Who Does Jacob Foreshadow?

Could you tell me who Jacob is? I know the family has a history of deception and trickery.  Isaac tricked, Jacob tricks his brother, Jacob is tricked by the father-in-law, Jacob tricks the father-in-law, the brothers trick Joseph into slavery, Joseph tricks his brothers to bring their younger brother back.

Is Jacob a type of Christ and his elect?

B____​

Hi B____​

Thank you for your question concerning the Lord’s choice of Jacob as a type of Christ and His elect.

While all the deceit and trickery of Jacob and his mother against Esau and Isaac have no resemblance to our Head (Christ), it certainly does reflect us as His body. We need to know Christ did not consider His personal flesh and blood to be fit for the kingdom of heaven any more than our sinful flesh is. He challenged the man who called Him ‘good master’, and He informed us that He was not yet perfected while in this earthen vessel:

Mat 19:17  And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

Luk 13:32  And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day [at His resurrection] I shall be perfected.

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood [Including the flesh and blood of Christ] cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

So while the flesh and blood of our head, Christ, was the same as ours yet because He was conceived in HIs mother’s womb of the holy spirit of His Father, and because He was not given that spirit “by measure”, He was kept from ever sinning, even as He walked about on this earth in a body of corruptible flesh and blood:

Mat 1:20  But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. [This is not true of any of us. Both of our parents are completely “in Adam”, 1Co 15:22.]

Joh 3:34  For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. [This is not true of any of us. We have all been given “the measure of faith”, Rom 12:3.]

We, “His body… the church”, on the other hand are ​eminently qualified and demonstrated to be just as guilty and deceitful as any of the Old Testament types of Christ. As you noticed, Jacob took advantage of his brother’s hunger to take Esau’s birthright away from him. He conspired with his mother to lie to and to deceive Isaac into blessing Jacob instead of Esau.

Many years later another type of God’s elect, King David, committed adultery with the wife of one of his own captains, a man named, Uriah, and then he had Uriah to be murdered by the Ammonites to cover up his sin.

So now we have every reason to say of ourselves, as the Lord’s elect, “God be merciful to me a sinner”, and to acknowledge that from my own perspective “Christ came into this world to save sinners, of whom I am chief”.

Luk 18:13  And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

1Ti 1:15  This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

This is what qualifies anyone to be a follower of Christ:

1Co 1:26  For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:
1Co 1:27  But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
1Co 1:28  And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:

The stories of Jacob and King David are both stories of base men, acting very foolishly in the weakness of their flesh, doing things we all despise, and He chose those men to typify us as His perfected saints because that is something which is not yet completed and yet we are declared to be “the sons of God”:

1Jn 3:1  Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
1Jn 3:2  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

The next verse of 1Corinthians 1 tells us why God has chosen the base, weak and despised things “which are not” yet perfected to be His elect sons:

1Co 1:29  That no flesh should glory in his presence.

I hope this helps you to see why the story of Jacob, a man who was willing to lie, cheat and steal, is used as a type of the spiritual children of God:

Luk 16:8  And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.

Christ was not justifying the theft of the unjust steward. He even went on to say:

Luk 16:10  He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.
Luk 16:11  If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?
Luk 16:12  And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own?

Nevertheless, He does use that thief and Jacob as examples of how resourceful and desirous we should be to obtain our birthright:

I hope this helps you to see that Jacob really is a very good type and shadow of the Lord’s elect who, in their own estimation, have been so sinful that they cannot so much as raise their heads before God because they perceive themselves as the despised, weak and base men of this age.

Your brother in Christ, Mike