| SmackDown: God vs. Jacob |
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Page 1 of 7 SmackDown: God vs. JacobThe Life of Jacob 5.0 Genesis 32 by Eric Stillman March 4th, 2007 We’ll be in chapter 32 this morning, so if you have your Bible, feel free to open up there. Before we begin, let’s recap quickly the story of Jacob in case you missed part of the story. Jacob is the youngest of two sons born to Isaac and Rebekah, and has left his parents’ home after deceiving his father Isaac into giving him the firstborn blessing that was due to his brother Esau. As a result, Esau swore that he would hunt Jacob down and kill him, so Jacob was sent by his mother Rachel to find his uncle Laban’s place for safe haven. On the way to Laban’s, Jacob is poor, alone, without possessions, pulling up a stone to use as a pillow in the middle of nowhere, and has a dream where God appears to him and reveals to him a stairway to heaven, with angels ascending and descending on it. Essentially, God comes to Jacob and promises him that he will be with him and protect him wherever he goes, and that all the promises of land and descendants that were given to his grandfather Abraham will be given to him. He eventually arrives at Laban’s place, and ends up marrying Laban’s two daughters, Leah and Rachel. We saw how Jacob continued his search for blessing in a woman, Rachel, just as Leah desperately was looking for the attention of her unloving husband, Jacob. Eleven children later, Rachel has had her first son, Joseph, and Jacob has decided to take his family and return to the land which God has promised to him. Of course, he knows this means that he will likely run into his brother Esau, whom he has not seen since he cheated him out of the firstborn blessing. |