Jacob: A Flawed Hero Of The Faith Series

Jacob then went to his father with the delicious meal. Isaac, whose eyesight was extremely poor was deceived. He blessed Jacob and gave him the blessing of the firstborn.

When Esau came back from hunting he prepared a meal for his dad. Then Esau and Isaac learned about Jacob’s deception. Esau was so furious that he wanted to kill Jacob. But he decided to wait until after Isaac died.

Now, I don’t know why Jacob and Rebekah resorted to the deception. I also don’t know why Isaac wanted to pass the blessing on to Esau when God had made it clear that he was going to bring the Promised One through the descendant of Jacob.

Now, back to Genesis 48:15 where Jacob talked about “the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day....” As Jacob looked back on his life, he recognized that he was as dumb as a sheep. He did some really stupid things in his life. He stole his brother’s birthright. He deceived his father into giving him the blessing.

But even through his sheeplike stupidity, God was a shepherd to him.

You see, Jacob needed God’s grace in his life. He had the promise of God. And yet he still acted to manipulate God instead of submitting to God and his word.

Jacob would experience many more trials and difficulties in his life before God’s grace became a reality for him.

All people need God’s grace. Without God’s grace, we are destined to misery and, ultimately, to hell. Sometimes God allows us to go through all kinds of difficulties to show us our need for his grace.

And that brings us to our second point.

II. An Experience of God’s Grace

Second, let’s look at an experience of God’s grace.

Now, most of you may affirm your need for God’s grace. But not all of you have an experience of God’s grace. I can say that because that is true in any gathering of professing believers.

People get connected to a church for all kinds of reasons. They want fellowship. They want a sense of meaning in their lives. They want to deal with the guilt in their lives.

But not everyone who is connected to a church—or even who is a member of a church—has a genuine experience of God’s grace.

Jacob alluded to his personal experience of God’s grace when he went on to say in Genesis 48:16a, “the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys.” What was Jacob talking about when he mentioned “the angel”?

When Rebekah heard that Esau wanted to kill Jacob, she had him run away to her brother Laban in Haran. Jacob left his family, and he never saw his mother alive again.

Along the way to Haran, Jacob slept one night and had a dream in which the Lord met Jacob. Again the Lord promised Jacob that he would be with him and that he would return Jacob to that land that he had promised to give Abraham and Isaac and all their descendants.

Jacob arrived in Haran and met Laban and his two daughters, Leah and Rachel. The Bible says in Genesis 29:17, “Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance.” Bible translators don’t know what to do with the description of Leah and her eyes. But surely the context tells us. Rachel was stunningly beautiful. She was drop-dead gorgeous. Leah, on the other hand, was pretty plain and probably ugly. Her eyes were protruding or she was cross-eyed or something like that.