The Anatomy of Deception: Genesis 29

I decided more than three months ago to stop writing any more Lectionary essays. Other demands occupied my time and, in fact, a person linking to my site had changed "linking" practices. So, I have focused on my "money-making" activities, since I still am a man who only eats what he kills, so to speak. But I couldn't resist writing today on the Scripture because I went to Church and the pastor so missed, or ignored, the point of the text that it made me nod to myself and say, "No wonder nothing relevant ever happens at Church. How could it, when you miss the message of the passage by such a wide margin?"

I guess I need to spell this out a bit more. The passage in question, quoted below from Gen. 29, was the first of four readings for the day. The preacher ended up speaking loosely about the Gospel reading but, in fact, his basic point was taken from the Gospel of Thomas, which he said was being freshly translated and presented when he was in seminary--many, yes many, years ago. He mumbled about children's creativity, about remembering his mother cooking loaves of bread, about God being everywhere and then, finding Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas. "Great," I thought. Not really even an amateur's effort to deal with the text...

Looking at the Text

What was interesting to note, however, was that I could tell the congregation wanted him to deal with the Gen. 29 text below. It is such a rich and inviting story that even the "stained-glass reading" in church couldn't drain it of its meaning. They chuckled as it was read. Let's hear the text, and then I will suggest how I would have handled the text:

"Then Laban said to Jacob, ‘Because you are my kinsman, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?’ 16 Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. 17 Leah’s eyes were lovely [My comment: the traditional translations have "weak"; i.e., Leah was "hard-favored." Maybe in our "modernness" no one can be less than celeb-beautiful...] and Rachel was graceful and beautiful. 18 Jacob loved Rachel; so he said, ‘I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.’ 19 Laban said, ‘It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to any other man; stay with me.’ 20 So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.

21 Then Jacob said to Laban, ‘Give me my wife that I may go in to her, for my time is completed.’ 22 So Laban gathered together all the people of the place, and made a feast. 23 But in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob; and he went in to her. 24 (Laban gave his maid Zilpah to his daughter Leah to be her maid.) 25 When morning came, it was Leah! And Jacob said to Laban, ‘What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?’ 26 Laban said, ‘This is not done in our country—giving the younger before the firstborn. 27 Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also in return for serving me for another seven years.’ 28 Jacob did so, and completed her week; then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as a wife."

The congregation was in "mini-titters" after v. 25 was read. A case of post-nuptial mistaken identity! Wow, you could run with this, if you had any skill, for quite some time. But even if you start with that point, the heart of the passage is in the nature of deception practiced on Jacob; it gives us a beautiful opportunity to understand the nature and anatomy of deception. Here are some of the points I would make, if I had the opportunity.

My Five Points

The first is a "background-type" point--that Jacob, who had practiced deception with his brother Esau, now found it visited on him by one in a more powerful position than he was. Deception finds company with other deceivers; it tends to send out "signals" of its nature, and those so inclined pick up on it. But this story doesn't simply relate to the company of deceivers; it relates to all of us who have been sold a defective "bill of goods" either through a faulty purchase, a promise not upheld, an understanding that we thought was secure, a contract violated, a love betrayed. Though one lesson of this story is that deception catches up to you, another is that those of us who try to live "straight" are also sometimes caught in webs of other peoples' deceptions.

Second, deception arose in this case out of false graciousness. Jacob was with his kinsman, someone with whom he should have been able to "let down his guard." You can trust family, can't you? There are few deceptions so painful, few knifes that tear more deeply into the heart than deceit, cheating, false dealing from loved ones. The Psalmist knew this:

"It is not enemies who taunt me—
I could bear that;
it is not adversaries who deal insolently with me—
I could hide from them.
13 But it is you, my equal,
my companion, my familiar friend,
14 with whom I kept pleasant company;
we walked in the house of God with the throng," Ps. 55:12-14.

Examples of intra-familial deception could be given. The stories would never stop.

A third point about deception is that it takes advantage of love. Jacob loved Rachel, and therefore one could assume that he sort of "let down his guard" in the presence of Laban. Laban no doubt picked this up right away, and decided to assume the advantage over Jacob. In this case it manifested itself in an unwillingness to tell Jacob the full terms of the "contract" between them. Jacob had said: "I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel." In the technical language of contract law, these words constitute an "offer." What Laban did was not to give an acceptance, in the language of contract law, but a counteroffer. When Laban said, "It is better that I give her to you than I should give her to any other man; stay with me," he was giving a vague counteroffer. It is "vague," because there really aren't any terms involved in this counteroffer. It is what you might call an "indefinite promise," and this kind of promise has no legal significance. It is a nullum pactum, a naked promise at best. But Jacob hadn't known the ways that law's categories can subtly be manipulated in the service of deception, and so because his mind was occupied and his vision was occluded by love, he went along. He thought he heard Laban agree to his terms, but Laban had done nothing of the sort.

Fourth, deception doesn't communicate all the important facts of a situation to a person when s/he needs to know those facts. In this instance, Laban didn't tell Jacob that Leah was "first in line." Let's face it; the translations can't hide the fact that Leah was the less desirable of the daughters. Jacob didn't want her. That was clear. Laban was probably making up the rules as he went along and claiming that it was the tradition of the country to do so. His interests were to have two of his daughters married off, with childrenl and to have someone till his land for a score of years. He actually got what he wanted, and he did so by not telling all the relevant facts of a sitaution to Jacob.

Finally, we learn through this story that when you deal with deceptive people, you have trouble. You may think that you understand them, and that you can outsmart them. Indeed, sometimes, perhaps, you can. But the best thing to do in such a situation is to get out of it. Of course, Jacob didn't know he was "had" until the first seven years had passed. Then, he realized he had to work another seven to get what he originally wanted. But he did so. Sometimes all you can do it to work twice as hard for the product you should have had with half the work. But that is what happens when you deal with deceivers. The tables get turned--not to your advantage.

Conclusion

Do things ever "catch up" with deceivers? Does Laban get his comeuppance? Of course he does, but that isn't the point of the story here. But what is true is how people are hurt through deception. It happened to a skillful conniver. It can and does happen to you and me. We can't "solve" much of anything by considering the nature of deception. But we can be true to human experience, experience that certainly throbbed much stronger in the hearts of the congregation today than anything about baking bread and hearing words from the Gospel of Thomas.

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