Before Jacob could run for his life from his brother Esau, Isaac called him in and told him not to go out and marry any of those filthy Canaanites, thus carrying on his father’s racist ways. Instead, Isaac told Jacob to go find someone in his mother’s family to marry, because apparently inbreeding is preferable to hanging out with a bunch of degenerates.
Jacob, ever the obedient son, went off to find one of his mother’s relatives that might be up for a little carnal knowledge. Meanwhile, Esau saw all this and, just to spite his father, went off and married one of Ishmael’s daughters.
So Jacob went toward Haran, and decided to pack it in for the night. He took some stones and used them for pillows and went to sleep. Because stones make lousy pillows, Jacob had a really bizarre dream involving a ladder going up to Heaven. In the dream, God came to him and told him that the land he was laying on would be given to him, and he would have tons and tons of descendants. Further, God told Jacob that even if his descendants scattered all over the world, they would eventually end up back there. Luckily for them, no one else was ever going to live there, so they would have absolutely no problem coming back and reclaiming the land. Or something like that.
Impressed by God’s promise, Jacob built a mighty temple (okay, he stacked a few stones and put oil on them, but it’s the thought that counts) and promised that so long as God would keep blessing him, he would keep following God. Of course, the flip side of this is that as soon as God stopped heaping on the blessings, Jacob was going to drop him like a hot rock.
Oh, also Jacob promised to give a tenth of everything he earned to God, thus firmly establishing the custom of tithing. Smooth move, Jacob.
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