As I begin a new year, I’m finishing reading through Genesis again. And again I’m reminded why past Genesis readings have led me to the conclusion that Jacob is my favorite person in the story. There are two particular reasons I love Jacob, both based on statements he makes at the end of his life: First, I love his honesty about life; second, I love his understanding that his whole life has been orchestrated by God.
Honesty
First, Jacob’s honesty. When his suddenly famous and successful and not dead son Joseph brings Jacob and the rest of the family to Egypt, Jacob meets Pharaoh, to whom Joseph is right-hand man. Pharaoh asks the old man Jacob about his life, and Jacob responds, “Few and evil have been the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their sojourning” (47:9). This is a remarkable statement from the man who was a liar and swindler in his younger days. But perhaps it is not so remarkable when one considers that for most of his earlier lies and swindles, he has to some extent been repaid. The old saying is “What goes around comes around,” but a newer belief in the Western world (though it is no new belief at all) is Karma. Perhaps Jacob is suggesting that he is the recipient of Karma. But that doesn’t appear to be how he understands his troubles. Instead, he suggests here and says plainly elsewhere that it is God who has worked all of this – both the blessing and the bad. This leads to the second point.
The Shepherd
(Second,) Jacob’s understanding that he has been led by God all of his life. Pharaoh’s question to Jacob, paraphrasing, is, “How old are you?” (47:8) And Jacob’s response is (not paraphrasing, but abbreviating), “My sojourning has gone on for 130 years,” followed by his statement about how evil and few have been his days. Notice that Pharaoh’s question is about Jacob’s age, and Jacob states the number only as a timestamp for his sojourning. And when he compares his life to his fathers (Abraham and Isaac), he compares his sojourning to theirs. Apparently Jacob understands that God’s people are always on a journey and never at home in the world (Heb 11:13).
A little later, Jacob can be seen giving a blessing to his grandsons, Joseph’s sons. One can’t help but remember a similar scene from Jacob’s childhood where he and Esau are getting blessings from their dad Isaac, and Jacob steals Esau’s firstborn blessing (Gen 27). Anyway, in the course of Jacob’s blessing Joseph’s sons, he refers to God as the One who has “been my shepherd all my life long to this day” (48:15). What a staggering claim. Here, Jacob owns that all of his life – with both his great blessing at his dad’s hand (which, by the way, though he stole it, God let him keep it, because according to 25:23, it was the plan of Him who’s ways are not man’s ways, Is. 55:9), and the repayment of his wrongs at the hands of Laban and his own sons – has been ordained according to God’s sovereign plan for him. We shouldn’t be too surprised by this. God did make himself personal to Jacob at the famous staircase (28:10ff) and during the famous wrestling match (32:22ff), the latter which gave Jacob his famous limp.
The Limp
And that raises an important part of Jacob’s story: he was brought to understand that if one is going to journey with God, they’re going to have to do so in weakness (ie, with a “limp”) so that they don’t “go on ahead” of God (cf. 2 Jn 9) instead of following Him (Num 32:15). In other words, God aims that we be weak not because he wants to hinder us, but because he understands that our true weakness is a spiritual one whereby we lean toward autonomy and moving faster than we should. So he gives us spiritual weakness so that we will, like His Son, only act in concert with Him, and He’ll be glorified as we enjoy going at His speed. It seems like Jacob learned this the hard way, and at the end of his life, felt the need to tell about it.
Most of us live our lives at any given moment thinking we know everything, or at least every important thing. We’re experts in our experiences and fields, and filter every issue through the lenses of our expertise, and that is why we’re so proud of and sure of ourselves. It is only in the course of our proverbial wrestling matches, which usually happen on the way to something else (as Jacob’s happened on the way to meeting Esau), that we realize either how wrong we were or how we need to slow down in our rightness and bring others along patiently, like God brings us along patiently. This is the struggle of the journey for sinful people like us.
