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Genesis 28-36: Jacob

About This Episode

From the womb, Jacob was one that had an appetite for deceit and trickery. How does God bring about the promise, even through Jacob's nature that often thrived in trickery? In this episode, David and Seth talk about why God chose Jacob to carry on his promise to his people, showing that God will follow through on his promise, turning what man had tended for evil into good. Even through the crucifixion of Jesus, God continues to bring goodness and mercy for mankind.

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How God Works Through Human Evil to Keep His Promises: Jacob's Story in Genesis 28–36

Show Notes

David Bowden and Seth Stewart, hosts of the Spoken Gospel podcast, continue their journey through the book of Genesis by exploring the life of Jacob in chapters 28–36. They set the stage by reflecting on the overarching theme that has followed every story from the fall to the flood to Abraham and Isaac: God subverts and works through human evil to bring about His perfect plans. This is the mystery that Jacob's life puts on full display. What Joseph will later summarize as "what man intended for evil, God intended for good" (Genesis 50:20) is the thread running through every twist and turn of Jacob's story. For a people like Israel, unsettled and on the run, wondering if God is actually present and faithful, this truth is meant to be deeply comforting. No matter how much evil surrounds God's people, none of it is beyond His capacity to use for their benefit and for His ultimate glory. This theme is not abstract in Genesis. It shows up in catastrophic, global evil like the flood and in quiet, interpersonal sins like Jacob deceiving his father for a blessing. And what makes Jacob's story particularly challenging is that God's chosen person is himself the one whose trickery and scheming entangle the narrative at nearly every turn.

Jacob's Ladder and the Gate of Heaven

As Jacob leaves his family and heads toward the land of his ancestors to find a wife, he stops for the night and has a dream. In this dream, he sees a structure reaching from earth to heaven with angels ascending and descending on it. This image is often called "Jacob's ladder," but the Hebrew likely points to something more like a ziggurat, a massive staircase structure that echoes the Tower of Babel from earlier in Genesis. The differences, however, are critical. The Tower of Babel was a human endeavor to build a way up to God, and it failed. Jacob's vision is a structure God built, one that comes down from heaven to earth, and it actually works. Angels move freely between heaven and earth, signaling that the two realms are converging at this place. This should remind readers of the Garden of Eden, which later Scripture describes as a mountain temple where God and humanity lived together. The angels stationed at this border function like the cherubim who guarded Eden's entrance after the fall.

God then speaks to Jacob out of this vision and gives him the same promise He gave to Adam and Eve and to Abraham and Isaac: offspring like the dust of the earth, blessing to all nations, and the assurance of His presence. Jacob wakes up and calls the place Bethel, meaning "the house of God," and also "the gate of heaven." In the Gospel of John, Jesus picks up this exact imagery. After calling Nathanael, Jesus tells him, "You will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man" (John 1:51). Jesus does not say the angels travel on a ladder or a staircase. He says they travel on Him. Jesus is the ladder. He is the gate of heaven, the door into Bethel, the way back through the cherubim into the presence of God. And unlike the Tower of Babel, this is not something humanity builds through moral effort or religious performance. The Gospel is that God comes down and makes the connection for us. He opens the way.

The New Adam and Eve: Rachel, Leah, and the Dysfunction of the Chosen Family

Jacob arrives in the land and meets Rachel at a well, just as servants of Abraham and Isaac met their wives at wells before. Laban, Rachel's father, identifies Jacob using language that echoes Adam's words about Eve in the Garden: "You are my bone and my flesh" (Genesis 29:14). This sets up a new Adam-and-Eve scenario in the narrative, raising expectations that perhaps now, through this family, the promised seed will finally come and set things right. But the fall pattern repeats. Jacob loves Rachel, the beautiful younger daughter, and agrees to work seven years to marry her. On the wedding night, Laban substitutes Leah, the older daughter, in a stunning act of deception. When Jacob confronts him, Laban throws Jacob's own story back in his face: "We do not give the younger before the firstborn" (Genesis 29:26). Jacob, the one who stole the firstborn's blessing, now tastes his own medicine.

What follows is an extended season of family dysfunction that produces the 12 sons who will become the tribes of Israel. Rachel possesses beauty and her husband's affection, while Leah possesses the significance of childbearing. What was once united in Eve is now fractured between two women, and it breeds competition, jealousy, and heartbreak. The names Leah gives her sons reveal her aching desire: "Now my husband will love me," "Now my husband will be attached to me," "Now my husband will honor me." Rachel, desperate for children, gives her servant Bilhah to Jacob, just as Sarah gave Hagar to Abraham, and names the resulting sons as trophies of her rivalry. The curse of Genesis 3, where desire and domination fracture the relationship between husband and wife, is playing out in vivid detail.

And yet, through all this brokenness, God is building His chosen family. For the first time in Genesis, the promised line expands beyond one or two sons into a sizable family. Every name spoken in insecurity, every child born as a placeholder for a mother's unmet longing, becomes a tribe that will endure for millennia. The Lord sees these women in their particular suffering and provides. Ultimately, He provides the Son who fulfills every longing their children's names expressed. Jesus is the husband who truly loves, who is permanently attached to His people, who honors the dishonored. He is the Son that satisfies, born of a virgin, the son of all women who should not have been able to have children. All who put their trust in Him receive hundreds of brothers and sisters and sons and daughters in His Kingdom.

Jacob, Laban, and the God Who Gives the Increase

After the birth of Joseph, Jacob and Laban begin the process of separating, much like Abraham and Lot did when their possessions grew too large to share the same land. The text makes an important declaration: it is the Lord who has blessed Jacob up to this point (Genesis 30:27, 30). Jacob has spent his life trying to secure God's blessing through his own cleverness, tricking his father, manipulating his brother, and choosing his preferred wife. But none of his plans have worked the way he intended. God's blessing came anyway, despite Jacob's schemes, not because of them.

Jacob and Laban agree to divide their flocks by color, with Jacob taking the speckled and multicolored sheep and Laban keeping the solid-colored ones. Jacob employs a strategy involving peeled sticks placed near the watering troughs, a practice rooted in ancient animal husbandry or folklore. Whether this was a trick to make sheep appear spotted or a superstitious fertility ritual, the point of the narrative is clear: it was not Jacob's ingenuity that caused his flocks to multiply and strengthen. It was God's inordinate blessing. Laban's sons accuse Jacob of stealing their father's wealth, but Jacob finally speaks with clarity: "I see that your father doesn't regard me with favor as he did before, but the God of my father has been with me" (Genesis 31:5). After decades of scheming, Jacob is beginning to recognize that everything he has comes from God's hand.

When Laban chases Jacob down after his departure, furious about his stolen household gods, the scene becomes a courtroom of sorts. Laban ransacks the camp looking for evidence, but Rachel has hidden the idols beneath her, sitting on them on her animal. The image is deliberately humiliating for these false gods. They have no power. They are stuffed in a bag and sat upon while the true God orchestrates every event. Jacob declares again that only the God of Abraham and the fear of Isaac has protected and provided for him. This whole sequence of trickery, false accusations, and backdoor dealings foreshadows the false trials Jesus endured during His Passion. Jesus was brought before flimsy courts, accused by liars, and shuttled from one authority to another in a political charade. And through all of humanity's scheming and injustice, God worked to bring Jesus to the cross, the place where He would crush the head of Sin and Death forever.

Wrestling with God and the Reconciliation of Brothers

As Jacob approaches the Promised Land, he faces the prospect of reuniting with Esau, the brother he cheated years earlier. He is genuinely afraid for his life. But before he can confront Esau, he encounters angels at the border of the land, the same kind of angelic guardians who stood at the entrance of Eden. This is the narrative's way of signaling that Jacob is approaching holy ground, the border of God's new Kingdom.

Jacob prays, perhaps for the first time with real humility, acknowledging that everything he has comes from God and asking for protection. But then, in classic fashion, he immediately devises an elaborate plan, sending wave after wave of gifts ahead to soften Esau's anger. That night, alone at the border, God meets him and they wrestle until dawn. This is Jacob's life condensed into a single scene. He has wrestled with his father, his brother, his father-in-law, and his wives, always scheming to seize God's blessing by force. Now he is finally wrestling with God Himself, going through the right channel. "I will not let you go until you bless me," he says (Genesis 32:26). God blesses him, changes his name to Israel, and gives him a limp. Jacob calls the place Peniel, saying, "I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered" (Genesis 32:30). Entry into the Promised Land does not come without cost. God could have destroyed him, but instead He marked him and let him through.

Jesus is the one who fully wrestles with God on behalf of His people. The wrath that Jacob barely survived, Jesus absorbed completely. It did not cost Jesus merely a limp. It cost Him everything, His life, His body, His blood, so that where Jacob had a wrestling match at the gate, those who trust Jesus get a red carpet. He endured the full weight of God's judgment so that the gate of heaven could swing open for everyone who comes to Him.

