JACOB’S PURSUIT
The old man was reminiscing, if that’s what pondering the entirety of one’s life can be called. Paramount among his memories was the focus of his intense lifelong pursuit. It was a longing for and fulfillment of those monumental life altering episodes called the ‘Blessing’. The intensity of his longing was still there but he now had a different perspective. Something was different. It wasn’t simply about the fact that he was about to issue his final blessings. Something had expanded in his understanding. He somehow knew that the deterministic power of these experiences was more significant than he’d originally imagined. As incomprehensible as it might be, the impact of verbal declarations of an individual person could reverberate throughout generations to come. Was there more to this idea of ‘blessing’ than anyone comprehended? Musing to himself he said ‘I believe the effects of the blessing can be multiplied.
Intuitively, he understood the constraints that had hedged in his parents, Isaac and Rebecca. It dawned on him that they viewed the ‘blessing’ one dimensionally. If one son was ordained to receive a blessing and the other must be excluded. Conceivably the ritual of the Blessing had never been as linear or limited as his parents thought. He wondered if they had not fully understood the unlimited potential of this singular act of ‘Blessing’.
Jacob had spent his entire life focused and even obsessed on this one inexplicable phenomenon. It ultimately proceeded from Yahweh, the God of his parents and grandparents Abraham and Sarah. The aspect of the blessing that held his attention now was how Yahweh had entrusted the declaration of blessing through the agency of people. Jacob loved how God identified Himself as the God of Abraham and Isaac, his Granddad and Dad. He’d noticed that the very first thing God did after making man and women, was to bless them. That had to be significant as God’s very first action after He’d created humanity. This was a personal God of families. Jacob noticed those kinds of details about Yahweh. Jacob had also observed that from an early age, his athletic rugged twin brother had shown almost no interest in Yahweh or anything spiritual for that matter. Esau possessed an almost complete indifference to his granddad’s stories of encounters with Yahweh.
Abraham would retell the first time he heard the Voice summoning him to leave his home. What kind of Voice would captivate a 75-year-old man to leave his familial clan to wander around the land of strangers in tents with his aging wife? Later, Abraham mystified Jacob with the story about the day he sat in his tent in the Mediterranean heat when Yahweh along with 2 angels sat down for dinner with his grandparents. That was the day God blessed the aging couple again promising them a son. His grandma had laughed when Yahweh told them that in one year, they’d have a son. The Lord had heard Sarah’s giggle and evidently found humor in her amusement. Thus, to commemorate God’s sense of humor, Abraham and Sarah agreed to call their son—Isaac--which means “son of my laughter”. Yahweh too had a sense of humor, it seems. Later, Jacob sat horrified and then relieved when Abraham retold the story of how Yahweh had provided a lamb after testing Abraham’s faith by asking him to sacrifice Isaac.
Jacob had wondered why, with all his time hunting and living outdoors, Esau had not developed any curiosity about the voice of Yahweh. Not that Jacob knew anything about that either. Jacob had never heard God’s voice but at least he wanted to. Jacob had always felt inferior to his older twin. While Esau hunted, Jacob worked on his culinary skills. He remembered the day his famished brother returned from an unsuccessful hunt. With an enormous appetite for tasty food, but little appetite for the things of God, Jacob was able to induce a trade of Esau’s birth right for a bowl his specialty, red stew.
All this was going through Jacob’s head as he contemplated his final interaction with his 12 sons. Indeed, there had been this dilemma about which son to bless--echoing from Isaac and Rebecca’s logic and passed down from his grandfather Abraham. In the case of his uncle Ishmael without question there was only one of 2 outcomes. One was either a son of the promise or a son of the flesh. Only his father Isaac could be the son of the promise. There was no place for more than one son to receive the blessing.
Then there was that almost disastrous deception he’d committed against his brother Esau. He had used deception to fool his old and blind father Isaac into giving him the blessing ordinarily reserved for the eldest son. He and Esau were twins, with Esau the older twin. On the day of their birth Rebecca had prophesied that the older would serve the younger. Then, instead of trusting in the prophetic word, she had conspired with her favorite younger son to deceive her husband so he would release the blessing on Jacob, not Esau. Despite not trusting in Yahweh to fulfill His promise, Rebecca intervened. In the economy of God, they brought about God’s plan. Ironically however, any time man fulfills God’s wishes out of human connivance, control, domination or treachery, dire consequences are inevitable. Esau was livid, erupting into murderous threats against Jacob. Apparently, Esau had come to appreciate that the blessing had immeasurable weight on his future. He knew at least that much even if his hunger to know Yahweh was minimal.
Jacob now wondered why he hungered for God and his brother did not. It wasn’t because he was better, he knew that much. Actually, maybe that explained his hunger. He was utterly acquainted with how wretched he could be, yet somehow the power of a father’s blessing had altered his base inclinations of manipulation and deceit. He knew that the blessing prohibited his willingness to cheat his scheming and crooked father-in-law who’d lied to him for 20 years.
