I’ve heard Genesis described as a “redneck soap opera.” Here we get a plot that could come straight from a modern daytime talk show.
I don’t know about you, but if I’m remembering and telling the stories of where my family comes from for the sake of future generations, it’s exactly stories like these that I leave out. These are the stories I repeat perpetually.
And yet the ancient Jews felt like these were the important stories in remembering their ancestors, their “heroes of faith.”
They remember that Jacob parties so hard at his wedding that he wakes up the next morning married to the wrong girl.
They remember that Jacob, who’s name means “cheater” and who to this point in the story has survived by cheating others, gets cheated by his father-in-law.
They remember that his wives are so petty in their jealousy of one another that they offering Jacob their servants for him the sleep with to conceive children on their behalf.
And you thought your family was dysfunctional.
But this is the family that God has chosen. What does that say about the kinds of people God chooses?
Makes me wonder if God has the longterm in mind rather than the short-term. Makes me think that these are pretty normal, regular, human people. Makes me wonder that if God uses these people in his Story of Redemption, who else is he going to use?
What about you? What do you see?
Fiftyeight 