Jacob is Afraid…Very, Very Afraid

Genesis 32:22-32

March 2, 2008

I got my first job when I was 15.  I worked at the “Lucky Burger” out by Concordia High School.  I was making 90 cents an hour flipping burgers. 

About a week after I was hired, two of my best friends also got jobs there.             Had the manager known that we were friends, he never would have hired all three of us.  There was an older lady named Wanda who always worked behind the grill and sort of mothered the three of us. 

One of the most despised jobs was taking out the trash.  It was just nasty.            You know how awful trash bins are at fast food restaurants.  People miss and dump stuff on the floor.  They drop in their drink cups full of ice, which then melt and leak all over the place.  Ketchup is spilled all over the place.  The special Lucky Burger sauce is smeared on the inside and outside of the trash containers. Taking out the trash in a fast food restaurant is just a gross job. 

My friend Steve had this knack of getting out of this job.  I just never caught on.  After a real busy spurt of customers, he would holler back to Wanda, “Wanda, don’t you think its time for Scott to take out the trash?”  She would always say, “Yes it is.  Scott, don’t forget the outside trash.”  We worked there for about a year and a half, and on those shifts when we worked together, I don’t remember ever seeing Steve take out the trash.  I was never quick enough to say, “Wanda, don’t you think it’s time for Steve to take out the trash?”

Since coming back to Fort Wayne, I’ve tried to make contact with my two friends.  We’ve talked on the phone, but just haven’t been able to get together.  Steve is some sort of executive with Ford Motor Company and works in Detroit.  When we finally get together, I am going to remind him of our Lucky Burger days. 

You know, there are some people who just have a knack of getting other people to do stuff for them.  They have the force of character to sell freezers to Eskimos or beard trimmers to Amish men.   In Steve’s case, it was no big deal.  It was just one teenager trying to upstage another teenager.  The consequences of the game were anything but serious. 

Some people however, learn how to use their strength of personality in destructive ways.  Jacob was one of those.  His attitude was evident from the moment of his birth.  He was a twin to Esau.  Esau was born first, but Jacob followed right behind holding on to his older brother’s heel, letting the world know that he was one to be taken seriously. 

As the brothers grew, Jacob convinced Esau to give up his birthright for a bowl of stew.  Suddenly, it was the younger brother to whom the honor and privilege of family leadership passed.  Shortly after that incident, Jacob tricked his father Isaac into giving him the oldest son’s blessing.  Jacob was out for himself and no other. 

But what goes around comes around.  Esau was driven into a rage and vowed that he would kill Jacob for the injustice committed against him.  Fearing for her younger son’s life, Jacob’s mother Rebekah sent him to live with his uncle Laban. 

Jacob falls in love with Laban’s beautiful daughter Rachel and asks for her hand in marriage.  Laban agrees, in return for seven years of service.  Jacob gladly accepts, but on the night of the wedding, Laban slips in the plain daughter Leah.  He then requires another seven years of service for Rachel. 

At this point, I’m feeling pretty good about Jacob because he is finally getting what he deserves.  He has been the one who has deceived and taken advantage of others.  It looks like his karma is beginning to turn. 

But then, it turns right back.  He asks to leave his father-in-law in order to begin a new life with his own family.  Laban agrees that Jacob can take any of his sheep and goats which have spots.  But Jacob reverts back to his old tricks.  He peels the bark off of some wooden tree branches.  The wood underneath is spotted and any sheep and goats who are born are born with spots.  Jacob becomes instantly rich. 

Jacob and his family, along with their servants and flocks, are finally off to themselves.  And then came the dreaded news.  Esau is coming.  Jacob remembers that Esau has vowed to kill him for the injustices committed against him.  Jacob looks to the horizon for any sign of his older brother…and is very, very afraid.

On a Friday night in the spring of 1971, Toni and I were out on a date.  We had gone out with some other friends in one of their cars.  I honestly don’t remember where we went, but I do know that our curfew was midnight.  Our friends vanished.  I don’t know where they went; they just disappeared.  I was never too bright, but about one o’clock, I figured out that we were in trouble.

I found a pay phone to call home.  My dad answered and I had to tell him that we needed a ride.  He came to pick us up.  Toni lived clear out on Washington Center Road at a time when that really was far away.  Dad pulled up in his car, we got in, and he took her home…and he never said a word.  And I was very, very scared. 

I was watching a news report on television that said that one of the early mistakes made by our armed forces in Iraq was the failure to understand the Middle Eastern sense of honor.  The Army and Marines had a tendency to just go around breaking down doors.  They soon learned however, that it was much easier if they first asked to speak to the man of the house to tell him what they wanted.  That way, the husband and father would not be humiliated in front of his family.  When they humiliated a man, they increased the changes of his taking up arms against them. 

That sense of honor was at work in the relationship between Jacob and Esau.  Easu had been humiliated and was honor bound to seek revenge.  I think we can understand why Jacob was so afraid. 

On his way to meet Esau, Jacob was confronted by a heavenly messenger at the river.  They wrestled all night long, neither being able to gain an advantage over the other.  He fought for his life and was rewarded with a blessing.  Unlike the blessing he robbed from his brother, this one was his own.  He struggled with God and emerged changed.

On the way home that night with my dad after dropping Toni off, I was waiting for the shoe to drop.  I expected to be grounded until I was about thirty years old.  My dad has never been a man of a lot of words.  All he said was this:  “Well, I got into some hot water myself sometimes when I was your age.”  That was it.  I never heard about it again.  I still remember the weight that was lifted off of me.  I didn’t have anything to be afraid about any more. 

Jacob wrestled with that heavenly messenger and wouldn’t quit until he received his blessing.  And through the blessing, he felt the forgiveness that was freely offered by God.  Through the blessing, he had the strength to go to his brother, at which time they were reconciled despite their past history. 

I think that Jacob has earned his status as a bad boy of the Bible.  He was not bad all of the time, but he certainly had his moments.  Finally though, he realized that God truly loved him. 

That’s the message of Lent.  In this season, we are reminded of the ways we have failed God.  We are reminded that we cannot ever be ready to Easter until we journey through our sins.  We can never be ready for the light until we have journeyed through the darkness.  Jacob teaches us that God never gives up on us.

Jacob came full circle, from bad boy to forgiven.  Despite his failures, he remained open to God.  I hope we will do the same.