| The God of Jacob |
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Wonder why He is called the God of Jacob? Because He is the God of all grace!
How grace worked in Jacob’s life! Jacob was crooked, deceitful, cunning. He cheated his brother and his father. Yet God chose him! God chose him out of sheer sovereign grace! Look at Abraham; out of his two sons, God chose Isaac and rejected Ishmael. Look at Isaac; out of his two sons, God chose Jacob and rejected Esau. Look at Jacob; out of his twelve sons, God chose them all! Now I would have rejected Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah; but God didn’t. The grace of God went beyond Jacob to his 12 sons. Amazing grace!
We are chosen not because we are worthy, but because we are unworthy. God chose us out of the ‘garbage dump’ of this world. God chose the ‘base and despised’, 1 Cor 1.27-29. God hates the proud and self-righteous, but shows mercy to the one who is a sinner.
So how is God the God of Jacob? First, He was the God of Bethel to him. There God revealed Himself to Jacob. There He gave him that wonderful fourfold promise of Genesis 28.15. Twice Jacob testifies about God. In Genesis 48.15-16, while blessing Joseph's sons, he speaks of God as the God of his fathers. Our God covers all generations. The God of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob is the God of Luther and Wesley and Moody and Spurgeon. He is our God. Jacob refers to God as his Shepherd. God watched over him all those 20 years in Laban’s house, and repaid him for all the injustice that Laban had meted out to him. God took care of Jacob, his family and his flocks. Laban could do him no harm. And then Jacob speaks of God as his Redeemer, who had redeemed him from the hand of the vengeful Esau. Our God is a God who protects and a God who delivers.
Again, when he blesses his 12 sons, Jacob testifies wonderfully of God in Genesis 49.24. He refers to God as the Mighty One of Jacob – the God who had fought all his battles and given him victory. And then he refers to God as the Stone [or Rock] of Israel. The faithfulness of God is like a rock -- unchanging, unfailing. He is the Rock of Ages. And then he is the God who abundantly blesses. Oh what blessings overflow to Joseph, Jacob’s beloved son! Gen 49.25, 26.
Finally, God is the God of Peniel. There God met Jacob face to face. He touched him, and broke him, but in the breaking He blessed him. From then on, the sun rose on him. Though he limped as he walked, he was now a Prince with God.
Such is the sovereign, the saving and the transforming grace of God!
But why did God choose Jacob over Esau? The Bible says Esau despised spiritual things. Those who are obsessed with the material things of this world are those most likely to despise spiritual things. That is why the gospel is preached in a superficial manner wherever there is much prosperity [i.e in the so-called developed countries of this world!]. Jacob, for all his failures, desired the spiritual birthright and the spiritual blessing. Yes, at Peniel, he wrestled not for material benefits, but for spiritual blessing.
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