As we read through Genesis in my sixth-grade class, certain life lessons seem to leap off the page: how to exercise faith muscles, how to rely on God instead of taking matters into our own hands, how to get along, that sort of thing. We find it is easier to watch a character in biblical history make mistakes; we can analyze and critique, taking whichever life lessons we need to apply in our own lives.
The story of Jacob and Esau is no exception. Isaac is ready to die but must pass on the great responsibility and blessing of the covenant. Neither Esau nor Jacob deserves it! These twin brothers have been at odds since birth. Esau is a big lug who thinks only of his carnal desires; Jacob, grasping the heel of Esau from the first moments of life, spends his time finding ways to usurp Esau’s firstborn position. So, in the story, Jacob tricks his father into giving the firstborn blessing to him. Esau cries bitterly, vowing to kill his deceitful younger brother (whose name happens to mean “Deceiver”). Jacob runs.
But now that rascal Jacob is about to meet his match in his trickster uncle, Laban. (Laban pulls the old “switch-a-roo” at the wedding, causing Jacob to marry the plain-Jane older sister.) He spends twenty years in relational conflict with Laban.
I mean, is this great stuff or what?
Here is the take-away. We often have personality clashes. Of course, we do! At school we are in close quarters for seven hours a day, our sin nature rubbing up against someone else’s sin nature. One year, I gave each student (and myself!) a small square of sandpaper to tape into Bible journals. That was to remind us that God deliberately uses others who rub us the wrong way, who irritate and perhaps even offend. But as sandpaper rubs, look at what happens: rough spots are smoothed!
We can learn to be thankful for this ---though it may take years. When we force ourselves to respond with goodwill, when we overlook a cutting or careless remark, when we resist lashing out, or only laugh with but not at, in other words, when we rely on the Holy Spirit to empower us to agape-love, we become Christ-like. Our rough edges are smoothed.
And we, like Jacob, will be ready to carry the covenant.