Our last patriarch is Isaac's younger son, Jacob. Now we learn from his story (which can be found in Genesis chapter 25, verse 19 to chapter 49, verse 33) that Jacob was a smooth man. What comes to mind? Perhaps black tie and vodka martini, shaken, not stirred; maybe just a lounge suit but a touch of Boss - a man of today. The possibilities are endless. Perhaps he just had smooth skin? Ah, yes, and his brother had a lot more hair - that's it.
But Jacob was indeed a smooth operator as well. He was a man of today, even if not a licensed killer. When he and his brother were relatively young, Esau came home after a hard day in the field and asked for some of what Jacob was cooking. Smooth talking Jacob humorously asked in return for Esau's birthright as the older twin and Esau, seeing it as a joke, or perhaps too exhausted to care at that moment, agreed. Jacob, though, had been deadly serious. When it was time for Esau to be blessed as the older brother, Jacob played the part of his hairier sibling and extracted the blessing from their father. Once he had run away to his uncle, Laban, he talked him into allowing him to marry his younger daughter, while the elder was still a spinster. When Jacob ended up looking after his uncle's sheep (not the Icelandic variety pictured above), the deal was that he could keep the speckled and spotted ones, so he implemented a breeding programme to ensure that the strongest ones were indeed speckled or spotted. He was a man of the world, streetwise and untrustworthy - not perhaps a good start for becoming one of the three patriarchs of God's people.
He had partially met his match in his uncle, who tricked Jacob into marrying both of his daughters, rather than just the one he loved, and working for him for 14 years for the privilege, rather than the agreed seven. However, the sheep incident gave Jacob the last laugh and he ran away again with the large flock he had gathered, this time back home to face the music with Esau. God, though, had big plans for his life and his family. Jacob already had some idea of this, through an encounter that he had had with God in a dream, but while on the journey home he met God again and wrestled with him all night, refusing to let go of God until he agreed to bless him. In the end God did bless him, but gave him a limp as well and a new name - Israel. From that point on, Jacob was no longer the unruly young adult out for what he could get, but a responsible family man and worthy patriarch, albeit still not always very wise in the way he handled his sons.
As a result of the exploits of his second youngest son, Joseph, Jacob finally ended up living in Egypt with all 12 sons, as guest of the Pharaoh. There they stayed under royal protection and for almost 400 years the family prospered and grew into the 12 tribes of Israel. This is somewhat of a fairlytale ending for the boy who had had to run away from home and throw himself on the mercy of his unscrupulous uncle. He had started out deceitful and learned how to look after himself when others sought to outsmart him, but a meeting with God changed all that. This was an encounter which he could have walked away from at anytime, but he stayed with God until he knew that the business of the day was over. He then learned to rest in the divine blessing, reconciled with his brother and living in the best land in Egypt at the king's behest - with his sheep.
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