When Jacob finally meets Esau, none of his elaborate gifts matter. Esau runs to embrace him, and the brothers are reconciled. This mirrors the parable of the prodigal son, where the returning child prepares speeches and offers, only to be met with open arms before he can get a word out. Esau's line will become the nation of Edom, which in the prophets represents the nations of the world. In Amos 9, God promises to reunite the line of David with Edom, and in Acts 15, the early church declares that this promise has been fulfilled in Jesus, who reconciles all nations to God in one new Kingdom. The embrace of Jacob and Esau is a foretaste of what the Gospel accomplishes: the reconciliation of the entire world through the Son who was willing to be broken so that enemies could become brothers.

Dinah, Disqualification, and the Faithfulness That Will Not Quit

The narrative takes a devastating turn after this reconciliation. Dinah, one of Jacob's daughters, is raped by a Canaanite man named Shechem. Jacob's response is disturbingly passive, but his sons Simeon and Levi take matters into their own hands. They deceive the men of Shechem's city, telling them they can intermarry with Jacob's family if they are all circumcised. Three days after the surgery, while the men are still incapacitated, Simeon and Levi slaughter them and plunder the city. They have taken the sign of circumcision, God's mark of covenant inclusion, and inverted its purpose, using it not to bless but to destroy. They are repeating their father's pattern of trying to seize God's promises through trickery and violence.

This act morally disqualifies Simeon and Levi from carrying the promised line. Reuben, the firstborn, will later disqualify himself by sleeping with his father's concubine. That leaves Judah, the fourth son, who will carry the line forward, though he too will stumble grievously with Tamar. The text makes it painfully clear that no morally uncompromised seed exists in this family. Every candidate fails. The narrative is searching for someone who can bear the promise without being consumed by the brokenness that surrounds it. That someone will not arrive until Jesus.

Jesus enters a world of sexual brokenness and violence and is not overcome by it. He Himself is defiled on the cross, stripped naked and publicly humiliated as a calculated act of torture. He is both the innocent victim like Dinah and the one who bears the punishment like the men of Shechem. But unlike Simeon and Levi, He does not respond with vengeance. He absorbs the violence and offers forgiveness. And immediately after this darkest chapter, God speaks to Jacob again: "Come back to Bethel. Build an altar. Live with me. Put away your false gods. I will keep my promise to you and your children." The faithfulness of God simply will not quit. No depth of human Sin is beyond His willingness to redeem. That is what the cross declares, that God is so faithful He would be defiled and destroyed for us in order to be the morally perfect Son, the true ladder of Jacob, and the open gate back to the Garden of Eden through His death, burial, and resurrection.

Transcript

Intro: [gentle music] Welcome to the Spoken Gospel podcast. This is our attempt to speak the gospel out of every corner of scripture. We believe every part of the Bible, Old Testament and New, is about Jesus, and this podcast is our experiment to publicly test that belief. Let's jump in. [upbeat music]

David: All right, well, welcome everyone to the Spoken Gospel podcast. We're really glad you're here.

Seth: Welcome.

David: Yeah, Seth, how you feeling today?

Seth: Um, I am less than two weeks away from baby girl.

David: Oh, you are.

Seth: Coming. I'm so, I'm just [laughs] ready.

David: Um, just a wreck. [laughs]

Seth: I'm just ready for it to happen. She has a double chin.

David: She does. I saw it.

Seth: According to the most recent-

David: Ultrasound

Seth: ... ultrasound, and hair.

David: Her face is so smushed-

Seth: I know

David: ... in there.

Seth: She's really cute.

David: And then that double chin.

Seth: And she's got, like-

David: And she's got, like, some big lips-

Seth: They showed us-

David: ... and a cute nose

Seth: ... they showed us today that her hair was waving in the amniotic fluid.

David: Aw.

Seth: Which I also learned is just her recycled pee.

David: [laughs]

Seth: So. [laughs]

David: Well, that's good.

Seth: [laughs]

David: I didn't know recycled pee was the layman version of amniotic fluid.

Seth: That's exactly what it is.

David: It's really good. If this is your first time to listen to the Spoken Gospel podcast-

Seth: Welcome

David: ... welcome to the insanity. Um, no, but we, uh, we, we, we, we do extend all the congratulations to you, Seth.

Seth: I'm excited.

David: We're very excited. Um, and so, uh, we have talked about creation.

Seth: The fall.

David: And the fall, and the flood, and-

Seth: All the Fs.

David: All the [laughs] all the Fs.

Seth: [laughs]

David: Uh, and then Abraham, Isaac, and now Jacob.

Seth: And Jacob.

David: And so a- and one of the things we w- I think we should stop and think about, uh, is an overarching theme, which we touched on last time.

Seth: Yeah.

David: But w- I wanna, I wanna circle back to, because it becomes painfully obvious [laughs]-

Seth: Yes

David: ... with the story of Jacob. Um, and it's summed up perfectly by Joseph at the end of the book, right?

Seth: What God-

David: Man-

Seth: Which man intended for evil, God intended for good.

David: Right, which, I mean, you can go all the way back to Genesis, and it's like we would not have known the cross of Jesus if it weren't for the fall.

Seth: That's exactly right.

David: And, like, right after the fall, what do we get? A promise of the cross of Jesus.

Seth: Yes.

David: And so God is, is somehow [laughs]... And this is the mystery that especially the story of Jacob leaves with us, that we're gonna wrestle with today, is somehow, um, God subverts, works through, works in spite of man's evil to bring about His perfect plans.

Seth: Yes.

David: And that is hard.

Seth: It is hard, but I think it's meant to encourage a people who, like Israel, are on the run-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... unsure of if they'll ever feel like they have a place to call home, wondering if God will continue to be faithful, and if He's actually there.

David: Yeah.

Seth: If you're asking those questions, what's one of the most comforting things-

David: [laughs]

Seth: ... that you could hear?

David: Yeah.

Seth: Don't worry. No matter what evil you see around you, that is not beyond God's capacity to use for your benefit and for your good-

David: Right

Seth: ... and for God's ultimate glory and fame.

David: Yeah. And so, I mean, what we see all throughout, if we wanted to kind of take a s- big, giant step back and look at the overarching narrative of Genesis, what we would see again and again and again is human failure-

Seth: Yep

David: ... and human evil, whether through such cataclysmic and widespread evil that God had to send down a flood to literally cleanse the earth of it, um, or these really intimate, behind-closed-doors, interpersonal sins that happen between maybe, like, uh, Jacob and his father that we ended with last week-

Seth: Right

David: ... where he's tricking his dad to get his blessing. Um, that is, uh, that's the polar extremes-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... of, like, well, yeah.

Seth: And we'll even see here in this story, it's like, where it's, like, kind of mixed motives. Like, that sounds like maybe-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... a decent way to do that, but it's-

David: Right

Seth: ... not God's way. [laughs]

David: Yeah. So I just think it's really good for us to, to remember that all throughout Genesis, God is, uh, and the good God is bringing about, we should remember this, what is the good plan that God is bringing about in specifically Genesis? It is the preservation of His chosen seed.

Seth: Yes.

David: That in Genesis 3:15, God promised that one of Eve's offspring would ultimately come back and destroy the head of death forever.

Seth: Yeah.

David: That he would beat the serpent, and he would bring people back to God in the Garden of Eden.

Seth: That's right.

David: And so, uh, but He said that there would be enmity between that single chosen line.

Seth: What does that word mean?

David: Like hostility.

Seth: Like enmity-

David: Uh, like-

Seth: ... just means hostility?

David: Yeah, or, like, uh, being at odds with, being opposed to. Um-

Seth: It's always one of those words, like I kinda know what it means. [laughs]

David: Relational-

Seth: But I don't really know what it means. [laughs]

David: Relational turmoil. Like, yeah. And so, um, that, that line would have this enmity between the rest of the world, which would be the seed of the serpent. And, um, and w- that's what we see, is constantly, um, whether it's a foreign power or even the sin crouching at the door of these individuals' hearts, um, evil keeps working its way in, even to God's chosen line. But what we are seeing is that through it all, God is faithful to preserve His promise, even despite and even through human evil. And so, um, that's what we get to wrestle with with the wrestler today. [laughs] Huh?

Seth: The wrestler.

David: The wrestler.

Seth: Oh.

David: Jacob, he wrestles with God.

Seth: Jacob the wrestler. [laughs]

David: Jacob the wrestler. It's not as good as, like, a Macho Man Randy Savage name, but, you know.

Seth: Who?

David: Ma- you don't know who Macho Man... You, you grew up in Scotland, it's fine. [laughs] Don't worry about it. It's a, it's a famous '90s thing, I think, Macho Man Randy Savage. It was-

Seth: Never heard of this

David: ... WW, like, World W- Wrestling Federation. No?

Seth: Okay.

David: Do you know Hulk Hogan?

Seth: Yeah, that guy.

David: They were friends.

Seth: Okay.

David: Or enemies.

Seth: That makes a lot-

David: They were on TV together.

Seth: That helps me understand.

David: I don't know if they got... Yeah.

Seth: The s- book of Genesis.

David: Okay. [laughs]

Seth: Far better. [laughs]

David: [laughs] Good. Okay.

Seth: The wrestler.

