Jacob, who became Israel

If Abraham is the man of faith and Isaac the man of meekness, Jacob is the man of struggle. His life is full of cunning, deceit, flight, love, labour, family conflict and encounters with God that transformed him. He was born holding his brother’s heel and, years later, wrestled all night with God until he received a new name: Israel. From his twelve sons would come the twelve tribes of God’s people. His story, in Genesis 25 to 35, shows that God can turn a complicated person into a prince of his people.

The heel-grabber

Jacob and Esau were twins, but very different. Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field, his father’s favourite. Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents, his mother’s favourite. His name, Yaakov, is related to akev, “heel”, because he was born holding his brother’s heel, and also to the idea of supplanting or deceiving.

One day Esau came in from the field faint and hungry and asked Jacob for the red lentil pottage he was cooking. Jacob proposed a deal: “Sell me this day thy birthright.” Esau answered: “Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me?” He sold his birthright for a meal. That is why Hebrews calls him a “profane person, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright” (Hebrews 12:16).

The blessing and the flight

As we saw in the previous episode, Jacob, advised by his mother, deceived his blind father to receive the blessing meant for Esau. Esau, full of resentment, planned to kill him after Isaac’s death. Rebekah sent Jacob to Haran, to her brother Laban’s house, “a few days”. He would never see his mother again: those days would become twenty years.

The ladder at Bethel

As he fled, Jacob came to a certain place and slept with a stone for his pillow. There he had an extraordinary dream:

“And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.”

Genesis 28:12-15

Jacob, a fugitive who had deceived his family, received from God the same promise given to Abraham and Isaac, and a personal word: “I am with thee.” When he awoke he said: “Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.” He set up the stone as a pillar, anointed it with oil and called the place Bethel, “house of God”. There he made a vow: if God kept him and brought him back in peace, the Lord would be his God and he would give a tenth of everything.

Jacob in Haran: the deceiver deceived

In Haran, beside a well, Jacob met Rachel, Laban’s daughter, and fell in love with her. He agreed to work seven years for her, “and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her” (Genesis 29:20). But on the wedding night Laban gave him his elder daughter, Leah. Jacob, who had deceived his father by posing as his elder brother, was deceived when he was given the elder sister instead of the younger. He had to work another seven years for Rachel.

So began a complicated family, with rivalry between the two sisters. Leah, less loved, had several sons, and God saw her. Rachel, barren for a long time, gave Jacob her maid Bilhah; Leah gave him Zilpah. From these four women the twelve sons of Jacob were born. At last God remembered Rachel, and Joseph was born.

Laban changed Jacob’s wages ten times, but God blessed Jacob, and his flocks multiplied. After twenty years God told him: “Return unto the land of thy fathers.” Jacob set out with his family and possessions.

Fear of Esau

Going home meant facing Esau. When he heard his brother was coming with four hundred men, Jacob was greatly afraid. He divided his camp, sent gifts and prayed with a new humility: “I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant” (Genesis 32:10).

The wrestling at Peniel

That night, by the ford of the Jabbok, Jacob was left alone. Then one of the most mysterious episodes in the Bible took place:

“And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.”

Genesis 32:24-28

Jacob wrestled with a man until daybreak. The man touched the hollow of his thigh and left him lame, but Jacob held on: “I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.” When asked his name, Jacob had to confess: “Jacob”, that is, the supplanter. Then he received a new name: Israel, meaning “he who strives with God” or “God strives”. Jacob called the place Peniel, “face of God”, saying: “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” The prophet Hosea explains that he had power over the angel, wept and made supplication (Hosea 12:4). Jacob left limping, but blessed. God broke his self-sufficiency to make him depend on him.

Reconciliation with Esau

The next morning Jacob bowed seven times before his brother. “And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept” (Genesis 33:4). Twenty years of resentment dissolved in an embrace. Jacob told him: “I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God.”

Back to Bethel, and grief

Jacob settled near Shechem, where his daughter Dinah suffered grave violence and his sons Simeon and Levi responded with terrible revenge. Then God told him to go back to Bethel. Jacob told his household to put away their foreign gods, purify themselves and change their garments. At Bethel God confirmed the name Israel and the promise.

On the way to Ephrath, that is, Bethlehem, Rachel died giving birth to her second son. She called him Ben-oni, “son of my sorrow”, but Jacob called him Benjamin, “son of the right hand”. Jacob set a pillar on her grave. Later he saw his father Isaac again before his death.

Places in the story

Interesting facts

Lessons for our lives

Don’t despise the sacred for the immediate: like Esau with his birthright. We reap what we sow: the deceiver was deceived. God seeks us even when we run: he revealed himself to Jacob at his lowest point. Blessing comes in weakness: Jacob left Peniel limping, but transformed. Reconciliation is possible: twenty years of resentment ended in an embrace. Idols must be removed: returning to Bethel required purifying the household.

On the road to Jesus

Jacob received the promise: “in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” That seed is Christ. The ladder at Bethel is fulfilled in Jesus, the one mediator between God and men. Jacob wrestled with God and saw his face; in Jesus, Paul says, shines “the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). And from the tribe of Judah, one of his sons, would come the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

In the next episode we will meet Joseph, Jacob’s beloved son, sold by his brothers and raised to governor of Egypt.

Prayer

God of Jacob, like him I have sometimes trusted my own cleverness more than you. Thank you that you seek me even when I run. I will not let you go unless you bless me. Break what needs to be broken in me and give me a new name in Christ. Thank you for Jesus, the ladder joining heaven and earth. Amen.