Jacob (Israel)
I Chr 1:34
God’s Choice
Gen 25:23-26
By birthright, Esau was the one who should have inherited the promise as he was the first to be born, but God’s choice lay in the child Jacob. It was God’s choice that determined who He’d use to bring about His purpose - Jacob was God’s choice. And God’s call is the singularly most important thing in the fulfilling of God’s purpose for the redemption of mankind through Abram.
Jacob stole Esau’s rightful blessing and so received from his father Isaac the inherited blessing upon his life (Gen 27:27-29). Isaac’s words
‘...and blessed be everyone who blesses you!’
was part of the blessing of God received by Abraham (Gen 12:3). But it was God’s choice based upon the decision of His own will that was of greater importance.
God’s choice was confirmed to Jacob as an individual in Gen 28:14 where we read that
‘...by you and your seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed’
the Hebrew verb being in the identical tense as it is in Gen 12:3 where God speaks to Abram.
Penuel
It’s important to realise that God’s choice was made before the children were even born, when sin cannot be counted as having been committed through a choice of individual will and when good deeds, that may or may not receive Divine favour, cannot be performed (Rom 9:10-12).
It’s saying too little to assert that God foreknew how things would turn out and so chose the one who would succeed in getting his own will done at the expense of the other brother - and it’s saying too much that God predestined or ‘made happen’ the events that occurred (such as the theft of the birthright).
What is correct to say is that God’s call was for Jacob to be the next in the line of the Messiah and that, even if Jacob hadn’t stolen the birthright and attempted to make things happen for his own benefit, God would still have caused him to be the ‘ruling brother’.
Besides, the story of Jacob’s life up to the incident at Penuel (Gen 32:22-32) was one of him trying to get God to walk in step with his own plans and schemes (notice his prayer in Gen 28:20-22 where he vows conditionally to be favourable to God if He’s favourable to him. He’s trying to strike a bargain with God!) and God having to step in to deliver him from the very real problems that he creates for himself.
At Penuel, God wrestles with him (not he with God - it’s God who’s struggling with Jacob and trying to overcome his stubborn will), Jacob still trying to achieve blessing upon his life, still trying to strike a bargain with the Almighty (Gen 32:26), rather than wanting God to change his character and the way he is - this is the significance of God asking him his name. He has to make Jacob wake up to the fact that, in reality, he’s been a supplanter all his life (the meaning of his name), one who overthrows the accepted order of things for his own benefit and advantage, and that this is holding back the fulness of blessing being poured out upon him.
So, God changes his name to ‘Israel’ (meaning ‘he who strives with God’) to characterise his life up to that point and then blesses him. But God has to leave His mark on Jacob by physically injuring him (Gen 32:25,31-32) in order that Jacob may no longer be able to run away from the situations that he finds himself in.
It’s probable that it was only this that had brought Jacob to his senses, Jacob having realised that he’s forced to lean upon God for deliverance in this situation, intent on getting the blessing without which he wouldn’t be able to face the day that was soon to dawn.
He’d fled from Esau when the consequence of his own actions had caught up with him (Gen 27:41-28:2) but now he has no way of fleeing and must stand before Esau in just a few hours (Gen 33:1-4).
And, previously, he’d fled from Laban when he’d become an offence to both him and his sons (Gen 31:1-3) though God had had to warn him to flee and warn Laban in a dream not to harm him (Gen 31:24,29).
But, even when returning into the land that had been promised to him, he’s still scheming by sending presents on ahead of the main travelling band to try and appease his brother Esau (Gen 32:13-21), dividing his remaining possessions into two equal halves in the hope that he would save one should Esau disregard the gift sent on ahead (Gen 32:7-8). But at least he does call upon God to deliver him out of the consequences of his own past actions even if he’s scheming all the while to try and ameliorate the situation in case God doesn’t step in (Gen 32:9-12).
After the incident at Penuel (when he knows Esau’s approach is imminent), he at least goes on in front of his family (Gen 33:1-3) to meet Esau - something that may not have happened had he not had that life-changing encounter with the Lord the previous evening. It’s quite easy to envisage him putting his wife and children in front of his own presence to give himself time to flee should the encounter with Esau turn into a blood bath! But he knows now that he can’t continue to run and must face up to the situations that lie before him.
Yet even shortly after his encounter with God at Penuel, Jacob is still scheming and planning, lying to Esau as to where he intends to settle because he’s still frightened of him and hasn’t learnt to trust in God (Gen 33:12-17).
Towards the end of his life, Jacob answers before Pharaoh (Gen 47:9)
‘...few and evil have been the days of the years of my life...’
Jacob was unable to say that he’d found the fulness of blessing in his own life because of the consequence of so many of his own actions that still lived in the memory. But, even though he’d failed to receive God’s ‘best’ for his life, he was still the one chosen by God to be the ‘head’ of the family, the one who received the promise that it would be through him that Abram’s descendants would be named (Israel) and through whom God’s ultimate redemptive plan for mankind would be achieved (Jesus). Better that he’d also found the fulness of blessing which was his for the asking...
Finally, at the end of his life, Jacob blessed his twelve sons individually (Gen 49:1-27 - see below) and in this we see something of God’s choice of one of the tribes to bring about the birth of the Messiah through its line - though, at that time, it was probably not realised that, in Judah, God had made His choice.
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