Jacob Have I Loved

9 January

And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger. Genesis 25:23

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Romans 9:1-29

There is conflict between the children in Rebekah's womb because God chooses to divide the seed of Isaac (of which the condition appears to be one and the same), adopting one part and rejecting the other. One part obtains the name and privilege of the church, while the rest are reckoned strangers. One part receives the blessing of which the other is deprived. We know that because later the descendants of Esau were cut off from the body of the church, which the covenant of grace was deposited in the family of Jacob.

If we seek the cause of this choice of God, it is not found in nature, for the origin of both nations was the same. It is not found in merit, either because the heads of both nations were enclosed in their mother's womb when the contention began. To humble the pride of the flesh, God determined to take away from men any reason for confidence or boasting. He might have brought forth Jacob first from the womb, but he made the other the first-born, who, at length, was to become the inferior brother.

Why does God by design invert the order that He Himself appointed? It is to teach us that, without regard to dignity, Jacob was to be heir of the promised benediction. He was gratuitously elected. God gave preference to Jacob over his brother Esau by making him the father of the church. Jacob was not granted this as a reward for his merits, nor did he obtain this by his own efforts. Rather, he was elected purely by the grace of God. But when an entire people are the subject of discourse, reference is made not to secret election, which is confirmed to a few, but to common adoption, which spreads as widely as the external preaching of the Word.

FOR MEDITATION: The election of the deceitful Jacob is one of the clearest demonstrations of sovereign grace. It should be no less clear to us in the example of every man, woman, and child who comes to faith in Christ. Are you a debtor to sovereign grace?

John Calvin

365 Days with Calvin

Selected and Edited by Joel R. Beeke