jacob: you can’t mess-up your life

Jacob is the most morally ambiguous character in the Bible. Jacob enters life through struggle, under-favored, eclipsed by Esau. He has strained complicated relationships with everyone in his life. Yet, God blesses him in every way.
God’s grace flows beneath every mess-up Jacob makes:
- His scheming to steal the birthright and blessing from his brother almost tears his immediate family apart. Yet, it is God’s plan all along that “the younger will serve the older.” The unfavored is favored by God.
-Laban deceives Joseph by giving him Leah. Joseph does not love Leah, but it is through her that the promised seed is carried on. The unloved is loved by God.
-He neglects his first 10 sons, and overfavors Jospeh. This only leads to jealousy, envy, and hatred in his first sons, and fosters pride and ignorance in his favorite. But God takes Joseph into Egypt, like he said he would to Abraham, and make his humble and wise. God brings redemption through the son he thought he lost to death, and would have lost if he had stayed.
He is not blessed because of his sin, but through his sin. He bears the consequences of his choices. But God’s purpose, plan, and promise of blessing is orchestrated in the very things that should have nullified the promise.

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