Jacob

(Gen 25:26-34 and elsewhere) - patriarch, progenitor of the people of Israel, younger son of Isaac, and otherwise called Israel. His history is set forth in Genesis 25 and 27-50. Jacob was the son of Isaac and Rebekah and the brother of Esau. They were twins. 'And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled,' the sacred historian says concerning Rebekah, 'behold, there were twins in her womb. And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau. And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob.' When the children grew, 'Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents.' Jacob was the beloved son of his mother Rebekah, and her counsel sometimes exerted a powerful influence upon him at important moments of his life.

The first manifestation of his independent life recorded in Genesis seems to reveal a certain craftiness in his character. Once Esau returned home from the hunt hungry, and Jacob proposed that he sell his birthright for bread and a dish of lentils (Gen 25:29-34). On another occasion, following his mother's urging, he forestalled Esau and obtained from his father Isaac the blessing intended for the firstborn (Gen 27:1-40). Because of this latter action, however, he had to flee and, in accordance with his mother's wish, withdrew to Haran in Mesopotamia, to his uncle Laban.

Before he departed, Isaac blessed Jacob and directed him to seek a wife among Laban's daughters (Gen 28:1-5). On the way to Haran Jacob had a miraculous vision: in a dream he saw a mysterious ladder joining heaven and earth, and he was promised the blessings God had given to Abraham and special protection throughout his life (Gen 28:10-22). When Jacob reached Haran, Laban received him kindly, and he agreed to serve him seven years for his younger daughter Rachel. After seven years, however, Laban deceitfully gave him his elder daughter Leah instead of the younger.

Jacob agreed to serve another seven years for Rachel, received her as his wife, and then remained in Laban's service for some time longer for an agreed payment in livestock, becoming exceedingly rich. Besides Leah and Rachel, Jacob also took their two maidservants, Bilhah and Zilpah, as wives; thus by the four women he had twelve sons and one daughter, Dinah (Gen 29-30; 35:16-19). At last, twenty years after entering Mesopotamia, Jacob perceived that Laban had begun to envy his prosperity.

He secretly departed from Laban's house with his family and all that he possessed and set out for the land of Canaan. When Laban learned of this, he pursued him and overtook him on Mount Gilead; he tried, though in vain, at least to recover the household gods he superstitiously worshiped, which Rachel had stolen and hidden beneath her camel's saddle. The affair nevertheless ended in reconciliation, and Jacob was able to continue his journey (Gen 30:25-43; 31). At Mahanaim God encouraged Jacob, for the angels of God met him.

Yet as he drew nearer to his homeland, he felt an involuntary fear in his soul, dreading a meeting with his brother Esau, whose anger against him, he thought, had not yet entirely subsided. Near the brook Jabbok, during the night, he endured a mysterious wrestling with God, received the new name Israel (one who wrestles with God), and called the place Peniel, saying, 'I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved' (Gen 32). Jacob's meeting with his brother Esau passed peacefully and lovingly.

Reaching Succoth, Jacob at first established a dwelling there, but then moved toward the city of Shechem. Near it he pitched his tent, bought a parcel of a field, and erected an altar to the Lord. After a tragic event - the dishonor inflicted upon his daughter Dinah by the prince of Shechem and the cruel vengeance taken upon the Shechemites by her brothers Simeon and Levi - Jacob, at God's command, set out with his entire household for Bethel. Before departing, however, he commanded all who were with him to put away the foreign gods, purify themselves, and change their garments.

Bethel became the place of new revelations of God's mercy to Jacob. On the journey from Bethel, Jacob's beloved wife Rachel died in a difficult childbirth after bearing him a son, Benjamin, and he buried her near Bethlehem. Isaac was still alive, being one hundred eighty years old, when Jacob visited him in Hebron; there he soon died, and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him (Gen 35). After this Jacob ordinarily lived in the land of Canaan, although Genesis does not state precisely where.

One day we find him living in the valley of Hebron (Gen 37:1, 15). The cruelty of Jacob's sons in selling his beloved son Joseph into Egypt became a source of bitter sorrow and grief to him (Gen 37). The famine that followed in the land of Canaan and his sons' two journeys to Egypt for grain likewise caused him much anxiety and distress. At last he was comforted by the joyful news that Joseph was alive and held in honor, and at Joseph's request he undertook the journey to Egypt (Gen 42; 45).

On his way he received a new sign of God's blessing at Beersheba; finally he reached Egypt with his whole household and rejoiced to behold the son he had long considered lost. Joseph went to meet his father in Goshen, fell upon his neck, and wept there a good while. 'Now let me die, since I have seen thy face, because thou art yet alive,' Israel said to Joseph (Gen 46:29-30). When Jacob was presented to Pharaoh, Pharaoh received him very graciously. 'How old art thou?' Pharaoh asked him.

Jacob answered, 'The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage' (Gen 47:8-10). Jacob blessed Pharaoh and departed from his presence. By Pharaoh's command Jacob, with all his sons and household, settled in the best part of Egypt, the land of Goshen, and remained there until his death seventeen years after his arrival (Gen 47).

Before his death he blessed Joseph's sons, commanded that he be buried at Hebron, and upon his deathbed pronounced a solemn prophetic blessing over all his sons, declaring what would befall them in the days to come (Gen 47:29-31; 48-49). After his death his body was embalmed, carried with great solemnity to Hebron in the land of Canaan, and buried in the cave of Machpelah according to his command (Gen 50:1-13). From this brief historical outline of Jacob's life it is evident that he was one of the greatest patriarchs of the Old Testament Church.

Throughout the repeated trials and afflictions of his long-suffering life of one hundred forty-seven years, he always endured with unshakable faithfulness to God, steadfast patience and submission to divine Providence, and unfailing trust in Him in every circumstance. Therefore, throughout the other books of the Bible, Jacob's name bears a very elevated significance, whether it denotes his descendants, the Hebrew people, or the people of God. Still more frequent in Holy Scripture is the other and more remarkable name Jacob received during his mysterious struggle with the heavenly adversary: Israel.

Abraham is ordinarily regarded as the father of believers, but Jacob, or Israel, became, so to speak, a symbol or representative of the whole Church of God on earth. The expressions Jacob, the name of Jacob, and the children of Jacob are often applied generally to the entire company of true believers on earth (Deut 33:10; Ps 14:6 and elsewhere). The New Testament Christian Church founded on earth by the Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles is often called the new Israel.