How 'Big' Were Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?
Genesis: Various
How big were Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? YouTube is full of talk about giants — but for some reason all the giants are God’s enemies. Why should the devil love all the big people? Let’s set the record straight.
I’m not interested in how tall the patriarchs were in terms of height. The text simply doesn’t tell us. I’m thinking of a different kind of measurement — and it’s equally, if not more, shocking.
The Imaginary Drone Test
We have a problem of scale when it comes to the story of Jacob. The characters involved were not men of regular proportions, and if we can picture them accurately in our mind’s eye, the story will make a lot more sense. So here’s an exercise I find helpful when reading a story in the Bible: the imaginary drone test.
It says in Genesis 25 that Jacob dwelt in tents. Take a drone up into the air, in your mind’s eye, and look at those tents. What do you see? How many tents are there? How many people? What else do you see? Zoom down. How was Jacob dressed?
Thank God we don’t have to guess. It’s in the Bible.
The Scale of Abraham
Abraham found himself rubbing shoulders with Pharaoh himself in Genesis 12 — that’s what I call a clue. Abraham stood in the presence of the greatest king of the age. And he was no penniless beggar when he arrived there. He left Egypt greatly enriched: sheep, cattle, donkeys, male and female slaves, and camels. Chapter 13 says, Abraham was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.
Walk through his tents in your mind’s eye. Look at the gold rings on his fingers, the silver ornaments on his camels. Try to imagine Sarah dripping with finely crafted jewellery. Look at the treasure chests brimming with gold and silver. Poor Abraham, dwelling in a single tent with his wife Sarah, is simply a lie of the devil. We must excise poverty Abraham from our minds and replace him with Biblical Abraham — a man of sumptuous wealth.
Abraham rubbed shoulders with Abimelech, the Philistine king, too. He is the diligent man of Proverbs who stands before kings. Abraham even made a treaty with Abimelech — and only kings and princes make deals with kings. When the Hittites addressed him, they called him a mighty prince (Genesis 23:6).
But princes and kings aren’t just rich — they’re powerful, able to project force with armies. Abraham certainly had a private army. Genesis 14:14 reads:
When Abraham heard that his relative had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, 318 of them, and went in pursuit.
Abraham was a mighty prince with a substantial private militia. But if he could command 318 fighting men born in his own house, how large was his entire household? With younger boys, middle-aged and older men, and their wives and daughters, not to mention servants not born in his house — his household would have been at least 2,000 souls. This was a clan, and Abraham was their mighty chieftain.
Think of the broad shoulders you’d need to manage such a household. The religious instruction needed, the training of the fighting men, the adjudication of legal disputes for 2,000 people. The international relations with local confederates and with bigger power players like Abimelech. A lesser man would crumble at the thought of it.
And Abraham wasn’t living off his pension. He was in the sheep, cattle, donkey, and camel business. Consider the sheer variety of skilled workers needed — herdsmen, camel trainers, butchers, leatherworkers, metalworkers, scribes. This was a small town on the move.
God honoured Abraham further by having him pray for Abimelech — an exceptional honour. You see, pagan kings were priests as well as political rulers. They stood nearest to the gods of any man in the kingdom. The king was accustomed to being prayed to. But God’s man, Abraham the prophet, prayed for the mighty Abimelech. A unique honour.
The Scale of Isaac
Isaac’s inheritance made him very, very rich — as well as militarily powerful and politically connected. During a famine, Isaac went directly to Abimelech king of the Philistines. Only a prince would go straight to a king.
What happened during his time with the Philistines? God appeared to the already very, very rich Isaac during a time of famine — and then:
Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold, and the Lord blessed him. The man began to prosper and continued prospering until he became very prosperous.
The ungodly Hittites had called Abraham a mighty prince. How does Isaac compare? In Genesis 26:16, King Abimelech said to Isaac: Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we. A king addressing Isaac and saying: You, Isaac, are much mightier than we, the Philistines of Gerar. Abraham was a mighty prince. Prince Isaac was much mightier than even a king.
The Scale of Jacob
Here we see the power of God’s blessing. Jacob left for Laban’s house with nothing but a staff in his hand — and returned with a princess for a wife, her sister Leah, many sons, and great herds of goats, sheep, camels, cows, bulls, and donkeys.
From his great wealth, he showered his murderous brother Esau with wave after wave of valuable gifts — 580 animals in total, approximately $344,000 worth of livestock by my own calculations. And Genesis 32:13 says he took what came to his hand as a present. There’s no indication this was a great chunk of his fortune. Do you know anyone rich enough to put his hand on $344,000 worth of livestock and just give it away? Jacob was a very wealthy man indeed.
And what of Jacob’s name? God renamed Jacob — Israel. Let’s break it down. Yisra finds its origins in the Hebrew word sara, meaning prince or princess. Yisra then means prince. El means God. Hence Jacob’s divinely given name — Yisra-El, or Israel — means prince with God.
Abraham had been called his prophet before Abimelech the king. But the Lord God takes this man Jacob, whom he loves so dearly, and before all men, and for all time, declares that he is a prince with God. Here’s what Matthew Henry says: Thou shalt be called Israel, a prince with God — a name greater than those of the great men of the earth.
We Have the Scale Wrong
The default idea in our heads — perhaps given by children’s storybooks — is that these men were peasants, or perhaps upper middle class at best. People just like us, or a little lower. But if that isn’t a lie, it is a gross and perverse distortion of reality.
You can’t build a working bridge with chocolate bricks, nor can you build an accurate picture of Jacob’s life by stacking up lies and distortions. The whole edifice of our understanding will melt. All these men were vastly wealthy and powerful enough to make alliances with kings. They had their own substantial armies under command.
Unless you are king of England wealthy in today’s world, these men are not like you.
But to emphasise their wealth and kingly peer group isn’t enough. A fool can be a king’s friend. These men were weighed down daily with the weight of business affairs. They had to manage their staff legally, dealing with disputes, managing family drama, judging between feuding families. With 3,000-plus staff you will see a lot of strife — and there was no state in those days to provide external courts. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were princes who had to actually rule.
They also had the religious care of the whole household. Every week a new child would be born, or new servants acquired. These would all have to take on the religion of the head of the household — receiving the mark of the covenant, circumcision, and being taught the law of God.
These were real men of the highest order. Each one shouldered burdens daily that would have crushed lesser men.
Proverbs 27 gives us a picture of their daily responsibilities:
Be diligent to know the state of your flocks and attend to your herds, for riches are not forever, nor does a crown endure to all generations.
Getting the Measure Right
We have been measuring these men in inches instead of feet. We need to 12X these patriarchs in our mind to even come close to their correct stature. They are, perhaps, so lightweight in our minds that they’re not even real — they float around three feet off the ground. But no. These were very great men, titans of history — because of God’s choice of each one, because of God’s covenant with them, and because of the attendant blessing with which they were blessed by the Lord.
I hope you find that useful. You may well have some questions or comments. If so, please do send them to questions@godsworldgodsway.com. See you next week.