Abraham’s Heirs II: Isaac and Jacob
The story of Abraham’s heirs faithfully following God continues with his grandson Jacob. In Haran, Jacob established a family and prospered before departing to return to his homeland. Along the way, he wrestled with God and reconciled with his brother Esau, after which he buried both his wife and his father. Jacob’s return sets the stage for the story of Joseph, the fourth generation of Abraham’s covenant family.
Jacob began a family and prospered in Haran...
The rivalry between Rachel and Leah for Jacob’s affection, expressed through their desire to bear him children, may help explain why the Mosaic Law later forbade a man from marrying sisters (Lev. 18:18). Their contest was not just for their husband’s affections but God’s favor in having more children. They even followed Sarah’s example in having Jacob father children with their servants, Rachel even bargaining Jacob to Leah for mandrakes, thought to aid conception.1
Rachel struggled with being unable to conceive. She must have known that Abraham had prayed for Sarah, and Isaac for Rebecca, to do so and been heard. She asked Jacob, Give me children otherwise I shall die (30:1). Rachel may have believed that Jacob had not prayed for her as Abraham and Isaac had prayed for their wives.2 Jacob responded to her in wise anger that she should see her trial as a test from God and that she should ask Him to resolve it rather than expecting from human beings what only God can provide.3 Rachel waited while Jacob had ten sons and one daughter through Leah, Leah’s servant, and her own servant before she finally bore him Joseph and later Benjamin. At times, God permits His faithful ones to endure suffering and delay before granting the blessings He has prepared for them. The wait is well worth it, as it was for Rachel. Her son Joseph would continue the line of heroes through whom God brought His promises into the world.
A shepherd’s job was not easy, and Jacob had fulfilled it extremely well. Shepherds were asked to ensure a minimal survival rate of 80% of lambs born into a flock as well as 85% of the adult sheep and 80% of the adult goats. If more than those percentages were lost, the shepherd had to compensate the herd owner.4 Despite his prosperity, the birth of Joseph stirred in Jacob a renewed desire to return to the land promised by God to his fathers.
Laban did not welcome that prospect since he would be losing a faithful worker in addition to grandsons who worked for him and raised his status in Haran. Moreover, Laban understood God blessed Jacob and that he benefited from Jacob’s presence.
Laban offered Jacob additional compensation if he remained in Haran but Jacob proposed instead that the black and spotted sheep and the streaked goats would become his wages rather than the customary twenty percent of the flock. Laban eagerly agreed because he knew such animals would occur infrequently, causing Jacob’s wages to amount to less than what shepherds commonly received, let alone his receiving additional compensation.
Jacob separated the flocks, placing the speckled, spotted, and black animals under the care of his sons, who drove them a three days’ journey away. Jacob then tended the rest of Laban’s flock himself. He set peeled rods before the animals at the watering places where they gathered to drink and mate, doing so when the stronger animals came to breed. By selectively breeding the strongest sheep and goats, Jacob increased the health and vigor of his flocks. Some of their offspring were marked, since the stronger animals carried the genetic traits responsible for speckled, spotted, and dark-colored coats. Because these marked animals descended from the healthiest stock, they thrived and multiplied. Yet Jacob’s success was not due to human skill alone. God guided and blessed his efforts, causing him to prosper despite Laban’s repeated attempts to exploit him.5
Jacob’s spotted lambs symbolize those who belong to Christ: believers set apart from the world by their manner of life, self-control, and goodness.6 Those consecrated to Christ in Baptism strengthen both themselves and one another when they remain faithful to the way of life that distinguishes them from the world.
...Then left it to return home.
Laban and his sons gradually began to resent Jacob’s growing prosperity. As Scripture notes, “Laban’s countenance was not towards him as yesterday and the other day” (Gen. 31:2). Seeing this change in attitude, Jacob became even more resolved to return to Canaan. To avoid being overheard, he met Rachel and Leah in the field among his flocks and explained his decision. He recounted how an angel had appeared to him, confirming that God Himself had granted his prosperity and commanded him to return to Canaan. The angel reminded Jacob that He was the God of Bethel, where Jacob had once set up a stone and made a vow. Rachel and Leah, though often at odds with one another, both agreed. They observed that their father had squandered the wealth that should have benefited them and their children. Since Laban had already consumed their inheritance and repeatedly dealt unjustly with Jacob, they recognized that their family’s future security rested with the husband whom God had blessed rather than with the irresponsible father they would leave behind (Gen. 31:14-16).
