JACOB, THE THIRD OF THE PATRIARCHS , experienced a tumultuous life from the time he was born. Esau was born first, “After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob.” (Gen. 25:26) The name Jacob means “he grasps the heel,” which is a Hebrew idiom for deceptive behavior—and Jacob proved to be a trickster. His story evolves from there to the point as young men where his brother Esau, hungry, is manipulated by Jacob to sell his birthright for some stew. “He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright.” (Gen. 25:34) Isaac, old, blind, and near death, calls each of his sons independently to bless them, and Jacob’s trickery wins out—he deceives his father, and receives the birthright. And “Esau held a grudge against Jacob. He said to himself, ‘The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.’” (Gen. 27:41)
Jacob flees to a far country, but his deceits and their bitter fruits continue with his soon-to-be father-in-law, Laban. Jacob himself is deceived by Laban. He works seven years in order to marry Rachel, Laban’s youngest daughter, but wakes up after the wedding night to find himself married to Leah. He must work another seven years to marry Rachel. (cf. Gen. 29:19-30) But Jacob gives as good as he gets; his choice of speckled sheep and goats for wages due from Laban’s flocks grow greatly in number due to Jacob’s trickery.
Hostilities between he and Laban increase until Jacob feels it necessary to steal away with his wives, children, and flocks. “Moreover, Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him he was running away. So he fled with all he had, crossed the Euphrates River, and headed for the hill country of Gilead.” (Gen. 31:18) Laban gives chase, and there are both tense and precious moments as he and Jacob finally come to a truce. (cf. Gen. 31:22-35) “Early the next morning Laban kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then he left and returned home.” (Gen. 31:35)
And then the story takes a transcendent shift. Jacob, headed back to his origins with his family and flocks, must now face older brother Esau, whose birthright he stole. He is worried, “in great fear and distress” (Gen. 32:5) for his life, and for his family. Jacob prays, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, save me.” (Gen. 32:9-11) That night, “Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.” (Gen. 32:24-25)
But Jacob will not quit until the man—the angel of the Lord—blesses him. “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” (Gen. 32:28) This becomes his true birthright, and places him in succession with Abraham and Isaac as father to the chosen people of God, inheritors of the promise of God. In the aftermath of this heavenly encounter, Jacob and Esau reconcile, and Jacob’s story becomes different now. He is no longer a man of deceit, and this change in character continues all the way to his death in Egypt, where the family of God will grow into a mighty people and begin their journey to the land promised to the Patriarchs. The last glimpse we have of Jacob—now ‘Israel’ by name—is just before his death. “Israel worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.” (Gen. 47:31)
In the midst of Jacob’s story is an earlier life-changing event. It is an event that informed him and guided him, but did not come to full effect until much later in life. It is an event that bears consideration for each of us in our journey in faith through life’s many twists and turns. When the young Jacob ran from his brother and into the rest of his life, “he reached a certain place” (Gen. 28:10), where he dreamt of angels ascending and descending between heaven and earth, and he saw the LORD, and heard the promise, “I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.” (Gen. 28:13) When Jacob awoke he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it. This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.” Gen. 28:16-17) But between the young person’s dream and the old person’s worship lay a lifetime of trials. And so it is with you and me.
Christians are in the life-long process of being formed into the image of Jesus Christ. Between “You must be born again.” (John 3:7), and “Well done, good and faithful servant!” (Matt 25:21) is a lifetime of living out an uneven existence. And somewhere in between the beginning and ending and the beginning and the never-ending, we find in particular two of Jesus’ seminal “I am” statements from John’s gospel: “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.” (John 10:9) And also: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) The Greek word for gate is not to be viewed as a simple point of entry separating two places—in this case, this world and heaven—*but as an entry to a path.
The comparison between Jacob’s journey and ours is simply this: there is a place in our life with God that is marked by a point where everything begins to change. “Here I am! I stand at the gate and knock.” (Rev. 3:20) But while the course of our life is then set in a new direction, the destination awaits a journey of many steps, and it takes a lifetime to get there.
Keep putting one foot in front of the other, no matter what.
Q. Is the gate open before me, or shut behind me?
* Louw-Nida 7.39.
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