Kids’ Talk: Jacob - How does God Redeem a Trickster and a Villian

Can anyone here think of any villains? (Pictures of movie or cartoon villains?)

It is probably easiest to think about villains in movies because they are usually drawn up to be monstrous. There might be a few of those in the world, like dictators or terrorists, but most of our enemies are struggling themselves to figure out what to do.

Have you ever heard what Jesus has to say about our enemies? In the gospel of Luke Jesus tells us, “Love your enemies. Pray for those who hate you. Bless those who curse you.” What do you think about that?

It's a really nice idea, but when you get to putting it into practice, it is tough. Enemies aren’t nice to us, so it isn’t easy to be nice to them. When someone is doing something mean, how do you respond with love?

Why do you think Jesus tells us to love our enemies?

God tells us this because he wants to change enemies into friends. He knows being mean to someone will just make someone a worse enemy, while also possibly creating more enemies. He wants to redeem even the cruel, sinister tricksters out there.

In the Old Testament, there is a story about a man named Jacob. Now Jacob is not a hero, if anything he is more of a villain and trickster. When his brother Esau is hungry, Jacob forces him to give him something important to him, called his birthright, just for some food. Later, he tricks his blind father into giving him his brother's blessing as well. What do you think this does to his relationship with his father and brother?

He has to run away and he doesn’t see his father again and it is decades until he sees his brother again.

Trickery and villainy just seem to follow Jacob around. He is tricked by his second uncle and he in turn tricks him back. His family ends up hurting and tricking each other again and again. We watch as Jacob creates more and more of the villainy that he practices.

Yet, God has a purpose for Jacob to become a blessing to others and a great and mighty family of love. What can God do with someone who seems so problematic, as an enemy to God’s purposes for love and blessing?

Well God redeems his trickery. He turns something bad into something good.

God transforms the struggles and trickery in Jacob’s family to create a greater family that will become the tribes of Israel and will even lead to his child Joseph protecting them all in a time when no one had food.

God transforms Jacob through his trickery. As Jacob has wrestled his way through life, God wrestles him on a beach. As the wrestling goes on all night Jacob will not let go until he gets a blessing. God forever marks Jacob by his struggles with a dislocated hip and renames him Israel, which means one who wrestles with God. Where Jacob meant trickster, now he is defined by his encounter with God. This name and mark become an image and sign for all later generations that as they live they are wrestling with God, but throughout all of it, we need to hold on and be blessed by being with him.

After this scene, we finally see brothers, Esau and Jacob reunited and we see that even though Jacob stole his blessing and birthright, God has blessed Esau as well.

What does this story tell us?

Well, most of us are complicated. We all can be enemies of God when we try to trick or get our own way. In these moments, we need to hold onto God to be transformed by his love, to find his blessings, and to be defined by him.

Even those who stand in our way are not completely evil like the ones we see on TV. So, as Jesus will later remind us, we need to love our enemies, pray for those who hate us, and bless those who curse us. In this way, we will be joining God in his work of redeeming our enemies.