I Am Jacob

He was one of the biggest scoundrels and least deserving, and yet God loved him. He did nothing to earn that love and should have received severe punishment. As I pondered the life of Jacob, I faced one sad reality: I couldn't earn God's love. The best I could do was to accept that God loves me. I didn't know how to do that, but I kept thinking of the deeply loved but utterly undeserving Jacob. To my amazement, one morning I heard myself crying in deep anguish, "I am Jacob.

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The more I thought of those words and focused on what I was saying, I knew that was exactly how I needed to pray. I prayed exactly those words every day for months. I had focused on being Jacob for so long that I had become like Jacob. That is, I knew I was loved. The powerful assurance was there in a way I had never experienced before. In that sense, I was indeed Jacob. I also thought of two of Paul's admonitions: Therefore I urge you to imitate me" 1 Corinthians 4: The apostle also writes, "Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ" If we were to say this, it would sound like boasting.

Paul wanted the Corinthian believers to know that if they followed his example and his lifestyle they would see godliness that pointed toward the perfect godliness of Jesus Christ. What would it be like to imitate the example of Paul? Or the examples of other outstanding believers in the Bible? What if I saw qualities in them that I yearned for in my own life?

How could I embody those same qualities? I knew I was moving in the right direction. Joseph carried Jacob's remains to the land of Canaan, and gave him a stately burial in the same Cave of Machpelah as were buried Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, and Jacob's first wife, Leah. Jacob is mentioned in a number of sacred scriptures, including the Hebrew Bible , the Talmud , the New Testament , the Quran , hadith , and the Book of Mormon.

According to the folk etymology found in Genesis The same name is recorded earlier still, in c. The name Israel given to Jacob following the episode of his wrestling with the angel Genesis The biblical account of the life of Jacob is found in the Book of Genesis , chapters 25— Jacob and his twin brother, Esau , were born to Isaac and Rebecca after 20 years of marriage, when Isaac was 60 years of age Genesis Rebekah was uncomfortable during her pregnancy and went to inquire of God why she was suffering. She received the prophecy that twins were fighting in her womb and would continue to fight all their lives, even after they became two separate nations.

The prophecy also said that "the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger;" Genesis When the time came for Rebecca to give birth, the firstborn, Esau, came out covered with red hair, as if he were wearing a hairy garment, and his heel was grasped by the hand of Jacob, the secondborn. According to Genesis The boys displayed very different natures as they matured. Moreover, the attitudes of their parents toward them also differed: This passage tells that Esau, returning famished from the fields, begged Jacob to give him some of the stew that Jacob had just made.

Esau referred to the dish as "that same red pottage", giving rise to his nickname, Hebrew: Jacob offered to give Esau a bowl of stew in exchange for his birthright, to which Esau agreed. As Isaac aged, he became blind and was uncertain when he would die, so he decided to bestow Esau's birthright upon him. He requested that Esau go out to the fields with his weapons quiver and bow to kill some venison. Isaac then requested that Esau make "savory meat" for him out of the venison, according to the way he enjoyed it the most, so that he could eat it and bless Esau.

Rebecca overheard this conversation. It is suggested that she realized prophetically that Isaac's blessings would go to Jacob, since she was told before the twins' birth that the older son would serve the younger. Jacob protested that his father would recognize their deception since Esau was hairy and he himself was smooth-skinned. He feared his father would curse him as soon as he felt him, but Rebecca offered to take the curse herself, then insisted that Jacob obey her. Before she sent Jacob to his father, she dressed him in Esau's garments and laid goatskins on his arms and neck to simulate hairy skin.

Disguised as Esau, Jacob entered Isaac's room.

Alexander Malcolm Jacob

Surprised that Esau was back so soon, Isaac asked how it could be that the hunt went so quickly. Isaac demanded that Jacob come close so he could feel him, but the goatskins felt just like Esau's hairy skin. Confused, Isaac exclaimed, "The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau!

Still trying to get at the truth, Isaac asked him directly, "Art thou my very son Esau? As Jacob kissed his father, Isaac smelled the clothes which belonged to Esau and finally accepted that the person in front of him was Esau. Isaac then blessed Jacob with the blessing that was meant for Esau. Let people serve thee: Jacob had scarcely left the room when Esau returned from the hunt to prepare his game and receive the blessing. The realization that he had been deceived shocked Isaac, yet he acknowledged that Jacob had received the blessings by adding, "Indeed, he will be [or remain] blessed!

Esau was heartbroken by the deception and begged for his own blessing. Having made Jacob a ruler over his brothers, Isaac could only promise, "By your sword you shall live, but your brother you shall serve; yet it shall be that when you are aggrieved, you may cast off his yoke from upon your neck" Although Esau sold Jacob his own birthright, which was his blessing, for "red pottage," Esau still hated Jacob for receiving his blessing that their father Isaac unknowingly had given to him.

He vowed to kill Jacob as soon as Isaac died. When Rebecca heard about his murderous intentions, [11] she ordered Jacob to travel to her brother Laban 's house in Haran, until Esau's anger subsided.

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She convinced Isaac to send Jacob away by telling him that she despaired of his marrying a local girl from the idol-worshipping families of Canaan as Esau had done. After Isaac sent Jacob away to find a wife, Esau realized his own Canaanite wives were evil in his father's eyes and so he took a daughter of Isaac's half-brother, Ishmael , as another wife. Near Luz en route to Haran , Jacob experienced a vision of a ladder, or staircase, reaching into heaven with angels going up and down it, commonly referred to as " Jacob's ladder.

