Jacob is a tool!

Each week I meet with a couple of gentlemen to share life and discuss the copious amounts of Scripture we have read since our last gathering. Sometimes, we will take on a large book of the Bible.  If we read a smaller book for the week, we may read it through two or three times depending on its length.  My favorite pace, however, is when we take ten chapters of a book and read it through several times in a week.  This allows you to capture nuances in the text you might not otherwise see.  If one of us does not get the reading done in a given week, we repeat the same section of scripture until we have all finished in the allotted time.  This is not intended to build guilt and shame.  It actually is a gift, because it allows us to soak in the text.

Lately, we have been in Genesis, reading the account of Abraham and his family.  The last couple of weeks we have been in the sections which deal with Jacob, who would later have his name changed to Israel.  As we have been reading through these chapters I have formed an opinion about Jacob, and I hate to say it, but it is not very kind.  In short, I think Jacob was a tool.

Think about it.  Jacob preyed on his brother’s weakness and bought his birth right. While he was afraid he would be caught and cursed, he still decided to go along with his mother’s plan and trick his father into also giving him his brother’s blessings.  As you can imagine this does not go over well with his brother Esau, who is so mad he could kill him.  Rather than manning up, Jacob runs.

When he meet his match in his future father-in-law, Jacob is tricked into marrying the wrong daughter, Leah. It is apparent, even though the father gives him the one he desired, Rachel, he never makes Leah feel loved or valued.

This causes the women in his family to compete with one another and engage in a “Birth Race” to see who can produce the most sons.  When the women themselves do not get pregnant they give their maidservants to Jacob to conceive on their behalf.  This is where the 12 tribes of Israel given birth.  It is also where rivalry between the sons of Jacob is hatched.  The favoritism he shows to Rachel is conferred to her sons.  This is not the kind of soil in which brotherly love is grown.

Jacob pays his father-in-law, Laban, back for his deception (which is extremely ironic to me) by breeding his flock in such a way that the portion he has promised to Jacob increases and Laban’s decreases.  Just about the time Laban and his son’s start to wake up to what he is doing, Jacob packs up his family and flocks and flees again.  He heads back to his homeland, hoping his brother has cooled off.

When he hears his brother is coming to meet him Jacob splits his family up, in the order of values, from least to most important.  Yep he sent the maidservants and their children first, Leah and her children next, and finally Rachel and Joseph in the rear.  I guess he figured if his brother was still mad and started to kill his family, those he most valued might be able to escape.

When he meets Esau and his brother embraces him rather than strikes him down, Jacob does what any man who has just been restored to his estranged brother would do.  He lies.  He tells Esau he will follow him slowly to Seir, but as soon as he is out of sight he exits stage right to Succoth.  You just have to wonder about a guy who spent the last few days worried his brother was going to kill him because of his deceptions and who experiences grace instead of retribution, only to repay it by deceiving him once again.

Once settled in his new home, his daughter Dinah is seduced and violated by the favored son of a nearby ruler.  When her brothers take action to revenge their sister’s disgrace, Jacob’s concern is not for her or even for the men they have slaughtered.  He rebukes them for the trouble they have brought on him.

Jacob’s favoritism of his son Joseph did not endear the boy to his brothers.  This made the dream Joseph had about his brothers bowing down to him that much more distasteful.  This of course leads to Joseph being sold into slavery.  This will end up for Jacob’s good, but it is a great evil none the less.

When Jacob sends his 10 sons to Egypt to buy grain and Joseph, who is not recognized by them, he puts Simeon in prison until they return with their younger brother Benjamin.  This son happens to be born to the same mother as Joseph and thus is also favored by Jacob.  He refuses to allow the brothers to return to Egypt fearing he will lose Rachel’s other son.  How would you feel if you were Simeon, knowing your father will allow you to rot in prison to secure the safety of Benjamin?  How would you feel if you were any of the other 9, knowing you will always be seen as second rate to the boys born of Rachel?  Jacob is not concerned for Simeon, or at least not enough to do anything about his imprisonment, but chastises the brothers for the trouble they have brought upon him. It is all about you Jacob.

This is the man who gives birth to the 12 tribes of Israel.  He is a deceiver, creator of dysfunctional families, and selfish.  If I am honest, reading this over and over again made me angry.  Why would God choose someone like this to be the father of the nation through which He would bless the world? 

There is a temptation to dismiss away Jacob's shortcomings.  I spent some time reading commentaries from both the Christian and Jewish perspective, and many of them want to make excuses for why Jacob was not as big of a tool as he appears to be.  This seems to me to be an effort to somehow make what we know to be true about Jacob, and what we hope to be true about God fit our idea of how it ought to be.  Does it fit our sense of how things should be to have a Holy God choose to use such a seemingly unholy man to give birth to the people through which He would bless the world?  There is something in us that wants to say no, so we try to explain Jacob’s behavior away.  We try to make him look better than he was. This is hard to do when you read and reread the story.

I cannot help but come to the conclusion Jacob was indeed a tool.  I also have to conclude this is actually a very good thing.  

If he had been a man of good moral character, if he had made amends when he had wronged others, if he had been the kind of guy who would do the right thing, even if it cost him, we might be tempted to develop a theology which asserted if we are good enough God will bless us.  If we are honest with ourselves, this is exactly what we want to believe.  It gives us some measure of control.  It requires God to come through for us, if we are good.

We like this kind of certainty, but this certainty comes at a great cost.  This theology of quid pro quo would also mean if we messed up, if we were not as good as we could have been, or as good as God might expect us to be, He could use our indiscretion as an opportunity to curse us.  Maybe you think you are good enough to take the risk.  I know I am not.

In this kind of theology, God would be more like a vending machine than a loving father who keeps his promises.  What we received would be dependent on the good we put in the coin mechanism, rather than on His unfailing love.

Thankfully, Jacob was a tool and God fulfilled His promises to him anyway.  God’s keeping of the covenant He had made to Jacob, his father, and his grandfather had nothing to do with the ones who received the promise and everything to do with the mercy and grace of God.  If you do not believe me, go back to the top of this blog and reread it, or better yet go to Genesis and spend some time in chapters 25 - 49.  Discover for yourself how undeserving Jacob was, and how richly God blessed him.  Read the rest of the Scriptures to see how we have all been blessed through this man who was so unworthy.

This wonderful reality makes Jacob a great tool, a tool for remembering, it is not how deserving we can make ourselves, but how merciful and gracious God is.  He lavishes His love upon us, not because we somehow have earned it, but because He is love.

This is hard to accept.  If we are honest with ourselves, we still want to somehow twist Jacob’s story to make him look better than he was.  It is, however, great news, because if you are like me (and I have a sneaky suspicion you are) there are times in your life you have been a tool.  How much better it is to know, despite this fact, God desires to be gracious to you and He will keep his promises.  In the juxtaposition of these two realities, people reading your story might actually see traces of the sacred in your life.  In this way, like Jacob, you too become a blessing to others.

We need not try to present a self which is deserving of God's grace.  This is impossible, it diminish the reality of who He is, and keeps us from accessing the fullness of His blessing.  Instead, we can present our authentic selves, even when it makes us look like a tool, and in the process allow others to see just how good God is.  His graciousness is most clearly seen in the midst of our brokenness.  There is much hope in this reality.  I am grateful Jacob helps us to see it.