Craftiness Rewarded

Jacob/Israel is one crafty character.  First he figures out how to steal his brother Esau's birthright by exploiting Esau's inordinate hunger.  Then we see where he gets it from - his mother, Rebecca, shows him how to fool his father into stealing his father's blessing by pretending to be Esau.  Jacob tricks his father Isaac into thinking he is Esau by wearing Esau's clothes, putting fur on his neck (since Esau is hairy) and feeding him a stew made by his mother.  This subterfuge is perpetrated shamelessly by Jacob and Rebecca in the belief that Isaac's blessing has some real meaning.

Laban, Rebecca's brother, gets Jacob to serve him for seven years to marry his first cousin Rachel, and then tricks him into marrying her sister Leah instead.  Then he tells Jacob to serve another seven years for Rachel, and after that continues to try and string him along since Jacob seems to know what he is doing with livestock production.

In Genesis 30:25-43 Jacob returns his uncle Laban's craftiness using his knowledge of livestock breeding.  He devises a plan whereby it seems that he is choosing the undesirable livestock when in reality the outcome is that he gets the bulk of the livestock, while the weak ones get sent back to Laban to breed.  Later he tells Leah and Rachel than an angel of Yahweh told him that this was Yahweh's way of getting back at Laban for deceiving Jacob. When Jacob realizes that Laban (and his sons) must be angry at him, he decides to run away with his wives and all their animals.  Rachel decides to secretly steal her Dad's family idols before they leave, and she doesn't tell anyone about it.

When Jacob and Laban finally make amends and agree on a covenant over a heap of stones, Jacob swears "by the Fear of his father Isaac."  I guess he should fear his father's revenge since he  bamboozled his Dad as he lay dying, huh?

Human trickery and divine retribution all over the place.