Having received his wives’ support, Jacob waited for an opportune moment. When Laban left to shear his sheep, a task that required a lengthy absence during the spring, Jacob quietly prepared to depart. Like his grandfather Abraham, he gathered his family, servants, camels, sheep, and goats and set out for Canaan. Unlike Abraham, however, Jacob departed with a large family of his own. Unbeknownst to him, Rachel secretly took her father’s household idols with her.
The household idols Rachel stole were known in Hebrew as teraphim. They were associated with ancestral worship and commonly kept in household shrines. Scripture also associates them with divination (Ezek. 21:21). Some were small enough to be concealed in a camel saddle, as Rachel later did (Gen. 31:34), while others could be life-sized (I Kings 19:13). Many regarded them as a safeguard of family prosperity and inheritance rights. Because they represented a form of idolatry, Jacob would later command his household to destroy such objects (Gen. 35:2). Rachel’s theft reveals that members of Jacob’s household had not yet abandoned the religious customs of Haran.7
After discovering Jacob’s departure, Laban pursued him, perhaps suspecting that his daughters had been taken away against their will. Yet before catching Jacob, God appeared to Laban in a dream and warned him not to speak either good or evil against Jacob. When Laban finally overtook the caravan in the hill country, he ignored that warning and accused Jacob of stealing his household gods. Unaware of Rachel’s actions, Jacob confidently permitted a search of the camp and declared that whoever possessed the idols deserved death. When Laban arrived at Rachel’s tent, she concealed the idols in her camel saddle and sat upon it. Excusing herself from standing before her father, she said, it has now happened to me according to the custom of women (Gen. 31:35). Laban searched unsuccessfully and departed empty-handed.
Frustrated by the false accusation, Jacob finally went on the offensive. He reminded Laban of his twenty years of faithful service, years marked by tireless labor and repeated attempts by Laban to exploit him. Despite these injustices, God had continually protected and blessed him. Jacob’s innocence provides a valuable spiritual lesson; the devil can claim no lasting hold over those who refuse to harbor within themselves anything that belongs to him.8 He gives God a unique title in his speech, the fear of Isaac. Jacob claims that God is the true God feared and worshiped by Isaac who is now Jacob’s God as well.
With his accusations disproven, Laban accepted that the conflict had reached its end. The two men therefore established a covenant of nonaggression. Twenty years earlier, Jacob had erected a stone pillar while fleeing from Esau; now, as he escaped from Laban, he set up another. Around it a heap of smaller stones were gathered. Jacob called the heap Galeed “heap of witness” and the pillar Mizpah “watchtower.” There they swore that neither would cross that boundary intending harm against the other. The covenant was ratified with a sacrifice and a shared meal, a customary practice throughout the ancient Near East. After spending the night on the mountain, Jacob and Laban parted ways. The road back to the Promised Land now lay open before Jacob.
He wrestled God...
Having seen angels ascending and descending the heavenly ladder when he journeyed toward Haran, Jacob now received another vision as he left. He saw such a multitude of angels that he described them as God’s army. He named the place Mahanaim (two camps). Situated east of the Jordan River, it would later serve as the headquarters of Saul’s son Ishbosheth and as the place where Absalom’s rebellion ended (II Kings 2:8-9; 17:24-27).
In this vision, God fulfilled the promise He had made at Bethel to accompany Jacob into exile and bring him safely home.9 The image of God’s army is also instructive for Christians. Although invisible to human eyes, good and evil angels are active in the world, drawing souls toward virtue or vice.
Yet even after seeing God’s heavenly army, Jacob remained apprehensive about meeting Esau. Learning that his brother was approaching with four hundred men, Jacob prepared for every possibility. He sent messengers ahead, divided his camp in case of attack, arranged gifts to appease Esau, prayed for deliverance, and resolved to humble himself before his brother. After sending his family across the Jabbok River, Jacob remained behind alone in the camp.
