Jacob, The Last Patriarch

Who is Jacob?

Good morning, I’m Tony Graffanino, your chaplain.

I’m currently in AZ, in the process of moving back to the northeast.

My son also just graduated from Grand Canyon University, so another reason I’m not there this weekend.

Real quick, I’m a former professional baseball player, played for 20 years, now I work for a ministry to professional baseball players, helping them with their individual journeys with Jesus and the game of baseball and I’ve been doing that for 11 years.

I also volunteer with Baseball Chapel

Anybody here love movies? Some people like movies, some really love movies. They gotta see the movie in the theatre and just love the entire experience.

I’m someone who likes movies a lot, but I don’t need to go to the movies, I’m actually a magnet for the talker or the young kids, so I really don’t enjoy the theatre, but I do like good movies.

I especially enjoy sci-fi type, like the Matrix and The Marvel Movies.

The Marvel movies have been way better than the DC ones, I’m just saying

But when I was a kid, I collected comic books, mostly DC, Superman and Batman

What I liked about comic books, and these two superheroes in particular, is that we were given their backstory, we knew where they came from and how they became who they became.

Superman was from Krypton, a foreign planet doomed to destruction. He was put in a little rocket by his parents to escape and landed on earth and became the protector of Metropolis.

It was earth’s yellow sun that gave him his powers, and yet a little green rock called kryptonite could take him down. But Superman was good, honest, morally pure, at least in the comic books and early movies.

Then there’s Batman, Bruce Wayne, the socialite multi-millionaire, who’s parents were murdered right in front of him, in the dark and crime ridden city of Gotham. He grew up angry and with a vendetta, his goal in life was to make criminals pay.

He had no super power except it seemed he had unlimited resources and tons of gadgets.

Now, another favorite movie series of mine was Star Wars

The interesting thing about Star Wars is that the first movie released was actually episode 4, not 1, so we were jumping in mid-story

We were introduced to C3-PO and R2D2 and Princess Leia in the middle of a hostile take over. The rebels vs the republic being fought in outer space.

And then, the scene nobody who’s seen the movie back then will ever forget, Darth Vader emerges through the smoke, dressed all in black, a black full head coverage helmet on that made his breathing sound funny.

His light saber and force death grip, it was like, who is this, what’s going on??

As you watched the movie, you began to understand what was happening, but you still didn’t know where Darth Vader came from, like how did he become Darth Vader??

After episodes 4, 5, and 6, they made the first 3 episodes, which were a huge disappointment, but anyway, that’s when the movie watchers were given the backstory.

Well, it might feel like that as we talk about our Old Testament character this week. A man named Jacob

Now if you aren’t familiar with the Old Testament, then you may never have heard of Jacob, and in reality, his story is actually two stories, he was a man reborn and renamed and it reads like a crazy movie.

But we do get his backstory, his origin, and also, who he becomes.

In Genesis 25 we are introduced to Jacob in a very interesting way.

Genesis 25:19–26 ESV

These are the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham fathered Isaac, and Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean, to be his wife. And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren. And the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived. The children struggled together within her, and she said, “If it is thus, why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord. And the Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.” When her days to give birth were completed, behold, there were twins in her womb. The first came out red, all his body like a hairy cloak, so they called his name Esau. Afterward his brother came out with his hand holding Esau’s heel, so his name was called Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.

So we have the patriarchs, as they are called, the founding fathers of the Jewish faith, Abraham and Isaac.

Isaac is married to Rebekah and she is pregnant with twins.

Now birthright was hugely important back then, the first born would receive a double inheritance, so if two sons, then the inheritance would be in thirds, the older getting 2/3 and the younger 1/3, make sense.

So out first comes Esau, as he is named by both of his parents, because of his hairiness.

Then Jacob follows, holding his brother’s heal, already grasping and holding on to something that is not his.

In the literal translation, it indicates that only Isaac his father named him Jacob. Giving him an idiom for a name, trickster, heal grasper, and deceiver is what the name means.

And yet, before they were born, God gave Rebekah and interesting prophecy, “one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger”

Genesis 25:27–28 ESV

When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents. Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

Well as the story progresses, Esau is a hunter and an outdoorsman and loved by his dad, Jacob is a homebody, and loved by his mother it tells us.

That’s crazy language for us, no good parent should ever love one of their children over the other, and they should never admit it if they do, but sometimes actions speak louder than words.

