Jacob is the towering, complex and more than life
size character in the Old Testament.
His life was one of scheming, frustrations, pain,
loneliness and yet spiritual.
None of his contemporaries understood his pain
and despair during his life.
He had none to share his heart. He lived alone,
fought alone and won alone.
He is the nation “Israel”, but he is often
neglected between Abraham and Moses.
He had moments of fear and strong faith.
His family was in disorder, he silently fought to
set it straight.
He was born in the Promised Land but spent most
of his life in foreign lands and died in a foreign land.
Jacob was the son of Isaac and grandson of
Abraham.
That means, Jacob was in the special family God
had singled out as his chosen people.
Jacob lived from approximately 2006 to 1859 B.C.
He had a respect for the spiritual covenants of
his family, but his faith in the Lord was still immature.
His character was that of a schemer, liar, and
manipulator.
He was trying to fulfill God’s plans using his
human abilities. He was an independent man.
The name, ‘Jacob’ means "deceiver".
But later God renamed it as "Israel",
which means "one who has struggled with God."
He is the father of the twelve tribes of Israel.
He was a man with a striving for spiritual things.
Jacob was equal to us in human strengths and
weaknesses.
He was far from perfection, but from this man we
learn important lessons of faith, especially about God's grace.
His own father was the meek and obedient Isaac.
He was obedient to his father Abraham the point
of sacrificing his life to God.
As a consequence, the promises God had
established with Abraham were handed down to the patriarch’s posterity, Isaac,
Jacob and to their descendants.
Family
background
With the above introduction, let us study of the
life of Jacob.
His family background starts with his great
grandfather, Abraham, whom God chose to
establish a covenant people.
After Abraham died, his son Isaac
lived in the land of Canaan, the Promised Land.
Like his father, Isaac had his
home in a tent.
He had many servants and flocks
of sheep and herds of cattle. He was a rich man.
Isaac and his wife Rebekah had two children. The
older was named Esau and the younger Jacob.
Both the children were taught about the
faithfulness of father and grandfather towards Yahweh the Lord.
But as the brothers matured they took different
paths.
Esau became a cunning hunter, while Jacob
remained in the home.
Jacob is described in the Hebrew text as an ‘ish tam”, meaning a
man, “whole, complete, perfect” (Genesis
25:27).
Thus Jacob came from a real dysfunctional family.
Jacob’s messed up family life helped shape him
into being a manipulative person.
Jacob’s style of relating was one of manipulating
others.
He tried to control life and depended on himself,
not God.
God had to break Jacob of this bad pattern of
relating.
The book of Genesis spends ten whole chapters on
Jacob. (Chapters 25-36)
11 chapters of Genesis describe the period from
creation to the flood and the tower of Babel (1-11)
14 chapters are on Abraham (12-25).
And after a brief mention of the descendants of Abraham,
Isaac and Ishmael we begin the story of Jacob.
Family
members
The family of Jacob consists of four members -
his father Isaac, mother Rebekah, his elder brother Esau and Jacob himself.
Isaac
Not much space is devoted to Isaac because he did
not do anything significant.
Isaac was a weak man, a passive person. He did nothing
significant.
He was failure as a patriarch to
control his family affairs.
But he inherited the faith of his father,
Abraham.
Isaac did not go out to find his own wife. This
was an important event in those days.
In ancient Hebrew life style, men used to first meet
their wives at some well or spring.
What happens at the well is indicative of the
relationship.
For instance, Moses met his wife at the well.
Jacob met his wife at a spring.
But Isaac didn’t even go to the well.
His father’s servant went and found a wife at the
well for him and brought her home.
Rebekah
Rebekah the wife of Isaac and mother of Esau and
Jacob was a manipulating lady.
She took over the family and Jacob’s life.
Among her two children, she favored Jacob who spent
most of his time at home.
So Rebekah took over his life and arranged
everything for him.
She arranged for him to get the blessing from his
father, she arranges for his deliverance from the death threat of Esau and
arranged his marriage by sending him to her brother Laban.
Esau
Esau was very fond of hunting; and he was rough
and covered with hair.
The first thing that we learn about Esau is that
he was a skillful hunter.
Isaac loved Esau more than Jacob, because Esau
brought to his father what he had killed in hunting.
Esau was irresponsible and impulsive.
Esau was not considerate about the spiritual
values of his fore fathers.
His serious crime was that he devalued the covenants
of the family to God.
He didn’t take his birthright seriously.
