Fixing Broken Relationships with Jacob

It’s always more rewarding to resolve a conflict than to dissolve the relationship. ~ Rick Warren, Twitter

In the late fifteenth century, the Florentine sculptor Agostino d’Antonio di Duccio began work on a huge block of marble with a goal of producing a spectacular sculpture. After a few attempts to make something out of it, he gave it up as worthless. The block of marble, now badly disfigured, lay idle for forty years. Forty years! But then someone else came along — someone who saw hope in the disfigured stone. His name was Michelangelo. He saw beyond the ugly, disfigured block of marble to the magnificent, artistic creation he knew he could achieve with it. And so he began the work of chiseling and cutting and pounding. The final outcome was something called David, widely recognized as one of the most outstanding artistic achievements of all time.1

The Old Testament character Jacob was truly a block of marble, an unfinished work that needed a master’s touch. His name in itself was not complimentary. Jacob means “supplanter,” a word describing someone who seizes, circumvents, or usurps. Right from the start of Jacob’s life, he lived up to his name. Genesis 25:26 reveals that Jacob came out of the womb holding on to his older brother Esau’s heel. It was as though he was trying to pull Esau back into the womb so he would be the firstborn instead of Esau. 

Jacob came into this world as a block of marble, and the people in his life knew it. In biblical times, people knew that names held meaning. Names were both defining and prophetic. When people spoke the name Jacob, they were already formulating an opinion that he was a rough block of stone. Only God could see in Jacob someone who could be chiseled into a masterpiece.

 A Trail of Relational Carnage

Jacob’s story starts in Genesis 25 and goes to the end of the book of Genesis. It is a story of relational carnage. Jacob managed to ruin or violate every important relationship in his life. Jacob lied to his dad by pretending he was Esau and convinced him to bestow on him the firstborn blessing meant for his brother. Jacob took advantage of Esau at a vulnerable time and stole his birthright and prayer of blessing. He robbed Esau of the right to lead the next generation. He favored his second wife, Rachel, over his first wife, Leah, leading the sisters to compete for his affection and respect through childbearing. Jacob slept with his wife Rachel’s maid, believing that Rachel’s desire to have a baby would then be appeased. Jacob lied to his uncle Laban and left secretly with Laban’s daughters and grandchildren, offering no warning. If that wasn’t enough, Jacob ruined his relationship with his sons by giving one son, Joseph, a coat of many colors — a gift representing his favoritism.

• Jacob was one big block of marble. He couldn’t get any relationship right.

This was an area of his life he needed to fix. But for Jacob to get things right with people, he had to first get things right with God. The apostle John declares how important this order is: 

But if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. — 1 John 1:7

Healthy fellowship with people is based on a healthy relationship with God.

To walk in the light, we must have a correct view of our sinful self. Walking in that kind of holy light allows us to have healthy fellowship with one another. Because sin always pollutes relationships with selfishness, John ends verse 7 with that hope found in the cleansing blood of Jesus. Walking in the light reveals a lot. But the blood of Jesus cleanses a lot also. We need, as the writer of the old hymn says, “a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel’s veins.”2

Jacob was about to have an encounter with God that would start the process of fixing broken relationships. Jacob was about to walk in the light.

1. See Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, “How a Rejected Block of Marble Became the World’s Most Famous Statue,” Encyclopaedia Britannica, www.britannica.com/story/how-a­rejected-block-of-marble-became­the-world-most-famous-statue, accessed August 1, 2023.
2. William Cowper, “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood” (1772), public domain. 

Excerpted with permission from Your Life Is God’s Story by Tim Dilena, copyright Tim Dilena.

* * *

Your Turn

If your life feels like a block of messed up and abandoned marble, you’re in good company. But, God’s not done yet, and He’s a master of making messes beautiful! ~ Devotionals Daily