Maybe it’s just that Jacob is misunderstood by his father, it’s hard for his father to relate to him, he relates better to the outdoorsy type. But that’s tough for the “other” son, tough for Jacob to not feel loved by his father.

So, in this culture, Esau is set to inherit his rights as the first born son, the double inheritance. But because God is doing something special with this family, there is also this thing called the blessing, God’s favor upon his life and through whom the crimson thread of redemption will continue. Both of these, culturally, should have been Esau’s.

What comes next is a crazy story where Esau sell’s his birthright of the inheritance to Jacob for some stew because he’s starving, clearly not valuing it and yet Jacob desiring it above all.

And then, and you should read these stories, Jacob by the encouragement of his mother, agrees to attempt to be the type of man his father loves, a hunter, in order for his father to bless him, to show him love.

Again Jacob, his name in the Hebrew means heal grabber, but also means deceiver, does just that and tricks his dad by lying to him and pretending to be Esau. Isaac is tricked into giving Jacob the blessing, God’s favor and how God will carry forward His plan, Jacob got it and not Esau. Jacob panicked, didn’t believe his dad would receive him, lied and told him he was Esau.

Jacob has to flee his brother because now Esau wants to kill him for this deception and thievery of the blessing, that’s how our fathers blessing means to them and to us.

Jacob then works for his uncle for like 20 years, but now he was the one being tricked, deceived, and he ends up marrying his uncles two daughters, who each have a maid servant, and he sleeps with all four of them, having 12 sons combined.

There’s a story in where Jacob is fleeing his uncle, heading home, and is afraid of his brother Esau, what has happened to all his anger these 20 years he wonders, will he still want to kill him?

But Jacob it seems is a different man, he’s changed and want’s peace with his brother.

It’s night time, Jacob is alone in his tent, and a man it says, comes from nowhere, and wrestles with him until daybreak.

This man, most scholars believe is God the Son, before He was Jesus, a Christophany it’s called.

As Jacob wrestles this man, as he struggles with God, he has struggled with his own identity, he’s determined to truly earn the blessing he never properly received from his father, he says I will not release you until you bless me.

In this, Jacob is renamed, not some weird idiom, but a name that has meaning, One who is a prince with God and man, one who has wrestled with God and prevailed. This is the name Israel.

Jacob is now called Israel, his twelve sons will become the 12 tribes of Israel, will grow into the nation of Israel, from which the Messiah, Jesus will come.

Now for any of us who have struggled in this life, struggled with our dad’s and wanting to receive his blessing, this story is for us.

Jacob may not have received his earthly fathers blessing but he received something greater.

Or if you’ve wondered if God is with us and could possibly use us in spite of all our mistakes, Jacob is a wonderful example.

God had prophesied over him that he would be the one to carry on the promise and receive the blessing, the older will serve the younger, before he was even born.

He fled, and yet encountered God in the wilderness. God blessed him and promised to be with him.

Jacob works for his uncle and is tricked, deceived into marrying the older sister and not the one he truly loved, and yet when it’s all said and done, God blessed him, made him wealthy and gave him 12 sons, who would become a nation.

Behind the scenes, as Jacob moves and acts, God is right there, working along side him to accomplish His will.

Now Jesus is not one who struggled with His identity, He knew completely who He was and why He had come to this planet.

Before Jesus had done any earthly ministry, immediately after His baptism, His Father from Heaven proclaims His love and approval of Him.

The Holy Spirit comes down as an anointing over Him for His public ministry.

Jesus, strived with God, as God, to push back the gates of Hell, to fight against the enemy of our souls, to defeat sin and death.

As God the Son, He too was renamed, Yehoshua, God is Salvation, that’s the name Jesus.

And that’s exactly what He earned for us, salvation.

On the cross when Jesus says, “It is finished” He’s talking about everything that was necessary for us to have the opportunity for salvation.

All the legal requirements of the law done for us, all our sins and mistakes He took upon Himself on the cross. God’s anger and punishment, Jesus absorbed for you and for me.

Nothing needs to be done by you or by me, except one thing, to truly believe, to trust, to follow.

In Matthew chapter 11 Jesus says these words to all who are struggling with trying to earn God’s approval, all who are striving in this world on their own, He says,

Matthew 11:28–30 ESV

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Let me pray