Jacob’s life is a wild ride. This usurper and man of passions seems an odd choice to become Israel, the father of God’s people. His life, though, teaches us of the sovereign mercy of God in choosing sinners to be His sons and to become fathers in the covenant. In Jacob, we see the continuation of God’s promises through His sovereign will, despite spiritually dark times, familial and church conflict, divisions, judgments, personal failure, and the wreckage brought by human passions amid weakness and need.
In Jacob becoming Israel, we see that the covenant son often experiences a slow bloom to the seeds of regeneration in the heart—with struggle and wrestling (Hosea 12:4)—on the path to full conversion. We see the disciplines of a father, scourging the son that he may be received. Disciplines on him that set his hip out of joint. The history of salvation in the soul often does not follow a straight line. Even our sins and the sins of others are providences that God may mercifully use to bring us to Him.
Yet, Jacob’s story also shows the lasting marks of sin on families and the world—the curse that anger and defilement bring into a family and broader society. Yet it is exactly that sinful world that God has purposed to save through the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the self-giving, conquering Son, Jesus Christ.
We may think of life as “in our hands,” and I don’t want to diminish our true responsibilities and accountabilities, but we also must see that, at the end of the day, it is a sovereign God acting on us. “Let us love, and fear, and wonder” at Him and His ways. Jacob said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” May we recognize God’s presence in our own lives and in others as He breaks through in surprising ways to say, “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac… Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go” (Genesis 28:13).
Friend, read yourself into this story; in many ways, you are Jacob.
One last thing: be thankful for the life He’s given you—imperfect, full of the same struggles Jacob’s life was full of. Contentment goes hand in hand with hearing God’s promise to Jacob: “Behold, I am with you.” This is why we can be thankful: “Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’” (Hebrews 13:5). God Himself, in the welcome of Jesus Christ, is the great treasure of life—the Almighty who chose you before you ever did good or ill and has broken into your life with His name and promises. He has crowned you with a new name in baptism and given you a heritage you don’t deserve. He will bring you into that new name, no matter what it takes. He wrestles with you. He lays your head on the rock that is His one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, while in Jesus Christ He descends and ascends for you. He feeds you in the Egypt of this world but will bring you to rest in His promised land. He will bless your sons with blessings on their heads. He is the God of Jacob.