Essay God Works Through Jacob to Help Achieve His Divine Plan

God interacts with the world in a very unique way. He works by using people as conduits with whom He will ultimately achieve His goal of the Divine Plan. Throughout the Book of Genesis, many cycles of protagonists appear with whom God chooses to interact. In one such cycle, the Jacob Cycle, God influences, molds, and guides Jacob in increasingly personal ways. God influences Jacob throughout his childhood, his journey to Haran, his journey from Haran, and finally, with one last test of will. Throughout the guidance, God’s increasing trust in Jacob allows for an eventual transformation of the relationship, where Jacob morphs into God’s Israel. During the early stages of the cycle, God works through Jacob’s mother, Rebekah, to do much of His†¦show more content†¦While Jacob makes his way to Haran, God finally decides to introduce Himself to Jacob. God speaks to Jacob for the first time in a dream, during which He tells Jacob that, â€Å"I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac...I am with you and will keep you wherever you go...I will not leave you until I have done [the promises] of which I have spoken to you† (Gen 28:15). Interacting with Jacob through a dream and telling him that God will keep him instills within Jacob a sense of security. Jacob can continue on his journey without worry, although he has yet to receive other aspects from the blessings, God stays with him and God will keep him. This security becomes clearer when Jacob wakes up and makes a vow saying, â€Å"If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go...then the Lord shall be my God†¦Ã ¢â‚¬ (Gen 28:20-21). Jacob’s vow not only shares an interesting imitative similarity to the promise made by God in the dream, but more importantly, Jacob refers to God in a possessive way. By referring to God possessively, as â€Å"my God†, it might suggest that Jacob has had a sudden insight, and now sees God differently. In other words, Jacob has experienced God, the same God as his ancestors, and perhaps now realizes that even in what seems like an ordinary place where one might just lay down to rest, God’s presence has stayed and will continue to stay withShow MoreRelated The Pursuit of Happiness and the Union of Aristotle and Genesis2829 Words   |  12 PagesCivilization. The Judeo-Christian tradition gave us faith and God through the text of the Bible. The ancient Greeks gave us philosophical inquiry and the Good through the teachings of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. In his Nichomachean Ethics, Aristotle proposes that the Good is the highest end of ma n’s actions. Happiness is the Good because it is the only end man pursues with no other end in mind. A man obtains this highest end by living his life in a virtuous manner. 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