After Jacob dressed up like Esau and tricked his father into giving him Esau’s blessing he had to go away because Esau wanted to kill him. His parents Isaac and Rebekah sent him to Paddan Aram where Rebekah’s family lived. Rebekah wanted Jacob to find a wife among the daughters of her brother Laban.
Jacob fell in love with Rachel and worked seven years for his uncle Laban so he could have her as his wife. On his wedding night, Labon tricked Jacob and gave him Rachel’s older sister Leah as his wife instead, so Jacob ended up with two wives.
God designed marriage to be between one man and one woman. When this design isn’t followed there can be real problems in a family and the society.
Jacob loved Rachel more than he loved Leah but Rachel didn’t have any children. Jacob didn’t love Leah but God granted her children. The fact that Leah had children and she didn’t made Rachael very jealous, so she did what Sarah had done and gave her maidservant Bilhah to Jacob as a wife. Bilhah had two sons by Jacob. Then to get more children for herself Leah gave her maidservant Zilpah to Jacob as his wife. Zilpah also had two sons by Jacob.
Finally, God opened Rachel’s womb and she gave birth to a son, Joseph. This gave Jacob eleven sons from four wives. Later he would have one more son by Rachel named Benjamin.
Jacob was living in the land of Rebekah his mother in the house of his uncle Laban. Jacob needed to leave that place because it wasn’t the land that God had promised to give to his grandfather Abraham. God had called Abraham and had sent him to the land of Canaan and Jacob needed to go back there.
After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob asked Laban to send him on his way and let him go back to his homeland. Laban had been blessed by God because Jacob was living in his household, so he didn’t want Jacob to leave.
Jacob made a bargain that he would go on tending Laban’s sheep if he could separate for himself the speckled, spotted and dark colored sheep and goats. Once he made this bargain with Laban, Jacob tried to make it so the speckled, spotted and dark colored sheep and goats were the ones that mated.
Jacob tried to gain riches himself through trickery but it was God who caused him to grow very prosperous with large flocks of animals and lots of servants. When he left Laban’s house to return to his own land he was very rich.
Jacob was concerned about how his brother Esau would respond to him as he had tricked Esau out of both his birthright and blessing.
As he approached the place where he would meet Esau he divided his animals into smaller flocks sending some of them ahead to Esau as a gift, hoping that this would grant him favor with Esau.
Jacob was an imperfect man who did things that displeased God but he knew and acknowledged God. He recognized that his life and possessions were a gift from God. Listen to his prayer to God before he met Esau. (Genesis 32:9-12)
“O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O LORD, who said to me, `Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ 10I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two groups. 11Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. 12But you have said, `I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’ “
Jacob understood that he was unworthy but that God was faithful to keep his promises. He knew he was dependent upon God.
The night before he met Esau Jacob was left alone in the camp and God in the physical form of a man came and wrestled with him.
22 That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
27 The man asked him, “What is your name?”
“Jacob,” he answered.
28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.”
29 Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”
But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.
30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
31 The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon.
Jacob wanted to be blessed; he was always seeking a blessing. With Esau he tricked him to get a blessing, this time he was physically fighting for it.
To acknowledge what Jacob had done that he struggled with God and overcame, God changed his name to Israel. The descendants God promised to Abraham that came through the sons of Jacob (Israel) are called the Israelites.
Because of the promise that he had made to Abraham, God kept his hand upon Jacob and caused him to prosper in a foreign land. Then he brought Jacob and his family back to the land he had promised to Abraham. God is God and will see that his plans are completed. He is faithful to do all he has promised.
Isaiah 46:3-4 says: Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all you who remain of the house of Israel, you whom I have upheld since you were conceived, and have carried since your birth. 4Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.
Because God is God, he will always do what is right. He will fulfill his promises and take care of his creation. He will watch over us and if we respond rightly to him on earth, we will spend all eternity in his presence.
- Overview Questions: Why was Jacob afraid to go back to his home? How did he prepare to meet Esau? What happened when Jacob wrestled with God?
- Thought Questions: Did Jacob deserve to be blessed by God? Why did God bless Jacob? What are the blessings God bestows on us? What does it mean that God “causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous”? (Matthew 5:45) What would happen to us if God removed his hand of blessing (provision)?
- Prayer: Thank God for being the author and sustainer of life. Thank him for keeping his hand upon you. Pray that you would recognize his hand in your life and the blessings he gives you every day. Pray that you would devote yourself more fully to him.
- This Week’s Memory Verse: Isaiah 46:3-4
What enables us to live and flourish? God sustains and takes care of his people.
Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all you who remain of the house of Israel, you whom I have upheld since you were conceived, and have carried since your birth. 4[Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.]
Questions: What does it mean that God will sustain us? Why does he sustain us?