During the night, a mysterious man suddenly confronted Jacob and began wrestling with him, the struggle lasting until dawn. Scripture describes Jacob’s opponent as a man (32:24), yet Jacob later says that he saw God face to face (32:30). Hosea sheds further light on the event when he writes that Jacob struggled with an angel and prevailed: …and by his strength he had success with an angel. And he prevailed over the angel, and was strengthened: he wept, and made supplication to him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spoke with us (12:4).
When asked his name, Jacob identified himself by the very name that recalled his earlier struggles and deceptions. His opponent then declared that he would no longer be called Jacob but Israel, from sarah (to struggle) and El (God), because he had struggled with God and prevailed. As had happened with Abraham, a new name marked a decisive turning point in his relationship with God. The visitor did not tell his name to Jacob, asking why Jacob asked, implying that Jacob already knew it. Jacob named the place phanuel meaning the sight of God, because he had seen God face to face and been saved.
Jacob’s wrestling and seeing God’s face coincide in the struggling to be virtuous.10 Like Jacob we have to refuse to let go, to struggle to hold onto Christ by loving our fellow man.11 The fight will continue until the light of Christ rises in our minds and shines its brilliance in our hearts, making us noble souls worthy of divine attention.12 In the meantime, we have to hold on bravely in the darkness of life’s night and not lose the grace we have been given, until we see God in the light, face to face.13
...And reconciled with his brother...
The last thing Jacob remembered of Esau was Rebecca’s warning that his brother intended to kill him (27:42). Now, after twenty years, Esau came to meet him with four hundred men (33:1). Jacob divided his family into groups, placing Rachel and Joseph in the rear while he himself went ahead of them all. As he approached Esau, he bowed to the ground seven times, drawing nearer to his brother like a subject paying homage to his king.
Instead of hostility, Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him, and the two brothers wept together. Jacob told Esau that seeing his face was like seeing the face of God. He then offered gifts, first describing them with the ordinary term minah and later using beraka, meaning blessing. Esau’s acceptance of these gifts may have symbolically repaired the earlier loss of the paternal beraka that Jacob had taken from him. Although Esau offered to accompany him, Jacob declined, and Esau returned to Edom. Perhaps Jacob was satisfied with reconciliation and preferred to maintain some distance from his brother.
Esau appeared content with his life and no longer harbored resentment toward Jacob. He neither sought nor claimed the role of covenant heir. Apart from his appearance at Isaac’s burial (35:29) and the record of his descendants (36:1-43), Esau largely disappears from the biblical narrative.
With the danger from Esau behind him, Jacob continued his journey. He first traveled to Succoth before crossing the Jordan and arriving at Sechem, where Abraham had built his first altar after entering the land of promise (12:6-7). Centuries later, Our Lord would speak with the Samaritan woman near Jacob’s well in the same region (Jn. 4:5-7). That well still stands today, more than 120 feet deep and supplied by fresh, cold water.
At last Jacob had returned to the land promised to Abraham and Isaac. God had fulfilled the promises made to him at Bethel and brought him home in peace. No longer merely Jacob, but Israel, he responded with an act of worship, building an altar and invoking the most mighty God of Israel (33:20). The fugitive who had once fled Canaan now returned as the head of a family and the heir of God’s covenant.
...Before burying his wife and father.
After his sons destroyed Sechem in revenge for the abduction and rape of their sister Dinah (34), God spoke to Jacob again. He called him away from Sechem and back to Bethel, commanding him to build an altar and worship the God who had appeared to him when he fled from Esau.
God commanded Jacob to go up to Bethel and build an altar there (35:1). Throughout Scripture, worship is often associated with ascent toward God. Travelers later went up to Jerusalem regardless of their direction of travel because of its elevation and spiritual significance. Bethel likewise stood roughly a thousand feet higher than Sechem. Before departing, Rachel and the rest of the household finally abandoned their teraphim, burying them beneath an oak near Sechem (35:4). God also instructed Jacob to dwell at Bethel. In the same way, Christians are called to elevate their hearts when they enter God’s house and to separate themselves from anything that draws them away from Him. Jacob named the altar El-Bethel, “the God of Bethel.”
