The God of Jacob 2

Jacobs Character

Last week we began our new series on the God of Jacob. We began last week with figuring out a little background on who Jacob is discussing his lineage and his election by God as the future of Gods people. We learned that when it comes to physical characteristics Jacob was by no means anyone first choice for leader of a nation as he was smaller and less manly than his twin brother Esau. Now with this being said about his physical appearance all of us know that a person is more than just what we see on the outside but is made up of what is on the inside their character. If Jacob would not be our first pick then from a physical standpoint maybe God chose him for his outstanding moral character that he will show in his life. Let’s look and see how he acts in his early life.

Genesis 25:29–34 “Now Jacob cooked a stew; and Esau came in from the field, and he was weary. And Esau said to Jacob, “Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am weary.” Therefore his name was called Edom. But Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright as of this day.” And Esau said, “Look, I am about to die; so what is this birthright to me?” Then Jacob said, “Swear to me as of this day.” So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. And Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils; then he ate and drank, arose, and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.”

Here we see the first action of Jacob in his story which sets the tone for who Jacob is through his life. His own brother comes in from working and asks him for something to eat and the only way he would give him anything to eat was if his brother agreed to trade his birthright, meaning all he would inherit as the firstborn, to him for a bowl of stew. Now Esau here likely was legitimately near starving as he had probably worked for a couple of days without eating so Esau accepted the deal out of desperation.

So then, our first action we see our hero take is one made out of greed and lacking any drop of mercy for his own brother. Let’s keep reading and see if he gets any better.

Genesis 27:1–5 “Now it came to pass, when Isaac was old and his eyes were so dim that he could not see, that he called Esau his older son and said to him, “My son.” And he answered him, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Behold now, I am old. I do not know the day of my death. Now therefore, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me. And make me savory food, such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die.” Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt game and to bring it.”

So Isaac is getting old now and knows he does not have tomorrow promised so he wants to go ahead and pass on the blessing of God to His eldest son Esau. He tells Esau to bring him some food and he will give him the blessing, unfortunately for them though Isaacs wife Rebekah was listening and she went to her favorite son Jacob and devised a plan to trick Isaac into passing the blessing on to him instead. Rebekah tells Jacob that she will prepare a meal and he will bring it to Isaac instead. Jacob has a problem with this though, not that it is wrong and that they shouldn’t try to be sneaky, his problem is that his brother is hairy and he is not so they will get caught and then he will face the wrath of them both. Rebekah tells him not to worry she has a plan for that and also don’t worry about the reprecussions any curse laid on him would be on her instead. Remember that, it will come back up later.

Ok so here is what we see here, a totally dysfunctional family. Our parents here have obvious favorites, the husband and wife are not communicating and in fact the wife is actively decieving the husband, and at least one of the sons has no respect for his father and no love for his brother. God has an awful lot to say about family when we take a look at scripture, heres two just to name some.

Proverbs 10:1 “The proverbs of Solomon: A wise son makes a glad father, But a foolish son is the grief of his mother.”

1 John 4:20 “If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?”

Family is something that is a blessing given to us from God, and we as believers are called to honor that blessing. We are called to honor our fathers and mothers to give them respect and obey their word. We are called to love our siblings cherishing their companionship and caring for them in every circumstance yet so often we are just like Jacob here. We allow our own pride, greed, or arrogance to stand in between us and the very family that God has placed us into. We need to do our best to love that family and know that God put you there for a reason and even if you come from a non believeing family then that just means that God placed you into a mission field and your behavior towards your lost mother, father, brother, or sister may be exactly what God plans to use to bring them to repentance and bring them into His family. Which leads us to the ultimate point here is that as believers we all form a family together. That is what a church is ultimately is a large family all bonded together by our heavenly Father and our Brother Christ. We are adopted into this family but we are still a part of it and so often we unfortunately have a family looking much like this one. We are sneaky and greedy and show no love to our siblings. Our verse from 1 John is clear that if you say you love God then you should be showing that same kind of love to your siblings both your siblings through blood and your siblings in Christ.

So going back to our story we have a family just absolutely full of chaos and dysfunction and what chaos and dysfunction breeds is only further chaos and dysfunction. We learn that the trick Rebekah and Jacob play on Isaac is successful and Jacob recieves the blessing from Isaac instead of Esau. Lets look at Esau’s reaction.

Genesis 27:41–45 “So Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him, and Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” And the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah. So she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said to him, “Surely your brother Esau comforts himself concerning you by intending to kill you. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice: arise, flee to my brother Laban in Haran. And stay with him a few days, until your brother’s fury turns away, until your brother’s anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him; then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I be bereaved also of you both in one day?””

So Esau is angry, like absolutely furious, but out of respect for his father he does not want to make his father bare the pain of loosing a son so he says that he will wait until Isaac passes but as soon as that happens he is coming for Jacob. Look what Rebekah as to say about this though, she comes up with this plan again to get Jacob out and away from his brother but notice she shifts the blame now on Jacob, she says until he forgets what you have done to him. Earlier she was saying any curse that comes to you will be to me instead and now when Esau gets mad she’s like nope thats on you man I can’t believe you did that. So, Rebekah is a coward unwilling to take up for her son and admit it was her idea, Isaac isn’t innocent either for his clear favoritism between his sons, Jacob of course is merciless, greedy, dishonest, conniving, and now cowardly for running from his brother rather than facing him like a man. Honestly, out of the characters we see in the story so far Esau is one of the more righteous characters. Sure he is angry and he is for sure taking it a bit far, but he was wronged very serious and he is at least continuing to respect his father through his actions. So, it seems once again between Esau and Jacob while Esau’s moral character is not flawless it is sure a lot better than Jacob’s.

Why Jacob again? Last week it was all about the underdog and God choosing the disadvantaged to show His own might. This week it is a little different lets look at this verse to see how it applies to Jacob and us.

Ephesians 2:8–9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

We as believers are saved by grace and by grace alone. It is God’s great mercy that allows any of us to have a relationship with him at all. It is not some great work of moral character nor any intellectual ascent, but by the grace of God alone.

Why is God the God of Jacob? Last week it was to put his great power on full display through this weak runt of the family, this week God is the God of Jacob to demonstrate his great mercy and love towards even the most morally depraved of sinners. Our God is the God of the morally bankrupt who has saved us by His great grace and mercy towards us.