Jacob

Godliness doesn’t automatically transfer from one generation to the next.

Jacob chased one desire after the next trying to fill the emptiness he felt deep within himself.

As the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter. He was an outdoorsman, but Jacob had a quiet temperament, preferring to stay at home. Isaac loved Esau because he enjoyed eating the wild game Esau brought home, but Rebekah loved Jacob. —Genesis 25:27-28 | NLT

He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” —Genesis 25:30 | NIV84

Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.” “Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?” —Genesis 25:31-32 | NIV84

Jacob got what he wanted, but still didn’t get what he needed.

When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. —Genesis 28:11 | NIV84

Bethel = the house of God

Laban’s sons were saying, “Jacob has taken everything our father owned and has gained all this wealth from what belonged to our father.” —Genesis 31:1 | NIV84

Moreover, Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him he was running away. So he fled with all he had, and crossing the River, he headed for the hill country of Gilead. —Genesis 31:20-21 | NIV84

When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.” —Genesis 32:6 | NIV84

“in great fear and distress” -Genesis 32:7 | NIV

I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant… . Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. —Genesis 32:10-11 | NIV84

So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered. Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.” Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.” —Genesis 32:24-30 | NIV84

God appears to Jacob when he’s all alone.

Is it time for you to take care of some long overdue business with God?

We’ll never understand God’s purpose for our lives until we step away the noise and pay attention to Him.

God allows Jacob to wrestle with Him.

Sometimes we need to be humbled for us to see our real need for God.

So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes. Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone. —Genesis 35:2-3 | NIV84

God dwells in the hearts of the broken who cling to Him