God’s Man

Jacob has been the main focus of this narrative, but now it begins to move to his son Joseph; however, it is not without incident. Benjamin’s birth is also the occasion of Rachel’s death, and the pillar Jacob erects to mark her tomb is a witness to both the joy of his arrival and the sorrow of her passing. It might have been expected that the name she gave him as she was dying would be kept by Jacob, but perhaps the change to “son of my right hand” (18) was to indicate a feeling of hope or good fortune to come in the future. Still, his sorrow at her death lingers to the end of his life (48:7). Another interesting aside is the blessing of Joseph’s two sons, where the younger is favored over the elder, in an echo of Jacob’s own life and that of his sister wives (48:12-20).

Rather less notable is Reuben’s dishonorable behavior. It is suggested that he was attempting to prevent Bilhah’s potential replacement of Rachel in Jacob’s favor, and various writers attribute the loss of his privileged position as first-born to this event. Finally, the death of Isaac reunites Jacob and Esau as they buried their father with his forebears. Interestingly, this is also where, at the end of his own long life, Jacob requested to be buried, rather than with Rachel (49:29,30; 50:12,13).

Jacob’s life contains flight and return, duplicity and honesty, struggle and triumph, self-reliance and dependence on God. He develops from someone to whom God is only known as a name, a deity worshiped by his fathers, into the patriarch who worships God himself and who names him as the God of his people. He is part of the story of our salvation.

Recall and give thanks for all those who have played a part in the journey of your faith in Christ.