09 January

Bible in 365 Days

Genesis 27-29

"And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her" (Genesis 29:20).

Genesis 27

From this point the history passes to center largely around Jacob. At the beginning, four persons stand out: Isaac, Rebekah, Esau, and Jacob, and not one of them is admirable. Isaac is even more degenerate in his devotion to the physical. Rebekah knows the purpose of God but is not content to wait. Esau is still the same, a man of physical strength, completely centered therein. Jacob is weak as he yields to the suggestion of his mother.

Over the whole is seen the activity of the divine government, overruling deceit and duplicity, so that the purpose of the divine counsel moves forward. Isaac, when the facts are discovered, was seized with a strange trembling, born assuredly of his sense of the ovemling majesty of God. The trembling led to the action of faith in which he refused to interfere in the matter of the blessing which he had pronounced unwittingly on Jacob.

Esau's natural reaction was hatred for Jacob, which created anxiety in the mind of Rebekah, and she began to arrange to send Jacob out of the reach of danger.

In all probability Rebekah never saw Jacob again. Her plan was that he should tarry with Laban a few days only, and she distinctly declared her intention to send for him again. But she never did.

Genesis 28

Here Jacob is seen exiled from his home, flying from Beersheba. In this connection we have the account of the first of the direct divine communications to him. Tired and weary, he reached Luz and during a dream he had a vision which suggested communication between heaven and earth. What impressed Jacob, however, seems not to have been that part of the vision, but the fact that Jehovah was there in that distant place and that He spoke to him. On waking, Jacob declared his new consciousness of the presence of God. It is not to be wondered at that such a revelation filled him with a sense of awe as he cried, "How dreadful is this place."

On the following morning he showed the two sides of his nature. His deep religious conviction and faith were indicated by the erection of a stone and naming the place Beth-el, the House of God. His restless activity was manifested in the bargaining spirit in which he expressed himself. In the vision of the night God had promised to be with him and now he says that if that will be so, he will give a tenth of all he possesses to God.

That is faith but on a low level. Nevertheless, there can be no doubt that the memory of the midnight vision remained with him through all the coming days. It is evident that by this appearance he was arrested, and the spirit of his coming to the house of Laban was changed.

Genesis 29

Pursuing his journey after his experience at Luz, now called Beth-el, Jacob came into "the land of the children of the east." Here the next twenty years of his life were to be spent, during which he amassed his wealth. As presently he himself said, he went out carrying only his staff: "With my staff I passed over this Jordan" (Genesis 32:10). When he returned, he was wealthy, as his words, again interpreted by the time and place, reveal, ". . . and now I am become two companies."

At this point the story of his dealings with Laban commences. On the human side it is a fascinating account of the conflict of two strong, astute men. There is really little to admire in the methods of either. However, of the two, as we shall see, Laban was the more to be despised. Here, too, we have the beginning of the story of the one great human love in the life of Jacob, the story of his meeting with and eventual winning of Rachel. There is no doubt that it is a pure love story, and all the subsequent history shows how dear to the heart of Jacob was this woman of pastoral life, the shepherdess of her father's sheep.

Laban met Jacob with effusive greetings, and, with the shrewdness that characterized him, there can be no doubt he saw how much he might gain from the services of Jacob. This accounts for the readiness with which he promised him Rachel to wife. The true nature of the man, however, was clearly manifested in the brutal deceit he practiced on Jacob at the end of the seven years. Love, however, is stronger than all opposition and Jacob served Laban another seven years for Rachel. It may be pointed out that he did not wait those seven years, for they were united at once. Nevertheless, he carried out the terms of the bargain.