Thought Jacob was Esau?

I encountered a problem similar to that of Isaac tonight. I've been away from home for 9 days. My oldest boy is 17, and the younger is 15, only 20 months younger. One of them answered the phone when I called home tonight, and I thought it was the older, William, but he pretended to be his brother Davis. Although it sounded like William, it was plausible to me, not being able to see them, that Davis could disguise his voice to be like that of William. Or because he'd been sick this weekend, it was possible his voice had changed. Or he could have matured, causing his voice to change and be more like his brother's. Therefore, I see how blind Isaac could have mistaken one son for the other.

Jacob and Joseph and Joshua

I met a fellow selling computer hardware in the Atlanta airport Friday night. I was walking by three people who were vendors in the airport, one selling videos and I forget what the third was selling. One fellow had confused Joshua, Jacob, and Joseph. He was sure that Jacob had something to do with Moses, but he had confused Joshua, who was Moses' right hand man, successor, and military commander, with Jacob. Being ignorant of the bible, how could he understand God's purposes for man, for Christ who was the greatest and the true Joshua, whose name means salvation. Ignorant of the details and specifics, people in our day are ignorant of Christ Himself. The Jacob, Joseph, and Joshua of the Jewish bible each picture Christ to come in their own unique way. Don't slander any of them.

Grace and Jacob

What did Jacob do that was so great? In John 4, the woman at the well asked Jesus if he was greater than their father Jacob, who had dug the well. Apparently, that was the way to humble someone back then - ask if they're greater than Jacob. Jacob's name was changed to Israel, after which the people of Israel, obviously, were named. So, what made him so great? He withstood the temptation to respond in kind to Laban and cheat to accomplish the injustice he'd been denied. But he didn't respond in kind because he believed God would act on his behalf, which He did. So, Jacob didn't act. He wrestled with the man before he met with Esau in order to be blessed by God. Jacob again didn't act to attack or defend himself against Esau; therefore, he won by not doing something, but by only believing. What about his bargaining with Esau? He did that because he knew God had already given it to him. That's what God had told his mother. So what did Jacob do that was so great?

Jacob simply believed. He believed because God had chosen him to be the chosen patriarch after Abraham and Isaac. Jacob acted or didn't act because he believed that God already had his back before he ever did anything right or wrong. So, are you chosen by God? Then believe it, act like it. It's already accomplished. You can bargain for what you already have been given. You can trust God to take vengeance when you're persecuted. You can trust God to protect you from your enemies. "When a man's ways please the Lord, even his enemies are at peace with him." Proverbs. Jacob's life was amazing only because his God is amazing. He accomplished some of the most amazing miracles in Jacob's life - Joseph's rise from slavery and prison to the chief place in the most powerful nation on earth, the vision of the angels ascending and descending upon the Son of God, and the wrestling with the man when Jacob's hip was disjointed. Believe that the God who sent His own Son for you has already set up the amazing destiny you have, and then live like you believe it.

The importance of not slandering

First, it's wrong to slander.

Second, when we focus on Rebecca and Jacob, finding fault with them, we miss the conduct that the bible clearly condemns - disregard for the holy, the valuable, the gift of God, the authority of God to do as He wills no matter the desire or law/tradition of man.

Third, we miss the exhortation of Christ to do whatever it takes to own the gospel in our hearts and lives - that it's worth it to give up all for the gospel, that we should sell all to buy the piece of land holding its buried treasure within that ground, that it's not our works, our sordid and soiled attempts to please man and to retain what we think is ours; it is God's choice to give, to take away.

Fourth, we also are tempted to think less of that which is most valuable. And what He has given that is most valuable is the gospel of His Son - something that can never be taken away. It is an eternal inheritance to those chosen in Christ for salvation. Scrap with the world in a holy way, when it tries to take it from you, mocks you, even tries to kill you. Boast in your weakness, your failing in righteousness, if you have to. Christ came for the wicked, the sick, not the righteous. Be like Jacob and hold it close, make it yours, face the threats, the accusations that you aren't whom you should be, that you're selfish. Know that He who chose you does not let you go, has an inheritance eternal in the heavens for you, an inheritance worth all the pain, loss, sweat, and tears of this life and the fight involved.

The character of Rebecca II

Rebecca did not marry Isaac for love, nor did she marry him for money. She married him because she believed it the will of God, and she did so quickly, as if she was waiting for God's calling. As I said in the first post on her character, she was like the disciples who willingly left all to follow Christ. Here was her first allegiance, loving God more than husband; therefore, it is hard to imagine her keeping her opinion to herself on the matter of Esau's unfitness as Isaac and Abraham's heir . . . for forty years. She had God's word, most importantly, that should have ended the discussion, and she had the evidence of Esau's character to prove it.

Rebecca was the one committed to God before her own affections, while Isaac had let his affection and love for Esau lead him astray. The story of Isaac and Esau and Rebecca and Jacob is not some Focus on the Family tale about parental favoritism, sibling rivalry, and a difference of opinion about whose son gets the best from the family, except as it demonstrates the nearly disastrous favoritism of Isaac for Esau.

Isaac must have been a tremendously stubborn man, a character flaw not befitting a patriarch. His stubbornness is most clearly demonstrated by Rebecca's actions in advising Jacob to fool him into giving him the Blessing. Rebecca knew this old man (he was sixty when the boys were born) would not listen to reason, or this godly woman would not have considered it necessary to resort to deception.

Consider her tremendous faith. When she advised Jacob to seek the Blessing by dressing up as Esau, he says he fears that he might receive his father's curse, another demonstration of Isaac's stubbornness, btw. Yet, Rebecca, fully confident of what she was doing, her motive for doing it, and the importance of doing it, says, "May his curse rest on me." She knew no such curse could rest on her, for the curse causeless shall not alight, according to Proverbs. And, as it happened, there was no curse. Isaac was fully capable as a patriarch of cursing Rebecca and Jacob after he knew what had happened. Isn't it evil to deceive and steal? Isn't that a sufficient basis for a curse? Yet, Isaac affirms that Jacob will be blessed, and he says not one word to Rebecca. There's only one explanation. He knew he was wrong, that his wife was the one following God, and that God Himself had made a fool of him.

The character of Rebecca I

Rebecca's character gets swallowed up in our opinion of her after she instructs her son to deceive his father, Isaac, and pretend to be Esau to obtain the Blessing. This is an injustice and helps color our view of her in the wrong way. When you understand more of who Rebecca is, then you understand better the Isaac deception. I'll explain some history in this post and will comment on that history in another post.

The first discussion of Rebecca is in Gen. 24, where Abraham instructs his servant to find his son Isaac a wife from among his own people, not the Canaanites. The servant prays for a sign - when the servant asks water from a woman who comes to the well, that she says, "Drink, and I will also give your camels a drink." Rebecca shows up as he finishes the prayer and when the servant asks for water, she says she'll draw for the camels also. It doesn't say how many camels came with the servant, but it must have been a significant number for the watering of them to be a sign from God. This act demonstrated a coincidence with his prayer that was amazing and the servant attitude of the young girl, Rebecca, who had a heart of generosity, service, and hospitality. Hospitality was a most important character quality among the godly people of the middle east. It still is.

The scripture also mentions that Rebecca was very beautiful and a virgin. Abraham's servant pulls out a golden nose ring and two bracelets for her wrists weighing ten shekels of gold. It was Laban who was impressed by those gifts. Rebecca's family gave permission for the servant to take her to marry his master's son, but they wanted to delay a few days. The servant was in a hurry because God had prospered his way. When asked the next morning if she would go with the servant, Rebecca said, "I will go." She didn't say, "I'll pray about it."

