Rebekah and Jacob – part 2

Isaac was really surprised that Esau had supposedly arrived so fast, but after commenting that he smelt worse than usual, and taking one of his hands and rubbing it against his cheek, he seemed satisfied that it was Esau there with him. I thought he looked a little suspicious when Jacob forgot for a moment to deepen his voice to make it sound like that of Esau, but Jacob calmly reassured him, and finally Isaac laid his hands on Jacob’s head and pronounced his blessing.

“Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed. May God give you of heaven’s dew and earth’s richness, and an abundance of grain and new wine. May nations serve you and peoples bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may the sons of your mother bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed and those who bless you be blessed.”

As soon as Isaac had given Jacob his blessing, I motioned him to leave, as I had heard sounds which suggested that Esau had returned, and that he would soon come in to see his father. When Esau came in and announced himself, and asked for Isaac’s blessing, despite his frailty Isaac sat bolt upright, and said that he had just given him his blessing. When Esau denied everything and said that he had only just arrived back from his hunt, and was about to go and cook the stew that Isaac liked, Isaac knew that he had been tricked. He cried out loud that Jacob had deceitfully stolen his blessing. Esau wept and asked his father whether he could not have a blessing as well. Isaac sadly said to him that he had made Jacob lord over him, and made all his relatives his servants, and that he had sustained him with grain and new wine There was nothing else he could give to Esau, so he blessed him saying:

“Your dwelling will be away from the earth’s richness, away from the dew of heaven above. You will live by the sword and you will serve your brother. But when you grow restless, you will throw his yoke from off your neck.”

Esau left his father’s side in an absolute rage, and stormed around the place looking for Jacob, but he had made himself scarce, so Esau did not find him. Esau found me, and would have hit me, if I had not made sure that I was with some of the men when he found me. He stood right up close to me and hissed that when his period of mourning for his father was over, he was going to chase down his brother and kill him for robbing him of both his birthright and his blessing. For the first time ever I was scared that he would actually kill Jacob. Esau would certainly be able to track him down, unless he was a long, long way away before his period of mourning was over.

I went to where I knew Jacob would be hiding, and told him about Esau. He was prepared to remain and take a stand against him, but I eventually persuaded him that despite his father’s blessing, Esau would have no compunction in killing him. He should leave me to deal with the both of them, and go and visit my brother Laban for a while, until Esau calmed down.

I went back to Isaac, who was completely exhausted by all that had happened with his two sons. I laid it out for him. Esau had willingly sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of stew. He had married not one, but two Hittite women, and brought them back to live with us. They did not respect us, they did not worship Yahweh, and Esau did not make them become part of the family. In my eyes he had lost all right to his father’s blessing. Jacob on the other hand had worked hard, had grown and developed our crops and herds. He had not married, because we had not been able to find the right wife for him. He was an obedient and dutiful son. He deserved the blessing. In the end Isaac was persuaded both of the rightness of Jacob’s cause, although he hated the deception, and allowed me to bring Jacob back to him. We had a long talk together, and at the end he willingly gave Jacob his blessing. He counselled him that he should go away for a while to Padan Aram to his uncle Laban and find from among his family there a wife, who would be a follower of Yahweh, and would be a blessing to his mother, to me, once he was dead. When Jacob left the tent, he knew that he would never see his father again, and that because of what we had done, he would not be around to bury his father and set up a memorial to him. That would be for Esau to do. It was a great punishment for a man who loved and had served his father unselfishly from birth.

It was with great sadness that I watched Jacob ride out of Beersheba on one of our camels, heading towards Padan Aram. It would be fourteen years before I would see him again. I turned back to our tent when I could no longer see him and returned to Isaac’s side to watch and wait as he returned to Yahweh. Esau and I mourned his passing together, and he seemed to come to the realisation that his wives were neither happy nor welcome here, so he went out and married Mahalath, daughter of Ishmael, who was also a son of Abraham. He brought her back to our camp, and although he did not put off his Hittite wives, I was glad of the comfort that she brought me.

Rebekah and Jacob – part 1

I know one should not favour one son or one daughter-in-law over another, but Esau really did not choose his wives well. He is very much Isaac’s favourite son, his first born, even if his second son Jacob only arrived minutes after his brother. I think Isaac admired his lust for life, and his skill at hunting. Isaac never was much of a hunter. He also really appreciated the skill with which he cooks the meats that he brings back to our home; he does love his food. Despite all this, even Isaac was moved to remonstrate with Esau when he brought home a second Hittite woman as his wife.

After the great famine had finished, when we moved our flocks from Gerar, where we had sought refuge to Beersheba, the place of our best water well, Shibah, Esau spent most of his time away from the family, living and hunting with the Hittites. The first woman he brought home was Judith, daughter of Beeri the Hittite. The second a few years later was Basemath, daughter of Elgon the Hittite. They were really difficult to live with. They thought themselves so superior because their families had been living in the same place for many years, building themselves houses rather than living in tents. Our family and our herdsmen spent part of the year moving with our flocks, and now part of the year at Beersheba where we were growing some crops. Here we are now building ourselves some adobe houses. We set up a tall stone, and then draw a circle around it. Using bricks of mud which we dry in the sun, we make a circular wall, about to the height of our waist, and then using more mud fill in the gaps. Using the stone in the centre to hold up the roof, we use branches from trees, and then cover them with reeds to create a conical roof. In the hot summer weather it is really cool in these houses, but compared to our tents it is really dark and airless. Apart from anything else, the Hittite women insisted on sacrificing to their own gods, and they had brought their own copper knives with them, to kill the sacrificial animals. It broke Isaac’s heart to see such sacrifices going on in front of him. They refused to listen to either Isaac or to me, and Esau would not check their behaviour. If I could have thrown them out I would have, but Esau could not be brought to see that there was a problem. Well, he was away most of the time.

Over the years Isaac, became more and more frail, and his eyesight went. He noticed first of all that when he stood at the door of our tent he could not see the mountains, then he could not see the plains in front of them, then he began to have difficulty even navigating his way around our camps, unless one of the boys led him by the hand. Eventually the day came when he took to his bed, and we all knew that he would not rise from it again. Then he asked me to send a message to Esau to come to receive his blessing as the first born. He asked that Esau bring some meat, and cook him his favourite meal for the last time. I sent one of the boys with a message for Esau, but I knew it would be many hours before Esau returned.

I would like to think that what I did next was not motivated by spite because of Esau’s inconsiderate wives, I would like to think that as Esau had already sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of stew, he did not want or value his father’s blessing, so it was only right that Jacob, who so desperately wanted it, should have it. I sent for Jacob, and told him to listen closely to what I said, and do precisely what I told him. While he went out and killed a young goat, I started to make a stew just as Isaac loves it. When Jacob came back I told him to skin the animal, and added its meat to the bubbling pot. I then told him to go and find some of Esau’s clothes and put them on. I thought he was going to refuse, on the basis that they were always smelling of blood and wild animals. It was only with great reluctance, when I pointed out that that was the point, that he agreed to obey me. I then fashioned some gloves, and a scarf for his neck out of the skin of the goat, and even though they were newly taken from the animal, and felt really awful, he put those on as well. I handed him a bowl of my stew, and told him to go in and see his father, and ask for his blessing. I stood at the door of the tent and watched.