The scene in Genesis 32-36 is the trickster, Jacob, is returning from exile after 20 years with his large contingent of wives, children, servants and livestock. They see Esau approaching with 400 men. The trickster, Jacob, arranges his contingent in reverse order of importance, with his most loved wife and child bringing up the rear with him so they will be last to be slaughtered. The trickster, Jacob, bribes his brother and over and over again, Jacob identifies Esau as his lord. In devotional reading of the Complete Jewish Bible, these questions emerge.
- In v 32:4, Jacob identifies himself as the servant of the lord Esau. Yet, in v10 he says to God that he is God's servant. Does this not indicate dual loyalty?
- Furthermore, in v 32:11, he asks the lord God to rescue him from his brother. Doesn't this show the trickster, Jacob, remains a trickster, duplicitous, and a disloyal servant?
- I think the answer is yes, until transformed in v 32:25 then some man wrestled with him until daybreak.
- Given the relational dynamic is that Esau is the lord and Jacob is the servant, in v 36:6-7, why is it not the the trickster, Jacob, who leaves the land when their possessions became too great for them to live together? (And not just b/c God wanted it that way. What in the text explains?)
So, the one who had no care for God, Esau, called Jacob a trickster, when in fact we are not told of the reason why Esau was so willing to give Jacob what he asked for when Esau demanded that Jacob give him a bowl of the soup that he was preparing, in the Genesis account. The book of Jasher, originally an oral history, suggests that Esau was in fear for his life, because he had just killed Nimrod and stolen from Nimrod Adam's Skins that God had given him after he had eaten from the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil. The tradition at that time was that Adam's skins gave the wearer the authority to be the lord over everybody else. From my research, it appears that this incident occurred when the twins were around 16 years old.
Now, Isaac when he was around 100-years old decided that he would give Esau his blessing. Isaac loved Esau more than he loved Jacob because Esau would hunt wild game to feed his father Isaac. Isaac had forgotten God's prophetic word that Rebekah had received while carrying the twins that the older child, Esau would serve the younger child.
Gen 25:19-28: - 19 This is the genealogy of Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham begot Isaac. 20 Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah as wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padan Aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian. 21 Now Isaac pleaded with the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord granted his plea, and Rebekah his wife conceived. 22 But the children struggled together within her; and she said, "If all is well, why am I like this?" So she went to inquire of the Lord.
23 And the Lord said to her:
"Two nations are in your womb,
Two peoples shall be separated from your body;
One people shall be stronger than the other,
And the older shall serve the younger."
24 So when her days were fulfilled for her to give birth, indeed there were twins in her womb. 25 And the first came out red. He was like a hairy garment all over; so they called his name Esau. 26 Afterward his brother came out, and his hand took hold of Esau's heel; so his name was called Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.
27 So the boys grew. And Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field; but Jacob was a mild man, dwelling in tents. 28 And Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
NKJV
Now when Rebekah learned that Isaac was going to give his blessing to Esau, such that Esau would be the lord over Jacob, she remembered God Prophetic word to her that the older twin would serve the younger twin, and so she orchestrated the deception of Isaac into giving his blessing to Jacob instead of Esau. Jacob was more than likely an unwilling participant in Rebeckah's plan to deceive Isaac so that Jacob became the one whom the other brother, Esau served.
Now God's hand was in this giving of the Isaac's blessing to Jacob. Why can I say that? Well Isaac thought that he was going to die 75 years before he actually did. His eyesight was poor, probably because he was long sighted and had poor short vision, and he also had poor hearing.
Now Isaac asked Jacob how come he had found the game that he desired so quickly, and Jacob replied with, "Because the Lord your God brought it to me." Isaac then conducted a number of other checks but when he was convinced that it was probably Esau, he gave Jacob his blessing.
Now when Esau returned and discovered that Isaac had given his blessing to Jacob, he flew into a rage and claimed that Jacob had tricked him into giving up his birthright, when in fact Esau willingly gave that up, and that he had deceived Isaac to get the blessing that Isaac had promised him through deception.
In fact, it was Rebekah who had worked on deceiving Isaac because of God's prophetic word to her while the twins where still in her womb.
Esau's rage grew to the point where he planned to murder his brother. and Rebekah encouraged Isaac to send Jacob to her family in and around Haran to that he could find for himself a wife. Jacob was sent to Rebakah's family when he was around 40 years of age.
In Haran Laban tricked Jacob into marrying Leah first before he married Rebecah and he willingly served Laban 14 years for both of his daughters. Jacob worked for Laban for 40 years, using the last six years to get his wages from Laban.
During the 40 years that Jacon was living with Laban, Esau's anger towards Jacob had subsided, but Jacob's fear of his brother and what he would do to him as he returned to his father Isaac, remained with him over all of those years, even though God had been with him all of that time. Jacob returned around so 50 years before he went down to Egypt at the invitation of Joseph, his favourite son.
Now Esau's leaving Isaac's household shortly after the return of Jacob indicates to me that Esau had come to accept that the Blessing Isaac had given to Jacob was Jacob's to have. That this had been God's intention all along, that Jacob would receive Isaac's blessing.
Shalom