JACOB HAVE I LOVED

The Jewish patriarch, Isaac, had two sons who were twins.  Esau was the firstborn and Jacob was literally born on Esau’s heels because scripture tells us that he took hold of Esau’s heel as he was being birthed and was delivered immediately after.  “And when her [Isaac’s wife Rebekah’s] days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.  And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.  And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau’s heel; and his name was called Jacob: and Isaac was threescore years old when she [Rebekah] bare them.” (Genesis 25:24-26).

 

The two boys couldn’t have been any different from one another.  It was not just their appearance, but their personalities and inclinations were also quite different.  Scripture says, “…Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents.” (v. 27).  Esau was that guy that many men aspire to be.  He was a model of rugged individualism.  He was a man’s man.  Scripture calls him a “cunning hunter” and a “man of the field.”  Jacob, on the other hand, is described as “plain.”  He was more of a homebody than a man of the fields like his brother.  He would rather dwell indoors than sleep under the stars.  Esau was an action figure while Jacob was a schemer.  Jacob’s name in Hebrew means "to supplant, circumvent, assail, and overreach." He was named so because of his perceived effort to grab his brother’s heel at birth and supplant the birth order.  Isaac loved Esau, his firstborn son, the best; but Rebekah favored Jacob.

 

The Lord had spoken to Rebekah before the children were born and said, “…Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.” (Genesis 25:23).  Rebekah therefore knew and believed that Jacob was destined for greatness despite his place in the natural “pecking order.”  God does not see as man sees.  It is not always the oldest, the smartest, the best looking, or the strongest that will prevail with God because God sees the heart and doesn’t judge according to appearances.  Jesus said, “But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.”  (Matthew 19:30).  That was certainly to be the case with these two brothers. 

 

Jacob had many faults as a young man because he had not yet passed under the rod of God’s discipline, but Jacob definitely had his eye on the prize all along.  Whether it was because Rebekah had coached her youngest son about the promise that God had given to her before the boys were born (which is reasonable), or whether it was simply a matter of sibling rivalry, Jacob appears to have been looking for an opportunity to supplant Esau for real.  That opportunity wasn’t long in coming. 

 

One day when the boys were older, Esau had been in the fields hunting and was returning home when he found Jacob preparing a pot of soup or stew.  Esau was faint from hunger and begged his brother to give him a bowl of the soup.  This is when Jacob seized his opportunity.  “And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright.  And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me?  And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob.  Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.”  (Genesis 25:29-34).  Esau was willing to put immediate, earthly needs ahead of future honor and glory.  This applies to many Christians who are also willing to indulge themselves in momentary pleasures and lusts and not treasure their birthright in Christ or their place in the Kingdom of Heaven.  The Apostle Paul admonished believers in his day that they should be, “Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.  For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.” (Hebrews 12:15-17).

 

Jacob had now obtained Esau’s birthright, but this was not enough; he also would receive his father Isaac’s best blessings that he had reserved for his eldest son.  Genesis 27 tells of Rebekah’s plot to cause her son Jacob to deceive Isaac into blessing him in Esau’s stead.  Rebekah had overheard Isaac telling Esau to go out, kill a deer, and prepare it the way Isaac loved best.  Isaac would then give his blessings upon Esau before he died, for he was very old, could not see, and knew his days were numbered.  Rebekah immediately told Jacob to go and bring her two goat kids from the flock so that she could prepare it in a similar fashion to how Esau would prepare his venison.  She also put one of Esau’s outfits on Jacob and secured some of the skins of the kids on Jacob’s neck and the back of his hands so that he would feel like Esau to his father since Esau was hairy and Jacob was smooth.  All of this intrigue had its desired effect.  Isaac thought it was Esau who brought in savory meat for him, when it was Jacob his youngest son who did.  Though there was a moment or two when Isaac suspected something was amiss, in the end he was convinced because Jacob now smelled like Esau and felt like him as well.  Isaac spoke many blessings over Jacob and everything went according to plan until Esau came in bringing his father venison to eat.  Jacob had just made his exit when Esau arrived.  As Esau and his father talked it became quite evident what had happened.  Jacob had been deceived and Esau had been robbed!  Esau pleaded with his father to pull out one more blessing for him also, and Isaac did indeed speak blessings over his eldest, but they may not have been everything they could have been if he had received the first blessing. 

 

Esau’s heart was now enraged over what his younger brother had done to him, both in taking his birthright, and now in taking his blessing.  “And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob.” (Genesis 27:41).  Rebekah was soon aware of Esau’s intentions and warned Jacob to flee to Padanaram to the house of her father where he could find a wife among her brother Laban’s daughters.