Rebecca was a servant, but she was also ready to do God's will without hesitation. She was like the disciples who left all upon Christ's command to follow Him.

Rebecca was barren, but Isaac prayed for her and God opened her womb. Then the children within her struggled, and she inquired of the Lord, who told her that the two children would become two nations and that "one people shall be stronger then the other, and the older shall serve the younger." She knew this before either had gained her affection. Isaac was sixty years old when the children were born. What reason would Rebecca have to hide from Isaac the message God had given her about the children.

Was Isaac's preference for Esau partly based upon the fear that Esau would lose his position as the oldest, perhaps?

When Esau was 40, he took two Canaanite wives, which were a grief to both Isaac and Rebecca.

The character of Esau

Let's look at Esau. He liked hunting. His father, Isaac, liked that he liked hunting. It's a man thing. Does that make Esau suspect? I don't think so. Is it somehow a blot on a person's character because they like hunting? How could that be? It's a legitimate method of obtaining food, a demonstration of skill and courage. The fact of hunting is not what casts a shadow on Esau's character. It casts a shadow on Isaac's because he allowed that factor, along with Esau being his firstborn, to prejudice him against the true chosen one - Jacob. It is Isaac's character that is at issue when the bible points out that part of Esau's life.

The more serious issues begin with his sale of the birthright, which I've discussed in length. Then there's his marriage to two Canaanite women,the same Canaanites whom God would instruct the Israelites to utterly annihilate because of their religious, moral, and societal perversity. Again, Esau's ability or refusal to make judgments according to God's standards is demonstrated. Ultimately, Esau doesn't care about God or His standards. Nowhere in the narrative does the reader see Esau seeking anything higher than filling his belly and getting what he thinks is his due - the birth right and the Blessing. Yet, he can sell the birthright and comment on it as if it's not worth his time or concern. When he gets what is his due, that is, what God considers his due, he reacts with the attitude of Cain - kill the brother whom God favored. Actually, Cain is presented as a more admirable character. At least, God warned Cain about not submitting to temptation, as if there was hope for him. With Esau, the status of hunter gains bad press; he's a hunter in the worst sense of the word - he will hunt a human who displeases him.

This is a picture of complete selfishness, self-absorption, narcissism, and and spoiled-brattism. So, why do teachers and preachers accuse Jacob of selfishness and cunning and being spoiled?

Why we slander Jacob 2

Let's be perfectly clear. No matter what you may think of any of my other posts on this blog, the bible clearly teaches that Esau's sale of the birthright was the evidence of his rejection by God, not the cause. On the other side of the coin, Jacob's purchase of the birthright was the evidence of God's choosing him, not of him being fraud. Jacob purchased what was most valuable, what was passed down from Abraham. It had nothing to do with selfishness or cheating or greed or money or inheritance of lands or flocks. It had everything to do with the blessing of God.

It meant that a man who was unlike the entire world, including his own brother, because he knew that what counts is not land, or property, or money, or power, or even a father's favor. What matters is the favor of God. Strangely, Esau knew later that what he had lost was valuable. Yet, he thought he could treat it lightly and not suffer for it. That's another thing that scares us - the one-time decision he made was unchangeable. I am not sure of all that this event means for us, but I do know that we should emulate Jacob, not Esau, and value what God values. Yet, the majority of teaching about Jacob seems to favor a negative view of his positive choice.

I know why I have had a prejudice against Jacob in the past. He's chosen. That's right, I envy him because he's chosen. In other words, he did nothing to receive God's blessing. He was chosen before birth. But this is the Christian message - we do nothing to deserve our salvation. How can Christians, who above all others should acknowledge the message of unearned salvation, have a problem with Jacob?

Perhaps we have been too much like Esau, not valuing what God values. Perhaps we envy Jacob, who unlike Esau valued what God valued. We must overcome our own fleshly failure of the past and believe that Esau's destiny is not our destiny, that we have been born again to a living hope. If Christ's atonement means anything, it should mean we can accept our failures, no matter how Esau-like, and recognize that we have been born again to be like Jacob, valuing what God values.

Most Difficult Defense

Perhaps, the defense of Jacob's reputation I've found most difficult is Laban's switch of Leah with Rachel. It is one reason why I have posted nothing for a month. It appears to be a reaping of what Jacob had sown by his deception of his father, Isaac. This is a superficial similarity and a careful analysis will demonstrate the significant differences and similarities.

First, we need to recognize that Jacob's conduct is not at issue here. In other words, when people point to his marriage to Leah as some type of punishment for what he had done earlier with respect to the Blessing, they are arguing from an end result, not from actual conduct by Jacob. Of course at this point in a chapter by chapter study of Genesis, most teachers have already indicted Jacob instead of seeing his acts as necessary and justified. As far as Jacob's conduct is concerned, his conduct is impeccable from the time he leaves Canaan until the marriage ceremony, which in itself argues against the charge of scoundrel that gets placed upon Jacob by so many, but that issue is for another defense at another time.

Second, how did Jacob behave when he left Canaan? He obeys his parents by leaving Canaan, and he obeys God by consenting to travel hundreds of miles to find a wife from his mother's family. The night of his departure, Jacob sees a vision of Christ (the ladder for the angels), upon seeing Rachel, he exercises leadership and service in removing the stome from the well to water the flocks. Upon meeting Laban, he agrees to work for his keep. And upon being asked what his wages will be, he declines any monetary gain and tells Laban he'll work 7 years for his daugher's hand in marriage. Jacob expresses nobility, sacrifice, valuation of his bride similar to the valuation of Christ of his bride, and love all at once.

Laban, on the other hand, sees nothing but dollar signs. From the time Abraham's servant first showed up with jewels and gifts of all kinds, so that Rebecca's family would allow her to leave and marry Isaac, Laban has seen the family of Abraham as some kind of mark or target for scamming. That is proven later by the manner of his treatment of Jacob, his own son in law.

Third, what are the similarities between the deception of Isaac and the substitution of Leah for Rachel in the marriage bed? The two deceptions involved permanent relationships - one a covenantal relationship with God, the other a covenant with a woman. Also, deception was involved, specifically deception as to physical appearance.

Fourth, the differences, or at least the correct understanding of the similarities, are enormous. Remember, the deception involved in the Blessing and Esau was actually an attempted fraud by Esau and his father upon Jacob. Jacob's deception was a correction of that fraud. Let me ask you something. With respect to a relationship with God, who is the initiator? Man or God? Who chooses whom? How about ministry? Does man choose to be a called minister (a contradiction in terms), or does God choose who will minister for Him? The answer is contained in the question.

Here's an example: What if I told you that I was going to choose whether you would be saved? Or that you would or would not be called to be an ordained minister of the gospel? You would think I was crazy. But what if I was your father? What if I told you that your brother, not you, would get the calling? While still a questionable or even arrogant position for even a father to take, you might be swayed somewhat to believe that perhaps your own father might have insight into which of his sons should get saved or be a minister. But what if your father had clear guidance from God, with the concurrence of his wife (your mother), that you were to be the one to be saved or be a called minister, but he still told you your brother was the one? This was Isaac's sin; he was attempting to usurp from God the very decision that only God can make, that is, the decision as to what relationship He will have with a human being. The Westminster Confession of Faith calls this election, or effectual calling. It is a privilege of God's sovereignty. Any attempt by man to interfere with God's sovereignty is a severe transgression of the pregative that belongs to God Almighty alone.

