“inherit the promises” (Heb. 6:12, NKJV)
In the previous teaching we started defining 1 Kings 31-32a in typological terms: “And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, ‘Israel shall be your name.’ Then with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord”. We pointed out how important the narrator’s comment is for us, the one that reads: “to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, ‘Israel shall be your name’”. Here God is speaking to Elijah in a situation in which he needs everything with which to gain victory over his enemy, and this is God’s angle: the change of name of the forefather Israel, once called Jacob. In the previous teachings we started unraveling this history, and it continues here.
The change of name is embedded in the narrative recorded in Gen. 32:22-23, but it is preceded by the history of Jacob and Esau in Gen. 32. Within this history we find Jacob, as his name attests, to be a devious backstabber. Something major needed to change in Jacob’s life so that he could be the rightful owner of the patriarchal blessing, and be worthy of it. Theoretically speaking Jacob inherited EVERYTHING that could possibly be inherited in the world. Although Jacob stole the promises of God from his brother, he was now stuck with them, and first had to have a change of nature before he could become the vehicle of God’s promises and authority.
In the previous teachings we also pointed out that Jacob and Esau represent the entire humanity’s two (potential) natures. Esau represents, on various levels, the natural man. In this light it is clear why Heb. 11:20 states that “by faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come”. The MSG-translation notes it as follows: “By an act of faith, Isaac reached into the future as he blessed Jacob and Esau.” This “reach into the future” thus affected Elijah, and, also you and I, as those who “inherit the promise” (Heb. 6:12)! In Gal. 3:29 it is spelled out as follows: “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
This promise is symbolised by the staff that Jacob carried when he crossed over the Jordan. In his humble prayer he acknowledges before God that he did not consider himself qualified for what lay ahead: “I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which You have shown Your servant; for I crossed over this Jordan with my staff, and now I have become two companies.” (Gen. 32:10).
Almost all the theological commentaries I read on this verse neglected to discuss the reference to a staff. Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible, for instance, sees it merely as an indication of the fact that he had no means, only a mere staff, but this is unlikely, as he sent his brother Esau large gifts from amongst his possessions whilst he was on his way. Thus the Geneva Bible Translation Notes, which suggests that the reference to the staff points to him being “poor and without all provision”, is also inaccurate.
If in Mark 6:8 (ESV) we read of the task Jesus assigns his disciples, it is very clear that the staff must point to something more than a walking or shepherding staff: “He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff – no bread, no bag, no money in their belts …” In the life of Moses, for instance, the staff becomes a very clear indication of spiritual authority, as the story in Ex. 4:1-4 explains: “Then Moses answered and said, ‘But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, “The Lord has not appeared to you.”’ So the Lord said to him, ‘What is that in your hand?’ He said, ‘A rod.’And He said, ‘Cast it on the ground.’ So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Reach out your hand and take it by the tail’ (and he reached out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand).”
Please note – just like Jacob felt ill-equipped for the task at hand, Moses did too. And God demonstrates his authority in their hands through the staff. This then becomes “the rod of God in my hands” (Ex. 17:9)! The reason for this becomes clear when, in Zech. 11:10, it is explained that the staff symbolises the covenant. Based on your covenant with God there is a particular authority nestled within you, is in your hand, it is part of what you do, and this is symbolised by a staff. For this reason Jesus’s disciples didn’t need to take anything else along on their travels – the staff was the symbol of complete provision and total authority and power.
But the staff also had great personal meaning for Jacob. In his study on the ancestral father Jacob’s life, You Can Let Go Now, Mark J. Chironna explains the following about the staff: “the heel grabber had nothing in his hand except the staff, the tribal birthright – a dead stick with the family history etched on it and given to the firstborn son to be preserved from generation to generation. When Jacob crossed the Jordan and headed up the King’s Highway through Damascus and on the way to Haran, he leaned on that dead stick for support because it was the only friend he had. In other words, all that he had to comfort him when he left was the testimony of where he had been, which for the Hebrews was etched on his staff.” (p. 156).
This staff was thus a symbol of Jacob’s umbilical cord, his entire genealogy was written into it, as well as the covenant promises made to his father Abraham! No wonder he grabbed onto the staff in this threatening situation – it was worth more than anything else. This was also the case later in his life – Heb. 11:21 provides the following information: “By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff.”