And he sold the birthright and married two women
who worshiped idols.
Neither he nor his wives did not belong to the
chosen line of God.
The family
Thus, Jacob came from an unusual family.
His father was a weak character. His mother had a
tendency to take control.
His brother, Esau was a natural man concerned
with the things of this world.
But Jacob trifled not with sacred things.
He respected the covenants of his father and
grandfather with God.
Jacob was quiet and thoughtful, staying at home,
dwelling in a tent, and caring for the flocks of his father.
Jacob’s life began with a
struggle.
The struggle to enjoy God’s
promises about him lasted throughout his days.
As a twin in the womb of
Rebekah he jostled for position with Esau and was born grasping his brother’s
heel.
When the children struggled
within her she went to inquire of the LORD.
God told her that there were
two nations within her womb who would become divided.
One would be stronger than the
other, and the older would serve the younger (Genesis
25:23).
The struggle in the womb is a foreshadow of their
troubled relationship.
Esau was born first and thereby became legal heir
to the family birthright which included the Covenant between God and Abraham.
This birthright was a link in the line of descent
through which the Promised Messiah was to come (Numbers 24:17-19).
Before their births, God knew that Esau's
descendants would become enemies of Israel for generations to come and He knew
Jacob was a man of integrity.
He had preordained that Jacob would be in the
lineage of Jesus.
Jacob and Esau grew up
together living a nomadic life.
Esau, being a hunter, was his
father’s favorite, while Jacob was favored by his mother (Genesis 25:28).
The Stolen
Birthright (Genesis 25)
In chapter 25: 28 we see that Isaac favored Esau because he “had a
taste for game.”
Esau was the strong hunter. He was everything
that Isaac was not.
And perhaps Isaac, a weak man, was trying to
re-live his life through his son’s life.
In the Middle East,
during those times, the older son receives twice as much as the younger of what
the father has owned.
This was called his "birthright," for
it was his right as the oldest born.
So Esau, as the older, had a
"birthright" to a double portion of Isaac's possessions than Jacob.
But, verse 34
says: “Thus Esau despised his birthright”.
Esau, when he grew up, did not care for his
birthright or the blessing which God had promised.
But Jacob wished greatly to have the birthright
which would come to Esau when his father died.
Once, when Esau came home, hungry and tired from
hunting in the fields.
He saw that Jacob had a bowl of food that he had
just cooked for dinner.
And Esau pleaded to have a bowl of that
particular food. (25:30)
Jacob was ready to share the food, but he
bargained for Esau’s birthright.
Then Esau solemnly promised Jacob to give his
birthright, all for a bowl of food.
It was not right for Jacob to deal so selfishly
with his brother; but it was very wrong in Esau to care so little for his
birthright and God's blessing.
The scripture makes no special comment on the
action of Jacob, but the Bible records a negative comment on Esau: “Thus Esau
despised his birthright. (25:34)
It is well to assume that Jacob knew that he was
supposed to end up with the birthright eventually.
His mother told him what the Lord had told her.
But Jacob was depending on his intellect and
manipulations to attain the promise of God.
He was not willing to wait on the Lord.
The Stolen
Blessings (Genesis 27)
When Isaac was old and his
eyesight faded he thought he was near to his death.
So he made secret arrangements
with Esau to pass on to him the blessings due to the firstborn son (27:1-4).
Isaac was about to disregard God’s word.
Isaac was planning to give all
his blessings to the ungodly son, who will never keep the covenant with God.
Isaac knew about the election
of God, that Jacob is the chosen one by God to continue in the line of Abraham.
Still, he thought of blessing
Esau with all his blessings and leave God’s election to God Himself.
This was not fair from the
promised son of Abraham.
Esau did not honor his agreement with Jacob when
he sold his birthright.
Esau ought to have told his father that the
blessing did not belong to him, for he had sold it to his brother Jacob.
But he did not tell his father. He went out into
the fields hunting, to find the kind of meat which his father liked the most.
On hearing the secret plan of
Isaac and Esau, Rebekah devised a plan to deceive Isaac into blessing Jacob.
Isaac is fooled by the smell of the clothing and
the hairy arms and blesses Jacob.
Thus, Rebekah and Jacob
deceived Isaac and Jacob received his father’s blessing.
When Esau heard of the deception, he vowed to kill Jacob as soon as the period of
mourning for his father’s death ended (27:41).
Rebekah informs Jacob that Esau is going to kill
him and that he must flee from his home.
And she never saw Jacob again.