There are other biblical examples. It is like Cain being jealous of Abel, whose sacrifice God found satisfying and acceptable. It is like King Saul being jealous of and attempting to kill David, whom God had chosen to replace Saul as King. It is like Jezebel attempting to kill all the prophets of God, including Elijah, and replace them with the prophets of Baal. It is like the false prophets of Israel inventing prophesies to counter Jeremiah's prophecies about the coming judgment upon Jerusalem; God told Jeremiah, "I never sent them." It is like Jesus' parable about the vineyard keepers who kill the owner's heir, thinking they will inherit the vineyard when they actually inherit execution. It is like the execution of Jesus, the true Son, who was labeled a false son. It is like the martyrdom of those upon whom God had placed his special love through salvation, and whom Rome tried to replace with Caesar's sons. The replacement of the true with the false is the basis for the persecution of God's people from the beginning of time until today, and it is an honor to be persecuted, even to die, because you have a special relationship with the true God. This relationship can be contrived, but if so, it is a false one.

To bring the analogy home for the modern reader, it is like taking your spouse from you and replacing her or him with another. The person taking your spouse justfies the taking with high sounding law and justification, but you feel violated nonetheless. You have been told with whom you will have the most intimate relationship a person can have. And that is what Laban did to Jacob. Thus, what Isaac and Esau failed to do toward Jacob, Laban succeeded in doing. The one relationship - with God - was under God's control; therefore, man, i.e., Isaac and Esau, could not succeed in arresting that covenant. However, the other was under the father of the bride's control. The father determines whom his daughters marry.

So, Laban determined which daughter would marry, but he did not do it the right way, nor does his deception against Jacob mean Jacob is reaping what he sowed. It means that those who persecute use the same tactic - try to take what only God can give. In Laban's case, it worked to the good of Jacob - he gets two wives. Remember that Leah was mother to half of Jacob's twelve sons. God turned Laban's deception against Jacob into a blessing for Jacob; that's what He does for His children. Quite a blessing she turned out to be. Yet, Rachel was his love, the one with whom he wanted a relationship. As the man, Jacob should have determined who that would be and initiated the relationship. And he did, just not in the order and way he wanted. It does not mean he was reaping what he had sown. The incident simply means that Laban was a deceiver, he as the father determined which daughter would marry, and he also tried to usurp the relationship hierarchy, but only temporarily. He had promised Rachel to Jacob, and he eventually had to make good on that promise.

Esau and contract

So Esau made an agreement with Jacob to sell the birthright for a pot of stew. Not an even trade, but if trades were supposed to be equal, then we would all have perfect knowledge and make perfect choices, just like God. Jacob made a contract with Jacob, and the birthright belonged to Jacob. At the time of sale, Esau did not care about the birthright and what went with it. Later, when he realized he would not get the Blessing, like he hoped, he did not admit the connection - that the birthright and the Blessing went together. Big mistake.

Jacob, on the other hand, realized that great blessing was contained in the birthright. He respected the invisible and God's promise to Abraham. Esau seemed oblivious. Esau claimed later to have been tricked by Jacob into selling the birthright. In fact, Esau used the word "cheated" to describe the transaction. But did Jacob have Esau over a barrel when he was hungry? Esau lived in abundance. He came in from hunting and was hungry - he wasn't starving and he would not have starved. He just so craved the stew that his real character came out, and he spouted off that the birthright really couldn't do him any good.

So, later when it was payment time - the birthright sales means you sold the Blessing also - Esau wants to renege. But God says Esau can't have it back, even thought he seeks it with tears. His father, Isaac, knows that's true also, and even though Isaac favored Esau, he still confirms that truth. And later Isaac blesses Jacob again. So, God honored the contract between Esau and Jacob, and He condemns Esau for his attitude of depreciating what was handed down from Abraham through Isaac. He is stuck with his decision. God doesn't rebuke Jacob anywhere in the scripture. Who are we to condemn Jacob and criticize him for cheating Esau . . . as if we were Esau?

Value

As I've mentioned before, Jacob knew how to value things, the tangible and the intangible, but mostly the intangible. Here's the thinking of the unbelieving mocker of the Christian: "You are living for something you cannot see and don't know for certain you'll receive. I'll gladly sell you my invisible Blessing and birthright because I'd rather have what I can see." This was Esau. Jacob would have paid much more for the birthright had Esau demanded, but even that would have been an error on Esau's part because the birthright of Abraham and Isaac was priceless.

How often do we live our lives mesmerized by this world and its things? How often do we look back at how we acted and say, "How I wish I had obeyed the Lord's word there and done such and such"? Thus, we show how little we value Him and His Word. But look at Jacob and how he stuck it out against Laban. God rewarded him materially, but even more importantly, God rewarded him with Joseph and all Joseph went through. Joseph suffered so he could be raised up to new, unimagined heights of glory. So, Jacob's long and grievous life led to great glory in his life, but more importantly, in the life of his descendant, the Messiah Jesus Christ.

So, when you're tempted to react in anger when you know to turn the other cheek, and when you want to retaliate instead of letting God be the avenger of wrongs against you, think about Jacob and how he waited and allowed God to work because Jacob wanted the Blessing, not anything of lesser value. What do you value?

Here's a tough question

When was Jacob saved? I believe he had faith when he bought the birthright from Esau; that's why he bought it from him. Esau's lack of faith was why he sold it. People get wrapped around the wrong issue when they look at Jacob's purchase as some form of fraud. Economically, Esau got more tangible out of the sale than Jacob did. He got a bowl of soup. What did Jacob get? For the person lacking in faith, Jacob got nothing. Esau defrauded Jacob. It's a matter of value. Jacob saw the substance of things hoped for and had the evidence of things not seen, the very definition of faith, so he bought the birthright.

Some say he was converted when he saw the ladder going to heaven, a symbol that Jesus said applied to Himself in John 1. Therefore, as Jacob was leaving his family to go to Laban's and find a wife from his mother's family, he saw a vision of Christ Himself. What about the wrestling match with the man before he met Esau, whom he was told was coming to meet him with hundreds of soldiers. The "man" changed his name, and when Jacob saw Esau, he said he saw the face of Esau as if it was the face of God. Had his whole perspective of life changed? I still think Jacob approached life and these particular events with faith; he did not gain faith from them, except in the sense of having his faith strengthened.

Wrong Message

Another serious problem about the way Jacob's life story is taught and preached is its lack of any instructional value. If you say that everything Jacob did was an example of how bad he was and God just picked him in spite of that badness, thus showing election by grace alone, you've just done away with any practical instructional value that we can take away with us. It also contradicts the election message of the New Testament, which is not "You can be bad and deceptive and a fraud all your life, and God will still bless you." Sorry, but if that's your understanding of Jacob's story, you have really missed it.

Jacob was elected by God to be a man of faith, and he was. He stood by faith against Laban instead of retaliating or using deception. It was Laban, who used deception, who demonstrated lack of faith by having to resort to deception. It was Jacob who trusted God and did not have to resort to deception the entire time he was with Laban. Jacob was persistent. Even as he aged and was about to face Esau, who was coming to meet him with several hundred soldiers, Jacob did not resort to violence or deception. He considered it entirely possible that Esau was coming to kill him and his entire household, yet he did not waver at God's instruction to him, which was to return to Canaan.

What did he do? He wrestled. Jacob was a man of prayer. He faced what appeared to be certain death for himself and disaster for his family, yet he did not flee, nor did he hire an army to protect him. He wrestled with "a man," and like he did with Esau decades before, he knew the value of the Blessing - it meant everything. Jacob believed that the Blessing would protect him from the power of death that resided in the hand of his own brother, Esau. And it did. Therein is the power of faith.