Still, Scripture is replete with examples of God being referred to as the Shepherd of his people. Whether the famous, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want” Psalm (Ps 23), or the more collective, “He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, the sheep of His hand” (Ps. 95:7), this concept of God as shepherd is cause for worship. Further, it is an essential aspect to the Messianic promise of the prophets, where God promises one day that in a new and special way He will shepherd his flock (Ezek. 34:23, 31; 37:24). Hence Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd” (Jn 10:11, 14), and he is referred to as “the great shepherd of the sheep” in Hebrews 13:20. Sinful though we be, if we belong to God, he shepherds (leads, keeps, protects) us.
This must be why Jacob understood life as a journey, and himself as a sojourner. To be on a journey suggests a direction. I’ve heard the phrase a lot recently, “Not all who wander are lost.” That is because even wanderers are looking for something. But to Jacob, he wasn’t simply wandering. He was sojourning, maybe not looking for something as much as belonging to Someone – he was a sheep belonging to a Shepherd. And at the end of his life he could say in the same breath both that his days had been evil, and that God had shepherded him every step of the way. In other words, yes it has been hard, but it has had purpose, and it is beautiful as my shepherd has led me.
Sparks Fly Upward
Scripture is very clear that we live not necessarily in an evil world, but a fallen world. And life in a fallen world is hard and full of evil. “Man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward” (Job 5:7). Just read Ecclesiastes to find the Bible’s clarity on the vanity – even the meaninglessness – of life in a fallen world. But that is why Jesus’ coming into the world is good news. He reveals the fullness of the truth for us to know, and the core of it is that all of creation exists for Him (Col. 1:15). And as we embrace the Son for whom all things exist, and in whom all things consist (Heb. 1:3), the difficulty and darkness begins to lighten up and brighten up. Thus to the Apostles, the journey is a journey into transformation, where we who believe are being conformed to Jesus’ image every step of the way (2 Cor. 3:18), until one day when the transformation will be complete (1 Jn. 3:3). And the joy, love, and glory that Jesus has eternally enjoyed with the Father become our joy, love, and glory (see Jn. 17:24-26), as we delight in Him.
Beauty in the Big Picture
As a pastor I work a lot with people who are twice my age or slightly more; though, as I get older, there are fewer and fewer who are twice my age! One thing I see in counseling is that older people look back on past hard chapters in life – raising kids, working for hard bosses, going through marital troubles, cancer, etc. – with joy. Why? It cannot because these chapters were fun while they were happening. Rather, it is because these people – sojourners – made it through, they know not how, now with some wisdom and refining that ease and comfort couldn’t have given. This must be why Jesus rebuked seeking a life of ease (see Lk 12:19): God made us for a journey. That way, we learn to enjoy the process like God does, and we get to the other side with limping, but it is a beautiful limping. It feels like we’re only making by the skin of our teeth. But the God who called us and is with us, is already present at the end as well.
All of this is to say that we need to reflect on Jacob keep in mind and be encouraged by the “big picture.” After all, the Old Testament was written to encourage us and keep us longing for God (Rom. 15:4, 1 Cor 10:6). As we remember who rules the world, is in control, and is generating good for us at all times, there is supposed to be a joy as we remember that He’s God and we’re not. We’re just journeymen/women. And we limp and walk this trodden path painfully, but we do it knowing that we have a Shepherd who is caring for us and carrying out good purposes for us.
It was good enough for Jacob to be shepherded by God, even if that means that what goes around comes around. Jacob understood that God orchestrates it this way so that His people will learn what they need and come to humble themselves. It’s the same with all of God’s people throughout time: always sojourning, never at home in the world, and being prepared for glory (cf. Heb 11:13). My hope is that, if you're following the Lord, it is good enough for you. We’re not promised tomorrow in this world. But we are promised eternity in the joy of our Master. May we lean on the sure promise of it as we limp through this sojourning life. We’ll make it to the end gloriously.
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