David: The wrestler, Jacob the wrestler. Okay, so, uh, we ha- but Jacob's name does not mean the wrestler, it means trickster, right? Because he came out grabbing his brother's heel-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... being all sneaky. And that's what we see, the way he gets his birthright and the way he gets his blessing is by tricking his dad. So already we see a paradigm being set up for Jacob. [laughs] It's that God said he would be the one to be blessed before he was even born, but then somehow, in a strange turn of events, it's through trickery and sin and deceit-That this comes true, that Jacob ends up being the one that's blessed by his father.

Seth: Yes.

David: So already we're like, "This is gonna be [laughs] a hard story and a story arc and character to deal with here."

Seth: So let's see what happens. Again-

David: Yes

Seth: ... preparing you, we're basically saying the same thing we've already noticed, that God uses human evil to accomplish good purposes.

David: Right.

Seth: That's just Jacob's entire life.

David: Crushing it.

Seth: Crushing it. [laughs]

David: [laughs]

Seth: So Jacob leaves Laban.

David: Right. Yeah, he goes back to his homeland, right?

Seth: Yes.

David: Where it, where, where Abraham had s- found Sarah, where, um, Isaac found Rachel, right? And now Jacob's going back to find his wife, to continue this chosen line.

Seth: Yes.

David: And-

Seth: And as he goes back, he has a dream.

David: Yes.

Seth: He has a dream.

David: Yeah. And, uh, he uses, he famously uses his rock as a pillow, and we're not gonna unpack that, 'cause there's no allusion there.

Seth: [laughs]

David: So [laughs] if you've preached that sermon, I'm sorry, it's just a happenstance of-

Seth: Do people preach a sermon from that?

David: Yeah, they'd be like, "That's the cornerstone," [laughs] or whatever.

Seth: Oh.

David: I've heard so many weird allegories-

Seth: Really?

David: ... made of, like, "Sometimes when you have a hard night's sleep, God does something."

Seth: Oh.

David: Or like, there's, like, all these funny allegories people have made.

Seth: I just figure, like, I figure, like, when I think about it in my mind-

David: [laughs]

Seth: ... I think of, like, a small pillow-sized rock.

David: Right.

Seth: And it's... But like, it's probably like a big boulder.

David: Boulder he's leaning against.

Seth: He's leaning against.

David: Yes.

Seth: Like, with a fire next to him.

David: Yeah.

Seth: The, the fire. Yeah.

David: Makes way more sense.

Seth: Yeah.

David: Like a, a rocky, a rocking chair. The first rocking chair.

Seth: Oh.

David: Nope, okay.

Seth: Okay, dad joke.

David: Dad joke, nailed it.

Seth: He has-

David: Yep

Seth: ... a dream.

David: Go ahe- yep.

Seth: Where we see Jacob's ladder, which is probably not the best translation.

David: No.

Seth: But e- I think it's supposed to be like Jacob's mountain, like a ziggurat.

David: Or yeah, like l- yeah, this should hearken us back to the Tower of Babel, right? Which was back, uh, earlier in Genesis. That this is kind of like the stairstep ladder tower structure that we are kind of reminded of, um, that we talked about being a ziggurat, which is this place that, um, humans would build.

Seth: A ziggurat is like the Aztec-type temple ones, right? Like, the stairstep-looking-

David: Yes

Seth: ... pyramid thing.

David: Uh-huh.

Seth: Okay.

David: Yeah. Uh, and you know, and that's, they, different archeologists and different theologians have different ideas of what they look like. But yeah, it's a tower that also has steps, and those steps are supposed to be big for the gods to come down out of heaven and take big thundering steps down the tower.

Seth: And so we see something like that here.

David: We do.

Seth: Angels a- are descending-

David: Yep

Seth: ... and ascending into God's presence and down into the earth right here-

David: Yep

Seth: ... at this place that Jacob will call Bethel.

David: Yep. Two, two key differences between this one and the Tower of Babel, though. One, man did not build this tower, right? God built this tower. It did not, and it done, it did not come f- up from the ground to the heavens, it came down from the heavens to the ground. So that- that's very important to know. And then two, it actually worked. The-

Seth: Yes

David: ... right, the, the tower actually was activated. It wasn't just this thing that people built and then were punished for building. [laughs] It was actually the portal through which God would come to earth, like angels going up and down heaven and earth. And so it's like heaven and earth are coming together here-

Seth: Right

David: ... in this tower, which is what they wanted to happen at Babel, but it didn't work.

Seth: Right.

David: Yeah.

Seth: What, which was what actually happened in the Garden of Eden. And so it's fascinating, again-

David: Oh, right

Seth: ... it's like, it did happen in the Garden of Eden. And so God is giving Jacob the same promise he gave Adam and Eve, the same promise he gave Abraham, the same promise he gave Jacob, he's now, and I, er, Isaac.

David: Isaac, right, yep.

Seth: He's now giving to him. "Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth-

David: Mm-hmm

Seth: ... and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south. And in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth will be blessed. Behold, I am with you, and I will keep you wherever you go. And you, uh, you will bring, and I will bring you back to this land-

David: Mm-hmm

Seth: ... for I will not leave you until I-"

David: Yeah.

Seth: "That's what I promised for you."

David: And so we're saying that's interesting, right? Because, um, the, the Garden of Eden, uh, is called later in the Bible this, like, this m- mountain temple of God.

Seth: Yeah.

David: Right? And so it's this elevated area where man and God can live together, and we're saying here again, God is invading an Eden-like structure right into the heart of his chosen person.

Seth: Right.

David: And he's saying, like, "I'm bringing you back to Eden. I'm giving you the promise I, I started in Eden, and I'm going to bring you back to Eden."

Seth: Right.

David: Okay?

Seth: And you should even think about conceptually, like, there are angels on this, he-

David: Oh, yeah

Seth: ... Jacob calls it the gate of heaven.

David: Mm-hmm.

Seth: And so there's angels right there. And actually, when he wrestles with God, and before and after as he's going into the promised land, just like on... So they're like the border patrol-

David: Right

Seth: ... of the new Eden.

David: Yes.

Seth: The border patrol of the promised land is guarded by angels-

David: Mm-hmm

Seth: ... just like Eden was guarded by angels.

David: Right, the cherubim with the flaming sword-

Seth: Right

David: ... outside the garden. Right, okay.

Seth: And he says, "How awesome is this place?" And then calls it Bethel.

David: Right.

Seth: Which means the house of God.

David: Oh.

Seth: Which is-

David: I mean, which, like, yeah, it looks like God's coming through the front door. [laughs]

Seth: God's tem- God, God's temple, his house-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... his council, his Eden.

David: Right.

Seth: Like, his house.

David: So it's like we're, what we... A- a- as you were reading the story, you'd be going, "Huh, this kinda looks like Eden, where God lived." And if you had any doubt left, he just throws the name on the front door and says, "This is God's house."

Seth: This is God's house.

David: It's like, okay, so we're supposed to look at this and be like, "This is the place..." And it's not, well, it's not this place, right? But it's, it's God is promising through Jacob to bring this place.

Seth: Yes.

David: To bring the house of God. And so, um, what's interesting is then this image is what Jesus hearkens us back to. I've said hearkens twice now.

Seth: Hearken.

David: I hate that. It, he reminds us, he, he brings us back to-

Seth: Anything besides hearken? [laughs]

David: Anything besides hearkens, 'cause that is not a normal word.

Seth: It's one of those words that you pick up from being in the Christian subculture for long enough-

David: Yep, that's, that's right

Seth: ... and then you just thr- pepper it into your vocabulary.

David: That's right.

Seth: "Hearkens the herald angels."

David: That's exactly it.

Seth: Yeah, something like that.

David: Okay, so but Jesus quotes this. [laughs] He gives us these, these, the same image i- in the beginning of the Book of John, the Gospel of John. Um, if you remember, he, uh, is it Nathaniel? He, like, he, like, predicts that Nathaniel's under this tree or whatever.

Seth: Yeah.

David: And Nathaniel freaks out that he knew that he was under this tree or whatever. And, and-

Seth: Yeah, yeah

David: ... Jesus is like, "That's nothing."

Seth: Right.

David: He's like, "That is not the coolest sign that you're ever gonna see me do." And then he tells him the cool sign that he's gonna see him do. He says, "And Jesus said to him, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending?'"And descending on the son of man. And so he's, uh, angels ascending and descending through an open heaven, that's Jacob's ladder. Like, that's this dream-

Seth: Right

David: ... that we are looking at. But what's interesting is he doesn't talk about there being a ziggurat or a ladder or a staircase. He says the angels are going up and down-

Seth: On him

David: ... on him.

Seth: Right.

David: So, I mean-

Seth: And who does that make Nathaniel?

David: Whoa.

Seth: That makes Nathaniel Jacob.

David: Jacob. That's weird. [laughs]

Seth: And so it makes him Jacob-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... the one who will be with the Son of Man-

David: Oh, yeah

Seth: ... bringing God's presence in Eden to the new world.

