Strong Man Of God Blog

          It is only fitting that after examining his wives, Rachel, his second who he loved and Leah, his first who bore him six sons and he honored with burial next to him, that Jacob also be looked at for what God would have His aspiring strong men in the image of Christ learn from him.¹  Indeed, as the last of the three revered Jewish patriarchs God had Personally interacted with to bring this ethnic people into existence, Jacob in heart and character is very important in His plans and actions during those days.  The world today in post-Christianity rebellion against God may be rejecting the role of men as patriarchs in His order of mankind, but He continues to honor it for good cause.

          Let me start as the Lord leads by declaring unequivocally that Jacob as all other men from Adam was born a sinner to parents that each was one too!  Yet, this did stop God from assigning him a place in the godly line of men from Enosh, grandson of Adam down through his grandfather, Abraham, and father, Isaac, both of whom “called on the name of the Lord,” enjoyed relationship with Him as well as received His covenant of promise (Genesis 4:25-26, 12:1-9, 26:1-6, 12-25, NKJV).  No mortal human existence from Adam much less a godly line could have continued unless his seed had made it possible as understood in the term, “begot,” (Genesis 5, 10, 11:10-26, 21:1-7, NKJV).

          The godly line eventually comes down to Jesus of Nazareth biologically and most awesome, spiritually, since He is described as “the son of God” and “the only begotten of the Father,” (Luke 3:23-38; John 1:14-18, NKJV).  God the Father begets His Son in the sense of providing the command for His incarnation and supernatural power through the Holy Spirit upon the seed of the virgin to make it happen as I write about in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics (Luke 1:30-35)!²  The Son in turn becomes a spiritual father to all who look to Him for salvation and new birth through faith and the Holy Spirit (Isaiah 9:6-7, 53:10-12; John 1:10-13, 3:1-8, 6:63, 20:19-23).³

          God’s sovereign election of Jacob to walk in the destiny and promises of Abraham and Isaac before conception in their mother’s womb, rendered the struggle with his fraternal twin, Esau, unnecessary for nothing can thwart His will (Genesis 25:19-23; Malachi 1:1-3a; Romans 9:6-13)!  Nevertheless, true to the name his parents gave him which means supplanter, Jacob came out of the womb clutching his brother’s heal as if to replace him in the birth order (Genesis 25:24-26).  They were not only different in appearance, but interests and dispositions also.  Esau grew up to become “a skillful hunter, a man of the field; Jacob a mild man dwelling in tents,” (Genesis 25:27, NKJV).

          The interests and dispositions of Esau and Jacob would play vital roles in the outcomes of their respective lives and those of their descendants.  Esau would prove to be wild, independent, impulsive and dull of thinking; Jacob, though quiet and loyal to his family as a herdsman and tent dweller like his forefathers, was calculating, laid back and patient.  While He can and does work with both types of men if they are willing, it is important for men that aspire to become strong men of God in the image of Christ to note Jacob in the natural was more like Him than Esau.⁴  Now, “Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob,” (Genesis 25:28, NKJV).

          The parental favoritism of their respective sons facilitated the great deceit that was to take place in the aftermath of Jacob’s to obtain Esau’s “birthright,” (Genesis 25:29-34, NKJV).  His mother and Jacob successfully conspired to deceive Isaac into bestowing Esau’s birthright blessing of the firstborn on him instead (Genesis 27:1-38).  Fear of Esau’s threat of murder and once again his mother’s cunning led to Jacob leaving for what she purposed as a short stay in “Padan Aram” among her people ostensibly to seek a wife (Genesis 27:41-28:5).  She never saw him again.  Meanwhile, on the first night of his nearly 500 mile journey north, Jacob had the first of what would be many encounters with God.  To this point, he plainly had only known of God, but did not know Him!⁵

          Jacob’s first encounter with God came by way of a dream.  In it, he saw “a ladder” erected from earth and reaching into Heaven where “the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.”⁶  He also saw “the LORD” standing “above” the ladder who then, began to introduce Himself as ‘“the LORD God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac.’”  From there, God restates to Jacob the covenant promises He made to Abraham and to Isaac (Genesis 28:10-14, NKJV).  After this, He promises Jacob His presence and protection and assures He will bring him back to the land he was leaving (Genesis 28:15).  Jacob wakes up in awe of God’s presence.  In the morning, he names the place “Bethel.”  Then, Jacob makes his own solemn promise to God (Genesis 28:16-22, NKJV).

