A Skeptic Reads the Bible 11: Deceitful Jacob, as Great a Swindler as His Grandfather Abraham

Abraham dies, and God's blessing (at least in theory) passes to Isaac, his "legitimate" son. (Ishmael goes off and becomes the father of some lesser nations, most of whom Israel has to fight and massacre later on in the Bible. So much for that particular promise to Hagar!) But, as I noted in my last entry, Isaac isn't exactly leadership material, probably at least in part because of his traumatic experience with human sacrifice. Most unusually, Rebekah plays almost as active a role in this part of her story as her husband does -- and the Bible, with characteristic chauvinism, is clear that this is not a good thing.

Actually, Rebekah is a distant relative of Isaac: the granddaughter of his brother (so, technically, Isaac is marrying his own niece here). Abraham literally goes out and buys her for his son, too, sending one of his servants to shower her and her family with sufficient gold and jewellery to complete the transaction.

After his father died, Isaac tried to play the faithful role of a chip off the old block. This even applied to some of Abraham's more morally dubious activities. For example, he mimics his father's tested-and-true scam of going to Gerar and attempting to present Rebekah as his sister. The ruse is eventually discovered -- this time, because Isaac can't help "caressing" his wife, rather than because of divine intervention on behalf of the swindler Abraham -- and Isaac doesn't appear to make much profit off the affair. Isaac nevertheless yields some rich profits from agriculture and becomes "very wealthy."

But there's trouble (surprise)! Like Sarah, Rebekah turns out to be barren. On this one occasion, Isaac proves morally superior to his father (at least in religious terms) by praying to God rather than bedding the maid. Rebekah is rewarded with twins, Jacob and Esau. "Rewarded" being a very loose term here.

Possibly because his own father was a horrifically bad role model (attempting to sacrifice your son as an altar will do that for you), Isaac isn't a very good parent himself, and Jacob and Esau grow up to be selfish and unruly, Jacob in particular. One day, when Isaac is aged and has lost his sight, Rebekah helps Jacob trick Isaac into giving Jacob the inheritance meant for Esau. (The chauvinist author of Genesis naturally blames Rebekah for this trickery, but Jacob doesn't really offer up much resistance to the plan.)

I've already questioned God -- and by extension, the author of Genesis -- for siding with Abraham, the cheater and the swindler. Now I have reason to wonder at his praise of Jacob, too. Esau, the Bible solemnly informs us, "despised his birthright" even before the sorry incident above. The proof of this came one day when he returned from a hunt hungry and thirsty, and begged Jacob for food. Jacob said he would give his starving brother some stew, but only in exchange for his inheritance. Esau accepted these terms. Focus on the Family's support website claims that this is a case where faithless Esau surrendered an item of immense long-term value for something of short-lived material desire. The Bible, too, thinks that this made Esau "godless," and the message is echoed in Paul's letter to the Hebrews.

I have to wonder at the intelligence of such a claim (and at the similar conclusion reached in the Bible). What good is an inheritance if you starve to death first? And more to the point, what kind of brother would withhold food from his suffering sibling in an attempt to steal away some hereditary rights? Jesus, in the gospels, observes that no father would ever give his son a stone in place of bread. Perhaps fathers don't treat sons that way, but according to Genesis, brothers can definitely treat brothers that way. Christ commands us all to love our brothers as we love our selves. Against such a standard, it is Jacob, and not Esau, who fails miserably.

It is in this context that we return to the story about Jacob stealing Esau's blessing when their father Isaac is near death. Jacob protests his mother's manipulation more because he believes they will be caught than because he really thinks the plan is immoral. (Incidentally, talk about a dysfunctional family: brother plotting against brother, mother and son plotting against father...) Even the great "blessing" that Jacob steals from Esau is really a rather selfish pronouncement from Isaac: "may those who curse you be cursed and those who bless you be blessed." This, again, is effectively the opposite of Jesus's command to Christians.

As the story continues, Esau finds himself finishing decisively second place to Jacob, even though he is the oldest. Outraged, he seems ready to kill Jacob, so Rebekah intervenes again, persuading her brother Laban to take in Jacob. Along the way Jacob has a dream in which God transfers his promise to Abraham (the endless descendants, etc.) onto Jacob's shoulders, thus proving that once again God is siding with the morally compromised swindler rather than the more righteous elder brother. Interestingly, Jacob awakes and proposes to invent the tithe (giving one-tenth of one's income to God) if God will support him with food and clothes in exchange. Note that this is the same sort of obsession with short-term material needs that conservatives have just finished berating Esau for.

