The Jacob Lie Keeps Christian Men Weak
Genesis 25
I’m about to tell you something about Jacob that you’ve never heard before, and it may just revolutionise your life. But why listen to a talk about Jacob? Many will tell you that there is no good reason. He’s a liar, a thief, a cheat, and a scoundrel all round.
So why should you spend your time listening to a talk about Jacob? Well, because the real Jacob story contains unique lessons for all those who struggle in life. This is Nathan for God’s World, God’s Way, sponsored by cr101radio.com, where you’ll find dozens of free audio books, e-books, and podcasts for the discerning Christian. This is for those struggling against a totally unreasonable father who favours the worst brother over you, or perhaps you struggle with your own brother.
A brother who has no interest at all in spiritual things, who spends far too much time playing, and is becoming a real danger. Maybe you struggle with your employer. He lies.
Jacob’s life story has the solution for strugglers like you. Do you struggle against powerful people pulling strings in church or civil government that make it nearly impossible for you to succeed in life? Jacob’s divinely directed answer will never fail you. Maybe you’re an immigrant without any capital, totally vulnerable to the whims of your rich employer or the government.
There’s a massive unlock waiting for you, my brother. If you’re prepared to open your eyes wide like a child, if you’re ready to ask, why? Why? Instead of looking down your nose at Jacob as an example to avoid. Many, many good Christian people have firmly held opinions about Jacob.
They are convinced he’s a liar, a cheat, a scoundrel. I firmly believe they are wrong. It’s no sin to question men’s opinions.
Let God be true and every man a liar. Romans 3 verse 4. In this episode, I want to dismantle the key arguments against Jacob and salvage his good name, and then, in subsequent talks, unpack the lessons God has given for life’s strugglers in the life of Jacob. So, how can we sum up Jacob’s life and character? Jacob is a fighter.
When we meet Jacob in the womb, we find him fighting. What marks him is struggle, not lies. Jacob’s struggle wasn’t play fighting.
Such was the duration and severity of the fighting between Jacob and Esau in the womb that Rebekah, his mother, was forced to call upon the Lord for a divine answer as to what was happening. If it had been a kick here and a kick there, she wouldn’t have thought anything of it. But Jacob fought and fought and kept on fighting and fighting hard.
You could say that Jacob, because of his fighting spirit, caused problems for his brother and mother even before he was born. But is it wrong to fight? Is it wrong to cause trouble? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It all depends who you’re fighting and what you’re fighting for.
Who was Jacob fighting? Esau, of course. And what kind of a character was Esau? Well, I recommend you listen to episode 1 of this show to find out in detail the rarely taught truth about Esau. But in short, Esau was a bad man, an opposer of the good, who had contempt for God’s ways.
Esau was absolutely the bad guy. Since Jacob is fighting Esau and Esau is the bad guy, what does that make Jacob? Jacob is obviously the good guy. Nonsense, you might say.
In the real world, there are no good guys and bad guys. But hold on a minute. Elijah fought against Baal worshippers.
John the Baptist drove against Herod. Jesus warred against the Pharisees. Moses battled Pharaoh.
To be at war with the wicked is a godly trait. Those who love God contend with the wicked. Proverbs 28 verse 4 says, They that forsake the law praise the wicked, but such as keep the law contend with them.
All his life, Jacob fought against the wicked in his own godly way. Jacob deserves his God-given place with all the Lord’s holy fighters, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, King David, Jael, and so many more who fought, each in their own way and in their own field of endeavour. But you might still have your doubts, and I don’t blame you.
Here’s how various Bible section headings deal with Jacob securing the blessing in Genesis chapter 27. In the New American Standard Bible, it says, Jacob’s deception. The Net Bible reads, Jacob cheats Esau out of the blessing.
And the New Living Translation prints, Jacob steals Esau’s blessing. With such a clear consensus, surely there must be a great deal in the text of the Bible that clearly and unequivocally says that Jacob was indeed a cheating, deceiving thief. However, if you look at the text, God never calls him a thief.
