A Cheat Becomes Father of a Nation
Jacob wrestling with the angel Painting by Rembrandt van Rijn Gemãldergallerie Staatlische Museum, Berlin
Jacob's Family of Cheats
Jacob came from a long line of cheats in his family.
- He cheated his brother Esau out of his family inheritance for a pot of stew.
- His mother Rebekah arranged for Jacob to run to his uncle Laban in Haran to escape Esau's wrath (Genesis 24:10)
- He tricked his father Isaac out of giving him Esau's blessing as the older son (Genesis Chapter 27)
- Uncle Laban deceived Jacob into thinking he could marry his younger daughter Rachel, but only after Jacob had been married to her sister Leah for seven years
Hardly a good choice, you would think, for God to choose to accomplish his plans to recover the ground stolen by Satan as a result of human sin. But that's exactly what we see God doing after he has changed Jacob from being a cheat to one who wrestled with God and repented.
Jacob's Wrestling with The Angel of the LORD
After years of being on the run from Esau and having to work for the wife he really loved, Jacob decided to try to make amends with Esau. In fear and great distress he prayed to God:
" O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps. Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’”
Then he sent a large number of animals with his servants ahead of him as a peace offering the night before the meeting.
That night Jacob took his two wives, two servants and his eleven sons to the ford of the River Jabbok. After sending the others ahead, he found himself alone and confronted by an angel with whom he wrestled till daybreak. The result was Jacob's hip was dislocated at the socket.
The angel asked Jacob to let him go, but Jacob refused unless he blessed him.
" What is your name?" the angel said. When Jacob gave his name, the angel said.
" Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome." (Genesis 32:22-32)
When Jacob asked the angel his name, he got no reply except the angel blessed him. And as the sun rose over the place he named it Peniel, saying
" It is because I saw God face to face and yet my life was spared."
It was a divine encounter that preceded an emotional reunion the following day with his brother Esau.
A Change of Name & The Birth of a Nation
The story of Jacob is key to the war for worldwide domination because of
- The change of Jacob's name to Israel
- God's blessing of his twelve sons, who became The Twelve Tribes that became the nation of Israel
as shown in the map below.
Map courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
NOTE: Ephraim and Manasseh were Joseph's sons, but Jacob adopted them and included them in his blessing Genesis 28:1-22
A Call & Two Promises
The moment the angel of the LORD prevented Abraham from sacrificing Isaac
Painting by Rembrandt van Rijn, Alte Pinakothek, Munich
God Calls Abram Out of Paganism & Makes Two Promises
When God called Abram at the age of seventy-five and his wife Sarai to leave their pagan life in Haran (south-east Turkey) and journey to a country he would show him, he made two promises to Abram:
- The Promise of Being the Father of Many Nations
- The Promise of a Land for His People
“Go from your country, your people and your father's household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you;
I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:1-3)
And Abram obeyed - the first step in his becoming known as 'The Father of the Faithful' (Romans Chapter 4)
In due course Abram moved with Sarai and his brother Lot to Egypt, where the Pharaoh took a fancy to Sarai. In fear he might be killed if he intervened, Abram told the Pharaoh she was his sister - a blatant lie! But God would not let the deceit remain uncovered and struck Pharaoh's household with a plague, exposing the deception and resulting in them being escorted out of Egypt! So much for Abram's faith, it seemed.
God Promises Abram A Son
Some time later God spoke to Abram again in a vision.
"“Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.” Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness. He also said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.” (Genesis 15:1-7)
Not surprisingly, Abram had difficulty believing Sarai could have a child at her age and so, thinking they could give God a hand, she suggested Abram sleep with her Egyptian maid Hagar, who duly fell pregnant. The problem was that was not what God had promised, and in due course caused Sarai to be jealous of her maid. She treated Hagar so harshly that she fled into the desert, where the angel of the LORD found her hiding beside a spring. The angel promised she would have a son and she was to call him Ishmael, meaning "God hears your cry, because he has heard of your affliction. He will have many descendants, be a wild donkey of a man and against everyone "(Genesis 16:11-12). In fact history shows Ishmael to be the origin of the Arab nations, who have been at war with the descendants of the son God promised Abram ever since.
