Welcome to the One Great Story!. George B. Thompson
father had died (Gen 27:1–41).
Jacob tricked their father Isaac and received the blessing meant for his brother Esau.
This episode is told in quite dramatic detail and captures well the cunning and emotion among its four main characters. As a result, Jacob left their home—at his mother’s urging—to live for a time with her brother (Gen 27:42–45). Jacob then dominates the story line for several chapters. He lived for a time as a vagabond, receiving assurance from the LORD that the promise given to Abraham surely would be his (Gen 28:10–22). Deceit followed Jacob, however; his uncle tricked him into marrying the older daughter (Leah) before being able to marry the one whom Jacob wanted, Rachel (Gen 29). Uncle Laban also cheated Jacob on wages for taking care of flocks of sheep (Gen 31:7). In spite of these circumstances, Jacob managed to trick Laban back in the matter of breeding sheep (Gen 30:25–43) and, as a result, became quite wealthy himself.
An angel of the LORD told Jacob in a dream to return to his homeland, so Jacob gathered up his family and all his property and left Laban, without telling him. When Laban finally heard of their departure, he took off after Jacob. Catching up to him, Laban chastised his son-in-law for leaving secretly without a proper farewell. He also asked for the return of the figurines of his gods (“the household gods” [31:35c]). Rachel was sitting on a camel’s saddle, hiding them, so they were not discovered. After Jacob replied, by dumping his years of frustration about Laban in the father-in-law’s lap, the two tricksters agreed to a deal. “The LORD watch between you and me, when we are absent one from the other (Gen 31:49),” known in many circles as the “Mizpah benediction,” actually feels more like a mutual threat: neither man can depend on the other one, so God is invoked to make sure they both toe the line!
Pause to Reflect Have you ever recited the “Mizpah benediction” or heard it used? How does its place in the episode between Jacob and his father-in-law, Laban, (Gen 31:43–50) change your understanding of the saying’s original purpose?
Laban returned home, but Jacob’s challenges were not over yet. He arranged to meet his estranged brother, Esau, and another dramatic episode develops. After praying to the LORD for deliverance, Jacob made careful plans, sending a huge gift of animals ahead of him to Esau (Gen 32:9–21). Now traveling alone (he sent his wives and children out of harm’s way), Jacob spent the night in a wrestling match with a figure who is identified as “a man” but who seems at the end of the exchange to be something quite different. Some of what happens here is hard to interpret: the match appeared to be a stalemate, so the man injured Jacob’s hip; Jacob wouldn’t let go of the man without a blessing, which he received in the form of a new name—Israel (“the one who strives with God”); and the “man” would not tell Jacob his name. As often occurs in Old Testament stories, the main character—here, Jacob—names a location on the basis of a significant, often religious, event that took place there (Gen 32:30). The name Peniel means “face of God,” so now the audience realizes that the “man” was a divine figure from the LORD.
It was morning, and Esau was on his way. Reunited with his family, Jacob approached his brother, bowing several times. Esau ran up to his brother, hugged and kissed him, and they wept together. The rest of their meeting was quite conciliatory, and they parted that day on good terms (Gen 33). With God’s bidding, Jacob traveled back to Bethel, where the LORD had met him in a dream before his marriages and affirmed the promise with him (Gen 28:10–22). He traveled again, and Rachel died en route, giving birth to Jacob’s twelfth and final son, Benjamin (Gen 35:16–20). Jacob finally made it back to Isaac, before the patriarch died. Once he had passed on, the twin brothers gave Isaac a proper burial (Gen 35:27–29).
Another major chapter closes. Even though Esau and his descendants and clans are listed (Gen 36), the attention shifts back again to Jacob’s family. In spite of all the years of trickery within this extended family—all the calculating and questionable behavior that we would not want our children to emulate!—The Story maintains its underlying movement. God, the Creator of all, continues to hold a claim on the life and fortunes of this particular lineage. God—who is called “the LORD” in perhaps the oldest tradition that constitutes the Book of Genesis—continues to initiate contact with, and provide assurance and guidance to, a key figure in every generation of this clan. They are not ideal role models, but they are chosen.
After Isaac’s death, the central character in the upcoming chapter of The Story is not so much Jacob, but his son Joseph. The fellow first appears as an indulged younger child who gets on his older brother’s nerves. Yet, it is Joseph’s faith and wit that help him to survive and, in the long run, to save his clan. Hence, the grand promise made to Abraham and Sarah will be rescued, once more.
Joseph’s faith and wit help him survive and then save his family.
The Man Who Would Be Pharaoh
He seems to have been a dreamer, this Joseph lad. All of Jacob’s other sons were older, except for Benjamin, the only other son from Jacob’s favorite wife, Rachel. The old man seemed to play favorites with her boys, especially with Joseph, who received a lavish gift from their father. It was a special garment of some kind, one that none of the other brothers possessed. This was not, however, the only reason that Joseph was not popular with them. He also told his brothers about two dreams of his—dreams suggesting that he, Joseph, would rise in authority and stature above them. Even Jacob was a bit perturbed in hearing about the second of the two dreams (Gen 37:3–11).
Joseph’s brothers had had enough. They found a way to get rid of him, first by throwing him into a deep pit out in the hinterlands, then by selling him to some traders, who carried him with them to Egypt. Taking the fancy robe, the brothers covered it with goat’s blood and took it to their father, saying that Joseph was killed by a wild animal. Jacob sorely grieved the news, but Joseph actually was very much alive, having been sold to none other than the captain of the Egyptian Pharaoh’s guard (Gen 37:12–36).
Joseph’s situation improved greatly—at least, for a time. Rather than ending up outside in a barn or field, Joseph must have impressed captain Potiphar with his skills. More to the point, the storyteller in Genesis emphasizes that “His master saw that the LORD was with him, and that the LORD caused all that he did to prosper in his hands” (Gen 39:3). Joseph thus was put in charge of the captain’s house, which benefited greatly from the young man’s acumen. Again, the storyteller is eager for the audience to see what is taking place from a particular vantage point: Potiphar’s profit by Joseph’s hand was “for Joseph’s sake,” not the captain’s (Gen 39:5bc).
Trouble came calling, however. Potiphar’s wife took a shining to the handsome young overseer and invited him to her bed. Joseph refused, out of his faith in God and loyalty to his boss, her husband. After days of tempting him, Potiphar’s wife grabbed his shirt one day when they were alone and implored him to go to bed with her. Joseph ran out of the house, but the shirt stayed in her hand. She kept the shirt, fabricating a story that set up Joseph as the offending party. When she told her husband, Potiphar was enraged and threw Joseph in prison (Gen 39:7–20).
Pause to Reflect In your own experience, what do you know of deep ill will and deception? Who was involved, and what took place? How did it affect you? What has it been like for you to come to terms with that experience?
This drastic turn of events could have been the end of the line for Joseph; he could have starved to death or contracted a deadly disease. But the storyteller continues to emphasize the LORD’s favor with Joseph—so that he impressed the head jailer, who put Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners (Gen 39:21–23). As time went by, two of Pharaoh’s top employees got on the king’s bad side and ended up in prison with Joseph. Both of these men—the chief cupbearer and the chief baker—had dreams that they wanted to understand: in antiquity, dreams were thought to carry messages of a person’s fate or destiny. Joseph interpreted their dreams, attributing the understanding to God. The cupbearer’s dream was favorable, the baker’s dream unfavorable. Soon, both interpretations came to pass, but the cupbearer forgot to credit Joseph before the Pharaoh (Gen 40).
The storyteller continues to emphasize Joseph’s favor with the LORD.
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