One of the beauties of the ancient stories of the Christian faith is that they are not like normal heroic tales or traditional myths that gloss over indiscretions or exaggerate the amazing qualities of the heroes. The ancient stories of our faith are warts and all tales of broken people. This is beautiful because it helps us understand our own brokenness and thrusts us towards the same God who worked in and through their brokenness. In this passage we see the brokenness of the patriarchal family in living colour as they conspire to get things to go their way. As we observe their conspiracies, we will see how we can so easily be drawn into the same schemes in our lives.