Israel: A Prince with God: The Story of Jacob

The stories of the Scriptures will always be retold with profit while there is variation of personal interpretation. Presented here is a running exegesis of the central events in the life of Jacob.Jacob, the son of Isaac and Rebekah, twin of Esau, was a swindler, schemer, and manipulator. But he was transformed into Israel, A Prince with God. The author, F.B. Meyer, an eminent British Baptist preacher of the nineteenth century, does not cover or attempt any explanation of Jacob's deficiency in character; but employs them as a picture of the work of Christian conversion. Jacob, who struggled all night with God, connivingly bargains away his brother, Esau’s birthright and blessing, God gave a new name, “Israel: a prince with God.” Jacob's imperfections disclose that God’s love is not determined by what He finds in a person, but His favour is all of Grace. As has been often said, “God does not call the qualified, he qualifies the called. Meyer points out that the patriarchs were men of similar passions and imperfections as ourselves. Through the Great Potter’s marvelous work of Grace, trials, cutting, and testing, he can mold coarse, flawed people into beautiful vessels, as he did with Jacob, the supplanter. Likewise, He will transform us in vessels of honor unto Himself. According to Meyer, “the story of Bible heroes and saints tends as nothing else to recruit a dwindling congregation; to maintain interest in a crowded one; to awaken new devotion to the Bible, and to touch the many chords of human life.”