Jacob's Disappointment

Jacob's disappointment in the apparent loss of Joseph, and with him the promise and hope that God's word is true, was somewhat assuaged by the birth of Benjamin, Joseph's younger brother. But, of course, Benjamin was not Joseph. Interestingly, Abraham's faith was one of waiting for and anticipation of something that had not been yet - the birth of the promised son Isaac, while Jacob's was one of waiting for and anticipation of what Jacob thought had been. While Abraham's faith in resurrection was shown at the Mount where he took Isaac to sacrifice him, Jacob's faith waited years for the resurrection of Joseph.

While Abraham had a specific promise from God that he would have a son from his own loins and from Sarah's womb, Joseph's faith in God had to depend on very little in the way of specifics. Yes, he knew that his seed (children) just as God had promised Abraham, but Jacob had no problem with wives having children. He had eleven, twelve counting Joseph while he was off in Egypt. While Abraham had to endure lack of events evidencing the promise ever coming true, Jacob's faith required him to believe that the problems (Laban, Esau, threat from Canaanites, famine), the children (sons who seemed more like Esau than like Jacob), and the disasters (the loss of Joseph) were all working toward accomplishing the promise.

I do not know which is the more difficult to endure - Abraham's life of waiting with little to show for it until Sarah's pregnancy, or Jacob's endurance of that which seemed to indicate a lack of God's blessing (seemed more like God's punishment at times) on his life. Either way, I'm sure we can find something to learn from both lives of faith.

Jacob's Hope

Often bible teachers and preachers don't outright slander Jacob, but they depreciate the things of value, again missing the messages of his story. For example, you often hear about his favoritism of Joseph, how he reaped what he sowed with respect to his own parents and their favoritism of him (by his mother) and his brother (by his father). It's as if the message of Jacob's life is some Focus on the Family teaching about not showing favoritism to your children. This misses the message entirely. Also, much is made of Jacob's poor response to Pharoah, when he says in Gen. 47:9 that "few and evil have been the days of the years of my life." He's accused of murmuring and lack of faith and, of course, selfishness.

First, as I've discussed in previous posts, it was Isaac's favor toward Esau that was sinful. Jacob's mother, Rebecca, was faithful to God's word and simply promoted the son who was chosen to carry the covenant blessing and birthright. How could Isaac's favoritism of Esau be reaped by Jacob? How could Rebecca's choice of God's will be negative?

Second, understand Jacob's life; his days were full of evil. His brother wanted to kill him, so he had to leave home. Away from home he is treated, by his uncle, like an enemy, like someone who should be defrauded, even after marrying his uncle's own daughters. This mistreatment by Uncle Laban isn't some short period of time, for it goes on for 20 years. Then,he has to face "King" Esau who meets him with an army. Then, what is his consolation and reward for all he's gone through, the faith he exercised while in Laban's hands? He gets 10 sons, who for what little we're told about them in Genesis, are more like Esau than Jacob. (At least, they have a conviction about not marrying the people of Canaan, but the way that Levi and Simeon exact revenge upon the King's son Hamor for defiling their sister is excessive vengeance, and creates more problems for Jacob. Gen. 34.) They almost murder Joseph, the eleventh son, out of jealousy, but choose the "merciful" course of selling him into slavery. They are jealous because Jacob gave Joseph the coat of many colors and, of course, Joseph has the dreams of becoming greater then his brothers.

At the news of Joseph's death, Jacob takes it deeply to heart and says that he shall "go down into the grave mourning my son." Gen. 37:35. He's accused of favoritism of Joseph and excess sorrow for his son, whom he thinks is dead. The coat of those days was a sign of position. Jacob could not trust his other ten sons to be faithful in the work they were to do, but Joseph he could trust implicitly. He puts him in charge and gives Joseph the appropriate clothing to signify his authority. But Joseph was much more to Jacob. He was the sign that there was one of his sons who was not violent or sexually immoral or faithless; one was like Jacob, submissive to the will of God. That was Joseph. Here was God's promise that had been made to Jacob so long ago on his first trip east to find a wife. God's promise was wrapped up in Joseph; he wasn't just a daddy's boy but the one through whom God would pass the same blessing that Jacob himself had sought when Isaac passed it to Jacob. Joseph made up for all the suffering he'd seen. Remember, for Jacob, the most valuable thing he owned was the Blessing, not his herds, not even his sons were as valuable.

Therefore, when Joseph appeared to have been killed, this not only broke the heart of a father, it broke the heart of the man of God, the prophet of God, the one who had given up all for this God of Abraham, the heir of Abraham, the carrier of the line of the Messiah, the hope of the world. This crushing was greater than anything Job experienced. Job lost only material possessions and children. Joseph lost what God had placed in his heart as the mission of his life, the reason for his existence, what made all the suffering worth enduring. "The spirit of a man will sustain him in sickness, but who can bear a broken spirit?" Prov. 18:14. To accuse Jacob of being too attached to Joseph and too complaining about his life is to not know the heart of someone intent on the dream, the vision of seeing God's kingdom come on earth. It is to not walk in his shoes, not feel the depth of his pain and loss. It is a mocking of a man of God who has been sent to the depths of despair and heartbreak by the very God he claimed to serve and whom he had thought was faithful to his promises. Jacob's loss of Joseph was a crisis of faith beyond what we can imagine. Yet, we criticize him for being honest about his feelings and loss.

Jacob and Anti-Semitism

This is a stretch, but here goes. One of Jacob's greatest attributes was the ability to value. He understood the birthright was truly priceless. People accuse the Jewish people of being a group who as a rule are too interested in money. However, could it be that they still have something of the Jacob attribute? Perhaps, they hold to the view that some things have value. Perhaps an unwillingness to sell some item for less than a certain amount is not greed; perhaps it is an unwillingness to give up something they believe to be of a certain value. It goes against the grain, maybe. The person who wants to buy it at the lower price wants the item but doesn't want to pay the true value. But they walk away thinking, "That person was stuck on making money." The person saying that doesn't recognize he was stuck on saving money. Is it money-loving or is it value-appreciation that causes such a person to not sell at the price you want the item.

I mentioned in an earlier post about the birthright going along with the Blessing. The first born may have gotten a greater inheritance, but he also got more responsibility, normally being the primary caregiver for the aging parents. The larger inheritance actually helped the firstborn finance the care of the parents. That puts Esau's actions and words in a new light. He was willing to sell the birthright because "what good was it to him anyway?" In fact, he was losing a responsibility that maybe he didn't want anyway - caring for his parents as they aged. Yet, at the same time, he wanted to keep the Blessing. Perhaps the secret thought was this: Not only did I get rid of the burden of caring for my parents, but as firstborn, I'll be entitled to the Blessing. Here was a fraud if there ever was one, and it was Jacob who was the victim, not Esau.

Putting the two thoughts together, and Esau, who did not understand value, ended up losing that which he thought he had. Jacob who lost everything to gain the Blessing - he got none of his father's property while Esau got it all - ended up with the most valuable asset of all, plus responsibility. The price Jacob paid for the birthright was not a bowl of soup alone, it was also the willingness to live with the responsibility or burden that comes with being the primary covenant representative. And that was much more than just caring for parents. It required faith versus violence or fraud, Laban's method of wealth-building, as the way to wealth. It required the loss of his beloved, trustworthy son, Joseph. It required staying in Canaan with a group of heathen-like sons for years while he grieved the loss of that son and wondered if he'd lost God's Blessing and whether there was a reason to go on. And it required him waiting until he saw the resurrection of the dead son - in a figure. And Jacob, Israel, the Prince, saw the Blessing of God on his lonely, grief-filled life, and he knew that the promises of God, made to him so many years, decades before, were faithful and true. Esau, the wealthy, the militant, the hunter, the king of Canaan, saw none of the grief and experienced none of the resurrection that Jacob saw and experienced.

So, modern preachers and teachers have it backwards. They accuse Jacob of cheating Esau, when at heart it was really the other way around.

