Page 33 - Pentateuch - Student Textbook

himself to a new life. Instead he says, “If God will be with me and watch over me…, then YHWH will be
my God” (28:20-21).

Has Moses skillfully woven another test into his writing, this one for future generations of readers?
Commentators are divided about Jacob’s experience at Bethel. Some see a genuine spiritual experience.
“Real experience of God must always result in heartfelt worship; here he gave all he had, the stone and
the oil, and promised to give a tenth of all his future income when his affairs improved. To pray for a
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safe return showed faith, not unbelief.” Others understand a wait-and-see approach by Jacob. “How
true to life this is! It was not only characteristic of Jacob personally, but typical of us representatively.
Jacob failed to rise to the level of God’s grace and was filled with fear instead of peace and expressed
human legality by speaking of what he will do! Oh, how often we follow in his steps!” By not including
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a paragraph of explanation addressed to his readers, Moses leaves us to consider for ourselves, asking,
“How do you think God operates?”

Jacob’s next test occurs at his uncle’s. After a month Jacob asks to marry the younger of Laban’s two
daughters, beautiful Rachel. He loves her and works seven years to marry her. On the wedding night a
switch is pulled. In the morning Jacob finds himself in bed with Laban’s eldest daughter Leah, who is
decidedly less attractive. The trick is explained as a local custom. The oldest daughter must be married
first. Jacob is offered Rachel as a second wife for seven more years of labor. Has the deceiver learned
anything from being deceived (29:1-30)?

Now we are treated to a lengthy description of more sibling rivalry with God again in the middle. Leah
and Rachael eventually have twelve children, including those born to their maidservants. Both women
express a degree of faith in God, mentioning him in
connection with the birth of some of their children. They
contrast powerfully to the shallow Jacob who can only
manage, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from
having children (30:2)?” Yet the people involved use a
variety of strategies to get what they want. One scheme
uses mandrakes, attributing sensual desire and aid in
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conception to this plant. Leah, Rachael, and at least one
son, Reuben, believe in the magic properties of the plant.
It is traded to the childless Rachael by Leah in exchange
Fig. 18. Mandrake roots often resemble for a night in their husband’s bed. Do they believe they
the human body and cause can manipulate God through magic? Moses tells us that
God “listened to Leah” (30:17) and “remembered Rachel”
(30:22). Who is deceiving and who is being deceived or even self-deceived?

A similar question arises as Jacob tries to leave Laban. The father of Rachel and Leah has discovered “by
divination” that YHWH had blessed him because of Jacob. He does not want Jacob to leave. Jacob
proposes to stay based on the sharing of the flocks. He removes every spotted and speckled and dark-
colored lamb or goat from the herd, leaving the solid colored animals for Laban. All animals born in the
future would be divided in the same way. Here again the deceiver has a plan. He places in front of the
animals branches with peeled bark exposing the inner wood. Of course, by some sympathetic magic

38 Gordon Wenham, Genesis 16-50 (Dallas: Word, 1994), p. 226.
39 Arthur W. Pink, Gleanings in Genesis (Chicago: Moody Press, 1950), p. 252.
40 Jerry Falwell, ed., Liberty Bible Commentary (Lynchburg: Old-Time Gospel Hour, 1982), 1:77.

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