The Blessing

Abraham was the father of Isaac and Ishmael, and Isaac had twin sons Jabob and Esau. Isaac favored the older brother Esau, an ‘outdoor man’ like himself, who was to inherit the patriarchal blessing. But Jacob wanted that blessing. He wanted the best that God had to offer while Esau wanted the best the world had to offer. So Jacob cheated Esau out of the patriarchal blessing by exchanging it for soup. Rebecca also wants the blessing for Jacob and works a scheme to make it legal. Jacob gets his blind father Isaac to bless him, and Esau vows to kill Jacob. Rebecca then tells Jacob to flee to Syria to her brother Laban (for a few days!)
The Blessing of Isaac
Genesis 28:3 “May God Almighty bless you And make you fruitful and multiply you, And give you the blessing of Abraham, To you and your descendants with you, that you may inherit the land.
Jacob gets the blessing and has to escape the wrath of Esau the hunter who comes in to get the blessing and finds out what has happened. He vows to kill Jacob who then has to leave Canaan in a hurry. Rebecca tells Jacob to flee to her brother Laban’s home in Padam Aram. Laban had two daughters, Leah and Rachel.
The blessing of God
On the way there Jacob is blessed by God at Bethel, on the anointed rock where he sees a ladder to Heaven.
Genesis 28:10 The Lord said: “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.”
Then Jacob said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it This is none other than the house of God…and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.”
Jacob had a heart for God and now he had a promise from God but he still has things to do before that promise can be realized.
Jacob goes to Laban and meets and falls in love with Rachel, and he is now taking on the world (the wily Laban) at its own game. This is almost like a prodigal son experience because his homeland and the Blessing is waiting for him to return. Jacob and Laban do deals and schemes with each other. Laban cheats Jacob with the switching of older daughter Leah for younger sister Rachel on their wedding night. This costs Jacob twenty years of his life but God prospers him abundantly. Then The Lord says to Jacob that it is time to return to the land of promise (Genesis 32:9) but there were things still unfinished in Jacob’s spiritual life.
Jacob finally heads for home but then gets news of Esau coming and he is afraid for his life. He organizes a peace treaty with gifts of goods and cattle to soften up his brother Esau, and sends his family on ahead. So his gifts went before him while he settled down for the night in the camp, east of Jordan at Peniel, and wrestles with an Angel (God) until daybreak. When God sees that Jacob is not going to give up the struggle, he deliberately threw Jacob's hip out of joint. Jacob told God he wouldn’t let go until He blessed him, and God tells Jacob that his name is no longer Jacob but Israel (Overcomer with God); “you've struggled with God and you've prevailed." Jacob then asked God who He was! And God asked him why he wanted to know, and then God blessed him. God wants us to want to know who He is. Jacob named the place Peniel (God's Face/presence) because, he said, "I met God face-to-face and lived to tell the story!"
Jacob is changed from the schemer to the overcomer. He has been running from what he has also been running to, a life with God. He will forever walk with a limp of humility, now aware of his weakness and now knowing that God is his strength. This is what spiritual maturity is, not just wanting things to happen in our lives but wanting God to happen.