And Jacob doesn't seem to believe that his encounter with God has to change anything else, either. Living at Laban's, he decides to marry Laban's daughter Rachel, and agrees to manage Laban's flocks for seven years in exchange for Rachel's hand in marriage. This time it is Jacob who is deceived: Laban secretly switches out Rachel for Leah at the wedding. Displaying an incredible ignorance, Jacob purportedly does not discover this switch until after he has had sex with Leah. Eventually Jacob and Laban agree that he will get Rachel in exchange for another seven years' service. This is the first recorded polygamous marriage among the main characters in the Bible, though hardly the first polygamous relationship (we have Abraham to thank for that). The two women bicker constantly over their marital "rights," but I'll get to that tomorrow.

Jacob doesn't seem particularly attached to Laban, just to his daughters, so after his time is up he starts looking for a way to get out of work. Laban wants Jacob to stay, and Jacob sees an opportunity for yet another con. He reaches a new agreement: he will not be paid a dime, but he gets to claim as his own "every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb and every spotted or speckled goat" born to Laban. Through some rather bizarre selective breeding methods (the Bible solemnly explains that animals who mate in front of a row of peeled branches will give birth to blemished offspring), eventually Jacob comes to own all of the good livestock in the area. Eventually, having aroused the anger of Laban's jealous sons, Jacob takes his wives and leaves.

Not that he seems at all guilt-stricken by the whole affair; in fact, he lies to one of Laban's sons that he is upset because Laban changed his wages "ten times." There is no evidence in Genesis of Laban changing the wages even once, unless you count the successful switch-out of Rachel for Leah. Laban and Jacob make peace and Jacob promises not to take any more wives (tellingly, he is still allowed extra-marital relationships, in the form of sleeping with the maids of both women). Rachel even gets in on the action by stealing her father's "household gods," hiding them under her clothes, and refusing to submit to a search on the grounds that she is menstruating. I'm not sure why God doesn't see any reason to punish her for consorting with other gods, except that Genesis isn't real big on monotheism just yet anyways.

Jacob is rich but short on places to live, and so he turns to Edom, where his ostracized brother Esau lives. Esau is forgiving as well as faithful, and comes to meet him. Jacob, who through his petty swindling has become rather paranoid, believes Esau is actually coming to murder him in vengeance, and prepares for battle. Part of these preparations are yet another turn to God for assistance. Jacob asks for help, and offers little in return, not even remorse for his many sins. Instead, he confidently instructs God to carry through on his promise to make Jacob's descendants more numerous than the stars.

The preparations for battle are quite specific, including a carefully counted peace offering of livestock for Esau. However, in Genesis this is followed by a spiritual repetition of what is basically the same story: Jacob's inner turmoil. Jacob spends a night along the side of the river and for some reason -- the Bible does not say why -- "a man wrestled with him till daybreak." As they fight, it becomes obvious to the reader tha the other man is actually God. In a surprise twist ending (a surprise unless, of course, you've witnessed God's churlish behaviour at Moriah and the Tower of Babel), God actually cheats in order to win, dislocating Jacob's hip with some sort of magic touch. Jacob refuses to let "God" go until he has received a new blessing, is given the right to call himself Israel (Hebrew for "struggles with God"), and then goes on his way to find Esau.

It's hard to know what to make of that little version of the story. Is it stranger that God has to cheat to win the wrestling match with Jacob (and why would he bother to wrestle with God in the first place), or that Jacob believes he has really won some sort of badge of honour by "beating" God in a fight?

Read more of the "A Skeptic Reads the Bible" series, published on AssociatedContent.com:

"Abraham Lies, Cheats and Swindles His Way into Grace" (Genesis 12-25)

"Homosexuality and Sexism in Sodom and Gomorrah" (Genesis 18-19)

"Abraham (Nearly) Murders Isaac in a Human Sacrifice" (Genesis 21-22)

Check out the index to all published "A Skeptic Reads the Bible" commentaries.