Genesis 37:1 Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.
An interesting observation: Verses 1 and 2 call him Jacob. Verse 3 calls him Israel. A quick search about why he is referred to as Jacob (trickster) after he wrestles with God and is given the name Israel (struggles with God or God prevails), shows that even scholars disagree on the reasoning. Does it have to do with the fleshly nature of Jacob and the divine nature of Israel? Maybe. Maybe not.
Genesis 37:2 This is the account of Jacob’s family line. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.
What I can take comfort in is the fact that even after Jacob wrestled with God and was given a new name, he didn’t become perfect. He was still human, fleshly, flawed. And his humanity did not negate his usefulness to God. It wasn’t that God used him only once he had reached perfection. Jacob was a hot mess of a human, and God used him mightily, faults and all.
Genesis 37:3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him.
Precious Savior, Thank You that You don’t need me to be perfect to use me. I try every day to be more like You, and I fail every day in a million little ways. Thank You that You can use me even though I am so very fallibly human. Thank You that perfection is not required to be Your deeply loved child. Amen.
Genesis 37:4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.
Have a blessed day.