Faith without works

Rebecca was the person with the idea of deceiving Isaac so Jacob would be given the Blessing. Jacob even protested against the idea, but he went through with it 100% in any event. Therefore, both receive the credit or blame, depending on how you look at it. Let's pick it apart. We already know that Esau cared about one thing - his belly. What were Jacob and Rebecca after? First, they saw more than Esau. They saw the power of Isaac's blessing, that it was permanent and irrevocable. Second, they knew God's word - "the elder shall serve the younger." So they knew Isaac was about to perform an act that defied God's word.

In effect, the deception of Isaac did Isaac a favor by protecting him from making the greatest mistake of his life, a mistake with consequences for generations, really forever. The scripture mentions no rebuke by Isaac of Rebecca or Jacob. Why? He knew he was wrong. In fact, when Jacob leaves to get a wife from Rebecca's family, Isaac gives Jacob a second Blessing that confirms Jacob as the heir of Abraham even more strongly than the first Blessing. It couldn't be any plainer; Isaac had been wrong and realized it such that he did all in his power to ensure Jacob's Blessing.

Rebecca and Jacob saw the invisible, that the Blessing was worth more than any item of property or inheritance that Isaac could give. No matter the cost, even the sure wrath of Esau, who like Cain was a murderer, or the displeasure of Isaac, the father and husband and giver of the Blessing, was enough to deter them from their goal of obtaining the Blessing. Essentially, Rebecca talked Jacob into risking everything for the Blessing. But like the pearl of great price, it was worth all.

Rebecca and Jacob respected contract. Esau had sworn to Jacob that he would give him the birthright for the bowl of stew. Here was the real fraud, the one who went back on his agreement with Jacob. The birthright and the Blessing went together; one didn't go without the other. The one owning the birthright was entitled to the Blessing. The Blessing enabled the owner of the birthright to fulfill his duties as eldest son. For Esau to think he could get rid of the responsibility and keep the Blessing was quite presumptuous and indicates he had no problems cheating Jacob, not that Jacob cheated Esau.

Thus modern preaching and teaching gets it backwards. Rebecca and Jacob were not greedy, and their deception was a correction. It was Isaac who was stubbornly pursuing a favoritism contrary to God's word, and it was Esau who planned on cheating Jacob. It was God who used the situation to correct Isaac and turn Esau's fraud back upon him.

Had Rebecca and Jacob sat back and said, "Oh, God will take care of things," they would not have been acting out faith, they would have been acting contrary to faith. Faith in God means faith in His Word, and they had God's Word - the elder shall serve the younger. Thus, they acted on their faith to preserve God's word and the Godly seed that would become the line of the messiah. If you have God's word, you know what to do. Press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God and do not sit back and wait for someone else to steal your Blessing!

Honor

The man who wrestled with Jacob renamed him to Israel, which means Prince. Jacob had striven with men and with God, and God honored him. If Jacob were a scoundrel, a deceiver, a greedy man, this honor would be hollow, false, a slander of God Himself. God honored Jacob because he had stood in faith. He had not striven with men dishonorably, but honorably. He had not acted in retribution toward Laban, he had not prepared a military attack upon his murderous brother, and he had not give up on living with the burden of the Blessing. Thus, God honored him with a new name.

Choices

Not all choices in life have the same significance that Esau's had when he chose to sell his birthright. Some do. But normally a decision like that is the result of years, maybe a whole life, of choices, and that one life-altering significant choice simply reveals what was already there. That was the case with Esau. Jacob knew Esau might be willing to sell it, knew he didn't really care about what really mattered, and Jacob was right. In the past, Esau had probably spoken disparagingly of this so-called birthright. Maybe he had even mocked his grandfather Abraham and his beliefs. This idea of leaving home and going to Canaan - "what a pipe dream!" maybe he had said.

Today, we still act like Isaac, blind to what was really going on, thinking that the hunter was the man's man, whom any father would have preferred to Jacob. Why would someone prefer the son who despised what one's life stands for? Why would any father prefer a son who mocked one's beliefs by marrying women from a clan that was totally contrary to everything one's family was supposed to be and live for? Hunting makes a son infinitely preferable to the son who honors God and respects the covenantal faith that has been passed down from your father? This is one of those slanders still perpetrated by preachers and bible teachers. That because Esau was hairy and loved to hunt it was perfectly reasonable for Isaac to ignore his wife, prefer a son who lacked the character to carry on his family's beliefs, and despise God's choice. If what these preachers teach is correct and it was perfectly understandable that Isaac would favor Esau, then Isaac was in greater sin than the bible portrays. Why do our preachers and bible teachers go out of their way to excuse Isaac and to impugn Jacob? Are they, perhaps, too much like Isaac?

In my post yesterday, I pointed out that Jacob's mother, Rebecca, understood the seriousness of the error Isaac was about to commit. We refuse to face the fact that Isaac's choice would have had permanent consequences. Isaac would have permanently enshrined Esau's choices - despising the birthright, marrying Canaanites whom God intended to destroy - into the family line of the Messiah. Oh, does that shock you? It should, and it again points out the wisdom and foresight of Rebecca and the failure of Isaac. People say that Rebecca and Jacob did not trust God to do what He planned. Of course, God would not have allowed Esau to become the heir-apparent of Abraham and Isaac, and He didn't. Had Rebecca and Jacob sat back and said, "Oh, well, God will take care of it," then God would have taken care of it; He would have started over with a new Abraham. They trusted God alright; they trusted God to hide from Isaac the identity of the one he was Blessing, so that God's already stated will would come to pass.

Esau received what he wanted eventually. He received his father's property, lived a prosperous life, formed a large clan, sufficient to have hundreds of armed men twenty years later. In fact, Esau seems something life a King in Canaan, when Jacob returns. What does Jacob have? Four wives, a bunch of kids to take care of, and some servants. Compared to Esau, he seems almost pitiable. But he has what Esau does not? God's favor, the Blessing, a relationship with the God of Isaac and Abraham, something Esau would not have had even an inkling of respect for.

What did Jacob receive? He did not receive any of his father's property. So much for the idea that he was greedy. Trouble, hardship, a difficult life. Preachers even criticize him for this. They allege he's reaping what he sowed in how he treated his brother and father. Deception from Laban and fear of his brother. They miss the message entirely. Jacob, like any beloved son, received discipline from God. The one with hardships learns true faith and what life is really all about - a one-on-one wrestling match with the Man who can bless and who can unhinge a hip. Remember, Jacob was the blessed one, not the mighty Esau with his wealth and army.

Remember that when you face hardship as a believer, when your life seems to have been nothing but grief and hardship, when you can't seem to see how God's purpose for your life could possibly be fulfilled. Keep on believing, keep on obeying, keep on persevering even when it seems hopeless. Christ has the inheritance, and He holds it for those who believe. Your hardships, your persecutions are the evidence of that Blessing that only the true holder of the birthright can give.

How we slander Jacob 2

We also do not recognize how importance of the ceremony that Isaac performed with Jacob. It was not a mere "Bless you, son." Notice nothing physically passed from Isaac to Jacob; it was purely spiritual in nature. And it was the passage of the rule over the covenant line that would lead to the Messiah and the receipt and keeping of the scripture. Isaac, like his father Abraham, was a prophet and a father in that line, so his words had power before God. Rebecca understood that and would not stand by for the passing of the torch, the coronation, to be accomplished on the wrong son. Remember that Esau was her son also, so there was affection there. But this was the woman who was willing to do the will of God, leave her home, go several hundred miles by donkey and camel, and marry someone, sight unseen because she submitted to God. This was a woman of spiritual insight and commitment like few others in the bible. She also, like Jacob, receives little honor for her ability to see the danger that was about to occur and risk alot to thwart the serious error Isaac was about to perform. Thus, by our lack of understanding, we abuse Jacob's reputation, and that of his mother, Rebecca.

