Genesis - Chapters 27-36

The host, Julie Callio, discusses chapters 27-36 of the Bible, focusing on the life of Jacob, the son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham. Jacob deceived his twin brother, Esau, and received his birthright and blessing from their father, Isaac. Jacob then fled to his uncle Laban's house, where he worked for seven years to marry Rachel, but was deceived into marrying Leah first. Jacob eventually had twelve sons and gained wealth while working for Laban. God instructed Jacob to return to his homeland, and Jacob reconciled with Esau before continuing on his journey. Jacob also wrestled with God and received a blessing. I am Julie Callio, your host, and thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedules to tune in with me today. If, by chance, you want to contact me, you can do that at dab.bc.pc at gmail.com. Today we're looking at chapters 27 through 36 with the life of Jacob, the son of Isaac, and the grandson of Abraham. These three men are considered the patriarchs of the Jewish faith, and since the Christian faith is rooted in the Jewish faith, they also are the patriarchs of our faith as well. Last year on January 12th, I covered these chapters, and the lesson was entitled Jacob, His Wives, and His Twelve Sons. Today I will make an abbreviated overview of the chapters and focus on different things. In yesterday's lesson, we learned Jacob had a twin brother Esau, whose name meant red because he had lots of red hair. Esau was born first, and Jacob was holding his brother's heel, which explained his name, which means he grasped the heel, and figuratively it means he deceives. One day Esau came in from hunting, and Jacob had made some stew. Esau said he was starving and wanted some to eat, but Jacob said, only if you give me your birthright as the firstborn son. Esau agreed, and then the end of chapter 25 says, So Esau despised his birthright. This leads us into chapter 27, and their father Isaac is thinking about when he will die. So he asked Esau to go and hunt some wild animal and make some stew that he loves, so then Isaac would bless him. He agreed and went off. Rebekah, however, overheard the conversation, and she made stew and dressed up Isaac, and they deceived Isaac by saying that Jacob was Esau. When Jacob entered Isaac's tent, because he could hardly see, he felt Jacob's arms for hair, and then hugged him, but Jacob was wearing Esau's clothes, so he smelled like Esau, and Isaac blessed Jacob. Chapter 27 verse 30 reads, After Isaac finished blessing him, and Jacob had scarcely left his father's presence, his brother Esau came in from hunting. Esau came into the tent to be blessed by his father, but it was too late. Isaac said, Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing. And verse 35, Then Esau said, Isn't he rightly named Jacob? He has deceived me these two times. He took my birthright, and now he's taking my blessing. Now the truth is, is that Esau was willing to give up his birthright for a bowl of stew, and in the New Testament, in Hebrews chapter 12, he is used as an example of godlessness, because he was willing to sell it for just food. In verse 38, Esau cries out, Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father! Then Esau wept aloud. Jacob gave him a blessing. Your dwelling will be away from the earth's richness, away from the dew of heaven above. You will live by the sword, and you will serve your brother, but when you grow restless, you will throw his yoke from off your neck. Esau vowed to kill his brother as soon as his dad died. Rebekah found out, so she told Jacob to flee for a little while to her brother Laban's house, until Esau is no longer angry. She planned on sending word when it was safe. She spoke to Isaac, and asked for Jacob to go to her brother's house so he could find a wife, because Esau's two Hittite wives were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah. Chapter 26, verse 35. In chapter 28, Jacob sets off to Haran, which is northwest Mesopotamia. When evening came, he used a stone for his head, and had a dream of a stairway from the earth to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending. And above it stood the Lord, and he said, I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham, and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west, east, north, and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised. Chapter 28, verses 13-15. Now this promise is very similar to the promise given to Abraham in chapter 13, verses 14-16. The main two differences are that Abraham was leaving his home, and was about to enter the promised land, and here Jacob is leaving the promised land and going back to Abraham's hometown. The second is that Abraham was married, and Jacob was unmarried at the time. These observations come from Dr. Kruvill's commentary. Jacob realized that God was in that place, so he took the stone he had laid his head on and made a pillar, and he called the place Bethel, which means the house of the Lord. Here Jacob made a vow in verses 20 and 22, If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking, and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear, so that I return safely to my father's house, then the Lord will be my God, and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God's house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth. Jacob arrived at a well, and there were sheep there, but this well was covered with a stone. Rachel, who was Laban's daughter, approached the well because she is a shepherdess. Jacob went and rolled the stone away, then approached Rachel, kissed her, and wept. He told her who he was, and Rachel ran to tell her father. Jacob stayed for a whole month, and then it was decided that he would work for Laban for seven years in order to marry Rachel. Verse 20 of chapter 29 says, So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her. After the seven years the marriage was set, but Laban deceived Jacob the deceiver. They had a feast, but in the evening Laban switched Rachel, the beautiful young one, with Leah the older one, who was described as having weak eyes. Verse 17 Jacob didn't notice until the morning, and he went to Laban and asked, Why have you deceived me? Verse 25 Laban explained and then said, Finish this daughter's bride a week, then we will give you the younger one also, in return for another seven years of work. Verse 27 Jacob did, and verse 30 reads, Jacob lay with Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah, and he worked for Laban another seven years. Each of the women were also given a maidservant, Leah had Zilpah, and Rachel had Bilhah. Now starting with verse 31 of chapter 29 through chapter 30 we find how Jacob got his twelve sons. Verse 31 starts, When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. This is the third woman in the line of the patriarchs that was barren. One thing this verse points out is that children are a gift from the Lord, and that the Lord loved Leah, even if her husband did not. Leah had four sons, Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah, and