Jacob and the art of trickery  

Today's reading is the famous record of how all Jacob's kids were born. When most people try to read the Bible straight through, I think this is where they give up. I say that because the stories directly following it I have no recollection of reading before, even though I've read everything before it dozens of times. And my gosh, is Jacob a trickster.

Synopsis

When we last left off, Jacob (who's name more or less means deceiver) had stolen a couple important things straight from his brother's lap and had run off to Uncle Laban's so as not to be murdered. What follows, besides a large record of kid-having, is a large amount of events with Jacob and Laban trying to get the best of each other with their various schemes.

Jacob offers to work seven years for Laban in return for his daughter's hand in marriage. Laban gives him the wrong daughter as a trick to get him to work seven more years. Jacob does this. Jacob wants to lead, but Laban doesn't want him to because since Jacob is blessed by God, Laban's household has become wealthy since he's been there. So they make a deal with Jacob keeping the dark flocks and Laban keeping the light flocks. Laban pulls a fast one by getting rid of all the dark ones in "shady" ways (har har) but Jacob outsmarts him with his breeding techniques and ends up way more rich. Laban keeps changing the wages on him to try to fix it but Jacob succeeds nonetheless.

Anyway, next, Jacob runs away with his wives without telling Laban. At the same time, Rachel (Jacob's wife and Laban's daughter) steals Laban's household gods. When Laban catches up to Jacob, they argue about why Jacob would have to leave in secret, and Laban brings up the gods. Jacob, not knowing Rachel has them, says anyone who stole them will be put to death. Laban never figures out the truth though, because Rachel tricks him by hiding them in a bag she's sitting on and claiming she can't stand up because she's on her period.

Jacob then goes on a big rant about how he's been serving Laban for the past 20 years and Laban's been a jerk and they make a covenant to leave on good terms and Laban heads home.

Amidst all this, Jacob ends up with two wives who are sisters, and there is a bit of a competition for who can give him the most kids:

Leah, who is not as loved as her sister, has four kids right off the bat:
Rueben, Simeon, Levi and Judah
Rachel, who is barren (barren woman #3 in Genesis) offers her slave Bilhah to Jacob, who has:
Dan, Naphtali
Leah, who has stopped having kids, offers HER slave, Zilpah, who has:
Gad, Asher
Then because of a mandrake trade with Rachel, Leah earns the right to sleep with Jacob one night and has:
Issachar, Zebulum, and Dinah (the only girl of the group)
Finally, Rachel is able to have a kid after all:
Joseph.

Analysis

Wow, at this point Genesis seems to be taking a turn. We are still in part 9 of Genesis, and we have seen Jacob being blessed as the heir of God's Abrahamic covenant (once again, though, I don't see anyone being circumcised, despite 11 boys being born). On the other hand, this section of the story is getting pretty wacky, with all of the shady tricks going on between Jacob and Laban. It's a rather entertaining narrative, reading about how these two one-up each other constantly.

What are the results at this end of the story? Not much has changed, except Jacob is rich and has lots of kids. There's not much more here to take away and if you knew that you could almost skip most of this section and not miss a beat (as far as I can tell so far, anyway). Jacob, when compared to his grandfather, is not exactly a saint. But God is still faithful to his promises. I'm interested to see what happens next.