[I’ve often wondered about this quote from the New Testament book of Hebrews – how did the (unknown) writer of the letter know that Jacob leaned on the top of his staff, as to my knowledge this is never stated in the book of Genesis? The closest reference to it is found in Gen. 47:29-31: “When the time drew near that Israel must die, he called his son Joseph and said to him, ‘Now if I have found favor in your sight, please put your hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me. Please do not bury me in Egypt, but let me lie with my fathers; you shall carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place.’ And he said, ‘I will do as you have said.’ Then he said, ‘Swear to me.’ And he swore to him. So Israel bowed himself on the head of the bed.” Although most translations follow the same lead here, there are a few, including the Complete Apostle’s Bible, that translates it as follows: “And he said, Swear to me; and he swore to him. And Israel bowed down, leaning on the top of his staff.” The reason for the misunderstanding in translation lies in the fact that the consonants (with these specific vowels) for bed is מטּה (miTTah). The same consonants, with a different combination of vowels (maTTeh), mean staff: “branch, a bough, a rod, a staff”. Different translation traditions have thus interpreted these in different terms.]
The fact that this seemingly unimportant behaviour of Jacob, leaning on his staff, is spelled out, obviously places great emphasis on the importance of the staff, and the staff points, as has been mentioned, on those who “inherit the promises” (Heb. 6:12)! This promise is made concrete by the unwilling prophet Bileam who is paid in Num. 24:17 to curse the descendants of Abraham, but instead blesses them with the following words: “I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near; a Star shall come out of Jacob; a Scepter shall rise out of Israel, and batter the brow of Moab, and destroy all the sons of tumult.” Take note – the staff of Jacob here becomes a sceptre, with which the descendants reign! In Gal. 3:29 it is spelled out as follows: “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
Also note that Paul specifies, “if you are Christ’s”. This is also emphasised in Rom. 8:17: “and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ”, and in Eph. 3:6: “that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ”!
What do you and I as descendants of Abraham and Jacob inherit? We inherit “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13)! Selah! Your heritage is also engraved into that staff of Jacob! When he, probably again leaning on his staff, prophesied over his grandsons who would become the tribes of Israel, he was also prophesying over you and me: “And Jacob called his sons and said, ‘Gather together, that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days‘.” (Gen. 49:1). [Now remember Elijah’s twelve rocks representing the twelve tribes – on what does Elijah call here?!]
Now that we now what the promise is, and who inherits it, we can return to Jacob’s story. Jacob’s immense anxiety about meeting with his wronged brother Esau is granted a larger symbolic significance in Jer. 30:7: “Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it; and it is the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it. ‘For it shall come to pass in that day,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘That I will break his yoke from your neck,
and will burst your bonds; foreigners shall no more enslave them.’”
[In the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements this concept, referred to as Jacob’s trouble, is associated with so-called tribulation, which takes place, according to their eschatological view, just before the second coming of Jesus. Two sources that are strong proponents of this view are Understanding End Times Prophecy by Paul Benware, and Renald E. Showers’s Maranatha, Our Lord Come. We dealt with this myth in the teaching of Days 350-353.]
Jacob’s anxiety in the prophetic book of Jeremiah is quite likely, first and foremost, and quite obviously, a reference to Gen. 32:7, where it is explicitly stated that “Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed”. It is this distress that Elijah also experiences, and for the same typological reason the experience of each person who is in the process of testing the authority God has given him/her to reality.
Back to the story in Gen. 32, which leads to Jacob’s change of name, as within it is nestled the promise to Elijah, and to us. In verse 22 we read, “And he arose that night and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed over the ford of Jabbok” The name of the place God chose for Jacob’s deepest confrontation with his false self is Jabbok, a word which has the significant meaning of the place of emptying in Hebrew. Before you and I, and Jacob and Elijah, can gain the fullness of authority, we first need to be radically purified and freed from everything within us that is not God.
- Selah: Do you know what the promise is, and who inherits it?
- Read: 31-36; Ps. 96; 2 Cor. 2-4.
- Memorise: 2 Cor. 4:3-4.
