“…and the older shall serve the younger.” Genesis 25.23 NKJV
Jacob grasped his older brother Esau by the heel at birth, and that was how it would go for most of their lives. I don’t personally like shrewdness as a characteristic, but Jacob had it. He had much more besides, and it didn’t always work for him. His relationships suffered strain because of how much of a deceiver he was.
Still he was God’s choice, and even Jesus lauded shrewdness at least once (see Luke 16).
I’ve often wondered at Jacob. Here’s a guy who deceives his brother for his father’s blessing and ends up wrestling God at Bethel. That is, he contended for what he wanted. It’s almost like he played by a different set of rules, and I’ve read about how there may be a different morality for kings than for commoners (but I'm pretty sure that was Machiavelli, so it’s definitely not something to build a life on). The point is, the Bible is clear about right and wrong, and where there is doubt it’s because of the unfiltered narratives of people like Jacob. God favored him for sure. But didn’t he get away with a lot?
Jacob actually had to live with the consequences of his actions plenty of times. He was tricked by his father-in-law into marrying the older sister when he had worked seven years for the younger. And when he had finally been forged into a fully submitted, fully aware man of God, he returned to his own land in humility and penitence. He was restored to his brother, whom he feared perhaps more than any other man (the full account of what I’m talking about is in Genesis 25-33).
God changed Jacob’s name to Israel at Bethel, where he wrestled Him. The people of God, the twelve tribes, the children of the promise, would be called by this name, not the other.
This kid, whose name used to mean “supplanter and deceiver,” contended with God for blessing and received a new name. Israel can mean “prince with God,” “he strives with God,” or “may God persevere.” The prophet Hosea sees the virtue in Israel’s impassioned and quarrelsome life, and we’re meant to take in the full grandeur of a life lived before God in which mistakes were made but grace was preeminent.
I’ve said before that God likes a fighter, and that’s certainly true: we must be willing to try. But favor depends on what we’re fighting for, and sometimes only God knows. I believe that Jacob’s life must be taken in as a whole to learn properly what God is teaching us though his story.
My prayer for me is that, at the end of it all, I hope people can see the transformation God has wrought in me. Jacob pressed in until God changed his name, and if he had stolen the blessing of his father from his older brother when he was a kid, his God and Father freely gave it once his character had been forged in consequence and humility. Jacob received his proper identity in the new name—Israel—once he had finally come to maturity and realized something crucial: he wasn’t the biggest, most important person in his world. God does indeed know what He’s doing with what He has made.
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