January 11/12, 2014 (Week-End Reading)
Genesis 27-31
I remember a film/play entitled, “A Lion in Winter,” about King Henry II of England in his waning years and the struggles and infightings among his sons (Richard, John and Jeffrey), his wife (Eleanor) and others. After one particularly horrendous row, Katherine Hepburn (playing Eleanor) whispers dryly to Peter O’Toole (playing her husband, Henry), “What family doesn’t have its ups and downs?”
This is how I feel after reading Genesis 27-31. On the one hand, I am appalled at what Rebekah’s and Isaac’s favoritism has led to. On the other hand, well… “What family doesn’t have its ups and downs?”
Rebekah takes on herself the responsibility for helping God keep his word (Genesis 25:23) to her. Jacob, the heel-grabber, reluctantly goes along with it, and is forced to tell an out-and-out lie, at one point (Genesis 27:24). And when Esau returns from the hunt and brings his meal to Isaac, family dissolution is inevitable. I feel sorry for Esau, when he cries, “Do you have only one blessing, my father?”
In Genesis 28-29, Jacob gets a taste of his own deceptive medicine. How would you like to wake up on the day after your wedding with someone else? And Jacob is bound to seven more years of servitude, if he wants the girl he thought he was marrying. Jacob’s interesting practices with the flocks of Laban may or may not be deceptive or occult, but in the end, even this part of the family dissolves, and Jacob flees his uncle, who pursues him. After all, Jacob was taking Laban’s two daughters with him. Laban and Jacob make an uneasy truce at the end of Genesis 31. “May the Lord keep watch between you and me…” is not a sweet hope, but a suspicious one.
And, as if this weren’t enough, Jacob must now face his estranged brother Esau! “What family doesn’t have its ups and downs?”
P.S. See you Monday. (If this is inexplicable to you, trade in your Bible-in-one-year brochure for an up-to-date one that combines most Saturday-Sunday readings!)
Pastor Gary
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