To know Jacob’s story is to know his life was a never-ending struggle. There was within their family a struggle over who will receive the birthright. In Genesis 25:23 the Lord had promised Rebecca that the older would serve the younger which would mean that the birthright would be given to Jacob, her younger son. But on the other hand, his father Isaak, seemed to favor his older son Esau and he was determined to give him the birthright.
Genesis 25
22 But the children struggled together within her; and she said, “If all is well, why am I like this?” So she went to inquire of the LORD. 23 And the LORD said to her: “Two nations are in your womb, Two peoples shall be separated from your body; One people shall be stronger than the other, And the older shall serve the younger.”
There is no doubt that Rebecca shared with her younger son Jacob, what the Lord had said to her concerning the birthright, for both of them made plans to bring this to pass with their own way and strength. It was not the possessions of his fathers wealth that he desired but rather it was the spiritual birthright.
Because Isaak and Rebecca were on two separate pages with this matter, they both tried in secret to bring their way to pass. Rebecca succeeded but gained only trouble and sorrow by the deception. God had declared that Jacob should receive the birthright, and His word would have been fulfilled in His own time had they waited in faith for God to work for them. But like many who now profess to be children of God, they were unwilling to leave this certain matter in His hands. What are the chances that Rebecca did not repeat the words of the Lord to her husband, that the older would serve the younger? She must not have been able to convince Him, for they both worked against each other when it came to who will receive the birthright.
If she never would have mentioned God’s instructions about the birthright then Isaak never would have felt like he needed to bless his eldest son in secret. Isaak was also guilty of doing things his way in this matter and the results were bitter for him also. Esau was not only guilty of not seeing the value in the birthright but he failed to mention to his father that he has sold his birthright to his brother for a pot of stew. A lot can be learned from this story, it was a time when this family did not seek to do God’s will but rather they worked to bring their own way to pass and in the end they had to reap the consequences that lingered for quite some time.
Rebecca succeeded but the results were bitter ones, she had to watch her son leave home, since his brother vowed to kill him, you can’t read that she ever saw his face again. Jacob was weighed down with self-condemnation, he had sinned against his father, his brother, his own soul, and against God. This scene must have been before him continually years after, when the wicked ways of his sons oppressed his soul.
One thing is for certain, in this life our past sins will keep reminding us just how far our sins reach into the future. Not only do our sins strike directly at the heart of infinite love but they will bring much trouble and sorrow for us as we journey through this world. Often times it seems that lying and deception is a small matter but look how far this lie and deception reached into the future of this family. If only we would consider daily, the effect sin has on the heart of God, our life and the people around us.
Esau had lightly valued the blessing while it seemed within his reach, but he desired to possess it now that it was gone from him forever. His grief and rage were terrible. He lifted up his voice and cried with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me—me “Bless me, even me also, O my father!” “Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me?”
How does one go from despising his birthright, saying what is it to me? To bitterly crying about it, when it is no longer within reach? The following verse comes to mind.
James 1:8
he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
Esau was doubled minded, he wanted this world and the thrills that it can bring and at the same time he half heartedly wanted to hold on to matters that are sacred.
Isn’t that how humanity is? Valuing little the things that could be theirs until they in a moment watch them slip out of their grasp for all eternity? It seems that often times the value isn’t seen until it’s gone and someone else has claimed it. Salvation is a free gift that Christ desires to give to us but let us not deceive ourselves into thinking this free gift could never have an expiry date on it, for the Spirit warns us, that today is the day to hear His voice, today is the day of salvation, who has this promise that we will see tomorrow?
Hebrews 3
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice, 8 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness,
Psalm 95
6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. 7 For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture, And the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear His voice:
In Genesis 32, Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed when he heard that his brother Esau, was coming to meet him with 400 men. Will his brothers rage still burn after all those years?
In his distress Jacob bows before God in prayer. He was on the run, away from his home, his past sins still hunt him and the consequences still lingered. At one point after his prayer, after pleading with God, a man’s hand touches him and wrestles with him until the break of dawn.
At some point during wrestling, Jacob realizes that he is wrestling with God. His counselor had heard his prayer and He met him there in the dead of night. At the break of dawn, God decides it’s time to end the match, he touches the socket of his hip and dislocates Jacob’s hip and demands to be released. And Jacob, in his pain, determined to not let go, replies, “I will not let you go unless you bless me”
Genesis 32
25 Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. 26 And He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.” But he said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!”
Are we like Esau, that chases after the here and now? Is our salvation something that’s secondary in our life? Something that we push of and think that we have all the time in the world to claim it at a more convenient time? How many of us will cry with a cry that will be more bitter then was the cry of Esau, when we are faced with the hour when the judgment will be set, the book of life will be opened and our names will not be found within? We may not bluntly say, what is it to me, as did Esau but our actions speak for us.
Even though he had been separated from all that had made life dear, Jacob seemed to be most troubled and afraid that his sin had caused God to cut him of and forsake him. The patriarch was now disabled and suffering a sharp pain in his hip, but still he would not loosen his hold of the Lord until he blessed him and gave him the assurance that he was forgiven of his sins.
His refusal to let go, reveals his passionate desire for forgiveness and to be right with his Lord. Picture this scene, a mortal, wrestling with his Savior in the dead of night, desperate to be blessed and to have assurance that he has been forgiven. You could say Jacob acted like he had nothing to loose that night, as he refused to let his Lord go. He was a man that was desperate. This desire that this man had is a desire that also needs to be within our heart. It didn’t matter if his hip was out of it’s socket, the pain did not distract him from his longing to be right with God. It shows that his relationship with his Lord meant the whole world to him.
Hosea 12:4
Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us;
Jacob prevailed because he did not give up and he was determined, He who listened to the cries of his servant of old, will hear the prayer of faith and pardon their transgressions
