It was Isaac’s idea to have someone outside his household keep the duplicate copies. “You were right all along, Rebekah,” he said. “There’s more safety in having several people read these writings than in keeping it with just one. Father kept them hidden to keep enemies from stealing them. But there could be a fire, or they could become waterlogged, or mice could get at them, and then where would we be, if all the copies are in the same place?”

After some thought, they decided to invite Keturah’s fourth son, Midian, to stay with them for a year in order to learn how to read and write. At the end of the year he would become the keeper of the second set of writings. “It’s not the birthright,” Isaac was careful to explain to both Midian and Keturah. “There’s more to it than that. But you should keep the parchments and copy them every generation, and pass them along father to son. It’s a priestly responsibility, so I’ll ordain you, when the time comes.”

Midian took the responsibility seriously. More than once during the year he was with them, Rebekah found herself wishing that Esau had chosen Midian to be his companion on his adventures. Midian took the commandments seriously and studied the scriptures zealously, so he’d be sure to understand them well enough not to make foolish errors in copying. He and Jacob became good friends, able to laugh and be outrageously silly when they had no pressing duties, and then drop the frivolity and become intensely serious when the time came.

As far as Rebekah knew, Esau barely noticed that Midian was in the camp. He was so disconnected from the holy writings now that Rebekah sometimes wondered if he still remembered how to read.

At the end of his year, Midian wasn’t inclined to leave, even though Isaac pointed out that the purpose of training him had been to have a copy of the writings maintained in a widely separated place. “Don’t be in a hurry to send me away,” said Midian. “Jacob has a head start of a dozen years in his study of the writings, and I still have a lot of catching up to do.”

And when Rebekah pointed out that it was good for Jacob to have a friend in the camp, Isaac relented and Midian was not sent away—though Keturah began sending servants to relay petulant messages about someone having abducted her son or he would surely have come back, at least for a visit.

Perhaps it began as a joke that Jacob and Midian meant to play on Esau—certainly that’s how Midian explained it, later. But Rebekah suspected that Jacob, at least, had a serious purpose all along. He might have daydreamed his plot for years, but because he now had a friend to confide in, what had been a dream now became reality.