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THREE – Jacob

There is probably something THREE-SIX-NINE about all twin relationships: not necessarily about each twin, but certainly about the relationship – which at different times has loyalty, and competitiveness, and a comfortable peace.

Jacob is a twin, and Jacob is THREE. Even before he is born he fights with his brother (Genesis 25:22‑23). With their father Isaac old and weak, the unredeemed Jacob conspires with his mother Rebekah to deceive Isaac, and cheat his older twin Esau out of their father’s blessing (Genesis 27:1‑29). This is a very THREE plot – competitive, deceitful – but it also makes slightly manipulative use of his close relationship with his mother Rebekah (Genesis 25:28) – a sub-plot on the unredeemed TWO wing. Jacob is then forced to flee the country to escape his brother’s anger, and plans to stay with his uncle, Rebekah’s brother Laban (Genesis 27:41‑45). This is a very THREE response – fleeing the site of apparent or imminent failure.

Jacob is leaving behind all that he knows. The journey across country is not just a difficult practical journey, but a traumatic symbolic journey as well – a cue for any THREE to touch the FOUR wing, and here it is: on the journey, in a vision, he sees a great mound – an earthwork, not a ladder – with the angels of God ascending and descending upon it. For the culture of the time, heaven was literally up above, and high places were holy places which touched heaven: the vision is a vision of a holy place, ‘the house of God, the gate of heaven,’ and there God makes a promise to Jacob that he will be the father of a great nation, and more besides (Genesis 28:10‑17). This must have warmed the heart of a fleeing THREE, though it would be decades before any hint of fulfillment.

In the morning, inspired by the dream, Jacob prays for the day when he might return to his father’s house in peace (Genesis 28:18‑22): feeling the pressure, Jacob touches stress type NINE, which is the place of reconciliation and peace.

In the home of Laban, Jacob works fourteen years for the hands in marriage of his cousins, Laban’s daughters, Rachel and Leah (Genesis 29:15‑28). He serves those years with loyalty and faithfulness in the welcoming safety of this family home – Jacob at security point SIX.

It is when his chosen Rachel gives birth to her firstborn, Joseph, that Jacob once again dreams of home, and reconciliation (Genesis 30:22‑26), but his departure is delayed, and some complex competitiveness and trickery takes place as Jacob and Laban determine what should belong to each of them when Jacob finally departs (Genesis 30:27‑43). Relationships are soured (Genesis 31:1‑2) and the time has come for Jacob to return to his father’s house. He leaves by stealth (Genesis 31:17‑21) provoking one final row with Laban (Genesis 31:22‑42) but it ends this time with reconciliation (Genesis 31:43‑55) and Jacob is free to leave in peace – and face the challenge of approaching his brother.

Jacob is encouraged by another vision of angels (Genesis 32:1‑2), and sends a humble message ahead to his brother Esau (Genesis 32:3‑5). Nevertheless he is ‘greatly afraid and distressed,’ and he pleads with God for deliverance, clinging to the promise of God made two decades before (Genesis 32:6‑12). Security point SIX – under this intense pressure – is the origin both of the fear and of the faithful and courageous trust in God’s promise.

Clinging – at SIX – to the common convention that gifts show goodwill, Jacob sends gift after gift on ahead of him (Genesis 32:13‑21). That night he even sends his beloved family on ahead, and he is left alone with his fear of what the day ahead will bring (Genesis 32:21‑23). That night Jacob wrestles alone with a vision until daybreak – and the result is a draw. This is all very FOUR and SIX and THREE: visionary and fearful and competitive all at once. Jacob demands a blessing from his rival, and interprets the vision as a meeting with God. Jacob has spent the night struggling with his past, and with his future – with his place in eternity. Whatever the vision may have been, it was real enough to leave him limping from the fight as the new day began (Genesis 32:24‑32). And the next day – the blessing is fulfilled, as Esau receives his brother, and they are reconciled (Genesis 33:1‑4) – thriving under pressure at point NINE.

And now Jacob, at last, is in a ‘redeemed’ place, where the best gifts of THREE can begin to emerge. He becomes the team leader for his large family – one daughter, twelve sons – gently trying to keep them all on the straight and narrow, and at peace with one another. As father of the twelve sons, he even becomes team leader for the nation, which bears his name Israel: he was given this name, meaning ‘strives with God,’ when he wrestled with the angel – for as the angel said, ‘You have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed’ (Genesis 32:28).

We have seen Jacob, THREE, take his journey to the linked types SIX and NINE.

We have seen his visionary FOUR wing – and we see FOUR again when he presents his favored son Joseph, aged just seventeen, with the famous long sleeved robe (Genesis 37:3).

We see the TWO wing in Jacob’s close relationship with his own mother Rebekah, and in his special compassion for Rachel and Joseph, and later for Benjamin (Genesis 29:18; 37:3; 42:4). And we see TWO again as Jacob now seeks to ‘mother’ his own children and watch over his family, however imperfectly that may be. Through the famine, the move to Egypt, and his final blessings, he cares for them all.

Jacob’s journey is the journey of THREE. It takes the need to flee for his life to make him abandon his unhealthy competition with his brother. In the desert on the way to a foreign land, in that land for twenty years, and in the desert alone on the way back home, he is able to contemplate ‘the real Jacob,’ not the false self-image he likes to present. He finds ‘the real Jacob’ – the one who meets with God in prayer – and in humbling himself before God, receives the promise of great blessings which can use his many gifts for good and not for ill. Jacob goes on to develop healthy non-competitive relationships, to promote and celebrate the gifts of others, and to learn for the future from all that has gone before.

Jacob’s final duty – SIX – is to gather his sons for their final blessings (Genesis 49). It is a scene of serene peacefulness – a large and diverse family united: NINE. The text of that final blessing as we have it is all TWO and THREE and FOUR: the team leader – THREE – with strong and knowing ‘motherly’ compassion – TWO – in the most beautiful poetic language – FOUR – bidding his final, ambiguous farewell.

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