CHARACTER BEFORE CALLING!
First the Blessings for Jacob, then the building of Character.
The Bible records that Jacob was twice blessed by his father Isaac. The first time he stole the blessing of the elder brother, but then Isaac blessed him as he sent him off to his uncle Laban in Haran.
28 So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. Then he commanded him: ‘Do not marry a Canaanite woman. 2 Go at once to Paddan Aram, to the house of your mother’s father Bethuel. Take a wife for yourself there, from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. 3 May God Almighty BLESS YOU AND MAKE YOU FRUITFUL AND INCREASE YOUR NUMBERS UNTIL YOU BECOME A COMMUNITY OF PEOPLES. 4 May he give you and your descendants the BLESSING GIVEN TO ABRAHAM, so that you may take possession of the land where you now reside as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.’ Genesis 28
Isaac spoke two blessings over his departing son, may you be fruitful and become a community of peoples and may you take possession of this land. Eventually both came to pass, but what had to happen in Jacob’s life before the words were fulfilled?
Jacob immediately left the comforts of life far behind! The man ‘who stayed among the tents’ and was his mother’s favourite, had to face a huge change in his circumstances – he’d landed in God’s boot camp!
10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. 11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep (on a stone pillow).
But God spoke to Jacob in a dream, as he started out on a completely different phase of life’s journey.
12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 There above it stood the Lord, and he said: ‘I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying (Renewing of Abraham’s Covenant).
The God of his fathers reassured him as he set out.
14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. 15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.’
Jacob’s journey had begun, but it would be twenty long years before he was to return to Canaan, the land of Promise for him and his household.
You May have a calling on your life today but God may be more interested in making you into the person he needs you to be BEFORE YOUR CALL IS FULFILLED. Don’t be discouraged, He knows the way we take.
God bless and keep you today.