Why this story matters
(commentary on Genesis 27-31)
(Page 1 of 4)
Introduction
What more could you want from a Bible story? It has love, lust, deceit, treachery, bigamy, racism, sibling rivalry, and a bizarre twist at the end. Of course, Jacob's amazing feet of genetic engineering may be the highlight, but there are plenty of twists and turns along the way that make this a biblical classic. However, if one looks at it with a more critical lens, some of the claims look a little suspicious. While the story makes great as folklore, it requires too much suspension of disbelief to accept all of it as literal history.
Jacob and Esau.
There's been so much written about the sibling rivalry between Jacob and Esau that there's no need to cover it here. A couple of things are worth mentioning, though. Jacob is to become the father of the Israelites. In the future, Yahweh will actually change his name to Israel. But Jacob is a treacherous and deceitful man. For example, one day, his brother came in from working hard in the field. Esau was so hungry that he was at the point of collapse. He begged Jacob to give him some of the stew that Jacob had made, but Jacob refused unless Esau handed over his "birthright". Esau exclaimed that he was going to die if he didn't get some food soon, but Jacob was unmoved and forced Esau into giving up his birthright in order to survive (Gen 25:29-34).
And in this story, their father, Isaac, is frail and almost blind when he calls for Esau, to give him his inheritance. With the help of Rebekah, Jacob quickly dresses as his brother and pretends to be him in order to trick his father into giving him the wealth that was intended for Esau (Gen 27:1-29). The Bible tells us that when Isaac found out he'd given his inheritance to the wrong son, he "trembled violently" (Gen 27:33). That's not a respectful way to treat your father, now is it? Apparently Jacob is a man who is willing to use blackmail and chicanery for personal gain. And this is the man Yahweh chooses to be the father of Israel.
And his mother isn't much better. First she colluded with Jacob into tricking her husband, and next she lies to Isaac by telling him that Jacob had to leave to find a wife. The truth is that he fled because Esau was plotting to kill him. Rebakah knows this lie will work, because Isaac is well acquainted with the local women and agrees that they are wholly unsuitable. This is because they are Hittite women. So what's so bad about Hittite women?
Anything but Hittite women, please.
Rebekah’s feelings about Hittite (or Canaanite) women are pretty strong: “If Jacob takes a wife from among the women of this land, from Hittite women like these, my life will not be worth living (Gen. 27: 46).” Esau had already married two of them and they were supposedly nothing but trouble (Gen. 26: 34). But Isaac's issue with Hittite women goes further back than this. Isaac's father, Abraham, wanted to make sure that his son didn't marry a Hittite woman. He even made his senior servant swear an oath to prevent it: “Take an oath by putting your hand under my thigh. Swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and earth, that you will not allow my son to marry one of these local Canaanite women (Gen. 24: 2-3 NLT).”
If you caught the part about the servant putting his hand under Abraham’s thigh, you might be curious as to what that means. Well, no one's sure but there are educated guesses. For example, according to the knowledge of the time, children came from the “thigh” of the father. Therefore placing a hand under the thigh pertained to future offspring. Also, oaths were sometimes taken by placing a hand near the sign of the Hebrew covenant with Yahweh. The sign is of a circumcised penis, and it began with Abraham. The Hebrew word in question is Yarek which, according to Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary, means “thigh”. The dictionary goes on to explain that, “thigh” is used euphemistically for “the generative parts.” Abraham must have been very serious about Isaac not marrying one of those awful Hittite women.
Some observers have suggested that Abraham worried about his son being influenced by the idolatry of Hittites. Others, though, suggest this was more to do with racial purity. Earlier, Yahweh had told Abraham to leave his country to live in the land of Canaan (Gen 12:1-2). Yahweh then tells him that he will make a new nation from him and he will take the land from the Canaanites and give it him and his family (Gen. 17: 8). In order to make sense of taking land from one race to give to another, there must be a clear separation of racial blood. Therefore, because Jacob will become the father of Israel, he needs to make sure his race is kept pure. Perhaps it is partly for this purpose that Rebekah sends him off to find a woman from her own family. In a way it’s about time since his age at this point is roughly calculated to be in his sixties or seventies.
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