Jacob. What's in a name?

Rebekah, sister of Laban the Aramean, set out from Paddan Aram and went with her nurse, Deborah, to marry Isaac, son of Abraham.

Genesis 24

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So they sent their sister Rebekah on her way, along with her nurse and Abraham’s servant and his men.

The LORD foretold Abraham that his descendants will be enslaved in a land for four hundred years even before Isaac was born. In the same way, the LORD foretold Rebekah what would happen to the two nations that would descend from the twin boys who will be born to her. 

Genesis 25

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And the LORD said to her: 

Two nations are in your womb; 

two people will come from you and be separated. 

One people will be stronger than the other, 

and the older will serve the younger.

The names Abraham, Sarah and Isaac were given by the LORD Himself, but He did not tell Rebekah to name them Esau and Jacob.

Rebekah had a nurse, Deborah who came from Paddan Aram; they named the twins Esau and Jacob because at the time of birth, Esau was red and hairy, and his brother grasped his heel; the name Jacob in Hebrew means he grasps the heel, a Hebrew idiom that means he deceives.

Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.

Genesis 25

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When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb.

Genesis 25

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The first one came out red, covered with hair like a fur coat; so they named him Esau.

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After this, his brother came out grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob.

Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open field, but Jacob was a mild man who lived in tents.

Genesis 25

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Because Isaac had a taste for wild game, he loved Esau; but Rebekah loved Jacob.

When Esau came famished from the field and asked for the stew that Jacob prepared, Jacob asked Esau to sell his birthright to him in exchange for the stew; so Esau sold his birthright. Thus he despised his birthright.

Genesis 25

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“First sell me your birthright,” Jacob replied.

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“Look,” said Esau, “I am about to die, so what good is a birthright to me?"

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“Swear to me first,” Jacob said.

So Esau swore to Jacob and sold him the birthright.

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Then Jacob gave some bread and lentil stew to Esau, who ate and drank and then got up and went away. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

Noah had cursed Canaan, the fourth son of Ham.

Genesis 9

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“Cursed be Canaan!

A servant of servants

shall he be to his brothers.”

Before Isaac married Rebekah, Abraham had made his chief servant swear an oath that he would not take a wife for Isaac from the daughters of Canaanites.

Rebekah did not compel Jacob to deceitfully take Esau's blessing because he grasped Esau's heel at the time of birth; she compelled because Esau's Canaanite wives brought grief to her and Isaac.

Genesis 25

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When Esau was forty years old, he took as his wives Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite and Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite.

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And they brought grief to Isaac and Rebekah.

Rebekah expressed her grief to Isaac about the Hittite women who were married to Esau.

Genesis 27

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Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a Hittite wife from among them, what good is my life?”

When Rebekah compelled Jacob to deceitfully take Esau's blessing from Isaac, Jacob was hesitant, for he feared that his father would curse him if he found out that he was being tricked. But Rebekah went so far as to say: "Your curse be on me, my son."

Genesis 27

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His mother replied, “Your curse be on me, my son. Just obey my voice and go get them for me.”

Jacob deceitfully took Esau's blessing from Isaac.

Genesis 27

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May God give you heaven’s dew and earth’s richness— an abundance of grain and new wine.

May peoples serve you

and nations bow down to you.

May you be the master of your brothers,

and may the sons of your mother bow down to you.

May those who curse you be cursed,

and those who bless you be blessed.”

Though Isaac loved Esau, a blessing given could not be revoked.

Genesis 27

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Isaac began to tremble violently and said, “Who was it, then, who hunted the game and brought it to me? Before you came in, I ate it all and blessed him—and indeed, he will be blessed!”

Genesis 27

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But Isaac replied, “Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing.”

Genesis 27

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So Esau declared, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me twice. He took my birthright, and now he has taken my blessing.”

After Esau received his blessing from Isaac, he held a grudge against Jacob and plotted to kill him.

Genesis 27

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You will live by your sword, and you will serve your brother. But when you rebel, you will break his yoke from your neck.

Though Rebekah loved Jacob, she didn't want to lose both Esau and Jacob, for Esau was plotting to kill Jacob.

Genesis 25

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Why should I lose both of you in one day?

Rebekah instructed Jacob to flee to her brother Laban the Aramean.

Jacob did not deceive and flee from Esau because he grasped the heel of Esau at the time of birth; events that occurred after their birth led to Jacob deceitfully taking Esau's blessing from Isaac.

Though Jacob took the blessing deceitfully, Esau was not the ideal person to be entrusted with the promise that God made with Abraham and Isaac, because he despised his birthright and married Canaanite women who brought grief to Rebekah and Isaac. 

