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.