III. CHARACTER OF JACOB, MORAL DEFECTS OF.
1. "Like father, like son," is again verified in the practical life of Jacob. We find this patriarch excels, in moral defects, both his father and his grandfather.
2. His conduct toward his brother Esau, in robbing him of his just and inherited rights, is an act which stamps an eternal stigma upon his character. When Jacob's father, old and blind, asked him, "Art thou my son Esau?" he replied, "I am" (Gen. xxvii. 24), thus telling a base falsehood, and deceiving his old father; and this deceptive and underhanded act caused his brother "to cry an exceedingly bitter cry" (Gen. xxvii. 34 ). What an unfeeling brother was this "true servant of the Lord"!
It appears that Isaac and Jehovah both intended that Esau should inherit the blessing; but Jacob outwitted them by the aid and connivance of his mother. This is but a sample of the character and conduct of the family throughout their whole history.
3. Jacob seems to have entertained very singular and selfish ideas in regard to his religious obligation to serve and worship his God. He made it entirely a question of bread and butter, or, rather, of bread and raiment. He proposed to strike up a trade with Jehovah relative to his future allegiance to his government, and to fix the terms of the contract himself (Gen. xxviii.). He kindly and condescendingly told Jehovah, that if he would provide him with food and raiment, and be his constant companion in the future, "then shall the Lord be my God, and this stone shall be God's house; and I will give one-tenth to the Lord of what he giveth me" (Gen. xxviii. 20). Here is the attempt to drive a bargain with Jehovah on the quid-pro-quo principle. We are not informed how Jehovah appreciated this kindly offer. This is an unfortunate omission, as every reader must feel interested in knowing whether he accepted the proposition; and henceforth he whom "the heaven of heavens can not contain" took up his abode in the patriarch's little stone hut. We are led to infer, that, if Jehovah refused to accept his terms, Jacob would henceforth refuse to be a subject of God's kingdom, and thus bring him to grief. This is a sample of the childish conception entertained by the whole Jewish nation of "the God of the universe," if we may presume their God was any thing more than a family or national deity.
4. The proneness of the Lord's holy people to falsify, and deceive is well illustrated in the case of Laban, who, after Jacob had by a fair contract, labored seven years for him for his daughter Rachel, would not let him have her, but forced his older daughter Leah upon him; and, when Jacob complained he told him he must serve seven years more if he got Rachel; and his love for her prompted him to accept the terms. But he seems not to have been well compensated for his fourteen long years of toil for these two sisters. Their subsequent conduct indicates that he "paid dear for the whistle;" and one month's labor ought to have paid for both, even at ten cents a day, for they both turned out to be failures. They were, however, a fair specimen of the race. Rachel stole her father's images; and, when pursued and overtaken by him, she hid them, and told him a falsehood to conceal the act. The circumstance of her father having images, and of her stealing them, is an evidence that both were idolaters (Gen. xxxi.).
5. It is easy to see, from the foregoing facts, from what source the Jewish proclivity to idolatry and also to falsehood was derived. The latter was practically manifested by four hundred prophets at one time. It is true the Lord was charged with putting the lie in their mouths (1 Kings xxii. 22).
6. We are told, that, on a certain occasion, "the sons of Jacob answered Shechem, and Hamor his father, deceitfully" (Gen. xxxiv. 13); by which it appears the spirit or propensity to fraud and deception was still transmitted to their posterity.