  1 Read the May 21, 2023 post, Lessons From Rachel For Aspiring Great Women, under the category, The Cause and that of May 28, 2023, Leah Unloved, Favored By God,
     under the category, Glory To God!

  2 The Hard or Soft Cover or E-Book Edition of the book as well as companion Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study and Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study are
     available in the Strong Man Store, among internet booksellers and brick and mortar bookstores.

  3 Christ  is  God  the  Word which as living spiritual Seed is planted into the hearts of those who receive Him through the Gospel and energizing power of the Holy Spirit who
     causes new birth and development (John 1:1-5; 1 Peter 1:22-2:3; 1 John 3:9)!

  4 Yes, as  the  Lord  leads,  I  am  saying  the  lopsided  wild, outdoorsman persona some of my brothers in the Christian men’s movement want to present as manhood God
     seeks  to  build  in us is not biblical.  The Lord was not a wild man.  One has only to objectively examine His Persona and measured aggressive actions in passion for God
     and  His  purposes  along  with His own description of Himself in the Gospels to see this (Matthew 11:28-30, 12:15-21, 21:12-17).  The Lord spent much time outdoors with
     His disciples (some of the key men were fishermen by trade) because they traveled throughout Israel preaching and teaching.

  5 Sound familiar?  Jacob’s head knowledge of God up to this point had come by listening to and watching his father, Isaac, and is typical of many professed Christians as re-
     ligious impostors.  Time and again in witnessing to folks and asking whether they know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord I have heard the retort, “My mother (or grandmoth-
     er and most rarely, father)….”  You cannot know God through someone else; you must know Him for yourself!

  6 The Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament validates Jacob’s dream and connects Himself to it as the unique Ladder into Heaven (John 1:47-51; 14:6).

          Memorial Day causes us to look to the graveyard or if you will, the fields of the dead to remember with esteem those of the military who gave their lives serving our nation.  So, I do with all others again this year.  The ‘“cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre’” in Israel is the burial place of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their respective wives Jews look to remembering the progenitors of their ethnic heritage (Genesis 49:29-33, NKJV).  Jacob, God named Israel, fathered twelve sons by four wives, six of them borne by Leah who is buried with him.  How this came about and on this Pentecost, the body of Leah’s greatest Descendant not in a tomb concerns this post.

          Leah, daughter of Laban and sister of Rachel examined in last week’s post,¹ was honored with burial in the patriarchal cave by her husband, Jacob.  She had been his first wife through the deceit of her father when he switched her out for Rachel on what was supposed to be her younger sister’s wedding night (Genesis 29:15-30).  For whatever all of the reasons including perhaps, the physical issue with her eyes noted in the referenced passage, Leah as the older of the two sisters had not yet married when Jacob arrived on scene.  As with most women of her time, marriage and family were the twin aims of her life and surely the reason in part she cooperated with her father’s treachery.²

          In the polygamous marriage to Jacob as his first wife, but second to Rachel because he loved her more, Leah found herself “unloved;” literally hated by her husband.  Fortunately for Leah and all women in marriages where their husbands do not love them, God was watching and on the case for her.  “He opened her womb” out of mercy, but kept Rachel’s shut (Genesis 29:31, NKJV).  While His observation of women in marriages where they are unloved by their husbands is a universal reality that should spur them to prayer for help, God’s specific actions for Leah are not.  He acts in accord with His sovereign will, wisdom, unique purposes for all who call upon Him and His glory!³

          Leah rightly concluded that the Lord had seen her “affliction” of being unloved by Jacob when she bore him a son she named, Reuben, for that reason (Genesis 29:32, NKJV).  However, her hopes Jacob would love her because of this son and the next two that followed were dashed (Genesis 29:33-34).  From the seed of her third son, Levi, would come her descendants Aaron, father of Israel’s priesthood and God’s great lawgiver, Moses (Exodus 6:16-27).  On her fourth son, Leah seemed to get that God should be praised for her fruitful motherhood and declared: ‘“Now I will praise the Lord.’”  So, she named him, Judah, which means praise (Genesis 29:35, NKJV).