Genesis 17

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When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty. Walk before Me and be blameless.

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And to you and your descendants I will give the land where you are residing—all the land of Canaan—as an eternal possession; and I will be their God.”

The events that unfolded in Jacob's life after he deceived Esau and fled to Aram, his faith in the God of Abraham and Isaac for the rest of his life, how he prevailed in his struggles with men, and his grit to be blessed by the Man who wrestled with him makes him ideal to be called Israel, the nation chosen by the LORD to establish His kingdom on earth.

Isaac instructed Jacob not to marry a Canaanite woman. Jacob is asked to go to Aram and take a wife from among Laban's daughters.

Isaac blessed him.

Genesis 28

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May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, so that you may become a company of peoples.

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And may He give the blessing of Abraham to you and your descendants, so that you may possess the land where you dwell as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.”

Jacob obeyed his father and mother and went to Paddan Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel, the brother of Rebekah.

The LORD appears to him in a dream at Bethel and he sees a ladder resting on the earth with it's top reaching heaven and the angels of God ascending and descending on it. 

Genesis 28

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And there at the top the LORD was standing and saying, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you now lie. 

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Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and east and north and south. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.

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I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

He set up a stone pillar and poured oil on top of it and made a vow.

Genesis 28

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Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and watch over me on this journey, and if He will provide me with food to eat and clothes to wear, 

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so that I may return safely to my father’s house, then the LORD will be my God. 

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And this stone I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give You a tenth.”

Though Jacob loved Rachel, the younger daughter of Laban, Laban deceives him into marrying the older daughter, Leah, and then he is given Rachel.

He becomes a father of eleven sons and a daughter, he struggles for twenty years in Aram, and he prospers despite Laban's attempts at deceiving him.

Then the LORD said to Jacob to go back to the land of his fathers to his kindred.

Genesis 31

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Then the LORD said to Jacob, “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.”

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I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar and made a solemn vow to Me. Now get up and leave this land at once, and return to your native land.’

Jacob and his household set out to the land of Canaan without telling Laban because he was afraid that Laban might take away his daughters from him by force; so he deceived Laban the Aramean. God came to Laban, who pursued Jacob, in a dream and warned him.

Genesis 31

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But that night God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream and warned him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”

Laban and Jacob took an oath not to harm each other.

Genesis 31

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So Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac.

When he set out to go back to the land of his fathers, he was in great fear and distress because he thought that Esau might attack him and the mothers with their children.

After Jacob earnestly prayed to the LORD, a Man wrestles with him; he wrenches his hip with a touch because he couldn't overpower Jacob. And Jacob wouldn't leave him until the Man blessed him. The Man told Jacob that his name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because he prevailed in his struggles with men and with God —The Man—while wrestling; then He blessed him. 

Jacob, the one who grasps the heel, limped.

Jacob called the place Peniel because he saw God face to face, and yet his life was spared.

God delivers Jacob from the hand of Esau. Jacob and his household find favour in the sight of Esau. 

Genesis 33

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Esau, however, ran to him and embraced him, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him. And they both wept.

Jacob safely arrived at the city of Shechem in Canaan, purchased a plot of ground from the sons of Hamor, father of Shechem, where he pitched his tent. 

There he set up an altar and called it El Elohe Israel - God; God of Israel.

Dinah, daughter of Jacob, is defiled by Shechem, son of Hamor the Hivite.

Jacob's sons use the covenant of circumcision to deceive the men of Shechem. Simeon and Levi put all the men, who underwent circumcision, in Shechem to the sword. Jacob's sons plundered the city where Dinah was defiled.

Jacob was in distress because he thought the Canaanites and Perizzites living in the land could join forces and destroy his household. Then God asks Jacob to build an altar at Bethel to God who appeared to him when he fled from Esau after deceiving him. 

Before going to Bethel—house of God, Jacob asks his household to get rid of all the foreign gods, purify themselves and change their clothes.

He buried all the foreign idols under an oak tree in Shechem and the terror of God fell on the towns and no one pursued them. 

Jacob built an altar in Bethel, in the land of Canaan, and called that place El Bethel because it was here that the LORD had revealed Himself to Jacob when he fled from Esau.

Bethel used to be called Luz, in the land of Canaan.

El Bethel means God of Bethel.

Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died and was buried under the oak outside Bethel. It was named Allon Bakuth—oak of weeping. Deborah played a role in giving the name Jacob which means he grasps the heel, a Hebrew idiom that means he deceives. 

