Who was Jacob in the Bible?

Son of Isaac and Rebekah. Though a twin, he is called "the younger," being born after Esau. Before the children were born it was said, "the older will serve the younger." The promises made by God to Abraham were confirmed to Jacob, as they had been to Isaac. When they grew up, Esau became a hunter, while Jacob was a peaceful man, living in tents.

When he has stew already prepared and Esau comes in faint from hunger, asking for some stew, Jacob, instead of kindly giving him some, takes advantage of the occasion to bargain with his brother. He would sell him the stew for his birthright... Jacob's character as a bargainer is established from the beginning. He is a fitting father for the nation Israel, choosing the principle of law-keeping as a rule of life. He had to learn by later experience that this principle failed him, and that he must eventually depend only on the grace of God.

Jacob never has earthly happiness from that day on. He has to leave his home, and becomes a wanderer from that time. He has to run away to escape Esau's fury. He gets alongside his uncle in a far-off land. His uncle deals hardly with him, and cheats him, as he had cheated everybody else. He is paid back in his own coin absolutely... his daughter is ruined, his sons become murderers... Rachel his wife dies... his own sons deceive him, and he has to mourn the supposed death of Joseph for many, many years. That is what I call the natural side of the man's history, and a striking illustration of the principle in Scripture, "whatever one sows, that will he also reap" (Gal. 6:7).

Here again is sovereign mercy. What did Jacob do to deserve all this? Why should God meet him like this? Did he think of the Lord and call on Him for mercy before he slept on the stone? Nothing whatsoever. And the Lord kept His promise and did all He had promised. "I will not leave you" is a repeated promise... "Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God" (Ps. 146:5).

First, that in order to deal fully and finally with man, God Himself would stoop into manhood, since it was as "a man" that Jacob saw God "face to face." Second, that God's thought towards us, even the most wayward of us, is blessing. Third, that human struggling and wrestling achieves nothing, and that surrender, and honesty in confession, is the way of blessing. Fourth, that it was when clinging to the One who had defeated him, and confessing to his name of Jacob — meaning Supplanter — that his name was changed to Israel — meaning Prince of God... By changing his name God claimed Jacob as belonging now to Him.

God is a great biographer, and with Him there is no favouritism, so He has written the history of Jacob as he was; and although his history was not at all a creditable one as a son, a brother, or a nephew, if we think of man, nor as a saint, if we think of God, yet before the tale ends I find God saying, "Yet I loved Jacob." Thank God for these words, they are a great comfort to my heart.

The twelve sons of Jacob were the nucleus of the nation of Israel, and so, under the guidance of God, Jacob uses their different characteristics to give a prophetic outline of the moral history of the nation, and God's purpose for the blessing of Israel through Christ, especially setting out the condition of the nation "in the last days" that come before their entrance into blessing under the reign of Christ.

His was a very eventful life; but the only thing we get here is — "by faith he blessed each of the sons of Joseph." This is beautiful. It shows how much in Christian life may be rubbish... It was the display of a saint who went astray, and whose whole life was occupied in getting back; and we do not get this act of faith until we come to the close... His life was the life of a man recovering himself.