How we slander Jacob today

This is too lengthy a subject to handle in one post. The really difficult question is why, which I touched upon in the very first post of this blog. The slander covers the gamut - from the one minimal method of criticism by picking up on the deception of his father, the easiest event to find fault with, to finding fault with every single thing the man says and does.

The first minimal method of criticism is moralistic, not recognizing that the deception was actually a correction of a serious error on Isaac's part. It was so serious an error that God blessed the deception, so that Isaac would give Jacob the Blessing. The plan was actually his mother's idea. Jacob was obeying one parent while deceiving the other. Jacob's deception was similar to Rahab's. Both represent faith in God. One deceived a parent - an act of disrespect, the other the head of state - an act of treason. but both showed that the two individuals were assured that they were pursuing the true God and His will for their life - Rahab for salvation and transfer into the covenant family and Jacob for his calling and chosen position as covenantal ruler of the family line of Messiah. Jacob's desire and pursuit of the Blessing was not based on his righteousness but on the election and calling of God, while Esau rested legalistically upon his position as firstborn. His presumption became license, and that license became outright contempt for the very thing he claimed was his - interestingly, this is what happened with the Pharisees, who rested upon their status as "sons of Abraham" yet despised the Blessing of the Son who was the true Owner of the Blessing and Birthright.

This minimal criticism fails to see that Isaac's sin was much greater in several ways than the deception by his wife and son. Isaac disrespected his wife, ignored his firstborn's agreement to sell the birthright (which was bound up with the Blessing), was utterly blind to the failures of character of Esau whose marriages to Canaanites were already a demonstration of a lack of spiritual sight in addition to his despising of the birthright, and worst of all, defied the word of God as to which son was the chosen one. Thus, the deception of Isaac by Rebecca and Jacob was a correction, not a deception.

Our failure to see that is a result of our moralistic rejection of any and all deception. To be continued.

Jacob was consistent 2

What changed from the time Jacob purchased the birthright to the time he wrestled with the "man?" He was persistent in seeking the Blessing over all. He was alone with the "man," and he was alone when he was sent away to marry a covenantally compatible wife from his mother's family. But whether it was using intelligent negotiation with his twin brother or wrestling with the "man," he had one thing on his mind - the blessing of God. Not the blessing of his father, not the blessing of Laban, not the blessing of anyone in Canaan. Certainly not the blessing of Esau.

Yet, Jacob is accused of selfishness for seeking God's blessing. So what blessing was he supposed to seek? People, family, Canaanites? You can't live without blessing, and you either live by faith in God's blessing, or you live by faith in something or someone else. There is no such thing as some perfectly pristine state of unselfishness, as if Jacob could be some sort of self-denying robot, incapable of thinking of himself. Is that what Christians think is holiness? Selfless to the point of denying that they even need the blessing and grace of God? What perversity is that?

Jacob was good because he sought God's blessing instead of man's, not because he was some automaton of a creature who is so perfect he needs not God. We would do well to follow his example.

Jacob was consistent

The standard story and misapplication of the history of Jacob is that somehow God was working out of him his manipulative character and sanctifying him. God always sanctifies his children, but that is not the point of Jacob's story. This view of Jacob as needing to get rid of manipulation is part of the slander of Jacob and means that we will use the message of Jacob's life for the wrong purpose. Instead of emulating him, we will reject him.

Jacob's so-called manipulation was merely the evidence of his ability to see the invisible, value it more than anyone in his family (except his mother), and be willing to give up all for that value. He knew what he was meant for and he persisted in pursuing that purpose. The purchase of the birthright and the correction of his father's rebellion against God were not wrongs that needed correction; they were the evidence of his faith and of his character being better than that of Esau. Those events were the indicators that proved what God told Rebecca when he was born - that he was intended to rule over his brother. How?

We think like Esau when we hear "rule," but God meant something different. Esau would have thought subjugation of another person because he was of the flesh. God meant covenantal rule, i.e., that Jacob would carry the promise of blessing and that his children and future descendants would be the vehicle through which Messiah would come. Messiah would not come to rule like Esau would rule or like the Gentiles would rule. Messiah would be like Jacob, gentle and willing to suffer rather than retaliate. Notice that Jacob's "rule" was not some political kingship or subjugation of his brother but was the carrying of something for the future.

And this carrying required faith on Jacob's part. His sons, with the exception of Joseph, were not models of what Jacob would have hoped they would be. In fact, they were very much unlike their father; they seemed more like Esau in their treatment of Joseph. No wonder Jacob put his hopes in Joseph, the one who was the most like his father, and why Jacob was distraught "even unto death," when he thought Joseph had been killed. Yet, Jacob continued in faith. Imagine carrying the hope of the world in that birthright and Blessing, seeing the son you hoped would be part of the carrying on of that hope die, and yet still pressing on in faith. This was a miraculous faith that persevered against all odds. This was a man who continued in faith decades after he should have given up all hope. But thanks to God's preservation power of his people of faith, Jacob did not entirely give up. And at last, he saw that God had not abandoned him; Joseph was alive, resurrected from the grave, in a sense. So, Jacob's faith resulted in resurrection and again points to the One whose resurrection would give hope and perseverance to the world, or at least, to all in whom God puts that persevering faith.

Thus, this tendency to critique and slander Jacob is so perverse because we become blind to the faith of the man and how our own faith should persevere through all pain, against all odds, in hope against hope, no matter what it appears we may be suffering or losing, even if it appears God has abandoned us - we press on in the faith He has given us.

So Where is Christ

Jacob was elected by God to be the anointed son, so Jacob chose the birthright of Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, the father of our faith. He did not choose it based on his righteousness; he chose it based on its value to him. He didn't gain it because he was good but because he was willing to deal for it. If he had to, Jacob would have paid Esau much more to obtain it. It was that valuable to him, and Esau would have sold it because it meant so little to him. How many people disregard Christ because He does not seem to be something of profit to them. Esau wanted the tangible, something he could feel, taste, use for his good. Jacob wanted something else. We are to be like Jacob, like the man who found the pearl of great price and went and sold all he had in order to buy it.

Jacob was sent from his home because he was persecuted by his brother, who was jealous of his blessing. Living without a place to lay his head, he dreams a vision of a ladder going up to heaven with the angels of God going up and down upon it. Thus in his affliction, he had a vision of Christ Himself. See John 1:51. Let us not avoid persecution, rejection, the affliction of being blessed by God but attacked by men. It may lead to a vision of Christ, something that cannot help but encourage, strengthen and enlighten for the rest of the journey, as it did Jacob.

Laban's persecution of Jacob

It's odd that Jacob gets pegged with the labels, deceiver, cheat, and liar, when it is Laban who perfectly pictures that character. Jacob's character does not change throughout the story of his life. He's a man of faith at the beginning when he sees the invisible and decides he'll buy it from the one who doesn't care about it anyway, Esau, to the time he tells Joseph to swear that he'll take Jacob's body out of Egypt and bury it where God promised to take Jacob's descendants, Canaan.

But Jacob knows the value of things. He knew the value of the birthright and that his brother undervalued it. He also knew the value of a wife. After he had worked for Laban, Laban asked what his wages would be. Jacob said he would work 7 years for Rachel. This is an incredible statement. He understood the value of a wife. How many of us husbands can say we would do that for our wives, if we had to do it over again? This could not have been lust, for lust cannot wait. Jacob valued Rachel very highly. And he was generous toward Laban, who would get rid of a costly daughter and only have to pay Jacob with . . . well, his daughter. Jacob is not a schemer seeking to get what he could while the going was good. It was Laban who was the schemer, who would even cheat Jacob seven years later by giving him Leah and then requiring him to commit to another seven years for Rachel.