When God called Abram out of Haran, he called him out of a pagan culture that included temple prostitution as a part of the worship of the pagan gods and even sacrifices of infants to the god Molech. But nothng had prepared Abraham for what God did when Isaac had grown to be a healthy adolescent. For in Genesis 22 God appeared to Abraham to test him by telling him to take his son, "your only son whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Morah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will tell you."
Amazingly, Abraham rose early the next morning and even set about splitting wood for the sacrifice! Then he set off with Isaac, a couple of young men and a donkey for the place God had told him. When they reached the place, Abraham told the two young men to stay where they were with the donkey, while he and Isaac went off to sacrifice the burnt offering, saying:
" I and the lad will go yonder, and we will worship and return to you."
It was a remarkable display of faith, when he knew God had told him that Isaac was to be the sacrifice. Centuries later in Hebrews 11:19 the writer says:
" Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from the dead."
At the very moment Abraham was about to slay Isaac with the knife, the angel of the LORD intervened, saying:
" Stretch not out your hand against the lad and do nothing to him, for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me." (Genesis 22:12)
Man Attempts To Build A Highway To Heaven
The Tower of Babel Painting by Pieter Breugel the Elder Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Man Builds a Tower To Make A Name For Himself
In Genesis Chapter 10 verses 8-10 and Chapter 11 we read of King Nimrod's attempt to make a name for himself by building a city for themselves and a tower reaching up to heaven, so they were not scattered about the world. Until this time "the whole world used the same language and the same words." (Genesis 11:1)
It was a flagrant attempt by man to be God and reflected the sin of Satan in his attempt for a takeover of God's throne - an attempt that did not go unnoticed by God, who decided to take immediate action.
In verses 7 to 9 God decides to descend to the city and scatter the inhabitants over the face of the earth and put an end to their building work leaving the tower unfinished. He also declared the city be called Babel, "because there the LORD confused the languages across the whole earth."
The European Union's Tower of Babel
Is it coincidence that the European Union Parliament looks like the unfinished Tower of Babel?
They even issued a poster to commemorate the opening of the building with the slogan
Many Tongues, One Voice".
What a coincidence!
A Flood, An Ark & A Rainbow
Noah's Ark Photo: Kensamwill, Pixabay
God's Anger At A World Of Wickedness
In Genesis 6 the Bible records that God was angry the world had become so full of corruption and sexual immorality and decided to blot out mankind from the face of the earth by a flood.
He found a man called Noah, who had not been corrupted by the wickedness around him, and gave him detailed instructions to build an ark to save his family and two of every animal he had created from the impending disaster.
It demonstrates the principle of God blessing those who obey his commands and punishing rebellion and disobedience.
God's Covenant with Noah in a Rainbow
The ark came to rest on Mount Ararat in Turkey Photo: FootageFoundHere, Lightstock
When finally the flood subsides and Noah and his family, together with their animals, have disembarked on Mount Ararat, God promises he will never punish mankind again with a flood. Instead whenever clouds or rain cover the earth, he will send a rainbow as a reminder of his covenant with Noah and all living things.
Outline of History from Creation to Entry to the Promised Land
Illustration adapted from the Chronological Life Application Study Bible © Tyndale Press
The Old Testament History of the War for World Domination
The history of the war for world domination, which began with rebellion in heaven, was followed by the subsequent war between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Satan on earth at both the natural and supernatural levels. All through the Old Testament we see God seeking individuals and people groups, who will seek him for a love-relationship and whom he wants to bless. But time and again the enemy seeks to thwart God's plans using human as well as supernatural forces.
The earliest example of this is the account of God choosing to save a righteous man named Noah and his family as he plans to punish the wickedness of human beings by sending a worldwide flood.