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The Edge of Death
All of us who are adults have had the temptation to pat a child on the head and say something appropriate. When Jacob had spent seventeen years in Egypt with his family and the time of his death drew …Read More
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Everything Is Against Me!
It is Jacob’s lowest point. As far as he knows, Joseph is dead. That’s the story his sons have led him to believe, showing him the blood-stained “coat of many colors” (Gen. 37:31–33). He mourned …Read More
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Jacob I Loved, but Esau Have I Hated
How do we as a community of faith relate to those without faith, to the declared enemies of God? There are no longer any Edomites (descendants of Esau) around today, but clearly there are those who are their spiritual …Read More
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A Mother in Israel
Jacob, the wily one, after ten or fifteen years, finally returns to Bethel. God has been at work in his life, drawing the wayward patriarch to himself. It has been a difficult journey. It invariably is so when our …Read More
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A Face-to-Face Encounter
At its core, sin stems from failing to worship (or love) God exclusively and failing to love our neighbors as ourselves. Clearly Jacob and his family are guilty of both. After God calls on Jacob to fulfill his vow …Read More
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Growing Up and Growing Down
“Grow up!” Some of us can recall with a measure of embarrassment being told these words following an incident in which we displayed less than mature behavior. Jacob is growing up, and it has been a long and painful …Read More
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The Prodigal Brother
It had been twenty years since Jacob had deceived his father and received the blessing Isaac had intended to give Esau. It had been twenty years since Jacob fled for his life from a furious brother intent on killing …Read More
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The Real Danger
The Gospel makes us see…our real danger. These are the problems — not the Esaus we put up. These are the problems — my relationship to God, my relationship to myself, yes, and my real danger. Now to Jacob of …Read More
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A Love Greater than Jacob’s
There is a pattern in the Bible of the bride of a patriarch being discovered at a well in a far country. Abraham sent his faithful servant to the east where he found a bride for Isaac. The lovely …Read More
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Limping Home to God
Poor Jacob! You have to love him even though he’s such a disagreeable fellow! A cheat from birth, Jacob has lived up to his name and now finds himself away from home, fearing the wrath of his twin-brother …Read More
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God Remembers
God is sovereign, man is not, and sin distorts our understanding of this truth. God always keeps His promises to His people despite our shortcomings, as we see in Genesis 30. God blessed Jacob even though he was a …Read More
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Worthy of Work
Several years ago, my wife and I agreed to coordinate the Sunday evening children’s classes at our local church for the entire summer. Our church often asked for volunteers to do this or they would have to cancel …Read More
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Snakes and Ladders
Poor Jacob! You have to feel sorry for him even though he’s a most disagreeable character! A “self-willed mother’s boy,” with opportunistic instincts that enabled him to outsmart friends and foes alike in a ruthless bid at …Read More
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Wily Jacob
Sell me your birthright now,” Jacob demanded of his twin brother, Esau (Gen. 25:31). Thus begins the sorry tale of Abraham’s grandson. From the start, Jacob challenges us to dislike him: a self-willed, pampered child with ruthless skills …Read More
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A Trickster Tricked
The biblical measure of justice is equivalence, stated as a maxim by Moses in the law “eye for eye” (Ex. 21:24). The ancient Roman jurists recognized that the principle of equivalence is the purest standard of justice. They named …Read More