David: Yeah, it's cool. I've not, never thought of it like that. But, like, so, it, when we're saying that Jesus is the ladder, Jesus is Jacob's ladder, what the, what John, the author of this gospel here, is trying to get us to see is that Jesus is the gate of heaven.

Seth: Yes.

David: 'Cause isn't that, is that what Jacob calls it?

Seth: I think that's correct.

David: He calls it the gate of heaven.

Seth: The gate, the gate of heaven.

David: Jesus is the door, which Jesus will say later in John-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... into God's house.

Seth: That's right.

David: Into Bethel. Jesus is the door into Bethel, into the home of God. Jesus is the way that we get through the fiery cherubim back into Eden.

Seth: Right.

David: Like, Jesus is the gate into heaven.

Seth: Yes.

David: That's so cool.

Seth: It is so cool. [laughs]

David: Yeah.

Seth: And it points us back to the story in a broader sense. It is God who is the one who provides the way into the Promised Land.

David: Oh, yes.

Seth: It is God who th- who-

David: Right

Seth: ... who will do it ultimately-

David: Yes

Seth: ... even through human evil.

David: Right, because we have to remember that the, the Babilon- the Babylonian, uh, ziggurat from the Tower of Babel, that was a manmade endeavor to work ourselves up to God. The good news of the gospel, the good news of the fact that Jesus is the gate of heaven, is that Jesus comes down to us to build the taber- to, to, to build the connection.

Seth: Right.

David: It's not something we do to build ourselves up through good works or, or moral worth or religious activity to build ourselves up to God. Instead, the gospel is that God comes and makes the connection for us. He opens the way for us.

Seth: [Instrumental music] So right after we have God's call from the middle of Eden, we see Jacob going out to, towards his promised land.

David: Right.

Seth: Or like, he's going back to the place where he's supposed to be, and he sees Rachel-

David: Right

Seth: ... the woman he wants to be his wife.

David: His new, his new Eve.

Seth: His new Eve.

David: Yeah.

Seth: And he finds out who this person is. And again-

David: And they fall, they meet at another well

Seth: ... and they meet at another well, so you can keep going down the hole.

David: Yeah.

Seth: And her father's this guy named Laban. And-

David: We've met him before

Seth: ... we've met him before, and now his tricksy side is gonna be coming [laughs] out.

David: [laughs] Tricksy.

Seth: Is gonna be coming out. But what's fascinating, you said she, he, she's the new Eve.

David: Yeah.

Seth: Laban actually identifies Jacob as the new Adam.

David: Oh, [laughs] okay.

Seth: He says, "Surely you are my bone and my flesh."

David: I was being cheeky. [laughs]

Seth: No, like, yes, it's like he repeats kind of what Adam says, well, what Adam says about Eve in the garden-

David: Oh

Seth: ... but about Jacob. So what's fascinating then is you should automatically be thinking in terms of Adam and Eve, and almost in li- a, a-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... Adam and Eve type scenario-

David: Right

Seth: ... right after the blessing-

David: So again-

Seth: ... in the middle of the garden. [laughs]

David: So again, are we, are we back into this, this place of, uh, heightened expectations only to r- only to, like, be deflated and sad because it's like, okay, we're waiting for a seed, the promised one's gonna come, Jacob got a blessing, heaven just opened up, uh, this new person, they're the new Adam and Eve, here we go.

Seth: Right.

David: It's gonna work now.

Seth: Yeah.

David: Death's gonna end. Everything's gonna get fixed. But-

Seth: [laughs] Jacob has affection towards Rachel-

David: Right

Seth: ... the beautiful daughter.

David: Okay.

Seth: But not Leah.

David: Oh, who's-

Seth: The beautiful younger daughter.

David: Oh, 'cause who's Leah?

Seth: Leah is-

David: The ugly older daughter. [laughs]

Seth: The ugly, older-

David: Poor Leah. [laughs]

Seth: And what's crazy is she doesn't get married for the seven years that Jacob is pursuing Rachel.

David: Oh.

Seth: 'Cause she's the older one, and she's supposed to be married first. But for the seven years he's pursuing Rachel-

David: Right

Seth: ... the older, older sister-

David: Okay, so, so let's, let's fill in that story, right? So, uh, Jacob comes to Laban and says, "I wanna marry your younger daughter, Rachel," and he's like, uh, "N- no, no." And he's like, "Well, how can I, how can I make it work for you?" He's like, "Well, how about you come and work in my fields for seven years, and once you work in my field for seven years, I'll let you marry my daughter," wink.

Seth: Right. [laughs] Right.

David: And so he works seven years, and it seems like just a few days for Jacob.

Seth: Just what, the most beautiful-

David: Which, such a romantic

Seth: ... [laughs] romantic line.

David: Such a romantic.

Seth: And we should see here that Jacob has intentions and plans to marry Rachel-

David: Yep

Seth: ... and to make his line through Rachel.

David: Yep.

Seth: That's his plan.

David: That's his plan.

Seth: That's his plan.

David: Yep.

Seth: But-

David: Yeah, wedding night comes-

Seth: Wedding night

David: ... end, end of the seven years come.

Seth: [laughs] And-

David: And s- and apparently there's no lights in the room or something. [laughs]

Seth: No, no lights in the l- room. She probably wore a veil.

David: Yep.

Seth: He's, might be drunk, who-

David: Yeah. We don't, we don't know

Seth: ... we don't know.

David: We don't know.

Seth: But in the morning, it's not Rachel.

David: It's, it's Leah.

Seth: It's Leah.

David: Surprise.

Seth: Surprise. And Laban, when Jacob confronts him, actually tells him his own narrative back to him.

David: Mm.

Seth: "We do not give the younger before the firstborn."

David: Oh.

Seth: Which is exactly what Jacob did to his father.

David: To... Yeah, right, because he was the younger and Esau was the older, his brother.

Seth: Right, so, so-

David: So he was not supposed to get what he got, and now he's kinda getting a taste of his own medicine here.

Seth: Yeah, Jacob's past is-

David: Mm

Seth: ... catching up to him. Um, and then his father says, "Well, go ahead and complete her week," which I think mean, like, normally wedding celebrations lasted a week.

David: Right.

Seth: And so it's like they've like, "Complete the w- the wedding day. Complete the feast here."

David: Right.

Seth: "I'll give you Rachel, but you have to work another seven years after that."

David: Oh, my gosh.

Seth: So that's what happens.

David: Yep, another seven years-

Seth: Uh

David: ... and then he finally gets to marry Rachel.

Seth: Yes. And now we are hoping here, we're, we have now two people to make the family line through.

David: Right.

Seth: Right?

David: Yep.

Seth: And God chooses Leah over Rachel.

David: Mm.

Seth: Contrary to Jacob's plans-

David: Right

Seth: ... he chooses Leah to bear son after son after son.

David: Right.

Seth: Um, and not Rachel until-

David: Yep

Seth: ... a little bit later.

David: Till a little later, yep.

Seth: And what's fascinating here is if this is a fall narrative-

David: Mm

Seth: ... if Jacob is being seen as the new Adam-

David: Right

Seth: ... uh, and then that means Rachel and Leah are now these new Eves, they're actually kind of like, they're false, broken Eves.

David: Right.

Seth: Rachel has this power that comes with her beauty. She is able to capture his affections.

David: Mm.

Seth: But Leah is the one with the significance of childbearing.

David: Right.

Seth: Like, and so what was once one in Eve-

David: Oh

Seth: ... is split between two women here.

David: Right.

Seth: And it creates all this inner turmoil and dysfunction in the family.

David: Mm.

Seth: Rachel and Leah end up having this kinda crazy b-Crazy competition-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... for their husband's affection through their children.

David: Right.

Seth: And their children become placeholders for their own insecurity. Every child is named, uh, by the fact that they don't have the love that, the love or the significance [laughs] that they, they, they, they need. "Now my husband will love me," is the reason why she names Reuben, Reuben.

David: [laughs]

Seth: "The Lord has looked upon my affliction, for now my husband will love me."

David: Mm.

Seth: The second son is born, "Now my husband will be attract- attracted to me-

David: [laughs]

Seth: ... or attached to me." The third husband, "Now I can praise the Lord."

David: Who- which one's that?

Seth: That one, uh, is Levi.

David: [laughs]

Seth: Um, uh-

David: It's just so-

Seth: Oh, sorry, that was Judah, that was Judah.

David: Oh, okay.

Seth: That was Judah.

David: Yeah. It's like these names that we get so familiar with-

Seth: Right

David: ... you know, in a Christian's context, 'cause these, what you're, what you're talk- what you're, these m- these m- these boys you're talking about are gonna form the 12 tribes of Israel.

Seth: Yes.

David: And so we're gonna get really familiar with these names, but really, [laughs] like you said, I like the, they're placeholders for their own insecurities. [laughs]

Seth: Yes. [laughs]

David: It's, it's pretty intense.

Seth: Yeah, and then Rachel sees all these sons Leah's being given-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... and she says, "I'm going to die-

David: Mm

Seth: ... if I don't have a son of my own."

David: Right.

