Bringing Forth Christ – Part 4 – Jacob

Yet again in the line of the patriarchs we are met with a barren wife, this time Rebekah, upon Isaac’s intercession she conceives (Gen. 25:21). In her womb were two sons who were unhappy womb-mates. This causes her to enquire the reason for this from God, which is given as there being two nations in her womb and two kinds of people would come forth from her. One would be stronger than the other, and the elder would serve the younger. There was a fighting and struggle against each other almost from their conception.
This casts somewhat of an interesting light on human character and how early it is formed. Infants are each born with a different personality and character traits and while subsequent events may develop it further apart from God’s grace people tend to be like themselves only more so as they progress through life. Esau was born first and was hairy at birth betokening his being a man’s man, rugged hunter and outdoorsman. Jacob reached out his hand and grabbed his brothers heel at this time foreshadowing his conniving nature, trying to get ahead by pulling another back or even tripping them up.
God chose Jacob the younger of the two to be the heir of the promise. At the time the reasons may not have been apparent, Esau and Jacob both had flawed characters, but God’s wisdom is always justified by its children. Jacob for all his problems wanted the birthright. Esau, in spite of what God had spoken, still had it by reason of birth order. However, Esau placed absolutely no value on it, being willing to sell it for a bowl of soup and then later showing no care in his choice of marriage. He serves as a solemn warning to believers not to be profane or fornicators like him (Heb. 12:15).
Esau was clearly not fit for the birthright, and he could blame no one but himself for selling it. Yet at this point Isaac was still going to give him the blessing. What follows in the life of Jacob is a very sad story for all concerned. God alone can judge who was the most wrong in all this mess. Isaac was ignoring what God had clearly spoke to his wife Rebekah concerning the sons and was being partial to Esau in spite of his bad marriage choices merely because he liked eating the wild game Esau would bring home. This was sowing to the flesh. The fruit of the spirit is sowed in the spirit and is produced by the spirit, but if we sow in the flesh in our relationships we will reap fleshly behavior in return. If we speak in human anger to someone we might produce anger in return, or bitterness or many other things, but we will not produce the fruit of the spirit. In this case Rebekah and Jacob thought the only way they could get the blessing was to deceive Isaac.
Rebekah and Jacob were right in that by every way of reckoning the blessing should have belonged to Jacob, but in the way they went about obtaining it they sowed seeds of sorrow for the rest of their lives. What they wanted was right, and had been promised by God, but they lacked sufficient faith to believe that what God promises He is also able to bring about without our own efforts, especially dishonest or unholy ones. The actual deceit is narrated in Gen. 27. Jacob broke many of what would later be given as the Ten Commandments that day. Even though given formally later some were already known at that time. He dishonored his father, he bore false witness, he stole (in the sense of taking something in an unlawful manner), he took God’s name in vain, and I would also say that there was an element of covetousness in these proceedings. However he obtained the blessing. God gave Jacob the blessing, despite his dishonest means of seeking it, but now He was going to work in him to make him worthy of receiving it. The life of Jacob shows the lengths to which God will go to work in the lives of his children so that they can be conformed into His image.
Jacob’s action unsurprisingly provoked anger and a desire for revenge on Esau’s part. This necessitated his leaving for Padan Aram where Rebekah was originally from. Quite possibly this was the last time he saw his mother alive. He slept at Bethel and there received a vision and promise from God confirming the blessing and covenant with him (Gen. 28). Jacob then makes a vow to God that if God will keep, protect and provide for him, then He will be his God and he would tithe to Him. This whole transaction shows something of the graciousness of God. God seeks out Jacob, not Jacob God. He seeks the erring one who yet does desire something of God’s promises. He reveals something of Himself and accepts an honest, yet somewhat selfish, vow on the part of Jacob and then proceeds to keep His end of the bargain. Indeed if it were not for God’s ability to accept any however faltering step towards Himself by mortal man, no one would ever be saved.
God then ensures that Jacob meets Rachel and Laban, his uncle. God often uses special tools to do a work in the lives of His people. Laban was a very special tool. An ordinary dishonest man with an avaricious streak in his nature could have done some work in Jacob who had these same qualities, but Laban had these qualities in abundance. It takes a more than ordinarily avaricious man to cheat his own sister’s son for his own gain. Furthermore he not only cheated him, but he apparently had no concern for how this double-dealing for his own gain would have on the happiness of his two daughters who he was now giving to his nephew. Even after Jacob became his son in law he had no concern that by changing his wages he was effectively robbing his own daughters and grandchildren. Laban was a very special tool God was using to deal with Jacob’s own deception. He was learning how much it hurts to be cheated and seeing the gravity of what he had done to Esau and Isaac. Though God used Laban to correct Jacob, yet He made sure that Jacob prospered in spite of all the wage changing that was going on. God was also using this circumstance to help Jacob go back and face his brother again. When all is in place for the next stage God speaks to Jacob to go back to the land of Canaan (Gen. 31:13).
The rest of the story shows God’s hand in a wonderful way. God intervenes to prevent Laban who was hopping mad from harming him. After an uneasy yet peaceful parting with Laban, Jacob is encouraged by seeing angels (Gen.32:1). He sends messengers ahead with gifts for Esau and learns that he is coming with 400 men to meet him. Clearly with that number the intent seems sinister. Jacob sends everyone and everything he has ahead of him across the brook and there when he is alone he wrestles with God. There his name is changed to Israel after he acknowledges who he really is. Forever after he limped, because of his hip. After this God turned Esau’s heart to welcome Jacob, Esau’s wrath praised God, but the remainder of it was restrained.
Jacob continued to suffer for his past deception, most notably through being deceived by his own children concerning Joseph. Yet, he had learned how to prevail with God. Jacob’s life shows one essential quality for having Christ fully formed in us, persevering and being willing to accept the fruit of our wrong choices and wrestling with God to receive a change in us.
At the very end of his life God showed him a little glimpse of how it could have been better. As he crossed his hands to bless the younger son of Joseph, Ephraim, instead of Manasseh, he saw that under the influence of the Spirit of Prophecy, Isaac would have given him what God had promised even without the deception. Much of Jacob’s life was filled with sorrow which was brought about by his trying to take matters into his own hands, we can learn from this. In the end though, he was called by a third name, Jeshurun, the upright one and polar opposite of his original name, Thank God He is the God of Jacob! Amen.