 

There is a lesson here that we need to understand about election and inheritance.  The Apostle Paul has much to say on this subject in his letter to the Galatian churches and in the ninth chapter of Romans where he says, “For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.  That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.  For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son.  And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; (for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.  As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”  (Romans 9:6-13).  We must understand that ultimately the seed of Abraham was never about a man’s lineage, but it was about a man’s faith.  God recognizes the children of faith as the true Israel of God whether they are Jews, Gentiles, red, yellow, black, or white.  “For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.” (Romans 2:28, 29).  “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.  He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.’’ (Galatians 3: 16).  “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.  For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.  And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3: 25-29).  My friends and fellow believers in Jesus Christ: you are the seed of Abraham, true Jews, and the Israel of God!  Embrace your heritage in Christ!

 

The lesson that Paul wants to get across to us concerning divine election and grace is that it has nothing to do with works.  It is all about God’s calling.  It is about unmerited favor.  It is about the fulfillment of God’s promises to man – not birthright, not will power, and not the works of the flesh.  God predetermined that the Holy Seed of Christ would descend, not from Isaac’s oldest son Esau, but from his youngest son Jacob.  It would come forth, not from a real man’s man, but from a plain man.  Not from the strongest, but from the weakest.  The same thing was true of David.  When the Prophet Samuel was sent to anoint a king over Israel, God refused all of the sons of Jesse who were older, taller, and more handsome.  It was David, the youngest, that God had His eye on.  “…the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill.” (Ecclesiastes 9:11).

 

We find in this story a type and a shadow of Israel after the flesh (the Jewish nation) and Israel after the Spirit (the true believers in Christ).  God said He loved Jacob because Jacob represents those who are learning to trust God in faith and growing in the knowledge of their Savior Jesus Christ.  As God loved David, who was described as a man after God’s own heart, so He loves those today who are seeking to know and to please Him.  God said that He hated Esau because Esau represents those who are trusting in everything but Christ for their salvation.  They think that their own works will save them, but they are building their house on shifting sand.  The collapse of that house will be devastating someday.  God hates those who think they can achieve righteousness by their own efforts.  Jesus’ sharpest criticisms and harshest rebukes were against those who maintained their own misguided integrity while persecuting and condemning the innocent.  James, the brother of Jesus, writes, “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” (James 4:4).  James directed these words to those who said they knew and followed God. 

 

God’s ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts.  There is a way that seems right to us, but the end of that way is spiritual death (Proverbs 14:12).  So much of what God does is counterintuitive to us mere mortals.    “There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture’s eye hath not seen: the lion’s whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it.” (Job 28:7, 8).

“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9).  God, however, reveals His ways to those who love Him and seek to know His ways.  “But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:10).

 

Rebekah in this story may be seen as the Church, the Bride of Christ, the Household of Faith.  It is the Church’s job to nurture and guide those who desire to be sons of God and overcomers.  Her methods seem devious and underhanded in our story, but when applied to the spiritual application of the Church, we see that her intentions were to secure both the birthright and the blessings upon her child whom God had already indicated would have the dominion.  Her actions in that regard could be said to have been in faith.  The picture of Rebekah warning her son to flee from the wrath of Esau is reminiscent of the woman in Revelation.  “And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: and she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.  And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon…and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.  And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.” (Revelation 12:1-5).

 

When Balaam the prophet was hired to speak a curse over Israel when they had come out of Egypt and were approaching the Promised Land, the Spirit of God came upon him, and he spoke some wonderful things which we can claim as our own as the true Israel of God.  He said, “God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent: hath He said, and shall He not do it? or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?  Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and He hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it.  He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath He seen perverseness in Israel: the LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them.  God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn.  Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel: according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought! (Numbers 23:19-23).  God has given commandment to bless you, dear one, and though there be those who would wish to curse you, they cannot reverse what God has said!  Jacob have I loved!  He has not beheld iniquity or perverseness in you because He only sees you through the finished work of His Beloved Son.  Jesus’ blood has atoned for our sin and His resurrection has justified us in the Father’s sight!   The shout of a King is among us!  Bless His holy name!  When we look at ourselves, we can never say, “look what I have done.”  We can only say, “What hath God wrought!”

                                                                         

Balaam went on to prophecy, “I shall see Him, but not now: I shall behold Him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth.  And Edom [Esau] shall be a possession, Seir also shall be a possession for his enemies; and Israel shall do valiantly.  Out of Jacob shall come He that shall have dominion, and shall destroy him that remaineth of the city.”  (Numbers 24:17-19).  Balaam recognized that he would some day stand before the King of kings and the Lord of lords.  He saw Him Who is the Star of Jacob and the Sceptre of Israel Who will one day have the dominion over all things!

 

In the end, Jacob met God, embraced His promises, and allowed himself to be refined through hardship.  This is the path that all of us are asked to walk.  It is often difficult, but we are learning that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us!  God loves you, and He has chosen you!  Trust Him to guide you along this path of life until you one day see Him face to face.