Tag: Jacob

Genesis Week 3 – Jacob and Esau

Jacob tricked his brother Esau - Genesis week 3

1	Jacob tricked his brother Esau, 
	strange how God deals with this act; 
	Jacob seems to go unpunished, 
	discord sown by this one fact.
	
2	Tasty stew had bought a birthright, 
	hunger had the upper hand, 
	brothers once, two nations forming, 
	bitterness within the land.
	
3	Rancour sometimes deeply rooted 
	acts like cancer in our lives, 
	rifted, riven, torn and twisted,  
	love is lost or scarce survives.
	
4	Youthful envy, words unspoken, 
	rend a nation at its heart, 
	generations pass unnoticed, 
	wonder what had made this start.

Andrew Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2011 © Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England copyright@stainer.co.uk . Please include any reproduction for local church use on your CCL Licence returns. All wider and any commercial use requires prior application to Stainer & Bell Ltd.
Metre: 8 7 8 7
Tune: ST CATHERINE (Jones)

Wrestling with God – Genesis 32: 22-31 – a hymn

Genesis 32: 22-31 Tells the story of an enigmatic stranger wresting with Jacob by a brook called The Jabbok. It is a story of crisis and decision, of Jacob a meeting with God, finding his vocation. Charles Wesley told the story in the hymn ‘Come, O thou traveller unknown’. It runs to 12 verses! You may not have sung it in its entirety.

This hymn is somewhat shorter…

1          Wrestling stranger met with Jacob,
            struggled onward till the morn,
            struggled by the brook of Jabbok,
            heralding a different dawn.
           
2          Jacob met the task with courage,
            and it seemed he would prevail,
            but the stronger, wrestling stranger,
            made him limp, God could not fail.
           
3          What the struggle? Why the wrestling?
            Was it real or human doubt?
            Jacob gained self realization,
            how he’d work his purpose out.
           
4          Nameless God now blessing Jacob,
            Israel went on from that place,
            Holy ground, for this was special,
            here he’d met God face to face.

Andrew Pratt (born 1948)

Words © 2011 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England copyright@stainer.co.uk . Please include any reproduction for local church use on your CCL Licence returns. All wider and any commercial use requires prior application to Stainer & Bell Ltd
Metre: 8 7 8 7. Tune: ALL FOR JESUS