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.