradition. This is a huge showdown: It’s Rebekah versus Isaac, Esau verses Jacob, Rachel verses Leah, Laban versus Jacob. This is a big, fat, complicated family affair.
You start looking for where to pin the blame, but then it becomes hard to figure out just where to put it. Jacob is blamed in the family for tricking Esau, but what if Jacob didn’t even want to do it? It was all his mother’s idea; maybe Jacob was a victim too.
But Rebekah, remember, had a vision when she was pregnant, telling her that the younger was destined to rule over the older. And maybe Rebekah had been carrying that burden for all these years, until she finally saw where she could lay it down.
Laban … well, nobody really likes Laban, so I won’t say anymore about him. But Leah – sure she got the husband Rachel was counting on, but did she even want any part in this deception? It could be that Leah was just miserable about the whole thing. Who’s to say?
It is impossible to say why people do all these kinds of crazy things to hurt one another. You might look for some kind of cosmic order in all of it – it’s human nature to want to find order in all of it – and maybe you will find answers that seem sufficient.
Maybe it is enough to say that Jacob sinned in cheating Esau, and now he gets his punishment.
Maybe it is enough to say that Rebekah heard the voice of God tell her that Jacob would be the chosen one and her scheme was simply an act of obedience to God.
Maybe it is enough to say that Laban, as the head of the household, had an obligation to hold up the traditions they held dear – by whatever means necessary. It might be enough, but if it’s not then –
Maybe we should add that, in this experience with Laban, Jacob received an opportunity to grow in maturity, compassion, and wisdom. I think he did.
Maybe we should add that Jacob, who still had much to learn about life, now would have the time to learn it. I think he did.
And, we should also add that the story is not over yet; there are more twists and tricks and confrontations to come.
A good story is like a multifaceted gem, you can turn it and turn it and always see something else sparkle in it. And the more you turn it, the better you understand that each one of us in this world has something of both darkness and light in us. The more you turn it, the better you see how little we really understand of ourselves and others. The more you turn it, the better you see that there are no white hats and black hats – but just a bunch of hurting, broken people, sinners all.
And then there’s grace.
And that grace is truly the good news of the day. In these words from Paul’s letter to the Romans, we are told how profound is God’s grace. We can take Paul’s words and lay them over the story from Genesis, and know that God took this young man Jacob with all his flaws, and conformed him to a different image, the firstborn within a large family.
In the story, as in life, things keep going around and coming around, and sometimes people learn something – by the grace of God. Because, as Paul said (and even when it doesn’t look like it), things are working together for good for those who love God and are called according to God’s purposes.
In the end, grace wins. In the end, love wins.
Photo: By SitharaAriyarathna – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=90824084
