Jesus and Jacob - Part 2

It is interesting that similar thoughts are expressed about Jesus in the ancient hymn recorded in Philippians 2:9-11:

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place

and gave him the name that is above every name,

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

(emphasis added)

Though some words in the blessing in Genesis and the hymn of praise in Philippians are similar, the reality is vastly different. Jacob is reduced into insignificance by the immensity of who Jesus is.

While Jacob would be a leader of men to be feared and perhaps respected, Jesus is the Saviour of humankind, very God Himself, who deserves to be worshipped. Notice that those who bow before Jesus include the residents of heaven and those ‘under the earth’ (which includes the demons and the dead). There is no place where the kingship of Jesus will not be experienced and acknowledged.

The divine identity of Jesus becomes clear when we realise that the words of the hymn echo the words in Isaiah 45:22-23: “Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other … Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear.”

In other words, the hymn in Philippians, while it may echo Jacob’s blessings, really looks back and draws its majesty and power from what God has said of Himself. The very words used of Israel’s God are used for Jesus. Jesus is not only superior to Jacob-Israel, but He is Jacob’s God.

Jacob got his blessings from his father through deception. Jesus, on the other hand, received honour and blessings from His heavenly Father by “becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8).

The heavenly Father, unlike Jacob’s earthly father, could see everything, and He exalted Jesus, His Son, and “gave him the name that is above every name” (v. 9).

Jacob, too, was given a name by God. It came after an intense struggle between Jacob and God. Jacob had spent his life grasping at success, prosperity and fame, and when he felt that his life was about to end tragically, he turned his grasping hands to God and found a profound difference between grasping God and anything less than God. He held on to God for a divine blessing.

God asked him for his name, re-playing an earlier scene when Jacob pretended to be Esau when he sought his father’s blessings (Genesis 27:19). This time, though, Jacob realised that God could not be deceived. He told the truth and gave his real name; God responded by saying: “Your name will no longer be Jacob but Israel” (Genesis 32:28).‘Israel’ means ‘he struggles with God’.

God gave him a new name to show that He was changing not only Jacob’s external circumstances, but also his internal character. A new name comes with promises, and when God is the one giving the new name, the promise is rock solid.

Jesus clung to His Father and His will (Matthew 26:39) not so much to squeeze a blessing out of Him, but to please and glorify Him. It meant He had to cling to His cross and receive humiliation and pain. Jesus is the perfect expression of self-emptying and sacrificial love. The Father was pleased with Him and gave Him the best and highest name (Jesus means ‘God saves’), so that through His holy Name, the Jacobs of this world can be saved and transformed.

Christmas points us to the One who came with the open hands of sacrificial love offered to a world of grasping Jacobs. He is very God Himself, at whose name every knee must bow. All those in the genealogy of Jesus, including Jacob, will get up from that list and bow before Jesus. So will all who have come after Jesus, including ourselves. Christmas is a time to celebrate with our knees and voices – in worship of the One who is above all. He came to give Himself so that we too may have a new name and become like Him.

Consider this:

Jesus received honour and blessings from His heavenly Father through the obedience of the cross (Philippians 2:8). What implications are there for His followers today? How important is obedience even if it means suffering and living from the motive of self-giving love? Why are preachers who offer crowns without

crosses guilty of preaching a false gospel?

What are the implications of treating the name of Jesus above every name you know – including your own? In what practical ways would you daily bow your knee and confess Jesus to be Lord?

Excerpted from Apprenticed to Jesus by Robert Solomon. © 2023 by Robert Solomon. Used with permission. All rights reserved.