          From the seed of Judah came Israel’s second king, David, and an eternal, royal dynasty terminating in “Shiloh” God foretold first through Jacob and promised several centuries later by the prophet, Nathan, to the king (Genesis 49:8-12; 2 Samuel 7:1-17, NKJV).  This Shiloh, is none other than He Jacob had wrestled with and who came to earth to begin to fulfill all that was written of Him forty-two generations after Abraham (Genesis 32:22-32; Matthew 1:1-17).  Of the things written of Him were His birth to a virgin also a descendant of Leah through David and the first priority of His work as Israel’s final King embodied in His name, “JESUS,” (Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 3:23-31, NKJV).

          Indeed, Jesus Christ, King of the Jews, completed His work to save His people from their sins as foretold (Psalm 22:1-21a; Matthew 27:32-50; John 19:17-30).  On the same day before sunset, He was buried in a rich man’s tomb and on the third day after God resurrected Him (Psalm 22:21b; John 19:38-20:18).⁴  Following that on the fortieth day, “He was taken up” and glorified; seated at God’s right hand to await His return to rule not only Israel, but the whole earth!  On the fiftieth day, “Pentecost,” He sent the Holy Spirit to indwell those who believe and enable His apostles to preach the Gospel about as well as “be witnesses to” Him “to the end of the earth,” (Psalm 22:22-31; Isaiah 53; Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:14-20; Luke 24:36-53; John 20:19-29; Acts 1:4-2:40, 3:11-26, NKJV).

          Leah continued to compete with Rachel for Jacob’s love through childbearing; making the same mistake as her sister in giving him her maid for a wife, but to no avail (Genesis 30:1-21).  He did honor her above all at her death.  Also, not only did Leah prevail in the fruitful bearing of six to Rachel’s two sons, but unknown to her God’s favor ran much deeper.  She bore one from who would come Israel and history’s greatest King; even He who is “the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David,” (Revelation 5:5, NKJV)!  From what God did through unloved Leah, both His aspiring strong men and great women in the image of Christ are reminded He has worked and wills to work in us far beyond what we could have ever imagined to His glory (1 Corinthians 1:26-31)!⁵  Let Him have you!

1 Read the May 21, 2023 post, Lessons From Rachel For Aspiring Great Women, under the category, The Cause.

2 Another  reason  was  the universal reverence given to fathers and modeled by God as the heads over their daughters until marriage only rebelled against in this latter days
   generation  (Genesis  2:18, 21-22, 24:47-51; Numbers 12:14-16) though, Leah out of greater reverence for God and as a matter of character could have objected to being a
   party to deceit.

3 Christian women please note how the Holy Spirit led me to write broadly of women in marriages with husbands that do not love them.  In His perfect will and your obedience
   to  marry  “only  in the Lord,” such a situation should not exist for you.  However, if for whatever reasons you are in a situation like this, you all the more know seeking God in
   prayer  is  the  first  right  step  followed  by doing what His Word teaches in longsuffering while you wait on Him to act as He wills.  And yes, the same goes for any Christian
   man in similar circumstances as it is written (1 Corinthians 7:10-16, 39; 1 Peter 3:1-2, NKJV).

4 Because  Christ  is risen  from  the dead, we Christians do not look to tombs or graveyards to remember and honor Him as One still slain in battle.  But we exalt and magnify
   Christ  within  our hearts as our living Savior, Warrior-King and Lord; fellowshipping with and serving Him who is “alive forevermore” as He promised (John 14:18-24; Revela-
   tion 1:17-18, NKJV).  If as a professed Christian you are not inwardly enjoying the resurrection life of Christ, disobedience in sin may be the reason.  Watch our latest Strong
   Man Of God Online Rally on YouTube, Return To The Lord, to hear His summons!

5 Learn  more  about  this  by  reading  my  book,  The  Strong Man Of God; Back To Basics!  Get your Hard or Soft Cover or E-Book Edition of the book as well as companion
   Strong  Man  Of  God Men’s Group Study and Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study in the Strong Man Store, among internet booksellers and brick and mortar book-
   stores.