THE GOD OF JACOB

This is one of the relative titles of Deity. Sometimes the eternal God associates himself with some person in history and we have such titles as the ‘God of Daniel’, Dan. 6. 26. It is most encouraging, however, that the name of God should be linked more often with the name of Jacob than with any other individual. It occurs as part of that famous trio ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’, Exod. 3. 6. Outside of this combination, and outside the book of Genesis, the title ‘God of Abraham’ occurs only once in the Old Testament, Ps. 47. 9. However, the ‘God of Jacob’ appears as a title 14 times, this reference in Micah being the final one. On many of these occurrences, the term ‘Jacob’ is employed in a collective sense of the nation that sprang from his loins, having some reference to the faults and failures of a nation so like their progenitor in their waywardness.

The title ‘God of Abraham’ reminds us of the God of revelation who appeared in His glory to Abram the erstwhile idolater. The God of Isaac recalls the God of resurrection who, in Isaac’s birth, displayed Himself as One who could bring life from the dead. The ‘God of Jacob’ reminds us of the God of restoration who can bring the erring believer back into the place of communion, even after years of wandering. How often we have needed the forgiving mercies of such a God. In our failures and departures, God deals with us as He did with Jacob. He speaks to our conscience, humbles our pride, touches us in the hollow of the thigh, teaches us our dependence upon Him and changes our walk for Him. What an encouraging story of mercy, discipline, long-suffering, blessing and restoration is woven into this expressive title, the ‘God of Jacob’.

Micah speaks about the’transgression of Jacob’, 1.5; 3.8. This nation, so perverse and self-willed, will be purged, a ‘remnant of Jacob’ preserved, 5. 7-8, and His ‘truth to Jacob’ and His ‘mercy to Abraham’ will be performed, 7. 20. There is a Jacob in every heart and we are comforted to know there is a ‘God of Jacob’ in heaven. We can exclaim with Micah, ‘Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity?’, 7.18.