Jacob A Prologue - On The Heels of Trusting God 25:19-26

Introduction:

He grew up in the poorest county of Iowa but he had great parents and a good church.

As a grade school student Jeremy Parsons vividly remember the teacher went around the room and challenged the students through an exercise to share what they wanted to do when they grew up. He determined very concretely not that he wanted to play in the NBA or be a fireman but that he would someday like to run the Iowa State Fair. After this realization he even sent a fan letter to Marian Lucas, one of the fair’s former general managers,

Remember what you wanted to be when you grew up? Maybe a baseball or a football player. Maybe an actor or singer or someone else famous. Maybe you wanted to be a firefighter or a police or in the army.

when we become adults are life goals sometimes change but we still have goals that we hope to achieve. And, life is hard or a struggle.

over the next few week we are going to look into the life of Jacob and the struggle that was his life and learn from it and how God used it and how God can use our own struggle.

Movement 1 from Intro to Isaac’s prayer for Rebekah.

Jacob begin not as a twinkle in his fathers eye but as a struggle in his mother’s eye.

Jacob’s story begins with his father and mother in Gen 25:19

... Gen 11:27 and Gen 2:4

He was born into struggle. His parents struggled with infertility.

Not as much detail is giving about Isaac’s life as there is given about Abraham’s and Jacob’s life but we see ways in which Ike has the same faults as his father but we also see ways in which Ike trusts God more than his father did.

For one Rebekah was barren just like Isaac’s mother Sarah. But instead of taking matters into his own hands and reaching and grabbing for what he wanted Isaac know the promise that God had made his father Abraham and that it applied to him and he trusted God.

verse 21 He prayed, he did not grab, he prayed he left matters in God’s hands.

in contrast to Abraham, Isaac prayed for his wife, Rebekah, to have a child. May have even brought a sacrifice the Hebrew word used for prayed here indicates that there may have been a ritual to his prayer.

infertility can be one of the loneliest and depressing hardship for a woman to struggle with. can you imagine how Rebekah must have felt as she waited.

Movement 2 the pregnancy and prayer of Rebekah

What king of excitement and joy must they have felt when she missed her period for over a week or so and she began to feel different in her hormones.

Discovering a pregnancy was not punctillier but rather more of a process in the ancient world as each night came and the moon waxed and waned it became clear that a baby was inside of her.

verse 22 her excitement was put on pause because it was soon discovered that his pregnancy was going to be a challenge.

Ladies, it is one thing to have morning sickness. Here the word for struggled suggests a violent struggle. Could mean to crush, bruise, or break.

used in Isaiah

Isaiah 42:3 CSB

He will not break a bruised reed, and he will not put out a smoldering wick; he will faithfully bring justice.

Why is this happening to me. Raise your hand if you have ever asked God that same question.

God tells her exactly what He is doing and how He is using her to accomplish His will.

Sometimes when we pray God gives not only what we want but so much of it that it is more than we can handle. And I would say that is what Rebekah experienced.

Movement 3 the birth a twins.

The meaning of their names

Fascinating wordplays were used to describe the first twin. The name Esau (‘ēśāw) has a loose connection with the word “Seir” (śē’îr), the early name for Edom to the southeast of the Dead Sea, where Esau later lived (32:3; 36:8). The Hebrew word “red” (’aḏmônî) is related to the word “Edom” (’ěḏôm; cf. 25:30); and “hairy” (śē‘ār) is similar to “Seir.” Those words were carefully chosen to portray in the lad the nature of Edom, a later arch rival of Israel.

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 25:24–26

The second twin was born grasping Esau’s heel (v. 26). In view of the oracle the parents had received (v. 23) it seemed appropriate to give this child a name that would preserve the memory of this event. The name Jacob (ya‘ăqōḇ, meaning “may He [God] protect”) was selected because of its connection in sound and sense to the noun “heel” (‘āqēḇ). The verb ‘āqaḇ means “to watch from behind.” But as with Esau, so Jacob’s name would take on a different sense later in life as his deceptive nature became evident. His name also meant “one who grabs the heel” or “one who trips up.” So the twins’ births had great significance for later events in their lives.

The story of this pregnancy and birth is proleptic.

(First) All through out Genesis there is a theme of family discord. List the names of the people i.e Cain and Able.... Their families were not any better than our families and yet the LORD called them to be His chosen people and to advance the storyline of the Bible. The point is well stated, “God can and does use broken families” God uses struggle!

(Second) In the next few weeks we will see that God had a plan for Jacob that was beyond anything He could dream up or imagine.

King David tell us in ...

Psalm 139:13–16 CSB

For it was you who created my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I will praise you because I have been remarkably and wondrously made. Your works are wondrous, and I know this very well. My bones were not hidden from you when I was made in secret, when I was formed in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in your book and planned before a single one of them began.

each and every one of you was made for a purpose. You days are planned by the ultimate planner. God has an eternal purpose for you.

Jacob’s life was no different. Before he was born God explicitly stated that He would make him into a nation. But for all of Jacobs life, as his name signals, Jacob tried to trick and cheat his way to the top instead of trusting God. He even came out of the womb grabbing onto his brother’s heal.

When we pray we often use it as a opportunity to ask God for the things we want.

Don’t reach, don’t stretch, it is in God’s hands. What He wants to have happen will happen one way or another.

Don’t let people live rent free in your head. Jacob would spend a large portion of the rest of his life letting Esau live rent free in his head.

Jacob is the one person who knew what God would do for him even from birth. He knew God would make him a nation and that he would be grater than his brother. Yet he worried all the time about getting ahead of his brother. He even ran from him in fear. He struggled with God even though God told his mother before he was born how it would all work out.

Romans 8:28 CSB

We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

Not only will things work out but they are going to work out in a good way for the Believer.

Romans 8:29–30 CSB

For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.

Jeremiah 29:11 CSB

For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

This story is like a prologue to Jacob’s life he struggled with his family, He struggled with his life goals, untimely he even struggled with God. And and the end out his life he realized as an old man that God had him all along.

Pray to the God who is not limited by your education, or geography, or age, or finances, or family, or circumstances - a God who knows His plan and will make it happen.

Don’t be a grabber because God will give it.

As a grade school student the teacher went around the room and challenged the students through an exercise to share what they wanted to do when they grew up. He determined very concretely not that he wanted to play in the NBA or be a fireman but that he would someday like to run the Iowa State Fair. After this realization he even sent a fan letter to Marian Lucas, one of the fair’s former general managers,

I think the letter was sent almost as a joke more as an educationally tool to help this young man lean to write and compose letters. So there must have been some suprise when the honorable Marian Lucas replied with an invitation to visit that he gleefully accepted. Come and see what I do” said the man. At age 17 he began working for the ISF. But in his late 20s and early 30s He found himself teaching school and not even in Iowa but in Trenton, MO. But God was still at work as a teach he had the summer off and could work both the IST and the Missouri State Fair. While in Missouri God blessed even more when he became the executive director of the Missouri State Fair Foundation. But it still was not the ISF. He moved back to Iowa but only to manage a county fair and this seemed like maybe a dead end only 7 county fair managers in well over 100 years of history had even been named CEO of the ISF. But he pored himself into his work and lived the fair “Clay County Fair” like it was the ISF. He even got involved with a local church and was the best dad he could be.

Don’t grab God will give it. The struggle is real but so is God. God uses struggle.