THE story of Jacob receiving the blessing from his father, Isaac, is one of the most interesting and instructive portions of sacred history. The record of it is found in the twenty-seventh chapter of Genesis.
WHILE the twenty-seventh chapter of Genesis gives the account of the manner in which Jacob obtained the blessing from his father, it is necessary to read several succeeding chapters and compare them with other portions of the Scriptures, in order to get a view of the whole subject.
THE outline of the story is this: The Lord had foretold that Jacob would be a prince in Israel, and inherit the blessing that Heaven had decreed upon his grandfather Abraham and his father, Isaac. But when Isaac had reached the time when he knew he must soon die, he was arranging to pronounce the blessing upon Esau, the brother of Jacob, rather than upon the one to whom the Lord had given the promise. Rebecca, the mother of Jacob, determined that this would never do, so she urged Jacob into practising a gross deception upon his father. By that means the blessing was given to Jacob while his brother Esau was in the fields hunting. When Esau returned, and learned what had been done, he was so enraged at his brother that he resolved to kill him. Rebecca found this out, and helped Jacob to flee to her father's people in a distant country. In that place he had to remain for many long years, and pass through many bitter experiences.
IF that mother had let the Lord alone in the work He had planned, the blessing would have come to her son just as God had promised. But when she became nervous, and feared that the Lord might need a little human ingenuity to help Him out, she brought upon herself the sad experience of being wholly separated from the son who was such a comfort to her, and plunged that son into many difficulties, hardships, and distresses. When the Lord promises a thing, it is well for us to know that He will perform it at the proper time. We should not become impatient, or uneasy, but quietly wait on the Lord. When we get ready to receive His blessings, He will very promptly bestow them.
JACOB was the supplanter. His name signified that, and his character was true to the meaning of his name. And while he was Jacob, that is the supplanter, he was ever in difficulty because of his sharp and deceptive practises. God could love the man while he was in that condition; but He could not give him his new name, and pour upon him the blessing that Heaven had designed.
WHEN Jacob, with his family, in after years decided to return and2comfort his father in his closing years, he found that the anger of his brother Esau was still burning. For when Jacob was yet at quite a distance from the old home place, he learned that Esau was coming to meet him with a band of four hundred armed men, determined still to take his life. Then it was that Jacob began as never before in his whole life to wrestle for a change of heart. He clung to the Angel, the Prince of Peace, for the blessing that the hand of God alone could bestow; He made full surrender. The change of heart came, and with that change there came the blessing from Heaven. A new name was given to the converted patriarch. “Thy name shall be called no more ‘Jacob, but Israel [that is, a prince of God]; for as a prince hast thou ‘power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.” Gen. 32:28. The rough and cunning hand of the supplanter was gone. The persuasive powers of love had taken possession of his soul, and he had power with men then, because he had power with God. Then when he met his brother Esau, he found him also friendly. He had no use for an army with which to meet the army of his angry brother.
THIS conversion was real and absolute. It made a heavenly prince out of a supplanting, scheming son of earth. And now Esau no longer sees the supplanter Jacob, for he is gone. The supplanter has been divinely transformed, and is another character. This changing of Jacob, the supplanter, to the prince of God, the prevailer, took away all the ground for Esau’s quarrel. He whose heart was consuming with the fires of murderous anger at the man Jacob, was transformed by the tender emotions of love when he met instead the humble, kind, and truly noble prince of God.
WHEN Jacob was converted and received his new name, his troubles over his personal sins were gone, and he could now devote a heart made full of heavenly tenderness to the work of helping and uplifting others. This blessing that came to Jacob through the night of wrestling, followed by the morning of surrender, is in store for every one of us. Will we make the full surrender to God, and then receive His full and complete blessing? T.