The Word of God never accuses Jacob, son of Isaac, of deceit, nor does the Holy Spirit see fit to label him a cheat. His brother, by contrast, is very clearly labelled as a profane person and a fornicator to name but two of his abiding sins. Where is Jacob condemned like Esau? Nowhere.
We know who Jacob was fighting, but what was he fighting for? He was fighting for the birthrights, which he takes from Esau in principle in Genesis 25, and the blessing, which he takes from his older brother in Genesis 27. What was the birthrights and blessing he so earnestly desired? The birthrights involved all the vast wealth of his father Isaac. Jacob earnestly desired to inherit the livestock business, camels and sheep and goats and cattle.
He wanted the silver and gold that his father and grandfather had accumulated. Surely this makes Jacob an unspiritual man, a bad man, a very substandard believer in the eyes of today’s average church member. But where does God condemn Jacob? What about the blessing? What was that? Even the blessing which Jacob fought so intensely for was far from purely spiritual.
It meant victory over one’s enemies, sons beyond counting, becoming a great nation and inheriting the mountains and valleys of the promised land. That’s not all the blessing entailed, of course, but both the birthright and blessing that Jacob wanted and fought for included very real and this-worldly components. I submit that to have an intense desire for material things in this world is a taboo for all too many Christians.
Jacob’s passionate desire for land and wealth and victory marks him out therefore as a dubious character at best for a great many Christian believers. The fact remains that the Lord nowhere condemns Jacob. But was Jacob a lawbreaker by wanting Esau’s birthright? What does the law of God say? By birth order Esau was the firstborn and the Bible says that the birthright belonged to the firstborn.
Deuteronomy 21.17 states, but he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn by giving him a double portion of all that he hath, for he is the beginning of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his. The right of the firstborn belonged to the firstborn son.
If anyone, father or brother, took it from him, what was rightfully his, that would be theft. And so Jacob was guilty of covetousness by desiring what was his brother’s possession and when he took the birthright that made him a thief. By birth order Esau was the firstborn but Cain was the firstborn and he was set aside for Abel and then Seth.
Ishmael the firstborn was set aside because God chose Isaac the son of promise. Would Esau the biological firstborn be set aside for Jacob? But what is a firstborn anyway, apart from being the first out of the womb? This is what the word of God states. Genesis 49 verse 3, Reuben thou art my firstborn, my might and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power.
Deuteronomy 21.17 But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn by giving him a double portion of all that he hath, for he is the beginning of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his. Psalm 78.51 And smote all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham.
Psalm 105.36 He smote also all the firstborn in their land, the chief of all their strength. At the heart of being the firstborn is strength. The firstborn then is by definition the strongest son.
If we identify the strongest son we find the actual firstborn. Who then was the strongest son? Esau the hunter is obviously stronger than Jacob who dwelled in tents, except the Lord told Rebekah, who was troubled by violent struggle in her womb. And the one people shall be stronger than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger.
What does that mean? The elder Esau will serve the younger Jacob. That’s clear, but what about the one people shall be stronger than the other people? That’s not so clear. No names are named, but think about it.
Is the weak master and the strong the servant? Does Monaco dominate the USA or is it the other way round? The weaker always serves the stronger, always. Clearly not Esau but Jacob is the strongest by God’s word to Rebekah. Jacob is the strong one, the firstborn of God, not Esau.
In the Hebrew of Genesis 25.27, Jacob is called an Ish tam. Ish is man, but what does tam mean? The Enhanced Brown Driver Briggs Hebrew and English lexicon says, Complete, perfect, and beauty. Of physical strength. So Jacob complete in physical strength, it would seem, in agreement with the prophecy given to Rebecca. He is thereby marked as the strongest, the firstborn.
Sound, wholesome of Jacob as tent dweller, opposed to Esau, hunter. Genesis 25.27. Sound and wholesome.
This is how the Holy Spirit describes Jacob. Complete, morally innocent, having integrity. How is tam translated in the rest of the Bible? Songs 5.2. Undefiled. Job 1.8. Perfect. Proverbs 29.10. Upright.
Isn’t that amazing? But perhaps you’re a keen Bible student and you still have doubts. You’ve been told that the meaning of the name Jacob and the action of grasping the heel is deceit. Esau, whom God hates, in Genesis 27.36 says of his brother, Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he hath supplanted, akeb in the Hebrew, me two times. He took away my birthright, and now he hath taken away my blessing.
