Devotion:
Read Genesis 27:18-27b, 41.
Jacob and his mother plot to deceive Isaac so that Jacob will receive the blessing instead of Esau. Although Jacob gets the blessing he wants, deceiving his father costs him dearly. He never sees his mother again. Esau wants to kill him. His family becomes torn by conflict, and he is exiled from his family for years. Imagine how different his life could have been if he and his mother had let God work his plan in his own time.
Jacob lived a life much like ours – filled with strengths and weaknesses. Sadly, most of his life he was known as a con artist, a liar, and a manipulator. After many years Jacob returns to Canaan to be reunited with his brother and Jacob is filled with anxiety. He collapses into a deep sleep and God appears in the form of an angel. It is only after he comes to grips with God and ceases his struggling that he receives God’s blessing. Despite Jacob’s faults, God chooses him to be the leader of a great nation that still bears his name today, Israel. Through God’s grace, his life is a story of a transformed man who went from deceiver to faithful patriarch of a nation.
Personal Worship Option:
Jacob confronts his failures, his weaknesses, his sins, and all the things that are hurting him and gives them to God. We also will receive God’s grace when we turn our lives, the good and the bad, over to him. Spend time in prayer giving God your own struggles and receive his forgiveness and blessing.
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