The name Jacob was not given by the LORD.

The LORD names him Israel and confirms the oath he swore to Abraham and Isaac.

Genesis 35

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And God said to him, “Though your name is Jacob, you will no longer be called Jacob. Instead, your name will be Israel.” So God named him Israel.

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And God told him, “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation—even a company of nations—shall come from you, and kings shall descend from you. 

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The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you.”

Jacob pours out a drink offering and also pours oil on the stone pillar at Bethel.

Rachel dies while giving birth to Ben-Oni, which means son of my trouble, on the way to Bethlehem from Bethel.

Jacob named him Benjamin, which means son of my right hand.

She was buried in a tomb on the way to Ephrath Bethlehem.

Jacob and his household came home to his father Isaac in Hebron where Abraham had stayed.

Isaac breathes his last and is gathered to his people, old and full of years. Esau and Jacob buried him.

Jacob and his household live in the land of Canaan where his father had stayed. At the age of seventeen, Joseph, the first son of Jacob and Rachel, who was born to him in his old age is sold to the Ishmaelites by some of his brothers. The Ishmaelites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, an official of Pharaoh.

Jacob weeps and mourns for him many days thinking that he was devoured by a ferocious animal.

The LORD was with Joseph when he was in Egypt. The LORD gave him wisdom to interpret dreams and protected him. He prospered and became the governor of Egypt, second-in-command to the Pharaoh of Egypt at the age of thirty.

Jacob's spirit revived when he learnt that Joseph was alive.

The LORD appears to Jacob in a vision and told him not to be afraid to go to Egypt, for he will become a great nation and promised that Joseph's own hands will close his eyes and he will rest with his fathers.

Genesis 46

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And that night God spoke to Israel in a vision: “Jacob, Jacob!” He said.

“Here I am,” replied Jacob.

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“I am God,” He said, “the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. 

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I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will surely bring you back. And Joseph’s own hands will close your eyes.”

Jacob and his household were reunited with Joseph during the seven years of famine.

Jacob's years were few and difficult, yet his faith in the God of his fathers, Abraham and Isaac remained throughout his life.

Genesis 47

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So Jacob said to Pharaoh, "The years of my sojourning are one hundred and thirty; few and unpleasant have been the years of my life, nor have they attained the years that my fathers lived during the days of their sojourning."

Joseph settled them in the district of Rameses, the best part of the land of Egypt. The Israelites acquired property there and were fruitful and increased greatly in number.

Jacob lived in Egypt for seventeen years.

Genesis 47

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When the time drew near for Israel to die, he called his son Joseph and said, “If I have found favor in your eyes, put your hand under my thigh and promise to show me kindness and faithfulness. Do not bury me in Egypt, 

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but when I lie down with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me with them.”

Joseph answered, “I will do as you have requested.”

Jacob blessed Joseph's sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.

Genesis 48

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Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there He blessed me 

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and told me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you; I will make you a multitude of peoples, and will give this land to your descendants after you as an everlasting possession.’

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And now your two sons born to you in Egypt before I came to you here shall be reckoned as mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are mine.

Then Jacob blessed his twelve sons who are the twelve tribes of Israel. Then he instructed them to bury him with his fathers. 

Genesis 49

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Then Jacob instructed them, “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite. 

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The cave is in the field of Machpelah near Mamre, in the land of Canaan. This is the field Abraham purchased from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site.

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There Abraham and his wife Sarah are buried, there Isaac and his wife Rebekah are buried, and there I buried Leah. 

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The field and the cave that is in it were purchased from the Hittites.”

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When Jacob had finished instructing his sons, he pulled his feet into the bed and breathed his last, and he was gathered to his people.

Genesis 50

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So Jacob’s sons did as he had charged them. 

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They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave at Machpelah in the field near Mamre, which Abraham had purchased from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site.

Jacob lived one hundred and forty-seven years.

The LORD was with Jacob wherever he went from the time He appeared to him at Bethel to the day he was gathered to his people.

The LORD in His righteousness chose Jacob to establish His kingdom on earth despite the name he was given at the time of his birth. 

Wisdom 10

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Wisdom rescued from troubles those who served her.

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When a righteous man fled from his brother's wrath, 

she guided him along straight paths; 

she showed him the kingdom of God,

and gave him the knowledge of angels;

she prospered him in his labours,

and increased the fruit of his toil.

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When his oppressors were covetous,

she stood by him and made him rich.

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She protected him from his enemies,

and kept him safe from those who lay in wait for him;

in his arduous contest she gave him the victory,

so that he might learn that godliness is more powerful than anything.