A Troubled Upbringing

Jacob is an interesting but unlikely biblical patriarch.  Abraham stands out for faith, Isaac for peaceful persistence, and Jacob—wasn’t he a great deceiver?  He was, and a man of intrigue and conflict, a polygamist, a poor father to his many children; a man of great successes, but of many sorrows as well.  Listen to his own summary of his life as he responded to the respectful welcome of Pharaoh of Egypt.  “The days of my sojourning are 130; few and unpleasant have been the years of my life, nor have they attained the years that my fathers lived during the days of their sojourning” (Gen.47:9).  In point of fact, his life was full of struggles.  Today we will reflect upon some of Jacob’s troubles and ask the question, What do the “few and evil” years of the patriarch teach us about God’s love for us?  Proposition:  God’s love prevails over all human failures and conflicts.

Do you remember your childhood and youth as a happy time?  Or was it unhappy, and you’re glad it's behind you?  Oddly, many happy memories somehow consist of some unhappy details as we learned to negotiate and experience life.  Jacob’s life was a struggle, and it began even before he was born.  Let’s consider his troubled upbringing.