The story of Jacob’s
deceit is worthy of Shakespeare’s best, as are the hidden meanings.
I must stop
here briefly to say that Rabbinical exegeses saw four layers of truth. The
superficial or factual layer, which if you read this story literally, is all
you will read, is called Peshat.
The next layer reveals
the allegory or hidden story within a story and is called Remez. Then you reach
the integrative, deeper level of meaning, called Derash. Finally you transcend
all of that at the esoteric level of Sod, where Kabbalism tends to major. As a
believer who enjoys the revelatory work of the Holy Spirit, I don’t tend to see
Sod as esoteric, merely spiritually amplified.
Well, whatever, the
story about Isaac’s blessing of Jacob, is rich in deeper meaning.
I am old. Prepare some venison for me and I
will bless you.
A moment like that
would have preoccupied a Jewish boy’s entire life. Yet, we know that Esau had
already tacitly sold off his rights to his brother, for a pot of stew.
Technically he no longer qualified for the blessing.
Never underestimate
the power of the spoken word in spiritual transactions. When Joshua entered a
verbal concord with the Gibeonites, God held them to that even after their
duplicity was revealed. He also brought famine on Israel when Saul broke that
covenant.
Thus, God, as a holy
witness to all things, knew that Esau had sold his rights and was thus
dispossessed. It set up a tragic cycle of events that were really his own
doing.
As it happened, Esau
and his wives had brought great grief of mind to Rebekah and Isaac, so it was
becoming quite apparent that he would never shape up.
So, now, who really
was deceiving whom? If Esau was disqualified, by his own actions, then was it
not as deceptive to claim the blessing secretively in violation of what he had
agreed with Jacob? Yet, sadly, history regards Jacob as the “usurper” and
“deceiver”.
I am not convinced. He
merely respected his grandfather’s legacy and perceived the value of the
Abrahamic covenant, where Esau only perceived a material blessing.
Regardless, he went
off in search of some fine venison, thankfully so, as that would surely take
longer to achieve than what Rebekah had in mind.
Mother and son made a plan
She instructed Jacob
to urgently slaughter two kid goats and then she prepared a savory dish to her
husband’s liking. We get some sense of how hairy Esau was, for she bound some
fleece to Jacob’s arms and neck, to disguise him before her blind, ageing
spouse.
Evidently Esau also
smelled less refined than Jacob, more like a ploughed field, so she did what it
took to deceive Isaac’s better-preserved olfactory sense.
Then in he went, with
the blessing of his courageous mother, to secure Isaac’s blessing. Isaac went
through his check list, only briefly stumbling over Jacob’s voice. But
everything checked out and the blessing was spoken, but once spoken it was irreversible.
When Esau arrived and
went to see his father, it was too late. He should have been more watchful, but
he never really treasured what was taken from him, although once lost he wept
bitterly and was deeply vexed over Jacob’s actions.
The allegory is the
cross, where God received a sacrificial lamb that smelt and felt like Israel,
but also satisfied every demand of the law. Yet it was not Israel, but a
priceless life sold for a few coins of silver and the cheap substitution of
Barabbas.
The Father wasn’t so
much blind, but His justice was. He turned away as Jesus cried, “why have you
forsaken me”. In that moment, the objective justice of God met the subjective
grace below to seal His blessing over every soul who claims Him as their savior.
The Esau of that story
was as vexed, but no amount of tears could change the fact that was once exclusive
to Israel was made available to all men.
Jacob fled
Laban, the one who tried
to play Eliezer, is revealed as Rebekah’s brother. She sent Jacob there, to the
home of Bethuel her father to escape Esau’s wrath and find a wife.
On the way he came to
Bethel where, in a dream, he saw the angels of God ascending and descending through
a divine ladder, with the God of his fathers at the head of the ladder.
There
He covenanted to give to Jacob the land on which he stood, to go with him on
his journey, to keep him, be with him and to bring him back home.
The allusion to Jesus
is clear, as He said, “from henceforth you will see the angels ascending and
descending above me” (John 1:51), but the land He trod was more to do with the
redemptive price He paid and the transaction that freed us from Satan’s power.
If Bethel was a
spiritual breach into our world through which the Kingdom of God poured into
that world, then the strategic beachhead secured by Jesus, broke through the
ramparts of hell to defeat sin, hell and the grave.
Accordingly, Jacob memorialized
that place, but he made the naive mistake of saying, “if you will be with me,
you will be my God”. It is surprising how little he really grasped of Abraham’s
God, but trying to do deals with Him was foolish.
More by implication,
than through words, God waved him on and sent him to his mother’s house, to
grow up. He was there for 20 years, during which time he raised 12 sons and a
daughter.
Yet, in all the time
he was gone, he did not forget the stone on which he had slept or the pillar he
had erected at Bethel, which anchored his soul to provide a way-point-marker for
his eventual return to his father’s house.
(c) Peter Missing @ bethelstone.com
