Genealogy of Jesus: Jacob

OT Lesson: Genesis 27:1-27a (GNT)

Isaac was now old and had become blind. He sent for his older son Esau and said to him, “Son!”

“Yes,” he answered.

Isaac said, “You see that I am old and may die soon. Take your bow and arrows, go out into the country, and kill an animal for me. Cook me some of that tasty food that I like, and bring it to me. After I have eaten it, I will give you my final blessing before I die.”

While Isaac was talking to Esau, Rebecca was listening. So when Esau went out to hunt, she said to Jacob, “I have just heard your father say to Esau, ‘Bring me an animal and cook it for me. After I have eaten it, I will give you my blessing in the presence of the Lord before I die.’ Now, son,” Rebecca continued, “listen to me and do what I say. Go to the flock and pick out two fat young goats, so that I can cook them and make some of that food your father likes so much. You can take it to him to eat, and he will give you his blessing before he dies.”

But Jacob said to his mother, “You know that Esau is a hairy man, but I have smooth skin. Perhaps my father will touch me and find out that I am deceiving him; in this way, I will bring a curse on myself instead of a blessing.”

His mother answered, “Let any curse against you fall on me, my son; just do as I say, and go and get the goats for me.” So he went to get them and brought them to her, and she cooked the kind of food that his father liked. Then she took Esau's best clothes, which she kept in the house, and put them on Jacob. She put the skins of the goats on his arms and on the hairless part of his neck. She handed him the tasty food, along with the bread she had baked.

Then Jacob went to his father and said, “Father!”

“Yes,” he answered. “Which of my sons are you?”

Jacob answered, “I am your older son Esau; I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of the meat that I have brought you, so that you can give me your blessing.”

Isaac said, “How did you find it so quickly, son?”

Jacob answered, “The Lord your God helped me find it.”

Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come closer so that I can touch you. Are you really Esau?” Jacob moved closer to his father, who felt him and said, “Your voice sounds like Jacob's voice, but your arms feel like Esau’s arms.” He did not recognize Jacob, because his arms were hairy like Esau's. He was about to give him his blessing, but asked again, “Are you really Esau?”

“I am,” he answered.

Isaac said, “Bring me some of the meat. After I eat it, I will give you my blessing.” Jacob brought it to him, and he also brought him some wine to drink. Then his father said to him, “Come closer and kiss me, son.” As he came up to kiss him, Isaac smelled his clothes.

NT Lesson: Matthew 1:2 (NRSV)

Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.

Sermon

Introduction

Good morning. As I mentioned last Sunday, coming Wednesday is Yom Kippur (יוֹם כִּפּוּר), the day of atonement. Precisely, it is from Tuesday sunset. Anyway, how is your repentance going? In the days of OT, people had only one chance to repent each year. But since Jesus Christ our Lord was offered as the sacrificial Lamb on the cross, everyday is our chance to repent, all 365 days. So let us repent whenever we need to in the grace of God. Hannah and Samuel will stay home for Sundays to make the sanctuary safer from Samuel because he has been running around in the sanctuary too much. Since you are not going to see Samuel, here is a photo of him and Hannah from yesterday. They went to Avon. Speaking of yesterday, as it was mentioned in the announcements, yesterday we had our first session of Weekend Exercise. It was an easy and safe exercise, and you do it while sitting on a chair. We had a fabulous lunch together. We had a quite good time with Bible discussion. The only down side of yesterday was that I prepared Sudoku as a brain teaser which became a headache. Other than that, it was very good. So please come next Saturday. I promise no Sudoku, but crossword puzzle. All are welcome.

Who Is Jacob

Last Sunday, we talked about briefly Abraham and Isaac. So let us talk about Jacob who is one of the three major patriarchs in the Bible. As you all know, God is always mentioned as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob later became the father of twelve sons, who in turn each became the founder of the twelve tribes of Israel.

As you all know Jacob is one of the twin sons of Isaac and Rebecca. Those two fraternal twin brothers were very different. Just like all other good siblings, they fought a lot. The only difference is that they began to fight slightly earlier than regular brothers—from inside of their mother’s womb. Genesis 25:22 says that the babies jostled each other within Rebecca.1 Jacob’s twin brother had the hairy and red skin, and was named Esau which means red, and he was a kind of red neck. He was an outdoor man, good at hunting, not smart and acting first before thinking, a real macho man. His father Isaac loved Esau, his manly son because in the patriarchal society, being manly is the way to go. Meanwhile Jacob was very much girly and loved to stay in the kitchen with his mother. And his mother loved this girly son who was helping her a lot in the kitchen. But his father did not like his son being girly.

