We read the story of Jacob with some sense of the familiar. We see Jacob steal and deceive until his mom, Rebekah decides to send Jacob to her brother Laban. Brother Essau has decided to kill Jacob. Jacob had stolen the blessing and the birthright. Rebekah knows Jacob needs to “get out of town”. Rebekah does not tell Issac the truth. She asks to send Jacob with the pretense of getting a wife for Jacob. (Looks like Jacob is not the only deceiver in the family.) Maybe Jacob will find a wife, but that is not the real reason for his departure.

Our story finds Jacob working for Uncle Laban, marrying Laban’s two daughters…then their two maidservants. Children are born and Jacob becomes wealthy. The sons of Laban speak badly of Jacob. Laban becomes suspicious. Jacob doesn’t seem so great anymore. Once again, Jacob is going to “get out of town”.

Rachel and Leah agree to leave so Jacob takes all his belongings and departs. Now, Rachel does something very interesting. She steals her father’s household gods. These “gods” were images that represented deceased ancestors. It’s unclear that they were worshipped, but were used in rituals and for divination.

The household gods were not to be given to any man outside the family. This was a portion of the inheritance intended for Rachel’s brothers. Rachel had no legal right to these gods. Laban is rightly concerned over this loss of inheritance. In their society, the family idols were a big deal. Rachel is probably not concerned so much with the worship of these idols as the inheritance they represent. Inheritance translated into value.

I had never thought about this before, but isn’t it interesting that Jacob desired the blessing and birthright that belonged to his brother. He desired them so much he took them by deception. Then we see Jacob’s beloved Rachel desire her brothers’ birthright represented by the family idols. She then takes them by stealth. She is a deceiver and thief…like Jacob.

We can’t know for certain why Rachel took the household gods. Perhaps it was the inheritance thing. Perhaps because she didn’t understand this God of Jacobs. Perhaps her family gods seemed more of a sure thing or was it just the familiar that she could not part with?

We see Rachel using deceit to hold on to the household gods when Laban came looking for them…Rachel continued to deceive. Maybe Jacob and Rachel were a better match than we even knew!

I just love that we can read scripture over and over. Then one day we discover something that was there all along….we just never noticed it before.