Shockingly, I have even heard preachers and bible teachers criticize Jacob for this, as if he told Laban what had happened back in Canaan with Esau, and Laban figured he could take advantage of the situation. Thus, it was Jacob's fault, in part, that Laban decided to cheat Jacob. This is perverse, speculative, and another slander of the man who was upfront with Laban, generous, and unable to see that his uncle was a manipulating cheat. If anything, Jacob is somewhat naive, not a schemer.

Jacob worked for Laban for fourteen years, yet was paid barely enough to survive, even though he was married to two of Laban’s daughters. Talk about a deceptive unsavory character! That was Laban. If anyone was a schemer, it was Laban. Often Laban is discussed as if Jacob were reaping what he had sowed. Laban was out to scam Jacob out of everything. At the end of fourteen years, Jacob negotiated what he thought was a generous deal for Laban. Laban got to keep the best of the flock. Apparently, at that time, the speckled and spotted were considered less valuable than the pure colored flocks of goats and sheep. So Jacob was generous enough to work out a deal with Laban that he receive the lesser valued animals. Laban agreed, then behind Jacob’s back, had his sons take all the speckled and spotted animals and hide them far from where Jacob kept Laban’s flocks. Genetically, Laban made it practically impossible for Jacob to make a living of any substance. He would have been happy to let Jacob have nothing, even though he knew his own wealth had been enhanced and blessed simply because Jacob was living with and working for him. This Laban admitted to Jacob in Gen. 30:27. Talk about perverse, that was Laban.

But Jacob saw with the eyes of faith, and placing poplar branches in front of the watering troughs, envisioned the flocks as speckled and spotted. What was amazing was not that some pure-colored animals gave birth to spotted animals, but that God ensured that so many spotted and speckled animals were born. Only God could have miraculously changed the population of animals to favor Jacob, and he clearly did so to pay Jacob back for the manner in which Laban had cheated him. Jacob himself explains the injustice of his situation when Laban comes after him to do who knows what because God had blessed Jacob.

These twenty years I have been with you; your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried their young, and I have not eaten the rams of your flock. That which was torn by beasts I did not bring to you; I bore the loss of it. You required it from my hand, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. There I was! In the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night, and my sleep departed from my eyes. Thus I have been in your house twenty years; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times. Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked you last night.

Gen. 31:38-42. Jacob had lived by faith. He refused to cheat Laban, even after he knew Laban had cheated him. He relied upon the God of His fathers. So, again Jacob is the man of faith, willing to suffer rather than steal or respond in revenge. In addition to Rebecca and Joseph, Laban is the third person spoken to by God in Jacob's story, and it is not a pleasant message but a rebuke and warning. See Gen. 31:24, 29.

Jacob’s name means to “grasp the heel,” which has been interpreted as schemer and manipulator. But that is not what Jacob was. Jacob grasped the heel in the same sense that Peter did. What did Peter do when he met Jesus and realized who He was? He fell down on his face and said, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” He was at the place, on the ground, where he could only grasp Jesus’ heel. Where can you grasp Christ when He’s on the cross, only His heel. Where was the prostitute when she honored Christ, at His feet. Therefore, that is where we should be – at His feet, fit only to grasp His feet, His heel, and hold on, believing that His righteousness can be ours and that is our only hope.

Jacob is most like the Disciple, Peter, whose name was changed from Simon. When was Jacob’s name changed? When he would not let go of the man with whom Jacob wrestled all night. The bible does not tell us what part of the man Jacob held. It could only have been the heel, right, because the man was trying to leave? How can you grab a strong person who is leaving but by the heel? Yet, that event, when Jacob most fit his name as a grasper of the heel, the man changes his name to Prince, which is what Israel means. Therefore, Jacob’s name was not based on manipulation and deceit but on not letting go of the God who took hold of Him when Jacob was in the womb and would not let go of his twin brother’s heel. Jacob wanted the most valuable thing, the Lord Himself, and he would not let go. He was a persevering saint, and God honored him with an even better name, as he lived up to his original name.

How else is he like Peter? Peter wanted the best. He left the fishing nets, perhaps a fairly prosperous business, to follow Jesus Christ, the person and thing most valuable. Peter expected something from it: “Lord, we have left all to follow you. What will there be for us?” Jesus did not rebuke him. Far from it, He told Him there would be great riches for him and the other disciples – houses, family, persecution, and eternal life. Jesus loved that Peter would leave all to seek after what was most valuable, even though Peter did not fully understand all that he was seeking. Jacob also left all. Why? Because he was being persecuted for seeking the eternal, the invisible. Jacob left home with no money, no property, just what he could carry. He had nowhere to lay his head, just a rock for a pillow under the stars. Had Jesus come to Jacob and told him to follow Him, Jacob would have left all just like Peter. Why? Because Jacob knew what was most valuable, unlike Esau who sold what was most valuable for what was temporarily satisfying.

What can we learn? Single men, if you would not be willing to work for seven years to earn the right to marry the woman you think should be your wife, I wonder if you value her enough. You husbands, do you know how much your wife has sacrificed to be your wife? (Dear, forgive me for not seeing and not honoring your sacrifice in choosing to be my wife, for thinking you had gotten quite a catch. It is I who got the catch and have not respected that enough.) Employees, business men, when you see you're being cheated, how do you respond? Is it with faith in God? When you see people getting ahead through unscrupulous methods, are you tempted to do the same? Or do you believe God can bless your work and even make things right for you when you are unjustly treated? Thus, Jacob was the most Christ-like of the three patriarchs. He suffered unjustly, though innocent, and he did not seek revenge against his persecutors but instead entrusted himself to the God "who judges justly." I Pet. 2:23. He left all at the instruction of his father and to seek righteousness - to marry within the covenant. And he believed in the miraculous power of God to protect him from utter destitution and dependence upon man, when he believed God would bless him with speckled goats and sheep, even when it was impossible for such to be produced in the numbers necessary to pay Jacob the wages he was owed.

Esau's persecution of Jacob

Jacob’s life is one to emulate. Why did he buy the birthright from Esau? And he did buy it; he did not cheat Esau. How did he know that Esau would be willing to sell it for a bowl of soup? They had been brothers for decades, and he knew Esau’s character. He knew what Esau valued. He also knew that his father favored Esau; therefore, how could Jacob think that he would ever collect on the bargain? Esau was no pushover; later he would scheme to kill Jacob. Isaac was a patriarch, responsible for a significant estate of much property and hundreds of servants, inherited from Abraham and built up since then. So, Isaac was no pushover either. At the time he made the bargain with Esau, Jacob had no human way of collecting on the bargain; he must have believed that God would make sure that Esau would never collect the birthright for himself.

Let’s look at this economically. What did Esau get? He got something he could see and touch. Commentators fault him for choosing to please his base appetite, a bowl of soup over the birthright. But let’s give him some credit - he did get something. What did Jacob get? Nothing . . . yet. Jacob saw the invisible; he saw what was more valuable. And he must have known there is a divine bill collector who will see and enforce the deal. Jacob was a man of faith, seeing the invisible and valuing it more than the temporal. And that which is invisible is eternal. II Cor. 4:18. What do Christians choose when they give up everything in this life, perhaps even their own lives, to obtain Christ and his inheritance? The eternal.

What disciple is Esau most like? Who thought 40 shekels of silver was more valuable than the most valuable thing/person in the universe? Who thought, “What’s He done for me more than this silver can do? This silver may be temporary, but it meets my needs now. Unlike this so-called savior, this Son of God. What good can He do for me now?” That is Esau’s thinking: “What good is this birthright to me? This food I can eat now and meet my needs now.”