This is a good example of how Rebekah manipulated
events to achieve what she thought was best.
She knew God had said that Esau would serve
Jacob. Isaac knew it too.
But Isaac decided to ignore God’s election.
Still, it was not Rebekah’s duty to go around and
trick Isaac in order to fulfill God’s plan.
This is not a close knit family. There are
definite problems in the relationships.
Notice that Esau and Jacob do not interact. Esau
and Rebekah do not interact.
Jacob interacted with his father in the guise of
Esau.
And we do not find warm interaction between Isaac
and Rebekah.
So chapter 27
shows us again that Jacob did not wait on God to fulfill His promise to
Rebekah.
The Dream (28)
Rebekah came from the family of Nahor, Abraham's
younger brother, who lived in Haran, a long distance to the northeast of Canaan.
Laban was Rebekah's brother.
So Jacob went out of Beersheba, on the border of
the desert, and walked alone, carrying his staff in his hand. (28:10)
This is the beginning of a long journey of many
years.
Jacob was now leaving the Promised Land which was
part of his blessing.
The way Jacob got the blessing was not the way of
God.
But still, God is going to honor it.
On his way, he came to Bethel, a place among the
mountains, more than sixty miles from his home.
And as he had no bed to lie down upon, he took a
stone and rested his head upon it for a pillow, and lay down to sleep.
And while asleep he saw a marvelous vision. (28: 11-15).
He had a dream of a ladder to
heaven with God at the top and angels ascending and descending.
God gave Jacob the assurance
of His presence and reiterated His promise to Abraham (28:13-15).
And in the morning Jacob awakened from his sleep.
He said: “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it." (28:16)
And Jacob took the stone on which his head had
rested, and he set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on it as an offering to
God.
And Jacob renamed the place
“Bethel,” meaning “house of God,” and he vowed to serve God.
And Jacob made a promise to God at that time, and
said:
Genesis 28:20, 21
20 Then Jacob made a vow,
saying, "If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going,
and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on,
21
"so that I come back to my father's
house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God.
22
"And this stone which I have set as
a pillar shall be God's house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a
tenth to You." (NKJV)
Jacob was vowing to live according to the
Abrahamic covenant.
The vision assured Jacob that,
in spite of all his cunning dealings with his brother and father, God still
cares for him; God is watching over him and he is still in the plan of God.
And Jacob was in need of a
heavenly vision. He had a love for his family and the Promised Land.
But unfortunately, he was out
of both of them. It is not a willing departure, but a kind of chasing out.
Jacob lost his comfort zone,
he was thrown out of it.
And Jacob never returned to
the comfort of his family and the Promised Land.
Jacob returned to his Land
after 20 years in Haran, but by that time, his mother died.
The following years he spent
in the Promised Land were of fear and despair.
After he left his home, he was
always followed by loneliness, fear, uncertainty, frustration, despair and a
life in foreign lands at the mercy of strange kings.
Dealing
With Laban (Genesis 29-31)
Let us go back to Jacob’s journey to Haran.
At Haran he met his manipulative uncle who later
turned to his father in law.
The days in the house of Laban, Jacob went
through frustrations, challenges, hard work and manipulations.
Laban was a manipulator too, a master in it.
Jacob finally met his match. He finally meets
someone who is as deceitful as he is.
After Jacob settled in Haran,
Laban offered him payment for the work as a shepherd looking after his flocks.
Chapters 29-31
tell how Jacob worked seven years for marrying Rachel.
But on his wedding night, Laban sent Leah into
the tent instead of Rachel.
Jacob again worked seven more years for Rachel.
Then he worked another six or seven years to
build a flock of his own to provide for his family.
There was much deception going on between Laban
and Jacob as each tried to make his flocks grow larger.
But in the end God blessed Jacob and he became
very prosperous.
He finally decides to sneak away from Laban.
While Jacob was living at Haran, eleven sons were
born to him from Leah, Rachel, and their two
handmaidens.
These sons would be the
progenitors of the twelve tribes of Israel.
But only one of these was the child of Rachel.
This son was Joseph, who was dearer to Jacob than
any other of his children.
He was the youngest, and the child of his beloved
Rachel.
After more than twenty years of hard labor under
the scheming and jealous Laban, God commanded Jacob to leave Laban’s land and
return to the land of Canaan. (31:1-15, 38
Jacob started his journey back
to the Promised Land, with him his wives and children and all the vast flocks
he had accumulated.
