Jacob and Anti-Semitism

This is a stretch, but here goes. One of Jacob's greatest attributes was the ability to value. He understood the birthright was truly priceless. People accuse the Jewish people of being a group who as a rule are too interested in money. However, could it be that they still have something of the Jacob attribute? Perhaps, they hold to the view that some things have value. Perhaps an unwillingness to sell some item for less than a certain amount is not greed; perhaps it is an unwillingness to give up something they believe to be of a certain value. It goes against the grain, maybe. The person who wants to buy it at the lower price wants the item but doesn't want to pay the true value. But they walk away thinking, "That person was stuck on making money." The person saying that doesn't recognize he was stuck on saving money. Is it money-loving or is it value-appreciation that causes such a person to not sell at the price you want the item.

I mentioned in an earlier post about the birthright going along with the Blessing. The first born may have gotten a greater inheritance, but he also got more responsibility, normally being the primary caregiver for the aging parents. The larger inheritance actually helped the firstborn finance the care of the parents. That puts Esau's actions and words in a new light. He was willing to sell the birthright because "what good was it to him anyway?" In fact, he was losing a responsibility that maybe he didn't want anyway - caring for his parents as they aged. Yet, at the same time, he wanted to keep the Blessing. Perhaps the secret thought was this: Not only did I get rid of the burden of caring for my parents, but as firstborn, I'll be entitled to the Blessing. Here was a fraud if there ever was one, and it was Jacob who was the victim, not Esau.

Putting the two thoughts together, and Esau, who did not understand value, ended up losing that which he thought he had. Jacob who lost everything to gain the Blessing - he got none of his father's property while Esau got it all - ended up with the most valuable asset of all, plus responsibility. The price Jacob paid for the birthright was not a bowl of soup alone, it was also the willingness to live with the responsibility or burden that comes with being the primary covenant representative. And that was much more than just caring for parents. It required faith versus violence or fraud, Laban's method of wealth-building, as the way to wealth. It required the loss of his beloved, trustworthy son, Joseph. It required staying in Canaan with a group of heathen-like sons for years while he grieved the loss of that son and wondered if he'd lost God's Blessing and whether there was a reason to go on. And it required him waiting until he saw the resurrection of the dead son - in a figure. And Jacob, Israel, the Prince, saw the Blessing of God on his lonely, grief-filled life, and he knew that the promises of God, made to him so many years, decades before, were faithful and true. Esau, the wealthy, the militant, the hunter, the king of Canaan, saw none of the grief and experienced none of the resurrection that Jacob saw and experienced.

So, modern preachers and teachers have it backwards. They accuse Jacob of cheating Esau, when at heart it was really the other way around.