God gave Isaac twins, Esau and Jacob, to take up the positions of Cain and Abel. God needed this to restore them to the birthright and thereby fulfill His will, which was not fulfilled in Adam’s family because of Cain’s murder of Abel. For this purpose, God intended that Esau, who was in Cain’s position, should humble himself and follow his brother, who was in Abel’s position.
Jacob had gone the hard way. He bought the birthright from his older brother Esau, and then, leaving home, went to the land of Haran, whereas a slave he worked for his uncle Laban for 21 years. His uncle promised him his daughter Rachel as his wife, but seven years later he tricked Jacob into marrying Rachel’s sister Leah. Jacob, after seven more years of work, married Rachel. Then his uncle deceived Jacob, trying to take away everything God had rewarded him with. And still Jacob endured everything without complaint.
Despite his desperate loneliness, Jacob remained faithful to God and thought of nothing but doing His will. That is why everything he did in life apart from God’s will did not matter to him. He became more and more estranged from the world, but he experienced God’s love more and more. After 21 years, he reclaimed all the good that God had blessed him with and set out for Canaan.
On the way to Canaan Jacob won a battle with an angel. He was the first fallen man to fulfill the redemption condition necessary to regain dominion over the angel. How serious Jacob was when he wrestled with the angel on the brook of Jabok! The angel approached him with the heart of one generation’s experience, and Jacob approached the angel with the heart of thousands of years of history. That is why he was able to win.
Jacob won a spiritual victory over the world of angels. From then on, in all his endeavors, Jacob had the support not only of God, but also of the entire world of angels.
Jacob knew that his brother Esau intended to kill him. But in his heart he knew that all his wealth, all that he had achieved, belonged to his elder brother. He wanted to give Esau everything he had earned through his sweat and blood. If he had held on tightly to the property he had accumulated during his 21 years of work, he would have died from the beatings. He prayed, begging God not to punish Esau. He asked that God would bless Esau as He had blessed him. Because of this Heart of his brother, Esau was so moved that he forgot his desire to kill Jacob. And so, he received God’s blessing too.
In the end, God’s love for both brothers was determined by how well they handled their responsibilities. Esau’s subjection to Jacob was a restoration of Cain’s subjection to Abel, so Esau, by submitting to Jacob, was also blessed with God’s love, as was his brother. On the other hand, although Jacob held a position that implied God’s love, he might not have received it at all if he had not handled his share of the responsibility assigned to him.
Jacob was very clever. From the beginning he had set a goal for himself and, keeping it in mind, he pressed onward until the end. Esau, on the other hand, was concerned only with what was happening at present. Jacob was forward-looking, while Esau remained realistic.
Jacob prized the right of primogeniture. He longed for it and for the unity of all the generations of his family. This is why the Bible refers to “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Jacob knew God’s will and His providential purposes and was very eager to be an heir.
Jacob never forgot the blessing he had received from God and kept an unwavering faith in Him. He made a vow never to change his attitude, no matter how circumstances changed. Jacob’s faith was so strong that even if Heaven had given up on him, he was willing to do whatever it took for his family to believe in him. He was determined to finish the unfinished work of the blessing given to him, and thus laid the foundation for the further development of God’s providence. Jacob blazed with the desire to inherit the will of the heavenly principle that God wanted to establish through Abraham’s family, and through this, he was able to establish a believing family and return home 21 years later.