Whatever happened twenty years ago is over

Genesis 33 is the story Jacob reuniting with his brother Esau.  In his  last encounter with his brother, Jacob had cheated Esau and ran away in fear.  So, he could understandably be facing some trepidation about the reunion.  Especially when his brother has an army of 400 men with him;  similar to the amount that Abraham had when he saved Lot from foreign kings.

Jacob goes to some extremes in preparing for his reunion with his brother.  And these extremes reveal much of Jacob’s selfishness.  First he sends everyone else over the night before and remains by himself on the safe side of the river.  (God kicking his butt and making him limp might have been a good clue at that point.)  Next, he lines up his children to meet their uncle in what could be charitably suggested as oldest to youngest, but more likely is least favored to most favored.  Finally, he is very apologetic as he approaches his brother.  Obsequious.  Sincere but smarmy.

For his twin brother, though it has been twenty years since he saw his brother.  Esau hugs him and accepts the gift as a sign of repentance and forgiveness.  It’s over; Jacob can come home.

Instead, Jacob goes somewhere else.  Sure, there wasn’t room for him and Esau together on the same land.  He could still have gone over for dinner.  Maybe see his dad.  On the other hand, where he goes is not that far away either.  (Jeru)Salem is pretty close to Bethel and all are in the Hebron valley.

It is easy to read of Jacob from afar though and wonder how he could be so close to reconciliation and not reach out and have it.  It’s like watching a movie and the entire audience knows from the beginning which characters will end up together if only they could work it out.  And then they do, yay!  But like in the movies, as the characters deny their relationships, there is something very true about Jacob not being willing to trust his brother further.  We believe our own talk and self-deception, especially when we are practiced like Jacob at deceiving others.

Our sin nature doesn’t have a mechanism for extending trust.  Even with the imago dei of our creation, we still need the model of a savior.  I recently commented on a friend’s posting about game theory teaching us tit-for-tat and that being a trap of rationalism that never produces forgiveness.  We become trapped in perpetual mistrust.

Jacob is so close.  He even builds an altar to worship God at his new home.  With only a bit more trust in God and his brother he could have been truly part of life abundant.  But he doesn’t.  He comes home and then stays away and lives on his own and buys a new family from Shechem instead of living with his brother in harmony.

Pray that we can do better.  We can offer trust more.  Perhaps then we might encounter the abundant life that is part of the reign of God.

A worker deserves his wages

Gen 31:14 – Gen 32:3

There are two main points in this story.

1. A worker deserves his wages.
2. A family should not stay too long in the grandparent’s home.

One of my favorite shows of all time is Joss Whedon’s Firefly.  Towards the end of the pilot Serenity, Captain Malcolm Reynolds is very succint on this first matter.

Mal stalks forward, shoves his gun right up in Patience’s face.

MAL Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job.

He takes the money back.

MAL (cont’d) And then I get paid.

He moves his gun from her face.

MAL (cont’d) Go run your little world.

This is essentially the agreement that Jacob and Laban reach.  Jacob leaves, Laban chases him down.  They have a heated exchange and they go their own way.

This point is commonly made in the Hebrew Scriptures and then referenced in the Epistles to specifically refer to paying ministers of the Gospel.  Pay people for thier efforts.  Don’t hold back or cheat them.

One of the smartest managers that I have ever worked for reccomends actually paying people slightly more than they think that they are worth for the maximum loyalty and productivity.

(There is also a bit about Rachael stealing Laban’s household idols and using her feminine condition to get away with it. This serves as good foil to exhaust Laban’s anger compared to the other claims. Ironically, although it is never proven, it is the one thing legitimately being stolen.)

For the second point, I am cautious of this since right now at least two of my friends with children are currently living in thier parent’s home.  The situations are temporary and there are extenuating circumstances.  I moved back in with my parent’s for two months during my first time of unemployment after college, moving from LA back to Seattle.  None of these situations are ideal.   In Jacob’s case, however, he lived in Laban’s house for twenty years and most of the time it was problematic.  If we want to learn from this biblical example we would probably avoid this situation especially when, as is common amongst flawed humanity,  e.g. both Jacob and Laban, either the parents or the grandparents are using the other.

Consequences of unnatural selection

Gen 30:25 – 31:13

One of my good freinds is a highschool science and biology teacher and part of his job is to teach natural selection and the theory of evolution.  He is constantly faced with the problems of students challenging this as being contradictory of Christianity and his desire to only teach accurate science.  This passage isn’t about that.  🙂

This is about what happens with unnatural selection.  With natural selection, over time, factors that promote reproduction generally continue and those that hamper it die away.  Factors that exist independent of this may be assumed to be largely random.

In this passage Laban is a victim of assuming an equality of randomness.  Moreover, having tricked his son-in-law into marrying both of his daughters and serving him for twenty years, he should have been a bit wary of Jacob tricking him in turn.  Laban, however, continued to be more interested in getting Jacob to run his estates for him than paying particular attention to how it was done.

So, Laban offers Jacob the speckled and spotted animals. (Everyone seems to want to give away the beagles it seems.)  Here’s the problem though.  Jacob is in charge of all the breeding.  In the biblical account, Jacob uses specially prepared sticks as well as prayers to effect this.

(Jacob’s procedure in this is akin to sympathetic magic which would be familiar to its contemporary audience but should not be taken as a biblical affirmation of such a practice.  Nor should his prayers and their efficacy be seen as an affirmation of the prosperity gospel.)

Even elementary animal husbandry suggests that within a couple of generations it wouldn’t be hard to maximize the quality and quantity of the speckled and mottled animals versus the others.  Unsurprisingly to everyone except Laban, the person in charge of breeding ends up with the most and best stuff.  Even with Laban changing the rules from speckled to ringstraked, it was still left to Jacob to enforce them.  And so, Laban’s sons begin to realize that the son-in-law will end up with everything and they will be left with the dregs.

So this entire passage comes down to describing typical situations when sinful people are engaged in economic transactions.  Like much of today’s political commentary, it is best at describing the problem and is all but silent on providing a solution.

1. Repeatedly altering a worker’s contract will not make them loyal to an employer.
2. Expecting someone else to manage your wealth to your benefit rather than thiers is foolish.
3. Requiring the person being regulated to regulate themselves advantages the regulator.

After twenty years of labor/stewardship for his uncle/father-in-law, it is understandable that Jacob is right to want to go out on his own and retire from working to make someone else rich and that he probably deserves some credit for his twenty years of service.  Afterall twenty years used to be the standard in this country for retirement.   (However even where it remains in the military, other public agencies and a few remaining legacies in large corporations this standard has been and is being greatly diminished.)

We have similar problems to Laban with regard to much of our regulations.  There are currently problems in this country where the people in charge of regulations are the same peoples being regulated and this works in thier favor.  Laban’s sons point out the problems but thier answer isn’t any better except for themselves.  The oft quoted latin phrase “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” or Who watches the watchmen? also speaks to the enduring nature of this problem.