Seth: And so she, just like Sarai did-

David: With Hagar

Seth: ... with Hagar, gives Jacob her servant.

David: Yep.

Seth: She starts to have children through Bilhah-

David: [laughs]

Seth: [laughs] Which is a great name.

David: Another great name.

Seth: Um, and then her children are just proof, placeholders for her own superiority.

David: Mm.

Seth: Then Rachel said, "With mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister and I have prevailed."

David: [laughs]

Seth: After she has her second s- son, Joseph, his name means, "I win."

David: I win, yeah.

Seth: It's-

David: [laughs]

Seth: ... it's proof that the curse actually happened.

David: Oh, wow.

Seth: It's proof that Go- that these women, their desire is for their husband and that their husband rules over them.

David: Right.

Seth: There's complete dysfunction in the marriage relationship because of the curse. The curse is still present, and we're still looking to get back to the Garden of Eden through one of these sons.

David: Mm.

Seth: So who's it gonna be?

David: Yeah, who's it gonna be? And that is the big question here, because up to this point it's been, "We, we'll have two, we'll have two, we'll have two, and I'll choose one, I'll choose one, I'll choose one." Like, there's that kinda thing. And here, instead of it being the descendants, like, the boy descendants that we are choosing from, it's, um, the women. There's-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... there's Leah and Rachel, and, um, God never comes out and says who's chosen. We see Leah bearing children-

Seth: Right

David: ... earlier on, right? But then, uh, and then they bring their slaves into it, and then, and then Rachel finally has one with Joseph, and she says, "Ah, finally I win."

Seth: Yeah.

David: Right?

Seth: And then later on we also find out, like, her s- the fact that she has these sons doesn't feel like enough for her.

David: Right.

Seth: She has Joseph and said, "May the Lord add to me another one."

David: Mm.

Seth: No matter how faithful God is to, to this family-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... it's, they don't recognize it as enough. And Rachel, I think this unbelief in Rachel is bared out because she ends up stealing the household gods from Laban earlier.

David: Oh, right.

Seth: I think there's, like, a underlying idolatry within Rachel where she's not believing in the promises of God-

David: Mm-hmm

Seth: ... that He will provide a, a line through this family.

David: Right. And what's really strange is that through all this dysfunction, through all this brokenness, this is the very first time that we actually get a glimpse of some kind of escalation with, um, the chosen line's offspring. 'Cause up to now it's been like, "Here's one kid, here's two kids. Okay, that's about it," you know? And now it's like, oh, we got 12. Like, we actually-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... have, like, a, a bigger family now, maybe a more, a more accurately sized family for that day. And, and yet it came through dysfunction, and it came through sin, and it came through brokenness and competition, and, like, fractured relationships.

Seth: Yeah.

David: A- a- again, so this goes back to what we're talking about with God using human sin and working through, working in spite of it in order to bring about His plan, that these are the 12 tribes of Israel that we'll still be talking about when Jesus comes on the scene all this time later.

Seth: Yeah.

David: Like, these are still, like [laughs] the-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... these important men.

Seth: And not to be more woke than the Bible is.

David: [laughs]

Seth: But, like, the fact that, [laughs] but the fact that these women are highlighted in, like... They, they're not seen in the best light, but what we do see is the Lord seeing the desires and cares and concerns of women.

David: Mm.

Seth: Right? Like, we see these-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... two women who desperately desire the affection of their husband, desperately d- desire the significance that comes with childbearing, and the Lord sees them and blesses them through what they want-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... essentially, uh, ult- but ultimately it doesn't work that way out.

David: Yeah. [laughs]

Seth: So I think for us, I think for women who are listening to this, I would hope that they would take encouragement that the Lord sees them in their particular suffering that is unique-

David: Mm

Seth: ... to women, 'cause Jacob doesn't experience-

David: No

Seth: ... do- doesn't experience this.

David: He's quite absentee in this whole-

Seth: And he provides them-

David: Right

Seth: ... a son that actually satisfies.

David: Mm.

Seth: He provides them a son in Jesus, right?

David: Right.

Seth: Like, He is the ultimate son.

David: Yep.

Seth: And, like, the fact that He comes from a virgin-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... is proof that He's the son of all women who should not actually be able to have children, right?

David: Yeah.

Seth: Like, He is the son that satisfies, and all that put their faith in Him have hundreds of brothers and-

David: Mm-hmm

Seth: ... sisters and sons-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... and daughters in Jesus.

David: Yeah, and I've never thought about Jesus being the fulfillment of all of these different names that, that, um, r- Leah and Rachel gave to their children. Um, I, it's like, what, what were they? What was, what were some of them again?

Seth: Um, "Now my husband will love me."

David: Yes. He will.

Seth: [laughs] Um, yes.

David: Right? Like, i- in, in Jesus that's true.

Seth: Now my hus-

David: We have a husband who loves us.

Seth: Yes.

David: Right? Uh, what's another one?

Seth: Uh, "Now my husband will be attached to me."

David: Yes. He, He weds-

Seth: Now my husband-

David: ... Himself to us and never lets us go. We'll never be abandoned or forsaken.

Seth: "Now my husband will honor me."

David: Yes. God, despite our dishonor and our enemy, en- or us being enemies to God, Jesus comes and dies for us in order to lift us up and seat us on a throne with Him, giving us highest honor next to Him.

Seth: And Rachel's last prayer, "May the Lord add to me another son."

David: Yes.

Seth: And He does.

David: And He does, but it's not immediately. It is down the line, and it's the ultimate son that she wanted to have, the one who will actually make true all of their desires that they had, that will actually meet them, and that will actually fulfill the promise of opening heaven's gate and letting us live with God again. That will come through the son God adds to Rachel, who's Jesus.

Seth: So Joseph is born, and immediately Laban and Joseph are about to separate.

David: Or Jacob.

Seth: Jacob. Man.

David: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Seth: Too many J's.

David: Lots of J names.

Seth: Too many names.

David: Yep.

Seth: Jacob and Laban are about to separate.

David: Right.

Seth: And-

David: Oh, and again, it's because of kind of a similar thing that had happened with-

Seth: Abraham and Lot

David: ... Abraham and Lot. They had too much stuff, and-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... they just had to spread out.

Seth: And we're told right off the bat in ver- in chapter 30, verse, uh, 27 and verse 30 that the Lord is the one who has blessed Jacob-

David: Mm-hmm

Seth: ... up to this point.

David: Right.

Seth: Jacob has been trying over and over again by his own ingenuity and his own preferences and his own desires to gain for himself God's blessing in the line by tricking his father, by s- by, uh, by tricking his father-

David: Mm-hmm

Seth: ... tricking his brother-

David: Mm

Seth: ... by choosing his particular wife, and now here-

David: Right

Seth: ... we see the whole time it's been God.

David: Yeah. Oh, which I never even thought of where it's like, uh, if, if Jacob would have had Rachel right off the bat, he wouldn't have had a son.

Seth: Right.

David: You know? Let alone 12. You know? So I just, I was like-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... yeah, God is working through things that are, [laughs] are kind of confusing and tricky-

Seth: Right

David: ... in order to do what He needs to do. Anyway, keep going.

Seth: And Laban says, "Don't go away."

David: Right.

Seth: "Stay for a little bit longer."

David: [laughs]

Seth: And they make this deal where they-

David: Right

Seth: ... separate the sh- all the mottled and speckled and striped sheep, um, Jacob gets.

David: Right.

Seth: And all the pure looking sheep, uh, Laban gets. And the idea is this, we can easily tell our flocks apart 'cause you get all the solid colored sheep, I get all the multicolored sheep.

David: Right.

Seth: And Jacob, through a clever mix of selective breeding-

David: Uh-huh

Seth: ... and these sticks [laughs]

David: [laughs]

Seth: Which I think is folklore.

David: Yeah, I mean, I, like, I... So I went and studied, like, all kinds of ancient animal husbanding practices and read a bunch of different theories on what these sticks were supposed to do. Like, different people even said, like, they were, like, you could put mud on them, and as they walked through the gates, they would brush up against the sticks, and they would look speckled or spotted. So it's like a trick.

Seth: Oh.

David: Right? So that's one possible-

Seth: Right

David: ... explanation that, that, that Jacob was like, "Well, if I put these muddy sticks up by-

Seth: All of your-

David: ... Jacob's sheep, they'll all look muddy, and they'll be mine." So that's one, that's one way-

Seth: Right

David: ... which classic Jacob, if that is the thing, being tri- being tricky. Other people say that there were the, it was a certain kind of tree, you know-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... 'cause it tells us what kind of tree-

Seth: Poplar, almond

David: ... it was. A poplar, almond tree, that these were supposed to be, like, fert- fertility trees.

Seth: Mm.

David: And, uh, if you, if you stuck them around your animals, they absorbed the mystical powers of their fertility, and they would, you know, bear more. But regardless of what it is, the point is it wasn't Jacob's ingenuity or trickery that ended up making his flocks grow to far outnumber Laban's.

Seth: Right.

David: It was just the fact that God was inordinately blessing him.

Seth: That's right.

David: Okay.

