Jacob

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Today we are going to look at the story of Jacob. Last week, we looked at the overview of Abraham’s life and saw how he is the father of our faith. He was not perfect, but he believed God and grew in trusting the Lord instead of trying to work things out for himself.
As we saw last week, God did give Abraham a son, Isaac. Isaac was at the center of the promise God made to Abraham, and thus the test of whether Abraham would trust the Lord in spite of the impossibility (humanly speaking) of the promise being fulfilled if Isaac died.
Abraham grew in his trust of the Lord, and was a great example to us in that test, as we saw last week.
Isaac does not get a lot of mention in Genesis. We do see that Isaac did receive the same promise from God. We also see that he, like his father, had to grow in his faith as well. We see him lying about his wife, calling her his sister, as his father had done when he was living in fear of man.
However, there is not much else about Isaac. The focus instead is on Jacob.
Today, we will look at an overview of Jacob’s life, and see what we learn about God, and what we learn about ourselves through the account of Jacob’s life.

Scene 1 - The Promise

Jacob’s history begins in Genesis 25:19. Isaac’s wife, Rebekah, was childless, just as Sarah had been. So Isaac prayed for his wife and she conceived. I love the way the it is recorded in scripture:
Genesis 25:21 NIV
Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant.
Make note of this. We are going to see this same theme of the Lord being the One to fulfill his promise from the conception of Jacob’s life, through the rest of his history.
What do we learn about Isaac from this passage?
Genesis 25:23 NIV
The Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.”
God told Rebekah that it would be the younger of her twins that would be the greater. The younger would be the one to receive God’s blessing.
The pattern of the younger:
Abel, not Cain
Seth, not Cain
Isaac, not Ishmael
Jacob, not Esau

Scene 2 - Birth

grasping the heel of his brother - his name reflected that
bad part - grasping the heel was idiom for schemer and deceiver… much like “pulling your leg”

Scene 3 - The Stew

the stew incident
Esau despised his birthright - double portion, carrying on the Father’s name, title and possession
Scheming to get what God had promised

Scene 4 - The Deception

Stealing the blessing - Genesis 27 .

Scene 5 - Consequences

Leaving home

Scene 6 - The Promise Affirmed

Genesis 28:13–15 NIV
There above it stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

Scene 7 - The Vow

Genesis 28:20–22 NIV
Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the Lord will be my God and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”

Scene 8 - Trials of Life

Laban - changing wages
Wives - who is the best?
The Lord gave...
Genesis 29:31 NIV
When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he enabled her to conceive, but Rachel remained childless.
The Lord gave...
Genesis 30:17 NIV
God listened to Leah, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a fifth son.
The Lord gave...
Genesis 30:22 NIV
Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and enabled her to conceive.
The Lord gave...

Scene 9 - Scheming Again

Genesis 30:27 NIV
But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you.”
The sheep and the sticks...

Scene 10 - God Reveals

The dream
Genesis 31:3–13 NIV
Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.” So Jacob sent word to Rachel and Leah to come out to the fields where his flocks were. He said to them, “I see that your father’s attitude toward me is not what it was before, but the God of my father has been with me. You know that I’ve worked for your father with all my strength, yet your father has cheated me by changing my wages ten times. However, God has not allowed him to harm me. If he said, ‘The speckled ones will be your wages,’ then all the flocks gave birth to speckled young; and if he said, ‘The streaked ones will be your wages,’ then all the flocks bore streaked young. So God has taken away your father’s livestock and has given them to me. “In breeding season I once had a dream in which I looked up and saw that the male goats mating with the flock were streaked, speckled or spotted. The angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob.’ I answered, ‘Here I am.’ And he said, ‘Look up and see that all the male goats mating with the flock are streaked, speckled or spotted, for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you. I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and where you made a vow to me. Now leave this land at once and go back to your native land.’ ”
Genesis 31:20 NIV
Moreover, Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him he was running away.

Scene 11 - God Intervenes

3 days later, Laban finds out and pursues Jacob with his relatives.
Genesis 31:24 NIV
Then God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and said to him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”
Genesis 31:29 NIV
I have the power to harm you; but last night the God of your father said to me, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’
Genesis 31:38–42 NIV
“I have been with you for twenty years now. Your sheep and goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten rams from your flocks. I did not bring you animals torn by wild beasts; I bore the loss myself. And you demanded payment from me for whatever was stolen by day or night. This was my situation: The heat consumed me in the daytime and the cold at night, and sleep fled from my eyes. It was like this for the twenty years I was in your household. I worked for you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks, and you changed my wages ten times. If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would surely have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my hardship and the toil of my hands, and last night he rebuked you.”
Genesis 32:1–2 NIV
Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him. When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God!” So he named that place Mahanaim.

Scene 12 - New Trouble, New Schemes, New Identity

Messengers sent to Esau. Esau coming with 400 men.
Genesis 32:9–12 NIV
Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps. Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’ ”
Then, gifts to Esau
Genesis 32:13–15 NIV
He spent the night there, and from what he had with him he selected a gift for his brother Esau: two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.
Genesis 32:26–29 NIV
Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered. Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.
Israel - Struggles with God and Men and has overcome
Genesis 33:20 NIV
There he set up an altar and called it El Elohe Israel.

Jacob - The Schemer, Manipulator, God-Follower?

Jacob feigned following God
Jacob manipulated
Isaac wanted to go against what God said
Rebekah schemed
Jacob lied
Esau fumed
Jacob had to flee because his sins caught up with him
Jacob didn’t think God was there
Jacob even tried to manipulate God
Laban used Jacob
Laban deceived Jacob
Jacob schemed
Leah and Rachel fought and strived
Jacob went along
Jacob fled in fear
Jacob tried to do it on his own

What about You and Me?

But God...

God is Present

God is Sovereign

God’s Blessing is Given by Grace

not by status, nor is it earned
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