It is interesting how focused the whole lens of the book of
Genesis becomes. I have never really noticed that many literary things about it
before. I also think it is really interesting that I did not notice this until
today, since the book gets equally as focused with what we read last week, and
where we left off, with Jacob and his wives, is exactly what the rest of
Genesis focuses on. I think the only reason I did not notice before was
probably because I did not think it was strange, but then we mentioned it in
class, so my attention was drawn to it.
I always felt bad for Rachel in this story. Jacob wanted to
marry her, and her dad was just kind of a jerk, and then he tricks Jacob into
marrying Leah, and only after 7 more years of work does he get to marry the
daughter he actually loved. I also felt bad for Leah. At this point, neither
she nor Rachel or happy, but Leah gets to have thirteen children, and no matter
how hard Rachel tries, she only ends up having two. Also, it always seemed to
me like Leah was in on her father’s treachery, which made me not like her, but
it seems highly probable that she did not really have any other choice. Even if
she did like Jacob, which it seems like she did, at least a little, it would
suck to marry someone that you knew for a fact did not love you. Especially
when all they tried to do after that was marry your little sister. This just
seems like everyone involved, besides Laban, was stuck between a rock and a
hard place.
I am still kind of surprised that everything worked out so
well. I mean, yeah, Jacob and his wives and his children ended up running away
from Laban, but that seemed to magically all work out, even though Rachel was a
thief and lied about it. I also really never understood (and still do not) why
Rachel decided to steal the household gods in the first place (household gods?
Are those, like, smaller than regular gods, but still bigger than apartment
gods?). They seemed like a really useless thing to steal, and definitely a
really strange thing for Laban to chase after them just to get back. I feel
like it was just an excuse to see if they had stolen from him in any other way.
He was incredibly greedy, which did not end up working out for him in any way, shape,
or form. Still, it seems like Laban would have figured out that someone was
lying, or at the very least had a temper tantrum because he did not end up
getting what he wanted.
On to the matter of Jacob’s sons. Seriously, everyone in
this family seems unhappy and incredibly upset with their lives, except they
all work out in the end, which seems like something we would classify as
fairytale-like today. Which is kind of interesting and strange, thinking about
the Bible having the first fairytales. Anyway, I digress. I always felt really
bad for Joseph, because the poor guy gets thrown down a hole, by all his
jealous brothers, and guess what, his mother is extremely upset because she
thinks her only child is dead. She had one child, and then her sister’s sons
all thought it would be a brilliant idea to throw him down a hole and hope that
he died, but not bother to verify that information. Which explains why Joseph
was the genius who managed to help run a country and they were not. That always
seemed like a weird segue/outcome. Still does.
Why do you think the book ends the way it does, with Jacob’s
death?
Why do you think the Pharaoh’s wife was so interested in
Joseph? Why did she try so hard to get him into trouble?
Why do you think Joseph was so willing to forgive his
brothers, even after they threw him down a hole, despite the fact he had not
seem them for like twenty years?
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