with each one she hoped this would bring her love. Rachel was tired of being barren, so she gave Jacob her maidservant. She had two sons, Dan and Naphtali. Leah had seemed to stop having children, so she gave her maidservant to Jacob, and she also had two sons, Gad and Asher. At this point we learn that Rachel allowed Leah to be with her husband for a night in return for having mandrakes that Reuben had gotten from the fields. Leah had hired her husband to sleep with her, so he did. Chapter 30 verse 17 says, God listened to Leah, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a fifth son, his name was Issachar. She must have gotten a few more nights in, because then Leah bore another son, Zebulun, and then some time later came a daughter, Dinah. Verse 22 reads, Then God remembered Rachel. He listened to her and opened her womb. She gave birth to Joseph. At this time Jacob wanted to leave and go home, but Laban saw how God had blessed him with the presence of Jacob, and he did not want him to leave, so they made an agreement to stay on for flocks. Laban kept changing the agreement, but each time God blessed Jacob more than Laban. This brought resentment to Laban and to his sons. Chapter 31 verse 3 says, Then the Lord said to Jacob, Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you. It struck me that at one time this was the land of Abraham and the land of Rebekah, but it was no longer, and it is not Jacob's land. He met with the daughters of Laban, his wives, and told them that he noticed their father's attitude had changed toward them, and that God had directed him to leave. Rachel and Leah said, Their father regards them as foreigners, and he sold them to him, and has spent all that he had paid for them, and that the wealth that God blessed Jacob belonged to them and their children anyway, so they said, Do whatever God has told you to do. Chapter 31 verse 16 verses 19 and 20 read, When Laban had gone to shear his sheep, Rachel stole his father's household gods. Moreover, Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him he was running away. Three days later, Laban was told that they left. He pursued Jacob, and God told him in a dream to be careful what he said to Jacob. Laban asked, Why have you deceived me? Verse 27, Then he asked about the stolen gods, and Jacob, who knew nothing about them, told him to look, and anyone who has your gods he shall not live. Verse 32, Rachel hid them in her saddlebags, and stayed on her camel, claiming she was having her period. They made peace with each other, and they went their own way. Chapters 32 and 33, Jacob prepares and meets Esau. Jacob sent messengers first to approach Esau, and when they returned, they said, Esau is coming to greet you with four hundred men. This frightened Jacob, and he prayed. He selected a gift for his brother, and sent them on ahead. We see by the wording of Jacob that he is coming in a humble manner toward his brother. In verses 22 through 31, we have the story of Jacob wrestling with God. He was alone with God, and they wrestled all night, and the man struck the socket of Jacob's hip. But Jacob would not let go until he blessed him. Chapter 32 verse 28 says, Then the man said, Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men, and have overcome. Jacob asked for his name, and the man asked, Why do you ask? Then he blessed him. Verse 30, So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared. Jacob meets Esau, and they wept. Jacob said, For to see your face is like seeing the face of God, now that you have received me favorably. Chapter 33 verse 10, We find that the Lord had blessed Esau, and as their father Isaac had blessed him, now the yoke of his brother is now off of him. Chapter 27 verse 40, In chapter 34 Dinah the daughter of Leah was raped by some local people. Two of her brothers fought for her and killed the men of that town. Jacob was more concerned about the trouble that would pursue them from that killing than from what happened to his daughter Dinah. But what it actually did was make people afraid to mess with Jacob and his family. Chapter 35, Jacob returns to Bethel, and the Lord told him to settle there and to build an altar there, because this was the place that Jacob had first met the Lord when he was running away from Esau. Jacob then had his family purify themselves from all foreign gods and foreign clothes, because they are starting afresh. It may be at this time that Jacob discovered that Rachel was the one who took her father's gods, but it does not say that. Jacob buried the gods under the oak at Shechem. Verse 8a reads, Now Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died and was buried under the oak below Bethel. In chapter 24 verse 59, we saw that Rebekah had left her home with her nurse, but we don't know why she needed one. Now, since there is no mention of Jacob's mother Rebekah's death, it is assumed that she had already died. God appeared to Jacob, blessed him, and reminded him that his name is now changed from Jacob to Israel, and reminded him of his promises. The chapter ends with Rachel giving birth to a son, and she died in the process. She had named him Ben-Onai, which means son of my trouble, but Jacob named him Benjamin, which means son of my right hand. Jacob buried Rachel there in Bethlehem instead of the family plot. Some believe this was because she had stolen the gods of her father, and Jacob had said the one who stole them would die, but we don't know for sure why. Then another terrible thing happened. Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, slept with Bilhah, Rachel's maidservant. Some speculate that he did that to promote his mother Leah as Jacob's first choice of a wife, and some think it was a power play for leadership. The third tragedy was when Jacob came home to his father Isaac. He too died. Verse 29 reads, Then he breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people, old and full of years. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him. This is like Abraham in chapter 25 verses 7 through 10. In chapter 36, we see how the Lord blessed Esau with many children who became chiefs and kings, and Esau was the father of the Edomites. This ends an era, and now Jacob's sons will become the leaders and the nation of Israel. First, we see that the Lord kept his promises. Jacob left as one man, and he came back as a family of 18 plus great wealth. Second, we see that Jacob could not just cling to the faith of his fathers. He had to have his own faith, and how that changed as God was faithful to him. Third, we see that there are consequences to deception. Fourth, we see a need to put the past behind us and to head toward the future with God's promises to cling to. Ladies, if you have heard his voice today, please don't harden your heart. Instead, let's be women of faith in the God who keeps his promises. Let's not be women of deception. Let's leave our past behind and cling to him as we head forward and walk in obedience with the one who loves us. Until next time, and thank you so very much for listening.