Seth: And that's what, and of what, what's, that's what ends up happening.

David: Yep.

Seth: God just blesses and blesses, and he has more and more, stronger and stronger multicolored sheep, and ultimately, so much so that Laban's sons say Jacob's actually stolen everything from our father.

David: He has to. It's the only explanation.

Seth: Right.

David: Yeah. He, he's just, he's taken it away from our father.

Seth: Yeah.

David: Which is, like, why it led some people to say that he was painting the sheep with the sticks. [laughs]

Seth: And then this is what Jacob says back to them, like, "I'm not cheating your father."

David: Right.

Seth: He just says, "I see that your father doesn't regard me with favor as he did before, but it's just because the God of my father has been with me."

David: Mm-hmm. Right.

Seth: Which is what he promised him the first time he saw him.

David: Yep.

Seth: "I will be with you." [laughs]

David: He's fi- he's finally coming around to giving God the credit he deserves.

Seth: Yes. "God did not permit him to harm, harm me." It's always God-

David: Mm-hmm

Seth: ... who is blessing, and Jacob recognizes it.

David: Right.

Seth: He's like, even though he keeps trying and doing all these different things to trick people-

David: Yep

Seth: ... he recognizes, like, "Everything I'm trying isn't working the way it's supposed to."

David: Yeah.

Seth: "And God continues to bless me despite my best efforts."

David: Yep.

Seth: "Despite the fact that my past is catching up to me, God is still blessing me."

David: Yeah. It might have taken him 30 years or so to figure it out, but he, he's finally coming to realize that, "Man, uh, everything I try doesn't work. This, there's gotta be something else happening here." And through a humiliating process of being completely taken advantage of and mistreated and then having inner turmoil in his family, he's finally realizing, like, "Maybe God has been doing all this behind the scenes the whole time." [laughs]

Seth: Right.

David: Yeah.

Seth: And anyway, so they finally start separating. It's time to come, like, you don't like me anymore or-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... we need, it's time to separate.

David: And, like, move.

Seth: And move away.

David: Like, like, we're not gonna even live next to each other anymore.

Seth: So they start moving back towards Esau.

David: Yep.

Seth: They start moving back to their, to the Promised Land-

David: Mm-hmm

Seth: ... back to Canaan. Um, and as they're moving out, Rachel steals all these household gods.

David: Yeah. It's a weird little part of the story.

Seth: But it ends up bringing some conflict later on.

David: Mm-hmm.

Seth: Laban realizes his household gods are missing-

David: Yep

Seth: ... chases-

David: Yep

Seth: ... them down.

David: Catches up to them 'cause they have kids and lots of animals, so he's able to quickly catch up to them.

Seth: And when they meet and when they catch up to him-

David: Yep

Seth: ... basically Laban says, "Why did you l- why didn't you let me say goodbye to my daughters?"

David: Right. He just bailed.

Seth: "Why'd you bail? And then why did you steal my household gods?"

David: Mm-hmm.

Seth: And Jacob begins, um, to explain. Like, "No, no, no, I, I didn't steal your household gods."

David: Right.

Seth: "And besides that, you have not been... It seems like we're at odds right now, and it seemed like the best plan was to leave."

David: Right. Yeah.

Seth: And again, tricking his father, leaving in the middle of night, doing, it's, like, classic Jacob.

David: Yep.

Seth: The trickster, the wrestler, the person who [laughs] is, like, trying to make God's will happen to back to the Promised Land-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... under his own disguises.

David: Yeah.

Seth: Laban doesn't buy it, starts ransacking all the houses.

David: Right. I'm gonna find these household gods and prove you wrong.

Seth: Yes.

David: Right? And who has them other than his attractive, favored daughter, Rachel?

Seth: Right.

David: She's stowed them away on her animal, her beast of burden.

Seth: Right. And I think part, part of what's going on here is the fact that these household gods have been stolen-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... and they're sitting underneath Rachel is we're supposed to see again that it is the true God that has provided for, um, Jacob's wealth-

David: Mm

Seth: ... and his ability to go back to the Promised La- Land, and not the false ones.

David: Mm.

Seth: Rachel's stolen them, and she's sitting on top of them. She's hiding them. But when finally Laban can't find them, Jacob's response is, "It's only because the God of th- my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac have been with me and on my side. Um, uh, it, it's only because that they've been with me-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... that I have what I have."

David: Wow.

Seth: Not because of the false gods.

David: Right.

Seth: Only because of me.And then he rebukes her

David: God is over every single activity that's happening. He is orchestrating things, working through things. This other false god is stuffed in a bag, put on an animal, and sat on by a woman [laughs]

Seth: Yes

David: Like, this is, like, a humiliating place for a god to be, and it's to show us that, yeah, 'cause those gods have no control. They have, they have no more control than you do, Jacob, for, for all, through all your trickery and what you're trying to make God's will happen. Only one person is in charge here, and it's the God of Abraham and Isaac.

Seth: Yes

David: Okay. Cool.

Seth: And they say, "Okay," and they're gonna separate, and they set up a pillar-

David: Yep

Seth: ... like, this, this stone that says, "This is my... On this side of the la-

David: "Don't cross here."

Seth: "Don't cross here."

David: Yep

Seth: "We'll... And we'll be fine."

David: Okay

Seth: And then after that, they move, finally, towards the Promised Land.

David: Right. So how are we supposed to see Jesus in this? Um, I, I can't help but just look at the trickery, um, and the, the scheming and the falsehood that's all taking place here, where Jacob is trying to, um, amass wealth for himself through different kinds of schemes, but no matter what he does, it's God who's really the one giving the increase. And I'm just reminded through all the trickery of the false trials that Jesus went through, um, in His Passion narrative-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... that He was, um, you know-

Seth: And Jacob is being falsely tried here too.

David: That's right

Seth: Right?

David: Yep.

Seth: Like, Laban is falsely accusing him.

David: Yep.

Seth: And, and Jacob says, "You've changed my wages t- 10 times."

David: Yeah [laughs]

Seth: Right? Like, "You've done all this stuff to me."

David: Right.

Seth: Yeah.

David: So there's this false trial happening here, uh, and that's what we see. When, when Jesus is accused, the... He's, He's brought before, like, flimsy, false courts. Uh, people, you know, dream up lies about Him, and they, they try to falsely accuse Him. He's, He's kind of taken from court to court all over the land, and trying to get an accusation to stick. And then finally, it's not because He's actually guilty that He's sent to the cross. It's just because of, um, infighting and a rabble of, of, of the crowd yelling out, "Crucify Him." There's politics. All this is happening, that an innocent man is taken to the cross. And so through all of mankind's trickery and false trials and, and backhanded deals, um, God works through that trickery to bring Jesus to the place that He ultimately wants Him to be, which is a cross. And so, um, again, I just think we see again and again and again how God works through our worst sin, works through trickery, works through deceit.

Seth: Works through the sin of other people-

David: That's right

Seth: ... against Him.

David: Yeah

Seth: Yeah

David: In order to bring about his ultimate plan, which was to bring the son of Jacob, the son of Joseph, Jesus, to the place where he could crush the head of sin and death forever, which was on the cross. [gentle music]

Seth: Okay, so Jacob is about to enter back into the Promised Land, um, and he's gonna confront Esau-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... 'cause he knows he's there, and he's afraid.

David: Yeah

Seth: He left on pretty bad terms with his brother, and he's legitimately afraid that, for his life.

David: Yeah. I mean, I would be, too. I, I mean, if you look back at the descriptions of Esau, he doesn't seem like a chill dude.

Seth: Yeah, and he's a hunter.

David: Yeah

Seth: That's what he is.

David: The hairy hunter.

Seth: Hairy hunter. He's like, "I was the cook."

David: Yeah. [laughs]

Seth: "I'm gonna go... [laughs] I was the fat boy with my mom in the kitchen."

David: Right

Seth: "And he's the, the strong man h- wrestling-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... bears the ground."

David: "If he sees me, he's gonna kill me." Uh, uh, and this, we don't have to unpack this, but it is such a little random minor point of the text that I just love-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... where he enters into this new land. This is, like, near Bethel-

Seth: Yeah, yeah, yeah

David: ... where he, where, you know, where the gate of heaven opened.

Seth: Right, which is actually super significant.

David: Oh, no, I know.

Seth: Yeah. [laughs]

David: I... Okay, we can, great, we can unpack it. But he, he comes up, and it's like there's still angels chilling out in this area.

Seth: Right. Well, it's because they're-

David: [laughs]

Seth: ... guarding the entrance to the new Eden.

David: Right

Seth: They're guarding the entrance to the Promised Land.

David: Yeah

Seth: That's why.

David: It's just so cool.

Seth: It is so cool.

David: It's such a... It just seems like a random accident of the text, where it's just like you're reading along and, hey, there's some angels over there, and it's like, what? [laughs] What's so great?

Seth: I think it's central to understanding this text-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... that there are angels. As they walk into the borders of the Promised Land-

David: Mm-hmm

Seth: ... there are angels.

David: Yeah

Seth: It's supposed to... And then this wrestling with God happens on another border of the Promised Land.

