The scriptures read are Genesis 28-30, Psalm 10 and Matthew 10.
Genesis 28. Isaac sends Jacob to marry one of the daughters of his brother-in-law Laban. Meanwhile, in a pathetic attempt to get back in his father's favor, Esau marries his niece. At least she's not a Canaanite! he thinks. Sad.
Jacob sleeps on a rock and gets a vision of the famous Stairway to Heaven. God promises to bless and protect Jacob. Jacob in turn promises that the Lord will be his God. On certain conditions.
Genesis 29. You know how you can tell a guy likes a girl? When he moves a stone too heavy for 3 men off a well all by himself. Having impressed Rachel, and possibly injured his back, Jacob makes a deal to work for his uncle Laban for seven years in exchange for marrying her. Time flies. The wedding day comes. There must have been a lot of heavy drinking and a thicker than usual bridal veil because Jacob wakes up married to the wrong sister! Leah, the older sister with the nice eyes, but not Rachel! Laban pulls the "swap the siblings" con better than Jacob and the twin gets a taste of poetic justice for what he did to Isaac and Esau. Jacob complains to his father-in-law but Laban says it is their custom not to marry off the younger daughter before the older. Nice time to tell him! Laban says he'll throw in the other daughter for another 7 years of work. No Labor Department to complain to back then.
Speaking of labor, God takes pity on unloved Leah and she becomes a baby machine. Thus begins the patriarchal sex farce.
Genesis 30. Rachel is barren so she gives Jacob her maid to even the score with her sister. Result? More babies. Sibling rivalry leads Leah to follow suit with her maid. Babies. The sisters start trading vegetables for sacktime with Jacob. We don't get Jacob's point of view on all this but I bet this is where the phrase "too much of a good thing" was born. Things are tense. He snaps at Rachel when she complains that he hasn't given her a son. "I'm not God!" he says. I just bet he wishes they'd make him sleep on the couch occasionally. Finally Rachel contributes a baby. Count so far: 11 sons and 1 daughter. In 14 years. Jacob is the most sleep-deprived man in the Fertile Cresent.
Jacob decides the only person in his family he can get rid of is his wily father-in-law. He proposes that he get bought out with all the non-solid colored sheep. Laban agrees and promptly has his sons hightail it with the spotty ones. Jacob invents selective breeding and with a little sympathetic magic finally one-ups that con man Laban.
Psalm 10. Why does God stand around while the bad guys seem to get away with murder? Ever ask yourself that? The psalmist does. God's seeming indifference emboldens evil people. Come on, God! Strike the bad guy down! The psalmist can't wait for God "to champion the orphan and the downtrodden, that men who are of the earth tyrannize no more."
Matthew 10. I love the way Peterson ties the selection of the 12 disciples to the prayer for more harvest hands at the end of the last chapter. This whole chapter is Jesus' advice to his disciples then and now. He sends us on a mission and we need to expect trouble but use it to proclaim the good news. We need to get our priorities straight and remember whom we serve. We need to shed everything else and travel light.
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