Akeb, or supplant, is what he did to Esau in the womb, grasping Esau’s heel. Esau plays on the word Jacob and Akeb as he accuses righteous Jacob of theft. And somehow, we, the Christian church, have taken Esau the reprobate’s word for it, and Jacob is made synonymous with deceit.
Jacob, the heel-grasper, supposedly embodies deceit from the womb. But what does the Lord say about Jacob’s grasping the heel, akeb in the Hebrew? Hosea 12.3-4. He took his brother by the heel, akeb, in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God.
Yea, he had power over the angel and prevailed. Do these verses highlight Jacob’s lies, trickery, or deceit? No, they underline his strength starting in the womb, culminating in overcoming the angel. Strength, the mark of the firstborn is emphasised, not deceit.
But there’s more. The act of akeb, grasping the heel, is here in Hosea lifted up as a good thing. Here’s the rest of the Hosea passage.
Hosea 12.3-6. He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God. Yea, he had power over the angel and prevailed.
He wept and made supplication unto him. He found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us, Even the Lord of hosts, the Lord is his memorial. Therefore turn thou to thy God, keep mercy and judgement, and wait on thy God continually.
The very act for which Jacob is condemned by wicked Esau is used by God to call his people to repentance. Therefore turn thou to thy God, keep mercy and judgement, and wait on thy God continually. Grasping the heel, akeb, means to replace.
In this case, the righteous Jacob is behind his arch rival, wicked Esau, to inherit God’s blessing. Jacob then akebs him, grasps his heel to trip him up, and secures the prize, God’s blessing, which is Jacob’s by prophecy. Genesis 32.28 makes clear that Jacob was God’s prince.
Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel, for as a prince thou hast power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. Jacob was the prince, Esau was the fool. Proverbs 19 verse 10 says, Delight is not seemly for a fool, much less for a servant to have rule over princes.
This is not Bible trivia. This is key to your life. You, struggling Christian man, are in this story.
Here’s what I mean. Christ was the seed that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob brought forth. Galatians 3.16 states, Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made, he saith not, and to seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ.
You, Christian man, are in Christ by God’s choice, just like Jacob was. 1 Corinthians 1.30 says, But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. 2 Corinthians 5.17 likewise states, Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.
All things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. God has chosen you, the righteous, to inherit the earth.
The destiny of the wicked, like Esau, are to be cut off, disinherited. Psalm 37 verses 9, 11, 22, 29, and 34 state, For evildoers shall be cut off, but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth, and they that be cursed of him shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever. Wait on the Lord, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land.
When the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it. The blessing, the promises of Abraham are for the meek before God, the tamed of God. Matthew 5.5 says, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
You, Christian man, have your little corner of God’s world which has your name in it. Maybe a literal field, or an area of expertise. But God doesn’t hand it to you on a silver platter.
Moses had to do battle with Pharaoh, Tooth and Nail, to allow the children of Israel to begin inheriting the promised land. Joshua, Moses’ successor, fought all his life to secure much of the promised land, battle by battle, inch by inch. You have to fight for what’s yours.
Luke 19.13 says in the parable of the talents, Occupy till I come. This means profit only if we do business in the marketplace of the world, and hell if we fail to do God’s work on earth. We, like Jacob, fight against powerful enemies.
We face the false prophet, the false church, which tells you there is no struggle, which says forget about occupying, that’s dangerous, come to church and be a good church boy. We face the beast, godless, anti-Christian central government, which is at war with Christian men who just want to do business, get married and have children, and pass it on to the next generation. By God’s grace, you now have Jacob as an example to follow.
Through the Spirit of God, you can now understand and imitate Jacob’s godly strategies to take what’s yours by right, even when the odds are stacked high against you. Over the next few weeks, we will dig into those strategies. So keep listening, and what was formerly hidden will be revealed, and as you implement God’s ways found in his word, your life will slowly be transformed.
Thanks for listening, and until next time, this has been Nathan Conkey for God’s World, God’s Way.