David: Right

Seth: It's supposed to mar- It's supposed to communicate to us that before you enter in-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... there's this cherubim guarding it. This is the spot.

David: Yep

Seth: This is the center of God's new kingdom.

David: "If you wanna come into the new heavens and new earth, if you wanna come into the new Eden, you're gonna have to go through me," [laughs] is what God says.

Seth: That's exactly right.

David: Yeah. [laughs]

Seth: That's exactly right. And so what's, what, why that's important is that you have to go through God-

David: Right

Seth: ... and it ends up being that Esau's not the biggest th- [laughs]

David: Yeah

Seth: ... threat in that sense.

David: Esau's not the scary one that he's gonna have to fight. It's God-

Seth: It's God

David: ... 'cause he's at the border of the new, the new Eden.

Seth: And what you see here, also, Jacob becoming more and more of a humble character.

David: Yeah, he's getting there.

Seth: He's getting there.

David: [laughs]

Seth: And so, like, here in, in verse 9, he prays.

David: We actually see him pray.

Seth: We see him pray to the Lord. He says, like, "I recognize that everything that I have-

David: "I've tried"

Seth: ... has not turned out. Everything I have is from you."

David: "From you."

Seth: "And I know that you'll be faithful to my promise, Lord. So I'm afraid of Esau."

David: "Protect me."

Seth: "Protect me."

David: Yeah

Seth: And then he makes an elaborate plan.

David: Yeah, yeah.

Seth: [laughs]

David: It's so, it's just so funny. It's like he, yeah, he, he, he, he, he says, "All right, God, you got this, but just in case you don't, let me try." [laughs]

Seth: "Let me try." And then he sends all of his family away-

David: Right

Seth: ... um, to go meet Esau beforehand

David: Yeah, and he, and not only his family, he sends, like, all of his possessions-

Seth: Yes

David: ... to, like, do this parade in front of Esau, that wave after wave-

Seth: It's like-

David: ... of his possessions

Seth: ... it's like, "This is a gift for you."

David: Yep

Seth: "This is a gift for you."

David: "Here, here's some lambs."

Seth: "This is a gift for you."

David: "Here's some goats." Oh, "Here's some..."

Seth: Trying to placate-

David: Yep, that's right

Seth: ... placate him to make sure he's not so, super angry when he gets there.

David: Uh-huh. Yep. Yep

Seth: And then as he's on the border of the Promised Land-

David: He's, he's like, he's gonna, like, take a nap before waking up in the morning to go confront Esau

Seth: ... um, God meets him.

David: Yeah

Seth: And he wrestles with God all night long.

David: Mm-hmm.

Seth: And I think part of, like, this story, this is Jacob in a nutshell.

David: Mm.

Seth: We're going to... He's gonna wrestle with God all night long and say, "I will not let you go until you bless me."

David: Right

Seth: And so what has Jacob been doing his entire life? He's been wrestling with his father. He's been wrestling with his brother. He's been wrest- wrestling with his father-in-law.

David: Mm-hmm

Seth: ... he's wrestled with his wife, and now he's wrestling with God.

David: Yeah

Seth: He, his entire life, he's been wrestling and trying and organizing-

David: Mm-hmm

Seth: ... and scheming to get the promises of God and the blessing of God-

David: Yep

Seth: ... for himself.

David: But now he's going through the right channel. He's going to God himself for the blessing. 'Cause, like, the blessing he got from his dad... was a trick, you know? He got this, like, trick blessing from his dad, and it hasn't really panned out for him, and now he's like, "I want the legitimate blessing. Like, give it to me."

Seth: Yes.

David: "I'm gonna wrestle with you until I get it."

Seth: And God does.

David: Right.

Seth: And we don't, we're not told the content of the blessing.

David: Nope.

Seth: Um, but I think we can infer, it's like he's giving him the land.

David: That's right.

Seth: You don't get access to the Promised Land without a limp.

David: [laughs] Right.

Seth: Like, you- you're gonna walk through God to get there, and he blesses him, and he says, "I've seen... I wrestled with the Lord face to face, and he spared my life."

David: Right.

Seth: Um-

David: Yeah, but, like, he didn't have to. Like, God could have taken his life there, but instead all he did was reach into his hip and give him a limp, and, uh, w- i- in order to bring him into the Promised Land. And, like, what's amazing is Jesus is the one who fully wrestles with God, right?

Seth: Yeah.

David: And the wrath that we deserve, uh, to open up the gate of heaven, to get us into the Promised Land, and he did not get just a limp. Like, it cost his life and limb and all of it, and that way we just get an open door. We get a gate. Where- where- where Jacob had a wrestling match, we get a red carpet, you know? [laughs]

Seth: Yeah.

David: Like, we get to enter into heaven because Jesus wrestled the wrath of God that we deserve for us.

Seth: And so what ha- and so Jacob, that small picture of a redeemer-

David: Yep

Seth: ... coupled with his prayer for Esau's blessing on him, is answered.

David: Mm.

Seth: It's not answered by all the schemes.

David: No.

Seth: It's not answered by the gifts that he sends him.

David: Right.

Seth: Esau trusts Jesus.

David: Esau- Esau's like, "I don't need this stuff. We're good."

Seth: They hug.

David: Yeah.

Seth: They hug.

David: Jacob and Esau hug.

Seth: They- they run and they embrace one another, and they're reconciled toward one another.

David: Which just, this always reminds me of the story of the parable, the- the parable of the prodigal son.

Seth: Oh, yeah, with the running and embracing.

David: Because it's like there's this, there's this... Well, but there's more than that. It's like there's this, a strange son, right? And he has an older brother.

Seth: Yeah.

David: Right?

Seth: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

David: Esau is his older brother, and he has this plan. He's like, "I'm gonna come back and I'm gonna just throw all this stuff at my dad, and it's just gonna be like, 'Hey, I'll- I'll serve you and your land and- and I'll- I'll- I'll- I'll prostrate myself before you,' and all this stuff." And his dad's like, "I don't need any of that. Just give me a hug."

Seth: Yeah.

David: You know? And, like, that's what happens between Jacob and Esau, uh, is, is he sends all this stuff-

Seth: They reconcile

David: ... and they reconcile. I just, I can't help but think about that s- picture.

Seth: And this is actually a- a microcosm.

David: Mm.

Seth: A small picture of what God will do, the hope that the prophets have for Israel.

David: Mm.

Seth: So Esau, in chapter 36, ends up being the father of a line that inhabits this place called Edom.

David: Edom, right.

Seth: And it's mentioned multiple times in chapter 36.

David: Yep, and through the rest of the Bible. [laughs]

Seth: And through the rest of the Bible.

David: Yeah.

Seth: And it ac- Edom essentially represents all the other nations of the world.

David: Mm.

Seth: And so in Amos, chapter 9-

David: Right

Seth: ... there is this h- hope that Edom and the lines of David, which was the line of Jacob-

David: Uh-huh

Seth: ... would come together.

David: Come back together, yep.

Seth: And then in Acts 15, they quote Amos 9 saying, "What has happened in Jesus Christ is the lines of Edom, the countries of Edom, have come together in Jesus."

David: So w- okay, so what you're saying is-

Seth: [laughs]

David: ... that when Jacob and Esau hug-

Seth: Yes

David: ... and embrace and reconcile, this is a foretaste of God bringing all nations back together and reconciling them in one new kingdom.

Seth: Yes.

David: That's sticking rocks. [laughs]

Seth: [laughs]

David: That's so cool. I've actually never made that connection before. That's really cool. Oh, man. Uh, I also love this picture of... I- I feel like what Jacob tried to do to Esau is what we try to do with God, is it's like when we approach God and we come to the border.

Seth: Right, right, right.

David: You know, we come to the border to get into God's land. How am I gonna get to heaven? Like, I'll ask it that way, right? How am I... Man, I'll just parade my good, my good deeds in front of God. Like, "Man, look at this. Look what I did. And look, let me give you this, and let me put this on the altar, and let me bring this to you." And God's like, "I'm not impressed."

Seth: Right.

David: "I'm not asking for that. I've done everything. Just give me a hug." [laughs]

Seth: And think about how often, like, human relationships work that way too.

David: Mm.

Seth: It's like I am not confident that the Lord actually heard my prayers and will bring reconciliation between me and my father.

David: Yeah.

Seth: And so what do I do when I go home on Christmas? I make sure I tell him how impressive I am at my job.

David: Oh, right.

Seth: Or it's like-

David: Yeah

Seth: ... I try to make s- to hedge my relationship-

David: Mm-hmm

Seth: ... with accomplishments-

David: Right

Seth: ... rather than with intimacy.

David: Definitely.

Seth: And the Lord says, "I will answer your prayers-"

David: Yeah

Seth: ... not by your power, not by your accomplishments, but because I will bless you."

David: Right. Isn't it that amazing that, like, that's how God fixes this situation, is by softening someone's heart? Like, I love that.

Seth: So good.

