Loved as was Jacob
July 15, 2011 (Friday)
“Jacob have I loved” (Romans 9:13).
God chose Abraham over everyone else in the world. He chose Abraham’s son, Isaac, over his son, Ishmael. He chose Isaac’s son, Jacob, over his son, Esau. There you have it: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: men of faith and fathers of a nation. Jacob ‘s twelve sons became the heads of twelve tribes eventually known as “God’s Chosen People.”
Jacob obtained the birthright even though his twin brother Esau was born first. Esau didn’t seem to care about it, but Jacob fled anyway. He went to a distant land where he worked for his Uncle Laban and married Laban’s daughters, Leah and Rachel. After many years, he returned home, fearing his brother’s wrath but needlessly, because his brother forgave him and welcomed him.
Many chapters of the Bible are devoted to Jacob, his wives and his children. Because of the blessings of God upon his son, Joseph, the entire family relocated in Egypt for hundreds of years until led into the Promised Land by Moses and Joshua. They had to fight for possession before finally settling. A stormy history characterized the new nation until the northern portion of a divided kingdom was taken captive and never returned. Sitting in the middle of a world beset by warring empires, Judah endured reigns by foreign powers. When the New Testament dawns, Judah is under the thumb of the Roman Empire, and the world has been made ready for the coming of the long-awaited Messiah.
Those who accepted Jesus Christ as their Messiah became a new Israel, according to the teachings of the Apostle Paul (Romans 9, 10, 11). The Apostle Peter emphasized that fact also when he proclaimed to Christians: “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Peter 2:9-10 NIV). Think about that!