Read Genesis 27 & 28
 
Jacob was a cheat. Guided by his mother, Jacob cheated his elder brother of his blessing by masquerading as his older brother to get the blessings from their father. Not a hint here that mother and younger son trusted God and His promises. Like many, they thought that the way to get ahead in life was through outsmarting others even if it meant cheating others.
 
Of course when the elder brother discovered what had happened he wanted to kill Jacob. Again, mum to the rescue. Mum asked Jacob to flee and seek refuge with her brother Laban. So Jacob became a fugitive from the wrath of his older brother.
 
In his flight he stopped for the night and rested near a town named Luz. Alone, he took a stone as a pillow and fell asleep. A person is most vulnerable when he is asleep, especially when he is alone and in the open. This would have been an ideal time for God to punish this cheat and liar. This was no Abraham responding to a promise from God. God played no part in how Jacob obtained his blessing. God could have taken his life and started afresh, even raising a new lineage from the rocks if He wanted to. Instead God blesses the rogue.

  • Instead of a ladder to hell, God gives him a dream of a ladder to heaven, manned by angels.
  • God comes to Jacob and identifies Himself as the God of his ancestors, the God of promise.
  • Instead of disqualifying him from receiving the promise, God reaffirms the promises He made to Abraham and Isaac, the promise of generous land and offspring, and God’s intention to bless others through his offspring.
  • God promises Jacob His presence and protection till all that had been promised comes to pass.

When Jacob awoke, he was afraid and rightly so for he knew he had encountered God. He knew that where he slept was a place of an encounter with the divine and so he sets up an altar with his stone pillow and renamed the place, Bethel, house of God.
 
Then Jacob makes a vow. No hint here of repentance or complete trust. His response is transactional. If God will do all He said He would do, then he will acknowledge Him as his God, the pillow altar he has set up will be God’s house, and he will give God a tenth of what God gives to him.
 
I have read this story many times. Reading it again for my daily Bible reading, I was shocked again by the crazy grace of God. God didn’t treat Jacob as he deserved. But this time round I had the thought that Jacob represented the raw material God had to work with. We are all sinners. We all think we can do life without God. We are all Jacobs. Yes, it seems crazy that God would bless a rogue but that was the raw material He had. We are the raw material He has.
 
Jacob’s story is not over. We are quite early in his story. God would humble him along the way till a day came when Jacob said he would not let God go if He doesn’t bless him (Genesis 32:26). But here in Genesis 27 & 28, Jacob, and we, experience the crazy grace of God. I pray we will respond more appropriately than Jacob. Living after the Cross of Christ, we know that God’s grace will become even more crazy. Let us rest in that grace and respond in holiness.