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Jacob....
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Jacob Wrestling with the
Angel
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Arabic اسرائيل Isrāīl) is a
Biblical patriarch. His story is
told in the Book of Genesis.
Jacob was continually praised by God, and
never criticized. In fact, he is the only person in Scripture whom God
said he "loved". (Malachi 1:2–3, "...I loved
Jacob, and I hated Esau...")
He stole the birthright from his brother Esau, and his wife
Rachel from
his uncle Laban. God later renamed Jacob to Israel after he wrestled with
an angel (Genesis 32:23-30), and he would become the father of the
Israelites.
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Jacob was probably born at Lahai-roi, twenty years after
Isaac and Rebekah were married, at which time his father was sixty
(Gen.
25:26), and Abraham one hundred and sixty years old. Like his father, Jacob
was of a quiet and gentle disposition because, the Hebrew tells us, he was
an "ish tam," which means "simple" or "pure" in the sense of a "perfect
simplicity." Jacob dwelt "in tents," interpreted as a mark of his
studiousness. |
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Jacob was the second born of the twin sons of
Isaac, by
Rebekah. During the pregnancy, "the children struggled together within her"
(Genesis 25:22). When Rebekah questioned God about the tumult, she was told
that two very different nations were in her womb, and the elder would serve
the younger. Later, Rebekah remembered this, but Isaac forgot it.
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Jacob was favored by his mother for his honesty. His
father, Isaac, favored Esau, who was "a man of the fields and a cunning
hunter", his father saw him as the one who could step into tribal
leadership when Isaac could no longer lead.
(Genesis 25:29–34). |
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