Reading the Bible 24: Genesis 32: 1-21 The Prodigal Brother

Jacob has just parted company with his Father-in-law Laban – which was done on good terms – something of an accomplishment considering their less than up front and amicable relationship.  Now he is faced with meeting the other member of his family which he had also left on similar less than ideal terms - , his brother Esau.  A very dark cloud hung over Jacob as he approached what he realistically might be his doom.  His chickens had finally come home to roost after all these years and he realized he must face the consequences of his earlier trickery.

Jacob had reached a point here he could not move ahead in life without turning back to face his brother.  For him there was no choice.  I see this point in Jacob’s life much like that of the Prodigal Son when he finally faces the reality that he must return home if his life is to move ahead.  This may seem strange on the surface as Jacob seemed to be is a very different situation from the Prodigal Son.  Prodigal Son had physically hit bottom.  He had wasted his inheritance on wine, women, and song.  He was reduced to hoping he could eat the leftovers from those he served – the swine.  Jacob on the other hand seemed to have it all.  He had wives and children; servants and flocks.  Seemingly all anyone could ask for – the very picture of success.  However, he too knew he must repent of his past and face the consequences if he was to move forward.  He had hit spiritual rock bottom rather than the material one. 

Both the Prodigal Son and Jacob prepare for the day of reckoning.  However, there is a significant difference in their preparation.  The Prodigal Son has nothing material to give. He can only offer that which he has.  He plans to throw himself – mind, body and spirit on the mercy of his father and beg for forgiveness.  Jacob having much materially plans to use that material wealth to try and gain Esau’s forgiveness. Or at least what limited forgiveness he can hope for.  In this Jacob seems less noble than Prodigal Son.  There is a holding back which has the taint of bribery.  However, there is a noble aspect in Jacob’s effort as Jacob knows that he is putting himself in the hands of the one who he wronged and may very well not survive.  However, Jacob seems to be depending on his material possessions rather than the giving all that he has. 

There is a happy ending for both Jacob and the Prodigal Son.  Forgiveness breaks through as a blessing from God.  Blessings are always unerned and no less so in these cases.  The power of God’s love that can bring about reconciliation to the brokenness of our lives is God’s greatest gift to his children.

 

 

Reading the Bible 23 Gen 31: 22-55 The Grace of God That Passes All Understanding

Families are the places where all is revealed and all manner of things are not well at least some of the time.  However, some times the differences can be resolved and harmony can reign and peace can be restored.  I believe that this is what God desires but it sometimes feels like  the exception rather than the rule.  This is of course because people see things differently and one person’s goose is another’s gander.

In today’s reading we have the final confrontation between Jacob and his (two-fold) father-in-law Laban.  Jacob is trying to make a fast get away from Laban.   He doesn’t trust Laban to let him leave for his homeland with what Jacob feels is his due – the wages he has earned for twenty years of labour.  This includes Laban’s two daughters and their children as well as the flocks that he won by some dubious means.  Laban catches up with the fleeing Jacob – it is rather hard to make a hasty get away with hundreds if not thousands of sheep and goats after all.  In any case we have the two men expressing their indignation and astonishment at the other’s actions. 

Laban at first expresses his hurt feelings and anger at Jacob’s actions, “²⁶ Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You have deceived me, and carried away my daughters like captives of the sword. ²⁷ Why did you flee secretly and deceive me and not tell me? I would have sent you away with mirth and songs, with tambourine and lyre.²⁸ And why did you not permit me to kiss my sons and my daughters farewell? What you have done is foolish.”   Right after this he answers his own question, “²⁹ It is in my power to do you harm; but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Take heed that you speak to Jacob neither good nor bad.’”  He is unable to see that this is exactly why Jacob did what he did – Laban had the power to do Jacob harm and apparently would have if he hadn’t received the message from God which apparently came in a dream.

Now it is Jacob’s turn to show his indignation.  He angrily states his position and tries to justify his actions claiming innocence, “³⁶ Then Jacob became angry, and upbraided Laban. Jacob said to Laban, “What is my offense? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued me? ³⁷ Although you have felt about through all my goods, what have you found of all your household goods?”  Thrown into the mix is Rachael’s dubious actions –stealing Laban’s household gods and concealing them successfully from the search.  Rachael is certainly suited to be Laban’s daughter and Jacob’s wife.  It turns out she can be just as much of a trickster as her father and husband. 

What we have in all this is the tangled web woven over twenty years of deceit and underhanded dealing within the family - trick upon trick and resentment upon resentment that has finally come to a head in a full- blown confrontation.  However, we also have a resolution once things are out in the open.  Laban makes the first move at reconciliation – perhaps due to the intervention of God in the matter, ⁴³ Then Laban answered and said to Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do today about these daughters of mine, or about their children whom they have borne? ⁴⁴ Come now, let us make a covenant, you and I; and let it be a witness between you and me.”   There is a reconciliation which leaves it in the hands of the God of each man,” ⁵³ May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor”—the God of their father—“judge between us.” So Jacob swore by the Fear^[g] of his father Isaac, ⁵⁴ and Jacob offered a sacrifice on the height and called his kinsfolk to eat bread; and they ate bread and tarried all night in the hill country.” 

