It Just Takes Time

 Genesis 28:10-32:3, Vayetze, And He Left

This week’s reading is so jammed packed with deep and thought-provoking imagery that it is hard to know just where to start. 

For me, entering into this week’s reading, I am carrying the theme of introspection, vulnerability, and transformation.  These concepts are deeply rooted in a life of faith and dedication that overwhelms our natural tendencies toward selfishness and a flesh led perspective on time, space, and relationships.  I come off last week’s readings seeing Rebekah struggling through the dynamic of seeing Isaac’s favoritism of Esau and responding with her own favoritism of Jacob.  I see Isaac making the same mistakes as Abraham while adding a few of his own.  I see Jacob and Esau working through their own challenges of life and relationship while experiencing the same kind of family dynamics that can be so typical in a society that is focused on physical principles, comparison, measuring-up, and favoritism while being dominated by desire, fear, and all those other emotions that tend to drive our every decision.

With all this, last week’s reading ends with a few short verses that reveal a potential understanding that through Rebekah’s manipulation and subsequent expression of total frustration, Isaac is led to opening his eyes to what he has never seen.  This leads to Esau opening his eyes to some things that he too had never seen.  Ultimately both make moves in directions that, as far as we know, they had never moved. 

For Isaac, he freely, with total awareness, passes along the blessings of Abraham to Jacob.  For Esau, he appears to acknowledge his own disregard of the value and responsibilities that come along with being the elder son, and makes a choice to marry a woman who is at least in some form the image of what would be proper.

Following this train of thought, we enter into this week’s reading, by reading between the lines, seeing Rebekah’s introspection as she moves into a place of seeing why she led Jacob into deceiving Isaac.  She makes herself vulnerable when she shares those feelings, and she leaves room for transformation of the entire family as she waits to see how they respond.  I would argue that this moves Isaac into self-reflection of how he had favored Esau in spite of so much evidence that would stand contrary to him doing so.  I believe in that moment, through this self-reflection, Isaac was able to see some flaws in himself, and in faith to truth, was set free to pass the blessings of Abraham on to the one chosen by God from the beginning.  In this, I see Esau taking a long pause.  I can only imagine how that rocked his world.  It would have had to have been so much greater than the deceit of Jacob and Rebekah.  He sat by and watched Isaac move his favoritism from him to his brother.  In a blink of an eye, everything changed.  I believe this stirred something very deep in Esau, and just like Rebekah and Isaac, he was willing to see truth, he was willing to see himself for who he had been, and he was able to take some responsibility, and start moving in a bit of a different direction.

It is with this that we enter this week’s reading.  For me, I am seeing that of the four, we aren’t really left with any information as to Jacob’s spiritual journey through this experience.  So, I enter this week’s reading with anticipation as to what the Word is going to reveal in regard to introspection, vulnerability, and transformation relative to Jacob’s life.

I love how this week’s reading opens with God confirming that the blessings that Isaac sent Jacob out with truly had been transferred to him.  At the same time, I appreciate how Jacob responds with the “if/then” statement of “Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear, and I return to my father's house in safety, then the LORD will be my God.” (Gen 28:20-21).

At this point, I see Jacob still in that position of treating God as if he would be just like all the pagan gods.  “Hey God, if you do this for me, I’ll do this for you.”  From there, Jacob ends up in the region of Laban where he was to take a wife from the family of Rebekah.  As we discover, Jacob sees Rachel and shows her favoritism over her older sister Leah.  Jacob and Laban agree that Jacob will work for seven years upon which at the end of the seven years he will be given Rachel in marriage.  However, Laban tricks Jacob and in the dark of night Leah is substituted for Rachel and Jacob consummates the marriage with Leah.  Laban explains why he deceived Jacob; they agree that for another seven years labor Jacob could have Rachel as a wife.  This time, the waiting period is only a week.  They agree to the deal, Jacob marries Rachel, and follows through on his promise to work another seven years.   Through the course of the next seven years twelve children are born to Jacob.  The summary of these children is, one son from Rachel, two sons from Rachel’s maid servant, two sons from Leah’s maid servant, six sons from Leah, and one daughter from Leah.  Most of the children are born out of a competition between the women.  After Rachel has her son Jacob apparently has finished serving the seven-year agreement for acquiring Rachel as his wife from Laban.  Jacob goes to Laban and asks to leave and return to the land from where he had come.  Laban talks Jacob into staying and Jacob ends up staying another six years.  At the end of this six years, we read that Laban has cheated Jacob and changed his wages ten times through the course of their relationship.  Ultimately, Jacob breaks away from Laban, takes the wealth that he has acquired, his wives, and his children and makes way for home.  In this, Rachel takes her father’s family idols and hides them in her luggage.  Laban chases after them, the idols are not found, and Laban and Jacob make a covenant with each other.  From there, Jacob and his family continue on their way and ultimately are joined by the angels of God. 

Just as this week’s portion opens with God confirming that Jacob is the one whom through the blessings of Abraham would continue, the reading ends with the angels of God meeting him on his journey back home.  It is at this point that Jacob sends messengers to is brother Esau.  We discover that Esau is living in Seir which is in the country of Edom.

As we turn our sights to Jacob, I can’t help but wondering what he is thinking when he sends messengers to his brother Esau.  The last he had heard, Esau wanted to kill him.  If we ignore everything we know about the story we have to accept that we just don’t know what Jacob is thinking.  Is Jacob going to try to pull another deception?  Has he learned anything?  Is he trusting in his own strength or has the interactions that he has had with God over the last 20 years taught him anything?  Has his character changed?  Does he even know what is actually going on with all the emotions that are flying around within him?

We simply don’t know the answers to any of these questions, and this is really a beautiful place to be. 

The truth is, there are many times in life that we go through long periods of preparation and refinement.  To the outside observer or maybe even to ourselves it may look like nothing has changed.  But, deep within change has occurred.  It just hasn’t had the opportunity to make itself known.

This really makes me think about how life really works and gives me encouragement as I look at myself and those around me.  Sometimes I can get really impatient with myself and with others.  I started this blog off by stating that I was expectant on what would happen in Jacob’s life.  I wanted to see where Jacob was going to became introspective, where he was going to make himself vulnerable, and what his amazing transformation was going to look like.  At the end of the reading, I am really no closer to those answers than where we began.

Stories like this remind me that sometimes it takes a lot of preparation deep within before the refinements start showing up externally.  At the same time, it is in those blink of an eye moments of great challenge that we finally discover who we and/or those around us have become.  

As I leave this reading and wait for next week’s, I am left in the same place that I find myself so often in life.  Have I changed?  Have I learned anything?  Am I going to try the same things that I have in the past only to get the same results?  Have I learned to trust in God and to not lean on my own strength?  With all these questions, will I step into the next experience with a little more courage knowing that maybe, just maybe, God as a real surprise in store for me.  Maybe he will use something really tough to show me that I have changed, maybe he will show me someone else has, and maybe what appears to be so overwhelming will be the very thing that leads to the greatest moments of introspection, vulnerability, and transformation as the seeds of a journey are brought to life through the tears of our human struggles.

I pray that this blog has been a blessing to you, that you are seeing areas where God has been planting seeds, and that through the struggles of life He will bring what He has been planting into fruition.  Maybe in your life, maybe in the life of someone you know.  Amen