Author: Gary

When I read this I believe Jacob met Jesus and wrestled with Jesus and this is why. In Matthew 16:13-16, when Jesus is on the earth with his disciples, he asks Peter “who do you say I am.” Peter answers “you are the Christ” and “you are the son of the living God.” When Peter realizes and recognizes who Jesus is, he changes his name from “Simon”to “Peter” because he is not the same now that he has known and believed who he is encountering which is the face of God the Father. The same happens to Jacob nearly 2000 years before this happens to Peter. In this chapter Jacob starts off wrestling a “man” and Jacob asks who he is because he doesn’t know. Once he realizes he has come face to face with God his name gets changed from “Jacob” to “Israel.” We still are saved by the same God today through Jesus. We encounter God through Jesus just like Jacob did 4000 years ago and just like Peter did 2000 years ago. When we truly realize who Jesus is our lives change from that point on. It is impossible to truly meet God and not be changed. This is what saves us. From the time we are born we wrestle with God. We have to be broken down to the point where we realize that we are not the God of our own lives. We may think we are, but when we finally meet God face to face through Jesus Christ we are forever changed and cannot ever be taken from him. This realization that Jesus Christ is the face of God the father that has come down to this earth to sacrifice himself to pay for the sins that separate us from him changes your life forever. The God that holds the universe in his hands is the same God we wrestle with from birth until we realize who he truly is. After we accept that Jesus is God and he came to rescue us we receive the Holy Spirit and he starts forming us into the person that was meant to walk with him from the beginning. God hates sin because it has stolen us, his children, from him. He loves us so much that he took that sin debt that had to be paid and carried it on his own shoulders to get back what sin stole from him. All of us that truly love our children would give our lives for them. Where do you think that trait comes from? It comes from our father. He truly loves us and gave his life for us because of the strength of his love that we can’t comprehend. Remember this today and walk around with boldness knowing that you are a child of God and there is nothing anyone can do now to take you from him. Love y’all! Have a great day!

This chapter is the transition period into Jacob stepping into the covenant that God made with his Grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac. Isaac has been deceiving his family for his blessing and birthright and being deceived and taken advantage of for his lusts and desires. Here is where he finally starts to give glory and recognition to God for everything he has obtained and been blessed with. Once he gets into this mindset and submits to God, God brings him back to the land of Canaan that he has promised to Jacob’s descendants. The lesson here is that everyone has a different journey. Jacob had enough wisdom to see that when he acted upon his own desires and motivations without letting God lead it kept him away from God’s promises and God’s purpose for his life. God finally reveals himself and leads Jacob once he recognizes that all of his blessings and the only reason he has what he has is because of God. God desires this of all of us. If we operate in our life based off of our emotions and desires without God it will always lead us away from our true purpose for our lives. Truly submitting to God and recognizing that everything we have is from him and through him is when we find our true purpose in life and he is able to lead us affectively. Love y’all! Have a great day!

In chapter 30 it is a complete hot mess of Jacob’s wives fighting over his affection through how many offspring they can produce. It is clear that in these days women defined producing sons to carry on God’s covenant was what made them useful. Since Rachel could not bear a son for Jacob she took matters into her own hands and gave her slave to Jacob just so she could say she gave Jacob a son. This became a competition between Leah and Rachel to the point where Leah also gave Jacob her slave. They even went as far as to eat Mandrakes (a plant believed to help fertility) to try to increase their fertility. As we read in this chapter God opened and closed the womb to allow the women to bear children. It was nothing to do with what the women were trying to control themselves. The big picture is through human dysfunction and pride, God still keeps his promises. Through Jacob and Laban’s manipulation and deception, through Leah and Rachel’s competition with each other trying to control their own destiny, God shows that his plans and his will overrides all of that. No matter what we try to do to control our own lives God’s plan will override our plans every time. No matter how hard we try to control the outcome of our own lives God’s plans will ultimately come to pass with or without us. The constant battle between us and our flesh and God’s plan will always butt heads and it takes wisdom from the Holy Spirit and submission to God to help us not give in to the sinful flesh we live with. Love y’all! Have a great day!

I can’t help but see how Jacob got deceived in this chapter and think that this was Karma from him deceiving his father to get his father’s blessing that he was going to give to Esau. Even though it was God’s will for the covenant to run through Jacob, Jacob took his situation in his own hands. Jacob seems to be motivated more by the lust of his flesh and eyes more than pursuing God’s will in his situation. Just like the rest of us he battles with lust in his younger years. He sees a beautiful woman and all he knows is he wants her. He was willing to give up 14 years of his life just to be with her. It doesn’t say anything about him praying or asking God for the wife God wanted him to have. He just pursues what he wants. In the meantime, Leah, who he got deceived into marrying, gives birth to a son named Judah where the bloodline of Jesus comes from. It says that God saw Leah was neglected and he blessed her with the ability to have children at a time where Rachel could not. The wife that Jacob wanted no part of was the wife that brought us our savior. If this isn’t poetic justice I don’t know what is. Jacob deceived his father and Laban deceived Jacob. God used all of this sinful deception for his good. This is a true testament that God can take what man meant for evil and turn it for his good. All of the deceiving and pursuing of what Jacob and Laban wanted in the end was used to bring the bloodline of Jesus. The Messiah that come to save us from death, hell, and the grave. There is nothing anyone can do to change or alter God’s will but he does care about are hearts and if we give ourselves up for his will and his good. Going after what we want instead of what God wants has consequences. Jacob gave up 14 years of his life going after what his eyes were fixated on and God was working his plan on the wife he used and neglected. Always look around and try to see why God has placed you where you are and you just might see he is working through what you are neglecting. Love y’all! Have a great day!

In this chapter even though Jacob earned the birthright and the blessing from his father Isaac through deception it was his. One important thing to point out is that even though Jacob wasn’t perfect he constantly steered his life to follow the will of the one true God. All of Jacob’s decisions came out of his love for God and all of Esau’s decisions came from his own prideful gain. Jacob wanted direction from the Lord and when he got it he acted on it. Esau looked at his situation and pursued what he thought was best for himself. Moral of the story here is that no one in this world is perfect and no one is ever going to be perfect. This should never stop us from repenting and always looking to follow God’s will for our lives. Wanting God’s will over our own is not natural. It is a constant daily choice to know that he is good and that he is the only one that will satisfy us. We should always search for answers through prayer , by reading God’s word, and acting on what the Holy Spirit is leading us to do. We are in a constant battle with our flesh and we can’t conquer it without God’s grace and mercy. We’re were not meant to carry the weight of the world on our shoulders. Love y’all! Have a great day!

This is a prime example of how God’s will is going to happen no matter what people try to do to try to control it themselves. Rebekah remembered how God said the younger would rule over the older but used deception instead of waiting on God’s timing which came with consequences.God was going to use Jacob through his covenant whether Jacob tried to control it or not. Because Jacob did take matters into his own hands he was cursed with hatred from his brother and having to fear for his life a flee for a period of time. This should be a lesson for us to see that God has a plan and his plan will prevail with us or without us. We should always let God lead our decisions and we should be patient and move in his time and not our own. Love y’all! Have a great day!