Jacob Complex
27 When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents. 28 Isaac loved Esau, because he was fond of game; but Rebekah loved Jacob. 29 Once when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was famished. 30 Esau said to Jacob, "Let me eat some of that red stuff, for I am famished!" (Therefore he was called Edom.) 31 Jacob said, "First sell me your birthright." (Genesis 25:27-31)
After Isaac married Rebekah, he prayed for her because she was barren. Rebekah then conceived and gave birth to twins - Esau and Jacob. During her tumultuous pregnancy, God told Rebekah that the twins she was carrying would be two nations that would be divided, and the elder would serve the younger. When the boys were born, Esau was born first but Jacob was holding on to his brothers heel. Unfortunately Isaac and Rebekah stoked the boys' rivalry by playing favorites - Isaac choosing Esau, and Rebekah choosing Jacob. That rivalry came to a head when Esau bargained away his birthright for some stew Jacob was cooking. The birthright was the right of the first born son to inherit his father's possessions and authority. Esau, in his hunger, was impetuous and shortsighted and Jacob took full advantage of his brother's weakness.
It feels wrong to root for Jacob - who's very name meant liar or trickster - and it feels even more wrong that God seems to side with Jacob. But this is only the beginning of Jacob's story. Jacob will go through many trials in his life, and he'll face an even greater trickster than himself, before God changes his name and he becomes the namesake of Israel. If we stop at this point in Jacob's story it seems unfair that he should "win", but this win was only a setup for the next test of his life that God would use to transform and mature Jacob's character.
God is not blind to the areas of our character that are in need of transformation, but those shortcomings and sins also don't exempt us from God's plans or God's blessings. Everyone is a work in progress. We can not determine where God is going to take us, or anyone else, or how God might grow and use us. We also have no control over the timeline on which God plans to mold us into the character of Christ. May we look at each other with the same grace and understanding with which we want and need to be seen.
1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. (1 John 3:1-3)
