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As I’ve said the last two weeks, I love Jacob, because he is in so many ways undeserving of his place in history, and his story reminds me how God loves to bless and use the most undeserving people, just to show how amazing His grace really is.  Even though Jacob is now revered as one of the Biblical patriarchs, in reality he was a scoundrel, a deceiver, a liar, a cheat, and a thief.  Jacob was full of lust and anger and mean-spiritedness, and over the course of his life he will rob his brother, deceive his father, trick his father-in-law, mistreat his wife, and finally, get in a wrestling match with God.  But by the end, God has changed his name to Israel, and Jacob has become the father of 12 sons who will become the 12 tribes of Israel.  The story of Jacob is an incredible story of God’s amazing grace - God’s undeserved love given by an unobligated giver.  Jacob did not deserve God’s grace, his favor, or his blessing, and God owed him nothing.  Yet God again showed himself to be capable of taking the lowliest scoundrel and showing him the most undeserved blessing, and in the process transforming Him into a person of grace and humility and great faith. 

Remember that Jacob has left his parents’ home after deceiving his father Isaac into giving him the firstborn blessing that was due to his brother Esau.  Now, with Esau swearing that he will hunt him down and kill him, Jacob is sent by his mother Rachel to find his uncle Laban’s house 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.