Why would you spend any time studying a liar, a thief, a cheat, and an all-round scoundrel? That is what many will tell you Jacob was. The New American Standard Bible says “Jacob’s Deception.” The NET Bible reads “Jacob Cheats Esau out of the Blessing.” The New Living Translation announces “Jacob Steals Esau’s Blessing.”
With such a clear consensus from the experts, there must surely be a mountain of textual evidence that clearly and unequivocally condemns Jacob as a lying, deceiving thief.
There is not. Not one verse. Not one word from God Himself.
The real Jacob story contains unique lessons for all those who struggle in life, lessons that will enable them to overcome in the toughest of circumstances. But those lessons have been locked away behind a wall of slander that the church has been parroting for centuries. It is time to tear that wall down.
Jacob Is a Fighter
When we first meet Jacob, in the womb, he is fighting. This is his defining characteristic. Not lies. Not trickery. Struggle. The severity of the combat between Jacob and Esau was so intense that Rebekah was forced to call upon the Lord for a divine explanation. If it had been a kick here and a kick there, she would not have thought anything of it. But Jacob fought and fought and kept on fighting.
Is it wrong to fight? Is it wrong to cause trouble? Sometimes, yes. Sometimes, no. It all depends on who you are fighting and what you are fighting for.
Jacob was fighting Esau. And Esau, as we know from the rest of Scripture, was a wild man in the line of Ishmael and Nimrod, a profane person and a fornicator, an enemy of God’s chosen line. To be at war with the wicked is a godly trait. Proverbs 28:4 states it plainly: “They that forsake the law praise the wicked: but such as keep the law contend with them.”
Jacob deserves his God-given place alongside all the Lord’s holy fighters: Abraham, Moses, Joshua, King David, and so many more who fought, each in their own way and in their own field of endeavour.
What the Hebrew Actually Says
If we dig beneath the English translation to the Hebrew text of Genesis 25:27, we find something remarkable. Jacob is called an ish tam. “Ish” means man. But what does tam mean?
The Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon provides three categories of meaning. First: “complete, perfect,” including physical strength, in agreement with the prophecy given to Rebekah marking Jacob as the stronger of the two. Second: “sound, wholesome,” the very antithesis of Esau the hunter. Third: “complete, morally innocent, having integrity.”
Elsewhere in Scripture, tam is translated as “undefiled” (Song of Songs 5:2), “perfect” (Job 1:8), and “upright” (Proverbs 29:10). The Holy Spirit describes Jacob in Genesis 25:27 as undefiled, perfect, and upright. This is the man whom the church has labelled a cheat and a liar.
The contrast with Esau could not be sharper. Esau is compared to Ishmael the persecutor and Nimrod the tyrant. Jacob is declared to be a man of exemplary character and strength. Esau is the bad tree; Jacob is the good tree. And as Jesus taught, a good tree produces good fruit.
The Meaning of Jacob’s Name
One of the most persistent arguments against Jacob is his very name. We are told it means “deceiver” or “supplanter,” and that the act of grasping Esau’s heel in the womb was an act of trickery.
But where does this interpretation come from? It comes from Esau. In Genesis 27:36, Esau says: “Is not he rightly named Jacob? For he hath supplanted me these two times.” And somehow, for thousands of years, we have taken the word of a profane man whom God hates, and treated it as authoritative.
What does God say about Jacob grasping the heel? Hosea 12:3-4 tells us: “He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God: yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed.”
The Holy Spirit does not highlight Jacob’s lies, trickery, or deceit in these verses. He underlines Jacob’s strength, beginning in the womb and culminating in his wrestling match with the angel of the Lord, the very Son of God. Jacob is commended, not condemned. And the act of “grasping the heel,” the very thing for which Esau slandered him, is held up by God as an example for His people to follow.
The Hosea passage continues: “Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment and wait on thy God continually.” The act of “grasping the heel” is used by God to call His people to repentance and faithful action. Our Lord holds Jacob up as an example of godly strength, not as a warning against deceit.
What Jacob Fought For
Jacob was fighting for the birthright and the blessing. The birthright involved the vast wealth of his father Isaac: livestock, silver, and gold. The blessing meant victory over enemies, sons beyond counting, becoming a great nation, and inheriting the Promised Land.
Both the birthright and the blessing included very real, this-worldly elements. Jacob earnestly desired material things in this world, and God never condemned him for it. Not once.
This is a stumbling block for many Christians, for whom an intense desire for land, wealth, and victory marks a man out as spiritually suspect. But this attitude says more about our own Greek-pagan assumptions than it does about Scripture. The birthright and the blessing were God’s appointed means of perpetuating the covenant line and advancing the Kingdom. To desire them fervently was not greed; it was faith.
Why This Matters for You
This is not mere Bible trivia. Christ was in the loins of Jacob, and believers are in Christ. What was true for Jacob is true for you. You have a glorious inheritance as a Christian man, and all those who tell you that you ought not seek to rule under God, on earth, in your own little corner, are Esaus. They are dangerous people who want to steal what God has given you.
Psalm 37 is emphatic: “Evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth.” Matthew 5:5 confirms it: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” And in Luke 19:13, Jesus Himself commands: “Occupy till I come,” meaning do business, trade, invest, and multiply what God has entrusted to you.
But God does not hand the inheritance to you on a silver platter. Moses battled Pharaoh tooth and nail. Joshua fought all his life, battle by battle, inch by inch. You, too, have to fight for what is yours. And by God’s grace, you now have Jacob as an example to follow.
Through the Spirit of God, you can understand and imitate Jacob’s godly strategies to take what is yours by right, even when the odds are stacked high against you. Over the coming weeks, those strategies will be unpacked in detail. Keep listening, and what was formerly hidden will be revealed. And as you implement God’s ways, found in His Word, your life will slowly be transformed.