Jacob's Legacy

By faith Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff. Hebrews 11:21

Jacob was the younger son of Isaac and Rebekah. Isaac was the only son of Abraham and Sarah. Abraham was the first Hebrew, having been made righteous by believing God while in his native country, Chaldea, and obeying God’s instruction to go where God would lead. Abraham’s son Isaac, the son of promise, also was a believer in God’s provision and was a Hebrew. Ishmael, the son of Abraham by Hagar, remained an Arab; a Gentile unbeliever. Isaac’s younger son, Jacob, became a believer in God’s provision and was a Hebrew. Esau rejected that faith and remained a Gentile unbeliever. In the history of Israel, a Hebrew is a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The descendants of Ishmael and Esau are not Hebrews, even though they are descended from Abraham. The difference was based on faith in God, and it was through these faithful ones that the Messiah was to come.

These early Hebrews knew the character of God, believed His promises and depended on His provision for their lives. That was the basis of their righteousness, the righteousness which belongs to God. God preserves, protects, and blesses His own, and severely disciplines those who revile and oppress His own. He has the authority to do this because He IS the Sovereign of the universe Who IS all righteousness, justice, love, eternal life, power, knowledge, presence, truth and is never-changing. That is His character. What He has promised, He will provide. His plan, policy and purpose for His people: always Grace.

Jacob’s whole life is a study in grace. He was the second-born of the son of promise, Isaac. The birthright, by tradition, should have gone to Esau. It wasn’t important to Esau, and Jacob took advantage of an opportunity to swindle Esau out of it. Then, because of Esau’s anger, Jacob went into exile, to work for his uncle Laban. Swindler. Opportunist. Always watching for the advantage. This is not the description of a nice man. God had made a covenant with his grandfather, Abraham and his father Isaac, though, and Jacob figured in. He was to be a link in the chain of faith, and he had an appointment with Jesus Christ at Bethel.

Genesis 28: Alone and tired, Jacob slept and had a dream of a ladder to heaven, with angels ascending and descending. The Lord was atop that ladder, and spoke to Him, confirming the covenant He had made with Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 12 and 25, promising land, multitudes of offspring, divine personal protection and continued blessing for himself, and blessing to “all the families of the earth” through “thy seed.”

From that point on, Jacob knew he belonged to God, and that whatever befell him was God’s will for him. Many years passed, many life experiences occurred, and twelve sons were born to Jacob, who had been renamed Israel, “Prince of God.” He didn’t always behave with the best of integrity, but he never forgot Whose he was, and upon whom all his life depended. Because of famine in Caanan, Jacob and all his sons relocated to Egypt, where Jacob eventually died. By this time, he was reunited with Joseph, whom he though had been long dead. Joseph had two sons: Manasseh and Ephraim. Jacob asked Joseph to bring the sons to him for his final blessing.

He was old and blind, and had to prop on his staff with which he had made his journeys. He made Joseph’s sons equal with his own sons, and did an interesting thing: even though he knew the birth order of the boys, he deliberately gave Ephraim the blessing of the firstborn, saying “the younger brother shall be greater, and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations.

Again, the pattern of grace. Nevermind what tradition dictates. God’s plan is grace. God’s policy is grace. God chooses His people, to represent His grace in the earth. Human good does not have to approve. Human intellect cannot understand. Human works can never compare. Human nature has no basis for judgment of God’s grace.

Grace cannot be earned. It is given. It is received. It is believed, and becomes the faith by which we live and breathe. Adam and Eve learned that, and Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and they became the conduits through whom faith was passed down to us, who are saved by the same grace as they: the gift of God, not of works.

None of us can boast.