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.