Jacob Cheating

One day Jacob was in the kitchen as usual when his annoying brother came back in from the hunting. Esau’s hunting did not go well that day that he came in empty hands. With bossy and macho voice, he told his wimpy brother, ‘Hey, give me right now that stew you are making. I’m hungry.’ But Jacob refused. “No. I am still cooking.” “It’s OK. Just give it to me. I’m starving!” Then Jacob asked one thing in return. “OK, then. Give me your birthright. We are twins. It is not fair that you only get to be the firstborn.” “Whatever! Just take my birthright. Who cares about that? I’m dying right now!” So red Esau got to eat the red stew. That is the moment when Jacob became the chosen one and Esau became unchosen. In Presbyterian terms, Esau was predestined to be the firstborn and to be in the line of Messiah. But he is not any more because he despised the birthright, that he despised the salvation. Jesus says in Revelation 2:5 that if we do not repent, he will come to us and remove our lampstand from us. If we despise our salvation, if we use the red blood of Jesus to fill our stomach, then Jesus will remove our salvation from us. Esau’s lampstand moved from him to his wimpy twin brother.

Then long time later, their father Isaac got older and weaker. So he was going to bless his both sons accordingly. That also means that he was going to divide the inheritance to them. The inheritance in those days was not half and half. The rule of thumb was the one having the birthright, that is the eldest, gets the double portion than his brothers. You don’t have to worry about the daughters. They get absolutely nothing. Isaac had two sons here—Esau and Jacob, the eldest gets two thirds and the other gets a third. And today’s OT lesson is the following story. Jacob and his mother conspired together, tricked and cheated his father because he was almost blind. Esau was a very hairy guy but Jacob had no body hair. So he covered himself with animal hair. And this thing was repeated thousands of years later by John the Baptist. John was the Elijah to come. Elijah was a hairy man but John was hairless. So he also covered himself with a clothing made of camel’s hair. Anyway, Jacob successfully tricked and cheated his father and was blessed, that is the double portion of inheritance.

Later Esau found this out. He cried. “Dad! I am Esau. Do something!” But all Isaac was able to say was, “Sorry son. But I already signed the legal paper. There is nothing I can do about it. Just take the leftover.” Esau got furious at his wimpy and cheating brother Jacob and tried to kill him but failed. And again, this was repeated in history a few thousands of years later. Esau’s descendant tried to kill Jacob’s descendant but failed. Esau’s descendant is named as Herod the Great, and Jacob’s descendant is Jesus Christ. Just like Jacob escaped the death and fled to Mesopotamia, Jacob’s descendant, baby Jesus escaped the death and fled to Egypt. These are quite interesting repetitions.

Jacob Cheated

Jacob fled to the his uncle in Mesopotamia. He ran from Beersheba all the way to Bethel the first day, that is fifty-five miles in straight line. Marathon is about 26 miles, and the runners almost die and exhausted after that. But Jacob ran probably more than sixty miles in a day. That shows how much he was in fear and desperate to escape from his brother who runs much better than himself. Eventually Jacob arrived at his uncle’s house exhausted. He was completely exhausted when he saw Rachael. Do you know what he did first out of exhaustion? “Oh my… You’re beautiful!” And he kissed her. I was like, “What the… Aren’t you tired?” Anyway, he was young, and a beautiful girl is always the energiser for all the young guys. Jacob fell in love with his cousin. Rachael is the daughter of his mother’s brother. So she is his first cousin. Now, let me say this. Just because something is in the Bible, that does not mean we also have to do exactly the same, like the marrying the first cousin. Is it legal or illegal in America to marry your first cousin? It actually depends in which state you are living. Some states made it illegal, others legal. How about Indiana? According to the Indiana state law, the answer is, ‘it depends.’ Generally you cannot marry your first cousin in Indiana. But there are two exceptions: One, both of them are biologically unable to reproduce. Two, both of them are sixty-five or older.