But his departure was not an easy walk. He was hotly
pursued by his father in law, Laban.
But God warned Laban, "Be careful that you
speak to Jacob neither good nor bad." (31:24)
Jacob and Laban came to a respectful parting of
the ways and established a boundary covenant, which would long divide the
territory of the Israelites from the northern Aramaeans (31:44–45).
Laban and Jacob eventually
parted company after swearing an oath not to invade one another’s lands.
Jacob’s life was never one of ease or devoid of
challenges and conflicts.
Jacob says in effect to Laban at a moment of
intense frustration during their last confrontation:
Genesis 31:38 - 42
38
"These twenty years I have been
with you; your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried their young, and
I have not eaten the rams of your flock.
39 "That
which was torn by beasts I did not bring to you; I bore the loss of it. You
required it from my hand, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.
40 "There
I was! In the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night, and my sleep
departed from my eyes.
41 "Thus
I have been in your house twenty years; I served you fourteen years for your two
daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten
times.
42 "Unless
the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had been with
me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God has seen my
affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked you last night." (NKJV)
We should focus on the last statement whenever we
think of Jacob.
God was with him as had been promised.
In the face of every trial, Jacob remained
faithful and retained the companionship of the Lord who watched over him.
Jacob was returning and carrying with him those
troubles incident to the conflict with Esau.
He had been partially responsible for his flight
from Canaan.
On his way he met God once again.
Earlier he had a heavenly vision and received the
promise of God to bless and protect him, on his way away from the Promised
Land.
Now on his way towards the Promised Land he meets
God once again.
He was expecting Esau to come against him to
fulfill his vow to kill Jacob.
He got news that Esau was coming to meet him with
four hundred men.
Jacob became exceedingly fearful, for it was a
life crisis of staggering proportion.
His family and the covenant were facing annihilation.
The promises of God were on trial.
All promises of God looked like empty words and
hollow phrases.
But this life crisis set the stage for two events
that would confirm forever the course of Jacob’s future. First, Jacob yearningly
prayed to God for safety. The independent man became a dependent man.
Second, he wrestled that night for a desperately
needed blessing from God. (32:9-13, 24-30).
He understood and acknowledged the inevitability
of God’s grace.
At the river Jabbok, Jacob prayed intensely.
Genesis 32: 9 - 12
9
Then Jacob said, "O God of my
father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the LORD who said to me, 'Return to
your country and to your family, and I will deal well with you':
10 "I
am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which You
have shown Your servant; for I crossed over this Jordan with my staff, and now
I have become two companies.
11 "Deliver
me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him,
lest he come and attack me and the mother with the children.
12 "For
You said, 'I will surely treat you well, and make your descendants as the sand
of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.'" (NKJV)
Jacob acknowledged his unworthiness before God.
He pleaded for deliverance from the impending
catastrophe.
He reminded God the promise that his posterity
would be as innumerable as the sands of the sea.
How could this promise come to pass if Jacob and
his family were annihilated?
How could the covenant continue if the bearers of
the covenant were destroyed?
But that night God, who is still trying to get
through to Jacob, met with Jacob.
Verse 24
says, “Jacob was left alone.”
It is such a little phrase, but it conveys an
ocean of ideas.
Jacob had run out of resources. Jacob was finally
been broken, at the end of his rope.
His life was a mess that he could not solve.
He is all alone and has to face Esau alone.
Jacob was finally broken to the point where he
will now trust in God.
At Jabbok, Jacob faced a crossroads. He was at
the brink of his faith and understanding.
He stood in the place his grandfather Abraham had
stood when God asked for the life of Isaac.
Abraham could not understand how the promises of
the covenant of a great posterity would be fulfilled.
But Abraham was obedient in the face of a test.
Jacob was transformed into a dependent man in the
face of his ordeal.
He desired a blessing to strengthen his resolve
and faith.
The threatening situation with Esau was more than
he could comprehend.
He wanted and needed greater light, knowledge,
and power.
That night, Jacob was joined by a heavenly Man
who would wrestle with him for the rest of the night.
The details of Jacob’s wrestle are not made clear
in the biblical record.
In faith he wrestled for a blessing with the
heavenly angel.
They wrestled all night, and Jacob would not let
the celestial sentinel go until he gave Jacob the requested blessing.
Jacob’s resolve was great, and his fortitude
enduring.
The heavenly angel, before he left Jacob, gave
him a new name, “Israel” which means “he fights with God.”
Jacob’s name was changed to Israel when he
finally began to trust in God.
