Blogging Through the Book of Mormon

33:1-3 - It seems like the original plan was to split the family and hide them so that some would survive if Esau decided to kill Jacob’s family, and at this point it looked likely, but after spending the night with the messenger from God it appears that Jacob was more confident that they were going to live. Even though he was still very obliging on his way to meet Esau, he took his family out of hiding and just like with the animals, sending them in groups, he sent his family, first “the handmaids and their children,” then “Leah and her children,” and finally “Rachel and Joseph.” I really didn’t like this set up, but the IM speaks to this very issue saying, “Some have criticized Jacob’s arrangement of the camp because it appears that he is putting the handmaids and their children in the most dangerous position. It was be a natural thing, however, in the Middle East for a clan leader to show off his family and possessions in such a way that the best and most highly favored is saved unt...

32:9-12 - After dealing with Laban, Jacob sent messengers to his brother Esau asking for peace, and Esau answered in a way that didn’t make peace look likely, by coming to personally meet him… with 400 men. Jacob split up his family, assuming Leah and all went one way and Rachel and all went another way, I would imagine that he found himself alone, hoping that when Esau got to him, he would be satisfied with only killing Jacob and not destroying his whole family. Being alone, there wasn’t a lot that Jacob could do except pray and he words the prayer in a clever way, calling on “the Lord which sadist unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee.” That’s a pretty ingenious way of saying, “I’m doing what you told me to do and have been plagued with the threat of constant death the whole time, help me out here.” Back about 13 years ago, I was having a really hard time at my job, the manager was just awful and I know that it was bad. I had taken all ...

32:1-8 - I guess we have to look at Jacob’s resettlement from Laban to his father’s land as we would look at a woman’s flight from her abusive husband. I know that men can be victims of domestic violence, etc, that’s not my point, my point is that getting all his household and possessions permanently moved 500+ miles is a difficult task in and of itself, but if we factor in that Jacob had to leave without Laban finding out and was also walking back into the domain of the brother is cheated is monumental. Interestingly to note here too is that on the initial journey from his father’s house in Beersheba to Laban’s house in Haran, Jacob had life changing spiritual experiences, most notably when the Lord appeared to him and he saw the ladder. Even though this time Jacob is not alone, and in fact has a multitude of people who depend on him, it appears like this journey back is going to be quite the ride spiritually as well because as soon as Laban leaves and Jacob carries on his journey “t...

31:17-19 - With the approval of his wives and the Lord, Jacob “rose up”, put his family on camels and headed out on his own way home. The way that this is said “rose up” makes it sound like he left that afternoon, whereas common sense would tell us that uprooting 20 years worth of life, business, and family would have taken considerable planning to facilitate that move, especially if Jacob wanted to keep Laban out of the loop. It seems like Jacob waited until “Laban went to shear his sheep” which was probably a multiple day venture for him, which would have given Jacob enough time to make a clean getaway. Here's the part that presents probably the biggest problem for the Jacob-exit, and that is that “Rachel had stolen the images that were her father’s.” I always just thought that Rachel stole these “images” or “idols” because she was being spiteful and wanted to mildly inconvenience her father, or that maybe they were made of gold so they were valuable, but apparently it is much m...

31:4-16 - As much as I hate on Jacob, when he felt it was time to go, and the Lord confirmed it, he immediately sent for Rachel and Leah, to consult them on the issue. Anciently, women were considered property, so their input was not sought out for big decisions like this usually, but here, Jacob talked to them about it, even AFTER God told him what to do, so that softened my heart for him a little bit. The IM notes, “It is significant to note that Jacob counseled with his wives on the important move he was contemplating. Often modern scholars claim that women in the Old Testament were of low status and were treated as property by their husbands. But this example, and others like it, show that such was not the case.” I’m sure the topic of their father had come up before, but he reiterated his case to them, saying, basically, “I know that I am out of favor with your dad, even more than before, but I have still been blessed by God.” It’s interesting to note here, that if the hand of God...

31:1-3 - We know that Jacob worked for 7 years for Laban so that he could marry Rachel, then again another 7 years for Leah. At the end of those 14 years, Jacob wanted to go home and start to build a life for his own family, but Laban convinced Jacob to stay and work for him still because Laban had prospered so much because of Jacob’s favor with God. We can tell that Laban was still manipulating Jacob and his wages because when Jacob made that superstitious breed area with sticks so that more spotted and speckled sheep and goats would be born, that means that Laban would still take all the correctly colored animals. So we know that the two families didn’t make a clean split, it was still very much a constant negotiation between Laban and Jacob, and that most often Jacob came out on the losing end of the deal. Laban and Jacob aren’t the only players here though because this is a family affair, and Jacob hears Laban’s sons, his brothers in law, complaining that “Jacob hath taken away al...