Now back to the Bible. Rachael’s father Laban saw that his nephew Jacob fell in love with his daughter. So he told his nephew: ‘Obviously you cannot purchase my daughter. Let’s do this: the price of my daughter is seven years’ free labour. How’s that?’ That was a ridiculous deal but Jacob could not think it right. “Sure. I’ll take that.” And the Bible says that Jacob worked seven years like a day because he loved Rachael so much. Finally Jacob finished his seven years’ free labour, and he happily married. The first night was like a dream. He had the sweetest night in his entire life. But the next morning he screamed. Sneaky uncle Laban sent his other ugly daughter Leah to Jacob’s tent instead of beautiful Rachael. Jacob could not recognise her because it was dark. We all have to be thankful to Thomas Edison because we now have lights at night. Now we don’t say any more ‘Who’s here?’ even in the Hoosier state. Jacob got mad and went to Laban, “What the heck uncle?!” Laban said to Jacob, “Leah’s ugly. Who’s going to marry her? Come on, you got to help and save your cousin. This is not the United States. There is no law saying that you can have only one wife. Come on, nephew. Another seven year’s free labour, then I will give Rachael to you as well. Don’t worry. I have no more daughter.” Jacob used to think he was the most crafty man. He tricked and cheated his father. But he met craftier uncle who cheated him twice. 

Life Full of Drama

King David sinned against God and he had to pay for it. His love child died after birth. He fled from the palace because of his son’s treason. His children killed each other. Likewise Jacob also had a life full of drama. As I said before, a life without drama is the best. Jacob’s father Isaac lived quite a peaceful life except one time that he could have been taken his wife away. Jacob had a life not that peaceful and easy. The peaceful life of Isaac was the reward from God for the obedience. Because Jacob cheated his father, he did not have a peaceful life. He had two his wives who are sisters. You may assume that two wives means double the happiness. But in reality, double the wives, double the craziness, and double the headache. Those two sister wives did not go along well with each other. Later in life he got a report that his sons killed his youngest and favourite son. Eventually he found out that Joseph was still alive, but for all those decades, he lived in sorrow. Some of his sons murdered a lot of town people. The whole family had to run away and hide themselves for many years. Honestly, there are not much things we can learn from Jacob. He is sneaky. He is a cheater. He is a coward. He used his wives and children as human shields to protect himself. He loved only one wife and made the other wife jealous. He showed too much favouritism to his one child, and that eventually made his children kill their brother. He was the one who broke the peace in the family. He was the one who brought quarrels and sorrows into the house.

The Lessons

Obviously Jacob was really far from being perfect. And that is what Bible tells us. Even though he was not perfect, yet he was in the grace of God and became the direct ancestor of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. If someone like Jacob was in the love and mercy of God, that means we too can. This Jacob’s story makes us confident in front of God. With confidence we can approach God’s throne of Grace.2 With this confidence we can come to the sanctuary and worship God in the love of Jesus Christ, who is the perfect descendant of imperfect ancestor.

But Jacob is not all bad and evil. I found at least two things we can learn from him. The first is the perseverance and endurance. Jacob endured total fourteen years of free labour all for the love. Because it has a limited term, I do not want to call it a slavery. I think it is kind of indentured servitude. Fourteen years of indentured servitude. I do not think many people can persevere and endure fourteen years of hard labour for free. The second is that he always longed for this home. Jacob spent most of his younger years in Mesopotamia. He always longed for the day of return to home. After he returned, he had to run away with his family because of the murder which his sons committed. In his last years, he lived in Egypt. And he always long for the day of return to home. On his death bed, his final word as a will was ‘Take me home to the place I belong.’ We belong to heaven. Heaven is where we belong. Our true home town is the city of God. Some day we shall return up there. Like Jacob, we must always long for heaven.

Conclusion

Friends, we all know that we are not perfect. But so was Jacob. And yet God made him the ancestor of Jesus Christ. And thus we are confident that God loves us, and he will come and save us3 even though we may not be perfect. In life, sometimes we can be hopeless, feeling like being stuck in a never-ending tunnel where we do not see any light. Now let us learn from Jacob so that we can persevere and endure through the dark tunnels in our lives. And let us hope for our home where God prepared many mansions for us. As Jacob with perseverance and hope found himself in the family of Jesus as His ancestor, we will also with perseverance and hope find ourselves in the family of Jesus Christ as His sisters and brothers, the heirs of God up in heaven and on earth as well. Amen.