The Foreshadowing of God’s Promises To Us That Were Fulfilled in Christ # 7

Jacob was also a ‘type’ of Christ

In Jacob, God continued to foreshadow the promise of His blessing of all the nations but specifically He imprinted in Jacob the promise of our salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior

Let's be reminded that Abraham, his son Isaac and his son Jacob were the 3 great Patriarchs of Israel through whom God promised to make a great nation and a blessing to the nations of the earth

Genesis 12: 1-3

C.F Genesis 15: 4; Genesis 17: 2, 7, 16; Genesis 50: 24; Exodus 3: 6, 15; Exodus 4: 5; Exodus 9: 5; 1 Kings 18: 36; Matthew 22: 31-32; Luke 13: 28; Acts 3: 13; Acts 7: 8, 32; Romans 9: 5

Jacob was forced to leave home because he tricked his elder brother Esau out of his birthright, and he also tricked his father Isaac into giving him the blessing that was due to his elder brother Esau

But before leaving home his father Isaac repeated the promise that God first made to his father Abraham

Genesis 28: 3-4 ‘May God Almighty bless you and give you many children. And may your descendants multiply and become many nations! May God pass on to you and your descendants the blessings he promised to Abraham. May you own this land where you are now living as a foreigner, for God gave this land to Abraham.’

Later, the Lord spoke to Jacob 3 times and repeated His promise that He made firstly to Abraham and then Isaac

Genesis 28: 13b-15; Genesis 35: 11-12; Genesis 46: 2-4a

Jacob lived to be 147 years old and died in Egypt and according to his wishes his body was taken back to the Promised Land and buried with Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob’s wife Leah in the Tombs of the Patriarchs at Machpelah (Hebron)

Genesis 47: 28; Genesis 49: 29-33; Genesis 50: 12-13

With the closing of the Book of Genesis the Age of the 3 great Patriarchs was over but as Jesus said they continue to live, Matthew 22: 32 ‘” I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ So, He is the God of the living, not the dead.”

C.F Matthew 8: 11; Acts 3: 13; Acts 7: 32; Romans 9: 5; Romans 11: 28

And as the 3 great Patriarchs continue to live so does God’s promise to make of them a great nation and a blessing to the nations of the earth

“Pastor David, what does that mean for me?”

It means that we continue to enjoy the promise of the blessing of God that were first given to Abraham, Isaac and Jabob and were fulfilled in Jesus Christ

Let’s continue:

In what way was Jacob a ‘type’ of Christ and what likenesses to Christ do we see imprinted in Jacob?

Firstly, Jacob was loved by God and chosen to do the will of God even before he was born

Romans 9: 10b-13 ‘When he (Isaac) married Rebekah, she gave birth to twins. But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God. (This message shows that God chooses people according to His own purposes; He calls people, but not according to their good or bad works.) She was told, “Your older son will serve your younger son.” In the words of the Scriptures, “I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau.”

C.F Psalm 135: 4; Malachi 1: 2-3

Christ was loved by God and chosen to do the will of God even before he was born

Matthew 1: 21 ‘And she will have a son, and you are to name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

In Jesus famous prayer He declared about the Father, John 17: 24b “You loved Me even before the world began!”

C.F Matthew 3: 17; Luke 1: 30-33; Luke 9: 35; John 1: 18 ‘closest to the Father’s heart’ GW

In Jesus great John 17 prayer we are also reminded that we too are recipients of the Father’s sovereign choice – we were loved by God and chosen to do the will of God even before we were born

John 17: 6a “I have revealed You to the ones You gave Me from this world. They were always Yours"

In another place Jesus said, John 6: 37 ‘those the Father has given Me will come to Me, and I will never reject them’

As the Apostle Paul continued his comments about God choosing Jacob and rejecting Esau, he referred to God’s sovereignty over all Man(kind)

Romans 9: 16 ‘it is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it’

Paul explains this truth by referencing

Romans 9: 22b those who ‘are destined for destruction’

Romans 9: 23b those ‘who were prepared in advance for glory’.

Jacob was rejected by his brother Esau who even tried to kill him

Genesis 27: 42; Genesis 32: 6

Jesus was also rejected by His ‘brothers’, that is the unbelieving Jewish people, and eventually they succeeded in having Him killed

Matthew 2: 13, 16; Matthew 26: 4; Mark 11: 18; Mark 14: 1; Luke 13: 31; Luke 18: 33; Luke 19: 47; Luke 23: 18; John 1: 10; John 10: 31; Acts: 3: 15; Acts 5: 30

Jacob was accompanied by angels when he left his father’s house, and was again accompanied by angels when he returned to his father’s house

On leaving his father’s house, Genesis 28: 12 ‘As he slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached from the earth up to heaven. And he saw the angels of God going up and down the stairway’.

On returning to his father’s house, Genesis 32: 1 ‘As Jacob started on his way again, angels of God came to meet him’.

Jesus too was accompanied by angels when He left his Father's house in Heaven and was again accompanied by angels when He returned his Father's house in Heaven

Luke 2: 8-11; Acts 1: 9-10

Jesus said, John 1: 51 “I tell you the truth, you will all see Heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man, the One who is the Stairway between heaven and earth.”

After arriving at his uncle Laban’s house, Jacob married his 2 daughters, 2 sisters who became his 2 wives

Leah the older sister and first wife, ‘in a sense’ represents the Jewish Nation

Rachel the younger sister and second wife, ‘in a sense’ represents the Gentile nations

Genesis 29: 16-30; Romans 11: 17

In Christ, believing Jews (represented by Leah) and believing Gentiles (represented by Rachel) are brought together as one and are called in the Book of Revelation, the Bride of Christ – the ‘New Jerusalem’

This will get you thinking: Revelation 21: 2 ‘And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of Heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband’

C.F Ephesians 2: 14

Jacob was re-named ‘Israel’ which means ‘prince with God’

Genesis 32: 28 ‘you have been a prince with God’ YLT, AKJV, KJV, BRG, KJ21

Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace but when He returns to the Earth He will come back as the ‘King of all Kings and Lord of all Lords’

Isaiah 9: 6; Revelation 19: 16

Jacob went to Egypt for a short time at the end of his life. He died there and his body was returned to the Promised Land

Genesis 46: 1-7; Genesis 49: 29-33; Genesis 50: 12-13

Whereas Jesus went to Egypt for a short time at the start of His life. Later He returned to the Promised Land where He grew up and began His ministry, 30 short years later He died on the cross but arose from the dead!

Matthew 2: 13-15; 19-23; Acts 2: 33

Jacob became one of the 3 great Patriarchs of Israel and the father of Israel’s 12 tribes

Genesis 49: 28; Revelation 21: 12

Whereas Jesus chose 12 disciples and made them Apostles sending them to the nations with the Good News of the Gospel, Romans 1: 16b ‘the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile’. NLT, NKJV

Matthew 10: 1; Revelation 21: 14

Do you believe in the Good News of the Gospel?

Have you received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?