David: And, like, we're gonna run into that in the next book, in Exodus, is, like, th- this problem of the hard heart, is he's going to Esau, who had every right to be super ticked off, and he just softens his heart in order to bring reconciliation. [gentle music] So have you ever had whiplash?

Seth: Yes.

David: You have?

Seth: No.

David: You haven't. I have.

Seth: Yes.

David: Okay.

Seth: No.

David: Oh.

Seth: The-

David: No, you're giving me whiplash here.

Seth: See what I did there? [laughs]

David: Yeah, it's hurt- my neck hurts. Uh, but that's what, when I re- when I'm reading straight through Genesis and I, and I'm here, the, I get, I get literary whiplash here.

Seth: [laughs]

David: Because it's like y- I mean, I mean, think of everything we just talked about.

Seth: Yeah.

David: I'm, like, at a high note. We literally stopped the show for a second so I could have a mini freak-out off air, 'cause I was like, "That is beautiful." And, like, God is bringing together all creation through this new son. He's reconciling the world to himself. Like, this is the New Testament we're seeing in this embrace in Jacob and Esau, and then you turn to the next page and you get one of the most disgusting stories in all of Genesis, and it's just like you feel gross after reading it.

Seth: Yeah.

David: And, uh, and so we get to end on a high note- [laughs]

Seth: Yeah

David: ... with this podcast.

Seth: Dinah, one of J-

David: Yes

Seth: ... uh, uh, Judah's daughters-

David: Mm-hmm

Seth: ... is raped by a Canaanite man.

David: Right.

Seth: And the brothers-

David: Yep

Seth: ... are, uh, Simeon and Levi, and that's important.

David: Particularly.

Seth: Yeah.

David: They're all mad, but Simeon and Levi-

Seth: Th-

David: ... are particularly-

Seth: Right

David: ... peeved.

Seth: Um, and they, um, wanna get vengeance.

David: Right. And Jacob, in this scenario, is stunningly passive.

Seth: I... Yes, he is.

David: Yeah.

Seth: But I think w- w- look, look what his brothers start, his sons start doing. His sons are trying to grab the promise of God by their own efforts-

David: Mm

Seth: ... and their own ingenuity. Yes, something terrible has happened, but they go through this whole line of trickery with this Canaanite people group.

David: Oh, they do, right, yes.

Seth: And they try to say, "Okay, here's how we can, um"-

David: Yeah, 'cause they say, "You, you need to marry Dinah. If you did this to her, you need to marry her, and in order to marry her, you gotta be part of our people. And so to be part of our people, you gotta be circumcised, 'cause we're all circumcised." And so they trick-This entire city that all the men have to be circumcised with these old archaic tools.

Seth: Right.

David: Right?

Seth: And then three days later when they were all still- [laughs]

David: When they're still sore from this horrific surgery, that's whenever Simeon and Levi-

Seth: They go in and slaughter them

David: ... ransack the town, kill everyone, plunder everything. They do these horrible things.

Seth: And we know that Jacob is not pleased with this.

David: No, not at all.

Seth: He's not pleased, uh, that this was the wrong way-

David: Right

Seth: ... to avenge their-

David: Dina

Seth: ... their, their, their sister's-

David: Yes

Seth: ... um, rape. Um, so, so much so that ... Anyway, we'll get ... Simeon and Levi-

David: Mm-hmm

Seth: ... are the first two sons.

David: Right.

Seth: And then Reuben's the third son.

David: Yep.

Seth: And then Judah is the fourth.

David: Right.

Seth: The reason that's important is because Simeon and Levi here basically disqualify themselves-

David: Mm-hmm

Seth: ... from receiving the promise.

David: Right.

Seth: And then Reuben will sleep with one of his father's wives-

David: Yep

Seth: ... disqualifying him from the promise. So the fourth son-

David: Fourth in line

Seth: ... is Judah.

David: Yep.

Seth: And Judah will end up being the promised son later on.

David: That's right.

Seth: So part, the reason why this story is significant is because, one, his sons are committing the same mistake J- h- their father, their father did.

David: Mm, they're trying to trick people in order to bring about God's will.

Seth: And they're, and specifically, what is the sign of the c- what is the sign of circumcision?

David: Mm.

Seth: That you are included in God's promises.

David: Right.

Seth: And so, but here it's reversed.

David: Mm.

Seth: Because they're trying to get the spoils of Canaan-

David: Right

Seth: ... by a false version of God's promise.

David: Yeah.

Seth: Right? So they're, they're literally inverting the purpose of circumcision.

David: Wow.

Seth: Not so that God would bless them, but so that they could bless themselves through other people. And so the ... Does that make sense?

David: Yeah. Oh, it's, yeah, it definitely makes sense. That's sick.

Seth: And so again, it's these people trying to gain the promise of God through illegitimate means.

David: Yeah.

Seth: But the Lord actually still ends up blessing the line-

David: [laughs]

Seth: ... through this.

David: Yeah. Which again, that's just, that's the, that's the story, isn't it? That, it, there, it seems to be here that there's just no depths to which m- th- the people could sin to which God won't continue to be faithful to them.

Seth: Yeah. Simeon and Levi are both morally disqualified candidates.

David: Yep. They can't be, and they're the first, first and second born? Is that correct?

Seth: First and second born.

David: And so who's-

Seth: Reuben is about to be, uh, pro- like, he's gonna sleep with-

David: Yep

Seth: ... his father's concubine. He's morally disqualified.

David: Yep. And then Judah down the line-

Seth: Right

David: ... is gonna sleep with Tamar and mess, mess things up too.

Seth: We're looking for a morally uncompromised seed.

David: Yep. You ain't gonna find him.

Seth: Until Jesus.

David: Yep. And like Joseph, we'll get to him next week, he's like as close as we get.

Seth: Yes.

David: But death doesn't end, and the promise doesn't come. Can't be him.

Seth: Yeah. We find that moral, moral perfection is part of the package-

David: Yep

Seth: ... but not all of it.

David: Yeah, right. [laughs] Right.

Seth: And in Jesus, we have this morally perf- perfect one who comes to people who are sexually broken-

David: Mm-hmm

Seth: ... but is not overwhelmed or tempted by the sexuality that is on, that is tem-

David: Right

Seth: ... that, that might be available to him.

David: Yeah.

Seth: He stands in the face of temptation and is able to be the morally qualified seed-

David: Mm-hmm

Seth: ... to make sure the, the world is blessed.

David: Yeah. And He's, and Jesus is the one who is defiled like Dinah, right?

Seth: Yeah.

David: Um, He's, you, you've talked, we've talked before, I don't know if we've talked about it on the Spoken Gospel podcast or not, but you, we've talked before about how Jesus takes our sexual brokenness. You know, He's-

Seth: Yeah

David: ... He's naked and exposed on the cross. You know, that, all that kind of stuff.

Seth: It was a calculated part of His torture-

David: Right

Seth: ... to be sexually objectified-

David: Right

Seth: ... that way, sexually abused in that way.

David: Yes. And so J- you know, Jesus was, was defiled like Dinah was, but then He, even though He had every right to come and castrate us like, you know, Simeon and Levi did, to punish us like, um, like, like Jacob's sons punished Shechem. Was, is that the city?

Seth: Yeah, Shechem. Shechem.

David: Um, He didn't. He, He was the one who was defiled, and then He was the one who bore the punishment for that defilement. Like, He is both Dinah and Shechem. He is both the defiled and the destroyed for us so that we could enter into the next story. You turn the page right after this story of utter brokenness, and what do we see? We see God coming to Jacob and saying, "Come back to Bethel, build an altar, live with me, don't worship false gods, and I will keep my promise to you and your children." It's like, God, like, how faithful are you? [laughs] And that's what we see in the cross, is that that's how faithful He is. He is so faithful to be the one who is defiled and destroyed for us in order to be the not only morally exemplary son, but the one who can actually bring us back to the Garden of Eden, to open the gate of God, to be the ladder of Jacob through His death, burial, and resurrection. [outro music]

Outro: Thank you for listening to the Spoken Gospel podcast. Spoken Gospel is a nonprofit dedicated to creating free gospel-centered media that speaks the gospel out of every corner of scripture. So to join us in our mission and view our resources, we invite you to visit spokengospel.com. [outro music]

Related Resources

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How God Works Through Human Evil to Keep His Promises: Jacob's Story in Genesis 28–36

Show Notes

Jacob's Ladder and the Gate of Heaven

The New Adam and Eve: Rachel, Leah, and the Dysfunction of the Chosen Family

Jacob, Laban, and the God Who Gives the Increase

Wrestling with God and the Reconciliation of Brothers

Dinah, Disqualification, and the Faithfulness That Will Not Quit

Related Resources

Introduction to Genesis

View our devotional on Genesis 1-2

Ready to study a different book?

Listen to the Genesis 1-2: Creation podcast

Listen to the Genesis 3-5: The Fall podcast

Listen to the Genesis 6-11: The Flood podcast

Listen to the Genesis 12-21: Abraham podcast

Listen to the Genesis 22-27: Isaac podcast

Listen to the Genesis 28-36: Jacob podcast

Listen to the Genesis 37-50: Joseph podcast