Israel was God’s covenant name for the new
nation.
The name “Jacob” represents independence from God and “Israel” represents dependence on God.
After he met with God, instead of hiding behind his
servants, wives and children, he goes out in front of them to face Esau alone. (33:3)
He now is depending on God and not his own
resources.
Esau receives him openly and it seems that there
are no hard feelings.
Thus, God has paved the way for Jacob to return
to the Promised Land.
The rape Dinah
Genesis
34 records
the rape of Jacob’s only daughter, Dinah, and the revenge her brothers Simeon
and Levi carried out on the rapist’s entire community.
The revenge by his sons did
not make him happy.
He was afraid that the
neighboring nations will come against him and annihilate them.
Genesis 34:30 Then
Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You have troubled me by making me
obnoxious among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the
Perizzites; and since I am few in number, they will gather themselves together
against me and kill me. I shall be destroyed, my household and I." (NKJV)
Jacob always lived in fear of
his existence; he always expected an annihilation from his enemies.
It seems, he was not
privileged with peace of mind throughout his life.
And after that, Jacob moved
his family back to Bethel (35:1).
There God reappeared to Jacob
and confirmed His blessing (35:9-13).
Genesis 35:11, 12
11 Also God said to
him: "I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company
of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body.
12 "The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I
give to you; and to your descendants after you I give this land." (NKJV)
Death of Rachel
Jacob and his family later
moved from Bethel to Eder.
On the way, Rachel gave birth
to her second son, Jacob's twelfth - Benjamin.
But Rachel died in childbirth,
on the way to Ephrath, that is, Bethlehem.
Jacob was reunited with his
father, Isaac, in Mamre.
When his father died, both
Jacob and Esau buried him.
Last days
Similar to his mother, Jacob
also had favorites.
Rachel was his favorite wife,
and her children - Joseph and Benjamin - were his favorite sons.
In fact, Joseph was so favored
that his brothers became jealous and sold him into slavery.
The brothers of Joseph gave a
false report to Jacob that he was killed by a wild animal.
They showed blood stained
clothes of Joseph as proof for the tragic death of Joseph.
And Jacob responded like this:
"For I shall go down into the grave to my son in mourning." (37:35)
He could not bear the loss of
his favorite son; his favorite son is torn to death by wild animals.
And he lived in mourning till
he heard that Joseph was alive, after many years.
God was with Joseph, and he
eventually fared well in Egypt and rescued his family from famine.
The last days of Jacob was
spend in Egypt.
In Egypt, Jacob might have had
a prosperous and respected life, because of Joseph.
But Egypt was not the Promised
Land. It was a foreign land under a gentile king.
Thus Jacob lived more years in
strange lands than in the Promised Land.
Jacob died in Egypt and Joseph
and his brothers took Jacob’s body back to Canaan to be buried alongside
Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, and Leah. (49:29
- 50:3).
At his death and burial, he
missed his loved wife, Rachel.
Before his death, Jacob
blessed his twelve sons and he requested them to bury him in the cave that
Abraham had bought for burial.
Conclusion
God chooses x ordinary people,
though they are not perfect, to accomplish His kingdom purposes.
God chooses and renews people
and even gives new names.
God gave Abram the name
Abraham and Jacob the name Israel.
They are types of all those who
believe in Jesus Christ and become new creations (2
Corinthians 5:17). Though our sinful patterns might still plague us,
in Christ we find forgiveness for our sins as well as power to overcome.
We are invited to participate
in God's work in the world.
Jacob was raised in a disordered family which
is not a role model for anyone.
His mother dominated and manipulated every one.
His father shared the faith of Abraham and the
blessings.
But he was passive and did not care about the
plan of God.
His brother was very worldly and respected no
spiritual values of the family.
Jacob had no good role models to follow.
But these circumstances do not give Jacob an excuse for a wrong
style of relating to people.
We too should learn from Jacob.
Our circumstances may be wrong. Our family may be wrong.
But we are not helpless victims.
We either react wrongly to our environment or we
act correctly in spite of our environment.
Jacob reacted wrongly to his upbringing. Jacob wanted to control his life, so he manipulated people.
Jacob’s problem was that he thought he could make
it without God.
Jacob did this. And we do this.
We think we can find happiness apart from God.
We think we are in control of our lives. But God
will not allow us to succeed without him.
He will block our efforts to satisfy ourselves
and lead us back to Him.
We see how he did this with Jacob. And we can see
how He does this to us.
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