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We’ve been looking at the story of Jacob as recorded in the book of Genesis for the past five weeks, and Jacob is someone who knows the pain and anger that comes with broken families.  Jacob was the youngest of two sons born to Isaac and Rebekah, and he had to leave 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, even though he hears that Esau is coming to meet him with 400 men.  On the way, God meets him in the night and wrestles with him, dislocating his hip but brining Jacob to a point where he finally clings to God for blessing instead of looking for it elsewhere.  And God changes his identity, from Jacob “the deceiver, the supplanter” to Israel, “he who has struggled with men and God and prevailed.”