According to Midrash Genesis Rabbah , the ladder signified the exiles that the Jewish people would suffer before the coming of the Jewish Messiah: Jacob feared that his descendants would never be free of Esau's domination, but God assured him that at the End of Days, Edom too would come falling down. In the morning, Jacob awakened and continued on his way to Haran, after naming the place where he had spent the night " Bethel ," "God's house.

Arriving in Haran, Jacob saw a well where shepherds were gathering their flocks to water them and met Laban 's younger daughter, Rachel , Jacob's first cousin ; she was working as a shepherdess. He loved her immediately, and after spending a month with his relatives, asked for her hand in marriage in return for working seven years for Laban the Aramean.

Laban agreed to the arrangement.

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These seven years seemed to Jacob "but a few days, for the love he had for her," but when they were complete and he asked for his wife, Laban deceived Jacob by switching Rachel for her older sister, Leah , as the veiled bride. In the morning, when the truth became known, Laban justified his action, saying that in his country it was unheard of to give a younger daughter before the older.

However, he agreed to give Rachel in marriage as well if Jacob would work another seven years. After the week of wedding celebrations with Leah, Jacob married Rachel, and he continued to work for Laban for another seven years. Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah, and Leah felt hated. God opened Leah's womb and she gave birth to four sons rapidly: Reuben , Simeon , Levi , and Judah.

Rachel, however, remained barren. Following the example of Sarah, who gave her handmaid to Abraham after years of infertility, Rachel gave Jacob her handmaid, Bilhah , in marriage so that Rachel could raise children through her. Bilhah gave birth to Dan and Naphtali. Seeing that she had left off childbearing temporarily, Leah then gave her handmaid Zilpah to Jacob in marriage so that Leah could raise more children through her.

Zilpah gave birth to Gad and Asher. Afterwards, Leah became fertile again and gave birth to Issachar , Zebulun , and Dinah , Jacob's first and only daughter. God remembered Rachel, who gave birth to Joseph and Benjamin. If pregnancies of different marriages overlapped, the first twelve births all the sons except Benjamin, and the daughter Dinah could have occurred within seven years. That is one obvious, but not universally held, interpretation of Genesis After Joseph was born, Jacob decided to return home to his parents.

Laban the Aramean was reluctant to release him, as God had blessed his flock on account of Jacob. Laban asked what he could pay Jacob. Jacob suggested that all the spotted, speckled, and brown goats and sheep of Laban's flock, at any given moment, would be his wages. Jacob placed rods of poplar, hazel, and chestnut, all of which he peeled "white streaks upon them," [14] within the flocks' watering holes or troughs in a performance of sympathetic magic , associating the stripes of the rods with the growth of stripes on the livestock.

The angel of the Lord , in a dream back during the breeding season, told Jacob "Now lift your eyes and see [that] all the he goats mounting the animals are ringed, speckled, and striped, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you", [17] that he is the God whom Jacob met at Bethel, [18] and that Jacob should leave and go back to the land where he was born, [19] which he and his wives and children did without informing Laban. Before they left, Rachel stole the teraphim , considered to be household idols, from Laban's house.

Laban pursued Jacob for seven days. The night before he caught up to him, God appeared to Laban in a dream and warned him not to say anything good or bad to Jacob. Knowing nothing about Rachel's theft, Jacob told Laban that whoever stole them should die and stood aside to let him search. When Laban reached Rachel's tent, she hid the teraphim by sitting on them and stating she could not get up because she was menstruating. Jacob and Laban then parted from each other with a pact to preserve the peace between them.

Laban returned to his home and Jacob continued on his way. As Jacob neared the land of Canaan, he sent messengers ahead to his brother Esau. They returned with the news that Esau was coming to meet Jacob with an army of men. With great apprehension, Jacob prepared for the worst. He engaged in earnest prayer to God, then sent on before him a tribute of flocks and herds to Esau, "A present to my lord Esau from thy servant Jacob. Jacob then transported his family and flocks across the ford Jabbok by night, then recrossed back to send over his possessions, being left alone in communion with God.

Jacob — I Am a Fraternity Man

There, a mysterious being appeared "man," Genesis Because of this, "to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket" Genesis This incident is the source of the mitzvah of porging. Jacob then demanded a blessing, and the being declared in Genesis Jacob asked the being's name, but he refused to answer. Josephus uses only the terms "angel", "divine angel," and "angel of God," describing the struggle as no small victory. According to Rashi, the being was the guardian angel of Esau himself, sent to destroy Jacob before he could return to the land of Canaan.

Trachtenberg theorized that the being refused to identify itself for fear that, if its secret name was known, it would be conjurable by incantations. Later, he moved to Hyderabad , where he worked for Ami-ul-Kabir, father of Sir Kharsheedjah Bahadur; from there, he moved to Calcutta , where he worked for jewellers Charles Nephew and Co. He then worked for Nawab of Rampur and Dholpur for a short time. Jacob arrived in Simla in the s and founded a business trading precious gemstones and curios.

The success of the business allowed him to build and maintain a luxury home, known as Belvedere, in Simla. The quality of his work resulted in a clientele composed of some of the wealthiest and most influential people in India. The Pioneer found him 'endowed by nature with a wonderful handsome face and form' and there was about him a 'compelling magnetism, a power and mystery which led to his being sought for conversation and advice by Viceroy and princes'.

Reports indicate he was celibate, a vegetarian, a teetotaller , and a non-smoker.

He is best known for having sold the Jacob Diamond , which is the seventh largest diamond known in the world previously known as the Victoria Diamond, Imperial Diamond, or Great White Diamond. He was brought to trial on charges of fraud, and was acquitted only after a long trial at the Calcutta High Court. Jacob was unable to obtain the money due to him, as the court had no jurisdiction over the Indian States. Nor was there any mechanism to get the diamond back.