This passage is for me a wonderful example of the power of the Holy Spirit to bring about inspiration that leads to reconciliation of seemingly irreconcilable differences brought about by the desire for the Ego to be in charge.  It is truly an example of the grace of God which at bottom passes all understanding.

 

 

 

 

Reading the Bible 22 Gen 31: 1-21 God Made Me Do It

I always find it impressive – not admirable but impressive – how people are able to justify their actions and put dubious behaviour in a positive light.  Politicians are master of this of course – we need to give people the information about what basically bad people our opponents are.  We are only trying to inform the public after all and information is good (unless it does not support our policies).  This art of self-justification has been practiced from time immemorial as demonstrated in the bible. 

Today we have the further adventures of the trickster Jacob.  He a just tricked his father-in-law Laban into a large portion of Laban’s wealth.  He does this by the use of sympathetic magic.  Now of course Laban is not pleased by this and we are told that Laban’s sons are demanding that their father reclaim what is rightfully theirs.  Jacob announces to Rachael and Leah, “I see that your father does not regard me as favourably as he did before” – big surprise.  Of course we are not surprized by this but Jacob sounds almost aggrieved that Laban should react this way.  Jacob begins what can be described as a litany of self-justification:  your father cheated me many times; God is on my side; God is responsible for the results – it’s not my doing; God told me to do what I did in a dream; God did it so all the property God took belongs to us. 

One of the interesting things is that none of this was revealed before the event so it is doubtful but we don’t really know if God did send Jacob these dreams and instructions.  However, if is always easier to see God’s will after the fact and to read God’s will into events – especially if they suit our view of the world and our place in it.  AIDS is God’s punishment on sinful people; the earthquake and floods and hurricanes and tornados are evidence of God’s wrath.  Of course it is easier to see God’s hand in bad things happening to people we don’t like.  However, to take another lesson from the Bible the Israelites had to their credit no problem in seeing their misfortunes as God’s punishment – over and over again.  I think the lesson here is to take another lesson from the bible, Matt 7: 1 “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged.²For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.³Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?”

Reading the Bible 21 Gen 30: Jacob – Up to His Old Tricks

When we last left Jacob he was dealing with being out tricked by his father-in-law Laban.  Laban had substituted his daughter Leah for Rachael for whom he had laboured seven years.  After many years and many children with these two women as well as their maid-servants Bilhah and Zilpha, Jacob returns the favour and tricks Laban out of a disproportionate part of Laban’s flocks.  Jacob has decided to leave Laban’s household and set out on his own. 

He asks for a settlement of what he is owed for serving Laban all these years.  Laban seems to be generous and asks, “What shall I give you?”  Now this seems generous as he is evidently asking Jacob to name his own prove.  However, Jacob doesn’t appear to trust the offer – probably with good reason given Laban’s past performance – and asks for what seems to be a modest request,

“But if you will do this one thing for me, I will go on tending your flocks and watching over them: ³² Let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb and every spotted or speckled goat.

Now I don’t know much about raising sheep and goats but from what I have seen spotted ones don’t seem to be that numerous.  Laban probably believes he has gotten the best of his son-in-law again and is likely rejoicing inside – although he would be trying as hard as possible not to show it.  Now we know that Jacob is no fool – at least not in the popular sense – and has a trick up his sleeve.  He uses what can be described as sympathetic magic to have the flock produce striped, speckled and spotted.  These he claimed for his own and as it says he, ‘grew exceedingly rich’. 

The use of magic and divination is quite common in the bible but it always makes me sit up and take notice when I read it again for the first time.  My best understanding of magic as opposed to asking God to intervene in our affairs is that magic is used to manipulate creation for our own ends.  Sometimes this can be doe good (white magic) and sometimes for evil (black magic).  However, it is directed by our will and not God’s.  When we pray to God we are asking that things be done if it is God’s will.  We are hoping (and praying) that our will is in line with God’s but we have no way of knowing God’s as that is beyond our comprehension as mere mortals.  In this case Jacob’s will happens to coincide with God’s. 

My last entry used the rather trite expression, ‘God can make lemonade out of lemons’ to describe God’s seeming favour for Jacob when Jacob was shall we say less than a perfect person.  This was my rather feeble attempt to be cute which I regretted after I pressed the send button.  As I noted in email exchanges with a friend, Alan Jones said it much better in his book Soul Making, ,”God wills our good. This means that everything that happens to us, including our sinning, can be turned to our good.”

 

 

Reading the Bible 20 Gen 29: The Trickster is Tricked

We might look on the story of Jacob and Rachel (or Laban) as a case of reaping what you sow.  Jacob was someone who personified the Trickster Archetype.  He had tricked his brother Esau out of his birthright and blessing and duped his father Isaac into giving him the blessing.  Now he is on the receiving end of this energy.  Laban tricks him into marrying his daughter Leah instead of Rachael whom he had laboured  seven year for.

Laban’s reasoning, ‘This is not done in our country – giving the younger before the first born’ is reminiscent of Abraham’s  justification to Abimelech for passing Sarah off as his sister, ‘Besides she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father but not the daughter of my mother’.  Putting aside the issue of incest we can take some comfort that God seems to be able to work through less than perfect men and women.

It is always tricky to determine if your desires are part of God’s plan for you and the world.  A good rule of thumb for me is that if it what you desire it is probably your ego trying to run things and not God; though it is reassuring that God can make lemonade out of lemons.