By this point, Jacob had quite literally followed in the footsteps of his grandfather. Like Abraham, he left Haran for Canaan, passed through Sechem and Bethel, built altars there, and spoke with God. Both Abraham and Jacob received new names and were promised land and innumerable descendants.
God identified Himself to Jacob by the same name He had used with Abraham and Isaac (17:1): El Shaddai (God Almighty). The title may also be understood as the One who is sufficient.14 Although Jacob already had eleven sons and a daughter, God again commanded him to be fruitful and multiply, reaffirming His promise that the world would be blessed through Jacob’s line.
Jacob erected a stone pillar and poured a drink offering and oil upon it, just as he had done thirty years earlier after seeing the angels upon the ladder (28:18). He again confirmed the name of the place as Bethel. This anointed stone points forward to Christ, the true cornerstone whom the Father anointed and whom Jacob’s descendants would bring into the world.15
Leaving Bethel and traveling toward Ephrath, Rachel entered a difficult labor described as exceedingly painful. Ephrath would later become Bethlehem, five miles south of Jerusalem. Rachel died as Benjamin was born, using her final breath to name him Benoni, son of my sorrow. Jacob, however, renamed him Benjamin, son of my right hand.
Benjamin was Jacob’s only son born in Canaan, bringing the total number of sons to twelve, the future tribes of Israel. Benjamin can also be understood as son of my fortune. Both the right hand and good fortune recall God’s recent promise that kings would come from Jacob’s line (35:11). Saul, Israel’s first king, would arise from Benjamin’s tribe (1 Kings 9:1-2), as would St. Paul (Phil. 3:5).
Jacob’s father Isaac followed Rebecca to his reward at 180 years old. He had lived to see his son return with his large family after a thirty-year absence. Isaac is described as dying old and full of days as his father Abraham had been, blessed with a long and rich life. His death united the estranged brothers Jacob and Esau one final time as they buried their father beside their mother in the cave of Machpelah (35:29).
Jacob established a family and prospered in Haran before returning to the land of promise. Along the way he wrestled with God, was reconciled with his brother, and endured the deaths of both his wife and father.
With Isaac’s death, the story of Abraham’s heirs enters a new phase: the life of Joseph, the fourth generation of Abraham’s covenant family.
Endnotes
1 Zohary, Plants of the Bible, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982), p. 188.
2 Ephrem, Commentary on Genesis 28.1.1 in FC 91:176.
3 Chrysostom, Homilies on Genesis 56.19 in FC 87:128.
4 Alexander, “The ‘Good Shepherd’ and Other Metaphors of Pastoralism,” in Lexham Geographic Commentary on the Gospels, ed. Barry J. Beitzel and Kristopher A. Lyle, Lexham Geographic Commentary (Bellingham, Wash.: Lexham Press, 2016), Mt. 25:31–Jn. 10:15.
5 Chrysostom, Homilies on Genesis 57.7 in FC 87:136.
6 Cyril of Alexandria, Glaphyra on Genesis 5.4 in PG 69:241–44.
7 Chrysostom, ibid. 57.17 in FC 87:141.
8 Caesarius of Arles, Sermon 88.4 in FC 47:36–37.
9 Ephrem, Commentary on Genesis 30.1 in FC 91:180.
10 Ambrose, Jacob, and the Happy Life 7.30 in FC 65:163–64.
11 Augustine, Sermon 5.6 in WSA 3 1:222.
12 Cyril of Alexandria, Glaphyra on Genesis 5.3 in PG 69:273.
13 Augustine, Sermon 5.7 in WSA 3 1:122–23.
14 Harris, Gleason, and Bruce, eds., Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (Chicago: Moody Press, 1999), 907.
15 Cyril of Alexandria, ibid. 5.5 in PG 69:284.
TITLE IMAGE: Jacob Urging Leah and Rachel to Flee from Laban, Pieter Symonsz Potter (1597–1652).
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