Genesis 25-29: Jacob, the Blessed Deceiver

"Afterward his brother came out with his hand holding

Esau's heel, so his name was called Jacob." Genesis 25:26

This morning we enter into the story of Jacob. We've already seen the Lord's sovereign hand on the life of Abraham as well as his son Isaac, but now we look at a character the next character in the scriptures, the man named Jacob, who would bear the twelve tribes of Israel. From the get-go, we find that Jacob is a deceiver, which is literally what his name means. When he was born, he was grasping the heel of his brother (Gen. 25:26), which would portray the rest of their lives together. However, in God's great and even confusing mercy, we find that Jacob would triumph over his brother, although he was the deceiver.

The first story we see in the life of Jacob is his deception of Esau in order to gain his birthright (Gen. 25:29-34). We are most likely all familiar with this story, but let us review. Esau was a man's man, who was always hunting, fishing, and killing bears with his bare hands (I may have taken interpretive liberties here). However, Jacob's was a momma's boy, who learned how to cook and clean. One day, when his big and hairy bro Esau came home from his day of hunting, he was starved, almost to death, so Jacob offers him a deal: a single meal for an entire birthright. Esau, feeling as if he is about to starve to death, takes the wildly unfair deal, and from the beginning, we see Jacob's powers of deception.

However, the story moves on. After Isaac had become very old and blind, Rachel (Isaac's wife, the father of Jacob and Esau, who favored Jacob) thought of a grand scheme to trick Isaac into blessing Jacob, who was the youngest, rather than Esau, the oldest (Gen. 27). After Esau went out hunting for his father one day, Rachel tells Jacob to go to his father with a hot pot of stew and pretend as if he was his brother. Jacob listens, and with hair on his forearms and his neck to try to prove that he was his hairy brother, Jacob successfully tricks his father and obtains the blessing. Next, Esau comes home from a day of hunting, provides his father with a meal, and asks where his blessing is. However, the blessing had already been given to Jacob. Esau is incredibly angry, and asks his father if he has any blessing left, but he answers "no," and thus gives him a sadder message that almost sounds like a curse (you can read it for yourself in Gen. 27:39-40!). Thus, the roles are reversed, and Jacob receives that which Esau should have received, and vice versa.

But once again, the story moves on. In chapter 28, we see God reconfirming the Abrahamic Covenant to Jacob, showing that the Lord's sovereign plan would continue through Jacob--not his brother Esau. Next, in chapter 29, we find the story of Jacob finding and working for his wife, Rachel. However, what we find in this story is the deceiver being deceived. Although he worked seven years for Rachel, he was instead tricked into getting Leah (her older, less attractive, "weak-eyed" sister), and had to work seven years for that which his heart desired in the person of Rachel. The great deceiver, although he thought he got away with all of his schemes, was now deceived.

From these stories, we see many things, but very easily from these stories a question might arise in our heads: why did God bless Jacob rather than Esau? It seems from these stories that Esau was the obedient one, and Jacob was the always-lying, forever-deceiving, eternally-sinful one who deserved much punishment. Thus, why does God in his sovereignty allow him to receive both the blessing and the birthright? If God is truly just, how could he let this happen? Well, let us back up to the stories of both Sodom and Job, which we already looked at (and if you haven't read my devo's on them, you should go back and read them first, otherwise you'll be lost). Both the story of the destruction of Sodom and the entire book of Job taught us that men are evil and that he can only be saved by God's grace. In the story of Sodom, it looked like God sovereignly rescuing Lot and his family although they were sinners themselves. In the story of Job, it looked like God shutting Job up because he failed to trust God in his circumstances. Thus, as we have already discussed, the question is not "why did God not save so and so?" or "why does God let so and so happen?" but "why does God save anyone?" and "why does God let anyone live to see another day?" If God is so righteous and we are so sinful, the correct response is to be in awe of God's grace, not in question of his sovereignty.

But what does this have to do with the story of Jacob? Well, once again in this story, we see a sinner being blessed. And before you get your undies in a bundle about that, let us realize that that sinner was you as well. We might look at these chapters and think that it was unjust for Jacob to receive a blessing, but let us realize that our story is no different! We were deceivers just like Jacob, deserving nothing but God's wrath, yet he saved us. Furthermore, Jacob's blessing isn't injustice--absolutely not. What Jacob's blessing is is grace, and through the cross of Christ, grace is perfectly just because Someone Else has taken the fall.

So, do you stand in awe knowing that God has mercy upon your deceiving heart? He had mercy on Jacob's, and he will certainly have mercy on yours as well if you are truly his child. Amen!