Finally, he remembered the night he had wrestled all night with the Angel of the Lord. He was determined to not let go until he received a blessing which is exactly what the Angel of the Lord did. He blessed him by changing his name from Jacob which means ‘Deceiver’ to Israel which means ‘Prince of God’ or ‘One who wrestles with God’
Instantly, he could envision the blessing he was contemplating as a pattern that encompassed all of his children and even his grandchildren. No longer did he feel the weight of constraint that only one favored son could be blessed. The blessing would combine elements of positive outcomes on one hand and “helpfully constraining” proclamations to stand as a guardian against the corrupt temptations on the other hand. The power of the blessing reflects heaven’s buoyant ability to see unreliable people through their prophetic destiny. It also generates the capability to cancel negative inclinations in one’s descendants. As Israel peered into the future he could also see One who was to come. . The LORD GOD, was revealing the unfolding dynamic flood of generational momentum available in the prophetic blessing ceremony. These declarations were not mere words. No, this was more than platitudes. This was men operating in the creative power of heaven unleashing God’s order of authority from parent to child.
He had 12 boys, 7 of them were with his wife Leah, 2 with his wife Rachel. The others were with the handmaidens of his wives. To say he’d created a dysfunctional family was an understatement, but in his old age he was determined to make lasting changes. Like his ancestors he’d practiced favoritism to the point he had provoked his older sons into nearly the destroying the family. They’d barely avoided fratricide by selling his ‘favored son’ Joseph into slavery. Regardless of his parental blunder, Yahweh had not only redeemed his son Joseph, but his entire family.
So here he was at the end of his days in Egypt. Yet, here in a foreign land, Yahweh had been completely faithful in keeping His promises and blessings (and sense of humor) to his Grandfather Abraham, his father Isaac, and now to Israel and his sons and grandsons. More important than anything Israel, too had heard the Voice many times. Now he was hearing it again.
Why couldn’t ALL of these children fall under the blessing. He’d already made mistakes by showing favoritism. His son, Joseph had asked Israel to bless both of his boys, Manasseh and Ephraim. Then he began to see the future. It struck him like a bolt what he had to do. Regardless of the mistakes as a father and a husband he had made, Yahweh was giving him one last chance to alter the trajectory of his legacy.
This Child he had seen in the future was a Child of enormous promise, as if He were Yahweh Himself. This One would rule the nation that would be called by his name, Israel. But His rule would be even Greater and more significant. This Child would eventually rule the world. The irony was this Son would be the eldest brother in some mystical way, but there would be a younger brother too…or was it younger brothers and sisters. Regardless this royal Eldest brother would serve his younger siblings, just as Esau had been destined to serve his weaker less powerful younger brother. This Elder brother, would voluntarily surrender everything to serve his flawed, weak, selfish and manipulative younger brethren.
Somehow Israel began to get that his entire life was a picture of a future brotherhood of humans who would have a Perfect Older Brother willing to sacrifice everything for his undeserving younger brothers. He understood paradox he had in the meaning of his new name Israel. In one instance, he saw that the one who wrestles or contends with God, can also become the one who is a Prince with God.
He began to see a future where the ill-deserving and the undeserving through no merit of their own would receive the full benefits of one who was all deserving and worthy. He began to see that the sons of his handmaids were as legitimate as those of his lawful wives. He knew that his blessing reverberate into a blessing for his sons. His purpose, his destiny was to be fulfilled in the next few days right before his departure from this earth. He finally understood that his obsession with the Blessing was really not his own but it had always been Yahweh’s. Yahweh had been maneuvering Israel to the place where now he could bless not one son but all 12. They all could become ‘favored sons’.
Some were more flawed than the others but make no mistake about it they were all flawed. But Yahweh was not put off by Jacob nor was he put off by the mistakes of his dad, Isaac and granddad, Abraham. In fact, their flaws were on exhibit to every generation going forward because every sin and imperfection was discussed and retold. There was nothing that Yahweh could not change with those who would in faith cooperate with Him. Israel trembled as he now knew it had everything to do with that event on Mt. Moriah so long ago when Yahweh provided his own lamb. Someday it would be a true Elder Brother who would be sacrificed.
Then Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim’s head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh’s head, guiding his hands knowingly, for Manasseh was the firstborn. And he blessed Joseph, and said:
“God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked,
The God who has fed me all my life long to this day,
The Angel who has redeemed me from all evil,
Bless the lads;
Let my name be named upon them,
And the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac;
And let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.”
Now when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him; so he took hold of his father’s hand to remove it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. And Joseph said to his father, “Not so, my father, for this one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head.”
But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great; but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations.”
So he blessed them that day, saying, “By you Israel will bless, saying, ‘May God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh!’ ” And thus he set Ephraim before Manasseh. Gen 48:14-20 NKJV
Israel blessed his 12 Son’s. Genesis 49 (By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff. Hebrew 11:21)
According their gifts and personality
Know your Child
Know their strengths
Know their weakness
Never ever compare children to each other, or others
According to the interpretation of Life from God’s perspective
Fruitfulness vs success
Time and Tests
According to their parents own awareness and walk with God
Your own encounters with God
You own dept of hunger, knowledge and trust in God.
And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel. Say to them:
“The LORD bless you and keep you;
The LORD make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The LORD lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.”
“So they shall put My name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them.” Number 6:23-27 NKJV
