God Works Through Jacob to Help Achieve His Divine Plan

God interacts with the world in a very unique way. He works by using people as conduits with whom He will ultimately achieve His goal of the Divine Plan. Throughout the Book of Genesis, many cycles of protagonists appear with whom God chooses to interact. In one such cycle, the Jacob Cycle, God influences, molds, and guides Jacob in increasingly personal ways. God influences Jacob throughout his childhood, his journey to Haran, his journey from Haran, and finally, with one last test of will. Throughout the guidance, God’s increasing trust in Jacob allows for an eventual transformation of the relationship, where Jacob morphs into God’s Israel.

During the early stages of the cycle, God works through Jacob’s mother, Rebekah, to do much of His work. God begins by using Rebekah when He informs her that she will have two children, and that the younger one shall rule over the older. After Rebekah conceived and bore her children, God stayed with Jacob and gave him the opportunities necessary to succeed. When the children were young, God provided a situation where Jacob could buy Esau’s birthright for some red pottage. As they grew older, God’s words stayed with Rebekah and reinforced the idea for her to support the younger child, Jacob, over the older child, Esau. Her favoring “support” is best exemplified when Rebekah overhears Isaac telling Esau to cook him food and after, he will give Esau the blessing of the firstborn. Instead of allowing this to happen, Rebekah tells Jacob to fetch some goats for her to cook and, “‘...bring it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.’”(Gen 27:10). Rebekah’s actions clearly have roots in what God has told her the future will hold. She works as an extension of God to have Jacob ...

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... the “man” insists that Jacob frees him. After receiving a blessing, and with it the name “Israel”, Jacob finally allows the “man” to leave, and Jacobs states, “‘For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved’ The sun rose upon [Jacob] as he passed Penu’el, limping because of his thigh.”(Gen 32:30-31). In surviving, Jacob has passed God’s test. God sees him as worthy since Jacob has literally seen God’s face, and still lives. Furthermore, God has rewarded Jacob’s worthiness by changing him; God has marked both his physical body, and his intrinsic self. Physically, Jacob now limps because he has striven with God. Intrinsically, Jacob walks the earth no longer known as “Jacob”, “the supplanter”, but rather as “Israel”, “He who strives with God”. Jacob is no longer the same person. God has changed him over the course of the Jacob Cycle by His own hand.