What if you had to start from zero? In your middle age? No money, no job, no home, far from the people you know and trust. How would you survive?
Imagine if you were born into a wealthy and powerful family, were about to inherit the estate, and then, in an instant, you had to run for your life. Could you handle the disappointment, or would you be forever crushed?
We in the West may not have lost everything overnight, but with each passing generation, life has gotten steadily more difficult. Getting married, buying a house, even buying a car: the things former generations took for granted are now unrealistic dreams for many younger men. Most cannot think of getting married when there are so few decent-paying jobs, house prices are three times what they were a generation ago, and making it all work on one wage seems like a pipe dream.
In the face of such obstacles, does the Bible offer any guidance? Or must we turn to cryptocurrency and AI stock trading for help?
The answer lies closer to home than most people think. It lies in the life of Jacob.
The Starting Point: Nothing But a Staff
Jacob had just secured the legal right to a vast fortune from his father, only to lose it all in a dramatic turn of events. His brother Esau had played a trump card: he would kill Jacob and take everything. Jacob was forced to flee. His ultra-wealthy father, who never cared for him, sent him away with nothing but the staff in his hand.
And yet Jacob went to Laban’s house with nothing and returned, twenty years later, with a great number of servants and a cornucopia of livestock. His gift to his murderous brother alone, which Genesis 32:13 describes as simply “what came to his hand,” amounted to 200 female goats and 20 male goats, 200 ewes and 20 rams, 30 milk camels with their colts, 40 cows and 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys and 10 foals, an estimated total value of between $770,000 and $927,000. And this was not a devastating sacrifice. It was what he could lay his hands on without distress.
Whatever Jacob did, it worked. And the principles embedded in his story are available to every man willing to learn.
Know Your Land
Before digging into Jacob’s specific strategies, there is a powerful Scripture that orients everything: Proverbs 28:19 says, “Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits will have plenty of poverty.”
You have to know what your land is. God has given every man a piece of land to occupy, so to speak. Adam was given Eden to dress and to keep. The meek shall inherit the earth, and each one has his own little corner to cultivate. Your particular calling, your specific area of skill and service, is the land God has given you. If you follow worthless pursuits or try to work your neighbour’s land instead of your own, poverty will be your portion.
Jacob’s land was the livestock business. He “dwelt in tents,” which Genesis 4:20 identifies with herding animals. It was not glamorous. Where there is muck, there is brass, as the saying goes. Maybe you imagine there is no money in what you are presently doing. But what does the Lord say? Work your land. Do not follow vanities. Do not try to fit a square block into a round hole.
Master Your Trade From Top to Bottom
Jacob applied himself to learning every aspect of his trade. He knew it all: from how to make stew and bread to feed the workers, to advanced breeding techniques that no commentator has been able to fully explain to this day. Genesis 30:37 through 31:36 gives us a rather confusing account of how he arranged feeding troughs in relation to peeled bark in order to breed vigorous, healthy, speckled animals that formed the foundation of his considerable wealth.
When you come across someone with nearly ninety years of experience focused on doing one thing in the real world, and you do not understand what they are doing, the right response is humility, not condescension. Jacob was a master of his craft, and that mastery was built over decades of unglamorous daily work.
For us, this means investing the time and effort to become excellent at what we do. Not adequate. Not competent. Excellent. Jacob did not cut corners. He did not seek shortcuts. He learned his father’s business from the lowliest task to the most advanced technique, and that foundation carried him through every crisis he would face.
Lead and Delegate
When Jacob arrived at the well in Haran, he did not wait for someone else to take charge. He saw that the sheep were gathered at the well waiting for the stone to be rolled away, and he immediately stepped up and did what needed to be done. More than that, he gave orders to the other shepherds to water the flock and take them back to pasture.
This is not arrogance. It is kingship. Revelation 1:5-6 tells us that Christ “hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father.” Perhaps you say, “Everyone except me is a king. I am not cut out to rule.” But that is not humility. It is disobedience. God has made you a king, and Deuteronomy 17:18-20 tells us what a king must do: know God’s law, read it daily, and rule accordingly.
Jacob delegated tasks that others could do, such as fetching water and filling troughs, and he used his well-honed managerial skills to oversee the operation. If we want to live an abundant life, we cannot do it all alone. We must learn to lead. Good leaders do not do everything; they delegate. And if we do not learn to give orders, someone else will, someone who does not have the same heart for the work.
Work With Ferocious Intensity
Listen to Jacob’s own testimony to the accusing Laban in Genesis 31:38-40: “These twenty years I have been with you; your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried their young, and I have not eaten the rams of your flock. That which was torn by beasts I did not bring to you; I bore the loss of it. In the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night, and my sleep departed from my eyes.”
Jacob worked day and night. He was parched by day making sure the animals had enough water, and chilled to the bone by night. There was no work-life balance in Jacob’s vocabulary. His back was against the wall: his father-in-law had saddled him with a wife he did not want and seven extra years of labour, Laban was sly and dishonest to the core, and Jacob had an ever-growing household to feed.
The times we live in demand similar urgency. If you have not already started applying God’s ways to your work life, becoming the best employee you can be and learning every aspect of the business, or starting your own venture, then this is no time for the luxury of balance. Put down the phone. Stop scrolling. Start grinding on what God has given you to do. The twenties will eat you alive if you do not start sweating by day and freezing by night.
Guard Your Name Above All Else
Jacob went to extraordinary lengths to build and protect his reputation. Any livestock lost from Laban’s flock through no fault of Jacob’s, Jacob would replace from his own flock at his own expense. He never ate any of Laban’s sheep. His standards were far higher than simply not stealing from his boss.
When Laban finally cornered the fleeing Jacob and hurled accusations at him, the mud would not stick. Jacob’s name was clean. And a good name, as Proverbs 22:1 tells us, is better than riches.
If you want to succeed in business, years of backbreaking work will not mean a thing if you are not fanatical about doing the right thing when no one is looking. Making and preserving your good name in the marketplace is where your effort should be focused above all else.
Learn to Make Offers
The final and perhaps most distinctive element of Jacob’s business model was his ability to make offers, win-win propositions in a free marketplace.
Jacob made an offer to Esau for the birthright, and Esau was delighted to accept. Jacob worked for Laban for a month without pay, demonstrating his know-how, heart, physical strength, and endurance, and then made an offer for the hand of Rachel in return for seven years of service. When Jacob needed to build his own flock, he made Laban an incredible deal for the speckled animals that no rational businessman would refuse.
In every case, Jacob structured the deal so that both parties benefited. He did not beg. He did not borrow. He created value and made irresistible offers. If you can make someone a win-win proposition in a free exchange in the marketplace, then you have a business, something that you own.
The Formula in Summary
Jacob’s path from zero to abundance was built on clear, biblical principles: know your calling and work your own land; master your trade from the lowest task to the highest; lead and delegate; work with ferocious intensity; guard your name above all else; and learn to make win-win offers in the marketplace.
These are not worldly strategies dressed up in religious language. They are embedded in the life of a man whom God loved, whom God blessed, and whom God renamed “Prince with God.” They are available to every believer who is willing to learn God’s ways and apply them to God’s world.
Glory to God. His Word has the answers for our needs in the real world. The time will pass anyway. Are you willing to invest it in learning God’s ways of work and business, so that you, too, can go from zero to abundance?