We pick up the next section with yet another iteration of God's promise to Abraham and his descendants about being a great nation with as much land and as many children as one could possibly imagine. This time, Jacob hears it. Well, he dreams it. Oh hey, this is where Jacob's Ladder comes from (only because in the dream...there was a ladder, or stairway depending on the translation, leading up to Heaven). Due to the dream, Jacob notes the holiness of the place he had the dream, and essentially makes a deal with God. Jacob says that if God jumps through all of these different hoops, like providing plenty of food and clothing, then Jacob shall keep Abraham's God as his own. I didn't realize one human could boss a deity around quite like that...
Jacob continues on his journey to his mom's relatives' place, and it appears he comes across the very same well that Abraham's servant found Rebekah. Small world, huh? Anyway, the other people at the well know his relatives, and introduce him to Rachel, Laban's daughter (Jacob's first cousin for those of you keeping track). In order to make a really excellent first impression, Jacob performs great feats of strength for the good of the others around the well. And because Jacob is family, she essentially brings him home with her. While he's staying with them (for a month), he falls in love with Rachel. He strikes up a deal with Laban that says if Jacob works for him for seven years, he (Jacob) can marry Rachel. Rachel, however, has an older sister named Leah, who doesn't seem to be as pretty as Rachel is. After seven years of toiling away, there's the wedding night. Laban gives Jacob Leah instead of Rachel, theoretically because of some birthright of the older sister marrying first. Jacob gets upset and strikes up another seven year deal to marry Rachel. This time, there's not an older ugly sister to get rid of first, so it works out.
Then we hit some serious cat-fighting...using childbirth. It's all very odd when you think about it. So the sister-wives (with God's help) feud over being the favored wife with who bears Jacob how many children. God helps Leah out by making Rachel barren for awhile. Or maybe Rachel just didn't want kids until she realized Jacob was going to just stick with Leah because she was willing to have them. Anyway, mixed up in this anything-you-can-do-I-can-do-better baby game, there's a lot of clever name/wordplay. Oh, did I mention Rachel cheats? She (and eventually Leah joins in on this too) gets Jacob to have relations with her servant (reminding us of Abram, Sarai, and Hagar) to bear more children. Eventually Joseph (born of Rachel) comes into the world! And we move on.
The last bit for today is another set of deal making and swindling, again with Jacob and Laban. After Jacob's done his time for both of his wives, he tries to get some sheep and goats from Laban, too, because he's made the existing flocks so plentiful apparently just by his very presence. A deal is made, Jacob gets the spotty ones from Laban's own herds. Before he claims them, Laban goes in and separates out the spotted animals, essentially lending them to his other family in the area, so Jacob can't take them. Jacob plays that game... using visual animal husbandry? He puts things in front of the mating sheep and goats that will make the conceived baby spotty... because it's parents were looking at a thing while doin' it. Because that's how it works. Either way, Jacob's plan somehow miraculously works out for him, and he gets a pretty sizable chunk of livestock. Go figure.
<3 Agnostic in the Pews
No comments:
Post a Comment