Prof Zebulon E249

O) Men of the Bible (Jacob)

His name means “he clutched” or “he clutches” because when he was born he held the heel of his firstborn twin, Esau. So, from the beginning Jacob was a supplanter and we see this trend continue as he took advantage of the elder brother’s hunger and “stole” his birthright (Gen 25:32). We also see that Jacob “stole” his elder brother’s first born blessing by a cunning act with his mother, Rebecca helping (Gen 27:24). At first glance, these appear to be strange ways to obtain the favour of God but as the Bible says in Malachi 1:2, 3 “…yet I loved Jacob And I hated Esau,…” So what may appear to be unjust and wrong to our eyes was actually part of God’s plan for His people, because the Bible refers to the Lord as being the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; he was one of the patriarchs of Israel.

His name was changed to Israel (Gen 32:28 & 35:10) which means “he who has struggled with God” . He had 4 wives and they gave him 13 children, 12 of which became the tribes of Israel. It is quite fitting that 25% of the book of Genesis concerns Jacob and his family because they are the foundation of the nation of Israel; we looked at the individual tribes in others studies (see studies # 147, 154, 172, 181, 187, 197, 205 and 206). In Genesis 49, we also saw the blessings that he gave to his children and he considered Joseph’s two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh (Gen 48:5) to be his own.

Jacob died while he was in Egypt and on his deathbed, he requested that he be buried in the same place as Abraham and Isaac were, in the cave of Machpelah in a field that Abraham bought from Ephron, the Hittite to bury Sarah.

T) Key Passages (Psalm 16:10)

“ For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption”. This wonderful passage that David wrote tells us much about what revelation David must have received from God. First of all, he believed that one day there would be a resurrection and that he would be part of it. Secondly and most importantly, he believed that the Messiah would be God. That’s very interesting, because the Jews then, and those during Jesus’ time on earth and even those today believe that the Messiah will be a man. As a matter of fact, very recently there was a man who claimed to be the Messiah and had a following – his name was Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902 – 1994).

We see this passage twice in the New Testament. After the Holy Spirit came and empowered the Apostles in the upper room at Pentecost, we read about Peter and his boldness in preaching his first sermon about what Jesus Christ had come to do on earth, he quotes this Scripture in Acts 2:27 and explains that David was not talking about himself but of Jesus, the Messiah. We all know the impact that that sermon had on the Jews; 3000 souls were saved on that day alone (Acts 2:41). Praise the Lord.

Paul also used this passage in Acts 13:35 in Paphos on his first missionary journey and as Peter did, Paul in Acts 13:16, stood up and said with the same boldness as Peter “…..Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience.” He went on from there and fully explained the Gospel up to verse 52 where we read “And the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost.” There is much joy for any Christian who confesses the name of Jesus Christ to an unsaved person. There is even more joy when that person accepts Jesus Christ as his or her Saviour; what a privilege it is to serve God!