Esau, like Cain, saw that his brother was favored by God, and he wished him dead. When Jacob complains to Isaac that Jacob "took away the birthright," he is not totally forthright. He leaves out the part about him selling it to Jacob. Of course, he does; otherwise, how could he blame his brother for the loss of the Blessing? Yet, preachers and bible teachers take Esau's words at face value, as if Esau's judgment, which we know is bad based on the selling of the birthright and the marriage to Canaanite women, is the final word. This is poor judgment on the part of bible teachers.

But Esau never lost anything that he really cared about. He ended up inheriting his father's property. That's what he cared about, unlike Jacob who cared about the unseen. That's one reason that he doesn't still have a grudge against Jacob decades later. It's as if Esau says, "Hey, that birthright wasn't so important after all. I'm rich, and I can still hunt and eat heartily. Wasn't such a bad deal." So, he really doesn't care anymore that Jacob received the Blessing and birthright. As long as Esau has a full belly, all is well. What did Jacob receive from his father -no property. Jacob received one thing - the invisible Blessing/Birthright.

So what can we learn? When we choose what is honorable, others will hate us. Why? Because they chose something less, and they envy our choice, or God's choosing of us. You do not receive persecution when you conform and don't stand out; you get persecuted when you excel because of God's blessing on your life. Remember the Israelites in Egypt - they began to receive persecution when they received the blessing of many children. That threatened the Egyptians. So will your blessing. Those who have rejected Christ and His Word will not take kindly to the fact that your faith and obedience results in your surpassing them. Watch out but press on. And don't be like Esau, as we are warned in Hebrews. Choosing the pleasures of this life over following Christ is like Esau. Be like Jacob and face persecution, but see God's blessing in the midst of that persecution.

Isaac's persecution of Jacob

It wasn't merely Isaac's favoritism of Esau because he was a hunter that indicates Isaac forsook God's will. Isaac despised his wife, Rebecca, who had heard from God that Jacob was the chosen son - "the elder shall serve the younger." How many husbands have wished they had listened to their wives, who often have a better perspective on critical decisions that need to be made. But Rebecca had more than wifely intuition; she had heard from God. Therefore, Isaac despised God's word and chose Esau. This is outright rebellion. I Sam. 15:22-23. But there's more.

Isaac despised lawful contracts. Esau had sold the birthright to Jacob, a legitimate transaction, yet Isaac ignores that fact and ignores the fact that Esau's character is defective, making him unfit for the Blessing. A lawful contract exists when two people agree upon an exchange of things of value. It matters not that one thing is of lesser value than the other. The one receiving the lesser valued item has simply made a poor choice, and the bible clearly condemns Esau for "despising the birthright." Notice it does not condemn Jacob for buying it. And he bought it; he did not steal it, nor did he cheat Esau out of it. Those were Esau's words after he realized how foolish he was and wanted revenge upon Jacob. Never take the words of the wicked as the appropriate judgment upon the righteous. But there's more.

Isaac paid for his poor judgment. He became in his old age blind, like Eli who later became the example of a defective high priest unable to judge the value of God's altar and sacrifice in comparison to his sons. Isaac's favoritism of Esau, like Eli's favoritism of his sons, indicates a failure to accurately value what is most important in God's economy - faith and love for God and those things God values. From the birth of the twins, Rebecca had no such problem. She obeyed God and ensured Jacob was the chosen one. Why? Because he was.

The "deception" of Isaac was actually a correction. Remember the story of the Prince and Pauper. The prince wants to be free of his royal constraints to see the world, so he gets a pauper who looks like him to stand in for him temporarily. But the pauper comes close to a coronation. We are shocked that the wrong one might become king. But that is what was about to happen with Isaac and the blessing - he was about to put the wrong one into the chosen place, Jacob's place. Isaac not only was blind to Esau's character, a despiser of God's word, stubborn toward his wife, and ignored a lawful contract that Esau had effected, but he also was a legalist. He wanted the elder to rule, and according to standard custom, the eldest son rules. This was Isaac's excuse. We always use custom and "law" to justify disobedience to God. Isaac was following the best of human tradition by giving the Blessing to the elder son. Thus he despised God's choice.

But Isaac repented of his sin. After he discovered the "correction" by Rebecca and Jacob, notice he does not rebuke Jacob. In fact, he admits that what he has done in blessing Jacob is God's will, when he says, "And he [Jacob] will be blessed." In other words, I blessed someone other than you, Esau, and he is the one God will bless. Does God bless fraud? No, he blesses truth, and the truth is that Jacob was the one who should have received the Blessing, and he did. God took Isaac to school, and Isaac learned that God ordains and must be obeyed. From then on, Isaac began cooperating with his wife by helping her protect Jacob, and he repented of his rejection of Jacob and ordered him to leave for Jacob's protection. And look at the powerful language Isaac uses in the blessed send-off in Gen. 28:1-4. Now Isaac knows he has been wrong to reject his son, Jacob, and he gives him the appropriate blessing knowing to whom he gives it. Thus he repents of his intended folly of trying to give it to Esau.

This is just the beginning of the restoration of Jacob in our minds. What can we learn from this relationship? "Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will take me up." Jacob was persecuted by his father, but Isaac had his come-uppance when God took him to school. Persevere, in spite of family rejection of your choice of what really matters - Christ, His Word, and faith over the "practicalities of getting ahead in this world." Fathers, remember what is most valuable. Yes, a good education, a good job, etc. are important, but they cannot compare to the value of that which is eternal. Don't be like Isaac and ignore God's word, even when it comes from your wife, especially when it comes from your wife. You will face serious consequences for such poor valuation of what is most important. But there is so much more to learn from Jacob.

Why do we slander Jacob?

I have thought alot about this question. It seems every preacher and bible teacher loves to denigrate Jacob's character, even though he's a hero of faith and a character that we should imitate, not denigrate. Why does it seem that this patriarch, this man of faith, yes, this Christ-figure, receives an imbalance of criticism? Oh, the intention is to show that God chooses even the sinful. But every bible character is sinful. Every human being, except Christ, is sinful. This is a poor excuse to slander a good man and to twist the scripture. I have two theories.

One, human beings are always uncomfortable with those who have the upper hand in intelligence and character, and Jacob had both. He knew the value of the birthright - spiritual intelligence - and he knew his brother Esau's character, that he despised such intangible, spiritual things. Jacob intimidates us because the blessing of God appeared upon Jacob in his ability to never knuckle under, and we want people to conform to our standard. Jacob was not a conformist, Jacob excelled.

Two, the election of Esau to rejection and the election of Jacob to inheritance scare us because not only did God elect the two to their fates but also gave them the characters that would lead them to those fates. Jacob was honorable, and the honorable face persecution by the dishonorable, which was Esau. Notice that Romans 9:11 says "the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil." In other words, Esau did evil, but that did not condemn him, and Jacob did good, but that did not commend him.

You say, "But Win, what about the deception, the cheating, the greed, etc.?" I knew you'd say that. See my future posts on these matters. These are the outright slanders of Jacob. There are so many perspectives from which to study Jacob, but I intend to begin with his relationships, like that with his father, Isaac. There are only two people that supported Jacob in his life, his mother Rebecca and his son Joseph, both persons who heard from and obeyed God. Laban also heard from God but in rebuke not as a favor. The other relationships in Jacob's life indicate that just about everyone was trying to take from him what God wanted to give him. This includes his own family, so that he is a follower of Christ, who said we must love Him more than father and mother, wife and children, even our own life. Let's learn about this prince of faith.